For years I never understood the big deal people make over the appearance of children's dolls. I'm white and my wife is east African, so as black as you can imagine and our daughter is, of course mixed.Well my mom gave my 17 month old daughter her very first doll today and it amazed me how enamored she is with the thing.Now I have seen some people state that it shouldn't matter if the doll is black or white or latino or whatever. I read a thread a while ago where a grandmother was harping on the daughter in law for getting a black doll and she countered that it shouldn't matter WHAT race the doll is and that mother in law is obviously racist.From what I just witnessed...I 100% disagree. My daughter has caramel colored skin and the fact that she can see this doll as "like me" is such a huge boone to her self esteem is blew me away. There were three other dolls gifted that day but only this doll was "like me" in her eyes.So I disagree that in that particular instance MIL was being racist. She intuitively understood what I never did until tonight. That it is vital that a child who receives a doll receives one they view as "like me" because they have yet to comprehend all the implications race has. They just want to play, and they are young enough thay they intuitively can tell the difference between "same" and "different" and that has nothing to do with prejudice. It is just an innocent child making a simple observation and nothing more. via /r/Parenting http://bit.ly/2rRcbU3
No comments:
Post a Comment