Mexican newspaper Reforma might have just taken the lead for most insensitive headline of 2017. As reported on by Buzzfeed Mexico, the Mexico City-published journal put Real captain Sergio Ramos kissing the Spanish Supercopa trophy on the cover, under which they put the headline “Supremacía Blanca, or “White Supremacy.” Given the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, the headline choice is either purposefully offensive or accidentally so, which might not be better.
A quick look at the history of Reforma points to the paper being a right-wing-leaning publication; The Guardian‘s Latin American News Guide lists the paper as a “conservative spanish-language national daily,” while Argentine newspaper Clarin also referred to them as a conservative daily. Not to say that all conservatives supported the actions of the white supremacists in Charlottesville, but the timing sure is at best unlucky, or at worst, purely evil.
That Real Madrid wears all-white kits has always lent them the nickname of Los Blancos, so Reforma‘s choice of words regarding the color isn’t too out of the norm; however, the phrase “white supremacy” has such a strong connotation with racism that even if Charlottesville had never happened, the headline would be a poor choice that would be deserving of derision. Given the events of this week in Mexico’s neighbor to the north, however, it feels unlikely that the editorial team would not have caught the inappropriateness of the headline, which means they went with this on purpose. Not a great look, even for a paper that leans right, to seemingly support Nazis.
It should surprise no one, then, that Twitter users did in fact turn their rage at the paper, with commentary coming in hot and heavy on Thursday: