The viral video of a Serbian volleyball player making rude gestures towards her Thai opponent has left the internet fuming with anger. The video after getting viral online and facing criticism from the general public, forced the team member to apologize for their disrespectful action.
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A member of the Serbian national volleyball team faces heavy criticism for making a racist gesture towards their Thai counterpart.
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The disrespectful incident happened a few days back during a match in the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League, which took place in Italy.
Serbian player Sanja Djurdjevic stretched her eyelids apart while speaking to one of her teammates.
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The video that has been uploaded online and has now gone viral for obvious reasons is condemned globally for the crude actions of the Serbian player.
The video also shows the Thai players in return smiling after facing racism on the ground during the game.
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Not only this but the entire team was also seen photographing for the picture making the same rude gesture back in 2018, while they were playing in Japan.
The rude gesture is universally considered a really hateful action against people of Asian descent.
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After the video went viral on social media, Djurdjevic apologized in a now-private Instagram post, according to Vice, claiming she meant “not so smart,” and suggesting the gesture was some sort of volleyball signal.
“I am aware of my mistake and I immediately after the match apologized to the whole Thailand team,” she wrote, per 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.”
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After the apology posted online by the Serbian player, the members of the Thai volleyball team appear to have accepted the apology, apparently posing for team photos with the Serbian players. Pleumjit Thinkaow, of the Thai team, also posted a video in which she and Djurdjevic appear friendly.
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The video was also shared by the Volleyball Federation of Serbia in a Facebook post, where the organization offered an apology to the Thai team,
The page also requested to not “blow this out of proportion.”
“Sanja is aware of her mistake and she immediately apologized to the whole Thailand team,” the post read.
“Of course, it was unfortunate,” it continued, after offering the same explanation regarding signaling the other teammates. “It all ended up as a simple misunderstanding, in a friendly atmosphere between the players of the two teams.”