Olympic controversy

What would a world event be without a controversy? The Spanish Olympic basketball team apparently posed for an advertisement for a Spanish courier service where they used their fingers to push the side of their eyes upward to mimic a "slit-eyed Chinese". I think the image speaks for itself. There will be prejudices among us no matter what because of our differences. It is just part of our nature.

For me personally, I found the pose offensive since I grew up in America in the 1980's, a period of time where a place like New York was not as diverse as it is now. During my childhood these kind of insults were commonplace. It speaks to the deep-seated prejudice that exists in all of us that emerge from ignorance. Children are the most honest, so it is in that environment where you see the true image of society. In that environment, there wasn't a day that went by where I was unaware of how I stand out among the crowd. I think my surroundings let me know all of the time. So for me, I recognize the gesture by the Spanish Olympic basketball team immediately.

The more interesting thing is that when I showed the picture to my colleagues who are native Chinese, they couldn't figure out what the pose stood for. I suspected that the reaction would be as such. The Chinese people who grew up in China live in a more homogeneous society where they were the majority. They have never been exposed to the type of racism that those of us who were raised overseas experienced. If anything, they were the ones perpetrating the stereotyping of the ethnic minorities in China such as the Tibetans and the Uighers.

I have learned over time, that every once in a while you are reminded of some the ugliness of human nature that exists in all of us.