The national retail store, Toys R Us, holds an annual contest awarding the first American baby of each New Year. The first American child born in 2007 is to be awarded a $25,000 savings bond.

A baby born in New York was awarded the prize. Once, the toy company discovered that the parents of the child were not documented citizens from China, the offer was rescinded and awarded to a runner up. The grandmother of the runner up (revealed the too common attitude by an ignorant statement), “If she’s an illegal alien, that makes the baby illegal,” referring to the Chinese mother. The second runner up was also born to immigrant parents from El Salvador.

According the contest rules, the prize is reserved for the child and not the parents. In a change of heart (or pocket), the company has since reversed its decision and awarded a $25,000 savings bond to all three babies.

It’s surprising that the issue received very little national television coverage. The media is overly distracted with the so-called “surge,” speculating who will endorse and who will object the additional troop deployment to Iraq. Nevertheless, it’s great to see that the company changed its mind. Especially since they recently opened a store in China, will gladly accept the money of any shoppers, and purchases cheap toys made overseas in questionable working conditions, presumably by young impoverished workers.

I wouldn’t quite label the original decision racist, but it is something similar. The questionable aspect is that the company made its original decision to rule out the child’s eligibility because of the citizenship status of the parents. If the winner is the child, it shouldn’t matter if the parents are from Western Venus. These situations will continue to persist and can only be reduced when organizations are shown that such actions will not be tolerated. Bravo to those people who spoke up on behalf of the poor decision of Toys R Us.

Congratulations baby Yuki Lin!

everardo carvajal

Sources

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-06-toys-r-us-baby-prize_x.htm?csp=34

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/nyregion/06toys.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=b96bfd3d8135f4d8&ex=1168837200

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/nyregion/07toys.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070106/ap_on_re_us/first_baby_dispute

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242242,00.html

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/06/first.baby.ap/index.html