wtf?: racism in spain - no harm no foul?

by Kelly Ramundo

The American Heritage Dictionary lists two definitions of the word “racism”:
1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

On Monday the Spanish sports daily Marca carried a full-page ad created by the Spanish Basketball Federation in the spirit of the Beijing Olympics in which the entire Spanish team is posed on a court smiling at the camera, holding back the sides of their eyes to make them appear slanted, a clear reference to their Asian hosts.

The article, immediately picked up by the British press has set into motion a furious debate on whether the ad — and to a greater extent the country — is racist, or if it was just an “affectionate gesture,” as one player has described the act.

Spaniards adamantly deny they are racist — no critique of the ad appeared in any Spanish newspaper — and will claim that countries such as England and the United States are overly sensitive to these “insignificant” gestures. They tend to agree with the player that the ad was meant to mean “We are all Chinese,” and was not done with harm in mind.

But this is not the first time in the sports arena that a Spaniard’s racially dubious act has been met with indifference by the Spanish media and public. Spaniards have on more than one occasion heckled black players on the soccer field, culminating in an infamous 2006 incident in which Barcelona idol Samuel Eto’o was bombarded with monkey calls by the Zaragoza team, eventually walking off the field. When the Spanish national team’s coach Luis Aragonés called an opposing player from France “a black piece of shit,” calls for his firing were ignored (although he was fined). There was no mass protest when fans wore blackface and harassed the black Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton during pre-season testing near Barcelona. In each case, these incidents were largely written off as harmless by a large majority of the Spanish public as the international community’s jaws dropped in disbelief.

No, Spain has not been a bastion of racial political correctness. In fact, the concept itself barely exists in a society that has been homogeneously Spanish for the last 500 years of its existence. And this, I believe, presents an interesting point in the debate. In Spain, calling someone by the word that best distinguishes them (distinguishes them from a Spaniard, that is) is a common practice. Chino (“Chinese”) is an Asian-looking person; negro (“black”) is a black person; gordo (“fat”) is a fat person. Spaniards argue that because they give less weight to their definitions (or their gestures) they are exempted from being considered racist.

And while I often believe that Spain is overly liberal with words and rash with generalizations, it is true that these excesses seldom seem to be indulged in bad blood or with harmful intent. Those who defend seemingly racist acts in sports claim that they are insults fueled by the heat of rivalry and not by racist sentiment — that is, not based on hate or prejudice stemming from skin color or other physical attributes.

While this logic would be a tough sell to those well-versed in race sensitivity, I think in the case of Spain, it may be necessary to consider a more nuanced definition of racism. Two of the questions I struggle with are: where does intent belong when considering race and where does cultural subjectivity fall in the debate? Can someone be ignorantly racist or must racism include hate or prejudice? Can what one culture calls racism be harmless in the context of another culture?

In my numerous internet searches, I could find no all-encompassing definition of racism, but most seem to be connected with hate or prejudice. Considering this, Spain’s lax attitude towards racially-sensitive issues would seem to imply a certain naïveté regarding racial issues that I’m not sure fits with a black-and-white racist label. It would seem that a culture is capable of committing fouls against racial sensibilities without meaning to.

In a similar vein, an article in Time magazine after the Eto’o soccer incident focuses not on the existence of racism in Spain, but Spanish society’s inability and reluctance to address it. Many Spaniards “don’t know how to identify racism when they see it,” the article argues.
The most likely conclusion is that Spanish society is not actively and aggressively racist, but ignorantly or unintentionally so.

One theory I found based on a 1986 study by Gaertner and Dovidio distinguishes between aversive racism or unintentional racism and old-fashioned blatant racism. While the latter is characterized by overt hatred for and discrimination against minorities, the former is characterized by a more complex, ambivalent racial attitude.

Aversive racists are described as “well-intentioned people” who do not think or act blatantly racist, but who “unavoidably possess negative feelings and beliefs” about the minority in question. That would seem to fit somewhat with the Spanish case, although not perfectly.

In America, due to our long, embarrassing history of racism and the racial sensitivities that were bred from it, we now know that our words and actions regarding race have the ability to hurt and to hurt deeply. Spain in its recent history has not been torn across a racial divide, which to a certain extent could give weight to the argument that crimes committed against our racial standards are just a bit less heinous.

I suppose what really has made me consider this possibility has been seeing that many friends here – people I judge to be educated and good — were sharply offended that I would suggest Spain had issues with racism, while at the same time writing off the actions of Aragonés or the Spanish basketball team as “silly things.” They are quick to remind me that when Spain could have flown their racist flag, after Muslim extremists blew up several train cars in 2004, killing hundreds, the country exemplified a racial tolerance to which America’s reaction to September 11 paled in comparison. They are right.

And after several hours of a circular debate, the fact still stands that my Spanish friends do not believe the ad was an egregious offense. They do admit the ad might have been in bad taste, but they are vehement that it is not racist. They plead common sense. They think racism only means tar and feathering, genocide, or Nazi symbols carved into the skin. They have yet to have been taught the nuanced side of racial discrimination and its effects on education, economics, crime, and of course, self-dignity.

Few would argue that Spain will be able to get away with ignorance forever. Immigrant levels are encroaching on ten percent of the population, and citizens are increasingly influenced by globalization. An American friend suggested that perhaps it is a matter of time before minorities in Spain carve out a democratic niche from which to express that there is often harm in Spain’s unintentional fouls. Perhaps this collective voice is what is needed for Spain to realize that while few complained before, it is not the offender’s place to decide what is offensive and what is not.

At the same time, I would also be more reluctant to toss the term racism around so lightly, as I have given myself a sustained headache trying to come up with a exact definition of racism under which to place the national basketball team’s horrible little ad and oblivious attitude. If you believe, as I do, that ignorance can harm, then you must believe Spain is on a precarious path. But then too must you also believe that emphatically labeling an entire country with the charged, complex and hard-to-define term “racist” in the wake of an incident like this, as is being done in many online forums, is just as dangerous.

I think a good rule could be: if it could offend, it should be avoided. And in the case of the basketball ad, I am fairly certain that more than a few Chinese don’t get the Spanish joke. In any case, as debate is what ultimately ushers in increased consciousness which fuels the evolution of ideas and attitudes, it is a debate which is greatly needed in Spanish society. Unfortunately, too many here are still reluctant to admit there might be something wrong.

tagged under:america, asia, europe, language, race, spain