Not to go off-topic here, but the Spanish men's basketball team has apparently gotten itself into hot water over a photo they posed for prior to the Olympics. The Spaniards don't understand all the fuss, which leads to the question: are "slant eyes" a nothing issue that has been blown out of proportion by a hyper-sensitive, politically-correct press, or is Spain hopelessly out of it regarding racial issues?
American NBA stars are suggesting that if Americans had been involved in this photo, there would have been consequences.
UPDATE: Eric’s comment in the comments section about the casual racial caracaturism (as opposed to outright racism) of Spain struck me as to the point. I have several Asterix books (which, admittedly, are originally French, but the Castilian translations are phenomenal) in which minorities are treated in a way that can only be described as Sambo-esque. For example, one of the pirates that figures in several of the books is an African, complete with big lips and Buckwheat enunciation (if you can imagine that in Spanish). I was once on the verge of loaning Asterix en Hispania to a student who wanted some reading material to practice on, when I remembered, just in time, that this African-American student would no doubt get offended, and rightfully so, at what she found inside.
So the reaction by the Spanish press is telling, but also thought-provoking.
It would never occur to an internationally sensitive American to be photographed that way for publication. Often, though, those inclined toward outrage choose to get outraged on behalf of those who are not outraged. El Pais takes this tack, when it implies that the scandal, if there is one, exists solely in the minds of the Anglo Saxon world (U.S., England, with a smattering of Germany). On the contrary, says the head of the Spanish Olympic Federation, "El gesto de posado es de cariño. Las mentes retorcidas que busquen polémica, los ingleses y los estadounidenses, más vale que se preocupen de los antecedentes de racismo en sus países." (In a separate article, El Pais quotes L.A. Times sportswriter Bill Plaschke, as follows: "Es un Laker que trabaja para una de las compañías más progresistas en una de las ciudades más globales del mundo . . . . Que los españoles actúen de forma racista en la privacidad de su pequeño país."
El Pais implies that China hasn’t complained, but takes care to note that the New York Post dug up a representative of the Chinese-American community, “según el cual el mensaje no es de deportividad y no es respetuoso con los asiáticos.”
A curious situation.
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From what I have observed (first and second hand), there exists in Hispanic culture a deeply ingrained image of people from the Far East that is not rabidly racist, but nor is it at all flattering. Asians, like other ethnic minorities, frequently figure in the punch lines of jokes, jokes which frequently concern physiognomy or language. I am holding in my hands a joke concerning Japanese doctors working in a clinic under the direction of one “Dr. Kienkarajo Tekura.” As you might imagine from his name, the joke goes on invent a joke name for each doctor based on the medical field he works in (and, as you can see with the name above, the doctor names are meant to mimic what the Japanese language sounds like to non-speakers). So, we have working in Dermatología the Dr. Tukuero Taduro, Ginecología the Dr. Yositoko Tucosita, Neurología the Dr. Saturo Tukoko, etc. This joke is quite harmless but still engages of some sort of reinforcement of Asian Otherness. Such cultural insensitivity has achieved iconic form with regard to Latin Americans of African descent; I’m thinking here of the “negrito” phenomenon, which is manifested everywhere and even in a card in the Mexican lotería game featuring this figure (I confess that I recently purged my lotería set of the negrito card and tablas on which the negrito appears so as to not offend my students). So, in the case of the Spanish basketball team, I would chalk this up to an innocent display of cultural insensitivity (not outright racism), a sensitivity underlying so much of the Hispanic sense of humor specifically vis-à-vis other ethnicities. We are fortunate to have heightened our awareness of these matters in this country, but it does not mean that other countries have had the opportunity (or will, in some cases) to undergo a similar change.
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