2019.01.18

周五 Friday

vaguely /'veigli/ 

adv. 模糊地

I want to know who was in the room at Prada when they decided to launch little monkey keychains with black faces and red lips. 

我很想知道，当Prada决定推出这种黑脸+红唇的猴子钥匙链的时候，是什么人在拍板做决定。

Did the executives who greenlit these products think these monkeys were just adorable, in a kind of Paul Frank circa early-2000s way?

那些批准这些产品的高管难道觉得这些猴子很可爱吗？像2000年初的保罗猴一样？

Was there no one in that gorgeously decorated boardroom who thought, “Huh. You know, this is vaguely reminiscent of blackface?”

难道那间富丽堂皇的董事会会议室里就没有人想到“额，这有点像以前的假黑人妆”？

Clearly not. Prada has just launched a new line called Pradamalia, a set of figurines in the shape of “mysterious creatures” that were developed at Prada Labs, the company’s design department. 

显然，并没有。Prada依旧推出了这套叫Pradamalia的系列，这是一套“神秘生物”造型的小人像，是在Prada的设计部门“Prada实验室”里研发的。

But actually, the black monkey called Otto is not really that mysterious. Anybody who is familiar with history will immediately recognize this character, as it immediately draws to mind many hurtful stereotypes that have been directed at black people through racist blackface portrayals and references to monkeys.

但是说真的，那只叫Otto的黑色猴子并没有多么神秘。任何一个对历史比较熟悉的人都能马上认出它，它让人一眼就联想起很多曾经施加在黑人身上的刻板印象，很伤人的那种——那种充满种族主义的假黑人妆以及与猴子进行的类比。

After a Facebook user posted photos of these trinkets on display at Prada’s New York store–and pointed out how racist they were–Prada appeared to respond by taking down the display. In a statement, the brand said that it is withdrawing the monkey from display and circulation.

一位Facebook用户在Prada的纽约店铺拍下了这些小装饰品的照片，说它们真的很种族主义；这之后Prada把这些产品下架了，似乎是在回应这件事。在一项声明中，该品牌声称自己已经对那些在展示与流通中的猴子进行了召回。

And yet it still denies that it had any connection to blackface: “Prada Group abhors racist imagery,” the statement says. “The Pradamalia are fantasy charms composed of elements of the Prada oeuvre. They are imaginary creatures not intended to have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface.”

不过他们依旧否认这和假黑人妆有任何关联，他们的那份声明说：“Prada痛恨种族主义。Pradamalia是融合了Prada经典作品的梦幻饰品。这些想象中的生物并不是用来反映现实世界的，所以当然和假黑人妆没有联系。”

今日词汇

vaguely /'veigli/ 

adv. 模糊地

这个词表示“模糊地”、“似有若无地”。

I can vaguely remember my first day at school.

我还依稀记得我第一天上学的情景。

另外它也能表示一个人“心不在焉”：

He smiled vaguely, ignoring her questions.

他心不在焉地笑了笑，没有体会她的问题。

它的形容词原型是 vague：

She's a little vague about her plans for next year.

她对她明年的计划不怎么明确。