A Playmobil toy pirate set reportedly includes a dark-skinned figurine complete with a "slave collar," and one California mother is not happy about its "racist" undertones.
Ida Lockett told Sacramento's CBS 13 that her son received the pirate ship toy as a fifth birthday present recently. Lockett said she was initially excited about the toy until she started to put it together and found the figurine.
What's more, the instructions reportedly tell the child to put what Lockett describes as a "slave collar" around the neck of the dark-skinned figurine.
"You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else," she told CBS13, adding that the pirate ship also came with a dungeon. "It's definitely racist. It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character's neck, and then to play with the toy."
Sacramento NAACP president Stephen Webb urged Playmobil and retailer Toys 'R' Us should stop selling it.
"This is deplorable," Webb told the television station. "This cannot be accepted, and it needs to be pulled off the shelf."
A Playmobil spokesperson told E! Online in a statement that the toy set was created in historical context and not meant to be offensive.
"This piece is from a Playmobil pirate playset that is designed to depict life on a 17th-century pirate ship on the high seas," a company statement said. "If you look at the box, you can see that the pirate figure is clearly a crew member on the pirate ship and not a captive. The figure was meant to represent a pirate who was a former slave in a historical context. It was not our intention to offend anyone in anyway."
Aimee Norman, who purchased the toy for Lockett's child,
posted on the Playmobil USA Facebook page that she was "mortified" that the character was included in the toy.
But not everyone agreed with Lockett's take on the toy.
Others on social media, though, did find it offensive.
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