actually country is one of the definitions of race http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/race i agree wholeheartedly that this incident is disgraceful. abusing someone because of the colour of their skin has no place in society and the individuals behind it deserve a severe punishment. however (at the risk of playing devils advocate) i have to wonder is this any worse than abusing someone because of the country they come from ? both are racist, both unnecessary and both are prejudicing against someone for something they cannot change.
"black people tend to steal more in the USA" is a predjudiced comment, not technically a "racist" one. "Black people are better at sports because they have more physical ability than white people" is a racist comment. But... "the Spanish" (i.e. people from Spain) are not a race - so someone saying "Spain is a pretty racist country" is not a racist remark. It's nationalistic and it's prejudiced but it's not racist. I'm just saying the "racist" word is tossed around waaaay too much these days. I think saying that Spanish people are often pretty prejudiced and/or racist as a group is an opinion and it's not a racist one at all.
Actually if you read the link you posted, you will see that the word "country" does not appear anywhere on that page. People from a specific country are *not* a race. Canadians are not a race. Argentinians are not a race. Americans are not a race. They are nationalities.
read it again mike. a group of persons related by common descent or heredity. a population so related. any people united by common history, language, cultural traits, etc.: the Dutch race. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race. just looking at the first third of the page - these points all validate what i said.
The best thing Lewis can do is beat Fernando in the Spanish Grand Prix and the one at Valencia. You can't control people's resolve towards idiocy. For those who follow college basketball, I liken it to Kevin Love of UCLA and his tour of duty in his home state of Oregon. The kid and his family was absolutely MURDERED with vile, disgusting, profane and classless spouting off and physical assault by the mental midgets who somehow felt that his choosing to leave the state was a personal slight against them.(even against his "Beach Boys" uncle and 11-year old sister). Kevin responded by averaging 24 pts and 19 rebounds in the games against Oregon and Oregon St. Universities and being voted "Player of the Week". For all of the crap that was hurled at him, he scoreboarded the lot of imbeciles.
Sorry but no they don't. People of Spain are never referred to as "a race" anymore than the English are known as a race and the Welsh are another race. It's just silly. Race as used in the word "racist" is referring to the classification of the different human races. Regarding the above definitions, the word race CAN refer to people of a common nationality (i.e. the Japanese) but the reverse is not true (that each seperate nationality is therefore it's own race)....unless you want to make the argument as an Englishman you are from a seperate race than a Welshman who is from another race than an Irishman who is from another race than a Scotsman? Saying "those people in Spain can be a bit racist" is not a racist comment at all. Nationalistic yes, racist no.
Lewis ought to sport a Moroccan flag and say he's celebrating the anniversay of Annal. That ought to get them going.
Actually now that I think of it, it was in Spain where the English soccer team's black players were subjected to racist chants, monkey noises and thrown bananas. Obviously no place is immune to racism, but maybe lots of Spaniards are still pissed at the Moors?
They have obviously underestimated the security needs at tests. Need to take a zero tolerance, like a race. Are test days free? If they charged a modest cost, added security then I bet the riff-raff would spend their money elsewhere. Its always a few bad apples.
not to prolong this thread, but, race and ethnicity are often used interchangeably...but they are different things... as sociologists commonly put it... Race- A categorization in which a large number of people sharing visible physical characteristics regard themselves, or are regarded by others, as a single group on that basis. Ethnic Group- A group of people who share a common religion, nationality, culture, and/or language.
