Racial slur on sofa label stuns family

Racial slur on sofa label stuns family

Mother had to explain to daughter, 7 origin of 'totally unacceptable' word on wrapping of furniture built overseas

Apr 06, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Wilkes
Staff Reporter

When the new chocolate-coloured sofa set was delivered to her Brampton home, Doris Moore was stunned to see packing labels describing the shade as "Nigger-brown."

She and husband Douglas purchased a sofa, loveseat and chair in dark brown leather last week from Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store on Dundas St. E.

Moore, 30, who describes herself as an African-American born and raised in New York, said it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out the label just after delivery men from the Mississauga furniture store left.

"She's very curious and she started reading the labels," Moore explained. "She said, `Mommy, what is nig ... ger brown?' I went over and just couldn't believe my eyes."

more at:
http://www.thestar.com/article/200265

a shot.

I'm NOT dissing Obama. I like him and find him to be the most honest and intriguing of the the so-called front-runners. I am, however, dissing this country - a country with a BAD, BAD case of voting-booth racism.

as president of China.

:spank:

Obama's chance of becoming president?

After all, nobody will vote for him, right?

Those who let racism control their lives are worse than racists themselves.

Too bad there are a lot of racist out there.

I have no doubt the Repukes would gladly guarantee this would happen

but holy crap -

that's fucking BLATANT!

I imagine someone - or more correctly, some racist nonhuman shitpile - at the factory was having fun with the label maker that day.

Based on labels and instructions I've seen for items made in China, I think this one can be chalked up to a translation error. The Chinese company that made the sofa was too cheap or too stupid to have someone do some research about the best words to use in the translation. Some U.S. companies have been guilty of the same thing for products going overseas. Unfortunately, someone in that company associated that word with brown/black but didn't know how vile it is considered to be. We in the western world just love our cheap goods, but we don't stop to think that they are made by under-educated folks making very low wages; unfair trade.

No way did some translation dictionary have "nigger" listed as the translation for "black"

I wouldn't trust some of those Chinese companies to spend a few bucks to have a damn dictionary.

My husband's native language is not English and I can tell you that, fluent as he is, spelling American English is a real challenge to him.

A particular problem is whether or not to use a double consonant.

I would guess it's just a transalation error of "Niger Brown", meaning dark brown.

Some of the translated stuff from Asian countries is totally far from correct. I doubt that there was any racist motivation there.

You took the words right off my fingertips. Translation error, get over it. Now, eveybody back to work ....

the average worker in their factories has probably never even seen/met one in person. they really have no understanding of how loathsome the word is in western culture.

have to take them down as the translations make absolutely no sense. Personally, I used to sell several years ago, those little electronic pets. The instructions were not only hard to understand but they used the word "shit" when referring to the electronic pet's excrement! Luckily, none of my customers complained. ;)

"Ugly Chinese" replacing "Ugly American." Why not contract an American, or British proofreader?

Back in the 70's I had to deal with a lot of equipment from Japan and Taiwan. They often used machine translations for their instructions. What a mess. This wasn't a machine translation, it was human error. Malicious? I don't know. Insensitive, yes.

but, but that would cost more money! It might actually add 50 cents to the production cost of each item!!

My husband designs products for companies that have them produced, usually on the uber-cheap, in China. The people on this thread who are saying that it's a bad translation are absolutely correct. Most of the people we correspond with at the Chinese factories struggle terribly with English and don't have a clue as to what is considered an "appropriate term" and what is not. We've seen just about every possible curse word pop up on packaging and product manuals.

We've often wondered where on earth these people learned English. I suspect they are learning from people who answer those "teach English in a foreign country" newspaper ads.

then correct the improper English. Any K thru 12 teacher could do that in minutes and would love the bit of cash coming their way.

Lots of funny stuff!

The power of words in our culture versus an understanding of multiculturalism. That word is imbued with hatred and the abuse of power for us--but for the Chinese it's just a word to describe a color. The power of the word depends on the intent of the person using it.

but this? This I don't know about.

I remember hearing a friend talk about cookies from Turkey that were called of all things the n-word.

How is this even possible in civilized nations?

http://www.aubg.bg/flashnews/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=95&Itemid=41

I'm assuming that the Turkish fella was talking about these.

you're just as bad as they are (assuming they had malicious intent). You're making prejudiced and generalized statements, just like the racists do.

