South Korea saved Mexico yesterday by beating Germany 2-0, a win that allowed Mexico to advance to the knockout stage despite their own 3-0 defeat to Sweden.
That led to plenty of fun scenes of Mexican fans cheering South Korea, including a massive crowd celebrating outside Mexico’s South Korean embassy.
That’s the Korean consul general to Mexico, Byoung-Jin Han, celebrating with grateful Mexican fans outside the Korea embassy here. One fan said he took a shot of tequila with them earlier. pic.twitter.com/NGWEmRADUW
— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) June 27, 2018
It also somehow led to two Telemundo morning show hosts making a slant-eyes gesture, out of nowhere.
From FC Yahoo:
James, whose real name is James Tahhan, is the official chef of Telemundo and a co-presenter on the network’s morning show, Un Nuevo Dia. Video has emerged of the celebrity chef and restaurateur sporting a green Mexico jersey on air and laughing while making an offensive, inappropriate gesture that’s deeply racist toward Asians. One of the show’s other hosts then joins in on making the gesture while the rest of the panel all share a laugh over it.
And, yeah, that about sums it up:
@Telemundo with the inappropriate Korea jokes. #racist #worldcup #racista #korea pic.twitter.com/Tg6KPCookI
— Carlos Robles (@core787) June 27, 2018
Dear @Telemundo @TelemundoSports & @TLMDPR , whoever this guy is on the left needs to get fired ASAP for being a racist on air. If someone were to say or make racist gestures about Latinx folks we'd ALL be up in arms & this is no different #SayNoToRacism #TelemundoMundial pic.twitter.com/SvzSednPAd
— Full Snack Developer (Miguel Hernandez) (@Techivist) June 27, 2018
That’s very bad!
Telemundo, to their credit, responded with a statement today that included an apology and an indefinite suspension for both hosts in question:
Here's a statement from Telemundo regarding what happened on Un Nuevo Dia following South Korea's win over Germany. pic.twitter.com/daJ9uhNRKh
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) June 28, 2018
Tahhan and Benscosme apologized on the air, and Tahhan has also apologized via Twitter,
— James Tahhan (@ChefJames) June 28, 2018
It was certainly an inappropriate gesture regardless of the situation, and Telemundo responding by pulling them immediately, and indefinitely, is certainly not too harsh a punishment.
[Yahoo]