Not a good idea, Madrid bid says of Spanish ad

BEIJING -- Members of the Madrid committee that is competing against Chicago, Rio and Tokyo for the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics were not pleased with the Spanish basketball team's slit-eyed advertisement, which the players said they thought would endear them to the Chinese people.

Huh?

That was basically the reaction of the Madrid bidders, who said it wouldn't impact their efforts.

Madrid 2016 Chief Executive Mercedes Coghen told the Around the Rings website (subscription required) that the advertising for a Spanish courier company were a "misunderstanding.''

“It was not a good idea. They thought it was a friendly gesture,'' Coghen told the website.

She said it was a misunderstanding and added:

"I don’t think it’s going to be important for us.

“Our countries have been friends for years and years. We talk about inclusiveness in our bid. It’s the Games of the people, and we are trying to promote Olympic values.”

But this incident, along with others perceived to be racist in soccer and auto racing, are not going to help the Spanish cause. Too bad, because Madrid would be a great place to attend the Olympics, perhaps even on the same level that Barcelona was in 1992.

-- Randy Harvey

photo by Miguel Riopa/AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Peter]

Great job US gymnast team, hope to see you guys win gold in individuals. We are routing for you back home. Horton, You Rock!!!

[Jaime]

Basta ya de acusar a España de racista. ¿Por qué no preguntan a los ciudadanos hispanos y a los negros que viven en USA cómo son tratados allí? Me hacen reír intentando ser ahora los defensores de los derechos humanos. ¡Farsantes!

[SOMEBODY FROM SPAIN]

So, that is only political.

All the publicity you are doing about this case is only because you want the Olympics in Chicago

Ku Klux Klan, war in Iraq, Darfur, Mafia along with others are not going to help the Northamerican cause. Too bad, because Chicago would be a great place to attend the Olympics.

[A spanish]

It's better Chicago for the olimpic games. Spain would be a chinese racist, but USA is a black racist, Irak racist, Europe racist, in conclusion is a non-USA racist, USA is more complete. Chicago, i think it's better for a All Stars in hockey....

[lluis sanchez]

Como podeis tener esta doble moral, una tonteria de foto racismo, y masacrar indios perdon "nativoamericanos", colgar negros perdon "afroamericanos", encerrar japoneses son "japoneses" todavia o habeis inventado un nombre politicamente corrector, torturar islamistas sin juicio es defensa de la democracia y volar escuelas, gente en una boda es un error humano. Podeis hacerlo y callar pero solo falta que vayais dando lecciones de derechos civiles.

[Carlos]

This is disgusting how the people from the States, yes and not Americans because Americans are everyone from Alaska to the Patagonia in Argentina. are so ignorant more pseudo journalist such as Bill Plaschke. Why? simple double standard, when the States won the gold medal back at the World Cup in Tokyo, after getting their ass beaten by Greece in semifinals.
The NY Times publish a Picture of Carmelo Anthony,Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, doing the military greeting, which to that country is so offensive because of your "invasion" at the Second World War, or you dont forget.
The NY Times published under the headline "Proud Bronze", the three NBA Stars at the podium doing the greeting.
But nobody did anything, in fact the press in this country celebrated such an attitude that is way more racist and humiliating than the candid pictures of the Spaniards.
I dont know how in hell the LA Times has the courage to ask Paul Gasol for an apology, where obviously is not racist at all.
Is like the Olympics are going to be held in Siberia or Alaska, and the marketing director made some athletes to paint their body of white for an ad, just to make an emphasis and the link beetwen the low temperatures of the place where the competition is going to take place.
How the Spaniards will say, IMPRESENTABLES is what you are people and pseudo journalists from this county, I am a journalist myself and now more than ever I know the ethic, objectivity and beauty about this profession are far away from this media circus called the States.
HERE IS THE LINK OF THAT ARTICLE, and I just want to make sure I dont like Spaniards as well, but as a journalist we need to say things how they really are.
This is the link of that article.

http://jjoo.marca.com/2008/2008/08/14/baloncesto/1218698005.html?a=239d8c388db44268b480dfaa42676532&t=1218700436

[Non bullfighter spanish]

If chinesse pepole are not felt insulted (an example, the chinesse ambassador in Spain), i don't have any reason to apologyze to a english or american newspaper. The spanish Basketball Federation is going to demmand the yellow english tabloid The Guardian (the 1st. started this stupid joke).

