Particular Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver celebrates LEGO’s new, inclusive character line, pushes again in opposition to those that deride it

Eunice Kennedy Shriver standing with and talking to Special Olympics athletes.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver with Particular Olympics athletes on the first ever Particular Olympics World Video games in 1968.

The next is an excerpt from an op-ed written by Particular Olympics Chairman Dr. Timothy Shriver titled “Is LEGO’s toy diversity ‘woke’? There’s nothing wrong with visibility for disabilities.,” revealed in USA Today.

“Who would not love LEGO? I certain do, until I step on them, which does not occur typically, though I count on the danger will develop with every new grandchild.

“That is why I used to be perplexed to listen to that these beloved plastic bricks have been snarled in a global media controversy. Final fall, the LEGO Group introduced a brand new line of LEGO figures meant to have fun human variety.

“These ‘re-imagined’ characters are supposed to show a big selection of traits you do not typically see in mass-produced toys, together with vitiligo, Down syndrome, nervousness dysfunction and limb variations. The transfer has put LEGO smack in the midst of a fierce battlefront in our overheated tradition wars. Commentators on either side of the Atlantic have blasted the corporate for going ‘woke.’

“I do not assume I have to take up an excessive amount of of this area or your time explaining why variety in toys is nothing to get upset about and is definitely a superb factor. Youngsters be taught by way of play. As they discover the huge world and their place in it, they arrive to know who they’re and the place they belong.”