Spanish BBall Team Creates Racist Chinese Ad

[KChill]

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ges-of-racism/

But of course, Trien Chieu thinks I'm just whining....

[Ren Wo Xing]

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ges-of-racism/

But of course, Trien Chieu thinks I'm just whining....

This excerpt is the most amusing:

“It turns out that in the photo shoot for the submission of our team, one of our sponsors asked us to make, as a ‘wink’ to our participation in Beijing, an expression of Eastern eyes. We felt it was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” says Calderon. “However, some European media have not looked on it well,” laments the linchpin of the national team. Calderon denies any racist tinge in the gesture and expressed his “great respect for the East and its people.”

LOL. Right. In fairness, they're racist against everyone:

BEIJING -- What were they thinking? It's a question that crops up all too often when it comes to Spanish sports and racial sensitivity. And now the Spanish basketball team, the reigning world champions, have added another confounding chapter to a disgraceful timeline. In a full-page ad in Spain's best selling newspaper, the sports daily Marca, the team posed smiling and stretching the skin on the side of their eyes to appear Chinese.

The advertisement was for a courier service that sponsors the Spanish Basketball Federation, and apparently not a single player on the Spanish team thought that a slant-eyed gesture might not be the best image to project to the Olympic hosts.

In 2004, Spanish national soccer coach Luis Aragones referred to French footballer Thierry Henry as "that sh--- black;" also that year, Spanish soccer fans made monkey chants at black players on the English team; earlier this year, black Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton, of England, was subjected to such abuse in Spain that an International Herald Tribune reporter wrote that "it seemed almost as if the Ku Klux Klan had relocated to a racetrack near Barcelona."

So one incident deserves a slap on the wrist, some serious discussion, and perhaps sensitivity training, but how about three that are so egregious they draw the world's ire? You would think that Spanish team members and Lakers forward Pau Gasol, at least, would have been exposed to enough media in a diverse country after seven years of NBA experience, to know better than end up in such a picture. Apparently not. What were they thinking? Probably not about Madrid's 2016 bid to host the Olympics. -- David Epstein

[KChill]

Yes they are famous for their treatment of blacks who come there to play basketball. Doesn't make sense to me, but there you go.

[pandamao]

#@$%

How convenient.

Geez, this year's olympic is filled with negativity. I'm just going to brain wash myself with Michael Phelps!!!!!

[yittz]

Lol affectionate gesture?

Man I wished we kept our lead against them yesterday.

[~Dan~]

It doesn't look like Calderon is racist, I mean given what they were told by their sponsors..

[Ken Cheng]

Geez, this year's olympic is filled with negativity.

Controversy and Olympics go together like peanut butter and jelly.

We're just more sensitive to it this year because the Chinese are right in the middle of it.

[~Dan~]

Controversy and Olympics go together like peanut butter and jelly.

We're just more sensitive to it this year because the Chinese are right in the middle of it.

Yeah olympics and controversy are always together, considering the massive gathering people. Then again, it's at least not as bad as say..during war(we didn't even have the olympics). Also it's not nearly as bad during the tensions where racism and inhumane treatment existed but were about to be removed. Oh and also the whole boycott period.

[pandamao]

Yeah olympics and controversy are always together, considering the massive gathering people. Then again, it's at least not as bad as say..during war(we didn't even have the olympics). Also it's not nearly as bad during the tensions where racism and inhumane treatment existed but were about to be removed. Oh and also the whole boycott period.

Yaddi yaddi Yah. A bunch of talk and nothing more! Telling these athletes to withdraw from a competition they spent their lives training on, good luck with that passionate fools.

[Guo Xiang]

Putting racism aside, the Spaniards look silly with their type of 'posing'. I prefer them to just look normal.

[MrPhotastic]

Those pics describe how ingorant the Spaniards can be. They claimed it was all in good fun and didn't mean to offend anyone. Apparently, they pissed off about 1.3 billion people and then some.

[Trien Chieu]

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ges-of-racism/

But of course, Trien Chieu thinks I'm just whining....

I am not surprise that this is coming from a typical-black-Al-Sharpton-like man who can't see beyond the color of black and white....

[xJadedx]

Yah, that's so not racist .

[SkyKing]

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ges-of-racism/

But of course, Trien Chieu thinks I'm just whining....

racist azzhole.....hope all of their players get injury badly!!!!!!!!

[wunufan]

EVERY country has people that are racist. The problem with Spain is that the media, government, and general population are completely unapologetic. They don't see anything offensive about this photo or the racist taunts their sports fans hurl at non-white competitors. The photo of the basketball team, for example, ran for nearly a month in a major Spanish newspaper without complaint. Maybe asians should think twice about spending any money over there.