If you’re going to a birthday party for a black kid, or a brown kid, or a white kid, do you buy the black kid a black G.I. Joe, the brown kid a brown G.I. Joe, and the white kid a white G.I. Joe?
P.S. My son, who is white, appears to adore all G.I. Joes equally. But it’s other parents I’m afraid of. As usual.
do you know if he already has any? you could just round out the demographics by getting him whatever he doesn’t already have.
i wouldn’t intentionally match the race to the child… i think i would regard that strangely as a parent. just get whichever one jackson thinks is the coolest — that way you can blame it on him!
Actually, being the mom of a Black kid, I would actually appreciate the race match since so many of his toys aren’t! But as G said above, cool should be the #1 criteria.
I’ve wondered that same thing. I agree with the first two comments as to getting the coolest one. Letting Jackson chose would be the best option. Not sure if it were a girl though? Is the black Barbie more pretty than the white Barbie?
pfft. this is easy. you just bring one of each, plus a barbie doll, just in case, set them all out in front of the kid and say, ‘One lives, the rest die. Your choice. Hurry up, already.’
or go with snake eyes, since he’s fully covered.
or hulk.
I’ve got no idea about the colorized action figures — except that cool is always cool — but I just want to raise my hand in support of the fear of other parents! What is UP with people???
Don’t they have an Arab bad guy or something? Red-blooded Americans of ALL colors can hate the Arab bad guy equally. Problem solved!!
I miss the days when a birthday party meant a soggy Duncan Hines devil’s food ( nobody even got the possible political incorrectedness there )and a bunch of Matinée smoking mommies who really didn’t give a shit about what the kid was getting.
I’m a black woman, married to a white man, with a black/Hispanic daughter. Personally, I couldn’t give a damn what race of doll someone gave my kid — it seriously doesn’t matter, and friends and family members have given her dolls of all races. Hell, *I’ve* given her dolls of many races.
However, if *I* were faced with the issue you’re describing?
I’d by the kid a football.
Karen
Chookooloonks
Emerald Market
i thought that it was strange when my english in-laws were horrified when i suggested getting one of my neices the black bratz doll. i really don’t think it matters does it? my favorite GI Joe when younger was the flourescent green ninja guy and all you could see were his eyes so no telling what ‘color’ he was :]
Buy the one with the largest Codpiece.
My 5 year old recently went to a brithday party. When we went present shopping she wanted to get Cici a Barbie. Ugh. After much wheedling, I acquiesced. When we got to the party I saw that Cici was black. Her parents were very gracious, and I was totally mortified. I say buy some nice Legos.
gift. card.
Unless I knew the parents REALLY well, I’d be too scared to buy any of them.
I did once buy an Indian-looking doll for an Indian friend of Alex’s, but her mother and I are close friends and we’d talked about it before. (She complained that all they do is manufacture the white dolls in darker colors, which just looks weird.)
aw geez. thanks for giving me something else to worry about. damn you fussy. damn you with your thought provocation.
When MC was six months old, my sister-in-law sent us a handmade black doll with a labia. We named her Nubian Princess Vagina. She rattled when we shook her, as she was filled with shells from the sea. (I’m not sure where I’m going with this. Apparently I just need to get it off my chest.) Anyway, I don’t think the parents would be offended if the doll’s race doesn’t match theirs. (At least I hope they would not be offended.) I’m with the people who say Coolest Joe = Coolest Gift.
hmmm how about all three plus a barbie doll thrown in? seriously, i would let jackson choose which one he thinks his friend would like and leave it like that. i’m sure i would overthink it though!
Well, see, the kid’s black and the parents are white, did I mention that?
We picked the black G.I. Joe, partly because he kicks ass, and partly because he’s black. Argh.
I’d go for one of each. The kid probably won’t notice the color; he’ll just care he got a whole freaking set.
I had someone proudly proclaim to me once that she’d bought her daughter a black doll (the family was white) then she looked at me expectantly. She was very disappointed when I didn’t throw her a party for being so enlightened. This kind of thing makes some people go slightly nutty I think.
