eMarkLee

Chinese translation error blamed for slur on sofa label on CNN

Apparently Kingsoft, a Chinese language translation company, decided that when you try to translate “dark brown” from Chinese to English, it should describe the “nigger” shade of brown instead of the “dark” shade of brown. A black family saw a tag on their brown sofa that described the color as “nigger brown” and saw fit to cause a stink with the media. The problem is that my peoples don’t understand “politically correct” like nappy hoes in the US do. The real problem I find with this translation is that the shade of brown the Chinese software described as “nigger brown” could range by quite a bit. For example, if you compare the dude from Black Diamond to Haile Barry you would get quite a range of “browns”.

The inaccuracy and uncertainty of the translation is what offends me. The Chinese culture is known for being quite precise and accurate and in this case it is highly inprecise. This software company is banned from being called Chinese until further notice.