What you just said is prejudice against residents in these states!

snip:I import my products from overseas," he said. "I've never noticed anything like that. This is something new to me."

He passed the blame to a Chinese company, but apologized for the labels. He said he would contact the furniture maker in Guangzhou and demand they remove all similar labels.
-----------------
Makes me wonder why our country and others keep importing from there. Lead in kids things, melamine in animal food, racial slurs on labels..

Our government basically gives a bonus to any company moving its business overseas.

and it's only going to get worse.

When we got it home and took it out of the packaging, the tags said Made in China.

we don't make it here anymore.

My wife's car needed a new fuel filter. I decided to put a Purolator in it.

Purolator has a huge filter factory right here in Fayetteville, and I went to a locally-owned auto parts place to get it. Purolator will sell the local auto parts places filters right out the back door--pull up, tell the lady inside what you want, turn over money and drive around back to get it.

The filter I bought was made in China. These fuckers contracted with a filter company in China to have fuel filters made and shipped to a FACTORY (they make oil and air filters here--I know people who do it) for redistribution.

You might find it interesting to know that our great military machine can no longer operate without vital parts manufactured in various Asian countries. If they got together and placed an embargo on us our military couldn't get anywhere in couldn't walk to.

It's because we've all been retrained for high paying computer jobs.

:rofl: What are you doing these days?

i guess we can put a pricetag on our national soul.

our kids aren't safe, our animals aren't safe and now they can throw out racial slurs and get away with it all for the all mighty dollar.

Too bad we can't suspend all imports from them until we're assured of safe and non-offensive products.

Look at the respect we, the U.S. give other sovereign countries?

Any more it's; "Respect? wazdat?"

damn

talk about being blindsided

she and her husband didn't return the furniture. You don't spend your money with racists.

negative meaning.
Where it's a word just like any other.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I'm pushing on this--"Some countries say..." indeed. Good call! :thumbsup:

And that's all I have to say about it.

I am pointing out that in some countries outside US similar sounding words are acceptable to use. How is that rationalizing anything?

commonly.

What country, pray tell, is so uninformed as to not be aware of it's hideous connotation?

The word sounds similar and it's acceptable to use. It sounds similar enough that I was warned not to use it in US. I had no idea before I was warned that word had a negative meaning in US. I guess I was not all that interested in US culture before I came here. I don't know what else to tell you.

At the very least you could tell us what the word means.

acceptable to use. Obviously it's not spelled the same as our alphabet is different. I was warned not to use it in US when I decided to come here. I have no idea if whoever made that label in China has any idea of what it means in US.

As WinkyDink says, it's the equivalent of "Some people say..."

the source of your info, or offering any proof.

If you don't want people to know you're from another
country, then blonde has no reason to assume you are.

But the meaning is entirely different.

i'm guessing they don;t know better because there are no black people in her mystery country to kick their asses when they say it. :eyesroll:

What is taboo in one country might not be a taboo in another. That a word that is sounding similar to a n-word is neutral and does not have a negative meaning in my native language.

Please lay off Lizzy, Miz B. She's standing on a different corner than you are and telling you the truth. She doesn't deserve to be bashed for doing so.

she refuses to actually give the country's name or the word or it's meaning... from the way she's explaining it, it could well mean something similar - just not bad because it isn;t americans saying it. LOL. so it's okay for people who live in an exclusively white country to use the word. no wonder she doesn;t want to give the word or the country- people might disagree with her about her former home's "context" somehow being kinder to black people. i guess it's easy for them if it doesn;t entail actually living side by side with them, eh?

hotbed of racism and claiming it does not care for black people. Now you want it's name? Why? So you can insult it some more?

it shows you're truly afraid of the reality of where you came from, and no much more.

and insult it? Maybe I don't want ignorant people insulting it.

it really. good work lizzy! ____land would be so proud of you!
:rofl:

and they don;t deserve the courtesy of a reply.. and you changed your post because you're so upfront about stuff! LOL.
why did you even bother posting something so worthless? i wouldn't believe a word at this point after the sneaky stuff you just pulled.

then you deleted it. but you know that, which makes this a bunch of chckenshit.
:hi:

and SHE has a different point of reference. I COMPLETELY understand her reluctance to give specifics and don't blame her. She may just as well have stuck her arm into a shark tank at feeding time. ;-) She is a product of her society just as you are a product of yours. I don't get your reference to "kinder." If she grew up in a homogeneous environment, thems the facts that be. Let's consider the content of her post.

