XMAS INC. Only a few weeks away from Christmas 2015 and I'm rounding it out with some Christmas anti-cheer.
Sure, our rather agnostic household still decorates a tree and eats bad and exchanges gifts, but you’ll see me type or write “X-mas” more often than not and I rather chug a gallon of eggnog than go to midnight mass. I like to say we celebrate “Commercial Christmas” or “Festivus” or even the winter solstice. I’m no Scrooge, but I always do my best to bob and weave during the month of December. My small family is spread across the country and there are no requirements to visit during the holidays, which frees up the stress and worry of having to do anything more than mail something in time and make a phone call on the 25th.
But Christmas for isn’t about red cups or town hall manger scenes or trying to convince your family that Uncle Frank was the mastermind behind the robbery in “Home Alone”(he was, look it up)—it’s about the children…and toys…and…racism…and sexism? Let’s throw some fuel on the fire of holiday ire! I found this story a few weeks ago on the interwebs.
Is this an over-reaction in our politically correct society or toy company's intent to provide historical realism? Are we giving our children racist toys? This story seems like something that should be left in the comment section on Amazon, but before we get into that discussion, there is another story that may provide a counterpoint.
Okay. First, to claim that human beings that were kidnapped from their homes and forced into manual labor was "work" is clearly misleading and not true. Work would imply compensation and migration would imply choice—two things that simply aren't true when referencing the thousands upon thousands of men and women forced from their homeland to toil in fields throughout America. Secondly, to misrepresent, reconstruct, or dumb down history is a disservice to intellect and education. This was either someone’s attempt to revise history itself or just some really boneheaded editing. This is supposed to be factual information taught to young minds and not a place for grandstanding. Finally, parents obviously need to be mindful of what their kids are learning (or not learning). Teachers and education in this country are not one-size-fits-all and just like every history teacher I have ever had has said, if we don’t study history, we are doomed to repeat it.
The reason I present the story about the textbook is because I think it shows a great counterpoint argument regardin the pirate ship. Arguing that the figure in the set is a slave (of African decent or not) may or may not be overreaching or insensitive or politically correct, but it’s unfortunately an accurate depiction and a rather large footnote of pirate life. Pirates, no thanks to Johnny Depp and hundreds of actors before him (Crabbe, Lancaster, Quinn), weren’t exactly nice people. They raped, murdered, pillaged, and plundered. They held and kidnapped people of all colors.
The bottom-line is that history is ugly, but we don’t get to have it both ways. How many parents from they greatest generation gave their baby boomer children cowboys and indians to play with? And how many of those had a second thought about the genocide of native peoples and how those facts about us as a society don’t really allow the toy to be “fun” anymore?
When I look back on my own childhood, getting a Lando Calrissian figure as a gift was extremely progressive in the early 80’s. My parents gave a 4 year-old white kid a totem of one of the smoothest actors of all-time, but no one felt the need to explain to me why his face was a different color than mine (maybe because the other character’s faces were blue or green). Then four weeks after the Playmobil story came out, this happened.
So fapping fan-boys can say goodbye to “Slave Leia?” Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe it’s just the mouse house trying to keep things wholesome. Or is it more likelu a pre-emptive PR move as the Star Wars marketing machine warms for holiday sales and a brand new film? “Slave Leia” is a really unfornunate short-hand name for the look, even though every item sold depicting this look was called “Princess Leia as Jabba’s Prisoner,” Slave Leia just captured the concept quicker. Knowing Disney, I’m sure this is just a road they rather not go down, especially since they pretty much co-own the word "princess." You wouldn’t have seen Jabba’s Prisoner’s Pajamas at the Disney store anyway and the kind of parent that would by such an outfit needs to go back to the pre-teen pagent circuit.
Speaking of brand management, we also need to take a moment to consider the manufacturer of the Pirate Ship Playset. Toymaker Playmobil is a European company based in Germany. Europeans are tad less politically correct than us Americans. They are less likely to get their dander up over a children’s toy and probably saw nothing wrong with the inclusion of that particular figure. And that pretty much sums up Playmobil’s reaction. They said the figure was representing “a pirate who was a former slave in the historical context.” Yup. They came out and straight up said it was a slave figure. No mea culpa, no press conference, no lay-offs. They said they were not trying to intentionally offend anyone (naturally) and pointed to the fact that in production stills, the figure is holding a gun, which would make one assume he was a member of the crew (or inciting a revolt—only the set dresser truly knows). No one was fired and the toy has not been pulled from shelves. It’s sold out from Playmobil’s U.S. website (and I doubt they will be restocking it), but still very available on Amazon or ToysRUs.com.
Most of the public’s reaction to this set has been mixed. One side claims that if you don’t like the toy, throw it away or return it. Other’s claim that since the figure’s skin tone is more orange-brown he may be more suntanned than African. And since there is no included chain for the actual included neck shackle, he is a free man. Another claims that in production pics, there is a shot of the slave in the captain’s quarters, proving again that he’s more likely a member of the crew. And why is he smiling? At this point, I feel like we’re all reading waaay too much into this, but then my internet research comes upon this:
Explain to me how you equate “Summer Fun” with doing laundry?!?! Oh, okay, it turns out that the toy is a part of a furnished Playmobil hotel set. Odd choice of add-on (the bell hop is available too), but I think it’s cool that Playmobil is highlighting all jobs in all industries, not just exciting ones like police officers and pilots. Lego has been doing that for years.
And then THIS came up:
Alright. That’s odd. A Playmobil set where one of the characters is clearly down on his luck, shoeless, and drunk. Well, at least he’s smiling.
But maybe there is a lesson here. Maybe we should be more focused on fixing societal issues like hunger and homelessness as opposed working ourselves up and getting offended so easily by what may or may not be an offensive toy. Maybe we should be more Christian where there are more Christians (the Bible Belt had the most 2015 Black Friday arrests). Maybe we should be more worried about helping those that cannot help themselves than plastic trash.
Give us a jingle-jangle and Like Us on Facebook so we can re-light your holiday fire!