Last Saturday, spectators shouted “yellow banana” during Liang Jingkun’s round-of-16 match at the table tennis World Championships in Houston, Texas, South China Morning Post reports.
The Chinese table tennis player experienced the chants during his 4-3 victory over Liam Pitchford. A video shows Pitchford eating a yellow banana during a break. A man then chants, “yellow banana, yellow.” A few others join him.
It is possible that the man was chanting about the banana Pitchford was eating. However, “yellow” and “banana” are often used as racial slurs to describe Asian people.
Officials from the International Table Tennis Federation condemned the racist attack in an interview withChina Media Group.
Steve Dainton, Group CEO of theInternational Table Tennis Federation, told China Media Group that ITTF had received a complaint from the Chinese Table Tennis Association. He added that the ITTF had also “noticed something on the night.”
“It’s very, very, very seriously taken by the ITTF,” Petra Sorling, President of ITTF told China Media Group. “We are standing against racism, and for us, ‘Table Tennis. For All. For Life’ is reality, it’s not only our motto.”
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