Subject:
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Re: who's feelin the black pack?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.starwars
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Date:
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Mon, 7 Aug 2000 19:10:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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1018 times
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In lugnet.starwars, Jason Rowoldt writes:
> In lugnet.starwars, Damien Nesbit writes:
> > O.k., O.k., I agree, poor chice of politicians to name on my part. But
> > why is it so hard to convince the lugnet community of the politicization of
> > toys?
>
> Because toys should not be politicized. I have a feeling you are just someone
> bored who is trolling, but I'll bite because I believe this is an important
> issue.
>
> If you are arguing an ideology, take it all the way. What is your ultimate
> objective here? Equality? A sense of fairness in the toys?
>
> You mentioned that Mattel, for example, makes non-white Barbies. This is a
> valid point. If I were, for example, a white parent, and all of the popular
> dolls were "dark-skiined", I might want a white doll that my child could
> identify with. It would not be imperperitive for me personally, but I
> understand the rational. However, toy companies certainly have no obligation
> to do so. There are a side variety of toys out there. If you don't like it,
> don't buy it. It is wonderful how well this works.
>
> LEGO is a completely different "toy" (I use the word loosely in deference to
> many opinions here). The "peach" or "caucasian flesh" color would certainly • be
> easy for them to make. It must have been a conscious choice for them to make
> the skin of the minifigs yellow. I stand by LEGO in their decision to so far
> NOT politicize their toys. Notice that the heads you mentioned "Darth Maul",
> for example, is an existing color. Do you really want to see a black head • with
> a white smiley face? Do you want them to mold a new color? Use brown? All
> of these, in my opinion, are ridiculous.
>
> Leave the minifigs yellow. It is a neutral color that does not really exist • in
> the spectrum of human skin. If your objective is to have no one race be
> discriminated against, this will be your solution. If it is to push a fanatic
> agenda and stir up confrontation, keep pushing the "other than yellow" skin
> tones of minifigs.
>
> I for one like my LEGOS equal, non-politicized, non-raced, and neutral. At
> least something can be.
>
>
> Jason
First things first, jay, I really want to curse you out for your condescending
remark that I am "just [...] bored [and] trolling." To insinuate that I'd try
to stir up controversy around this issue without being heavily invested in
lego toys or racial politics is offensive as it undermines the validity of my
opinion. Meanwhile, your opinions are made to seem that much more valid
because you "believe that this is an important issue." But I will refrain
from using profanity within the lugnet forum and simply state that if I did
not believe that this was an important issue, I would not bring it up
continuously on the lugnet newsgroups. Lego or racial politics may not be the
most important things in my life, but they do play a large role. And while
the inclusion of DSM's (dark skinned minifigs) may not affect the playability
of the toy (lego will after all continue to function as a jouet de
construction without them), it really upsets me that TLG would try to market a
Star Wars line while ignoring it's black heroes. It's simply f@#%ed-up on
TLG's part. (And don't think that as I've watched this debate unfold on lugnet
that I haven't been wondering how Lucasfilm can be okay with this situation --
my next move is to email people within their ranks about this issue).
As per your other comments, let's go down the line:
Toys have been political, since the inception of the rag-doll or the toy
soldier, or the stick imagined to be a sabre by the young children in days of
old. As they thrust and parry that stick-sabre, don't they imagine themselves
to be some type of hero (or anti-hero as some cases may be) with some type of
greater moral agenda? "A-ha, I'll rescue the princess from the evil baron and
free the peasant farmers from their oppressive overlord." Let us also not
forget that it is Star War's political/philosophical morals that make it a
timeless tale and not it's dazzling special effects. And since the Star Wars
tale is inherently politicized, so are the toys that it's spawned. As far as
TLG's "conscious" descision to "not politicize" their toys, ever since they
moved away from the basic town themed system sets and into the space sub-
themes (i.e. futuron, blacktron, and the Space Police) they have become
increasingly political. The Knights vs. the Forrestmen, or the Imperial
soldiers vs. the pirates, or the classic tale of genocide and ethnic
cleansing, Cowboys and Indians. How does one ignore the political foundations
of these sets?
