Last week, we published an article called, "Efficiency: It’s Not Just for Production Monkeys." The title referred to a designer who said that efficiency "is for production monkeys."
It seemed obvious to me that the designer’s insult marked him or her as a roaring idiot for two reasons: One, willfully choosing to be inefficient is a really dumb move, and two, production people are little short of miracle workers. Many designers’ print and Web projects would never make it past their desktops without the intervention of production people. They’re like translators who can bridge two very different worlds.
A few days after the article first appeared, a reader told me he was offended because the author of the article didn’t state that "production monkey" is demeaning and racist. I knew "monkey" disparaged production people’s skills, though I thought it went without saying that the term reflected badly on the person who said it. I should have taken into account the fact that many people don’t recognize the worth of good production, which makes this a hot-button issue.
I hadn’t considered "monkey" a racist term in this context, but of course it often is used as such, which should have made me more alert to it in any context.
I want to apologize on both accounts, and I’d like to turn my judgment error into something positive: a discussion involving you. To take part, please click on the sentence "Respond to this article," which is underneath the Vox Box icon to the left.
This article was last modified on June 19, 2020
This article was first published on July 16, 2007
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