Genuine Question

What exactly are "monkey chants"? Assuming they are chants imitating monkeys, how are they racist? Are we expected to believe that the Baroda crowds knew that Symonds is of mixed ethnicity? Everyone says Indian crowds are very knowledgeable about cricket, but that is stretching it a bit.

What probably happened was some members of the crowd were having some fun with him. But I fail to see the racist angle.