Listen to the post
Subscribe to the podcast
-
–
- Scene from the 1992 film “Kevin – Alone in New York” with actors Macaulay Culkin (left), Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. (imago images / United Archives / TBM)
In the German version of the Christmas classic “Kevin – Alone in New York” the N-word is used, but nothing of this is heard in the English-language original. The actress Thelma Buabeng protested against the dubbed version on Netflix.
If the N-word is used in a film or a book, one is embarrassed and then wonders whether it is a difficult-to-change text from another time. Now there is a current example that really leaves you in doubt: the judgment of those responsible in the dubbing studios.
It’s about the second “Kevin” film, “Kevin alone in New York” from 1992. Actress Thelma Buabeng saw it on Netflix in the Christmas program – only to be amazed: In a film scene in the German version, the N-word appears before, but it is not used in the original English text.
Buabeng does not know what those responsible for the German translation in the early 1990s thought. Perhaps they assumed in the dubbing studio that N-Word was funnier than a true-to-original translation of the English film text that speaks of a darker skin color, she says.She could hardly explain it any other way. If the people acting at the time had been aware that this word is racist and offensive to people with black skin, they probably would not have used it, the actress speculates.
“The N-word was also racist 30 years ago”
At the beginning of the year, Buabeng had drawn attention to this via her Instagram channel: “How can it be that a German dubbing studio comes up with completely unnecessary racist translations for a children or family film.” Other users then made them aware of other such cases.
But she also received a lot of hate messages from people who “apparently have a problem with this N-word being synced out”. The N-word has always been a consciously racist term, even 30 years ago, “which one was not allowed to use even then,” said Buabeng. –
