desymbol: Class Parents Reject Mom For Buying White Daughter A Black ‘American Girl’ Doll

There’s no better feeling than seeing your kid happy. As a parent, you’d do whatever it takes to keep it that way, and it often doesn’t take much.

For a kid named Sarah, getting the doll that looks just like her best friend Alissa was all she wanted. And a mom who shared the incident on the subreddit r/AmItheAsshole didn’t think much of it. “My daughter is white, and Alissa is black. She designs the doll, the girls have a blast, it was so cute.” The lovely story would have ended here, but it took a strange turn when Sarah’s classmates’ parents came to a party and saw her carrying around the black doll. They were far from impressed. Here’s the whole account of that bitter day as told by the mom herself down below.

A mom was accused of whitewashing after she got her daughter a black doll

Image credits: gengberg (not the actual photo)

Mom shared the incident on Reddit in a bid to find out whether she actually did something wrong

Black dolls have been around for a long time, but availability has always been an issue in the US. According to Debbie Garrett, the author of Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion, who grew up in the South, finding a black doll has always been an issue. This is due to the fact that many store keepers were unwilling to stock them.

Garrett told USA Today that “it’s ‘of the utmost importance for black children’ to have dolls that look like them.” Moreover, for white kids, dolls of color promote diversity and a healthy view of the human race. As “white standards are promoted as the norm,” it’s important for white children to have dolls that represent different ethnicities.

It’s all part of helping kids to see themselves in a positive light and at that age, it starts with the toys they play with, things they see, and books they read. Margaret Beale Spencer, a professor of comparative human development at the University of Chicago, said that “children’s play is serious business.” “They are getting ideas about who they are from these objects. There are messages about one’s confidence, one’s sense of self in terms of what I look like, and being powerful.”