This sign was posted on a playground in Milford, Delaware. The English version is quite clear, children need parental or guardian supervision to play. The Spanish version is also quite clear but carries a totally different message. It says,
"You must have a permit to play here or you will be subject to police action".
The bottom sign indicates there is video surveillance just in case any brown kids think they can dare to play on the playground without the proper "papers". I wonder what the signs on their water fountains say?
And then they ask, "Why does everyone dislike us?"
Scratch the surface and you just might find:
WTF? Livin in the USA
ReplyDeletehmmm............ ???
ReplyDeleteDark ages yes????
Sad.
ReplyDeleteFrom reading news articles, the signs have now been removed. They had been there for a year, so it seems nobody was all that worried about it. Given the inefficiencies of government, and the obvious typo, the whole thing was probably a bad error in translation to begin with.
ReplyDeleteFor example, when Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you". However, the company's mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant".
News articles do indicate the signs have been removed, but I don't buy that it was an "error in translation." Especially since only the Spanish portion threatened police action.
ReplyDeleteThere was an attempt to write it off as a Photoshop job on the original photo as well but then a right wing radio host drove to the location and double checked the sign. It was as is shown. Not even Google Translate could make that inaccurate a translation. No, this goes deeper.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't surprise me. Have you read 'Lies Across America'? Maybe the Daughters of the Confederacy helped with the sign.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reference, Pat. You and others might also like: "Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority", by Tim Wise.
DeleteI believe that until the fabric of the USA is cleaned of its historic racism, the need to hate others will continue to percolate.
I don't believe that sign was a mistake in translation either or they would simply have put up a new one with the correct translation rather than taking them all down.
ReplyDelete