Political Incorrectness, Spanish Style

I learn so many things about US pop culture through Spanish news sites, and I always enjoy the distinctly cultural approach which allows Spanish writers to describe my society in ways I myself would never dream of. And while I must openly condemn some of the things the Spanish say and do, I have to acknowledge my soft spot for the Spaniards’ innocent yet reckless disregard for any sense of political correctness.

I am sure many of you will remember this summer’s Spanish Olympic debacle, in which the world champion Spanish basketball team happily posed for an ad photo (see above) while deliberately making a “Chinese face” by using their fingers to make “slanty eyes”. This ad was then published in many major magazines, causing a huge public scandal and a lot of angry backlash from the global community. But ask most Spaniards why some people may have been offended by the photo and you will be met with a lot of bewildered looks.

This is because the whole idea of political correctness is completely foreign here. Now I am not suggesting there is no racism in Spain (on the contrary, there is a tremendous amount of prejudice towards the newly immigrated South Americans, North Africans and Eastern Europeans), but what may seem like a racist comment to the fine tuned, politically correct American ear may just sound like an innocent funny joke to a Spaniard. In the case of the aforementioned ad, the basketball team truly meant this as a harmless joke and was shocked to find that some were offended by it.

Just this morning I came across an article from a reverse guiri blog (Spanish guiris in the US), which totally illustrates this innocence. Apparently the American convenience store chain Seven Eleven is holding a mock presidential election in the US using two different coffee cup options, red for McCain and blue for Obama. In case you’re confused about how this works the Spaniards break down the entire process as follows:

If you like your coffee black, choose a blue cup with Obama’s name on it. If you prefer your coffee with cream, you’re better off serving it up in the red McCain cup. / Si a uno de le gusta el café negro, elige el vaso azul donde pone Obama. Si lo prefiere con leche, mejor servírselo en el rojo de McCain.

Ok, really? You know you could never get away with saying something like that in the States! And still I find this terribly amusing so I laugh, but then my American politically correct conscience kicks in and reminds me that this was a very inappropriate comment. Like all those who make their lives in a foreign land, there are certain aspects of my national character which are so firmly ingrained into my psyche that they will follow me around no matter what culture I decide to live in. I will never be able to just laugh at a simple joke like this without feeling a tad bit guilty. I'm honestly not sure whether that is a good thing or not. While I am pondering this, I will leave you with one last piece of information, just in case you were wondering. According to my Spanish blogger friends, the “black candidate” is winning the Seven Eleven elections with 57% of the votes. If this prediction proves true and the US has its first non-white president, could this be a first step towards bridging the racial gap which has caused all this political correctness to begin with?