I don't see anything in the backlash against this as being "over the top"....just a natural, healthy and entirely justifiable reaction to the endless focus on race, gender and assorted topics which comes entirely from the Left.
This is merely one more brick in the wall of Socialism, and if we overlook it, and so many others, as "just one more little brick, let it go, we've got bigger things to worry about" then before we know it the wall has grown a hundred feet higher and it's that much harder to break down.
Yes, there are of course bigger things in the world to worry about, but as the old saying goes, Socialism arrives by bicycle, and incrementalism is the Socialist's proscribed methodology.
Just as the frog who is put in a pot with a gradually-rising temperature doesn't know it's being boiled alive until it's too late, so also the West will lose it's identity if it doesn't take a stand and say ENOUGH!
Yes, we can also walk and chew gum and the same time, and fight the major battles as well as the small ones. But just because they are small doesn't mean that they aren't important and worth defending.
Not entirely. I made the analogy to the black Barbie -- multicolored Cabbage Patch Kids are another example. GI Joe. Military recruiting posters have featured folks of all kinds of ethnicities since the early days of WWII. Even Bratz dolls, which are loathsome, but not because they're politically correct.
The goal of a toy is to sell. The goal of a mascot is to present a friendly face, and it helps to make it a familiar-looking face. It's not a civil rights issue. It's just pragmatism. If you're going to have a mascot, it just works better that way. If some of your audience responds better to Sunita than to Steve, where's the harm?
This is merely one more brick in the wall of Socialism
You're reading a hell of a lot into this. If this is socialist, then any PR effort by any taxpayer-funded entity is socialist. Otherwise, they're just responding to ths preferences of their audience.
I'll give you a first-hand example. I grew up in the Southeastern US (Atlanta, to be specific). Throughout my childhood, Southerners were depicted in Hollywood as dumb hicks -- even the "positive" depictions of Southerners were usually folks who well-meaning, generous, courageous, even heroic, but not real bright.
Northern heroes were men of industry and science. Southern heroes were Sergeant York and Andy Griffith. Northern wisdom was the cream of Western civilization -- Southern wisdom, when such a thing appeared, was "folksy" or "home-spun."
Then, in my teens, I saw "Broadcast News." The lead character was a smart, competent woman in a fast-paced, high-tech field. And she sounded like my mom. I still love Holly Hunter, not least because she has had a thriving career while refusing to lose her accent. I have a mental image of a meeting in some stidio office "Well, to see, Holly, we just didn't see this character as a Southerner." "Well, why the hell not?"
I know folks, brought up in the North, who love "Moonstruck" and get nothing out of "Steel Magnolias." I am exactly the opposite. Oh, I can appreciate that "Moonstruck" is a good movie with strong performances, but it doesn't speak to me. I watch "Steel Magnolias," and I already now these people. I'm related to a few.
To make a long story short (yeah, way too late, I know), it's one thing to try to convince "them" that "we" are pretty okay people, and another to make everyone "us." If a cartoon Bobby named Sunita helps move in that direction I think it's absurd to object,
Just as the frog who is put in a pot with a gradually-rising temperature doesn't know it's being boiled alive until it's too late, so also the West will lose it's identity if it doesn't take a stand and say ENOUGH!
So the identity of the Bobbies, and of all Western civilization, is based on being exclusively pale-skinned, blonde-haired ad blue-eyed (and for the record, I am all three)? Cultures that base themselves on stuff like that tend not to end well.
Yes, we can also walk and chew gum and the same time, and fight the major battles as well as the small ones. But just because they are small doesn't mean that they aren't important and worth defending.
Nor does it men that they are worth defending. There are actual London cops named Sunita. Having a mascot named Sunita is a travesty because ... I'm at a loss.