Canadian Family Shocked by "Nigger-Brown" Furniture from China

By Anastacia Mott Austin

A black family living in Brampton, Toronto, received an unexpected delivery along with their new living room sofa set: racist furniture.

When Doris Moore bought her couch and loveseat set from Vanaik Furniture, she liked the rich, dark brown color. After it was delivered, Moore’s 7-year-old daughter Olivia was practicing her reading skills and couldn’t make out the word used on the label to describe the color. In an interview with the Toronto Star Moore explained, "She’s very curious and she started reading the labels. She said, ‘Mommy, what is nig…ger brown?’ I went over and just couldn’t believe my eyes."

The label was used on all of the furniture they’d received. Moore telephoned the furniture store several times to complain, but her calls were not returned.

The Toronto Star then interviewed the store’s assistant manager, Romesh Kumar, who blamed the supplier. Kumar refused to take responsibility for the egregious mistake: "Why should I take the blame? I’m a trader." The store owner, Romesh Vanaik, claimed to not be aware of the racial slur’s meaning. "It’s amazing. I’ve been here since 1972 and I never knew the meaning of this word."

The supplier, Toronto-based Cosmos Furniture owner Paul Kumar (no relation to Romesh Kumar), also denied responsibility, and suggested that Moore call the manufacturing company located in Guangzhou, China.

Eventually, the problem was blamed on a faulty Chinese-to-English computer translation program. The program is made by Kingsoft Corp, a Beijing-based software company. In a phone interview, Kingsoft representative Huang Luoyi explained that when the words "dark brown" are typed into the program in Chinese, the N-word appears as a translation. Huang told reporters, "I know this is a very bad word. We got the definition from a Chinese-English dictionary. We’ve been using the dictionary for 10 years. Maybe the dictionary was updated, but we probably didn’t follow suit."

In the updated version of the program, the offensive translation no longer appears when changing from Chinese to English. However, when the N-word is typed into the program in English, the Chinese characters still appear as "dark brown."

This explanation held no water for Doris Moore. "They should know what they’re typing, even if it is a software error. In order for something to come into the country, don’t they read it first? Doesn’t the manufacturer? The supplier?" She was unhappy at being forced to explain a racist epithet to her young daughter, adding, "I never thought that’s how she’d learn of that word. It was tough, because she really didn’t understand. She’s never heard that word before."

Moore has filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and is seeking legal advice. "Something more has to be done. We don’t just need a personal apology, but someone needs to own up to where these labels were made, and someone needs to apologize to all people of color," said Moore.

She added that she is not sure whether to keep the offending furniture, even with the labels removed. She says that every time she sits on it, she can’t help but think of the upsetting incident.