BASKETBALL TEAMS POSE FOR ‘SLANT EYE’ PICS IN AD
It’s a little after 11:00 and I’m sitting here waiting for U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, now the most decorated Olympian ever with 10 gold medals, to come on and hopefully dominate the 4×200m freestyle relay (a win there and he’ll capture his fifth gold of these games en route to possibly earning the most golds in a single Olympics).
While waiting, I remembered that I never posted this story about Spain’s national basketball teams posing for a pre-Games advertisement making “slant-eye gestures.” Ironically — or not ironically — the obvious full-page dig at the Chinese hosts was placed by the Spanish Basketball Federation in the country’s largest sports newspaper on the same day the mean beat China.
The advert features two large photographs, one of the men’s basketball team, above, 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.
No one involved in the advert appears to have considered it inappropriate nor contemplated the manner in which it could be interpreted in China and elsewhere. No offence was intended by the advert, but whether the Chinese see it that way is a different matter and it is likely to provoke more criticism at a delicate time for Spanish sport. The failure to recognise the potential consequences is striking in the light of the problems Spain has had with issues of race and the Spanish Olympic committee’s continued desire to host the Games in Madrid in 2016 or 2020. [The Guardian]
Knowing how China usually handles things like this, I would expect all of the members of the basketball team to “disappear” in the next week or so and turn up next spring in a ditch somewhere in Uzbekistan. mOr what’s left of them, anyway.
Also, in a related story, U.S. gymnast Nastia Liukin is truly amazing. She just did something where she swung around on some bars — not really sure what — but who cares? She could have sat in a white room and thrown a rock at the wall for two hours and it still would have been amazing.
So what if she was born in Russia? She’s still a great American. Thank God for the Olympics.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Time-slip, if you will, back to the 1950-1960’s. The boss (of course, male) walks into the office, and pats his female secretary’s rear end. He says, ” I like them round and plump.” Now, someone from the 21st century tells this boss that he has done and said an awful thing, and he is being downright sexist.
His response: “I was giving my secretary a friendly greeting. It was just harmless fun. It is absurd for anyone to make a big thing of it. How could women possibly take offense at this? I’ll have you know that I am friends with many women!”
Dear stupid Spaniards, don’ t you think it’s about time you learned that it is offensive when the people you direct your words and actions think it’s offensive. The one dishing it out has no say in whether people should be offended or not.
Join us. We have already moved into the 21st century. Hope you can catch up.