The image shows (Argentine women’s soccer) players Maria Potassa, Eva Gonzalez, Fabiana Vallejos and Andrea Ojeda smiling broadly as they pull back the skin on the side of their eyes, in a crude impersonation of Chinese people.
The photo was published - without provoking controversy - in the Argentine sports newspaper Ole on Aug 5, to accompany a preview of the team’s first match of the tournament against Canada.
While it’s debatable that images like the one above are “racist”, they are nevertheless offensive and disrespectful. Photos like the one above are stupid and are giving the impression of a “heroic absence of political correctness” among Ibero-American athletes.
An interesting caveat to this issue is that the image was supposedly discovered by a Facebook group entitled “Kick racist Spain out of the Olympics.” With the increased popularity of social networking more offensive images could be easily disseminated worldwide. (Though we hope there aren’t any more; this is getting far too irritating.)
Note: Later today we’ll have our Olympics Spotlight including more positive news in soccer and cycling for Argentina.
Image- The Telegraph
Sources- The Telegraph, Guanabee, Who Ate All the Pies?, The Latin Americanist, CBC, New York Times
Is this at all surprising given the use of the adjective "achinado" or Calle 13's "Japon-pon"?
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