{"id":44273,"date":"2015-11-27T20:45:55","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T20:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=44273"},"modified":"2015-11-27T20:45:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-27T20:45:55","slug":"why-i-want-my-interracial-son-to-play-with-legos%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=44273","title":{"rendered":"Why I want my interracial son to play with Legos\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/parenting\/wp\/2015\/11\/27\/why-i-want-my-interracial-son-to-play-with-legos\/\" target=\"_blank\">Why I want my interracial son to play with Legos<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Washington Post<\/a><br \/>\n2015-11-27<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nevinmartell\" target=\"_blank\">Nevin Martell<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCome build with me,\u201d says my 2-year-old son Zephyr, beckoning me to join him on the living room floor next to a giant bin full of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lego\" target=\"_blank\">Lego<\/a> bricks.<\/p>\n<p>He pats the finished wood next to him, smiles widely and then turns back to his tinkering.<\/p>\n<p>Who could refuse? I plunk down and take a look at his creation, a multicolored spaceship that he swoops through the air while energetically \u201cwhooshing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s awesome,\u201d I tell him, before digging in the mix of bricks to start building my own starfighter. Mixed in are a slew of minifigures, some assembled just like the picture on the package, but my little <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Victor_Frankenstein\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Frankenstein<\/a> has reimagined many of them as completely new characters: a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lightsaber\" target=\"_blank\">lightsaber<\/a> wielding alien, a knight sporting a pirate\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tricorne\" target=\"_blank\">tricorn<\/a> hat and a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gargoyle\" target=\"_blank\">gargoyle<\/a> with an astronaut\u2019s helmeted head.<\/p>\n<p>Some have specialized heads with a variety of human skin tones, while others mimic more fantastical characters. However, the majority of them are bright yellow. That\u2019s one of the things I love about the Danish toys: the original minifigures were designed with yellow heads and hands so they would be completely inclusive.<\/p>\n<p>Many people incorrectly believe that this sunny skin tone is intended to represent a Caucasian cast, but that\u2019s not the case. In fact, it\u2019s the opposite. The unnatural shade is intended to set Lego minifigures apart from a specific segment of humanity. \u201cThey\u2019re designed to be citizens of the world,\u201d says Michael McNally senior manager of brand relations for Lego. \u201cThe intent is for kids to project their own stories and identity into this figure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words: use your imagination, kids!&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/parenting\/wp\/2015\/11\/27\/why-i-want-my-interracial-son-to-play-with-legos\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why I want my interracial son to play with Legos The Washington Post 2015-11-27 Nevin Martell \u201cCome build with me,\u201d says my 2-year-old son Zephyr, beckoning me to join him on the living room floor next to a giant bin full of Lego bricks. He pats the finished wood next to him, smiles widely and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,414,8,20],"tags":[22062,19127,2875,2581],"class_list":["post-44273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-family","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-legos","tag-nevin-martell","tag-the-washington-post","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44274,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44273\/revisions\/44274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}