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As the LUCKIEST new amom to the most BEAUTIFUL little boy on the planet, I have a question!
We are wondering if any of you have found any resources for purchusing cildrens books, artwork, home items, toys, etc, featuring African-American children and families, or maybe families of mixed races. I thought I had always been aware of racism, etc in the world in the past, but not until we adopted our son did I notice as frequently how very under represented people of color are in so many areas and products....I have been looking for a comforter set for his bed, and can't even find one...the astronaut set we had was returned becasue all the astronauts were caucasion...BOO laura Ashley!
Anyway, any ideas for catalogs, websites, etc?
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i was much more offended to find in a wal-mart or target (i can't remember) that the aa beach barbie was considerably less than the white beach barbie, than that there were not aa barbies at all. i was in an area of my state that i would say i predominantly white and all the aa barbies were clearanced, or discounted. i was appalled. i always buy gifts of different ethnic backgrounds for my friends kids. even before i thought of adoption, or adopting a child that has a different ethnic background than my own. once i bought my god son's sister an aa barbie doll and i think i actually offended her mom, but she thought it was the best barbie she every had. just goes to show you that kids are often more open-minded than adults.
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years ago when I couldn't find any AA barbies was depending on area you live decides if you get AA dolls or not. Since I live in a small town then they MIGHT order 1 AA doll of whatever line and when it's gone that's it. The AA barbies are always marked down because they don't move why because CC aren't going to buy them. I finally started going to Toys 'R Us(in a different town) and they always had AA dolls and action figures. I can remember I asked my mom why I only had two black dolls and the rest were white and she said "Because those were the only ones I could find" I guess not much has changed in 37yrs.
thanks all, I agree, we have some availability of dolls etc here at toys are us, and some even at wal-mart and target, its just the stuff like artwork, greeting cards, everyday stuff like that. It seems to me that the majority of things like that ive seen showed jazz musicians, african-tribal stuff, or pictures from the old south. I would like to find artwork and such that show modern african american people, doing regular old stuff...Does that make any sense, or am I way off of base here? (I will try that art.com later, thanks for the tip.) I mean, I know the jazz and African masks and such are part of AA history, and we definately will want him to know about that as well, but that stuff is easy to find.
Hi Mckenna, its rebecca...I cant access my old account for some reason so I am now renamed REEBECCA...haha.
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I get annoyed that when you find black dolls, Barbie included, they have stick straight hair. What message does that send? I tell Fiona Ebonee every day when I do her hair that she has beautiful curls. My hair is very,very straight. Iknow thye go through a stage where they want to look like mom and I hope that if I tell her now and forever how nice her curls are, she won't be in a hurry to staighten them.
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I think that they make AA dolls with stick straight hair because doll manufacturers still may not have figured out how to effectively replicate AA hair. Fortunately, my mother was able to find an AA doll for me 30 years ago. Unfortunately, her hair was nothing like mine. It was just some conglomeration of plastic materials they thought seemed AA, but which I couldn't comb. :rolleyes:
Maybe you can find your daughter a doll with braids. She'll have fun playing with her hair--what every girl loves to do!--as well as enjoy a doll that reflects her culture.
Don't forget:
American girl and My twinn!
Both sites have AA dolls. American Girl's AA dolls do have straight (albeit textured) hair. They have baby dolls (with molded curly hair) and girl dolls. My Twinn has boy dolls as well as girls and babies. They have a choice of relaxed AA hair and curly. The neatest thing about these companies is that you can match your child more closely than with a Barbie or other doll. With My Twinn you can choose many features for a unique one of a kind doll.
Retail urls's are not allowed.
Wow, I guess I live in a more diverse area than I thought! I wish I could say that I had gotten my daughter AA dolls before we considered adopting an AA child, but I just never thought about it! It has been just one area that made me realize just how much racism I never realized went on before. Now she probably has a fairly even mix, but it really was not difficult to find AA dolls, although a lot of them do have CA features. I did realize that I didn't see any asian dolls. I do daycare for a little Chinese girl, and I now see how hard it is for her parents to find any toys that look like her! My aunt had the same problem when they adopted from Korea and Thailand 25-30 years ago, so not much has changed there!
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Does anyone else here remember the kenya black hair dolls? My mom used to buy those for me when I was younger like it was an AA doll and it came with hair products like hair lotion and beads and it would show you how to braid and bead the dolls hair and they had different sets to go with doll like different clothes and stuff and this doll was a favorite of mine as a child, and I think they still sell them at toys r us but i'm not sure since it was some time ago that I played with dolls. Another great option is the American Girl Doll series which has a whole series about a young AA girl named Addie and how she and her mother escaped slavery and went to America to find a new life and with the Addie doll you can find all kinds of cltohes, books that give insight to the AA culture, accessories, as well as many other dolls from all races including hispanic and indian and even a baby collection for younger children. The only downfall of the American Girl series is that their dolls are pricey for about 70 dollars. To find more about American Girl and all of their dolls you can visit Retail URLs arenot allowed per TOS I hope this helps some of you out.
K-Mart has some cute dolls that come in white, black, Hispanic and Asian, both boys and girls. They're about the size of a Cabbage Patch. THey're really cute! They're soft with yarn hair. The AA girl has braids, I think and the boy has twisted black yarn hair. They're about $20.
Home Interiors offers a white and a black version of most of figurines and artwork. They also have quite a few hispanic versions also.