BTW, I love your tagline.
Posted on 12/14/2006 3:41:42 PM PST by SJackson
A note arrived recently from Lori Bell-Santek, who is frustrated because she has been unable to find African-American Baby Alive dolls for her two biracial granddaughters.
She made the rounds at Target, Wal-Mart and a few other stores and all she could find were white versions of Baby Alive.
"In Wal-Mart," she wrote, "I took a moment to look up and down the aisles. It was the day after Thanksgiving, and the store was filled with shoppers. In the doll aisle were several little girls of color, and they were all looking at the same 'white, blond, blue-eyed' dolls. I walked through the store and saw so many people of color. But in the toy section everything is about being white."
Since she knows that Hasbro makes an African-American and a Hispanic Baby Alive, she checked the stores' Web sites. They were out of stock well before Christmas.
My own experience backs up her story. I also needed to purchase some African-American dolls. Bargain hunter that I am, I started checking newspaper ads by early November for the dolls and other toys. Toys "R" Us had a sale in mid-November, and I purchased three African-American dolls.
I continued looking because one of the dolls was not the requested version, so I checked most of the west side stores that sell dolls. I never did find the requested doll. In fact, I can't recall that I saw any other African-American dolls.
After Bell-Santek's note arrived, I stopped at Toys "R" Us again (wooden puzzles were buy two, get one free) and I noticed that all of the African-American dolls in one big display were gone.
So some girls in our area will not be getting the doll they really wanted for Christmas. And that's too bad. As Bell-Santek wrote, "I realize that my granddaughters are white as well as black, but when they look in a mirror, there is not a white, blond, blue-eyed reflection. My granddaughters, the oldest only 3, have every right to own a doll that looks like them.
"I can assure you that every white mother/grandmother I know would be so angry if they went into store after store and could not find a white doll, a white action figure, a book with white characters, a world that didn't acknowledge the culture and heritage that is familiar to them."
Besides, some of the earliest research on racial identification showed the importance of dolls in children's self-image.
No doubt most minority parents will buy white dolls if that is all they can find a white doll is better than none for a child counting on a doll for Christmas.
But there's a market waiting to be served, and the demographic data indicate that market is growing here.
While I agree with most of Bell-Santek's comments, I don't share her pessimism. "It breaks my heart that one day," she wrote, "my granddaughters will realize that the world fails to see how wonderful they are. ... I wanted somebody to care enough to make a change. And I am sad, because I know that isn't going to happen."
As she herself notes, Pleasant Co. is already making American Girl dolls of color, but these are high-cost dolls. Other companies are making more affordable dolls of color they just aren't being stocked here in the quantities needed.
But stores and companies these days use bar codes to keep accurate records of what sells and what sells out early. If there's money to be made, they will eventually respond.
It may take several years, but I think the day will come when there will be plenty of minority dolls available. I just hope that day comes before Bell-Santek's granddaughters have outgrown dolls.
Judie Kleinmaier is the opinion editor for The Capital Times. E-mail: jkleinmaier@madison.com Published: December 13, 2006
BTW, I love your tagline.
Forget color. A firm in northern CA decided that we weren't multicultural enough about 7 years ago. So they bought a truckload of Barbies. And got people to make new clothes for her. They sold 'Hooker Barbie', 'Crackhead Barbie', 'Gangsta Barbie', 'Stripper Barbie', 'Biker Barbie', 'Drunk Barbie', 'Dumpster Barbie', etc. When the trademark lawsuit came down, those guys already sold out making 4X a straight Barbie would sell for. Funny dolls - for guys:):)
Look into Spanish Lladro porcelain figurines as an investment. I own a few. They break the mold at a certain point. Check them out. They are not cheap.
When our first born accompanied us to a department store at the age of 2 to buy a doll, she picked out the only black doll in the store. Go figure.
You get the point?
L
Right On
Yes. Can you find ads on E-bay for "dolls of color?"
Sounds like a business opportunity.
Liberal answer:
We need a law....with some strong quotas...and reparations...yeah, yeah...reparations...and a commission...a commission with a big budget...
