Am I the only one a little put off by the NBA Jersey changes celebrating their "third annual Noche Latina event — a program that recognizes the NBA's fans and players from across Latin America and U.S. Hispanic communities."
In theory, the celebration of diversity sounds great. The "Noche Latina" patches for the event are expected and a normal promotional addition to any jersey. However, where things get a little hazy for me is the name changes on the jerseys themselves. Or...name additions. Is it just me or is the addition of, and only of, the word "Los" to the team names a bit stereotypical and offensive? Why didn't they change the names to their full Spanish translation? Nueva York kind of works... but El Heat? Los Rockets? Los Bulls?! COME ON! They might as well have said Los Rocketos! How about Los Toros? Sounds more appropriate to me. In fact, the original jerseys don't even have the word "the." And its not like they just added the word to the existing shirts, these are brand new templates.
I support the celebration of different cultures... but not in a half assed manner that comes off more as mockery.
1 comment:
Actually, team names or brand names and the like aren't usually changed when you talk about them in another language. I know lots of Spanish speaking people who are fans of "Los Lakers" around here. If you were talking about a Mexican team called Los Toros, you would probably refer to that team as "the Toros" if you were speaking about them in English, not "the Bulls."
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