Playmobil cops broadside for 'racist' pirate slave A California mother is less than impressed with a Playmobil pirate ship set which includes a dark-skinned figurine with a shackle around his neck. Ida Lockett's son received the vessel as a fifth birthday present, according to CBS in Sacramento. She said: "He was excited when he got it. I spent the weekend putting it together …
Please don't pull product. Its just a reference to what happened historically. If you hadn't included it they would be screaming at you for ignoring the real issue of historical slavery and how it affects black culture in america today, and as a white man corporation you are just glossing over all the evil you did.
Are the pieces not interchangeable anyway ? Stick it on the white guy and have a giggle.
G e,
Darned right, as a whitey english bloke with not much hair, I would be horrified if Brits (deliberate use of that word) were ever portrayed in history/cinema/tv as ever having been not nice to other people, having pinched their countries (especially so if the local blokes wore grass skirts...), 'acquired' wealth from the natural resources therabouts.
Oh fuck, did we once have an empire?
@g e
But we are, aren't we? I have to doubt many of 'us' would be around if our "ancestors' didn't do some nasty shit, survival of the shittiest? Some of us need to get over it, some of us need to remember the lessons learned.
For all reading whose family didn't commit some atrocity in the past, I applaud you.
"Please don't pull product."
Sadly, they probably will, because these fucking whining fools will now raise a huge fuss, the media will be all over it with their familiar plethora of self-righteous neo-liberal buzzwords, and the usual pile of sanctimonious PC maggots will come crawling out of the woodwork to add their bellyaching to the mix.
Those of us not cowed by these hand-wringing nutjobs need to form an opposing force and let Playmobil know in no uncertain terms that they'll make more money telling the PC whingers to fuck off, and selling to the far larger, albeit less noisy, market that is sick and tired of these do-gooders taking offence at everything.
Especially if we make it clear to the likes of Walmart and Amazon that if they pull this product if Playmobil don't, they'll be the target of a boycott and complaint deluge far greater than anything the PC brigade can raise. I personally will be emailing Playmobil to this effect, and I will email the same to any retailer that pulls it as well.
It only needs to happen once, and these whining bastards will forever lose their power.
I'm not generally one of the PC brigade, but in this case I think they should pull it. The "context" is not attached to the figurine; at the end of the day, that is a black slave toy with a slave collar around its neck. If it was on its own in a box labelled "Black Slave Figurine with Slave Collar", I would have a problem with that, every bit as much as I would have a problem with a "Jew Concentration Camp Victim" figurine, for example.
Now you might argue that kids would "learn about history" from that too; maybe you'd be up for the whole "Nazi Gas Chamber Play Set". But placing these things in the right historical context is not something that cannot be done by just throwing a toy out there for kids to play with; they cannot get the background, or understand why the world got to the place where jews were being exterminated in death camps or black people were being bought and sold as slaves by playing with figurines. Personally I don't think kids should be exposed to certain bad ideas until their education gets to a certain stage.
I'm not generally one of the PC brigade, but in this case I think they should pull it. The "context" is not attached to the figurine; at the end of the day, that is a black slave toy with a slave collar around its neck. If it was on its own in a box labelled "Black Slave Figurine with Slave Collar", I would have a problem with that, every bit as much as I would have a problem with a "Jew Concentration Camp Victim" figurine, for example.
Have you noticed that the pirate captain model (30 00 9632) is apparently female? 30 00 9612 has the exact same skin tone as 9622 but no slave collar, so it would appear to be a pirate crew of the oppressed, possibly fighting against "the man" and liberating the downtrodden on the way. It'll be an easy sell if your child asks awkward questions, anyway ;)
Anyway, I give it 10 minutes before some kid puts the captain hat on 9622 "because it looks better" and the collar either gets lost or put on some other model entirely. Kids don't care about social justice undertones, they just want cool pirate models that have swordfights and dig up treasure. And can fly, for some reason. And sometimes have laser vision.
Kids are pretty cool :)
I was intrigued by the fact that every little bit (including the slave collar) has an ID number and decided to see if it was part of any other sets or available separately. It seems not. But I did along the way discover that the female (?) pirate is bare-chested and covered with tentacle tattoos. Not that I personally have a problem with lady pirates dressing that way if they want to.
> ... I would have a problem with a "Jew Concentration Camp Victim" figurine, for example
Prepare to be offended.
>"as they ARE going to pull them off the shelf, I think it's best to buy the remaining stock while it lasts, as it's going to be one of those "collectors' items","
Well according to Amazon this particular version of this toy has been on sale since 15-Aug-2011. I suggest this speaks volumes for just how observant people in general are and specifically the PC brigade.
Stick it on the white guy and have a giggle.
And much more apt. There were far more non-black (e.g. white) slaves than there were black slaves - call them "indentured servants" or whatever you want, they were still slaves. However that doesn't ring well with the popular culture that (evil) white people raided Africa and made away with black slaves. The fact that the European powers tended to buy the slaves from black Africans (i.e. they sold their own countrymen or enemies) or that black slaves were apparently treated better and were more valuable than white slaves because they were harder workers doesn't matter jack. There are also a lot of stories where the slave owners treated their slaves very well indeed, much better than is usually portrayed - discovering this kind of humanity makes for some good reading even if they make for appalling popular culture.
History. Sometimes it's quite interesting to read what actually happened and its comparison to popular or hollywood culture.
I think it is pretty well known that slavers bought some slaves from black Africans. So what? It was still enslavement of a human being by the purchaser. The involvement of a middle man doesn't change that!
