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Ny school district sorry for homework calling mexicans ‘ugly,’ americans ‘pretty’.

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A Buffalo-area school district has come under fire after a teacher asked her students to translate sentences from English to Spanish that called Mexicans “ugly,” according to reports.

Sixth-graders at Mill Middle School in the Williamsville Central district received a worksheet in Spanish class that prompted them to translate several sentences, CNN reported.

“You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly,” read one of the sentences, while another read, “You (politely) are pretty and American,” the outlet reported.

The “friendly” and “politely” referred to formal and informal ways of saying “you” in Spanish, the Buffalo News reported.

District parent Allison Wainick said she was stunned by the assignment’s “blatant racism.”

“Can we even begin to unpack all that is wrong here? Who is developing this curriculum & where is the oversight?” she said on Twitter .

Wainick, who is Hispanic and was born in Colombia, declined to identify the teacher, the Buffalo News reported

She told the paper she raised concerns about the assignment with principal Lori Jonas before the winter recess — but declined to say what she thought of the response.

Wainick’s husband, Marcelo Florencio, also told the paper that he was “extremely disappointed with Mill Middle for letting the disgusting and inexcusable language such as this to be presented in the classroom.

“I believe there is no place for it in school or our children’s lives,” said Florencio, a native of Latin America whose kids are multi-ethnic.

“I, personally, don’t feel this Spanish teacher — or anyone who approves of this kind of curriculum content — has any place in WCSD or elsewhere,” Florencio said, adding that the homework showed a “blatant lack of ethnic sensitivity and bias.”

Wainick also posted a photo of the assignment on the private Facebook page of the Williamsville Parent Education Connection and asked, “Is this a typical Spanish homework assignment in WCSD these days?”

Other parents expressed their dismay.

“I am absolutely disgusted that this was handed out and I am so sorry for any student who received it,” said one parent, according to screengrabs of the page shared with the Buffalo News.

The district responded to the outcry on its official Facebook page.

“This assignment created by the teacher and provided to students was unacceptable,” it said .

“We are addressing the situation to ensure this does not happen again. The District does not condone any instructional material that denigrates our students, families, culture, or beliefs,” the statement said.

“Our goal as a District is to create an intentionally welcoming learning environment, celebrating our community and its diversity. This assignment fails to meet our standard and will be dealt with appropriately,” the district added.

District spokesman Nick Filipowski told the Buffalo News that officials would have no further comment, including whether the teacher is facing any discipline.

Several people who say they are parents of district students or went to Mill Middle themselves said on social media that school officials have received complaints about offensive and potentially racist behavior by teachers for years, CNN reported.

“Wow. I complained about this assignment at Casey middle…3 years ago. Nothing was done,” one person reportedly wrote.

“I had several issues with a specific Spanish teacher at Mill Middle over the years,” another person wrote in a community group on Facebook for parents and teachers at Williamsville Central.

“Many calls were made and unfortunately fell on mostly deaf ears (with the exception of one amazing guidance counselor that has since retired),” the user added.

Meny Marquez, a Mexican parent whose two children attend the district’s South High School, said he believes that the teacher should face disciplinary action.

“I just know that all the Latin American families in the school district are very offended,” he told CNN.

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NY middle school is forced to issue apology over 'racist' Spanish homework which saw children ordered to translate sentences saying 'You are Mexican and ugly' and 'You are pretty and American'

• An Upstate New York school district has come under fire after students at one school received offensive Spanish homework
• Williamsville Central School District issued an apology to sixth graders at Mill Middle School, after receiving backlash from their parents on social media
• The students received an assignment which required them to translate sentences from English into Spanish 
• 'You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly,' one of the sentences on the worksheet read. 'You (politely) are pretty and American,' another read
• Meanwhile, administrators within the district released a statement shortly after the online backlash, and offered an apology for the offensive assignment 
• 'As a Latina whose children attend Mill and Williamsville I am in complete shock,' one mother wrote 
• 'This is completely unacceptable,' another Hispanic mother said while she criticized the assignment 

By Matt Mcnulty For Dailymail.Com

Published: 19:01 EDT, 16 January 2022 | Updated: 02:47 EDT, 17 January 2022

View comments

An Upstate New York school district has come under fire over a homework assignment asking middle schoolers to translate the phrase 'You are Mexican and ugly' into Spanish.

Administrators at Williamsville Central School District, the largest suburban school district in Western New York, ultimately issued an apology to sixth graders at Mill Middle School in Buffalo after they were handed an assignment which required them to translate sentences from English into Spanish, according to CNN . 

'You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly,' one of the sentences on the worksheet read.

'You (politely) are pretty and American,' another within the same assignment read.

Parents of students took to social media to hold the administrators responsible while expressing their horror over the offensive sentences.  

'Shocked at this Spanish homework assignment in Williamsville Central School District loaded with such blatant racism,' Allison Wainick, a school district parent, said on Twitter.

'Can we even begin to unpack all that is wrong here? Who is developing this curriculum & where is the oversight?'

'You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly,' one of the sentences on the worksheet, pictured, read. 'You (politely) are pretty and American,' another within the same assignment read

'Shocked at this Spanish homework assignment in Williamsville Central School District loaded with such blatant racism,' Allison Wainick, pictured, a school district parent, said on Twitter

Williamsville Central School District, pictured, the largest suburban school district in Western New York

'As a Latina whose children attend Mill and Williamsville I am in complete shock,' one mother wrote.

'This is completely unacceptable,' another Hispanic mother said while she criticized the assignment. 

'There must be serious consequences. An apology from the district is not enough, this is not something that children can forget.'

Meanwhile, administrators within the school district released a statement shortly after the online backlash, and offered an apology for the offensive assignment. 

'We are addressing the situation to ensure this does not happen again. The District does not condone any instructional material that denigrates our students, families, culture, or beliefs,' the statement read. 

The school official did not name the teacher who assigned the homework, or say whether they will face any specific punishment.  

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Williamsville Central School District, pictured, where administrators were forced to apologize for an offensive Spanish assignment for a sixth grade class

'This assignment fails to meet our standard and will be dealt with appropriately.'

CNN reported that school officials within the district had received numerous complaints over the years regarding potentially racist or offensive behavior by teachers.

However, nothing has been done about it, according to social media comments from parents' of students in the district or those who attended Mill Middle School themselves, and who claim the same homework was previously handed out to other year groups. 

'Wow. I complained about this assignment at Casey middle...3 years ago,' one comment read. 

'Nothing was done.'

Another person questioned the judgment of the unidentified Spanish teacher who gave the assignment, who had 'several issues' with a particular teacher in recent years. 

'I had several issues with a specific Spanish teacher at Mill Middle over the years,' one person commented on a post about the homework in a community Facebook group for parents and teachers in the school district. 

'Many calls were made and unfortunately fell on mostly deaf ears (with the exception of one amazing guidance counselor that has since retired).'

Meanwhile, district and officials at Mill Middle School have yet to respond to requests for comment beyond their publicly issued statement.  

Share or comment on this article: NY middle school is forced to issue groveling apology over 'racist' Spanish homework

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Mill Middle School: RACIST assignment that called Mexicans ugly was also given 3 years ago!

A middle school from Upstate New York has come under fire after they gave sixth-graders a racist homework assignment, where the students were instructed to translate the phrase "You are Mexican and ugly" into Spanish. The shocking assignment was given at Mill Middle School in Buffalo, NY, a part of the Williamsville Central School District. The sixth-grade assignment asked students to translate a few sentences from English to Spanish, some of which raised alarm for being unabashedly racist. 

"You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly," read one of the sentences, while another read, "You (politely) are pretty and American." Parents of the students were shocked to come across the worksheet and took to social media to criticize the school. Later, administrators at the Williamsville Central School issued an apology to the students and their parents for this alarming oversight. 

