See what others have said

Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.

Comments

1. #101
   On August 11th, 2008 at 11:53 pm, fulldroolcup said:

   Can we white Americans “identify” with blacks by putting on blackface???

   snort!!!

2. #102
   On August 12th, 2008 at 12:41 am, Angry Kneegrow said:

   Somewhere, a man in a darkened room places a phone call.

   “We’ve got a new assignment for you, Reverend Al. It requires travel…”

   That was too funny! LMAO!

3. #103
   On August 12th, 2008 at 1:12 am, joromima said:

   Slanted eyes are cool!
   Maybe that’s all they are trying to say.

   Way to go US Men’s Gymnastics Team – who just won a bronze !!!

   Is anyone watching the Olympics?
   Great coverage – amazing performances by slanted and round eyes both. Go USA!

4. #104
   On August 12th, 2008 at 2:07 am, Terry_Jim said:

   This pose by a Spanish team is not new. The Spanish Federation Cup Tennis Team did an exact pose earlier this year in February when they were about to play against the Chinese team. They explained that it was not a racist gesture, but sign of identifying with the Chinese.

   …And the Spanish soccer team
   is probably stocking up on shoe polish to “identify” with the South Africans at the World Cup in 2010.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu1TZVX72Aw

5. #105
   On August 12th, 2008 at 2:28 am, joeblough said:

   Europeans are SO superior to us crude racist Americans.

   And they’re so daring too … when their mohammedan masters aren’t telling them how to behave.

6. #106
   On August 12th, 2008 at 2:51 am, joeblough said:

   Although frankly, I kind of wish they had a way to mock the Chinese without mocking the rest of Asia, especially not Asian eyes.

   I’ve always kind of envied Asian eyes. Sort of wish my eyes looked more like that. Oh well …

   But fascist/communist, lead-contaminated imperialist China richly deserves some mockery. Especially at the Olympics.

   I guess that confronted with Chinese totalitarianism, denigrating Asian beauty is the best those oh-so-sophisticated clever Europeans can come up with.

7. #107
   On August 12th, 2008 at 3:27 am, pepito9 said:

   Actually i don´t think here in Spain that photo will be viewed as racist, it will pass as a joke.

   Of course it´s a stupid thing to do but they won´t get the meaning of doing such a thing.

8. #108
   On August 12th, 2008 at 7:08 am, ITookTheRedPill said:

   Agreed, this picture is stupid.
   All racism is stupid.
   We are all one race.
   One Human Race.

9. #109
   On August 12th, 2008 at 7:33 am, WSmith6565 said:

   What do you expect? these are basket ball players; I have yet to meet one who could be mistaken for a rocket scientist.

10. #110
    On August 12th, 2008 at 7:37 am, thekingtut said:

    So it’s identifying with the Chinese players? Nah! They’re just racists. The same goes for their soccer teams, tennis players, and their fans.

11. #111
    On August 12th, 2008 at 8:16 am, Daria said:

    Imagine if American athletes had done something this crass and insulting. The so-called “international community” would have been outraged and President Bush would’ve been blamed for their juvenile behavior. Of course, he does bear responsibility for our weak response to the Russian invasion of Georgia, and his years of kissing up to Czar Putin, but that’s a story for another thread.

12. #112
    On August 12th, 2008 at 8:27 am, RobM1981 said:

    Why is this news to anyone?

    Europeans are extremely rascist. Do you want to know who else is extremely rascist? Just about everyone other than the USA.

    China? The Master Race
    Korea? The Master Race
    Japan? BIG TIME The Master Race
    India? Master Race

    What, you think “La Raza” is Speed Racer en Espanol?

    Greeks, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Swedes, Danes, Russians – you name them, and they think they’re superior *genetically.*

    Are they tolerant? Europeans are. They will openly mock homosexuals on TV (ever watch BBC America or Monty Python – things haven’t changed much since the 60′s in the UK), but they don’t view that as persecution.

    To be fair, Europeans have a very different sense of humor than Americans. What they (and I, btw) consider funny, a lot of Americans would consider offensive.

    It’s VERY likely that the Spaniards were making a joke, and that it was well received in Spain.

    They define tolerance the way it should be defined – not as acceptance, but as true TOLERANCE.

    It allows them a lot of liberties that we have taken away from ourselves under the term “political correctness.”

