Are you offended by the Spanish basketball team photo, in which all the players slanted their eyes?

Question

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Spanish-basketball-team-poses-for-offensive-pict?urn=oly,100152

I think it's pretty stupid and it's sure to offend a lot of Asians.

Answer 1

You would think people would know better.  It is offensive and in bad taste.  But despite all the hoopla, it will probably fade like most page 4 stories.

Answer 2

It's an Inside joke . There sponsor is Chineese and they were poking fun at him.

Answer 3

I am very offended by it.  They wanna be cowards and do pictures........do it.  I'm ready to fight, I'm not as tall as them but I am a bodybuilder and I know I'll take down a couple of them. Its all about heart baby.  *****t Spanish cowards.

Answer 4

For a group of low mentality refiried beanheads, it is their norm.  Let's hope their pants don't drop off and expose their true faces.

Answer 5

This is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen.  I am asian and I wouldn't have been too offended if they apologized for it since obviously it's a stupid move - but to keep saying it's an "affectionate wink" is just offensive.  

If they had a brain cell and consulted someone they would've found out that it is a derogatory gesture used to make fun of asians.  Many asians have experienced it at some point in their life if they live in the western part of the world - usually in grade school.  It's a half-step above calling an asian person by a racist name.  

But to keep saying that it's an "affectionate wink" is like saying that giving someone the middle finger is just a way of saying #1.

Answer 6

yes, im azn and im applaud. they look like hipposcirtes when they saw american r  hippocrite while they r doing it them self

Answer 7

Im a Chinese American and if I were anywhere close to them I would smash their heads with my car door until its shaped like a pancake and then pound their faces in, if thats possible.

If you are a Spanish basketball team member you better not see me on the street because even if I cant beat you, you bet I will do permanent damage to you. You can take me down but I will permanently mess you up. You will probably be able to beat me up but not before I can do some permanent damage.  

Answer 8

I'm not offended by it, but I think it is incredibly stupid.  

Answer 9

I assume it's a joke, but it was insensitive.  Yao and Scola will definitely have un momento poquito to talk about this before training camp.

Answer 10

im not offended by it because im not asian, but if i was, im wure i would be offended. what would motavate them to do that? they should be ashamed of them selves.

Answer 11

Why is it always the White people that attempt to minimize a response to a racial slur or action?  Gee....maybe because they've never been in a minority position all their freaking lives.  

I was sickened to read that LA Laker Center's response  (Gasol?) - that it's being blown out of proportion.

Nice to know that the status quo is so clearly blind and ignorant.  

Answer 12

I thought it was stupid to take a picture of it.

Whether it will hurt Spain's chance of hosting another Olympics as Chris Chase writes on his Yahoo Sports article...well, massive human rights violations didn't seem to affect China's ability to get an Olympics.

Nuff said.

Answer 13

pretty dumb by the spanish team.  I'd love to slap each one of them across the face.

Answer 14

lollllll... i never noticed they were offending asian! but still pretty funny!

Answer 15

What up,

Personally i'm not easily offended- so i could see the humor in the photo.  However, i think that the people who handle the PR for the Spanish basketball team ought to be wise enough to know understand why the world would not find that funny!

Whether it was meant to be racist or not - is not the issue.  There is no reason why they couldn't perceive why people can and will perceive that as being racist.  

i think the Spanish team didn't help things by - trying to pass it off as no big deal.  It may be no big deal to them, it may be no big deal to certain non-Asians, and there may even be a hand full of Asians who wouldn't make it that big of a deal- but most certainly it doesn't take a lot of brains to understand why Asians would be offended by that.  

As the yahoo article writer said:  IT WAS IN POOR TASTE!!!  

Nickster

Answer 16

I'm offended by the photo but more disturbed that the Spanish don't seem to get that people find it offensive and apologize.  It only makes it worse that this isn't an isolated incident.  Spaniards making jokes like this at sporting events is commonplace in Spain.  Black Briton race car driver Lewis Hamilton has repeatedly been mocked and called the n-word among other things when he's competed in Spain.  I'm a NBA fan so Pau Gasol and Jose Calderon's passiveness disturbs me and I think Stern needs to send a message that this can't happen.  As far as Spain not being allowed to host the Olympics in 2016, if China's massive human rights abuses did not stop them this won't stop Spain.

