German Toymaker Launches Barack Obama Doll... Or Something Like That
Expert German dollmaker Marcel Offermann has immortalized presidential hopeful Barack Obama in the form of a collector's doll. But the maker of the mini-Obama admits that it was tricky to get the skin tone correct (no kidding). Offermann explained that he was forced to adapt an off-the-shelf black doll's head for his tribute to Obama, which is his first attempt at making a black doll (it shows). "We tried to make it even lighter so that it would look more like Obama, but then it didn't look so good," he said. (Hahaha!) "So we said, let's stick with this skin tone." (And this guy is supposedly an "expert dollmaker???)
Braahahahaha! Is this guy serious? I don't know which is worse - that it looks NOTHING like Obama, or that it actually looks kind of offensive. I can't help but think about those racially insensitive caricatures of black people from a previous era. And it cost $216? For a doll that looks absolutely NOTHING like the person it's intended to resemble? I don't think so buddy.
What-the-eff-ever!
Jeez! It looks like something from the early 1900s...! In fact, I'm pretty certain I saw it make an appearance in Bamboozled!
And the shade of black is only part of the problem. What's with the shiney blackness and golliwog-red-lips and is he saying they couldn't find any decent hair...? Even Action Man hair would have been better than the moulded black sheen on that thing's head!
*Shifting in my seat uncomfortably*
White folks making and selling black dolls that closely resemble racist caricatures...Ummmmm yeah...I'm not buying it.Literally!
This is reminiscent of the dude that was selling the monkey t-shirts. Am I being too sensitive? Maybe, but I don't think so.
- P
The Obama doll is not approriate because it panders to the stereotypical characters that have dogged Black people in the past. Then and possibly now, it represents or psnders to a racist attitude on the part of many people. Racism has cost the lives of peolple of all ethnicities and has held back the progress of the whole planet. We are living in a New Millenium and a New world, we need New Laws. One of which should be a law against Racism of any form which should be punishable...If people don't like the people of this nation, then maybe they should go to another nation.
Too many people have come here and have only divided this "Nation" by using their nationality as a tool. The United States is "One Nation Under God Indivisible" we need to live up to this and stop letting people who come here and some that were born here divide America...
It is right par with the insensitivity and continued prejudice in Germany towards all people of color. It falls into the same antiquated category as Mohrenkoepfe and NegerKuesse. One step forward, three steps back.
Kindly,
Kathrin
www.thediversityprojekt.org