Olympics: Spanish men's basketball team accused of being racist
The other thing making the rounds, mostly in the Western media rather than in China, is the fact that an ad for Spanish courier company "Marca", features a large photograph of Spain's men's basketball team.
The team is posed in full uniform on a court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. The players are pulling back the skin on the side of their eyes i.e. making slit-eyed gestures.
Oh dear.
I find it more than a bit hilarious that the ad went public and it didn't occur to anyone that it wasn't all that appropriate. Even funnier is this article Spanish basketball star defends slit-eyed team photo in which one of the team members defends the ad and says it was an "affectionate gesture."
He also says this:
"What happened was that during a photo session where the Spanish national team was unveiled, one of our sponsors asked as to pose with a 'wink' to our participation in Beijing and we made an oriental expression with our eyes," he wrote on his Internet site.
"It seemed to us to be something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an affectionate gesture. However some European media did not see it as such," he added.
Gawd. This is even more hilarious. He might as well as put a huge sign on his head that says: "I am racist". To be honest, he probably isn't but it's kind of a stereotyped joke that -cists and -phobes often try to deny their prejudices by saying: "Some of my best friends are [minority group]". :D
"I want to express that we have great respect for the Orient and its people, some of my best friends in Toronto are of Chinese origin."
Tsk tsk. He should stay away from words like "the Orient". It's almost as bad as calling Asia the "Far East" :D
The team is posed in full uniform on a court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. The players are pulling back the skin on the side of their eyes i.e. making slit-eyed gestures.
Oh dear.
I find it more than a bit hilarious that the ad went public and it didn't occur to anyone that it wasn't all that appropriate. Even funnier is this article Spanish basketball star defends slit-eyed team photo in which one of the team members defends the ad and says it was an "affectionate gesture."
He also says this:
"What happened was that during a photo session where the Spanish national team was unveiled, one of our sponsors asked as to pose with a 'wink' to our participation in Beijing and we made an oriental expression with our eyes," he wrote on his Internet site.
"It seemed to us to be something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an affectionate gesture. However some European media did not see it as such," he added.
Gawd. This is even more hilarious. He might as well as put a huge sign on his head that says: "I am racist". To be honest, he probably isn't but it's kind of a stereotyped joke that -cists and -phobes often try to deny their prejudices by saying: "Some of my best friends are [minority group]". :D
"I want to express that we have great respect for the Orient and its people, some of my best friends in Toronto are of Chinese origin."
Tsk tsk. He should stay away from words like "the Orient". It's almost as bad as calling Asia the "Far East" :D