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Allison Wainick, the parent of a Williamsville student shared a photo of the worksheet on Twitter, writing, "Shocked at this Spanish homework assignment in Williamsville Central School District loaded with such blatant racism. Can we even begin to unpack all that is wrong here? Who is developing this curriculum & where is the oversight?"

Another Twitter user slammed, "There’s no question this is racist AF. Mill Middle School is apologizing because this was exposed. An apology isn’t enough & the Spanish teacher has no business teaching." Another mother wrote, "As a Latina whose children attend Mill and Williamsville I am in complete shock."

"Sixth graders at Mill Middle School received an assignment for their Spanish class in which they had to translate sentences from English into Spanish. One of the sentences read: "You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly," As a Mexican myself, this is hurtful!," one user said. 

Shocked at this Spanish homework assignment in @WCSD_K12 loaded with such blatant racism. Can we even begin to unpack all that is wrong here? Who is developing this curriculum & where is the oversight? @Latinos4Ed pic.twitter.com/iULWaG8aaP — Allison Wainick (@AJ_WFlo) January 11, 2022

There’s no question this is racist AF. Mill Middle School is apologizing because this was exposed. An apology isn’t enough & the Spanish teacher has no business teaching. *NY school district has apologized for a middle school Spanish assignment that parents are calling racist. pic.twitter.com/1vRwkqTxkb — Christopher 🇺🇸 Proud Dem (@cwebbonline) January 17, 2022

Sixth graders at Mill Middle School received an assignment for their Spanish class in which they had to translate sentences from English into Spanish. One of the sentences read: "You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly," As a Mexican myself, this is hurtful! https://t.co/527t50BRew — Rondell Treviño (@Rondell_Trevino) January 16, 2022

Meanwhile, Williamsville school administrators released an apology statement after the backlash on social media, where they said, "We are addressing the situation to ensure this does not happen again. The District does not condone any instructional material that denigrates our students, families, culture, or beliefs. This assignment fails to meet our standard and will be dealt with appropriately." However, parents are still outraged as there is yet no clarity over the identity of the Spanish teacher and what action has been taken against them. 

More shockingly, a few social media users noted that the same racist homework was handed out to other students in the past, as long as three years ago. They added that despite the backlash and criticism at that time also, no action was taken. And now, the same offensive assignment is being recirculated. Authorities from Mill Middle School itself are unreachable for comments. 

Spanish teacher gives assignment with racist language

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW/CNN Newsource/WKRC) - Some parents in New York State are upset after elementary school students were sent home with an assignment that included racist language.

The incident has school officials scrambling to find an explanation, and resolve the issue.

This sixth grade Spanish homework has sparked controversy within the Williamsville school district.

It was assigned to students at Mill Middle School in December.

The instructions were to translate these sentences to Spanish:

• "You are Mexican and ugly."
• "You are pretty and American."

A Williamsville mom, Allison Wainick, expressed her distaste on social media.

"As a mother of children in the school district -- from elementary school through high school -- I was stunned to see that kind of biased language in a homework assignment," Wainick said. "I was very upset that any student had to translate that awful sentence for a grade. It made me wonder about whether the assignment was created by the teacher or was it part of the approved curriculum."

The school district has not said if the Spanish teacher faces any disciplinary actions, but the district did say the assignment was unacceptable.

"This assignment created by the teacher and provided to students was completely unacceptable," Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Darren Brown-Hall said. "We are addressing the situation to ensure this does not happen again"

There's still no word on if the teacher will be disciplined.

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A New York school district has apologized for a middle school Spanish assignment that some parents are calling racist

By Alaa Elassar and Maria Santana, CNN

Administrators at a school district in upstate New York issued an apology after parents expressed outrage on social media about an offensive homework assignment .

Sixth graders at Mill Middle School in the Williamsville Central School District received an assignment, obtained by CNN, for their Spanish class in which they had to translate sentences from English into Spanish.

One of the sentences read: “You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly,” while another within the same worksheet read, “You (politely) are pretty and American.”

“Shocked at this Spanish homework assignment in Williamsville Central School District loaded with such blatant racism,” Allison Wainick, a school district parent, said on Twitter . “Can we even begin to unpack all that is wrong here? Who is developing this curriculum & where is the oversight?”

In a statement posted to their official Facebook page on Tuesday, the school district said that the “unacceptable” assignment was created by the teacher.

“We are addressing the situation to ensure this does not happen again. The District does not condone any instructional material that denigrates our students, families, culture, or beliefs,” the statement read. “This assignment fails to meet our standard and will be dealt with appropriately.”

The Williamsville Central School District is located on the outskirts of Buffalo in upstate New York.

CNN has not been able to confirm the identity of the teacher or what potential consequences the person may face. Nick Filipowski, the school district communications director, told CNN that they would not be commenting on this incident beyond the statement they issued

“I’m extremely disappointed with Mill Middle for letting the disgusting and inexcusable language such as this to be presented in the classroom,” Wainick’s husband, Marcelo Florencio, told The Buffalo News. “I believe there is no place for it in school or our children’s lives.”

“I, personally, don’t feel this Spanish teacher — or anyone who approves of this kind of curriculum content — has any place in WCSD or elsewhere,” Florencio said, adding that the assignment showed a “blatant lack of ethnic sensitivity and bias.”

Several other parents expressed their concern in messages posted on the school district’s Facebook page.

“As a Latina whose children attend Mill and Williamsville I am in complete shock,” one mother wrote.

Another Hispanic mother criticized the assignment.

“This is completely unacceptable,” she said. “There must be serious consequences. An apology from the district is not enough, this is not something that children can forget.”

Ignored complaints from parents in the school district

School officials have received complaints about potentially racist or offensive behavior by teachers for several years, but they have been met with silence, according to comments on social media from people who say they are parents of students in the district or went to Mill Middle themselves.

“Wow. I complained about this assignment at Casey middle…3 years ago,” one comment read. “Nothing was done.”

Another comment criticized an unnamed Spanish teacher at the middle school where the homework assignment was given to students.

“I had several issues with a specific Spanish teacher at Mill Middle over the years,” one person commented on a post about the homework in a community group on Facebook for parents and teachers in the district. “Many calls were made and unfortunately fell on mostly deaf ears (with the exception of one amazing guidance counselor that has since retired).”

Weinick herself said on Twitter that she tried contacting school officials last month about the controversial homework assignment, but she did not receive a response until her husband threatened to escalate the issue.

“Principal did not respond to me from Dec 21,” she said in the tweet, which was posted on January 10. “She only replied to my husband today when he mentioned his disappointment at the lack of reply to me and noting we would escalate.”

CNN reached out to multiple parents at the school, including some who publicly expressed outrage at the assignment, but all declined to comment.

District and Mill Middle School officials have so far not responded to CNN’s request for comment about the veracity of these allegations, pointing only to their publicly issued statement.

“I just know that all the Latin American families in the school district are very offended,” Meny Marquez, a Mexican parent whose two children attend South High School, one of Williamsville Central’s 13 schools, told CNN.

While his children do not attend the same middle school where the homework was assigned, Marquez said he believes the teacher should receive disciplinary action.

“This teacher should be suspended or corrected in someway. This only promotes racism within the students and I don’t want that for my two Mexican-American children,” he said.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Ana Melgar-Zuniga and Mirna Alsharif contributed to this report.

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How the U.S. taught me that Spanish was shameful

In 2001, in the midst of a recession, my father lost his job. I watched with frustration as he struggled to apply to positions he was far overqualified for; selfishly, I did not want to be known around school as the girl with the unemployed dad. We lived in a predominantly upper-class, white neighborhood in Florida where I was usually one of the only Latinx students in my high school classes. I worried my father’s situation would only confirm stereotypes I knew others had about us. I feared it would add to the feeling — perceived if never really articulated — that my family had not really assimilated.

