Spanish national basketball team, "offensive"?

No, not the good type of offensive. God knows that is all Pau Gasol is anyway, the dude is softer than a baby blanket. However, a picture has been running in a newspaper in Spain with the Spanish national basketball team making a gesture toward their eyes, an attempt to make them more "chinese," some may say "chinky?" Whatever the racial slur, they did it.

Fox Sports reports Gasol, forward for the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, says the picture was meant to be a joke and was not meant to offend anyone. Yeah, just like you wouldn't be offended if everytime the Chinese referred to you they said something like "Eurotrash" or the such. How completely insensitive can you be? I try not to get my news from the Fox network... I actually avoid it like the plauge, but I couldn't pass this up.

Gasol said that it was supposed to be a joke, something funny. Well, don't get me wrong, this picture would have got a few chuckles from your buddies sitting in a pub, however when this picture represents... not just an organization, but an entire country... it gets a little deeper than being funny.

It gets more ridiculous. Fox reports team point guard Jose Calderon wrote on his blog, "We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture." Are you kidding me? That gesture toward Asian's is just as "affectionate" as someone calling you a Mexican just because you speak Spanish.

Earth to Spaniards, there is nothing affectionate about racial slurs. This may come off as crazy, but most find racial slurs... offensive. I understand that Spain isn't the most racist country in the world, and that is great, but that is no excuse for ignorance.

I find it surprising that only 35% of people on Fox Sports thought that the gesture was offensive... I'm guessing the billion-some chinese didn't vote. I think that also says something about the Fox News audience...

But that's another rant for another day.

(8/14/08) UPDATE: USA and Spain is next, a game that could quite possibly be a preview of the gold medal game. Good deal, if there is a team in this tournament that knows about racism first hand, its the Americans. The Greeks weren't that good anyway. We are Sparta....