Last Fall, I shared with you my 250-word story, Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears, which was published in Smokelong Quarterly. I wrote the story as I started to think about how as a child I "knew" that the yellow LEGO faces of my mini-figures were actually white. Trolling around the internet today (yeah, I search for weird things), I found this explanation from LEGO headquarters for the "universal" yellow LEGO faces:
"Why do most LEGO figures have a yellow skin color? We have chosen this neutral colour in the past to avoid assigning a specific ethnicity in sets in which there were no characters represented. In this way, LEGO figures would be universally acceptable all over the world and fans could assign their own individual roles. However, in conjunct
ion with some new products, in which we want figures to be as authentic as possible, such as the NBA characters, and others we plan in the future, some figures included will now be represented in different ethnic roles to stay true to their characterization."
Huh? Well, you can see here what "true characterization of a different ethnic role" looks like.
Maybe LEGO doesn't know how popular a player like Steve Nash is?
Of course LEGO isn't the only toy company that falls short when it comes to reflecting the "true characterization" of different ethnicities --in particular, multiracial ethnicities. Over at Thingamababy there's an interesting discussion of how difficult (and expensive) it is to piece together a multiracial dollhouse family. Dolls Like Me, a multicultural toy store, is a great alternative. And then, of course, just for fun, you can find some great stuff done by the LEGO enthusiasts who re-figure minifigs (really I think the toys are strictly for grown-ups). Here's one of my favorites:
"Ethnic Lego Superheroes"