I guess that I am arguing a few different ideologies here. One is of racial
equality with a focus on investigating the effect that the popular media's
portrayal of minorities has on the greater population's perception of this
issue. And a second ideology represented here is such that believes that one
can not examine popular media without including playthings (such as action
figures or video games) in their overview. So what are my overall
objectives? Mainly to get TLG to produce Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu
minifigs (I only suggested Panaka because he helps to complete the trio of
black characters in the star wars storyline, and makes it easier to release a
minifig 3 pack with all black characters -- but to argue that he is an
unimportant character doesn't hold up when you consider the amount of camera
time he gets in episode 1 -- he certainly isn't the most important, but he's
queen amidala's security captain and bodyguard for a reason). My other goal
is to bring toy companies to realize the amount of political influence that
their products have, and to convince them to weild that power in a positive
manner. What do you think would constitute taking this "all the way", jay?
Going to the media? Going to lucasfilm, or to politicians? I'm really hoping
that we (lego users and TLG), can resolve this issue on our own without
escalating the problem to a media circus, but if that is what it's gonna take,
I geuss it's what i have to be prepared to do in order to bring this issue to
the forefront of TLG's agenda.
No, I don't want to see a black headpiece with white details (at least not as
representations of SW characters). What exactly do you mean when you say that
the Darth Maul head was "an existing color?" Is that to say that it's okay to
have a Darth Maul head because undetailled headpieces were available in black
prior to the release of his minifig? Well, thanks to the references made to
set 215 and the red headpieces, I'm hoping that you can see the error in your
reasoning. And obviously, Lego doesn't consider molding heads in new colors
as "ridiculous" because they created a grey one for Vader. One can compare
your "Leave the minifigs yellow. It is a neutral color that does not really
exist in the spectrum of human skin." comment to the Simpsons television
show. The simpons are represented as a yellow-orange, yet Dr. Hibbert,
Bleeding Gums, and Apu are all represented in colors more akin to the races
that they represent. So should lando and mace be represented in a similar
manner when the are realized in lego form.
Let me say that a semi-acceptible cop-out for TLG in this situation would be
to bring back the red heads and use these to at least indicate that lando and
mace are not exactly the same type of humanoids as the rest of the star wars
cast. I mean, I'd hate it, and it would be an offense similar to representing
ebony peoples with yellow minifigs, but in a sense it's only fair since yellow
is in some ways a poor representation of caucasian skin tones. As far as some
of the questions posed by others in this thread concerning the availability of
alternate race minifigs, I see it as similar to the plight of female lego fans
who are the victims of a gross underrepresentation in minifig form.
I'll conclude this posting by noting that the issue of race and minifigs would
not be so important to me if lego had never ventured into the Star Wars
realm. i mean, if lucas saw it as important to include black actors as heroes
in his storyline, why does lego ignore this? And let me also state that the
SW line has provided most of my support for why they should do this. TLG
already has pieces in the necessary colors to create ebony minifigs, and
they've begun to include some of these colors (black, grey, and white) as
headpieces, so the foudations are there, it's time that TLG builds upon it.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: who's feelin the black pack?
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| (...) Well, I think that of the three you noted (Pirates, Knight's Kingdom, Wild West) this one was the one where TLC was treading the most dangerous ground. The others are pretty clearly in a fantasy realm (Pirating and Privateering had many (...) (24 years ago, 7-Aug-00, to lugnet.starwars)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: who's feelin the black pack?
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| (...) Because toys should not be politicized. I have a feeling you are just someone bored who is trolling, but I'll bite because I believe this is an important issue. If you are arguing an ideology, take it all the way. What is your ultimate (...) (24 years ago, 7-Aug-00, to lugnet.starwars)
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