The mother of a 5-year-old Melanoid boy was shocked and disgusted by what she saw while assembling his birthday gift, which was purchased from Toys R Us. The contents of the packaging were something she’d never saw before. From first glance, the toy that her son was to receive as a gift appeared to be a pirate ship, inhabited by small figurines that were included with the toy ship. However, one of the figurines in the box has dark skin, and comes with a slave collar. In fact, page 13 of the toy’s instruction manual gives a clear description on how to place the collar on the neck of the dark-skinned figurine.

This is the instruction manual photo which shows how to place the slave collar on the figurine’s neck.

“It’s definitely racist,” the boy’s mother Ida Lockett told CBS Sacramento. “It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck, and then to play with the toy.” Upset, Lockett had more to say about the racist overtones of the toy’s features.

“You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else. The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is — it’s a slave collar.” The toy not only is dark skinned, but is also wearing torn clothing, as if to imply that it has been a P.O.W (Prisoner Of War) captured in the infamous Slave Trade. The toy is also barefoot, and has dark colored coarse hair, which resembles the locs originally worn by people of African descent. Check out the video below for more on the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R107qmFciQo

B. Clark