One night over dinner, my father made an English grammar mistake and I snapped: "How have you let your English get so bad, Papi. No wonder you can't get a job."

My mother immediately came to his defense, scolding me for being so disrespectful. Where was this spite coming from? At some point during my 15 years living in the United States, I had learned to become ashamed of my own father. I had bought into the idea that his deeply accented and imperfect English made our family less worthy than others.

At some point during my 15 years living in the United States, I had learned to become ashamed of my own father.

Reading the news these past few weeks, I am realizing just how deeply the roots of that shame extend down into our culture. A few weeks ago, a white woman eating at a Mexican restaurant in West Virginia insulted the manager after she heard him speak Spanish, saying “English is our first language, so you need to speak English. Get the f--- out of my country.” In February, the management of an apartment building in Houston sent a resident a letter asking her to speak “English Only” in the building’s lobby. Vox recently reported that two women in Montana have sued U.S. Border Patrol after being detained simply for speaking Spanish at a gas station.

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Incidents like these have been surfacing all year.

According to a survey by Pew Research, nearly four in 10 Latinos say they experienced some kind of harassment related to their ethnicity in 2018. The Guardian reported last year on a woman kicked out of a Florida UPS for speaking Spanish, and last May a video of attorney New York Aaron Schlossberg threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on two employees speaking Spanish to each other at a restaurant went viral .

This is not simply the opinion of an ignorant few. As respected newsman Tom Brokaw argued on MSNBC in January : "Hispanics should work harder at assimilation." (He apologized.)

All this paranoia, to be clear, is completely unnecessary: Research from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that around 96 percent of second-generation immigrant children speak English well . By the third generation, the PPIC says 96 percent of people from all immigrant backgrounds report not speaking any other language other than English at home.

Though I have thankfully never experienced anything as extreme as the racist incidents above, that dinner with my father back in high school made clear that I had still deeply internalized the message motivating them: Perfect English was the ideal, and speaking Spanish was neither necessary nor, really, desirable. Just a few days ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a sitting congresswoman, was mocked by conservative commentators for the way she pronounces her own name .

These cases all illustrate the deep resentment and even paranoia that has surfaced around Spanish/English bilingualism. Clearly, too many U.S. citizens view Spanish mostly through a lens of suspicion and disdain.

Clearly, too many U.S. citizens view Spanish mostly through a lens of suspicion and disdain.

This prejudiced perspective also misses the huge opportunity of bilingualism. More people speak Spanish in the United States than even in Spain, but as a Latinx friend put it recently, “In the United States we may speak Spanish, but we are not a Spanish-speaking country.” There is no pride in Spanish/English bilingualism, even though several studies have proven the many cognitive benefits of speaking two languages: increased focus, better problem-solving skills, delaying the onset of dementia and even a link to higher levels of empathy .

Carmen Fought, a linguistics professor at Pitzer College, recently told the Los Angeles Times that "prejudice against Spanish is not about Spanish the language; it’s about the people who speak Spanish.” When I think about that incident with my father now, I realize so much of it had to do with my own self-hate. My outburst was not about my father’s brief unemployment or his minor mistakes, but about my own anxious obsession with proving that our family was good enough to live in the United States.

As children of immigrants in this country, Latinx people are told that to succeed, we no longer need to remember our family's culture. We are told the words that matter most are the words our ancestors can’t understand. As Puerto Rican writer Jonathan Marcantoni argued in a piece for Latino Rebels , “How can you expect people to carry on traditions and maintain their culture, when you all but tell them they have to abandon the old ways in order to fit in and achieve the American Dream?”

These days, I am no longer interested in that definition of immigrant success. As I try to unlearn my own internalized xenophobia, I am not interested in anyone who does not want to see the magic immigrants like my father create in two languages.

During the holidays, when my brother and I sat down together to research our retirement plans, we both got lost in the language of finance we both couldn’t speak. In that moment, we recalled an image we both had as kids of our father: him, hunched over the business section of the newspaper, learning everything he could. Somehow, my father taught himself the stock market in English and navigated his finances in a way my brother and I to this day cannot understand on our own. As adults, we now stand in awe of what my father has accomplished. My father came to this country with dreams and achieved every single one of them — heavy accent and errors and all. I am learning to see this family legacy now as a mesmerizing gift.

Amanda Machado is a writer, editor, content strategist and facilitator. Her work has been published in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Vox, Outside, REI Co-Op Journal, Quartz, Business Insider, and other

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Ny school district issues an apology following an offensive spanish homework assignment, parents are referring to as racist.

-Tamara’Shanay-

Parents of Williamsville Central School District have been left in complete shock and outrage following the issuing of an offensive Spanish homework assignment they’ve deemed as racist!

According to CNN news, sixth grade students recently received an assignment from their Spanish class, where they advised to translate various sentences from English into Spanish.

One of the pointed out sentences read, “You (friendly) are Mexican and ugly,” another one read on the same, “You (politely) are pretty and American.”⁠

After a series of parents forwarded the issue to officials, administrators of the school district issued an official statement. They’ve identified that the assignment was created by the teacher in charge and declare the incident as completely unacceptable.

“We are addressing the situation to ensure this does not happen again. The District does not condone any instructional material that denigrates our students, families, culture, or beliefs. This assignment fails to meet our standard and will be dealt with appropriately.”

Sources have confirmed that the school district communications director, Nick Filipowski has noted that they would not be commenting on this incident beyond the statement issued.

The identity of the teacher in question has not been confirmed at this time, neither has any details of disciplinary acts set in place for the issue at hand.

Reports read that Williamsville Central School District is located on the out skirts of upstate New York within the Buffalo area.

Cousins! What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the school’s district will handle this obvious issue effectively?

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Language, Mockery and Racism: The Case of Mock Spanish

Author: Adam Schwartz, Oregon State University

I. Introduction: What is racist language? Offensive and/or racist language takes many forms, and the weight of its impact lands in ways that speak volumes about those within earshot. In order for such language to do its work, we must, as Judith Butler writes, believe that language possesses “a power to injure, and position ourselves as the objects of its injurious trajectory” (1997, p. 1). To the point that humans “require language in order to be” (Butler, 1997, p. 1), Laura Ahearn (2017) reminds us that words and language always live in social worlds and are products of those who interact and locate their identities within those worlds. In short: Language that is offensive, racist, and violent is the work of human beings who, through and in language, are practicing and committing offensive, racist and violent acts.

II. If intentions are good, can language still be racist?

Absolutely. In fact, one’s intentions have little to bear on the impact that a piece of language has in defining social order. In its usage, racist language “points to” categories of people seen as a threat or disruption to a dominant culture of Whiteness that organizes everyday society. Racist language often uses words or turns of phrase to crystallize and undesirable stereotypes, for instance. Yet, so much of racist language is often covert (hidden, implicit) in nature and does not necessarily register as racist by those who use such language to communicate. Racial microaggressions, first identified as such in 1970 by African-American psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce, are a paramount example. Verbal, nonverbal, or environmental, these are the “brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities and denigrating messages sent to people of color by well-intentioned White people who are unaware of the hidden messages being communicated” (Sue, 2010).

