Race in Spain
In the comments from my last post, Joel asked what my take was on the stir that has been caused by an advertisement featuring the spanish national basketball team in which all fifteen squad members are shown making a “slit-eyed” gesture.
I found the following quotes from some of the squad members in an AP article:
The photo, which has been running as a newspaper spread in Spain since Friday, shows all 15 players making the gesture on a basketball court adorned with a Chinese dragon. The photo was part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur, a Spanish courier company, and is being used only in Spain.
“It was something like supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way,” said Spain center Pau Gasol, who also plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. “I’m sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive.”
Point guard Jose Manuel Calderon said the team was responding to a request from the photographer.
“We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” Calderon, who plays for NBA’s Toronto Raptors, wrote on his ElMundo.es blog. “Without a doubt, some … press didn’t see it that way.”
A couple things I would like to point out:
1. As the article mentions above, the advert was meant for print in Spain. I have not read anywhere in any newspaper in Spain that people in country have found this advertisement offensive. This might sound ridiculous to those of you living outside of Spain, but in the spanish context there really is nothing offensive about the photo. The “slit-eyed gesture” is not, to my knowledge, a racial slur here. Different things are offensive in different countries and we would all do well to inform ourselves and respect the cultures of other people. In my opinion, the international media has failed in understanding the Spanish context when reporting on this subject. I have yet to find an article in English that managed to place the picture in its original context with its original copy, let alone a reporter who managed to truly investigate race in Spain. I don’t see how that is responsible on their part. However, I do think that the company sponsoring the advert and the Spanish Basketball Federation (Federación Española de Baloncesto, FEB) should have been a bit more wise when managing their image in a global village. Which leads to my next observation…
2. What comes across in the quotes from the Spanish players above isn’t racism, but ingenuity. I think that ingenuity abounds in Spain. On the subject of race, cultural awareness and many other things. Who on earth in the twenty-first century thinks that just because something is only meant for print in Spain it won’t find it’s way on to the internet and be available all over the world before the end of the business day? What PR person didn’t think to check into whether or not this would cause an international stir? Believe me, this sort of lack of forward thinking is endemic throughout society over here.
I honestly think it was an ingenuous, silly advert that should not have been made. However, I also believe that no racial prejudice was meant or shown. The international press has blown this out of all proportion an made it into something it isn’t. Between Russia eating Georgia with their afternoon tea and Michael Phelps doing the same with the field in any swimming event, isn’t there enough news to keep us all busy without wasting time on ridiculous stories like this? (Mr. Araton needs to get out a lil’ more often and see that his own culture isn’t the only one setting the standard in the world for what is racist and what isn’t.)
p.d.- Just saw this today on the CNN website:
He pointed to a Wednesday article in El Pais, a Spanish newspaper, that quoted a Chinese Embassy spokesman in Spain as saying “we don’t interpret this gesture as offensive” or racist.
“Ultimately there is a very good relationship between the Chinese and Spanish governments and there is no kind of conflict at all between the two peoples,” El Pais quoted the spokesman as saying.
It begs the question: Has anyone ever bothered to ask the Chinese if the whole gesture is even offensive?
p.d.d.- Jon Stewart had a pretty funny (and insightful) segment on the Daily Show today about this whole mess. Remember what Jesus said about the whole plank in your own eye/splinter in your neighbor’s eye thing? Might wanna check that out America! He didn’t go into English history with racial slurs, but the ground there is fertile too. I only have to say two words: Prince Philip. Of course, when royalty shows an openly racist attitude, it isn’t a slur. It’s a ‘gaffe’.
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August 14th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
oh no!