[Carlos del Castillo]

I don´t know what all the fuss is about with the spanish basketball team´s ad slanting their eyes. Chinese DO have slanted eyes, as do most asians. I´m half filipino and I don´t feel offended by that ad at all. Lack of human rights and freedom of speech in China offends me, not that.

[j2tharome]

The problem with most of these Spanish comments is that your fellow "basquetbolistas" don't see this as racism! The U.S. has made mistakes, and we're finally starting to accept what we did was wrong. It's very offensive towards the Chinese (and Japanese, Koreans, Thais and anyone else that have this eye feature). If I was prancing around like a monkey for an advertisement for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa would you see that as friendly gesture? If I were to pose for advertisement with ugly teeth for the 2012 Olympics in London would you see that as a friendly gesture? All you Spanish natives need to "open your eyes" to the world, and discover what's out there!!

[qwerty]

ANOTHER RACIST IMAGE. Are them Spaniard again?

http://www.lacoctelera.com/myfiles/asya2day/51482288.jpg

[Liberty]

First at all, I would like to say that I hate any type of racism, anywhere. In fact, my mother is foreign. Please, read complete this message, I think we could understand a lot of things. I´ll write it with respect.

I don´t know if the advertisement is racist or not. I just know that, maybe, in this politically correct world, its some inapropiate. Really its just an idea of one of the spanish sponsor. They insist about did it.

You can think that this ad is racist, everybody has opinion and you have right to think that. But if you think that, please read some things more:

-Two or three months ago, in soccer Eurocope, some english people made an advertisement asking the "supporting" for the spanish team. They did jokes about the "spanish culture" (or what everybody understand like stereotypes) and you could heard things like "Support Spain...flamenco, paella, maracas, macarena...its all you have to know about their culture!" (In fact, maracas are typicall from Mexico). And also you could watch some images about it, for example, with a man dancing "la macarena" with a bullhead. I really found it funny, but some people maybe not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rke8_X4TKmE

-The last year, with all the things that happened between the F1 pilotes Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, one newspaper in England call Alonso "that sad Iberic".
-Two years ago, in the basketball worldcup in Japan, when the american players won the bronze medal, they did a military gesture.
-Two years ago, in an american newspaper, a journalist wrote a new about two companies. One of these companies was spanish, and they wanted to buy a french company. In the newspaper appeared a draw with the Eiffel Tower with a mexican hat (mexican, not spanish).
-In the tv serie called "Charmed", in one episode, the character of Paige Halliwell, find a unicorn in her house, and she tell it "Are you spanish?arent you?ole ole!! (and did a gesture like a bullfighter).
-In the tv serie called "The Simpson", in one episode appears Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets basketball player... and he irons one Homer Simpsons shirt.
In the same tv serie, usually appears a Bee mexican man.
...
and like this, there are a lot of examples

Really...do you think that all of these things are racism? Definitly...NO

Besides, you know this thing because it is troubled... but what happend with the new about the spanish basketball team donating their 50'000€ prize to a NGO to help homeless and needed people? or what about Pau Gasol visiting and helping african people with disease? Nobody wrote about it, because its not polemic.
And one thing more... do you know what is the foreign people more appreciated by spanish people...? in fact, the asian people

What I would like to say is that is good to fight the racism, to condemn it. I always do it (like when stupid people scream players just because they are of the another race), like a lot of people do. But if you are always looking for weird gestures, you will always find it. We shouldnt be excesive politically correct. Fight with common sense, perfect, but thats all.
Dont insult a whole country just because you dont like a few people of them, because everybody, everydoby could do the same thing with you and your country...