III. What is “Mock Spanish” and how does it support racism?

In a similar vein, the late anthropologist Jane H. Hill explored “Mock Spanish” (see 1993, 2008) as a type of cosmopolitan, “with-it” linguistic expression that evokes a type of colloquial, carefree, humorous persona. While originating from research in the U.S. Southwest, Hill would later argue that Mock Spanish has indeed enjoyed global appeal. Hill’s examination starts from the idea that White Americans don’t necessarily “manifest some abstract zero degree of monolingualism” as so popularly imagined. “They do use Spanish, but in limited and specialized ways that support a broader project of social and economic domination of Spanish speakers in the region” (Hill, 1993, p. 147). Hill committed roughly two decades of research to show how Spanish-inspired humor thrives in otherwise monolingual English communication to this effect. This humor necessarily involves an appropriation or re-claiming of language—a “type of theft,” a slight yet forceful shift in power where a piece of language is taken and used in ways for which it wasn’t originally intended (Hill 2008). This is much like the taking of more material resources—like land, as in a classic colonial example—where those who benefit from and enjoy this new “property” may quickly forget about its stolen origins all together.

How can we classify Mock Spanish

Hill explained that an example of Mock Spanish may involve up to four “indexical” strategies at once. For the sake of space, I’ll focus on three of these in the next two paragraphs. By “indexical” strategies (Ochs, 1990), I mean that such language could implicitly “point to” a more offensive piece of communication that goes unspoken and unacknowledged—this is precisely what makes this variety of racism covert. One of the four strategies is euphemism—the use of obscene or scatological Spanish words in place of English equivalents (‘caca’ or ‘cojones’ to land a particularly comedic punch that ‘poop/shit’ or ‘testicles/balls’ may fail to achieve). Another strategy is the cavalier use of Spanish grammatical elements. For instance, Hill points specifically to the well-worn expression ‘no problemo’ in Mock Spanish to support the claim that monolingual White folk freely add the suffix -o to any English word in order to create a kind of colloquial English. The adding of the Spanish masculine definite article to English nouns (often along with the added -o ) is also a means to raise a chuckle among like-minded company. While this all could easily be mistaken for, and is regularly dismissed as, a form of language play, Hill insists that we consider otherwise. Mock Spanish, she writes, has been long established as a linguistic space for “orderly disorder” (Hill 1998; 2008) within dominant White spaces in the U.S.

The “non-serious function” of Mock Spanish depends on an inattention to Spanish’s grammatical and phonological detail (Hill, 2008, p. 149). However, this guides and is guided by a larger social arrangement where Whiteness is elevated as “orderly” over that which marks Color—such as the audible presence of Spanish in English-dominant public spaces. Spanish is as such regularly and falsely maligned as a language that does not belong in the United States. Regularly relying on this language ideology (set of beliefs), Donald Trump’s use of Mock Spanish is infamous. As a presidential candidate in the fall of 2016 whose racist words and deeds had been firmly established, Mock Spanish communicated his opposition to drug-smuggling criminals—conflated loosely with undocumented immigrants—at the U.S.-Mexico border. At the third presidential debate with opponent Hillary Clinton, he declared, “We have some bad hombres here and we’re going to get them out.” The mis-pronunciation of ‘hombre’ aside, the choice of this term performed a third indexical strategy, one that uses an ordinarily positive or neutral word in Spanish to indicate meaning that is hardly positive or neutral. To be clear, Trump did not say “bad men.” He said ‘bad hombres.’ This choice connected the notion of “immigrant” not simply to an entire gender (“men”) (the literal translation of that word), but to what the use of Spanish could index in the context of his conversation. More specifically, one can argue that he was speaking to an audience who he imagined would agree that Mexican men were/are inherently undesirable, “illegal,” criminal and violent. In short, when Donald Trump spoke of non-White, Spanish speaking immigrants in such a fashion, a choice of one Spanish word in this context made a connection to racist stereotypes abundantly clear.

Hill’s scholarship on the case of Mock Spanish initiated a larger repertoire of work on mock registers as attached to other racialized identities (for instance: “Asian,” Chun, 2004, 2016; “Indian,” Meek 2006). The languages taken up in these registers are done so in a similar fashion: Users of the racist variety mock at the expense of marking the social group targeted as disorderly and socially inferior from that of Whites. Particularly for White scholars, it is easy for many of us to get lost in the diversity of examples of Mock language and rest one’s focus on these cases as merely bad, insensitive ways of speaking and positioning oneself in a White supremacist society. Those of us who are not the object of their injury may quickly forget about their damaging impact. My concern is that this tendency to distance oneself from “bad” ways of speaking indirectly reinforces Whiteness as elevated and orderly. We all may be quick to malign and cast off “bad” White users of Spanish by virtue of their reliance on (and perhaps defense of) “Mock language.

IV. How can applied linguists support anti-racism?

I recommend instead that Applied Linguists committed to anti-racist work study multiple recent calls for a raciolinguistic perspective (see Rosa, 2019, among others) to the study of language and language education. This perspective not only diverges from the study of “minority” language practices as worthy of scholarly attention because of their divergence from a communicative standard or norm—it refocuses its attention to the ways in which those identifying with the linguistic majority perceive and construct those linguistic practices as “minority” in the first place. To this end, the admonishment of mock registers alone is not enough. Instead, as Rosa (2019) challenges us, “a raciolinguistic perspective must be informed by a theory of change that is focused on reconstituting or eradicating systems of domination, such as racial capitalism, White supremacy, and the normative modes of [contemporary-day colonialism] that organize these systems” (p. 6).

Ahearn, L. M. (2017). Living language: An introduction to linguistic anthropology (2 nd ed.). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative . New York: Routledge.

Chun, E. W. (2004). Ideologies of legitimate mockery: Margaret Cho’s revoicings of Mock Asian. Pragmatics, 14 . 263-289.

Chun, E. W. (2016). The meaning of ching-chong: Language, racism and response in new media. In H. S. Alim, J. R. Rickford &      A. F. Ball (Eds.), Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race (pp. 81-96). New York: Oxford University Press.

Hill, J. H. (1993). Hasta la vista, baby: Anglo Spanish in the American Southwest. Critique of Anthropology, 13 (2). 145–176.

Hill, J. H. (1998). Language, race and White public space. American Anthropologist, 100(3). 680-689.

Hill, J. H. (2008). The everyday language of White racism. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Meek, B. A. (2006). An the Injun goes how!: Representations of American Indian English in White Public Space. Language in      Society, 25 : 93-128.

Ochs, E. (1990). Indexicality and socialization. In J. W. Stigler, R. A. Shweder & G. Herdt (Eds.), Cultural psychology: Essays on      comparative human development (pp. 287-308) . Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Rosa, J. (2019). Looking like a language, sounding like a race: Raciolinguistic ideologies and the learning of Latinidad. New York:      Oxford University Press.

Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender and sexual orientation . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

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Kids In Spain Rebel Against Homework, And Parents Are Their Biggest Boosters

Lauren Frayer

Camilo Jené, 51, watches as his daughter Clara, 14, does her homework at their dining table. She refuses to do homework on weekends now. Lauren Frayer for NPR hide caption

Camilo Jené, 51, watches as his daughter Clara, 14, does her homework at their dining table. She refuses to do homework on weekends now.

On a typical weekday evening, 14-year-old Clara Jené spreads out her homework across the dining table in her family's apartment in a leafy northern suburb of Madrid. She gets about three hours of homework a night — and more than twice that on weekends.

"Often we're sitting down to dinner, and I have to tell her to put away the books," says Clara's father, Camilo Jené, a 51-year-old architect. "It's cutting into our family time."

Keep in mind that Spaniards sit down to dinner around 10 p.m. Clara often resumes her homework after that, staying up as late as 1 a.m.

A recent World Health Organization study found 64 percent of 15-year-old girls and 59 percent of boys the same age in Spain said they feel "pressured by schoolwork." Twenty-seven percent of Spanish 11-year-old girls and 38 percent of boys said the same.

In comparison, 54 percent of 15-year-old American girls and 42 percent of 15-year-old boys said the same.

