SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California mother is upset after she says a black slave came a part of a pirate ship set bought for her son.
Ida Lockett said she was happy for her son after he received a Playmobil pirate ship for his fifth birthday.
“He was excited when he got it,” Lockett told KOVR. “I spent the weekend putting it together.”
Lockett said after putting together the ship she realized what her son was playing with. She said the toy came with racist instructions, telling her son to shackle a dark-skinned character that appeared to be a slave.
“This right here was found on his neck,” she said. The dark-skinned character came with no shoes, tattered pants, and instructions to put some sort of neck piece on him.
“You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else,” she said. “The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is—it’s a slave collar.”
Lockett said the ship even comes with what she calls a dungeon.
“It’s definitely racist,” she said.
KOVR reached out to the maker of the toy, Playmobil, and the retailer who sold it, Toys ‘R’ Us, but neither responded.
Sacramento NAACP President Stephen Webb told KOVR it is demanding action.
“This is deplorable; this cannot be accepted, and it needs to be pulled off the shelf,” he said.
Lockett says she’s returning the toy back to Toys ‘R’ Us.
