Hey, it’s all supposed to be a gesture of GOODWILL! We meant no harm! “Whoever wants to interpret something different is totally confused.” It’s a wink – a WINK I tell ya!
Well, don’t ya know it’s all just a misunderstanding?
The photograph, widely disseminated now by the
press, was made during the preparation campaign for the Olympic Games
in Beijing. …Jose Manuel Calderon, an icon of the national team, explains
in his blog at elmundo.es that it was a wink from the sponsor,
something they thought appropriate and affectionate. He is blunt:
“Whoever wants to interpret something different is totally confused.”“It turns out that in the photo shoot for the submission of
our team, one of our sponsors asked us to make, as a ‘wink’ to our
participation in Beijing, an expression of Eastern eyes — we felt it
was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an
affectionate gesture,” Calderon says. “However, some European media
have not looked on it well,” laments the linchpin of the national team.
Calderon denies any racist tinge in the gesture and expressed
his “great respect for the East and its people.” The Extremaduran
highlighted his great personal relationship with several Chinese
friends by his team in the NBA, Toronto Raptors, and recalled that the
sports brand Li Ning China outfits the Spanish team as one of its
sponsors.
Let’s it break down with the racimese dictionary, thoughtfully provided by Resist Racism. How many excuses can they try to peddle?
Harlow's Monkey 
Just plain stupid. Stupider still is that the comments to the NY Times article were 50-50 on whether the ad was offensive or not.
*sigh*
made me quite ill too!! terrible reasoning and terrible excuses.
Right now I would *love* to throw something at that picture.
Not meant to be racist?
Newsflash people: it DOES come across as being racist.
Oh, I saw this too. They team really thinks they are being picked on. How racist and stupid.