So last month, Spanish students went on strike. Clara is among millions of kids in primary and secondary schools across the country who've been refusing to do any assignments on Saturdays or Sundays.

"Last weekend, I spent time with my family. One day we went to visit my grandparents at our relatives' house in the mountains," Clara says. "I learned how to build a campfire outdoors."

Normally, she would have spend that time studying.

Lots of children around the world want to do less homework. But in Spain, parents and even some teachers are backing the kids up. Clara's father — a member of a national parents' association — is the one who suggested that she participate in the strike.

"It's complicated," Jené says, "because we all want our children to succeed."

He acknowledges that Clara's grades may not be as good as those of classmates who completed all their assignments. But the Jené family wants Spain's education system to change. They say it relies too much on busywork and rote memorization.

Spanish teenagers get more homework than the average for about three dozen developed countries surveyed annually by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD found that the average homework load for Spanish students of all ages is 18.5 hours a week.

But that doesn't translate into higher scores on standardized tests. Spain consistently ranks below average in the OECD's rankings for student performance in reading, math and science.

"We think the reason is that our educational system is ancient. It dedicates a lot of time to memorization rather than participatory learning," says Marius Fullana, an astrophysicist, father of two and spokesman for the parents' association in 12,000 Spanish school systems, which called the homework strike.

Finland, in contrast, boasts some of the highest student performances in Europe — and some of the highest teacher salaries — but teachers there assign less homework than almost anywhere else in the world.

Fullana estimates that about half of public school students across Spain took part in the strike in November. It was supposed to finish at the end of that month. But it received so much attention — and in some cases, resulted in less assigned homework — that many students plan to continue the strike through the end of 2016, he says.

While many were docked points on their grades for failing to do November weekend assignments, they're demanding not to be penalized in December. That will be up to individual teachers and school principals.

Some teachers have complained about the strike, saying it unfairly targets their profession and puts them in an adversarial relationship with their students, the parents' association says. But many other teachers have been sympathetic. Some stopped assigning weekend homework altogether.

Fullana says he hopes that becomes the norm.

In Spain, education policy is made by local governments in 17 autonomous regions across the country. A spokesman for the Department of Education in the Madrid region told reporters that there is no government mandate for homework on weekends. It's up to the discretion of individual teachers and school principals, he said.

Some experts say this homework strike has exposed a larger problem in Spanish society.

"It's much broader than just homework. Why? Because of working schedules. They're really not family-friendly," says Catherine L'Ecuyer, author of a bestselling book in Spain called The Wonder Approach to Learning .

L'Ecuyer, a French-Canadian education researcher and consultant who has lived in Spain for several years, says to change Spanish children's homework load, you first have to change their parents' workload.

"The basic work schedule in Spain, for instance, is not 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as it is in other countries. It's 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. — and for professionals, it's 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.!" she says. "So what do you do with your child when he comes home at 4 p.m., after school?"

The child does homework — for hours and hours. It fills a gap for Spanish families. But experts like L'Ecuyer say data show those hours of homework never actually benefit the kids themselves.

"Some educators, they tend to consider education as 'more is better' — more activities, more homework, more hours of school — more everything. And it's not true," L'Ecuyer says. "What we have to look at is quality."

So for now, parents and caregivers arrive at schoolyards across Spain on Fridays to pick up their children — many of whom will spend the weekend playing, rather battling their way through hours of homework.

Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Educators Must Challenge Racist Language & Actions

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(This is the first post in a three-part series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

How should teachers respond when a colleague says or does something—knowingly or unknowingly—that is racist?

As we all know—or should know—racism is a major problem in our society.

And research shows that racism is just as present in teachers’ attitudes and actions as it is in the general population.

This series will examine strategies we can use in the not-unusual situation when we witness one of our colleagues demonstrating that kind of bias with us, with other educators, or with students.

You might also be interested in the many other columns that have appeared here on Race & Racism in Schools .

Today, Ixchell Reyes, Gina Laura Gullo, Cheryl Staats, Keisha Rembert, and Dr. Denita Harris offer their suggestions.

“Call out racist actions and racist comments”

Ixchell Reyes teaches English for specific purposes and is the co-host of the DIESOL podcast (Digital Integration in English as a Second or Other Language):

Now, more than ever, it is important for educators and administrators to call out racist actions and racist comments. The problem is sometimes we do not know how to do it when the individual that needs to be called out is a person close to us or someone who is “such a nice person.” The trick here is to be prepared with a list of possible statements to respond to. We should practice saying these so that we are not caught unaware and stay silent because we do not want to be caught not doing something. In thinking of my own “plan of action,” I narrowed down giving an immediate response. In the same way we prepare for emergencies, we need to have a response ready to give. I have seen some possible responses floating around on the internet, and the ones I find most useful are on a list to interrupt racism from the site FromPrivilegetoProgress.org :

• “Hold on, I need to process what you just said.”
• “What did you mean by that?”
• “I didn’t realize you think that.”
• “That’s not funny.”
• “I’m not comfortable with that.”
• “That’s not OK with me.”
• “I’m sorry, what?”
• “What you said is harmful.”

By being prepared with three or four phrases that communicate we are not OK with racist remarks or racist actions, we can immediately call out a person who may easily dismiss their actions as “just a joke.” The goal is to cause the offending individual to take a step back and reconsider their racist actions. It is also important to have an article or a resource on hand for these situations as the goal is ultimately for an individual to educate themselves and to change. Educators can find resources at TeachingTolerance.org . By holding even our closest colleagues or friends accountable this way, we can begin to work toward fighting racism and learning to become anti-racist.

“Racist remarks challenge equity and inclusion”

Cheryl Staats is an education author and researcher with a background in implicit racial/ethnic bias.

Gina Laura Gullo is an educational equity consultant with GLG Consulting and a researcher of unintentional bias and interventions that serve to lessen the impact of such biases. She also adjuncts and mentors in educational leadership at several Mid-Atlantic universities:

Racist remarks challenge equity and inclusion. Addressing offensive comments might provoke feelings of uneasiness, but it remains undeniably important. To dismantle racism, educators must speak up against racist language. The many response strategies that aim to empower teachers with approaches for further dialogue are not one-size-fits-all in nature but rather options that vary based on personal conversation styles, situational contexts, interpersonal relationships, and power dynamics—among other factors. Below we discuss three strategies to begin your anti-racist work.

Questions and “I” Statements

This approach responds to colleagues making racist remarks by asking further questions and responding with “I” statements. A simple “What did you mean by that?” allows colleagues to explain themselves, mitigating potential misunderstandings. The response can provide information on a colleague’s perspective and intent, positioning you to thoughtfully and meaningfully reply. Further questions allow assumptions undergirding racist comments to surface, providing a foundation for gently redirecting or correcting behaviors. Pairing this strategy with “I” statements, or sentences that begin with phrases such as “I think” or “I feel,” allows you to share your perspective without discrediting the experience of your colleague. An “I” statement can share anti-racist beliefs or name discriminatory behaviors without making the colleague feel attacked, hence avoiding potentially defensive reactions.

For example: “Let’s put that new Asian kid in Gifted and Talented next year!” You can ask: “What do you mean by that? Can you help me understand your logic?” This allows your peer to explain themselves in a way that can confirm or clarify potential biases.

Colleague: “Asians always do well in science and math. It makes sense for him to take advanced courses.”

You: “Do you think that Asians have an inherent ability for certain subjects? I think such a blanket statement could be a disservice for such a diverse population. I don’t think it is appropriate to make a Gifted and Talented recommendation based on an assumption. How are the student’s scores?”

Asking questions and using “I” statements in a manner that fosters a sincere dialogue can meaningfully disrupt racist dialogue without harming interpersonal relationships.