Answer 17

Wow they should be taken to court -_-.Unless there's another deeper reason.I'm pretty offended,I'm an asian myself.

Answer 18

I am very offended by this picture. Even if it was all fun and joke and even if it wasn't meant to insult anybody, it still did.  No matter what the reason is, 'asian' people will get offended.  The sponsors/marketing teams were very stupid to put an ad like this.  

Answer 19

I know many Asians, and none are offended. The problem arises from the newspaper The Guardian who constantly harks back to Luis Aragones and his unfortunate derogatory comments about Thierry Henry that could be construed as racist JUST TO SELL MORE PAPERS.

Besides, Brits should look in a mirror before they start saying anything about racism. I bet that among all the fine inventions the British have managed to accomplish, the commercial overseas trading of humans is not at top of the list.

Realizing there are differences between races and even making fun of those differences is not racism. Maybe tasteless, but not racism. This is just a matter of The Guardian saying it's racism and some people buying into it.

Answer 20

I for one love the country of Spain.  I went to a University there for a while and the people are great.  HOWEVER, they ARE in my opinion racist and a bit close minded to outside cultures.  This doesnt surprise me, nor does it surprise me that they didnt think it was a big deal.

Answer 21

a simple but effective solution,have the chinese team unslant their eyes in a photo....i am so sick of everyone being offended about everything,grow a pair, geeze

Answer 22

Yes, It's just another stupid ignorant gesture of the Spanish mentality it's so common in Spain to see these kind of actions, but they claim they are not racist yet their actions continues to show the contrary. The racial aggression that happens in Spain is usually never talked about because most foreigners are from less advantaged countries and feel they are better off in Spain than their country so they don't complain. Try living in Spain you'll see. Let's see how many gold medals they win. Shame on you Spain.

Answer 23

Yes, very tacky and racist. What was Pau Gasol thinking? Kobe needs to pull his *** aside and talk to him.

Answer 24

No

Answer 25

of course its racist.

it wouldve been made a huge deal had it been racist towards another race particularly blacks.

bet you it wouldnt have been funny if they were holding bannanas and scratching their head.

lot of europeans are racist, and you can see that in their soccer games.  they had that whole clip while back where it shows the fans shouting racist comments at the black soccer players.

Answer 26

Yeah, I'm offended.

And there are so many ways the team could have responded other than how they did.  Yes, they're ignorant for not knowing beforehand that a taunt performed in schoolyards is still a taunt when you're adults on a global stage.  It may not be a big deal for them, but part of the goal of the Olympics is to foster friendly relations and bridge cultures by coming together to celebrate athletic achievement.  EPIC FAIL, Spain.

Here's the odd thing.  The Daily Show worked in the eye-slant thing during Rob Riggle's segment on Monday and I found that humorous and wasn't offended at all.  Of course, they did it in a way that didn't condone the taunt at all.

Maybe if the Spanish basketball team had been on the receiving end of an analogous, culturally derogatory "joke" for at least a century, they'd understand.

Answer 27

Yes. im half asian so i am. This just shows they are dumb.

Answer 28

Very dis-ingenious and dumb of the Spanish team, to be offending a group of people whose country is hosting you folks, including a chinese sneaker company which is sponsoring the spanish team, you want to loose that funding? They have a responsibility to understand that what may seem harmless to them may offend another.  On top of offending the host country, you are in their country whose number of people outnumber everyone and can be rather sensitive to what may seem like a mild joke to us, and thats if only the chinese are offended, the surrounding countries have the same features, and commercially China is very viable and the Pacific Rim countries in the global economy.  It is a little like people from India don't like having their accent mocked, we may find that lacking in sense of humor, but if they don't like it, you just respect that and don't do it, at least to their face.  And as a person of Spanish ancestry myself, let's not be in a hurry to emulate bad habits of Euro-trash, I don't like trash of any kind specially in my own people.