Friday 8 February 2008

THE UGGLY FACE OF RACISM

The thugs who racially abused Lewis Hamilton and his family, in Barcelona, Spain, last weekend.
[Read more here]
The thugs who racially abused Lewis Hamilton and his family, in Barcelona, Spain, last weekend.
[Read more here]

4 comments:

Fernando Ribeiro said...

É claro que eu não quero desculpar o comportamento destes orangotangos de Barcelona (se ofendi os orangotangos verdadeiros, peço-lhes desculpa), mas sim realçar o contraste entre o seu comportamento, que emporcalha toda uma cidade, e a letra de uma canção dedicada a essa mesma cidade por um negro que nela vive. Este negro é o griot mandinga Nino Galissa, da Guiné-Bissau, para quem já tive a oportunidade de chamar a atenção no meu blogue. Nesta página de Nino Galissa, a Koluki poderá ouvir uma canção chamada "Barcelona", entre outras peças deste excelente artista guineense.

Se Nino Galissa gosta assim tanto de Barcelona, é porque tem razões para isso. Sendo assim, não devemos tomar a árvore pela floresta.

Um abraço

BRE said...

Adrianne of the Black Women in Europe blog also published a post about this "unfortunate incident", as did Sokari of Black Looks.

According to one of the F1 fans masquerading in blackface and an Afro wig pictured above, the whole thing was a BIG mistake. He said that it had something to do with the celebration of Mardi Gras or Carnivale or something like that. Here is an excerpt from a Feb 8th article in The Independent online where the Spanish white (er..black) dude "cops a plea":

One of the Spanish Formula One fans who caused a diplomatic storm by "blacking up" to hurl insults at the British driver Lewis Hamilton has insisted: "I am not a racist."

Toni Calderon was one of four fans who wore dark curly wigs, black make-up and T-shirts with the words "Hamilton's family" at the Montmelo circuit near Barcelona during testing last weekend. As Hamilton walked from the McClaren team paddock to the circuit last Saturday, he faced more insults and racist abuse.

Gerry Sutcliffe, Britain's Sports minister, condemned the incidents as "sickening" and said he would make an official protest to his Spanish counterpart.

Formula One's governing body, the FIA, has launched an investigation and could ban Spain from holding two Grands Prix in Barcelona and Valencia later this year.

Mr Calderon told the Spanish daily Publico: "We went last Sunday and we dressed up to celebrate Carnival. We wanted to give a touch of humour to Montmelo and have a laugh at the father of [Lewis] Hamilton. We didn't have the slightest intention to laugh at anyone, nor to laugh at the British driver for the colour of his skin.

"I am not a racist and it has made me ashamed to appear like that in the British press. Also, as I am in the middle of the photo [of four blacked up fans], I seem like the protagonist. This has angered me."

Mr Calderon said no one on security said a word when the group arrived at the circuit dressed as "Hamilton's family". "On the contrary, the people on security at the gate started laughing and let us pass," he said. "In fact half the people who saw us thought we were fans of Hamilton. Lots of people took pictures of us.

"If I had known that this was going to happen, I would never have dressed up, but I want to be very clear that we never intended to offend.

"We haven't done anything wrong. I would not have any problem to explain it personally to McClaren and Lewis who is a star."

End excerpt-

Yo Dude, da nada. Now go tell the Spanish King and Queen that you didn't do anything wrong. The King says,"Off with his head!"

If these people had showed up to an F1 racing event (or any other sporting event) in the States dressed like that, they would have never made if off the parking lot... alive.

Koluki said...

Denudado,

No domingo passado quando ouvi pela primeira vez essa noticia, estava ao telefone com uma irma minha que me contava de uma outra nossa irma que tinha sido assaltada em Barcelona... Perguntei-lhe: mas o que e' que ela foi fazer a Barcelona? Foi so' passar o fim de semana, disse-me ela.
Contei-lhe entao dessa estoria do Lewis e de como ha' varios anos perdi todo o "encanto" que tinha por Paris e Barcelona de tantas estorias de racismo nessas duas cidades ter ouvido contar de pessoas conhecidas. A Paris ja' fui varias vezes (antes do desencanto), mas a Barcelona nunca fui (embora ja' tenha ido a outras localidades em Espanha) e sinceramente nao me sinto nada motivada a la' ir.
Bem sei que essas coisas sao sempre muito subjectivas e que nao se podem generalizar, mas o facto e' que, definitivamente, ser vitima de racismo gratuito nao e' exactamente o meu passatempo preferido.

Obrigada pelo link.

Abraco.

Koluki said...

BRE,

As you can imagine, as swept as I was in the last couple weeks by hurricane Obama, I haven't been around the blogosphere that much, apart from this blog.

Thanks a lot for the add-ons to the case.

It's amazing how some people will say "I'm not a racist! I swear to God!" after being caught, on record, camera, CCTV, satellite, everything imaginable, practicing the most abhorrent acts of blatant racism!

Anyway, you may be right about the States, but Barcelona is Europe, my friend...

Rgds.