One holiday my mother got my little sister and me the Barbie heads that you get to put makeup on. I tore mine open and it was Good ‘ol Barbie. My sister tore hers open and it was a black Barbie. My sis pretended it was cool and she didn’t care, but Black Barbie was buried in the back of the closet faster than the wrap was off the rest of the gifts.
Wow, that’s completely unhelpful.
Buy the robot. Robots are made of metal.
I can see the dilemma. I would’ve gone with a board game, just to avoid it, but I think you’re great to just take a run at it. When I was a Big Sister, my Little Sister got a Hispanic Barbie doll at a Mattel-sponsored Christmas party. The girl sitting next to her wanted to trade, so they traded and my Little Sister (who was black) got a black Barbie, which she immediately hated. I found the whole thing sad. I never saw that black doll again, although on subsequent outings she occasionally brought her blonde Barbie, on which she’d put hair wax/grease and made sort-of dreads. Go figure.
When I was a little girl my favorite cabbag patch girl was black with long curly hair. I adored her. It’s unfortunate that we have to worry about these things.
While recognizing that this is a thought-provoking problem, it is the sentence, “My son, who is white…” that made me laugh.
Are you sure they won’t hate GI Joe for being a war toy (and is that really what GI Joe looks like these days)? Or is that an SF Bay Area thing? Anyway, I’d go with the football, too.
Are there no Asian or Indian GI Joes to throw into the mix?
Good call on the black one for the black kid, though, if only to mix things up a little bit. I am half black, though look white (my mother is pale, and my father is the WASPiest man alive), and my black mother always complained about the fact that people never gave me any black dolls to play with.
My friend’s daughter has several dolls that are white (like her) and a black Cabbage Patch. One day she took all her dolls with her on an adventure. All her white dolls, she left the Cabbage Patch behind.
Her mother got all concerned she was racist. I just thought she was smart.
Her adventure was to the stream. All her white dolls where plastic (ie waterproof) and her Cabbabe Patch was stuffed cloth.
Oh, and if the choice is between the three in the picture? I would go with the black one. He has the most realistic, least creepy looking muscles.
I usually just get everyone the black or brown one. If most children are like my neice their parents have build them an aryan army of dolls and action figures and regardless of their race it’s nice to break that up. That is why I am getting her an asian looking American Girl doll for Christmas. Is their an asian option?
Really though I think brown or white would be the better option in my opinion.
My cousin, who is five (and white) has a favorite babydoll that’s black. I don’t think it’ll be a huge deal, as long as the parents are open minded. Also, my best friend had a black babydoll when she was little that was her favorite by far. Named Chocolate. Go figure.
well, which GI joe has the best flexibility?
Ah yes, that age old question. I am white an my cousin is black and we lived together as kids and our birthdays are 5 days apart. This was many, many years ago when there were approximately 2 non-white toys in the universe and one of them was Michael Jackson. But, if she got black barbie I needed black barbie and on and on. Last year for her 27th and my 24th I got us a barbie cake with white barbie and black barbie and we laughed and laughed… but family is different!
Would the plural of G.I. Joe actually be G.I.s Joe?
those are what gi joes look like now?
I usually solve this problem by letting my kid pick out what to give. And then I get a gift receipt just in case a)the parents are freaked out by my kid’s choice or b)the birthday child gets two of the same thing. I slip the gift receipt to the parent at the beginning of the party and say, “just in case you need to exchange a gift” and most parents have been pretty cool about it.
Most kids are pretty tuned in to what other kids have in their collections, and will choose whatever they think would “enhance” their friend’s collection.
I do wish, though, that other parents would do the same for me, with the gift receipt thing. There are a couple of toys that Spawn got for the last birthday that just didn’t set well with me.
Or maybe I’m one of THOSE parents.
Mix it up! Wrap them all and then have a GIFT TOSS.
Get him a Hulk. The kid’s not green, right?
Plural of G.I. Joe would be G.I. Joe. General Infantrymen takes no s.
