[MMC66]

OK now anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to shop. I am always getting cute things for Addy and am always looking.

I am becoming more and more aware of all the white faces on kids clothing. All the little ballerinas or fairies or little girls have porcelain white faces. Also even the animals are all white - Dogs are white, little mice are white, kitties are white. OK maybe I;m just getting paranoid with the animals but it's just annoying.

Anyone else notice this??

Martha

[kmsga]

I agree, Martha. I've been searching high and low for a black baby cross-stitch pattern so my mom can finish DS's Christmas stocking, and nothing! Finally found one that has options for using different threads to make "a variety of facial hues", and that's as close as I could get. Now that we have our little guy, I'm sure noticing the lack of people of color in just about everything. Sad it took me this long, but guess that's part of the whole "white privilege" thing.
K

[Jackobanzi]

I actually sent an e-mail to AnneGeddes.com last week on the same issue. They have ADORABLE diaper bags with the Anne Geddes baby pictures on them, but every picture they chose has white babies. Black baby pictures do exist in her collection, so I can't imagine WHY there wouldn't be at least ONE available!

When they responded, the best they could tell me is that they're planning to release a different bag with an outline of a baby, neither black nor white.

That makes it easier for me not to spend $125 on a diaper bag! Geesh!

[spaypets]

It's frustrating. I quit subscribing to my parenting magazines in part because of the lack of children of color on the covers. Considering all the different hues out there, don't you think they could manage to have more than one cover a year with a brown baby?

I will say this, though. My inlaws just gave DD a brown baby doll for her birthday. Considering the flack we got from them when we registered for a doll identified as AA, this is huge.

[Linny]

I know what you're talking about. Our oldest kids were born in Japan and Korea and are now grown. We've been seeing this stuff for that long a time, believe me.
Now that our two youngest babies are AA.......it's no 'better' than it was 25yrs ago. We are Christians...and one of our pet peeves is when Bible material is presented as people with white faces! C'mon........none of those people were white.....and certainly Jesus was dark complected. (But while you can find it; you're hard pressed to find very much of it correctly presented in material around the US!!!!!)

Still irks me to see the 'baby Jesus in the manger' with white skin and blonde curls!!!!!!!!!!

Sincerely,

Linny

[Sunshine Mom]

I am First Nations and one of my biggest issues is trying to find Christmas cards that dont feature blond angels or blond Christmas Carolers or blond baby Jesus or white kids or ... Anyways you get the point. And when I ask at stores (any and all stores) the clerks look at me like I am a bit nutty for asking them if they have cards that feature non white people on the cover. You's think that only white kids like to sled if you used christmas cards as your guide.

[LisaCA]

it's still a very, very white world, esp when it comes to merchandise.

the way I combat this is by complaining. if stores pressure the producers, it will happen. also write letters to the store's corporate headquarters and to the manufacturer.

i'm busy trying to find an AA santa for dd's xmas photos. we may end up driving for hours in Los angeles traffic to find one.

[Lexmom]

Sadly, I had to eliminate humans from my childs toys, holiday cards, and books. If I can't find a book or toy with children of color, I switch to looking for animals. Unfortunately, the multi-zillion child industry in the US mostly ignores children of color.

[Lexmom]

Talk about timely...my co-worker just handed me one of the those fund raising catalogs for his kids and I was shocked to find a page dedicated to AA families. It has an AA girl angel candleholder, AA angel tree ornaments, and an address book with photos of AA children in that colored to look aged photo style that's currently popular.

[jandn]

We are fortunate to live in a larger diverse city. Even if I go to Big Lots or the Dollar store, the toys are usually 50-60% brown skinned. I would like our toys to be very diverse and even though we have a large asian population I'm having a hard time finding asian dolls/toys.

[Lexmom]

Jaydn--You are very fortunate. We live in a racially/culturally diverse city, and the retailers still don't stock that many toys representing the various races.

[sugarbabysmommy]

YES! As well as most characters in books.

[fiona-c]

It is hard to find things that are non white characters but it can be done. I just finished redoing my son's bedroom and wanted a cowboy/horse theme. I thought it would be just horses but found fabric at Joann's that featured cowboys and all the faces were gray. Not perfect but they were not white!!! And when I bought the fabric I pointed out to the sales clerk the fact that the faces were gray and how pleased I was. My son was with me at the time.

My daughter has almost all brown dolls and the family had no problem when I announced that to them. The only exception is a red headded doll that looks like her cousin and me. And it was bought to remind her of her cousin.

When I find items that feature non white people I usually buy as much as I can.

[whh]

The best place that I have found for dolls, picture tees, etc that are culturally diverse to date was on our last vacation to Jamaica! I found an amazing variety of dolls that not only had a variety of skin hues, but also a variety of features (not just same molds with different skin colors). Even though we were still waiting at the time, I couldn't help but stock up on a few!

If those looking for such items know anyone traveling in that direction, might want to ask them to keep and eye out for you.

Jean

[ggman]

We are in the process of adopting from Haiti and trying to incorporate as much diversity into our home prior to our baby's arrival.

This has been a source of GREAT frustration to me as well. I was looking for an AA doll for one of my bio daughter's friends as a gift and there was not ONE in our Target store (well, actually, there was one Cabbage Patch kid.) I had the darndest time finding Christmas Cards with AA people on the front-- (I did find that Hallmark has some great ones!)

This adoption process has really opened my eyes to the true race situation in our country. I am embarrased to have not noticed it sooner!

-G