Here’s an interesting article on the perception of African American as apes even today:
The researchers consistently discovered a black-ape association even if the young adults said they knew nothing about its historical connotations. The connection was made only with African American faces; the paper’s third study failed to find an ape association with other non-white groups, such as Asians.
In case you’re wondering about those historical connections, this (perhaps biased) source has a couple of pointers.