Where I live, Neger is a word used to refer to black people. If some old Dorfmann refers to me so, I am not in the least offended, nor would I bother to correct him. I HAVE corrected young people and once I've explained the "issues" the most common response is, "Gee, I NEVER thought about it that way." If an urban professional were to use that word in my presence s/he would go away wishing for a do-over. So ist das.

except the serious old timers a pass. i'm sorry lizzy is of the opinion that this n* bullshit is harmless if you don;t have slave owning ancestors. i'm trying to explain it to her that it is there just ain;t black people about to call them on it.
and i wouldnt be suprised if her word describes black people as well, she's just afraid to own up to it because she knows people will be offended, and rightfully so.

comprehend what I am saying.

the fragments, and they don;t add up too well. Why are you hiding the full story? I.E. the word, it;s meaning and the nation you came from?
It would seem you're to fault if anyone's got you wrong, and if it is so benign you'd be able to do it. :shrug:

And there is no requirement that she do so. I don't misunderstand her and would likely peg her nation of origin in three guesses and I understand why you do. But as my dear departed mom always said, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. ;-)

as the games she has been playing on this thread. she f'ed up because if she didn't want to discuss it, she shouldn't have bothered in the first place. I think she realized that yeah, Americans would'nt easily understand, so she bailed.

At least the whole sub thread is gone. And here you are wondering why I don't want to communicate with you or tell you about myself.

and alerting to get rif of stuff that's embarrassing to you! have fun with that!!
:hi:

What are you trying to hide?

the bronx, where your ass would be hanging from a rope for using the beloved N-word of your youth. try it!

Hanging from a rope? WTF? Why is such a thing allowed to be said here? This sounds like a death threat to me. Is this acceptable here on DU?

around here. It's fine where you grew up, but you're far away now, and there would be consequences using racial terms spo dear to you in your youth....so deal with it.


edited to add stuff. LOL.

spoke of was asked for.
don;t flatter yourself or pretend to be a big old victim. again.

I had to tell my roomate how bad of a word that was after hearing him use it one day. He spoke poor english, but always heard black people calling each other that in American movies. So, no, not everyone speaks english and understands our social taboos.

That word has been used in many countries to refer various ethnic groups and also as a description of a color.

In fact, the usage of it in the US comes from Dutch origins. The African burial ground in New York City (When it was called New Amsterdam) was called "Begraaf Plaats van de Neger".

In the UK they used that work to refer to people from Pakistan and India. They also used it to describe a particular shade of brown.
I can remember my grandfather in the UK using "nigger brown" boot polish. That is what it was labeled on the can! And I'm not all that old, so it wasn't even that long ago.

Chances are that the people that made up that label merely were using the term as a description of a color. If it was manufactured overseas, it is possible that the people making it don't even realize what that means in modern usage in the US.

Now, with that said, it is ridiculous for any company selling goods over here to let something like that be printed on a label. Even if there was no malicious intent, it certainly is not going to endear that company to a large segment of the population.

should have removed the offending words. I would have returned the goods.

Sp.

And clearly the label and color name came from the factory, so the retailer is off the hook. Hope this starts some here to realize that hard core racial prejudice is not solely the province of white males.

They have an obligation to their customers to make some phone calls and go up the chain, to the distributors, and make it clear these labels are not acceptable.

It would appear that the retailer did not know about the label ahead of time, which was my point. He now has the "opportunity" to get the manufacturer to change their behavior or seek another supplier.

I'll bet ya the folks in accounting, shipping & receiving could tell you different.

I bet things are ordered by numbers or at a trade show. This looks to be a mom & pop furniture place. Accouting, shipping, receivinbg, sales, and janitor would all be the same people.

I remember as a child in England, my mother went into a yarn shop and asked for some wool she described as "nigger brown", now before you all start flaming, she was an old, not too well educated person who did not have a mean bone in her body, plus she passed on several years ago.

I explained to her that she should not use that word any more as it was meant as mean and hurtful to black people. She did not understand because as she said, we had that word before they did. It took me a while but I got her to understand in the end that it was an awful racial slur.

until we hammered it through his brain that the expression is worse than horrible.

(He used it referring to a blazer.)

