Barack Obama Has a New Commemorative Doll

by Latoya Peterson

Notice anything?

According to the Spiegel Online International, in an article titled “Change You Can’t Quite Believe In: German Toymaker Launches Barack Obama Doll:”

Expert German dollmaker Marcel Offermann has garnered much media attention in the past with his dolls of famous people such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Pope Benedict XVI, the Dalai Lama and Lady Diana. Now he is paying tribute to the latest political figure to make history: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. […]

Offermann explained that he was forced to adapt an off-the-shelf black doll’s head for his tribute to Obama, which is his first attempt at making a black doll.

Offermann did, however, lighten the standard skin color of the doll’s head. “We tried to make it even lighter so that it would look more like Obama, but then it didn’t look so good,” he said. “So we said, let’s stick with this skin tone.”

Ah…

Hmm…

For fuck’s sake, even Mattel caught on and made two or three different colors for their black dolls.

And what do you mean “even lighter?”

The article explains:

He admits that the physical resemblance to Obama could have been closer. “The doll works more on a symbolic level,” he said. “It’s a symbiosis of the clothing and the fact it’s a black doll.” Although “90 percent” of the feedback so far has been positive, he admits that “10 percent of people said the doll doesn’t look like Obama.”

Just ten percent of people say the doll doesn’t look like Barack Obama? We might as well just quit updating this site now. Maybe the world really has gone colorblind.

For sake of comparison, check out the Dalai Lama doll, also made by Offermann:

Offermann, who admits he is a “personal fan” of Obama, explains that he wanted to make the doll out of his respect for the charismatic politician. “I find it sensational that a black person is this close to becoming US president,” he said, explaining that during his frequent visits to the US he experienced “racial apartheid” in some parts of the country at first hand. After eight years of George W. Bush as president, he said the only reason he could see anyone voting for the Republican Party would be if they were “afraid of blacks.”

Thoughts?

Thanks to MizLiz211 for sending this in!

(Photo Credit: Spiegel International Online)