The other day Sugar and I hit up some garage sales. I absolutely love going to garage sales – you never know what you might find! Well Sugar has a new fascination for baby dolls and whenever she sees one her little voice automatically goes on repeat: BABY BABY BABY! One of the garage sales we stopped at had a table full of baby dolls all lined up and Sugar went crazy. I asked her what doll she wanted – they were all $4 so I didn’t care which one she picked. She pointed to the doll with the darkest skin tone and so I handed it to her with full intentions of buying it. The man running the garage sale gave me a look and I knew what it meant – “why are you buying your white baby a black doll??” I didn’t acknowledge the look. Instead I purchased the doll and walked back to our car with Sugar clinging to her new baby doll. And as you can see she absolutely adores it…. yes she is poking it in the eye, but she just learned the word “eyes” and so everyone gets poked there including me, hehe.
Later that day my neighbors were having a garage sale and so we walked on over to hang out with them a little bit. She has a little girl a few months older than Sugar so they like to play together. As we were sitting there Sugar was dragging her new baby doll around and a man that stopped to browse around looked down at Sugar. Then he said “I see you have a colored baby doll there.” Why was that necessary?? I looked at him and said she picked out that doll and she likes it and I left it at that.
I believe that we need to teach our children to be accepting of all skin tones. It’s not what’s on the outside that matters – it’s what’s on the inside. We all bleed red. At Sugar and Dilly’s age I think this awareness begins with things as simple as letting them choose what doll they want. If she wanted the white doll with blonde hair and blue eyes I would have bought that. If she wanted the doll with brown hair and brown eyes I would have bought that. But she wanted the black doll with black hair and so I bought that. And you know what – I am so glad I did.
What is your opinion? I’m not wanting to start a debate, but I would love to hear thoughtful and considerate comments. In our house we have dolls of all skin tones and hair and eye colors… and that’s what works for us.
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I think she looks beautiful with her new baby!
I agree with you if thats the doll she wanted then so be it. My boys have played with dolls and I have a boy baby doll that has a penis and yes I will let my daughter play with it when she is old enough if she wishes too.
I love garage sales too
Being that I am a black woman married to a black man with two black children it saddens me that he said “colored” that is so 50′s and 60′s. I can’t believe people still say that?? lol. Ignorance is alive and it’s sad, personally my daughter has dolls and barbies of every race, I make it a point for her to know and accept all races. She has black, white, mexican, and asian barbies 
She loves them all the same.
Love it. I think kids should absolutely be encouraged to have “friends” (real and pretend) of a variety of descriptions. I think it’s still difficult for a lot of older folks to really understand and accept ethnic equality. I remember the day my grandpa (now departed) was so proud of himself because “I hugged a black woman today”. We’ve grown up understanding that people are people, but not everyone has been that fortunate. I’m so glad my kids have the opportunity to be friends with a variety of other children!
I am with you! I do not know why the man felt the compulsive need to say anything. One of the great things about children is that they do not often see race and when they do, it doesn’t matter, it is what it is. It is like my 3 year old son calling everyone a boy, I don’t honestly know if he doesn’t know the difference or just doesn’t care what the difference is, but either way, that is fine by me.
Love it. My SONS have baby dolls and one of them is a black baby. I see nothing at all wrong with it and agree with you that we need to teach our kids that there is NO difference and everyone is the same no matter what color!
I also just finished reading “The Help” and this kinda reminded me of it
My daughter also has dolls of all shades, she, herself, is biracial…I wonder what that man would have said to her…so sad
I think she looks adorable holding her new doll. I think its great that she got to pick the one she wanted. It just shows you that in children’s eyes we’re all the same, as we should be. If only everyone could see the world like they do.
OMG Danielle, do you live in the deep south or the 50′s? I don’t think I have ever heard someone use the term “colored” except on TV. That is so sad that people can be so closed minded. A doll is a doll is a doll. I am glad Sugar got the one she wanted
I am with you. Let the kids pick the doll they want no matter what the skin tone or hair color is. She looks very cute with her new baby.
Wow.. I was also going to ask where you live that someone is still using the term “colored.” That makes me very sad.
Being that all of my kids and grandkids are biracial, they ALL.. including my boys have owned and played with a wide mixture of babies.. black, white, hispanic, asian, etc. I think every child needs to learn diversity. And some adults.. it’s sad that in this day and age people still question things like that.
Oh Tree I couldn’t have said it better myself….the term colored makes my skin crawl
We have dark toned baby dolls in our house too. I got them at the BlogHer conference and it doesn’t matter to me or my fiance, my girl loves them all the same! She has little rattle dolls of different colors too. I grew up in an area where white was minority and here my baby girl goes to daycare with a wide mixture of babies, she doesn’t notice a difference in who they are, why should I change that? Let her learn! Let her have fun
I love this post. Coming from a person who gets those “looks” daily because of my mixed kids, you just have to let it go sometimes. I hate that we still have to deal with this kind of stuff.
By the way: Sugar looks totally cute with the doll!
I would have punched the man in the eye…..okay maybe not really but I get so tired of peoples ridiculous comments, like Ashley I have mixed babies and sometimes I just want to blow.
We have white, brown, and black babies & Dot loves them all
If people still have something to say about a doll of a different race what would they say if she was playing with a real child of a different race!
We should all follow the lead of children like Sugar and just enjoy each other, no matter the age, sex, race or any other difference.
BTW, if my son wants to play with dolls, I’ll definitely let him choose which ever he wants.
“Colored” in 2011?? Oh my goodness, this colored girl would have blown her top
! I think it’s awesome that your daughter has no color preference when it comes to choosing dolls–it just shows that our kids are being raised with a sense of acceptance that wasn’t necessarily the norm while we were growing up. Thanks for sharing this. I found you on the StumbleUpon 4 U hop and just stumbled this for you.