





Ah, Spain. The fatherland. Home of nurses who must wear mini-skirts and kings who tell you to shut the fuck up. (We like that last one, actually. But the rest of this shit must go.) They’ve gone and created a news splash this week with a photo of their Olympic basketball team striking their best Chinese pose. Yes, they are pulling their eyes back to appear all slanty. The best part though? This isn’t just a private moment between jocks. THIS is an advertisement that someone paid for and ran in a public newspaper. Machochip has the scoop:
This image is from a full page ad that ran in the sports daily Marca of Spain’s Men’s basketball team slanting their eyes to show the world that, right before the Olympics, respect and all that other crap is out the door. They’re going for gold, baby—feelings are for Bronze medalists!
Gawker also reports that amongst the players is LA Laker Pau Gasol. Which means Americans are mean, too. Oh, shit. We give up. All’s fair in love and sports apparently. Roll the Mickey Rooney.
Spain Makes Sure They Medal High In The Racist 400 [Machochip]
Spanish Olympic Team: “Ching Chong Chinaman! Ha Ha!” [Gawker]

OMG!
Posted by jpastor | August 12, 2008
uggh i hate racism
Posted by zzzzzzzz | August 12, 2008
Maybe they are trying to one-up the Spanish futbol fans who threw bananas at Thierry Henry.
Posted by Emmy | August 12, 2008
I think it wasn’t made in a malicious sense. Silly, yes, but maybe the Spanish have a better sense of humor.
Chill out, keep buying lead paint toys, nothing to see here.
Posted by Janie A Go-Go | August 12, 2008
I think it wasn’t made in a malicious sense. Silly, yes, but maybe the Spanish have a better sense of humor.
Chill out, keep buying lead paint toys, nothing to see here.
Posted by Janie A Go-Go | August 12, 2008
I think we have to keep in mind that perhaps the rest of the world is not as politically correct as the US….
I live in latinamerica…and in my country its quite common to call people from chinnese descent Chinita or chinito just to give an example..and nobody gets offended.
Posted by annita | August 13, 2008
I want to comment on annita´s
is not just that US is politically correct, it is that the US is obsessed with being politically correct, they try find faults everywhere.
In Spain and Latin America this picture was no big deal because it was clear that the players were showing that they were going to blend in the east, that they were begining their chinese adventure and were going to have fun.
And in my opinion to show someone´s differences is not racism, it would be so if they were mocking or hurting or discriminating someone because being different.
Now, I have to admit that Spain as a nation have serious racists issues, but believe me if they want to “hurt” a chinese person they would use their fists…. literally, they would not be fooling around
Posted by Ego | August 20, 2008
the american/british’s hypercrite is more dangerous than that….
Posted by lol | August 26, 2008
What annita, Ego, and lol might not recognize is that big metro areas of the US like CA and NY have diverse and cosmopolitan populations including Asians, not just 1st-generation immigrants, but people whose families have been in the US for 5 or more generations.
They got tired of this sort of “Wow, we’ve never seen one of those people, let’s act like total dipshits and let them know how ignorant we really are” bullshit and have been asserting their right to be treated with dignity and respect, as first-class citizens for at least the last 40 years. This after enduring segregation, mob violence, de facto slavery, exclusion, concentration camps, and all sorts of other insults (ex: Mr. Magoo cartoons). This does not deny that Latinos in the US have a similar, if not longer history.
I don’t know about Spain or Latin American cities beyond Mexico City, but while DF has an Asian population, it appears to be entirely isolated from mainstream Mexican society. Mexico boasts an impressive regional and indigenous diversity, but it’s not very cosmopolitan (as in “comfortable relating to someone who’s physically and culturally different from me as an equal”). Call that “political correctness”, if you want. I call it cosmopolitanism, and I think it’s a good thing.
Posted by el gringito en DF | October 16, 2008
Whoops! I can’t even spell my own fake name correctly! ¡Qué vergüenza! Aw well, nobody’s reading this shit anyhow 2 months after the fact…
Posted by el gringuito en DF | October 16, 2008