The Spanish National Basketball team that is currently representing their country in Beijing is in some hot water for an ad running in Spain.  The ad in questions shows the members of the team using their fingers to pull their eyes back in an attempt to make them look more Chinese.

The photo, which has been running as a full-page newspaper spread in Spain since Friday, shows all 15 players making the gesture on a basketball court adorned with a Chinese dragon. The photo was part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur and is being used only in Spain.

Not only was this gesture offensive and something you would never do to an a person if you were face to face the players don’t see to see the issue.

“We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” Spain point guard Jose Manuel Calderon, who plays for NBA’s Toronto Raptors, wrote on his ElMundo.es blog. “Without a doubt, some … press didn’t see it that way.”
ESPN

Exactly how was this appropriate?

Tags: racist ad, slant eyes, Spanish Basketball

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