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Chinese eyes from the basketball team, monkey chants during soccer matches...
Are Spaniards generally hateful in their racism, or do they see skin color in a different way than say the British, Americans, Brazilians, etc... do?
A Spaniard once defended his country's attitude toward race by noting the former Spanish colonies had mixed with natives and slaves, while former British colonies practiced strict separation, a la American slavery or South African apartheid.
Thoughts?
From personal experience having been to Spain 15+ times compared to a few times in the Southern USA. I would have to say on the few times being there i have experienced more racism/hatred there than i have when I was in Spain (or anywhere in Europe)
From personal experience having been to Spain 15+ times compared to a few times in the Southern USA. I would have to say on the few times being there i have experienced more racism/hatred there than i have when I was in Spain (or anywhere in Europe)
There is racism/prejudice in Spain just like there is racism/prejudice in nearly all places in the world. In general, I DO NOT believe that Spain is an intolerant country, but when living there I did hear some anti-Muslim, anti-Arabic, anti-black, and even some anti-Asian comments. Though large cities like Madrid and Barcelona tend to be more liberal than smaller cities and towns, acts of prejudice/racism do occur in those larger cities more often probably because this is where a large proportion of the foreign-born population lives. If you live in a town in the mountains that is 100% Spanish and Catholic, you are less likely to witness acts of intolerance than you will in a large city where there are people from all over the world and who practice a variety of religions.
The last 10 years or so have brought a LOT of immigrants to Spain, and this is really the first time many Spaniards have had to deal with living side-by-side with foreigners who are not necessarily the same race as them or practice the same religion as them. I think that Spaniards are slowly but surely getting used to the changing demographics in some areas of the country.
I have lived in Spain's capital for 8 years. I am not Spanish but I am bilingual English/Spanish (certified by the Spanish authorities). If you are looking for a job in an office you will probably find the big international companies more open. However, if you are not, things can be very complicated. Many institutions, especially public ones, are not so open to non-Spanish people. So I would say, on a superficial first-contact basis, people here are quite friendly compared to in other big cities. However, on an institutional (work) level, they are not welcoming at all. I also think we need to distinguish between friendliness and openess. While people here tend to be friendly they are often not very open. They tend to be very defensive of Spanishness and protective of the Spanish way of doing things in the workplace, even when by any objective standard this way is not efficient or beneficial. They fear foreigners displacing them in the workplace. Believe me, this can be very frustrating. Is this racism?
I lived in Madrid for 3 years in the last ten. (I'm English and white.)
I don't know how to describe racism in Spain. They think they are being funny, affectionate and nice. There's no way that the Spanish are hate-filled racists. I'm not defending them, by the way. I find this one particular aspect of Spain backward and stupid. It's like they are 50 years behind the UK and some other EU countries when it comes to race.
It's not generally done in a totally horrible way. This is so hard to describe... To very many Spaniards it is a cool joke to do 'slitty eyes' to the Chinese or throw bananas on the football field at black English players, or black-up and do monkey dances to black F1 drivers. They seem to think it is just a humorous, innocent way of saying 'We are Spanish, go us!'. Yet if you were black and showed up in a Madrid bar after a sports event or whenever, you would probably not have any problem or even turn that many heads.
Spanish racism is the sort of numbskull racism we had in the 1950s in the UK...when new immigrants of colour first showed up. My grandparents thought that Jamaicans were kind of nice and OK, but looked and talked funny. It was racism, but the motivation behind it was childish, naive and inexperienced, rather than evil. It's not like, dangerous, skinhead, Klan, political racism...it is just a naive inability to accept the newness of a situation.
Non-white people are in far, far more personal danger in eastern Germany or Poland than they are in Spain. But the Spanish are more dopey and irritating en masse, perhaps? They just don't get it. When I lived in Madrid I had about ten separate convos with Spaniards that went along the lines of "Player X or Player Y isn't really English/French, right? You guys cheat by putting foreigners in your team." And they are talking about black guys that are third generation UK or French citizens who I, as a white Englishman, consider every single bit as English as I am. You explain this to them and they won't change their mind. To many Spaniards, a black English guy simply isn't really English, even if his grandparents were born in London.
It is offensive, it should be loudly condemned, but it comes from a less bad place than some other types of racism. Overall, The Soanish are nice poeple and Spain is a wonderful country that I would totally recommend to non-white visitors. Just be prepared for a rather unwordly, inelegant, slightly hicksville attitude from some people.
I lived in Spain for 6 months...yeah, very racist.
I think part of the problem is that there isn't a history of minorities and the idea of rights for them or to be treated equal.
Yeah, I remember that MANY times Chinese had their shoe factories burned down to the ground. Spaniards resented them making money when they thought Spaniards should be making the money.
Europe is not homogenous. They seem to be out of touch with how they are perceived. It's even more peculiar when a lot of Spaniards are mistaken for North Africans or Middle Eastern Arabs when they are in northern Europe. I think their racism can be explained by them being at the southern crossroad of the continent. Spain was also a fairly poor country only a few decades ago. It's only in recent years that it has become attractive for immigration.
It's even more peculiar when a lot of Spaniards are mistaken for North Africans or Middle Eastern Arabs when they are in northern Europe.
The stereotype of Spain is that they are short and dark (or Mexican-like) or something....but when I was in Spain, there are TONS of fair-haired, light-skinned looking exactly like everyone else in Europe.
I think its kind of myth that they are exotic and dark with tons of Moorish influence. Either that, or where I was living Valencia, and everything north of there is all exactly European looking, and perhaps everything southern where the tourists go (down by the Moroccon border) has a slight moorish look to the people?
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