Roadblock

G.I. Joe's stereotype

by Dave McAwesome

Oh man, where does one begin? Roadblock is typical of how 80s white America viewed blacks (in the 80s, African-Americans were called blacks...then this changed to African-Americans...er...even for people who were British or French, e.g. if you're from Martinique, you're not African-American...I don't know, it's still very confusing. I try to go by first names rather than qualify people by ethnicity or nationality. I've never said, "hey, I was hanging out with my Kraut friend Heinrich yesterday and..."). Like I was saying, Roadblock was a stereotype. White America was very impressed by how well people of color could talk. "Oh, my, he speaks so well for a genetic inferior!" The last part was usually left off and simply assumed. As kids, we never fell for this racial nonsense. We played with whoever made us laugh harder. You adults mess up everything.

The first G.I. Joe "of color" was Stalker. He's a bad-ass Vietnam vet who served with Snake-Eyes. But, you know, he didn't rap or anything and that's all that mattered to stereotyping toymakers in the 80s. Face it, if Smurfs had been made by an American company, "Papa Smurfs Big Pimpin Hip-Hop Adventure" would have been a two-hour TV special. Roadblock was a big, huge, scary black man. To make his gigantic, throbbing, black schlong less intimidating to Toys R Us moms, he was given a 'limp' backstory about being a gourmet chef. In the cartoon, he rhymed everything he said in a sad attempt to capitalize on the suburbification of rap. He was written as a gentle giant.

Roadblock was Bojangles: the safe black. The kind of black who would know it wasn't his place to ask out your daughter. This is how adults destroy the world of children. Adults don't engage you. They tell you what they think you need to hear, forgetting that us dumb kids have our own two eyes and ears perfectly attuned to crap detection.

For the escalation of stronger and stronger G.I. Joe action figures with humungous biceps, see my Gung Ho entry.