Coleco Drops Doll Over Arab Cry of Racism

Coleco Industries Inc., maker of the popular “Cabbage Patch” and “Rambo” dolls, has halted manufacture of a swarthy, submachine-gun-wielding warrior doll called “Nomad” after an Arab rights group complained that it was “racist” and unfairly portrayed Arabs as terrorists.

Also in response to complaints from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a nationwide group based in Washington, Coleco on Nov. 26 decided to halt all television advertising about its “desert warrior” doll.

“Our interest was not to provide offense to any group,” Barbara Wruck, public information director, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from company headquarters in Hartford, Conn. She said Nomad, with its flowing burnoose headdress, was not meant to look Arabic.

The burnoose is worn “by all different desert peoples and by the Japanese,” Wruck said. “However, since we recognized that the American consumer is not particularly versed in the diversity of the Arab cultures . . . we were sensitive to those concerned.”

Name Tag

However, committee spokesman Faris Bouhafa said that, in addition to a burnoose, the doll’s shirt bore a “Nomad” name tag written in Arabic.

“We don’t deny there are Arab terrorists, but we are extremely concerned about the inclination to portray Arabs only as terrorists,” Bouhafa said.

Bouhafa said his group began receiving complaints about the doll as soon as it hit toy stores two months ago. He called Coleco’s response “unprecedented because this is a major manufacturer agreeing to cease production of what we understand was a very popular toy.” Committee members monitored Saturday morning cartoons last weekend, looking for Nomad commercials, “and we did not see them,” he said.

Bouhafa said his group now plans to go after all Nomad dolls left in the nation’s toy stores, asking store buyers to return them to Coleco. He said the committee is targeting four national retailers--Toys R Us of Rochelle Park, N.J.; Sears, based in Chicago; Montgomery Ward, based in Chicago, and Kay-Bee Toy Stores, based in Lee, Mass.