Spain's eye-catching faux pas (Update PG23)

[webeye]

Well, here's the article on the picture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/au ... mpics20081

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.

A personal comment:

Clearly in poor taste. Now, if this picture featured models and not a basketball team, I'd tend to fault the photographer and advertising agency more than the models. Indeed, I'd probably find the newspaper at fault for running the ad as well.

But this does not absolve the team. They could have refused to take this picture. I'm sure a number of people, from the time of the ad's conception through acceptance at the newspaper, could have objected to it along the way as well, but the athletes were certainly in the right position to say no -- and they didn't. That just makes them part of the problem.

Glancing at some of the pages on the incident, a number of bloggers/writers seem to think that this is par-for-the-course for Spanish athletics. I couldn't say. But this was clearly a bad move all around, no matter what its intentions were.

[webeye]

Oh, and I was unable to find an image of the full ad. I'd be interested to see what it looks like, if anybody happens upon it.

[sh00n]

Old news, dude.

[garbageman]

Old news, dude.

not really.

the previous thread on this topic was locked because the OP had no proof that the spaniards were in fact making the slant-eyed gestures, and the picture may have been too grainy to tell. This article, at least in my mind, confirms that the basketball team was in fact doing what the previous thread suggested, and not pointing to their brains, or whatever other people had thought.

[Meursault]

wow, just wow. completely unacceptable and downright offensive. a formal apology is probably due.

[Rhettmatic]

The picture is up there now.

[MrBojangelz71]

If that was TJ, he woulda passed......ahem.

[The_Original_Baller]

If that was TJ, he woulda passed......ahem.

If it was TJ he would have been chased out of the city, oh wait he was.....

[bakafool]

I think you could look at it two ways. First is that it's racist and insulting. Second is that it's a playful pose by the players, intended to indicate that they are on Chinese soil. Something like if they wore their hair in the old Chinese style. But who knows what motivated them to pose like that.

[Shaazzam]

No slurs, no bashing other countries, no gross generalisations. No pot vs kettle crap.

If people want to discuss this in a rational manner, fine.

FYI this is one discussion I really don't feel like policing and the only reason why it is here is because of Jose being a Raptor and Garbo being a former Raptor.

So if it steps out of line, people will be dealt with and the thread will be locked.

And TJ really doesn't need to be discussed in this thread.

[from24ft]

What really sucks about this whole thing is that they got both the mens and womens teams to do this. Kids look up to these athletees, and it boggles my mind how something like this could pass.

This makes me wonder about ethnic diversity in Spanish basketball. Are spanish minorities represented in the coaches and players.

[Meursault]

I think you could look at it two ways. First is that it's racist and insulting. Second is that it's a playful pose by the players, intended to indicate that they are on Chinese soil. Something like if they wore their hair in the old Chinese style. But who knows what motivated them to pose like that.

that's precisely what I find so disturbing about it. The fact that the playful pose is equated with a racist gesture and that none of the participants of that gesture (and those who decided to publish it) raised any objections to it.

[bakafool]

I think you could look at it two ways. First is that it's racist and insulting. Second is that it's a playful pose by the players, intended to indicate that they are on Chinese soil. Something like if they wore their hair in the old Chinese style. But who knows what motivated them to pose like that.

that's precisely what I find so disturbing about it. The fact that the playful pose is equated with a racist gesture and that none of the participants of that gesture (and those who decided to publish it) raised any objections to it.

I get ya. Maybe they don't equate it at all with being malicious or racist. I wonder how the Chinese citizens feel about this. Is it as offensive as we non-Chinese perceive it to be? Calling our Chinese posters ...

[gerrit4]

I'd like to hope it's just culture naivete...

[from24ft]

I am not asian, and I find it to be insensitive.

What if they were in a country where large lips where a common feature and the whole team stuck out their lips?

[Meursault]

I am not asian, and I find it to be insensitive.

What if they were in a country where large lips where a common feature and the whole team stuck out their lips?

I'm asian, and I was about to say the exact same thing. Cultural naivete is not an excuse. It's no longer the 19th century where social darwinism and racial imperialism is accepted as a cultural norm. Given our globalized culture, and particularly the extent to which soccer has promoted anti-racist campaigns throughout Europe, to plead the case of 'ignorance' is simply unacceptable.

[Hanson_love]

I'm asian myself and it is clearly a racist act.

[cdel00]

The intent was humor, the result was outrage, in the end they just insulted themselves, their country and their culture. I almost feel sorry for the Spanish.

[webeye]

In the interest of full-disclosure, I'm half-Chinese. Not that I feel my lineage was particularly responsible for swinging my opinion in either direction.

[Tomato]

I'm Asian, was hoping for a U.S upset, now I want the US to destroy spain.