Page 186 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

Ethnically Correct Dolls . 171
well with the emergence of an industry ready to supply the things kids
need in order to have a "positive self-image" but neatly sidesteps the
question of fundamental social, political, and historical issues that also
impinge on children's experiences and hence their perceptions of them-
selves as people in the world. This shift is typical of makers of ethnically
correct toys, but these assumptions are belied by what can be seen and
heard among children from places like Newhallville. Kids like Carlos,
Tionna, and Natalia are keenly aware of the complexity of race, seeing
Native American ancestry in a Shani doll and class-based omissions in the
personality of Barbie.
Adults tend to assume that the physical aspects of toys—their gender,
skin tone, hair—determine how children will use and relate to them.
Part of the impetus behind the move to introduce ethnically correct dolls
to the marketplace is to provide children with toys that look like them
and to which children can relate. The way kids use and think about toys
is much more flexible—and critical—than adults often assume, however.
What Newhallville girls said and thought about Barbie, for instance, in-
dicates that ethnically correct dolls may not provide a solution to the
problems embodied in these toys, which address the issue of race but
not class. While diversifying the ethnic mix available at Toys-R-Us,
Wal-Mart, and Target, ethnically correct dolls and their producers do
not redefine the market itself as a sphere accessible to children of color
who are also poor. In all fairness, companies like Olmec cannot reason-
ably do so and expect to remain economically viable. Nevertheless, it is
unlikely that any of the 500,000 Kenya dolls sold by Tyco in 1992 ended
up in Newhallville kids' homes.
These girls were not asking for dolls who looked like them; they were
expressing the desire for dolls who lived like them and the kids they
know in their neighborhood—people who get pregnant, experience
abuse, and whose clothes and style are "dope" and "slammin'." Dolls
from Mattel's Shani line, though "ethnically correct," still live lives fan-
tasized about by the middle class of most any color. Olmec's Imani,
decked out each year in a new, commemorative African-style outfit, was
described this way in 1992 company materials:
Spectacular in her gold trimmed gown, Imani is truly a Royal Princess
in this outfit! The unique kente cloth fabric accents the African in-
spired cape design worn over a belted long sleeved jumpsuit. Her
beautiful jeweled crown tops her fully rooted, long crimped hair.
Imani's face has been resculpted to reflect more gorgeous features that
little girls will love.