Photo by [ENTER NAME]
So we’ve been following the story about the Spanish basketball team’s ad with their eyes pulled back in the what is associated in most parts of the world as a mockery of Asian people. The intensity of peoples’ reactions to this image is very interesting, but what has been more eye-opening is the vehement defense of the gesture by Spaniards around the world in blog postings and website comments.
“I think that this history is irreal ... racism? where? pleaaaaseeee, it’s an affectionate gesture.” -Raul de Lope
“Hello from Spain. This is so ridiculous. It’s not offensive at all the ad. It’s incredible that a country which obviously has a much more racist history like the US thinks we are racist because of such a thing. Your attitude reminds me of Al Qaeda’s reaction to Mahoma’s pictures published in a danish newspaper some years ago. Ridiculous.” - munafix
“Spain LOVES ALL CULTURES, and that’s true! this IS NOT RACISM! It’s only a friendly wink! That’s all! Come here and see it yourself!"- Manu
Almost to a person they imply that the gesture was not racist, and that it was done as a “hello,” a tipping of the proverbial hat, if you will.
I wanted to ask what you thought of the situation. Comment below, BUT let’s keep this articulate and not-offensive (pardon the pun).
Issue 17 Eureka!
Comments
definitely raciest, It would be like the Chinese team playing in Spain and for their photo shoot they are all wearing a hairy Bigfoot costume fighting over a baguette
No need to go that far.
I think this might be a case of ignorance on the part of these athletes. I don’t know, is it reasonable to presume they will never understand what it’s like on the other side of the fence?
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot - in Malaysia, when you put your thumb through the space in between your index and middle fingers and you point that at someone, it’s the same as flipping the bird to someone. If someone told you to pose with your thumb in that position, and you knew this was kind of inappropriate, would you do it? Even in jest?
Also, if the world responded by telling you how inappropriate that was, would you keep on defending your actions?
Hmm. Arrogance? Perhaps.
I have no doubt that the idea for this photo was nothing more than to have some fun, all in good faith, in anticipation of a Spain-China game. You can see there is no evil in it.
It definetey was not a smart thing to do though.
FWIW, Spain is right now the world’s second largest recipient of immigrants from all over the world (after the US) and there just hasn’’t been any race based conflicts to speak of, like tere are in many other places. I don’t know why people insist on painting Spain as what it is not.
“It can’t be long now before all of Spain’s players are trotting out their close Asian friends before the cameras to tell them about that one time they came over and the Asian guy’s old mom made some crazy food from China and the Spanish player totally ate it without batting an eyelash because he’s really open to new cultural experiences.” -Gawker
I have no doubt the Spanish b-ball team, and many Spaniards for that matter, believe this sort of gesture/photo is OK. The big huff’n’puff is mostly from Americans who don’t understand the rest of the world isn’t as PC as they are. Yanks love to cry racism at the drop of a hat, it’s quite hilarious.
I wonder how many Spaniards also think monkey calls and throwing bananas at black soccer players is also fun and endearing. I’m sure they love their black monkey footballers.
Hey I’m Asian and I don’t find it racist at all. Now if they were saying ‘ching chong, ching chong’ while doing this towards an Asian, then definitely racist.
I’m sure the photographer told them to do it. I doubt these athletes decided by themselves to all make that gesture.
Also, they should just apologize and claim ignorance and the matter would go away.
Dizzie Rascal, you’re crazy, you’re not Asian, you’re black, I’ve seen your music video. Also, you misspelled your name, it should be D-I-Z-Z-E-E, you gotta fix that up, fix it up, fix up… FIX UP, LOOK SHARP...Oiiiii!!!
It is funny how the Spaniards here say its not racism, and how the Americans are making a big deal out of it especially seeing how we have a long history of racism.
Well, just to inform you Spaniards, I lived in Spain for a year and I felt the racism there 100%. I am part white and part Thai, so I have a mixed look. However, in Spain, many people mistook me for being latino. I knew this because I would walk down the streets of Madrid and have police stop me and ask for my papers because they suspected I was illegal. I also always got checked in the airport when traveling. So, don’t give me that crap that racism doesn’t exist in Spain. It definitely exists.
So, just suck it up! Hay racismo en Espana tambien. Es algo nuevo, pero si existe. ;) And this photo clearly shows the ignorance of the Spanish basketball players, and the Spaniards that support the decision of the players. Que os joden. :) Ya somos iguales, los espanoles y lo estadounidenses. Como os sentis ahora?
This isn’t the sole instance of controversy from Spain this Olympic season, did anybody see the “African themed” performance from Spain’s synchronized swimming team? An embarrassing display of ignorance for a talented team, unfortunately not all that surprising.
i would say that this is not an isolated incident of playful ignorance on the part of the spanish basketballers. i remember a while back there was a bit of a fuss made about some spanish spectators at the grand prix calling lewis hamilton a “puto negro” among other things.
This International Herald Tribune articles talks about that incdient along with a few other sportspeople suffering a similar treatment… http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/05/sports/soccer5.php?page=1
i dont believe that the spanish truly think it was a friendly gesture .. it says something about the inherent racism that exists within a culture when they dont view such things as being derogatory
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