I’m sure most people have heard or read about the the Spanish basketball team slanting their eyes for an advertisement. When the story first broke out I was disgusted. I could not believe that every single individual in that room did not stop and say, “this is not right” – or at least ONE person. And what bothered me the most was that they didn’t even think it was offensive when there was an international outcry on their racist actions. Even if their intentions weren’t to offend people (which I seriously doubt), it does not automatically make your actions 1) not offensive, 2) inappropriate, and 3) racist. Slanting one’s eyes is not simply to “look” East Asian – it is a derogatory action to remind East Asians that they are beneath those who label them with their fingers to their face. It establishes a system of power between those who are mocking one group of people against a group of people who are mocked for their physical appearance. It is a human rights violation. Nobody should have to be ashamed of the way they look or their ancestry. Nobody.
This gets even worse though. After people showed their outrage and the Spanish team denied having done anything wrong, an additional slant-eye picture was taken with the Spanish tennis team. WTF?! This was basically them supporting the actions of the Spanish basketball team and stating, “hey, what we are doing is okay even though millions of people are hurt and offended by this action.” How insensitive, disrespectful and spiteful can people be? At least these incidents sheds some international light to the racism that is inherent in Spain – against people of East Asian descent, African descent, Muslims, Jews – heck, anyone who is not ethnically Spanish and religiously Catholic.
And what is really sad about all of this is the White privilege that is taking place and nobody is really addressing it. This situation is about power, dominance, and establishing superiority and inferiority by Othering. In a sense, it is quite in tune with the Olympic spirit; defeat your opponent and bring honour to your fellow people. This is just that this is not the PC way to do it, but it is the way to utilize their White privilege. Other groups would not have the same power to do this. Hence, it is not an equal playing field.
One thing I did want to say though is that through the unraveling of racism present against East Asians, I have become increasingly fearful. If my fiance, who is of Taiwanese descent, and I were to have children, what would my children experience? What if someone came up to them and slanted their eyes to mock their ancestry? How would I deal with this? I have experienced racism myself, but do I really know what it’s like to look East Asian as opposed to South Asian and be mocked on my appearance? Do I really know what it’s like to be called chink instead of paki? How would I teach my children about something that I have never experienced? And I know that my fiance would be doing this along side of me, but it still scares me to know that I don’t know. I don’t know what that’s like. I don’t know what it’s like to be a person who was teased with slant eyes look at the pictures of these Spanish teams. I know what anger for injustice feels like and the pain from racist remarks, but I don’t REALLY know how painful these images are. And in addition to this particular racist action, I don’t know what other experiences of racism people of East Asian descent have gone through. I only know my own experiences as an Indo-Canadian. I don’t think these experiences are the same. The pain might be the same, but does that commonality equip me to being a better person, and potentially, a better parent? I really don’t know why this is creating such fear in me. But it is pretty scary – to know that there are people in this world who want to hurt people that you care deeply for.
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