    And it’s not just humor – it’s life choices as well.

    Consider this:

    The president of France divorced his wife and soon thereafter married what can only be termed a bombshell. His new wife is not only gorgeous, but has done *many* nude scenes in movies and photo shoots. Her face and nude body is well documented for all the world to see. Even today she continues to write songs (she’s a model- musician – actress) that refer to him as a drug, or about their very-active sex life.

    The French are fine with this. They tolerate it, whether they agree with it or not.

    Could you imagine Laura Bush, or Hillary Clinton, or Michelle Obama, etc. being tolerated in the same kind of situation?

    There are some things that the rest of the world does much better than we do. Tolerance and a sense of humor is one of them, at least in Europe. China? Not so much…

13. #113
    On August 12th, 2008 at 8:37 am, sfcmac said:

    Quite frankly, there’s a hell of a lot more to focus on with regard to the Chinese, other than a basketball team making a tasteless gesture.

14. #114
    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:31 am, Christopher Estep said:

    Since my pingbacks aren’t working at the moment:
    enlightened europeans? sure. you bet.

    Unbelievable. Ironically, I used to live in a city that whose high school team was formerly the “Pekin Chinks” and no, I’m not kidding. (with pictures)

15. #115
    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:35 am, Laree said:

    My husband is an American of Spanish and Korean descent. We – the U.S.A. used to have an Air Base in Madrid His Dad was in the Military.
    We laugh at this stuff. It is akin to trash talk.

    My father in law does this cute joke at the dinner table, for the Grandkids who are also of mixed descent. Grandma sets him up, kids do you know how Grandpa’s eyes got that way? Grandpa puts his hands on the side of his face and pushes back, elbows on the dinner table, then he goes “Oh No Rice Again”

    LOL!

    Oh Obama would be happy, my father in law does speak a second language, and it is Spanish- dialect castilian.

16. #116
    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:40 am, the_moll said:

    Anyone remember that scene in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle where Rebecca De Mornay confronts the little girl Emma’s bully on the playground? That’s how I felt when my daughter told me how a boy at school pulled back on his eyes and made fun of her being Chinese. He really hurt my little girl’s feelings! It sucked.

    It’s also a fact of life. I’m not going to raise her to play the victim card, so we had a long discussion on how to deal with this in the future. Now when it happens we both agree what a loser the other person is and we move on to something else.

17. #117
    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:42 am, old_texan said:

    There for a while I thought this was a real problem – until I noticed that they were’nt wearing turbans mocking the muslims. So it can’t really be bad just mocking the chinese, or jews, or christians, now can it?

18. #118
    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:43 am, old_texan said:

    / sarc off

19. #119
    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:53 am, Blind_Mule said:

    I have a buddy that is chinese, he works on computers, one day I was watching him put the thumb screws back on a case, I said “hey, you missed one” he said “you think that’s funny huh! you try seeing this stuff when your squinting all the time”

    My daughter has a chinese friend that was pulling her eyes back and said “I love you long time” I laughed and told her to stop, she asked why? I told her how the phrase was percieved and she said oops! and has never said it again, atleast not around me.

    I am not sure how to take this but my point is even the chinese make fun of themselves.

20. #120
    On August 12th, 2008 at 10:00 am, phillypanda said:

    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:53 am, Blind_Mule said:
    I am not sure how to take this but my point is even the chinese make fun of themselves.

    This is true. I’m married to a wonderful chinese guy and I’ve been to Hong Kong a couple of times. The Chinese are generally good natured people who can laugh at themselves privately but they are reserved in public. In public, it is very important to them to keep face, to show pride in their culture and family. What the Spanish did is very public and racist and should be condemned. In the US, no ad campaign like this would be printed.

21. #121
    On August 12th, 2008 at 10:02 am, npphotog said:

    Here’s the link to the photo of the Spanish Tennis Federation Cup Team photo posing with the slant eye gesture. As I said earlier the Spanish basketball team was not the first to do this, but their tennis team back earlier this year. Apparently the Spaniards didn’t learn it may not be appropriate back then either.

    http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=331747

22. #122
    On August 12th, 2008 at 11:19 am, Auggie Dog said:

    China 13 Gold, 20 medals total.
    Spain 1 Gold, 2 medals total.