Sorry for my English. Im trying to improve it. Good luck in everything :). And remember...judge because what is a person, not where he/she was born.

[Liberty]

2harome, why are you insulting a whole country just because you dont like few things doing of few people? Thats not faire, and you know it, because all of us can do the same thing with you or with anybody.
For example...if I write about the "hooligans"? do yo know who are they? They are british soccer "fans", radicals who destroy cities when there are a soccer match in Europe. When they go to a europe city, like Barcelona, Paris, or others... they drink a lot and destroy parks, restaurants, etc. Do you think that was bad to London Olimpyc games? absolutely not, because nobody with common sense think that everyenglish people are like them. In fact, they are a minority. I dont think that english people are hoolingans. I think they have good people, and bad people, like anywhere. Because of that, I have some friends of there.

Again, dont insult a whole country for these things, or maybe someday that could happen to you. I hope wont happen.

[Jesucristo]

David Wark Griffith, George W. Bush, Bill Plaschke, F. James Sensenbrenner, LAPD, KKK, Thomas Dixon, Leland Ford, Culbert Olson, Los Angeles Times, John L. DeWitt...

[Sergio Almendros]

How dare you, an american, and how dare your colleagues at the UK to critizise a funny picture without a negative meaning (maybe call it diffeent sense of humor) and call a whole country racist, when just a few decades ago the afroamericans were fighting to have the right to seat in the same bar as a white man? How dare the Brits to say that we are racist when they were enforcing the apartheid just 20 some years ago...
... sad, very sad...

[Renata Vázquez]

@j2tharome: Your post makes absolutely no sense. The ad means the Spanish national basketball team are going to Beijing, that is, playing in China, being in China and understanding China.

There are many Chinese people in Spain and I have never heard from any of them that they considered the ad or the team as racists. In fact, there was a sino-spanish event to celebrate the Olympics and people from both nationalities attended it, friendly and peacefully.By the way, the national team of ping-pong is formed by a Chinese man.

I think the whole "Ugly Betty" soap opera is a joke about Mexican culture, yet, probably many of its followers are Mexican-descents that know what is humour and what is racism.

Our country is portrayed in foreign movies as a place in which only flamenco is played and in which bulls are running all over the place freely. In fact, "Mission Impossible 2" was so badly done that they mixed two popular events: Eastern Holidays and "Las Fallas" (an event of Eastern Spain in which they burn statues made for this event); so, they ended up saying that the Spaniards set on fire their saints. THAT is being IGNORANT and somewhat racist; yet, it is not a reason not to watch the movie.

Narrowing your eyes meaning that Spain is going to play in China and give everything in China, it's ok, maybe not the best ad, but not a bad either.

I don't see what's the point of all this controversy, especially when the U.S.A. is known to be the most racist country in the world (one needs only to see Law and Order or CSI to see how hispanic and africanamerican peoples are treated!).

Cheers,

RENATA

[John]

The Chinese ambassador to Madrid considered the gesture as "kind and friendly" and "in no way offensive", but the anglo press, spearheaded by The guardian and The Los Angeles Times, insist in considering something they don't understand as racist.

Meanwhile, last night, the nbcolympics.com comments during the Spain/Germany game compared Marc Gasol, (Pau's brother) to a cromagnon. Neither The Guardian nor The Los Angeles Times don't find this objectionable. Perhaps because the comment was made by an american, English-speaking, no less? Could it be a case of hyprocrisy?

[alejandra]

Yes, Spain is a racist country!!!!! i have no more to say!!!!!!

[Mala Persona (leren lerenle)]

I was thinking "racist" meant that you believed your race or ethnia was better than other. Maybe I was wrong.