Page 165 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

150 . Ethnically Correct Dolls

understanding of race that anthropologists, at least, have been working
to dismantle since the discipline's early days. The fundamental conflicts
between the social agenda of toymakers and the imperatives of business
contribute heavily to this tendency to commoditize race while working
to create a market for the racialized commodity.
To compete in this notoriously competitive and unstable market,
makers of ethnically correct toys must put business first; any social agenda
can be accommodated only insofar as it also generates profit. The toy in-
dustry is not about fun, it is about competition, marketing, and eco-
nomic success, generating $17 billion in revenues in 1993. It is an enter-
prise dependent upon children, who are regarded with both wonder and
suspicion by toy executives because—as a group—kids are fickle, un-
predictable, and hard to comprehend, especially from the point of view
of adulthood. Thousands of new toys are introduced to toy shelves each
year, but a toy is considered a success if it lasts any amount of time be-
yond its introductory season. A toy that lasts five years is a real winner
(My Little Pony, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and
perennial favorites (Cabbage Patch Kids, G.I. Joe, Barbie) are the foun-
dation upon which toy dynasties are built. A toy that can retain its popu-
larity and its moneymaking ability provides the financial stability needed
by toy companies if they are to undertake the huge financial risks re-
quired to develop and launch their yearly horde of new products. Bringing
a quality toy to production can easily require an investment of several mil-
lion dollars. These funds go into researching and evaluating play value
and safety; sculpting the faces, limbs, or parts of the toy; engineering; set-
ting up assembly line; training of workers to do painstaking hand-painting
of details such as eyes and eyelashes; designing of clothing and hairstyles;
packaging; marketing and distribution. It's no wonder, then, that socially
progressive goals often end up taking a backseat to the priorities im-
posed by the need to recoup an investment.
The situation is similar in the retailing of toys, where the largest buy-
ers have shrunk to only three: Toys-R-Us, Target, and Wal-Mart. Lead-
ing the group by a wide margin, Toys-R-Us is, literally, the buyer that can
make or break a toy or a toy manufacturer. The company is so fully in
control of the toy market that the Federal Trade Commission has twice
in the 1990s investigated the organization on antitrust-related issues. A
manufacturer is lucky to get a line picked up by Toys-R-Us and even lucki-
er to avoid having to give the retailer an exclusive. If the line is also picked
up by buyers from Target and Wal-Mart, success is almost assured, at
least for that year.