i had a dream

I don’t think many toy companies during the fifties and sixties paid much attention to the Negro consumer. I do recall there being black dolls at the Murphy's at Agricola Shopping Center. In the late 1960’s or early 1970’s, Hasbro came out with the black G.I. Joe (released in 1965). I remember my cousin got one and I thought was pretty cool. I remember one time going over to his house and he had a Nazi uniform on the black Joe and I remember laughing. He was just a little kid back then and he didn’t understand how contrary and strange that looked. I am sure that if G.I. Joes had feelings...that black G.I. Joe wouldn't have been feeling pretty uncomfortable in those goose-stepper boots.

Seriously, the Sixfinger I’m pretty sure only came in one color. Remember not so long ago that Crayola had FLESH color crayons? White. It was all normal to me way back then because the flesh color of the crayon happened to be the color of my skin. Of course I was just a kid and I wasn't around blacks much until I started seventh grade at General Forrest Junior High. My world atop Noccalula Mountain was mostly white and I didn't have friends on the playground in elementary school of other pigmentary persuasions. How many black kids settled for toys made for Caucasian children, a white G.I. Joe or a Sixfinger for whites? I know that there were plenty of other nifty toys on the market that were not so race specific- but the Sixfinger was a sought after toy of that day. Did Mattel offer a black Barbie from the start? I simply don't recall. Did little black girls have to settle for Homey-Homemaker Barbie and Honky-Boy Ken?

Pardon me if I have offended any of you with the illustration and subject matter. I was driving around yesterday thinking of my recent Sixfinger post and it struck me that the toy was made FLESH colored…white-cracker FLESH colored mind you. I then pondered the idea of creating a black version of this peculiar looking finger-gun and then almost drove off the road when I thought of how the black Sixfinger might’ve looked if produced.

Martin Luther King once had a dream...that children black and white might one day be playing on the same playground together...perhaps shooting at each other with toy guns that matched the color of their own flesh. Maybe the Sixfinger should be reintroduced to today's market...into today's culture. Maybe the Sixfinger could point us toward a new direction of hope and racial unity.  Maybe what we desperately need to give the world around us today is the plastic finger.