Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
Spain's Basketball Federation has published a good luck advert for their men's team, the world champions, in which they stand pulling at the sides of their eyes in a slit-eyed gesture.
There is no obvious intention to upset their Olympic hosts in Beijing, but the irresponsible picture is likely to cause controversy and could be interpreted so as to lead to accusations of racism.
Spanish sport has been mired in rows over racism in the last few years. In November 2004 black English footballers were subjected to relentless racial barracking from home supporters in a match in Spain. Before the World Cup there were calls for Luis Aragones, then Spain's football coach, to be sacked after he called Thierry Henry a "black ****". And last year Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse during testing for the Spanish grand prix near Barcelona.
Spain play their first match in the Olympic basketball competition against Greece at 7.30am BST today.
Re: Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr8ked
Spain's Basketball Federation has published a good luck advert for their men's team, the world champions, in which they stand pulling at the sides of their eyes in a slit-eyed gesture.
There is no obvious intention to upset their Olympic hosts in Beijing, but the irresponsible picture is likely to cause controversy and could be interpreted so as to lead to accusations of racism.
Spanish sport has been mired in rows over racism in the last few years. In November 2004 black English footballers were subjected to relentless racial barracking from home supporters in a match in Spain. Before the World Cup there were calls for Luis Aragones, then Spain's football coach, to be sacked after he called Thierry Henry a "black ****". And last year Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse during testing for the Spanish grand prix near Barcelona.
Spain play their first match in the Olympic basketball competition against Greece at 7.30am BST today.
Re: Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
The only one that looks like he is actually pulling is Pau in the upper right corner. The rest look like they are just pointing to their eyes lol. People always need to find something to get up set about. It's a silly picture.
Re: Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
I really really want this to come out all over the Chinese media and outrage to occur. The only reason I want this is because USA BAsketball is going to need all the help it can get against Spain. If we have the entire stadium booing the sh&t out of Spain and cheering for us, it will be de-facto home cout advantage. The most important thing is while this may not have a definite impact on our play, it couldn't hurt.
Re: Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Interminator
How is this racist?
These guys are just pointing to their heads.
Is there a hidden racism in this that I just dont see.
Becuase they're not pointing to their heads, they're pulling their eyes back to look chinese or asian. You can clearly see Pau Gasol doing it and a couple other players.
Re: Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
so what?
people are WAY too sensitive these days.
what if they were playing ireland and they all wore orange mops on their heads? bet everyone here would think its funny and not gravely offensive.
for some reason i guess its off-limits to make fun of blacks, chinese, and mexicans. why? its not like the spanish team is burning their houses down. they're ribbing them over the stereotype of their eyes. big deal.
people just seem to LOOK for reasons to cry and get offended these days. seriously, get real.
Re: Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by starface
so what?
people are WAY too sensitive these days.
what if they were playing ireland and they all wore orange mops on their heads? bet everyone here would think its funny and not gravely offensive.
for some reason i guess its off-limits to make fun of blacks, chinese, and mexicans. why? its not like the spanish team is burning their houses down. they're ribbing them over the stereotype of their eyes. big deal.
people just seem to LOOK for reasons to cry and get offended these days. seriously, get real.
get real? i dare you to make that gesture to my face. you'll see what "get real" means. so the world olympics means let's go make fun of the host country's ethnicity? everything the olympics doesn't stand for.
Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.
