Spanish Basketball Team in Racist Pose
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Thanks to T-Tocs who first posted this in our forum. There’s already a huge discussion taking place about the story. The Spanish basketball team was photographed doing the slant eye pose that so many of us know from grade school, and they’re not apologizing for it. To make things worse, as minorTruths points out in the forum, there is a Chinese sponsor who is exonerating them by saying it’s not offensive.
I’ve already blogged somewhat about the topic of European racism. I don’t know what else can change a culture other than an internal movement. Love or hate the U.S., we’re still ahead of much of the rest of the world when it comes to understanding race relations.
MinorTruths referenced an excellent article here, which makes good points about the double standard that Americans face and also makes some good points about how the money spins and who works for whom.
So far, there’s nothing out of the league office. Rest assured, unless there’s an outcry over that photo, the NBA will wish this story away. Maybe the league will even issue a mild rebuke. It won’t be enough. Maybe this doesn’t rise to a suspension, but there should be significant fines and a bold condemnation. There needs to be a message delivered to NBA players everywhere: When you earn your money with us, you are always on the clock. Kidd, Kobe and LeBron understand it. It’s time the rest of the league does, too.
As some suggest he’ll do, Stern can’t dismiss this as the business of a federation team. These are NBA players returning to NBA cities this year. Never mind the host country and millions of fans here, but consider the Asian-American season ticket holders in cosmopolitan cities such as Toronto and Los Angeles. One of the reasons the New Jersey Nets traded for Yi Jianlian was to market him to a large Asian-American base in Metropolitan New York.
If anyone is feeling activist, send a letter to the NBA. Send one to the New York Times. Just keep on sending letters until someone gets the message.
Edit: Contact the NBA here. You can also use the link to contact the Raptors and the Lakers to let them know what you think about their “representatives” Gasol and Calderon.
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Pozhal
7:56 am | Aug 14, 2008This is an embarrassing display of ignorance and stupidity on behalf of the Spaniards, and I feel more pity than anger towards them; their faces must be really burning right now with all the unwanted attention.
But, to say one thing.
Not every country is as enlightened as the United States. I know how everybody likes to rag on the U.S. for being racist, and there’s some merit to those accusations, but few countries have as much experience as the U.S. when it comes to dealing with racism. Consequently, there’s a clear standard of polite and acceptable behavior in the U.S. that may not exist in other countries, particularly homogeneous ones. Spain’s population is not nearly as diverse as America’s, and thus, their boundaries for racial etiquette may be cruder. It doesn’t signal racial animosity, just gross ignorance.
nottyboy
9:29 am | Aug 14, 2008What do you make of their refusal to really apologize?
Lordonlow
9:30 pm | Aug 15, 2008What’s missing in all of this gibber jab is honesty.
And let’s do be honest here; if the Spanish team had “honored” an African country by donning black face and Afro wigs, there’d be plenty of damnation coming down on them. More, they just wouldn’t have done it.
Why then is it okay for them to single out another race’s physical attributes…???
Answer: It’s not.
kimtae
9:33 pm | Aug 17, 2008Pozhal, you’re cracking me up. The US isn’t enlightened, it’s just experienced.