The Circuit de Catalunya wishes to explain its position regarding the actions of a minority of spectators on Friday, February 1st during the test session of Formula One teams: 1. The total number of spectators during the three days of the event was 55,000 fans with a general attitude of respectful and excellent behaviour during the whole session. The Circuit de Catalunya particularly wants to thank the majority of fans for their attitude, and kindly seeks public recognition of this. 2. We strongly support the FIA's position with regards to fighting against all racial, political or religious discrimination in motor sport. 3. The Circuit de Catalunya will not allow even the smallest incident to repeat itself within its facilities, and new measures are currently being taken into consideration in addition to those implemented during the latest sessions. These measures have been studied with the support of the Catalan Police and the Circuit's security services, and they will be reinforced in the upcoming tests sessions and at the Gran Premio de España Telefónica de Formula One. 4. That the Gran Premio de España Telefónica de Formula One represents the image of a country in the world and the Circuit de Catalunya will not accept any abuse of this image through racist attitudes or attacks on sporting competitions. The Circuit requests the Grand Prix to be the genuine meeting point for all the different supporters of drivers and teams in our sport. Especially to represent the welcome and sporting values of our country and our national sponsor. 5. In case of sanctions, the Circuit de Catalunya may consider the possibility of taking legal actions against those who caused the incidents, regardless of the magnitude. 6. The Circuit de Catalunya will officially state its position to the FIA, the Real Federación Española de Automovilismo (Spanish Motorsports Federation) and the rest of circuits in Spain, with special interest for those who also host Formula One tests. Circuit de Catalunya February 4th, 2008 Press Release Circuit de Catalunya
Formula One has ceased being the sport of the elite... not that it was ever that upper crust... but this kind of thing is going to happen more offten that not, since its like NASCAR, and WWF... its all about showbusiness...I'm suprised this does not happen more often... considering F-1's expansion into 3rd world... "developing" nations. Anywhere you get people who show up just for a party, youre gonna have this kind of thing. I would think that true racing fans... the ones who understand F1 would have too much self respect to do this kind of stuff. I also beleive that this has more to do with nationality than real race...from my experience Europe is fairly tolerant of race... Nationality is different.... where I lived in Switzerland they made rude jokes about the next city, let alone Swiss that spoke a different language! Alonso and Hamilton need to bury the hatchett and this will pass... McLaren should apologize to Alonso in Spain and I would think that would make this go away.
Basically, any time you have men assembling en-masse where sports are the focus and alcohol is available, the door has been swung wide open for behavior like this. I've never been to a race and not heard off color comments/cheers/yells, etc. It boils down to how the incident is handled by the organizers--I have no idea what the response was to this outside of the media coverage. Were these people ejected from the premesis? Beaten by those around them? Carried out on supportive shoulders? I'm not condoning any of the behavior. But this issue seems like it is manageable enough and doesn't need to become an event-destroying occurance.
I started this thread on a subject of interest that has appeared in a multitude of mixed media sources. It seems to have taken a drastic detour from the original subject at hand. Such a shame. Guess we'll see what happens when the FIA gets the report from the RFEA. Carol
I don't have a big problem with the purveyors of racism (the world is never short of idiots). However I do have a problem with those who tolerate this behavior or decide to apologetically push it into the back room and make no decisive stand. I stopped watching football matches held in Spain because it was getting unbearable...I hope the same doesn't happen in F1 'cause I love this sport big time...and being black, I can honestly tell you that even when its obvious these guys are idiots, it still hurts.
I don't think this is purely racism because the Spanish fans would be doing this no matter what driver McLaren was employing, they are doing this because they are mad at McLaren and are using race as fire power. If the racism in sports in Spain doesn't stop (I don't think it will, it has been in soccer for year) they should do what they do with soccer, a match behind closed doors.
Whoa Remy, that is very harsh. They should post extra staff near the seats that are close enough to the pits and kick out the idiots who use racial slurs . For a we know, they could be crazy visitors who are Alonso fans.
i apologize, if i had indeed offended anyone with my post. but over here, in Malaysia, we have Indians, Chinese, and Muslims, yet, there's barely any racist insults among all of us here. but the reason i pointed out about Spain, is because, it's pretty common, and even based on football fans, the spanish league fans often hurl racist insults at the Black players. i don't see much of those in the English Premier League, and Italian Serie A as well. while i agree that just a bunch of these un-educated people are at the circuit, banning the race will surely make them get the idea that the FIA is taking this seriously. we're living in modern times now. it's really heartsick and shameful when i read this sorta reports.
They were Alonso 'fans'. They Had "Alonso #1" on the back of their t-shirts. That is why Alonso needs to say something. His name has been associated with these idiots whether he likes it or not. He doesn't even have to say anything nice about Lewis, he just needs to release a statement making it clear that he condemns rascist behaviour.
