This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
to preach the leaves off the trees
the mix and match
Dec 21, 2008 05:42
15 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

the black and blue

English Other Marketing / Market Research
Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century. Mighty is the mongrel. The hybrid is hip. The impute, the melange, the adulterated, the belimished, the rough, the black and blue, the mix and match - these people are inheriting the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic groth and empowers nations.
Responses
4 +1 mainly describes someone or something that has been through a bad time
5 Queers
3 +1 Several solutions -- or all of them at once
2 underdogs / the beaten up

Discussion

Alexandra Taggart Dec 22, 2008:
not a man, not a woman It would be soft and appropriate.
Mohamed Elsayed (asker) Dec 21, 2008:
I probably should have mentioned earlier The context text is a quotation within a marketing book. It appears on the first page of a chapter titled "Getting inside the heads of intelligent customers".
juvera Dec 21, 2008:
Nothing wrong with diversity but "mongrel, hybrid, melange, adulterated" means the opposite tendency.
Using the car example; the Ford Model T wasn't the only car of the era. There was good diversity from Packard, Cadillac, Austin, Chevrolet, Rolls-Roice. Eventually hybridisation, mixing of ideas made some of them looking more and more similar, and their functions more similar. If one manufacturer came up with a unique idea, sooner or later the others copied it.

Diversity is a sound business idea, but the author shoots it down with the glorification of hybridisation.
Mohamed Elsayed (asker) Dec 21, 2008:
Right on the money, Rita The author is seeking to emphasize that customers are coming in different sizes and shapes, more demanding, seeking best prices not as things used to be a 100 years ago, when a new car buyer would be more than happy to buy a Ford Model T, a model that hardly changed in decades. This kind of diversity made customers less predictable.
RHELLER Dec 21, 2008:
there is no confusion whatsoever Diversity is used here in the human resources sense of the word.
http://faculty.washington.edu/janegf/businesscasediversity.p...

Top five business reasons for diversity:
1) Better utilization of talent
2) Increased marketplace understanding
3) Enhanced breadth of understanding in leadership positions
4) Enhanced creativity
5) Increased quality of team problem-solving
Alexandra Taggart Dec 21, 2008:
Diversity You are right, Juvera. "Diversity" came from a different opera, it belongs to "species, genetics, evolution, etc".
juvera Dec 21, 2008:
Diversity defines... in a new century. ...and: "The hybrid is hip... Mixing is the new norm."
The author seems to be confused. Diversity is minimalised by hybridisation, melange, mix and match, etc.
Sorry, I know that this doesn't help you with the translation, but I just couldn't let it go by.
Gary D Dec 21, 2008:
black skin, Blue blood (royality)

Responses

+1
3 hrs

Several solutions -- or all of them at once


The author may very well mean any or ALL of these solutions: the two above (see 1st reference) plus one more, below (2nd reference) .

What a variety of things those colors have come to represent!

Torture and Democracy - Google Books Result
by Darius M. Rejali - 2007 - Political Science - 849 pages
He hand-sewed the Leather Pride Flag (1989), ***the black-and-blue flag with the red heart that is ubiquitous in gay pride parades today***. ...
www.books.google.fr/books?isbn=0691114226...

And in politics: Afro-Americans, plus the people of blue regions/states (representing the areas that vote primarily for Democrats)

"Like almost any Chicago pol, Obama has always favored (gulp) gun control. He may be from Hawaii (more the Far East than West anyway), but he cut his teeth at Harvard Law, and found his home (both physical and spiritual) in ***the black (and blue) communities*** of the East and Midwest."
The New President and the New West | Politics | New West Politics
4 Nov 2008 ..
www.newwest.net/city/article/the_new_president_and_the_new_...
Peer comment(s):
agree Tina Vonhof (X) : And in addition, I think the author was also looking for a good alliteration.
10 hrs
I agree with you: the author is using stylistic devices to help make his point.
Something went wrong...
+1
16 mins

mainly describes someone or something that has been through a bad time

when bruised, we say we are "black and blue"; it's not a pretty color pair and mainly describes someone or something that has been through a bad time. The author is quoted at the website below.
Hope that helps.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2008-12-21 16:38:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Note: The author is in California and so am I.
Reference:

http://www.gpascalzachary.com/

Peer comment(s):
agree chaman4723 : Simple and understandable.
11 hrs
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

Queers

Mighty is the mongrel - the majority are of mixed race; The hibrid is hip - mixed race representative is in fashion; The impute - adaptable; the melange - cultural mixture(without tradition); the adulterated - spoiled; the belimished=blemished - with stained reputation; the rough - with no elegance in their manners; the black and blue - lesbians and homosexuals; the mix and match - of the same kind/types mixes with the different types and vice versa

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2008-12-21 08:47:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The mix and match - the author has meant the parties and banquetes, where all different types of people are mixed in one swam: lesbians are meeting homosexuals and the straight are happy to join them.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2008-12-21 09:01:45 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

BLACK - a "man-woman" normally appears in a black suit/black biker's wear; BLUE - is the a favourite colour of art loving homosexual

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2008-12-21 10:48:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

mixed in one swam-swarm

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2008-12-21 16:07:25 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"black skin, blue blood" -they are blue blood blacks. When first time I have heard:"He is black" - I thought they are talking about a black bloke, "he" happened to be "she" and Chinese. Homosexuals are called "blue" not in US only. If these words would be "the black and THE blue" and from a different text - I would understand them: people from Africa (third world) and Black Americans ( who always mind themselves as something super, brand, blue). But the text is telling abot a hybrid, a mutant in everything - race, culture and sexual orientation.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2008-12-21 16:26:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Mixing trumps isolation - mixing celebrates over segregation

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2008-12-21 18:57:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

One more suggestion: Police Academy film "Blue Oyster", but, unfortunately, to understand what is "black" (police uniform) and "blue" it would be necessary to watch.

http://dvd.ciao.co.uk/Police_Academy_Wide_Screen__Review_514...
Peer comment(s):
neutral RHELLER : you may be correct because the text is vague but this term is no longer considered politically correct
8 hrs
Something went wrong...
34 days

underdogs / the beaten up

In my knowledge, 'black and blue' originally refers to slaves of African origin (=black) that were forced to toil in indigo fields (=blue dye) in the New World. The term describes a dire situation without a chance of escape that caused melancholy bordering on despair ('I've got the blues').
The alternative meaning 'beaten up' relates to dark bruises under the skin.
In both cases, the group of people can be describe as 'underdogs' that have suffered pain.
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search