Family Outraged by Racial Slur Found on Sofa Label
THE DISCOVERY
The Mississauga, Canada couple was shocked when their seven year-old daughter curiously examined the furniture and began reading the labels underneath.
"Mommy, what is n*gger brown?" she asked.
Doris Moore, a 30 year-old black woman originally from New York was shocked.
"I went over and just couldn't believe my eyes," Moore proclaimed. The label, which was detected by her daughter shortly after the delivery men left, read as follows:
Item: Abby
Description: Sofa
Color: N*gger-brown
PO No: HSO601-07
Net Weight: 67 kg
Gross Weight: 75.4 kg
Doris Moore also claims that an examination of the furniture set's other pieces (loveseat and chair) revealed the same vulgar description as the sofa.
NO ONE TAKES THE BLAME...
Moore, who has another daughter and son, has admitted that the offensive word has never been directed to her. But she attempted to explain the nature of the word to her children, who were unfamiliar with its meaning. She explained to them that it's a "very, very bad word that makes [one] feel degraded."
The day after the discovery was made, Moore says that she called Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store, where the purchase was made, to address the issue. But her phone call was unreturned. At least three other calls were made to the store. Those were unreturned as well.
The Star, a news publication in Canada was able to reach Vanaik Furniture store's assistant manager, Romesh Kumar for his response. However, he deferred responsibility to the sofa supplier, Cosmos Furniture---and advised Moore that she would need to take the matter up with that company.
The owner of Cosmos Furniture, Paul Kumar (no relation to Romesh) was contacted. But he denied any knowledge of the racial slur, and advised Moore that his products were obtained from overseas in China.
Both companies, Cosmos and Vanaik Furniture have vowed to examine other pieces of furniture in their stores to make sure than any other vulgar labels are removed. In the meanwhile, Doris Moore and her family are reluctant to enjoy the furniture.
"Every time I sit on it, I'll think of that." Moore declares about the distasteful discovery.
Published by Ayanna Guyhto - Featured Contributor in Arts & Entertainment
Transplanted New Yawwwker (Bronx, NY), now living in fabulous Atlanta - plunged into the music industry several years ago; Indie Flick Junkie, lover of all things paranormal--who has a penchant for mindless... View profile
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18 Comments
Post a CommentA. B. Madyun used a racial slur when calling anonymous "boy":
"It's 2007 pal. You'd better smell the coffee, boy."
One of my good friends just got fired for using this word in response to being called a "cracker"... Furthermore, a black friend of his said that "boy" isn't a racial slur... I don't know...
Well you know the way I see it is she is giving power to the racist slur if it is a slur. Yes we are talking about a color and some countries still use Negro as a description of a color with no intent of being degrading. I think she should get her money back and go out and buy another set if it bothers her. I'm tired of seeing and hearing African American crybabies trying to bottom feed every chance they get. I cut most of my tags off but then again I'm not the kinda guy that runs around with a price tag hanging on a new hat anyway. Where's the pride in always being in the limelight of a lawsuit anyway. Looks to me like she's raising a generation of sewers there. Besides, black folk call each other negro millions of times a day without a thought of it's impact on the comunity. And where's her kids been all this time, under a rock? She's just out to get what she can for being a woman of color. Everyone see's her agenda and that's why they don't bother returning her calls.
I'm not sure that the "Anonymous" guy who said the lady goes on and on really understood what the lady really said. Did you read her comment, pal? Or did you just look at the pictures after somebody told you what she said? And, for you to suggest that the lady is hung up on freebies, and needs to worry about putting food on the table to feed her children, instead of slinging crack is just a continuation of the degrading act of the subject of this discussion. You must know this lady personally. Otherwise, your pre judgment of her is unwarranted, and is a very ignorant statement to make concerning someone you have never met in your life. It sounds like a racial statement stereotyping a black person. How do you know whether she isn't white, or Chinese, or middle Eastern. It really doesn't make any difference. It's 2007 pal. You'd better smell the coffee, boy. The day of the 'good ol' boys" is over. If you haven't learned how to co-habitate with people of other cultures, maybe you should t
This lady is going on and on. yes it was a mistake that should never have happened; However, this lady just will not drop it. shes a definite freebie seeker. money money money. thats the bottom line. the supplier should give her a few dollars so that she can afford to put a decent meal on the table instead of her ever so valiant attempts at slinging crack and selling herself for the food and clothing her children require. thats what shes after. And that is what is most sickening of it all in regards to this matter.
yes its awful but as Jay lLno ofetn shows on The Tonight Show in America the Chinese translation of things into English often suffers. Thats what happens when you translate a language that has 1000's of characters into a language that only has 26 letters total. Having known a couple of people that have done translations for court and got paid great money for it. I know the reason they got paid the big bucks was the ability to look at many choices for translations and pick the one that made the most sense and was the correct translation. How can one who works in a factory in China probally making less than 2 bucks a hour be expected to be a superior translator and know that the translation was wrong. Considering with all the different dialects of Chinese that exist sometimes people in one village next to another village have trouble communicating because they speak different dialects of the same language. I mean really it was a mistake fix it and move on. I would also wonder why no ones
Just what do you mean by "you guys" anyway??? ATTACK!!!!!!!
I currently work in Shanghai at a company that helps Chinese manufactures advertise. This is a translation problem that I've seen before. There is a popular translation software, called PowerWord (Company: Kingsoft), that translates the Chinese for "Dark Brown" into "Nigger Brown" in English. There are a few other slurs in there too: "Irish Diamond" instead of "Crystal", for example. It's unintentional, but in any case a poor job of quality control on the part of the US company.
Lost in translation is what happened. Many of you are acting like this was intentional. And who would ever think to, if they worked at a furniture store, double check their deliveries for racial slurs? This incident is very unfortunate, but you guys need to put the pitchforks down.
Have to admit my first thought was "Scam", but if it's real, I think dreahwrites probably hit the nail on the head - a case of "mistranslation" that definitely should have been caught by the importer!!
This is downright ridiculous. What year are we in again? 2007?