Institutional Values

This strategy focuses on the school culture by referencing the values of the institution, which are often explicitly equity-focused. When a colleague makes a racist remark, you can remind them of the values of the school and acceptable behaviors. This directly recognizes the inappropriate behavior and, in many cases, states the expected behavior. Furthermore, it acknowledges that the individual’s beliefs might differ from that of the community, but they have a responsibility to act in a way that reflects institutional values while working as a part of that community.

For example, in response to an anti-Black comment you say, “In our school, we don’t talk about students that way.” You might explicitly name some of the values. “Anywhere High School values equity and celebrates student differences. When you said that, I felt that you were putting down Jayson based on his race. At AHS, faculty use differences to uplift students.” Here, you reference the institutional values, use an “I” statement, and name the appropriate behavior, invoking an anti-racist response that works toward changing behavior.

Intent Versus Impact

Educators can address some racist comments by directly naming that the intent, or how a speaker meant a statement to come across, might not align with the impact, or how a statement actually affected the recipient. For example, after hearing a racist remark, you could reply, “I don’t think you meant to racially stereotype anyone when you said that, but I think it’s important to realize that others might interpret it that way.” This technique frames the remark and speaker as well-intended, preserving the interpersonal relationship and minimizing potential defensiveness, while naming the comment a racial stereotype. This promotes further dialogue regarding the statement’s impact and underlying biases (see link ), regardless of the original intent.

Together these strategies offer initial responses to facing racist actions while maintaining the integrity of professional relationships. These techniques represent a preliminary, yet pivotal, foundation for further anti-racist efforts in your school.

“I want the perpetrator to focus on their actions”

Keisha Rembert is a passionate learner and fierce equity advocate. She was an award-winning middle school ELA and United States history teacher who now instructs preservice teachers. She hopes to change our world one student at a time. Twitter ID: @klrembert:

When a colleague does or says something that is racist, it is imperative that it be addressed. First, I think it is important to restate what was said or summarize what was done with the colleague. This gives the person an opportunity to hear and see their words and actions. Next, I try to pose a question that gets the person thinking. It is also important to use I statements and to do your best to highlight the harm. The ultimate goal is for the person to see why what they said or did was racist. It is not my job to convince the person that they were wrong but for them to see the impact of their actions.

As a Black woman, there are some nuances to the way I approach colleagues about this topic. I want the perpetrator to focus on their actions and not make this about me being angry or me being aggressive as a means of distraction and deflection. Therefore, my interaction with that colleague must be in the presence of others, even though this is not ideal, and I must engage in a matter-of- fact tone and maintain a consistent tone throughout, not engaging in any emotionality regardless of the colleague’s demeanor. It is important to note that the way I handle the situation has to be measured and methodical to ensure the situation is not flipped on me as a Black person speaking to a colleague about racism.

Five ways to address racist comments and actions

Dr. Denita Harris is a curriculum coordinator for the MSD of Wayne Township, Indianapolis. She has over 20 years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal, and district-level administrator. Dr. Harris is the recipient of the 2019 INTESOL (Indiana Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Best of the Best in K-12 Education, and the 2017 and 2020 African American Excellence in Education Award. Find her on Twitter @HarrisLeads :

With the entire world being fully exposed to the detrimental impact of racism in our society, many educators will need to be equipped on how to respond to colleagues who say or do something that is overtly or covertly racist.

As the lead equity facilitator for our corporation, I have created a process to help educators address these conversations head on:

How to Readily Address Racism in a PR System (A Process Framework)

Process One: Pragmatically Reject

Dealing with anyone who is being racist is difficult. If you are a BIPOC—Black, Indigenous, People of Color— who has personally dealt with racism or witnessed any form of a racist act of another BIPOC, you know you deal with a range of emotions: hurt, anger, confusion, anxiety, awkwardness, embarrassment, physical pain, fear, sadness, etc. If you are one who considers yourself an ally or an accomplice, there are still levels of emotion, you, too, will face when it is necessary to address a colleague about his/her racist views or act.

The first step is to reject the racist words or actions by your colleague. You have to refuse to accept racism in your school or corporation. You have to openly reject the racist behaviors of your colleague so your silence is not misconstrued as acceptance.

Pragmatically rejecting racism means you are able to openly reject the racist behaviors by taking a realistic approach about when and/or where you choose to engage your colleague about their actions; however, you must be sure to not delay this PR step.

Addressing the racist behaviors as soon as you encounter them, if possible, is best. If a delay is inevitable, it should not go beyond that day.

Process Two: Persistently Reveal

It is necessary for the educator to reveal to his/her colleague exactly what was said or done that was racist. The educator cannot afford to beat around the bush or make light of the situation just because the individual is a colleague or is afraid of making him/her uncomfortable. It is important for the colleague to hear what they did, as well as the damaging effect of their racist actions.

Persistently revealing the racist language or act may be necessary, not in all cases, if a colleague is in denial. The educator must understand that just because the colleague denies their racist language or act, or attempts to minimize what was said or done, it does not negate the fact that he or she engaged in a racist manner. The colleague may need to hear his/her words and actions again so they can fully process the impact of what the educator is communicating.

Process Three: Promote Professional Resources

Racism has existed in our society for over 400 years, particularly for Black Americans who were enslaved. One would think that everyone would know racism still exists and how all BIPOC still experience systemic racism in every area of their lives: education, criminal justice, government, housing, financial institutions, etc.

After you reveal to your colleague his/her act, he or she will need to be directed to resources to learn more about why what they did or said was unacceptable. We can only presume that if your colleague would have known better, they would not have engaged in their racist act, but instead they would have chosen an anti-racist approach, free from words and actions that would be offensive toward BIPOC.

As the educator engaged in this framework, you will want to promote professional resources that will enlighten your colleague while challenging their thinking, preferably a resource that you have read (book, professional journal), watched (documentary, movie, YouTube video), or listened to (podcast) yourself so you can follow up with how your colleague’s learning is impacting their thoughts.

There is an accountability requirement in this step for both the educator and the colleague. Educators have to hold their colleagues who perform racist acts accountable to make the necessary changes for the students, parents, staff, or community who they have negatively impacted by their words or actions. This accountability can only come through their agreement to learn about systemic racism and how it has impacted us all.

Process Four: Peacefully Reconcile

Anyone knows these conversations can be extremely difficult and can take both a mental and physical toll on the educator who pragmatically rejects their colleague’s actions, especially if you are the one who has a sincere burden to address the injustices that racist views and actions have caused BIPOC. Depending on the relationship you have with your colleague, there may be a need to peacefully reconcile your relationship. This responsibility does not rest on the shoulders of the educator who initiates Process One, but it rests on the shoulders of those who committed the racist act.

Your colleague’s racist actions have been exposed, and professional support has been promoted with accountability. The ultimate goal is for your colleague to learn the error of his or her ways and take immediate corrective action to restore any broken relationships and change their thinking and actions which resulted in their words or deed.

Process Five: UnaPologetically Report

At any time, Processes One - Four may be skipped and you may have to go directly to Process Five. This framework is not intended to be a step-by-step process as to how one should engage in a conversation with someone who has exhibited racist behavior. In fact, if your colleague refuses to engage in a meaningful, productive conversation when their comments, actions, or allegations are pragmatically rejected, you should unaPologetically report him or her.

As educators, we have to hold one another accountable for building up children who are BIPOC. We can no longer make excuses for racist behavior. We have to agree, once and for all, that those days are over

Thanks to Gina, Cheryl, Exchell, Keisha, and Denita for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

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Vinícius Júnior: how Spanish law is starting to tackle racism and what else it could do

Assistant Professor in Law, University College Dublin

Profesor Titular de Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado, Universidad de Sevilla

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Sara Benedi Lahuerta has received funding from the ESRC (2018-19).

