Saturday, October 10, 2015

el negro redux

When I posted before about how to translate 'el negro' used as a nickname I said that blackie didn't seem like a great option, but I've noticed that they use it in the tv show Narcos and though the show is so problematic in general (see this great critique of it) in retrospect I think it might sometimes be ok to translate it that way.  Yes, it's offensive, and sounds like 40s or 50s US English, but then, race relations in Colombia sometimes feel like they're in the 40s or 50s and I don't think it's the translator's job to hide or soften that.