New Black (Enough?) Barbies

The "Chrissy" doll--that was the closest to a "Black Barbie" that we had as kids when we were in our doll  baby phase. That was...100 years ago. After all this time, you mean Mattel still hasn't gotten it right? Or have they, and we're just being a little too picky? You decide.

From Wall Street Journal 

With so few black dolls on toy-store shelves, many black parents had high hopes when toy powerhouse Mattel Inc. released So in Style, its first line of black dolls with wider noses, fuller lips, sharper cheekbones and a variety of skin shades.

Now, despite the company's efforts to solicit input from a group of high-profile black women, including Cookie Johnson, wife of former basketball star Magic Johnson, some parents are saying the dolls aren't black enough. They complain that five of the six dolls feature fine-textured, waist-length hair; half of them have blue or green eyes...

The criticism over Mattel's new black fashion dolls underscores how difficult it is for large commercial companies to please a widely diverse black community with a single image or two depicting young African-Americans.

"If they had given the dolls short, kinky hair or an Afro, people might have complained that it was too Afro-centric," says Nicole Coles, a 40-year-old mother from Temecula, Calif. "We're so hard and picky."

Mattel nonetheless has taken the comments to heart and plans to expand the line in the fall of 2010 to include a doll with more of an Afro hairstyle..."

Read more of this article, "Are Mattel's New Dolls Black Enough" by Ann Zimmerman, on wsj.com