This Blogger Wants White Parents To Buy Their Kids Black Dolls
One blogger's plea for white parents to buy their children Black dolls has gone viral and it seriously beckons the question, does skin tone truly matter when shopping for a child’s doll?
“Please buy your white kids some diverse dolls. Buy them the Captain America action figure AND the Black Panther one. Buy them a white Barbie, a black Ken and little brown-skinned, curly-haired Chelsea doll to go with it,” Maralee Bradley, a foster and adoptive parent to children of different races and skin colors, wrote on her blog, A Musing Maralee.
She continued, “White dolls aren’t just for white kids and black dolls aren’t just for black kids. Let your kids see you tell them how beautiful that black Barbie is, how precious that black baby looks and affirm what a good job your child does in caring for them.”
In the post, Maralee went on to recall a debate two women—who we can only presume were white—engaged in while shopping for a child’s birthday gift. According to the post, the pair were debating on whether a certain baby doll represented a child of color and if the child’s parents would object to the doll.
The blogger's point-of-view? “If someone is going to be upset about receiving a black doll, that is not a home I want my child (white or brown or black) spending time in. Instead of avoiding that interaction, let’s just go all in and see what we’re dealing with,” she wrote.
Although she definitely has a point, we cannot help but flashback to the extremely disturbing reaction a 7-year-old white girl had when she was gifted a Black doll for Christmas.
See her reaction before throwing the doll across the room and bursting into tears.
The video that went viral in December 2019 received some serious backlash, especially since the family can be heard chuckling in the background. The sister reportedly denied her family being “’ racist’ at all.”
It’s sad that with it being a brand new decade in the millennium, the topic of diversity and acceptance is a topic—but alas it is.
Thankfully, celebrities that are parents of multi-racial children like Khloe Kardashian and Serena Williams made a conscious effort to highlight representation in dolls for their brown skin children.
You may remember last November, it was quite a big deal on social media that Kylie Jenner consciously made it a point to ensure that her daughter with rapper Travis Scott had beautiful Black Barbie dolls in her playroom.
With so many dolls to choose from that now represents a wide variety of skin
tones, shapes, and sizes, Maralee brings up a valid point. Would you take her advice and buy your child a doll of another race?