The manufacturer may have imitated/resourced something decades old.

in which "The Major" explained patiently to Basil that some people from India were not "Wogs," but, rather "Niggers." He went on to explain which regions of India produced which particular subspecies. It was presented to mock that old-school British colonial attitude. My point is that the word was being used NOT by southern American racists but by British colonial racists. And against Indians, not Africans. And there is every likelihood that it got common usage in China as well in the Hong Kong colonial era. It has drifted around in the vernacular in various contexts, none of them complimentary, to be sure, but quite possibly a pocket of people in China might stumble across it - maybe even found documents describing some product made in Hong Kong or India fifty years ago...

Anyway, it needs to get squelched.

On one of China's popular websites called sina.com, hundreds of messages were pouring in around the time of Condoleezza Rice's visit to China this past spring. The comments were very disturbing for a couple of reasons. People lashed out angrily at the U.S. secretary of state's ethnicity, her looks, her gender.

They wrote that she was (and this is hard for me to repeat): "a black devil," "a black pig," "a black whore" and "a black female dog." They said: "You're not even as good as a black devil, a real waste of a life," "Her brain is blacker than her skin," "The ugliest woman in the world" and "She looks like an orangutan, and talks rubbish; send us a beautiful woman next time."

The website is particularly popular among the urban elite and educated masses, and I remember reading these shocking words at the time. According to media reports, these comments were also gathered by Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was so disgusted by the awful remarks he felt compelled to write something about it.

He said in a media interview that racism and sexism are so widespread on the mainland that no one was especially surprised by the hateful verbal attacks on Rice.

more…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_yu/20050630.html

Hence the expression "black devils" probably originated because Chinese seafarers would have encountered Melanesians on a regular basis and assumed that the blackness of their skin meant they were literally demons in human form, per some Eastern religions. (Some early Western explorers thought the same thing!)

In India, it is much simpler: that country has been influenced for millennia by white-supremacist ideas brought in by Indo-European barbarians (the same folks Hitler admired). They looked down on the (more civilized) Dravidians, with their pitch black skin, as "untouchable" sodbusters. This was eventually codified into the caste system.

You are speaking ONLY of English-speaking colonialists.

Another reason to buy American...

Even "negro" would be acceptable, as it has basis as a legit word in other languages.

So who do you think came up with a hyphenated color named "nigger-brown"?

or "Arizona terracotta" -- something like that. And the extra "g" was just a typo. In any case, it had to be an eyeopener to see that on the sofa you just bought, no matter what race you were. Ow.

Supposedly because the river is brown or black. It is the largest river in West Africa and the city of Timbuktu nearly dried up and blew away when the channel moved. The Niger river valley is the main artery running thru Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, all of which are large countries.

the "N" word. Doubt a factory in China would intentionally think up a color offensive to Americans.

But, the store should have caught it in their inventory numbers. What were the color choices? Wouldn't the customer be told the color choice and the store would have to put it on the order number in the computer?

It's really bad that this happened to this customer but seems it should have been caught at the store lever to complain to the Chinese Supplier. But, maybe the store orders from a database that's so large that it was overlooked.

I go for the "Niger (River)Chocolate" theory over the intentionally racist. :shrug:

niger in latin is "black"

I have a very dark blue almost black fish in my saltwater tank called a "Niger Triggerfish" (Odonus Niger), and given that there isn't much ocean in the country Niger, I have to assume it comes from the Latin root.

So it is entirely possible that this could have been a simple spelling error.

that it was a translation flub up that didn't GET the Cultural/Racist overtones it would be seen in the US...particularly with our "Global Economy" where we are supposed to be "more tolerant" of Commerce all over the world.

After all what's offensive in the US might not be so to the World Trade Organization or the Chinese who've taken over producing all the FURNITURE ordered from North Carolina which "Used to Be" the "Furniture Capitol of the World" but NOW imports MOST from China!

If we support "World Trade" WE MIGHT BETTER GET USED TO what we THINK are Racial Epithets but really are just getting us used to what MORE IS TO COME. :shrug:

Niger/Chocolate/Nigger(Computer Error Spelling on Tag) Consumer Complains...(told it's just a "computer thingy"...and China says: "We Thought CHOCOLATE BROWN was NIGER RIVER BROWN."

