7-Foot-Tall Harambe Gorilla Statue Stares Down Wall Street's Charging Bull Amid 10,000 Bananas The Cincinnati Zoo gorilla first made national headlines in 2016 when he was shot and killed after picking up and carrying around a 3-year-old boy who had fallen into his enclosure.
By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas
A 7-foot-tall bronze statue of Harambe the gorilla appeared opposite Wall Street's "Charging Bull" on Monday, garnering in-person crowds and leading many retail investors, who often refer to themselves as "apes," to expect a meme-stock surge, MarketWatch reports. Ten thousand bananas were also stacked beneath the bull.
The piece was installed by Sapien.Network, an emerging social-networking platform "dedicated to putting the needs and welfare of human beings first," to represent just how "bananas" Wall Street has gone.
According to NBC News 4, Sapien.Network co-founders Robert Giometti, Tejay Aluru and Ankit Bhatia said they used the symbol of Harambe to stand in for the millions who struggle under a U.S. capitalist system they say "enriches wealthy elites and leaves the average person behind."
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But Giometti also told the network the display isn't about rejecting capitalism; it's about transforming it to empower more groups of people. "Harambe is a representation of something that lets us look at more than just ourselves," he said. "What are we aspiring to as people? It's about connecting. A simple gesture of giving a banana builds community. As a society, we need to come together. We can't keep fighting to come together."
The bananas surrounding the bull will later be donated to local food banks and community fridges.
The 17-year-old Cincinnati Zoo gorilla first made national headlines in 2016 when he was shot and killed after picking up and carrying around a 3-year-old boy who had fallen into his enclosure. At the time, his death spurred widespread outrage and debate over keeping primates in captivity. It also prompted a spate of internet memes and even a rap single released by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Pictures of the giant gorilla facing the bull have proliferated on social media, making their way onto Twitter and Reddit's WallStreetBets community.
Only time will tell if the "apes" are correct in their predictions about another meme-stock boom.
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