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In the weeks since Brazilian footballer and Real Madrid winger Vinícius Júnior was racially abused by Valencia fans during a La Liga match on May 21, international discussions about racism in Spain have not subsided. There are also continuing allegations of racist abuse in Spanish football.

Spain of course is not the only country where football is plagued by racism. The experiences of players in France , Germany , Italy , Portugal and the UK show how widespread this is.

Research has shown that racism in football is a reflection of prevailing societal attitudes . The question is what the law is doing to stop it.

Legal sanctions

EU legislation – specifically Directive 43/2000/EC – applies to any racist incident that occurs within employment, self-employment, education, vocational training, social protection and access to goods and services. In sport, this covers publicly accessible competitions as far as they are publicly accessible – that is, if the public can pay to view them live in stadiums or on TV.

Under Spanish law implementing EU legislation (via Law 15/2022 , and in sports via Law 19/2007 ), administrative sanctions can be imposed on organisers (the closure of a stadium, say, for up to two years) and on individual perpetrators, with fines ranging from €150 (£129) to €650,000 (£559,000).

Yet La Liga, which has now reportedly lodged ten complaints against fans, regarding racism experienced by Vinícius Júnior, cannot impose sanctions itself.

It is up to the Spanish Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sports to propose administrative sanctions and the Spanish Football Federation to then impose any.

But very few such administrative sanctions are proposed and fewer still are actually imposed. According to the Commission against Violence and Racism in Sports, in 2021-22, administrative sanctions were proposed for 1,608 spectators and 59 clubs.

However, only eight were very serious sanctions, and only 28 were linked to racism or xenophobia. This latter figure represents a considerable increase from 2018-19, when only three sanctions linked to racism and xenophobia were proposed.

Reasons cited include the difficulty in identifying the perpetrators or proving their racist intent.

In response to recent events, on July 3 2023, Secretary of State Rafael Pérez granted the police, via Instruction 8/2023, the possibility to suspend sporting events and evict fans if a racist incident occurs.

Spain is not the only country that has struggled to take action against racism. This is also an issue in other European countries, including Italy and the UK .

EU law (which applies in Spain through the criminal code ) also demands that member states have penal sanctions in place for very serious cases of incitement to racial hatred.

In the past ten years, the number of racist, xenophobic or intolerant acts in sport that have been prosecuted in Spain has, however, remained relatively stable: 83 in 2013 compared to 79 in 2021 . It is unclear if this is due to the number of racist incidents remaining stable or to the ineffectiveness of criminal law. What is clear is that what happens on the football pitch and in stadiums is indicative of wider societal problems.

Denial of racism

Within Spanish football, many other players have reported suffering discrimination . Racial abuse has also been reported at grassroots level football. Players in a multi-ethnic football team based in Lavapiés, Madrid, have reportedly experienced racial profiling and racial abuse in sports facilities and during matches.

Shortly after the May 21 match, La Liga president Javier Tebas apologised for a tweet in which he had said that La Liga and Spain were “not racist” and had chastised Vinícius Júnior. Research shows, however, that many Spaniards would actually agree with his erstwhile summation. A 2019 EU survey found that 43% of Spanish respondents said they considered racial or ethnic origin discrimination to be rare or non-existent in Spain.

Public discourse – from politicians , sports people and media pundits – also tends to deny that there is racism, while at the same time, blaming ethnic minorities for not contributing enough economically and abusing the healthcare and social security systems, despite the lack of evidence. Constitutional law scholar Fernando Rey Martínez calls this “liquid racism” .

Most black and ethnic minority people in Spain, meanwhile, feel they are negatively perceived by their white compatriots. A 2021 survey by the Spanish Council against Racial or Ethnic Discrimination found most respondents perceived that Spaniards don’t want to work with, live near or send their children to school with Roma or migrants. Anti-racism charity SOS Racismo has shown racism to be present in all areas of Spanish life .

To deal with racism within football, Spain could look for inspiration from initiatives including the Europe-wide Fare network and the Feyenoord is for All campaign in the Netherlands. Though only time will tell if preemptive solutions are more effective than coercive ones.

One thing is clear. Legal sanctions are not preventing racism in football. And racism is not limited to pitches and stadiums.

Correction: The headline has been changed from “EU law” to “Spanish law”, and to reflect a new legal development. Incorrect comments made about EU legislation have also been removed.

• Ethnic minorities
• Racial discrimination
• Italian football
• European football
• French football
• Spanish football
• racism in football
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11 Popular Songs You Didn't Realize Are Actually Racist

Posted: May 21, 2024 | Last updated: May 21, 2024

Music has often been a platform where systemic racism manifests itself, with lyrics that propagate negative racial stereotypes and uphold White supremacy by marginalizing Black people, Asians, Latinos, Muslims, Native Americans, and other historically oppressed communities.   

According to Reader's Digest , many songs perpetuate racism. The following slides review songs that allegedly contain "racist" elements, according to Reader's Digest .  

Brown Sugar

"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones: There are certain topics that should not be glorified in songs, such as slavery, especially when the lyrics depict the sexualization and violence towards Black women. Reader's Digest accuses Mick Jagger of doing this in The Rolling Stones' hit song "Brown Sugar" from 1971. The title itself is offensive, and in the first verse, Jagger describes the brutal treatment of women on plantations, singing, "Hear him whip the women just around midnight."  

"China Girl" by David Bowie: Reader's Digest admits that Bowie may not have been intentionally racist because he was married to Somalian supermodel Iman for a significant period. However, this unconventional love song, penned by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, is far from ordinary, as one would expect from these iconic artists. The 1983 music video for the song, featuring Bowie and his love interest naked on a beach, faced censorship for television audiences. The song allegedly expresses White privilege and colonialism. Lines like "stumbling into town like a sacred cow, visions of swastikas in my head, plans for everyone" and "I'll give you television, I'll give you eyes of blue, I'll give you a man who wants to rule the world" raise concerns about the use of such imagery.  

Ahab the Arab

"Ahab the Arab" by Ray Stevens: This hit song from 1962, by an artist who later topped the global charts with "The Streak," is a novelty track filled with stereotypes about Arab people. The artist, Stevens, even pronounces "Arab" in a way that rhymes with "Ahab," adding a redneck twist to it. According to Faris Bouhafa, spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the pronunciation of "Arab" as "A-rab" is considered derogatory and offensive to Arab individuals, similar to how the N-word is offensive to Black people.  

Illegal Alien

"Illegal Alien" by Genesis: Released in 1984, this single was intended to be humorous, yet its existence highlights a long-standing theme of undervaluing Mexicans in American culture, according to Reader's Digest. The song and accompanying video serve as a compilation of Mexican stereotypes, ticking off a list that includes drunkenness, ponchos, laziness, Mariachi horns, thick mustaches, deceitfulness, sombreros, and nonsensical Spanish phrases, all within a concise four and a half minutes.   

Island Girl

"Island Girl" by Elton John: Caution: Rock critic Robert Christgau pointed out the misguided attempt at Caribbean accents in both vocals and instrumentals, suggesting a subtle racism that contradicts the song's supposedly ironic conclusion. On the Am I Right website, Michael E. Cormier was more direct, labeling the song as racially insensitive and raising questions about any underlying racial biases in the lyricist, Bernie Taupin. This serves as a reminder of the importance of acknowledging racial differences rather than claiming color blindness.  

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band: This classic from 1969 carries a forward-thinking background, penned by Canadian songwriter Robbie Robertson and first performed by his band, The Band, on their second self-titled album. Folk icon Joan Baez later covered the song in 1971, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite its progressive connections, the song is steeped in sympathy for the Confederate cause, according to Reader's Digest.   

