There is an essential explanation to all of this. Deeper and hidden, which transforms the crudeness of the insult into something else. "It's about offending, hurting the other. There's no racism involved", explains Juan Díez Nicolás, veteran researcher and sociologist. Issues that aren't understood iin other European countries especially UK, where the matter is still one of the star subjects of the week and still gets them worked up. "Racism is part of Spanish sports, and reflects part of its society," says the BBC.
In Spain it's seen differently, "That is not disrespecting someone for their race", assures one of the interviewed psychologists. In this case it meant that "he's Alonso's rival, and he was unsportsmanlike and unloyal with him last season when they were in the same team."
"Then why not call him an a-hole directly?" asks Paul Hamelos, correspondent for the Guardian, when reaching the zenith of his argument, after hearing that the reason of it was that it was Carnival. "It was costume day, and Brits don't understand that."
The most repeated thesis in Spain is that the adrenalin associated with the anonymity in masses, who attend the great sporting events ignites these excesses. A repeated observation by sociologists such as Díez Nicolás and others, is that these same individuals, in any other context, wouldn't dare say "***ing Black!". But why do they in the stadium?
Every time Spanish sports are news because of an occurence such as this, the spiral goes to reinterpreting the words. Like when the national footbal selecter (sp?) mentioned Thierry Henry through his skin colour.
"Spain is not racist. What is has is a lack of imagination and all-around a-holeness. It's wrong, of course. But we must not confuse the terms." "It's as if we called someone fatso or shorty", says Díaz Nicolás.
The media specialised in sports weren't so theoretical with the scandal that affected Aragonés. "He's like that", "They were booed because they were English", insisted referring to the match against the English National team where the crowds made fun of Wright Phillips (who if black) making monkey sounds.
An indulgence that contrasts with the political correctness that reigns in countries such as Germany, for example, where the spectators themselves confront and denounce whoever shouts these kinds of words. In England, scandals which refer to any kind of racism in the media end in people quittiing their job, as it happened with the commentator and ex-coach Ron Atkinson, who had to abandon ITV because he left the microphone open when talking about a black player.
Maybe because of that, today the British are demanding the Spanish institutions do something. But the Spanish institutitions, precisely the Sporting Commission, say ther are indeed doing something. "There is a law that was just approved in July of last year, referring to violence and racism in sport. All we're waiting is for the decrees to be laid down." says Jaime Lissavetzky, state secretary.
This law has served to duplicate the number of financial sanctions in football fields. "Does this mean there's more racism, or more control?", asks Lissavetzky. He answers himself "It means there's more control, but the key is in educating people".
A statement in which many sports figures concede, such as Samuel Eto'o and Mauro Silva (both black) "Sports reflect what happens in society, and not all of it is good.". Eto'o left a football field in Zaragoza because of the insults proferred because of his skin colour.
But while the social conscience is developed, the new law acts. Javier Durán, from Observatory Against Racism, a government-funded organisation believes the xenophobic behaviours in sports are "tremendously negative because they're part of a social belief". Worse yet, he believes what happened in Barcelona is an indicator that they've jumped from football (its usual habitat) into other sports. "Especially alarming when you take into account that the arrival of people of other races into Spain has been constant during the last five years." Today they account for 10% of the population.
Many of the Spanish automobile clubs aren't worrying too much about this kind of behaviour happening on race day. "The entrance to a race is at least 90 euros, so these kind of people can't enter. The McLaren training session was only six euros and all kinds of people came".
Lastly, the analysis of some British academics, cited by the Times about the issue say the Spanish society "isn't racist, but very inexperienced about living with immigrants". People "see with lightness and indulgence the discrediting of people because of the colour of their skin".
According to this, Spaniards aren't more racist than any other country around it, but they have less experience living with different people and the subtleties that that mean. To the point where they don't know the strength of their insults.
On the other hand, some Spanish institutions don't go overboard asking for explanations about the Hooligans behaviour, when any team from the UK plays in Spain. "We don't say the English are vandals or drunks because some fans in fact, are", says Durán. In short, "the English exaggerate, apparently".
Many high officials in Spain ask themselves if Spain is minimising the issue, or ig UK is maximising it?
I remember that one