There are "some stories" where slave owners treated their slaves very well indeed, are there? But not well enough to employ them as free individuals with the same human rights that the owners enjoyed, presumably?
I'm not sure what point you are trying to make; slavery wasn't so bad, or we've all been duped into thinking slavery was mostly about owning black people?
I think history is pretty clear that slavery was overwhelmingly about base exploitation of human beings for economic gain, but I look forward to your ground breaking treatise explaining that's not the case...
I suspect that the somewhat rambling comment was to try and put slavery in its historical context and it is true that people at the bottom of the heap were often treated badly irrespective of whether they were tradeable property or not. The particulars of the European trade in slaves between Africa and the Americas do make it a special case though, it being a perfect storm of European colonial expansion and industrialisation meeting a pre-existing slave trade in Africa and causing it to expand massively. This resulted in unfathomable levels of misery and abuse, as well as massive demographic change as black Africans were shipped to the other side of the world. Given that the history of slavery led to segregation in America, and that this was only ended in living memory, with the black community in America still suffering from poor treatment today, it is fair to say that this particular period still resonates today. We all need to know our shared history in order to learn from it and grow together. It's the f*ckers that run things who would screw us all, always has been, always will be. If we all stand together and maintain vigilance we can try to mitigate their effect.
I've not touched on Britain's part in all of this: I'd be writing (even more of) an essay!
Go back and read my earlier post
The fact remains that the early history of the USA was based on WHITE slavery. The Spanish took prisoners of any colour to use as slaves. The British transported "criminals" on any pretence for use as forced labour. Non-conformists were criminalised and transported. Ireland was subject to campaigns of deliberate depopulation, with the residents forcibly shipped to the USA and Caribbean to work on plantations. "Indentured servants" were shipped to the USA on terms so strict that the workers could never earn their freedom: for instance becoming pregnant extended the indenture time by ten years, and with the indentured woman being at the beck and call of the master, not many avoided continual pregnancy. Many white women - indentured or Irish - were forced to become brood mares to negro studs, in an attempt to "improve" the black slaves. And lets not forget why the negroes were imported anyway: because the white slaves died too quickly under the conditions on the plantations. The blacks lasted longer. Thats why you hear so much about black slaves and not white: the blacks managed to live and have offspring......
And again I'll repeat what I said earlier, the Americans were happy to take slaves from wherever they could find them. Thousands of Chinese and Japanese women captured in the home nations with the connivance of their governments and shipped to the west coast as enforced brothel workers. Chinese coolies tricked into railroad or mine work for virtually no pay, with enforcers set to ensure compliability. On the east coast, a massive racket bringing eastern european Jewish women into the country on false pretences for use as sex slaves (how little things change.....compare with the eastern european sex slave problem now).
Slavery in the USA wasn't a black issue. It was a multi-ethnic issue. Its just that the blacks (a) were more visible and (b) tended to survive the plantations better, so more lived to tell us about it.
No, people like her that are easily offended and wear that like a badge of honor, think too much, continually looking for some idiotic object of her ire and raising false outrage when they do.
Of course they only think about the divisive but "politically correct" bull sh@t that is ruining this world.
Then there are people like you that are seemingly just as "racist"; singling out an entire country and all its people for criticism while burying your collective heads in the sand by censoring history in the guise of being PC.
A pox upon you sir.
Historical resemblance IS INTENDED.
History needs to be learned AS IS and not EDITED and ERASED. There is no bigger crime than erasing and editing history.
In war there is only one bigger crime than the war crimes - it is the erasure of the traces of the war crimes so we do not remember what has happened. Similarly - the biggest crime against slavery is the politically correct cleansing of everything to ensure that the kids do not learn from an early age who was in the shackles and how did they look like.
Because: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
> There is no bigger crime than erasing and editing history.
I see what you are trying to say, and I almost agree with your sentiment, but you need to give it a little more thought.
Actually committing genocide is a significantly worse atrocity than covering up the evidence of genocide.
"Actually committing genocide is a significantly worse atrocity than covering up the evidence of genocide."
Indeed, which is why the chap who asked "Who now remembers the Armenians?" gets rougher treatment than the people who forgot the Armenians. (Idle thought: would it be true to say that this quote is now what most people think of when anyone mentions the Armenians? Is the fact that everyone forgot actually more memorable? That would be ... odd.)
I also almost agree with what Voland's appendage was saying but I welcome your nit-picking.
'Don't blame the pilot.' - It was a reference to the doctrine of command responsibility - ie the Nuremberg defence 'I was only obeying orders'. A defence which was rejected by groups including the US. Hopefully you appreciate the hypocrisy of most US by reflecting on your post.
Try thinking in future, it will hurt you at first but then you may find it makes your life more enjoyable. Either way the US still provides the best level of 'how not to do it' to the world.
Thinking? Yes a distinct lack of it. Every culture and society on Earth has engaged in enslaving other people. The colour of the victims has never been a part of it. It seems that one of the reasons the Romans invaded Briton was to obtain a source of slaves. Anyone was at risk of being enslaved, even Julius Caesar!
All of those poor African slaves that were transported across the world were captured and enslaved by other Africans for sale to the really nasty Europeans. Who are therefore the worst?
Which peoples finally decided that slavery was not really a good idea? That's right, the nasty Europeans. Slavery is still going strong in many non-European cultures.
This post has been deleted by its author
This post has been deleted by its author
As a person with a learning disability, it used to annoy me no end the do gooders who were ready to take offence on my behalf.
I used to make a point of referring to myself and similar using all the nastiest terms to mess with their heads. If idiots calling me retard didn't faze me, why the hell does it faze others?
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