Right Here, Right Now

"Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones: In 1991, a popular song celebrating the end of communism seemed to overlook the ongoing struggles faced by the Black community at the time. Lyrics like "A woman on the radio talked about revolution when it's already passed her by" and "I saw the decade in, when it seemed the world could change at the blink of an eye" dismissed the relevance of Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" and Prince's hit "Sign o' the Times."   

The Star-Spangled Banner

"The Star-Spangled Banner": The American national anthem, penned in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, who was a slave owner, is actually longer than the version commonly heard at events like the Super Bowl. Originally titled "Defence of Fort M'Henry," the anthem contained a line that highlighted the lack of refuge for hired soldiers and slaves, emphasizing the dominance of White people over Black individuals during the era of slavery. The juxtaposition of this historical context with contemporary performances by artists like Lady Gaga or Demi Lovato at the Super Bowl raises questions about the anthem's problematic origins.  

Turning Japanese

"Turning Japanese" by The Vapors: The 1980 hit single poses an intriguing question with its title: How does one "turn Japanese" if they are not born Japanese? Contrary to cultural pursuits like studying Kanji or embracing Buddhism, the song's reference to "turning Japanese" takes on a more intimate meaning related to a private moment in the bedroom.   

Without a Song

"Without a Song": This enduring pop classic has been performed by a diverse range of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, and Willie Nelson, spanning both Black and White musicians. However, the song's problematic origins lie in the original lyrics penned by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu, featuring the line "A darkie's born/ But he's no good no how/ Without a song," sung by Nelson Eddy, Lawrence Tibbett, and others. The acceptance of a song with such racially charged lyrics into the musical canon highlights the embedded racism within American structures and entertainment.  

Your Squaw Is on the Warpath

"Your Squaw Is on the Warpath" by Loretta Lynn: In 1969, the societal landscape was vastly different when Loretta Lynn released her song. However, given the historical oppression and mistreatment of Native Americans by White Americans, Lynn's choice of using Native American imagery as an extended metaphor for her personal transformation raises concerns. The decision to portray herself as a Native American woman on the single's cover, coupled with her light-hearted references to teepees, papooses, and a war dance, diminishes a culture that has endured appropriation without genuine respect in the United States.  

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Spanish game abandoned as team walk off after racially abused player confronts fan

A Spanish third-division game was abandoned after a team walked off the pitch in protest at their goalkeeper being racially abused.

The goalkeeper — Cheikh Kane Sarr — went into the crowd behind his goal to confront the fan who was allegedly racially abusing him.

His Rayo Majadahonda team-mates walked off the pitch to force the abandonment of their Spanish third division match against Sestao River.

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In the 87th minute of the match, Senegalese goalkeeper Sarr, 23, was shown a red card after jumping into the crowd behind the goal following the alleged abuse, to confront the fan. Once the goalkeeper was shown the red card and informed his teammates of what had happened — the entire team walked off the pitch, with the match subsequently abandoned.

Rayo Majadahonda captain Jorge Casado told The Athletic on Saturday evening that he had gone to the local police station alongside his teammate Sarr and the club’s vice-president to denounce the racist insults, and provide witness statements.

“There are images of those who have done it, I have them on my mobile phone,” Casado has said. “But we do not yet have their names.”

He added: “The fans were insulting him by calling him a ‘monkey’, making monkey noises and calling him a ‘f****** n*****.”

Casado explained that it was his decision for the team to walk off the pitch, which was supported by the club’s head coach, his teammates, and by the club’s ownership.

He added that officials of the match were trying to enforce the “protocol” to continue the game, but they refused.

“We are at the bottom of the table and we have a lot at stake, but we do not care about these consequences,” Casado explained. “Our values are above our sporting matters, so we do not care if we are sanctioned.”

Casado added: “At first the other team blamed our teammate, but then they empathized. It was a bit crazy. Sarr was just doing his job. Hopefully action will be taken and this will be a turning point.”

In a statement after the game, Rayo Majadahonda said: “Our team will not return to the pitch to resume the match after receiving unacceptable racist insults towards our player. We condemn all types of racist insults in sport.”

ℹ️Nuestro equipo no saldrá de nuevo a reanudar el encuentro tras recibir insultos racistas inadmisibles a nuestro jugador. Condenamos todo tipo de insultos racistas en el deporte. — CF Rayo Majadahonda 🤍⚡️💙 (@RMajadahonda) March 30, 2024

They added their “unconditional support” for Sarr in a statement on Sunday while raising their “deep concern and disagreement with the lack of sensitivity shown” following the incident.

“We also want to express our unconditional support for Cheikh Sarr and any member of our club who may be a victim of acts of racism or discrimination,” the club said. “They are not alone. As a club, we will take all the necessary measures to support and protect them.”

Rayo Majadahonda’s president Inaki Acha told Radio Marca that the club will not push for a replay, insisting that it was the team’s decision to end the game: “There has been no pressure from us to play the match again. It was our decision, which the referee has accepted.”

Captain Casado published a post on his social media account following the match stating that the entire squad was “all with Cheick” and added that authorities had tried to force them to resume the match.

“What happened today at the Las Llanas stadium, the home of Sestao River, is shameful,” Casado said.

“A section of the fans racially insulted our teammate Cheick Sarr for his skin colour. In addition, the league (run by the Spanish FA) tried to force us to go out and finish the game. I feel ashamed.

“It seems unbelievable, the year is 2024, and we have brainless people in the stadiums roaming freely. We are all Cheick. No to racism.”

On Saturday night, Sestao released a statement to state that they will work with the authorities on the situation following the allegations.

Comunicado oficial sobre los hechos sucedidos esta tarde en el Sestao River Club – Rayo Majadahonda 🔗 https://t.co/oTAPtCPYPr #GoazenRiver pic.twitter.com/XSRnoICYl8 — Sestao River Club (@SestaoRC) March 30, 2024

“Sestao reiterates its most absolute condemnation against racism and violence. We will always comply with all the protocols of the sports law in all its forms: we do not tolerate any type of racism. Racism has no place within our institution, as we have demonstrated in our more than one hundred years of existence.

“We want to call for responsibility and rigor in the face of a very delicate issue that must be treated as such.

“If the alleged racist insults are proven, Sestao will make all its means available to collaborate with sports justice and clarify the responsibilities of whoever corresponds.

“Everyone against racism!”

Earlier on Saturday, Sevilla condemned the “racist and xenophobic abuse” suffered by their player Marcos Acuna and head coach Quique Sanchez Flores during their La Liga clash at Getafe.

The game was stopped in the 68th minute and was delayed for two and a half minutes after ‘monkey’ chants were directed towards Acuna, while Sanchez Flores claims he was called “gypsy” by fans during the match.

Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior — who has been targeted with racist abuse regularly in Spanish football in recent seasons — offered his solidarity to Acuna, Sanchez Flores and Sarr, calling for racists to be sent to jail.

“This weekend, I won’t even play. But we had three despicable cases of racism in Spain this Saturday alone,” Vincius posted on social media.

Este fin de semana, ni siquiera jugaré. Pero tuvimos tres casos despreciables de racismo en España solo este sábado. Todo mi apoyo a Acuña @AcunaMarcos17 y al entrenador Quique Flores, del @SevillaFC . A Sarr y al @RMajadahonda que su valentía inspire a los demás. Los racistas… — Vini Jr. (@vinijr) March 30, 2024

“All my support for Acuna and Quique (Sanchez) Flores, from Sevilla. To Sarr and Majadahonda. May your bravery inspire others. Racists must be exposed and the games cannot continue with them in the stands.

“We will only have victory when the racists leave the stadiums straight to jail, a place they deserve.”

Sevilla condemn racist abuse of Acuna, Sanchez Flores in Getafe game

(Oscar J.Barroso/AFP7/Europa Press via Getty Images)

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