:shrug:

The hyphen indicates (to me) a duality of color, that is, black-brown. I don't know why they didn't use the word "black," however. :shrug:

First star player from the city of Toowoomba.

If it was in my house it would need to be dusted daily because of the cat hair.

Thus, I would never have it. My cats I know would poke holes in it eventhough I trim their claws.

them.

That's good to know for in the future. Neither of my cats scratch on furniture. I had a roommate once that had a kitten and she scratched everything. She jumped into my dining room chairs (leather seats) and they had all these little scratches and tears on them....but then the roommate didn't trim her claws either.

They are extremely well behaved.

I want to use sofa.

I move cat(s) from sofa to chair.

I get on sofa in TV watching position.

Cat(s) get on top of me, or snuggle up next to me.

If I have to get up for something, the process starts over. You know.

:grr:

and saw a brand of chocolate cookies called "Nigger Waffles."

But at least they make Twingo.

but am I the only one that had a chuckle out of this?

There is no racial slur for white people that carries the sordid history and baggage of the N word.

OTOH I often get a chuckle out of bad translations and cultural faux pas in general. One of my favorite Firesign Theatre tracks involves people visiting an Arabic country called Barbaria, where their phrase meaning "dual to the death" is a homophone of the English words "diet cola".

"Welcoming to Barbaria, my infidel friends. Ooh, what is this peeking out from under your underwear...it's a bottle of whiskey. The whiskey head tax here in Barbaria is 60 karooms or I could challenge you to a 'diet cola'"

that "motherfuckerbush" is a common plant species in the US? Start labeling things "motherfuckerbush green?"

:)

:rofl:

:rofl:

"victory pavilion"?
or... "rest pavilion"?

But... What the fuck! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Even though "cracker" isn't even in the same league of offensiveness.

I've seen paler Black folks being called the N-word...

Yes this is terrible, but it did come from China. I haveno idea what words are considered bad in chinese. Just like the guy that named the colour on this probably didn't know either. I remember having French roomates in Quebec that didn't know how bad of a word the N-word is considered to be. So, I'm gonna cut the chinese some slack on this one. Somewhere along the line there was some kind of screw up. That's likely what happened. That doesn't make it okay, but we don't need all this crazy talk.

In the large cities, a great many (nealy all of the young) people speak English and are ultra-modern.

There are industries and factories in rural areas where English is not spoken at all.

Areas of manufacturing where family ownership of an old Brownie box camera is considered a pride.

Perhaps the manufacturing plant's "translator" has an older dictionary, and is not careful enough to understand the phrase "considered pejorative".

What should be done?

Should the Chinese government place an 'Office for the Censor of American Pejorative Terms' in each factory?

Or should the Bush administration institute an 'Agency to Oversee and Protect Against Obsolete and Prejorative Phrases' at all ports?

Or should we understand that sometimes language difficulties may arise, and get the fuck over it?

Or should we just hate the Chinese people?


您可以翻译这吗? 您是是完全地肯定的它整个地正确的吗? 您知道为绝对确定, 词不会是traslated 入一个进攻词组? 多么恰当您是知道您的译者... 他百分之一百准确? 如果有不精确性, 中国人民应该采取生气和作为侮辱吗? 或他们应该了解, 那里也许有时是错误在翻译, 因为语系是不同的? Can you read or translate this? How long might it take for you to learn these characters?

that word on anything coming into my house

and then to have to take a deep breath, and quickly decide how you handle the situation; do you explain it to your child now or later? when did you intend to tell her about this word? how do you tell her about it? and how i would have been wishing i could have made it just one or two more years without that fucking word coming into my child's life.

in the article the mom says she wonders if she even wants to keep the furniture--every time she sits on it she'll be thinking of this. i don't blame her at all. something nice (new furniture) ruined because you had to tell your little girl what the n-word means. how horrible.

and may have reacted similarly many years ago, however having lived on THIS side of the pond has tempered my knee-jerk responses substantially.
Forgive me, but I LAUGHED when I saw the picture. :rofl: You would NOT believe the mistranslations, misinterpretations and gobbledegook that comes fron Asia. The site Engrish.com is a treasure trove of hilarity.

The world does NOT revolve around America or the "sensibilities" of its citizens. What goes around comes around.

Here's a jump-rope rhyme from my childhood:

Chinky, chinky Chinaman sitting on a fence
China makes a dollar out of 25 cents
I missa, I missa, I missa like thissa...

