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Apples black mark
2007 August 23
There are some things in life that can be passed off as a simple error, but using the term "nigger" ("neger" in Danish) when referring to the color of a computer product on your company web site is not one of them.
I’m referring to a story in "Nyhedsavisen" (a free newspaper in Denmark) from the 22 August, which states that last Tuesday, users of Apples web site in Denmark were able to choose between the colors "white" or "nigger" for a "batterieopladingsprogram" (battery recharging program) for a 13 inch MacBook. You can see a scanned version of the story on the right hand side of this blog post, but the blog linked blog post is more detailed.
These options were not available to other users of Apples web site, just those from Denmark. Everybody else just had the options "white" or "black". The issue was fixed on Thursday afternoon, but what really gets me is Apples explanation of how this occurred.
According to Apples communication chief (kommunkationschef) Frederik Hallstan it was a mistake ("fejl").
How can this be an mistake?
I just don’t understand it.
Gitte Petersen from ScanText raised the possibility that it could have been an error caused by a translator only having access to parts of the whole text he should translate and then would not know if the translation for "black" referred to a person or a color.
Men oversætterfirmaet Scantext har et bud på, hvad der kan være gået galt. For det behøver nemlig ikke at dreje sig om en fejl ved en maskinel oversættelse, forklarer projektkoordinator Gitte Petersen.
- Det kan være, at oversætteren bare har fået brudstykker af teksten, og dermed har han ikke været klar over, om det drejede sig om et menneske eller en farve, gætter Gitte Petersen.
While this is an interesting possibility I seriously doubt that there is anybody stupid enough to, without context, translate the word black to "nigger". I further doubt that if a translator were working on only portions of text, that there would not be somebody involved who would not only assemble the entire text but proof read it before it got placed on the company web site.
As far as I know, Apple have stated they will investigate how this occurred. But forto me, I would expect a little more from Apple executives than that, because as far as I know they have not apologized for it.
In many ways Apple are very fortunate that this "mistake" occurred on the Danish version of their site, which has relatively low traffic, in comparison to, say, the U.S. version..
Original image (MacBook) from Avisen.dk
11 Responses
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Wow! I wonder how that mistake could have happened? That is terrible for Apple, and the explanations you posted do not at all satisfy me.
But I do have to ask – Did you buy a white or black one?
Rex
Yip! This slip of the tongue is going to hurt someone’s career.
@Rex, sorry to disappoint but I’m still a PC/linux guy.. no matter how flaky Vista is..
Paul – Faux Pas? One would think in this day and age that an egregious error, such as this, would not occur regardless of a ‘translation mistake’. Is there no one in Denmark who is conversant with the English language? Might heads roll?
Hey Morgan. I haven’t ever referred to this as faux pas!
There are plenty of folks here who are fluent in English. Everybody learns it in school and I know some Danish English speakers who speak english better than some native english speakers..
I wouldn’t even contemplate the possibility that this was a mistake. Gitte Petersen from ScanText puts forward a possibility but it’s so remote and unlikely that it can almost be discounted immediately.
It’s more likely that this was the act of a disgruntled employee or such looking to cause a few problems for Apple..
Paul,
My opening was a question – not a quote from you or the story. Sorry I wasn’t clearer. My comment about the possible lack of Danish people conversant with the English language was tongue in cheek. Hope Apple finds the person responsible.
Faux Pas was purely my wording, trying to temper the Apple crowd when submitting of Digg whilst still get the news out.
It doesn’t have to be used in a social sense, it can just be used as a “blunder” – maybe that would have been a better word in hindsight.
I am an expat, and you sometimes lose vocabular agility if you have been abroad a long time. (one of the benefits of blogging)
Thanks for the Digg Andy. I’m with you on the entire loss of vocabulary thing. Sometimes I spend ages trying to remember to find words that used to come so easy to me before…
Hey Morgan, no problem. See, language problems raise their ugly heads again
And yes, I too hope heads roll for this…
I have to concur with Gitte; it could only have been a translation error, hopefully due to machine translation, because in this case there’s enough context in the tiniest fragment for even a marginally competent human translator to make the right decision. Unfortunately people still tend to believe that just because a computer program printed something out, it must be correct, and especially in the translation industry that’s more often than not a very dangerous assumption. Volumes could be filled with the hilarious translation errors made by humans and computers alike, albeit often with costly or even tragic consequences.
But you can’t fault the person or company supplying the translation, because they either a) already have a reputation for producing bad quality at any cost and don’t care or b) did the translation in good faith, having been fooled by their own certification (translators in Denmark are certified to translate in both directions, which should raise all sorts of red flags) and/or the customer’s obvious willingness to pay bottom dollar for their services into thinking that they were capable of taking on the job. As is all too often the case, it was some credulous bean counter’s decision to save a few Danish crowns that has proven so costly.
Also, not to say that Denmark is exactly a hotbed of political correctness, but my understanding is that the term ‘neger’ does not bear with it all of the negative connotations of the n-word in English, even though the two words may have shared etymology at some time in the past.
Thanks for your comments Erich!
Judging from the comments on the Nyhedsavisen site (linked in the post) I would say “neger” carries with it more than enough negative connotations here in Denmark.
But I’ll agree with you, my Canadian friend, that it may not be as bad as actually saying “nigger” in English.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed the Danish youth have a habit of integrating a lot of English/American “pop culture” words into their daily speach and “nigger” is one of them.
So with that in mind “negger” may be marginally less offensive.
Either way, it’s still damn embarrassing for Apple and I’m amazed at how little coverage it’s gotten considering how regularly Apple related news is invented to satiate the Apple following..