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I think a lot of people are being very anal about this. I don't think it was done with the intent to be offensive. I think the fact that people pick up on it as offensive also speaks volumes about the long way they still have to go to stop jumping on each other because of "racism". We are different, that is a fact. Or are we going to pretend we all look the same? I think the Spanish were probably just happy about the China Olympics and made this playful gesture, not to offend, but to acknowledge. I honestly wouldn't read more into it...obviously this was over-analyzed later and here we are.
I do understand that the gesture may have been used to offend previously. Maybe they didn't stop to think about the centuries of history relating to that and how it could be construed. I do think they were foolish to think the Chinese would take it lightly. The Chinese take everything very seriously, because they are very defensive that way, about their heritage and culture. They definitely have an us against them attitude. So it was silly of the Spanish to do this...but I don't think they were racist.
I also find it inappropriate that several of the people who have responded to this thread have taken the opportunity to take jibes at Europeans, while condemning the Spanish attitude. I have no prejudice against Americans or any other nationality, or "race". Obviously you have a chip on your shoulder and that's a shame.
If more people stopped thinking of "racism" all the time maybe then we could actually all get along. I also think that *Nikki* has a point and was brave enough to speak her mind, in an unprejudiced, uncensored way. Everything is so ultra-PC these days it makes me gag.
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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.
Fernando Pessoa, 1918
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