When it comes to racism, unfortunately there are no language barriers.
A Serbian volleyball player caught on television making the slant eye gesture towards her Thai opponents is apologizing, reports the Huff Post.
It happened during the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nationals League in Italy.
“I am aware of my mistake and I immediately after the match apologized to the whole Thailand team,” Djurdjevic said in two Instagram posts, according to Vice. “I only wanted to address my teammates with the message: ‘now, we will start playing defense like them’, I didn’t mean to disrespect anyone.”
Another Instagram post from the team itself declared it was “deeply saddened” by what happened, but went on to urge people not to “blow this out of proportion.”
This isn’t the first time the Serbian team has been involved in a slant eye controversy. It happened in 2017 when the entire team posed for a photo doing the slant eye.
A change.org petition is calling on the FIVB to discipline both the team and the offending player.
“Allowing disrespect towards any person or group of people because of their race, ethnicity, religion, and visual differences (no matter how small the action may seem) will only encourage the current racist environment in which Asian, Black, and Brown people are targeted in sport and in the world,” the petition reads.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story or making a contribution.