Wait a minute. If her kids are bi-racial, shouldn't she be demanding the Bi-Racial Brand of Baby Doll from Ronco?
This is madness. Why not cater to every tiny minority while we're at it? I demand a doll that is 1/4 Abenaki, 1/4 Antiguan, 1/4 Punjabi and 1/4 Wyandot!
Wal-Mart? Fill my d@mn order. Now!
I'd never heard of her, but she's pretty trippy! LOVE the armpit hair. *Rolleyes*
I raised all boys, so dolls were not a priority in our household. They were too busy bloodying one another with every other toy they've ever owned, though.
One bonked the other over the head with a Tonka truck, once. We banned "bonking" not the trucks, LOL!
And you can get pieces of Erector Sets embedded in the skin if you push hard enough. You can also lead little brother around with a Tinker Toy stick...if you stick it up his nose far enough. Makes a great "handle." *Rolleyes*
And this was before they discovered BB guns.
But I hear raising girls is 100% worse; that's what Dad tells me about Sis & I, LOL!
Neither I nor EEE were talking about dolls in the article. I'm replying to your silly comment about EEE's complaint about dolls that look like prostitutes. Do I need to recap?
Extremely Extreme Extremist: [about dolls in general] "Whatever happened to the good-old Raggedy Ann doll? Frankly I'm sick of girl toddlers playing with dolls that look like whores."
You: "You think that this doll looks like a whore? [followed by photo of an ordinary doll]"
Me: [photos of dolls that really do look like prostitutes proving EEE's point]
Call JJ and Rev AL! Crying victim can make them some money!
Must be "white privilege", "institutional racism", or some such nonsense.
Expect a quota in dolls.
Target - African American Barbie
http://tinyurl.com/yjdktz
Next to the regeister was a shelf with a bunch of themed Santa statues. Santa at the beach, Santa fishing, Santa in a baby pool with a bunch of flamingos(wtf?), etc... Amongst the various Santas were two Santas in traditional garb, sitting in a rocker and reading a list of names that rolled down into his lap and down his legs to the floor in front of him.
One Santa was white and one Santa was black, the White Santa's list included children with names like Tommy, Mary, Susie, Brian, etc...
The black Santa's listed included children with names such as LaQuisha, Tawanda, Jamaal, Porsche, etc...
Seriously. Now, I may have been in a cave the last few years and am not quite sure how to take it but.... As a white man, should I be offended? Should a black individual be offended? Is this offensive? I thought it was funny.... Is it funny? I thought it was funny. Maybe? The white guy at the register didn't think it was funny that I thought it was funny.
Sheesh, I don't know, I'm so confused...
Neither I nor EEE were talking about dolls in the article.
You weren't talking about anything. You were not even on this thread until post 100 so how could you and EEE be talking at all?
I'm replying to your silly accurate comment about EEE's complaint about dolls that look like prostitutes. Do I need to recap?
Oh indeed let us.
Extremely Extreme Extremist: [about dolls in general] [About doll's in the article because there was no other reason for him to make such a comment unless it was about the doll's in the article. He was not talking to you otherwise he would have posted it to you. Nor was he talking to anyone else. He was posting it as a response to the article.] "Whatever happened to the good-old Raggedy Ann doll? Frankly I'm sick of girl toddlers playing with dolls that look like whores."
You: "You think that this doll looks like a whore? [followed by photo of an ordinary doll]" [Followed by photo of doll that was mentioned in the article. The one that Extremely Extreme Extremist apparently thinks looks like a whore otherwise why would he have made the comment he did.]
Me: [photos of dolls that really do look like prostitutes proving EEE's point] [photos of dolls were not mentioned in the article proving that neither one of you is making any sense]
To summarize: We have two possibilities here.
A) EEE for some odd reason equates a grandmother complaining about not being about to find a doll with dark skin color with a grandmother wanting to buy a doll that looks like a whore. Yes, I know it makes no sense.
B) He is posting without reading the article. Much more likely but something that he should be slapped down for.
If you still need two dolls I have them. I ended up obtaining four in my quest to get two for my children.
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