I have to admit that the American people often have a problem with thinking everything in the world has to do with them. It doesn’t, and it would do us good to remember that. So I 100% believe the bball team didn’t mean it in a malicious way. But when we say that it evokes “mocking” to us, we would like for you to stop defending yourselves and just listen to us – just listen. Making excuses about why I am wrong to *feel* the way I felt about that picture is IMHO wrong – that feeling is done, a stated fact – and needs to be dealt with. That very gesture is tied into negative experiences in many Asian Americans. And thus, that is mostly who you’re dealing with right now as a result.

Actually, we have TONS of racist people in the United States. But we bring them out into the open and criticize them … so we took it upon ourselves to bring Spain the same courtesy we do towards the rest of our own citizens. Perhaps the internet made the world (The Olympics) a little smaller than people are still comfortable with…

Anyway, I’m going to close comments here. It seems the arguments have been mostly exhaustive. Thanks to everyone for participating or even just reading this far.

You criticize them for not know what it means on a USA context but you call them racist therefore ignoring what it means on a spaniard/chinese context. It works both ways.

“Considering your country welcomed Lewis Hamilton to Barcelona so well in Formula 1″
Less than half a dozen out of 55,000 spectators don’t make a country. Don’t you have hooligans on your country? no racist people at all?

Hey did you ever hear the “my mother’s chinese [lift eyes up] my father’s japanese [pull eyes down], look what they did to me? [pull one eye up one eye down]

comedy gold.

Also if i were black and i saw people with black faces how could i get upset. They are just proving their ignorance. Why do i need to point it out. According to what is dominating the news lately the whole world agrees that both cases were in bad taste. why do some of them feel the need to go into further discussion?
whats to discuss? I havent heard one quote from someone in the press saying they wish this would happen more often. I know that this is a very old idea, but if you ignore a bully they will go away, if you show them it hurt they will keep doing it. Besides, it looks very bad for your entire race to be upset over a small group of people. Take the police for example; People make fun of them all the time, call them names, mock them etc. However, the entire reason they are respected is that they pay no attention. They know they are in the right. They know they are ultimately the ones who will come out on top. When was the last time you saw a news artical or tv report about a group of kids call them pigs and pulling their noses up? It happens all the time, and ITS NOT NEWS WORTHY.

In the end, no one was physically hurt, no crime was committed therefore no action need taken. Spend your collective time and energy on more important tasks. Come to think of it i need to take my own advice and worry about my family and not waste my time trying to convince others they are wasting theirs.

So let’s visit what it means to “mock.” In grade school (this reflects the level of humor in this “mocking”), kids would pull their eyes to the side like that and taunt with, “Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees” … Now, it’s not really a FALSEHOOD that I’m one of those, is it, or even a stereotype – yet I have no right to feel insulted? Having to justify my emotions is pretty insulting, really. It just adds fuel to the fire, but you know – this is a legit discussion so that’s why I’m going with it. Dialogue is necessary about these things, so maybe more like you will understand.

Does it have to be a stereotype for me to disapprove? You never addressed dressing up in black wigs and wearing black makeup.

I find your rules for which people can be insulted by things pretty restricting. They seem rather arbitrary. This is not the end-all-be-all insult of all insults (I’ve had practice dealing with them my entire life), but your problem with something that people of my race happen to find offensive is baffling in and of itself. But I honestly hope these responses have cleared a couple things up.

Maybe we can consult you on any potentially exploitive racial episode next time so we can get *your* opinion on things, so that we indeed know how to feel. Because it would be too much to have you accept the feelings of the people who are directly subjected to such incidents. After all, we should instead ask someone who would be complimented if someone held out a wad of cash to mock him.

Makes a lot of sense to me.

Clearly, there are cultural divides present here. The Spanish know what they intended, and it was no harm…and it brought Asians’ race into question. But they will only go so far as to do that “salute” and stand by what they intended by that salute, while refusing to consider the feelings of the people they are saluting. You can have your cake but you can’t eat it too. It’s interesting that you know, a simple apology would have made it go away – but instead they made it worse by making excuses for themselves.

So whose thinking “should” be changed, here – a bystander or a member of the race in question? I guess when you are self-important, you don’t have to change anything.