But that’s not the point here. The point is how hard it is to find a black man doll for what is now the “Loving Family” dollhouse. Or at least how hard it is *now*. I think it was a lot easier 10 years ago. Visits to the local WalMart and ToysRUs have only shown up white two-person combinations. And the marketers were very smart in making the two-person combos an adult and a kid, so that you could mix and match – *if* you could find a black or asian combo.

We did find a dark-skinned adult male/female set by some other company, but I hesitate to break them up. It just sort of feels like breaking up a family during slavery. So I’m absolutely delighted to find out about the dolls you’ve mentioned.

Now…about that whole “it costs more to assemble *my* family” thing. It’s not racism. It’s simple statistics, marketing, and volume packaging. If 1 in 15 marriages is multiracial these days, then 14 in 15 will be mono-racial, and the manufacturers certainly won’t lose any money by making 93% of their doll sets that way. And let’s face it, even for the families that are mono-racial, the dolls don’t often match. Think hair and eye color. The other 7%, well, who knows how long they’ll sit on the shelf at the local WalMart or ToysRUs, unsold. Or maybe, I wasn’t able to find any because the 7% got snatched up really fast.

But about volume packaging. I was out shopping for Halloween candy a few months ago, and it was apparent (and expected) that I could buy a 30-pack selection of certain Hershey products for a lot less than I could if I selected the exact same items one by one. Similarly, the 15 pack of single-serving bags of Doritos or Fritos or Cheetos costs less than buying 15 of the exact same bags of Ito family members separately. If I want 15 bags of Doritos, I’m fine. It’s when I want to mix and match within the 15 that it starts to cost more – and it may indeed cost me less to just buy a 15-pack of each than to mix and match the separates.

So this isn’t a doll ethnicity issue. Apparently, as most people are happy with the pre-packaged Hershey and Frito-Lay collections, most are also happy with the pre-packaged doll collections. And it is one of the economies of scale that collections cost less to make and distribute than singles. They probably also incur less “shrinkage.”

Me, I’m happy just to know that the dolls are available, and that I might not have to split up a family. Do I care about paying a little more for a singleton? No; and this is because I understand about buying singletons in other situations.

I think that people are being way too sensitive about this whole thing. Hmm…I suppose I should complain because the one dark-skinned man doll she has isn’t bald, with a beard and glasses like me. But then again, I frequently refer my 6yo to the works of the philosopher Jager, who said that you can’t always get what you want.

Now, I’m gonna get me one of those dolls.

you totally missed me.

we don’t TEACH our children to not refer to someone’s race.

we have firstly taught them to appreciate people for who they ARE… and not what color their skin is.

as in,

i teach them to see the kid in the wheelchair as being another kid like them who likes dinosaurs and power rangers…and happens to be in a wheel chair. not ‘that kid in a wheel chair’.

people always find something to get hung up on.

isn’t it enough that my kids just like people innocently and don’t have connotations about them based on race/ability? frankly, i’m proud of that. not of ME…. of them.

and duh…
“I think that the attitude should be that someone is black or white or asian and that’s that. No positive or negative value, just a fact.”

that’s exactly what we do.

I was always given black dolls when I was a child but the ones that I really loved and looked most like our family were the Sasha dolls that had brown skin and brunette hair that were actually the “white” dolls in the line!! I am not sure where those English-made dolls got such a tan?!

in my kids christmas nativity set, the three wise men are all different ‘colors’…. one is white, one is brown, one is orange-ish.

i suppose now one has to get worried over representing the various religions in playmobil now.

i totally agree with the blog authors point… just price each doll the same, and let people create their own sets.

as for diversity, my family is the “typical” mom/dad, two kids, white people family. we have made it a point to never refer to people by race (as in, “that black guy”). i always find it awesome when my daughter (age 7) describes her friends as “you know her mom, Lyndsey, with the light brown hair and skin”. i think it’s great to just enjoy the various ‘colors’ represented in our humanity, and to not let our children pick up on our ‘issues’ with them. my daughter has all sorts of dolls. my son has all sorts of dinosaurs, as he would prefer to represent the diversity of the dinosaurs in our world.

just my two cents.

I am a fairly dark-skinned black woman whose mother is white and father is black. I married a white man and now have a daughter who is brown and a son who could pass for old-school Swedish — fair skin, blue eyes and white-blonde hair. I would like to get a doll set for our new doll house that mirrors our family, but I am not going to protest if it may cost a bit more or take more effort. I grew up — a biracial child — in the 80s with whatever doll my mother could afford — a black rub-a-dub baby. And my white grandmother made me a white doll that my daughter now plays with.

I am a well-adjusted, productive member of society. Your children will be fine with whatever racial/ethnic configuration you find. I am sure you are doing countless other things to make your child feel secure in her/his mixed-race identity. And good for you for doing so. If, as a parent, this is enough of a struggle to warrant an entire article, count your blessings. Maybe you could donate the extra dolls to the Salvation Army.

I love the high quality European toys, but even the mice are “white”. (Seriously, how hard would it be to have a “caramel” “brown” and “black” option?)

I have been trying to collect toys with a variety of skin tones, yet when I look at my cache of toys, they are all light-skin, light hair and light eyes.

I am concerned that collectively, these toys,whether representing humans or animals, send the message that light skin/hair/eyes is preferable. In addition, the children in my life have a variety of skin tones, as do their families and neighborhoods. While at times I find the one “brown” doll amid one hundred “white” dolls, the variety, in terms of looks, types of playthings, etc, is severely lacking.

I’d really appreciate websites, catalogues, etc of toys with a variety of skintones. I would like to purchase these toys and patronage manufacturers and retailers who meet this need.

Thank you.