”This Negro product being sold in the Swedish supermarket chain ICA doesn’t pave a linguistic standard to be considered acceptable,” says Fokumlah S. Nchungong in this debate article about not-so-innocent post-colonial words.
Don’t ravel me as being sentimentally inclined to innocent words sprouting from a foreign language. International marketing should have precautionary paradigms towards global clientele satisfaction. This ”Negro” product being sold in ICA shops doesn’t pave a linguistic standard to be considered acceptable.
Black it is! word- Yes, but no to the contextual implications it might infringe on the customer’s psychological histography based on the lexicography of the word.
”Buy me five packs of NEGROS when you go grocery shopping”,
”Where did you buy those NEGROS from? they are delicious.”,
”Can I please have some of those NEGROS?”,
”Who brought the NEGRO l see on the dinner table?”.
Gravitropism might be an unseen under-root notion of this derogatory wordification, but what we see above is senseless, unthoughtful, and absurd.
I’m just imagining that board members in a company, which will comprise branding associates, advertising agencies, marketing directors, and production chain line members- had no clue when validating ”NEGRO” as a brand mark for international marketing.
Questionable that ICA as a global retailing unit with a supposedly universally friendly standard of word consciousness will validate this brand in their shops. A conscious approval to misappropriation of words.
Take this product out of the market or rebrand!
An innocent customer might offer this product as a treat, gift, donation, or alms – with good intentions. Yes! Maybe a good intention, but the interpretations of the branding name ”Negro”, after a mind reflection can be substituted for the word itself. Really?, Thanks. But are you serious? I am not the taste of a Negro.
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