Aug
11
How to win friends and influence people. Not.
Just saw this and had to post a link to it. Un-be-lievable.
From the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper:
Spain’s Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country’s best-selling newspaper.
The advert features two large photographs, one of the men’s basketball team, below, and one of the women’s team. Both squads pose in full Olympic kit on a basketball court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. Every single player appears pulling back the skin on either side of their eyes. The advert carries the symbol of the sport’s governing body.
No one involved in the advert appears to have considered it inappropriate nor contemplated the manner in which it could be interpreted in China and elsewhere. No offence was intended by the advert, but whether the Chinese see it that way is a different matter and it is likely to provoke more criticism at a delicate time for Spanish sport. The failure to recognise the potential consequences is striking in the light of the problems Spain has had with issues of race and the Spanish Olympic committee’s continued desire to host the Games in Madrid in 2016 or 2020.
Another reminder of how far Spain has to go as a society when it comes to cultural sensitivity and respect of different races. Full story plus the picture here.
Meanwhile Spanish blogger and frequent Voices en Español commentator Roberto does some public soul-searching and asks ¿Soy un racista y ni siquiera lo sé?
August 12th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Eleena, apparently, that photo of the Spanish Nationa Team slanting their eyes was a request from a Chinese reporter. It is silly and infantile, but, racist?. Anyway, it wasn’t a good idea, there will always be someone who will feel offended by this kind of things and we have enough bad press regarding racism. I don’t really know why suddenly everybody pays so much attention to Spain, we are a rather small and irrelevant country.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Seriously. This is waaay on the “get over it!” side of the line.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I have just learned that Li Ning, a Chinese sports brand is one of the Spanish Basketball NT main sponsors, which makes this new “racism in Spain” eppisode even weirder.
August 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
what, spaniards being unable to take criticism…..?
surely, anything they do is always beyond reproach…..!
when the hell will they learn……?
August 13th, 2008 at 3:21 am
@El villano, play nice.
@Roberto, to tell the truth, the Chinese aren’t choirboys themselves. I read an article before the Olympics started about some Beijing police officers telling shopkeepers and restaurants to decline service to black people during the Olympics. So much for those communist ideals that all humans are equal, etc. Chairman Mao would be so proud. (sarcasm off)
August 13th, 2008 at 5:57 am
I don’t know Eleena, but I’m pretty sure the Spanish players had no intention to offend anyone. Quite the opposite, I think they were trying to be nice in a childish way.
I also think the Chinese people themselves couldn’t care less about this, I’m under the impression it’s only the PC American culture that makes a big deal out of this sort of things. Perhaps I’m wrong, I don’t know, I’m not judging the American culture, if you have decided to be so politically correct, I’m sure there’s a very good reason for it. But it seems to me that some American media and people fail to understand that the rest of the world is not like the USA. Political Correctness is something very un-Spanish, as you already know.
El villano, you’re right, we will never learn, we insist in having our own ideas about everything. You are entitled to yours, I’m entitled to mine, ,perhaps you will convince me, perhaps you will not, I will decide for myself. But there’s one thing I won’t try to do: trying to convince you my cultural values are superior to yours.
August 16th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I have a question for the group.
I’m wondering if the racial groups / minority groups in Spain are not sufficiently organized or not large enough / established enough, to voice their opinion about perceived racial discrimination, etc. So therefore the Spanish have not been “trained” like Americans have been to make their language more sensitive, or “PC”.
But what about the Gay community? Would it be OK in Spain to insult them in an advertisement or somehow make fun of them? Or are the Spanish “PC” in regards to this group because they are big enough to complain?
August 17th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Hey Carl,
Yeah, I’d say you’re right on target about your impression about racial/ethnic groups in Spain not being super politically-organized. I think so many people are struggling to make a living and get by in the current economic environment that building up any kind of civil rights type of coalition isn’t a pressing priority.
Regarding the gay community in Spain, there are so many highly-regarded and well-liked gays in the public eye in Spain and gays have the right to marry and generally live their lives the way they see fit without governmental or societal meddling, so I wonder if homosexuals are even viewed as a minority group in Spain?
Hopefully some Spaniards will weigh in on this. Paging Roberto and Castellón. Where are you guys?
August 28th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Hola otra vez, he estado de vacaciones subiendo montañas y andando en bici, todo muy relajante…
Carl, I had never thought about it…I guess you’re right. In Spain it’s totally unacceptable to make fun at gay people, and as Eleena says, I wouldn’t even consider them as a “minority group”.
Anyway, my point was, why are you all taking for granted the “slanted eyes” gesture was some kind of mockery? I’m 100% sure it wasn’t, but, still, one has to be careful with these kind of things, that photo wasn’t a good idea, it was more fuel for the PC-Brigade.
Gracias por el enlace Eleena y un saludo.