Brown Girl legos and Whatnot...

Both my niece (Niko) and my nephew(Malik) are big fans of Lego building block sets. But unfortunately, Lego did not have these twins in mind when they designed their legos. What else could explain their decision to only create peach-colored mini figures?

Well, the 8-years olds decided to take matters into their own hands by writing letters of complaint to the company. First, Malik (the boy) wrote a letter asking them to please make some brown mini figures  and also to make more girl legos.


Next, Niko (the girl) wrote them a letter complaining about how few girls there were and also complaining that all the girl legos were disabled as they could not move and could not attach to or interact with regular lego sets like the boy legos. They only worked in the very girly "Lego Friends" sets. These sets do not include exciting adventures or spacecraft or any myriad of characters and scenarios offered in regular legos. "Lego friends" sets are all domestic, full of bunnies and flowers and swing sets and whatnot.

The brown-skinned girl lego

She also asked for more brown girl legos to be made as there was only one.

Lego responded to the boy's letter with a formal letter explaining that all legos were yellow and that this color was neutral. They did not respond to his concerns about girl legos nor did they respond to the girl's letter. The letter seemed to make it clear they did not see any problem with their mini figures .

The eight-year-old twins were pretty disappointed. But then, yesterday, we went to the store and lo and behold Malik found two different lego sets that had brown-faced legos in them. A miracle.

"You did it, Malik!" We exclaimed. "You made Lego change!" He beamed with pride (Malik just read this post and claimed he never beamed...oh brotha!) Of course, it is possible that the only reason Lego has a brown-skinned lego is because this particular character was played by Samuel Jackson in the movie...but lets suspend that possibility for the moment and assume that the words of an 8-year old actually had an impact on those Lego execs.

But what about the brown girl legos? asked Niko

Lego has some more work to do, it seems...Niko is writing another letter.

Its 2013, people. We should not  be having this discussion...

What If? (a new poem)

Jan 24, 2013

I have so many poems lying about on scraps of paper, in notebooks, on backs of envelopes and napkins. I used to think that if I did not write a poem down as soon as it popped into my head that I would lose it forever. So  I carried teeny tiny notebooks around in my back pockets for years, jotting down random inspirational moments at bus stops, grocery stores, in classes, on trains. Over time, I discovered, upon finding little jottings here and there that indeed I could jot down a poem and lose it for years only to jot down the same exact lines on another paper at another time. How miraculous! Somehow the words stay in my head floating about for years without my knowledge.

Below is a poem I found jotted down on a small slip of paper tucked into a church program. I hope it speaks to you.

What if you were the One?

What if you came

You only you what if

This was always your plan

What if the world

Were waiting on you

What if you only you

What if the world 

Was counting on you?

You only you 

Nobody else nobody 

What if nobody 

Could take your place

Had your face

Could do would do

What you came to do

What if your eyes only see

Your ears only hear

The harmony the world

Needs

 To heal?