And the assistant manager, pissing his pants, screams "It's not my fault"--which may be true, but a little more graciousness was in order.

It's difficult to see how it's a translation error, unless someone, somewhere thought this was funny, and mislead the laborers.

One of the many--but less obviously-- shitty things about racism, especially racism toward blacks, is that it's deported via our media to other countries who otherwise would never, or very rarely be in contact with American Blacks

drives them out of business.

For so many reasons.

Starting with the jump to Obama's unelectability.
Then to Chinese racism, and the inferiority of Chinese manufacturing.
Next on to ignorant etymology.

Let us review...

- Exports often have poor translations (Coke, 'we bring your dead ancestors back to life' anyone?- Anyone think that Coke has a bigger translation budget that this sofa company in China?!)

- Niger (from the Latin) is as plausable as anything, as would be an uninformed use of the term 'nigger' but without knowing the American implications.


There is such a rash of anti-Chinese sentiment on DU is it getting to me. WTF?

I'm not even Chinese.

No manufacturer is that stupid to do something like that intentionally. But that's not to say that stupidity wasn't a catalyst here.

Looking at this objectively, a couple of things come to mind. First thing is that I don't think for a second this was placed intentionally with awareness of the racial connotations. To believe such would really be a stretch considering what that would mean from the company making the furniture. Sorry, but I just can't see any company truly doing that with intention. So with that out of the way, I have to arrive at some sort of personal explanation as to what did happen. My guess is that stupidity came into play with their fucked up translation processes. They were probably looking for the english translation of their black. It wouldn't be too far a stretch to think that they typed it into some online site looking for a translation and came across some racial one, unbeknown to them, that translated their word into nigger. What could possibly be even more likely is that they translated the word 'negro', which does mean black in some languages. Inquire about the american translation of negro and I think it would be readily apparent how the response back from some moron could be 'nigger'.

Now there could be other ways as well, such as merely asking an american or someone else fluent in both languages the translation, and that person themselves were racist and passed it on knowing that the manufacturers wouldn't know the better of it. I dunno. But there's still no doubt in my mind that however the manufactures came up with that label, it wasn't from their direct and intentional knowledge of using a racial and offensive description. It just wouldn't make any sense to me at all.

As if I needed one.

I said :wtf:

There was a brand of toothpaste with a racist cartoon (akin to something you would expect to see in the south 100 years ago) on the label. The toothpaste was called "Dar Kee".

(The premise of the product following the widely held Chinese belief that Africans have whiter teeth.)

This sofa label doesn't surprise me at all. In the case of the toothpaste, it would be hard to argue that the marketing was a 'mistake'.

At DU, it seems like most people make the naive assumption that racism and prevailing racist attitudes come primarily from caucasians in regards to people of other origins.

When I was thirteen, I spent a summer on the Salish Indian Reservation in Montana and heard some Native Americans making incredibly racist jokes about black people and using the same taboo word. That really opened my eyes.

Maybe the first step towards eliminating racist attitudes is accepting the fact its not only the 'white' people who can be guilty of it.

I remember when the griefstricken Camille Cosby accused white America of teaching racism to the Russian immigrant who killed her son--the Russian had used a racial epiteth. I taught immigrants and foreign students--including Russians, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Armenians, etc.-- for 10 years and you would be amazed at the racism that exists before they even land on our shores. Some of these students couldn't use the past tense to save their lives, but they knew how to use the N-word and lots of anti-female slurs in English. They didn't get it from me, their teachers, or American students (whom they couldn't speak with for the first few months anyway.) Don't ask me how these words and attitudes get around, but they do.

I lived in Hawaii for two years and the racism against Africans rivaled what I observed growing up in Georgia. And who could forget the startling racist comments Gumbel endured (about FloJo and her sister in law Jackie) during the Olympics in Korea?

between American cultural expectations (the n-word is NOT ACCEPTABLE) and the Chinese labelling its products for our market faster than they can find competent English speakers to translate them.

For insight, check out "May I Take Your Order?" at //www.rahoi.com/2006/03/may-i-take-your-order.php.

A comment on the article noted, 'Last summer I was in a spiffy modern supermarket in Taiyuan whose dried-foods aisle was helpfully labeled "Assorted Fuck." ' http://www.rahoi.com/2006/03/may-i-take-your-order.php#114176515755733102