The Spanish Olympic team created an ad that is now causing a huge uproar in Beijing and around the world. They posed for an ad for the Beijing games with the whole team pulling their eyes to the side, in attempt to create “an expression of Eastern eyes.” It was supposed to be an “affectionate gesture,” but no surprise here has been interpreted as fairly offensive instead. NYtimes has the full story.
Just having come back from 3 months in Madrid, I can’t say that the blatant cluelessness displayed here is that surprising. Spain has yet to be introduced to political correctness. While I was there my host mom shared many “pearls” of wisdom with me and my roommate…
- “Columbians kills their wives, the Spanish don’t”
- “Those Romanians are always robbing people”
- “There are too many Chinese people here, is it the same in the US?”
Furthermore, they call cheap supermarkets “chinos” (literal translation: Chinese). The first time my host mom told me to go to a “chino” to get something, I was utterly confused. I soon discovered that it wasn’t just here thought, it’s something everyone says there.
There is a reason for the combination of racial tension (at times straight-up racism) and cluelessness seen all too often in Spain. Spanish immigration is simply off the charts high. And it only really started getting that way in the late 80s and 90s so it is a relatively recent phenomenon for the country. The combination of a booming economy and low birth rates left an opening for immigration, indeed it is necessary. Even in the US we have huge issues with immigration (just look at the wall we are building on the Mexican border) and we have always been a nation of immigrants.
In Spain, immigrants stand out from what is otherwise a relatively homogeneous country. It is all too easy for to point to immigrants and blame them for all the problems the country is facing. There is a clear border between those who are “authentically” Spanish and those who are not. Will Spain ever get past this? Well, I don’t know, we’ve sure been trying for quite a while and I don’t think we’ve managed it yet. Good Luck, Spain.
