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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Tim Courtney writes:
>
> I would gather that the reason you found no black people represented was
> because you were looking at European catalogs - where the percentage of the
> black population is far less, and where a lot less racism exists. There are
I wonder about this. I tend to believe that no matter where you find
people, you find the same basic human tendencies. One of those,
unfortunately, happens to be prejudice (not just limited to racism).
Based upon that I would expect to find as much prejudice of some form
or other in Europe as in the USA or anywhere else. I'm no sociologist
or whatever you'd call someone who studies this stuff, but it's my
theory. I have heard from wholly unofficial sources :] that France
and Germany could be described as "intolerant" countries, and thus
have a very low "visible minority" population. That's probably
complete bull, but just an example of how prejudice could be just
as prevalent in other parts of the world as in the USA. The type
and prominence is probably just different. Religious prejudice
certainly seems to run rampant world-wide.
Another thing I thought of while reading this thread. I noticed
that "minority" in the USA tends to almost exclusively mean "black".
Thus discussions surrounding racial issues in the USA seem to
ignore other groups, such as Hispanics, Asians, Aboriginals,
Antarcticans, etc. :] As a Canadian working in the USA, I just
find this very noticeable and somewhat interesting. In Canada its
generally a much more generic reference to all groups. I thought
of mentioning this because of the headcounting in TLC publications
for representitives of one group but not of any others.
As to minifig design..., I wish TLC had stayed with the original[1]
smiley. They were completely generic, and always smiling :] I
don't think anyone would ever be *that* yellow unless they were
ill, so it was pretty generic. The uniformity I think helped
avoided any issues of racial inequity in their products. Mind
you it also squishes the beauty of diversity..., but I'm not
sure the typical LEGO user (profile, age 10 :] ) is thinking
about all that anyhow. I know I didn't. Now the minifigs are
getting colours/facial features that portray those physical
differences. I dunno..., it's a minefield either way. I still
prefer the basic smiley.
[1] "original", while still acknowledging those minifigs that
had no faces, and no articulated limbs for that matter.
KDJ
________________________________________________________
Kyle D. Jackson, LUGNETer #203, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Concerns with Racial Attitudes and Lego
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| (lugnet.general taken off the list) (...) Unfortunately, yes. And certainly *not* limited to racism. This applies to everything from clothes and artificial appearance to manner of speech, body structure, certain ticks or subconcious movements (1). (...) (24 years ago, 17-Sep-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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