Of course in White Christmas, Bing Crosby sings about G.I. Josephs…
maybe one of each, just to maintain equal opportunity for all GI Joes.
Lady S–have you SEEN the forearms on that guy? I would run like a sissy if I saw a guy with forearms like that. You could cut bread with them.
I say give him the black Joe. He looks badass.
I like the black one, meself. You know I ran into a slightly similar situation today, it was kind of funny… my daughter and I were shopping at Goodwill, and she really wanted this cute little black baby doll. It would never have occurred to me to tell her she could only have white baby dolls, so of course I got it for her. Well, i was in line and this older black lady was in front of me and was looking at the doll bemusedly and said ‘You’re buying her a black baby doll?!’ I just smiled and said yes. But she clearly thought that was an unusual or weird thing to do. I would just get the coolest looking one and not worry what color it is. People are so bizarre about that kind of thing.
When my little sister was a wee toddler she would only accept black baby dolls. She said they were the prettiest. (She’s half Mexican/half caucasian-American)
The black one definately looks the coolest….and nowhere near as creepy as the others.
I have to be honest, as a black girl I remember not caring at all. I had black GI Joe’s and Cabbage Patch Kids, but I did not care. It’t true that there are so few toys of color for us, but the fact of the matter race usually only becomes an issue when the parents make it one
I’m with Jes. The Equal Opportunity Mountain.
This probably won’t help but here is my story.
My sister and I are twins. I have blonde hair and she has dark brown hair. Growing up I always got the blonde barbies, dolls and porcelin dolls. She always got the brown haired ones. One time I got a brown haired doll because that’s the only color they had left. I loved her. I was so excited to finally get a brown haired doll.
So the purpose of my story is Diversity is good even in toys.
Eh, I’d let my kid pick. Or, in my neck of the woods, people aren’t likely to own ANY dolls of color, so I’d always buy any doll that isn’t white because they’re hard to come by in some circles I travel.
Ah! War-promoter!
(I agree, the Black one looks the coolest.)
Most of the time I think it’s a little silly to match the toy to the child, but I’m always excited when there are brown toys for my brown daughter!
Being the mom of a Brown/White kid, I would be okay with one of each, please.
Actually, I just posted the other day about the whole “race” selection on my son’s birth certificate form and seriously having no earthly IDEA what to put for a half- American, half-Indian kid. I ended up scribbling “human”.
My niece (WHITE!) carried around the Playskool little black boy around with her wherever she went. Much to my brother’s dismay (ass). Of course I’m sure he was thinking that it would lead down the line to her dating black men as I did at one point. She also thought that black people were chocolate. Kids don’t know and don’t care. I think it’s great for them to have diversity.
this is an easy one–you simply pull out a ‘decline to state’ GI Joe fromyour birthday party stash in the closet
GET THE BLACK ONE. I say this based solely on the fact that he’s the most muscular. And kind of sexy.
The black dude does look hot… Maybe leave it up to Jackson to decide? He may know what the kid would like (or doesn’t already have) better than you or I..
The kids couldn’t give a shit. And the cool parents won’t either.
Me, I buy what’s on sale. Colors be damned.
so i read this a few days ago, and this morning it occurred to me. (can you tell i have Fussy on the brain)… what if *you’re* black (or brown, etc.) and you’re going to a white kid’s birthday party? then do you buy the white kid a white G.I. Joe? or do you buy him a black G.I. Joe? would it not matter? or would it *totally* matter if you got it “wrong” — and then it’d be seen as some sort of pre-meditated political statement, or something…
sigh. this is why i love Lego.
i am white. when i was a little kid my best friend was black. she had black dolls and i had white dolls and when we played together we’d always switch so i could have the black baby and she could have the white baby.
we liked to play dress up, too. my mom had a bunch of wigs and my friend’s favorite was a long blonde one and mine was a short black one.
i don’t think there is any right answer..
I buy whichever one is on sale. I only discrimate based on how much money I can save. Colors be damned!