In my early 20s, I can now recognize a lot more about my doll that I couldn’t as a child. My disappointment then came from the lack of accessories for the Black doll, my disappointment now, is rooted in the lack of Black dolls. What does it say that the only Black doll in this collection of historical dolls, is an escaped slave? What should we take away from a doll whose accompanying story begins with her pain in the cotton fields? Let’s be very real here, the only girls buying Addy dolls are Black. So why must they be subjected to the notion that their most important time highlighted in history by a doll, is a time when we were brought and sold as commodities? If I’m not mistaken there isn’t a doll who was designed to remind Jewish girls of the horrors of the holocaust, and Addy clearly will not be informing non children of color about the struggles of Black life in Civil War America. So why are we subjecting young Black girls to such a heavy weight with their doll? It’s easy to argue the importance of not skipping over slavery in America , and I agree that it is necessary for all people of all ages to understand its cruelties. If there were no doll from the time period of slavery I would be equally disappointed at the disregard for this painful piece of history, but to imply that the only African American doll worth making it into the American Girl collection is a runaway slave, completely invalidates the worth of all the other accomplishments of African Americans and particularly Black women in America. Why is there not a Black doll from the Civil Right’s movement era, who made bold life changing choices like Ruby Bridges and the Little Rock 5? Or even a Harlem Renaissance based doll, who would have wonderful chance encounters with Langston Hughes and Jacob Lawerence all from the stoop of her brownstone. There is such a rich history of Black America that is inclusive of but not restricted to our time spent here as slaves. There are so many missed opportunities for another doll; not a companion doll, like the discontinued Cécile, but for a doll that could sustain a story line all its own.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 22:30:12 +0000
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