First lady visits Spain, State Dept. removes warning about police racism there

[Enrique]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/04/michelle-obama-race-row-spain

Michelle Obama and her youngest daughter, Sasha, seven, have arrived in Spain for a short holiday as US officials scrambled to defuse embarassing allegations of institutional racism against their host country.

Hours before the first African-American first lady of the US and her daughter were settling into the luxurious Villa Padierna hotel on the outskirts of Marbella, the US state department removed a warning about police racism in Spain from one of its websites.

"We have received isolated reports that racial prejudice may have contributed to the arrest or detention of some African-Americans travelling in Spain," the bureau of consular affairs had warned on its travel advice website.

"Recently, two African-American US government employees were questioned by police in Barcelona for no apparent reason. One was detained and suffered physical injuries in the process."

The warning disappeared yesterday, but was still accessible in the page's internet cache.

(...)

[saigon68]

1. Nice warning

Good luck on her visiting Saudi

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Spain is such a barbarous place

compared to America, where police racism has been unknown for decades, and Joe Arpaio runs a summer camp for disadvantaged immigrants.

[AspenRose]

3. Spain is well-known for racism, particularly by sports fans

http://www.realclearsports.com/blognetwork/the_cup_running_over/2010/06/could-countries-with-a-tradition-of-racist-fans-underperform-in-south-africa.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5453851

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/racism-hits-formula-one-in-spain/

http://www.theroot.com/views/european-soccer-s-racist-present

They should have kept the State Department warning up.

[Suich]

4. Here's a link to the hotel they're staying at:

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/VillaPadierna/Default.htm

Ni-i-i-ice!