Idiots on Sky news

But that's what everyone is trying to say. It doesn't MATTER that it wasn't meant to be offensive. What matters is that people have found it offensive, as I mentioned earlier including people on Mrs W's original link who are of Chinese origin. Now, my gran used to always waffle on about wool that you used to be able to buy called "N*gger Brown" and couldn't get why it was renamed (as a matter of defence here, my gran was born in 1921 and not a native English speaker so times would have moved on since her day) as it wasn't MEANT to be offensive, it was just a description of the colour of wool ie very dark brown almost black. But the bottom line is regardless of the intent the name of that wool is greatly offensive.

As for the white face paint thing, yes if I lived in the UK and saw a pic in the British press of a foreign team all with their faces painted white in anticipation of the London Olympics I'd probably just think they were stupid rather than be massively offended by it, but then again I'm not a minority group here. If there was a photo in the Chinese press, say of people done up like that to celebrate the London Olympics, and I happened to be living in China, chances are I'd find it grossly offensive that that was a representation of what the people in the country thought of my ethnic background. Maybe you need to think about how people of Chinese origin living in Spain think of it to geta real understanding?

The one thing that springs to my mind after reading the whole thread is that the title should be changed.