    Apparently Spanish athletes have to try and have a sense of humor, they’re not very athletic.

23. #123
    On August 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am, Lawrence said:

    On August 11th, 2008 at 7:19 pm, Boomer said:
    … or does that only apply to making fun of a certain religious group known to have a very short fuse.

    It applies, but only if one is white are these rules enforced.

24. #124
    On August 12th, 2008 at 11:29 am, jsmiddleton4 said:

    I am one of those who has traveled to Europe and Africa. Did so over a stretch of six years doing medical relief work. The idea that somehow America leads the world regarding racism and racist is so very UNtrue one has to wonder what the agenda is of folks who attempt to push the falsehood that the “rest” of the world is not as racist as the U.S.

    Pictures like these should surprise no one. Folks being surprised or acting like these kinds of pictures are an exception are the ones who are either kidding themselves or attempting to reinforce the myth that the U.S. is behind the “rest” of the world.

    Most of the world is very racist and very suspicious of folks from countries or tribes not their own.

    It is a myth that everyone just gets along naturally if left alone. The truth is for a long long time for generation after generation folks have been taught to NOT get along and the west and the U.S. had nothing to do with any of it.

    For fairness and equality for all people, the U.S. leads the world.

25. #125
    On August 12th, 2008 at 12:17 pm, John Lee Pedimore said:

    I had no idea that Goerge Lopez had such an extented family.

    JLP

26. #126
    On August 12th, 2008 at 1:45 pm, emjem24 said:

    I’m not at all surprised by this story. Spaniards, like many other European cultures, are arrogant, misogynistic, and racist. I had the opportunity to spend 6 months in Spain during my junior year in college and got to know their culture pretty well.

    A couple of things struck me. One, Spain has had unfettered immigration for years. I’ve seen how Spaniards treat North African immigrants. Many illegally enter Spain to do labor that a lot of Spaniards don’t want to do. Spain is having similar problems as is France. They’ve let North Africans and those from all over Africa immigrate without any monitoring and shuttled them off into their own little enclaves like Malaga where I met a growing population of North Africans.

    Then there is the misogyny and outright sexism that I noticed and don’t think has changed all the much. Spain, like many other Mediteranean cultures, look down on foreign women, especially those who are American. When I was with friends or by myself I got hit on and groped. These people have no respect for personal space.

    Another funny thing I noticed is how Spaniards are so arrogant that they expect visitors to do all the work in “cultural/language” exchange. They’ve become so squishy on important issues like gay marriage and abortion, where their socialists in power have made both more acceptable. This, from a country that used to be very, very conservative.

    In a lot of ways, the US and Spain are experiencing cultural and economic decline. Both countries have bent over backwards to be more “accepting” at the expense of their own survival. This story is an example of the blemishes that exist in places like Spain where machismo can make up for any kind of moral or personal failing.

27. #127
    On August 12th, 2008 at 2:17 pm, wckelly60 said:

    I couldn’t tell what gesture they were performing until I read the Guardian article. At first I thought these brainiacs were making that silly Obama “O” symbol (for zeeeer-o) over their heads.

    What a classy bunch they are… (/sarcasm)

28. #128
    On August 12th, 2008 at 2:32 pm, conservoman said:

    I’d agree with Michelle that it’s stupid (unless there was a good reason for them to do it), but I personally wouldn’t don’t think we should beat them over the head for this sort of thing.

    It’s just tomfoolery, playing around with stereotypes, and let’s not go to the liberal tendency to jump down people’s throats and murder them for that sort of thing. By the way Michelle I think your slant eyes are really beautiful. =)

29. #129
    On August 12th, 2008 at 2:37 pm, Laree said:

    #126

    My family is Spanish, the first thing they did after 9/11 was to call and make sure all of us were okay, and the first thing we did after 3/11 was to call them and make sure they were all okay.

    Here is a link to myspace page scroll down to the slide show, you will see my husband an American of both Spanish and Korean descent, with his Spanish cousin they are both stationed in the same place overseas, which is kind of incredible to us because they are coming from two different countrys. Still I am glad my husband has family near by. My husband is not one of those things you listed, and neither is any of his family. They are very descent loving and considerate people. It is however “racist” to paint all people of a nationality in this case Spanish as all being the same.

    http://www.myspace.com/cantgetherefromthere

30. #130
    On August 12th, 2008 at 2:50 pm, Christopher Estep said:

    It is however “racist” to paint all people of a nationality in this case Spanish as all being the same.

