AC W10 stereotypes racism in toyland - Racism in Toyland By...

March 18, 2008
Racism in Toyland
By Karen Sternheimer
You have probably heard critics of Barbie decry the unrealistic beauty image
the toy reflects. I’m guessing you may have already thought about the way that
children’s toys promote somewhat rigid gender identities. But have you ever
thought about how toys reflect racial inequality?
During the holiday shopping season, a friend of mine went to buy a doll for her daughter. She
had a coupon for a specific doll from the newspaper circular, and she was excited because she
knew that particular doll also came in a black version. Since her daughter is multiracial, she likes
her to have dolls of many hues to play with.
But when she went to check out, she was told that the coupon was only
valid on the white doll.
Now there might be marketing reasons that the coupon could only work
with the white doll; the UPC code might have been different on the black
doll. Maybe they had an abundance of white dolls that the store was looking
to move off of the shelves. Since the manufacturer probably produces so many more white
versions of the doll and the retailer also probably buys a whole lot more of the white ones, it
makes sense from a business perspective that one version would be cheaper to clear inventory.
Ultimately, the store manager refused to honor the coupon (which did not
say was for white dolls only).
But from a sociological standpoint, the price difference is a surcharge for
black dolls which could work to deter customers from buying one.
According to the U.S. Census, the median household income for African
Americans is approximately 61% of white, non-Hispanic households. This
income disparity makes it even more of a burden to pay more for essentially
the same doll.
Since the middle of the last century, toy manufacturers have come a long way. Dora the Explorer
is an extremely popular Latina television character (with requisite doll and
other toys). Fisher Price's Little People toys also feature children clearly
from multiple ethnic groups. American Girl dolls are mostly white, but their
Mexican American, Native American and African American dolls aren’t
segregated on their homepage, as they are on www.toysrus.com . If you visit
this site and click on dolls, they have many categories to choose from,
including "ethnic dolls" . Even many of those dolls appear to be white or
very light skinned.

This separate category literally segregates dolls of color…except most of these dolls at best look
like white people with deep tans. Of those slightly darker in color, they often have Caucasian-