Stupid, incompetent and racist

I recently discovered something appalling in the dictionary we use at school - a dictionary I think is in widespread use all over Norway. It is called "English blue dictionary" and it is published by Kunnskapsforlaget, a well reputed joint venture between two of Norway's leading publishing houses, Gyldendal and Aschehoug, so you'd think it would be a fairly reliable and decent product.

Well, you'd be wrong.

In the newest version we have at school, printed in 2000, they have translated the English term "hack work" into Norwegian "litterært niggerarbeid" - which directly translated back into English means "Literary nigger work". Yes, that's right. The n-word. Admittedly it has the abbreviation "neds." for "nedsettende", the Norwegian equivalent of "derogatory", but STILL.

In an earlier version they'd also translated "drudgery" into "niggerarbeid", but they've changed that in the 2000 edition to Norwegian "slit" or "strev", which are correct translations, and in addition they have added "fig. slavearbeid", that is, it has the figurative meaning of "slave work".

Now, if they could find a non-racist term for "drudgery", why not for "hack work"? How is it possible that presumably enlightened, educated people can use the term "nigger" as recently as the year 2000, in a dictionary meant for high schoolers all over Norway, a country we locals like to think of as both tolerant and civilized...?