    It’s not racist at all. Spaniards aren’t a race. It might be hateful, ignorant, or bigoted, but racism only applies to, well, race.

    The problem is that these people are representing Spain. If someone says “all spaniards are racist (because asian actually IS a race)” then they would be wrong. But it isn’t an unfair comment to claim that spain (as a country) is racist because they send racists abroad to represent them.

    If the Olympics were in Nairobi and the US track swimming team took a team photo holding fried chicken and watermelon, they would be sent home immediately when it was discovered and our President (if not, the Secretary of State) would be officially apologizing before the world.

    If MSNBC had kept Imus after his “nappy headed hoes” comment, they rightly could be characterized as racist.

    So it goes with the country of Spain (until they make amends) and in particular the courier company who used the photo in their advertisement.

31. #131
    On August 12th, 2008 at 3:01 pm, Laree said:

    All right “Bigot” what is your point? generalizations about People’s nationality, religion, ethnicity ect..

    So pointing to one bad behavior by using the same bad behavior using a stereotype.

32. #132
    On August 12th, 2008 at 3:05 pm, Laree said:

    Oh NBC is characterized as racist and that is after they fired Imus, look up Pellegrino’s hit piece on his Counter PunchBlog about Brokaw and Meet the Press.

    So people or companys, and or countrys are racist and or bigots, by association? That is a very poor argument.

33. #133
    On August 12th, 2008 at 3:09 pm, Laree said:

    NBCU can fire people all day, every day and it won’t stop the racist accusations.

    http://www.counterpunch.org/pelligrino07212008.html

    Nappy Headed Ho in context was SATIRE last time, I looked SATIRE, was protected speech. FCC never even investigated Imus because it was SATIRE but CBS did pay out a big settlement.

34. #134
    On August 12th, 2008 at 4:00 pm, MajorKen said:

    Stupid and offensive!

35. #135
    On August 12th, 2008 at 4:24 pm, emjem24 said:

    My husband is not one of those things you listed, and neither is any of his family. They are very descent loving and considerate people. It is however “racist” to paint all people of a nationality in this case Spanish as all being the same.

    Laree:

    I wasn’t in any way trying to generalize or stereotype Spaniards. I have tremendous respect for their culture even if they’ve compromised on things like abortion and gay marriage. I was simply saying that there’s a part of the culture that treats foreign women as sexual objects. I was told by more than one Spanish friend that many Spaniards (and other Mediteranean cultures), regard American women as “easy.” I’ve even seen the way certain Spanish men behave in social settings. Some Spanish men are called “tiborones” (spelling?) for a reason.

    I have nothing against Spain. I enjoyed my time in Madrid and the cultural exchange it provided. Yes, there are some Spaniards who make it hard for the majority who are good, decent folks.

    If you felt I slighted all Spaniards, that wasn’t my intention.

36. #136
    On August 12th, 2008 at 5:18 pm, Laree said:

    No, I am not easily offended, it is kind of the point, I am trying to make. These are Basketball players, we can read into the gesture, what ever, any of us want, I see a “Trash Talk” kind of behavior. No, I don’t think it was even especially witty of them to do this. Is there some “National” undertones, I don’t even know how the Spanish feel about Communist China. My husband’s maternal family are lawyers, and military officers, the cousin with my husband right now is attached to Diplomats. Our family are a fun loving bunch, you end up at the cantina, in the evening

    They were so worried, when 9/11 happened to our Country. We were just as anxious when 3/11 happened to them.

37. #137
    On August 15th, 2008 at 11:08 pm, scottthong said:

    Well, we always have The Black Adder to fall back on…

    Youtube: The Queen of Spain’s Beard

    A few seconds into the video, when Prince Edmund (Rowan Atkinson) dresses in drag to fool the un-appealing Princess of Spain into thinking he is gay and thus avoid marrying her, it backfires:

    “Aah, you dress like a Spanish man to delight me!”

38. #138
    On August 15th, 2008 at 11:30 pm, scottthong said:

    More precisely: “Oh what a love this must be, that you dress like a Spanish man to delight me!”