DEI Barbie - A Black Woman’s Equal Opportunity War
- Latoya Hazell-Alcide
- Apr 14
- 10 min read
A Girl’s Toy - The Start of an Equal Opportunity War
Growing up I remember small glimpses of playing with dolls. The Barbie’s were not a favorite of mine. Too skinny and easy to behead. Plus they had none that looked like this thick, full lipped, broad nose, coily hair, and brown skinned girl. Unfortunately, there were no other choices for me and countless brown and black girls who should have been gifted with a toy which looked like them. Many families with grinding teeth, buy what they find because it is not within their power or resources to create their dream doll for their daughters or pay someone to wage war against the cookie cutter toy.
Created from the need for a wider pool and more diverse choices of dolls for her daughter to play with, Barbie creator, Ruth Handlerset out on a course to correct this indefensible wrong. Viewing this unfairness through the lens of gender discrimination and equal opportunity, she exposed the injustices in a girl’s world by creating a doll with diversity of employment for her daughter. I salute her for it because I believe that many inventions we find useful came from an idea born out of a need not readily available. However, it took in my opinion too much time for the same equal opportunity to wrap its arms around black girls. It baffled me that in every time the prism of history into the Women's Suffrage movement exposed the strong fist of men and some women who refused to allow everyone the equal opportunity they did or did not feel they needed to have. Before a black doll could come onto the sacred scene, white Barbie after being debut in 1959;
Had her first dream home in 1969 - a 10 year accomplishment
Went to the ‘doll’ moon in 1965 - a 15 year accomplishment, all while earthling astronauts were still trying to figure out themselves and the Space Program out.
Barbie became a celebrity in 1967 - a 17 year accomplishment and was modeled after British model, Twiggy
She is Not a Barbie
Dr. Christon Arthur, President of La Sierra University in California, once said;
“A child is to be given two views of their world. When they look within their immediate points of reference, they are to see a representation of themselves in successful and achievable roles. And when they look out the window, they are to see their world with them in it and thriving.”
My mind draws back to me having the same anger from the unjust, racist, barbaric, inhumane, and sexist treatment of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (Women's Army Corps)(WAC). The 'Six Triple Eight' movie tells about this historic segment of time for Black women in the Armed Forces during World War II, and can be viewed on Netflix. This excerpt is taken from their official website The 6888th / USA / Women of the 6888th
“In 1945, Birmingham, England, the women of “Six Triple Eight” confronted warehouses stacked to the ceiling with letters and packages. These buildings were unheated and dimly lit, the windows blacked out to prevent light showing during nighttime air raids. Rats sought out packages of spoiled cakes and cookies. As it was a cold winter, the women wore long johns and extra layers of clothing under their coats while working in these warehouses…”
“Although male African-American Soldiers, along with white servicemen and women, had been allowed in a local club for enlisted American military personnel run by the American Red Cross, neither this club nor the American Red Cross hotels set up for WACS in London welcomed the African-American WACs…The women of the 6888th found that they were the subject of some hostility and rumors impugning their character spread by both white and black male Soldiers who resented the fact that black women were allowed in the Army.”
“Despite such treatment, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion produced great results in Birmingham: With the new tracking system they created, the women processed an average of 65,000 pieces of mail per shift and cleared the six-month backlog of mail in three months. The women adhered to the motto of, “No mail, low morale,” providing essential support for the U.S. military in the European theater by linking servicemembers to their loved ones back home. They achieved unprecedented success and efficiency in solving the military’s postal problems.”
I cannot wrap my mind around why the black human continues to be seen as a dispensable placemat. Why are we always given to make bricks with no straw, win with no tools, work well with the bare minimum. Accomplish success with the "bare necessities.” Invitations and assignments for our grit and gifts to be used are given many times insincerely and disingenuous. In more times than not, mendacious motives are used to expose the assumed non-intelligence and incapabilities of minorities or to calm the rise of the oppressed and the call for equality and equity.
She Is Not A Black Barbie, She Is Just A Doll That’s All
1968 came along, 18 years after the first Barbie stormed into all of our children’s lives and by some lightning strike, Barbie needed to fill another gap. Maybe a parallel gap that all the brown and black little girls needed to fill in their collection of only white dolls. Barbie needed friends and according to the Barbie Timeline
“In support of Equal Rights, Barbie released Christie, one of the first black dolls. Christie was created as a friend of Barbie and came dressed in a mod-inspired swimsuit with a short ’60s hairstyle.”
I needed to just quote it for you all because phewww chile. Their message to black families shopping for their child was that before that child gets too excited, don't get it mixed up, this black doll is just a doll. And be clear of her role, she was NOT a Barbie but a “friend" of Barbie. Does that leave a salty taste in my mouth? Yup, really salty!
The salt to injury was the double edged sword and subliminal messages sent to black girls that even in the doll world the barriers kept her from soaring and having a leading role in real life. Like some of our own experiences, being black was enough to check the diversity checkbox and assigned as a friend of Barbie but not female enough to stand side by side as her own Barbie doll. She was brought in to serve Barbie in a role which cast no shadow on the brand.
Furthermore, contrary to what the the creative mom’s flag of resistance was for her daughter was, which was to have the same job and other working professionals; Christie was not a professional, didn't have a job but was just a beach cutie who came with the only attire fit for her role, a swimsuit and an afro. Barbie would go on to own another major item by the launching of her camper in 1971 - a 22 year accomplishment but still no female dolls of another race standing in the Barbie arena with her. She stood on the hill and the diverse friends vacationed in the valley.
The Black Error
After 31 years, I repeat, 31 years, finally, someone “figuratively” put a mirror in the face of the trajectory of that doll. Mattel shares their error in their own words.
“First Diverse Dolls Named Barbie Over the years, many diverse dolls were available, but they were always friends of Barbie. In 1980, Mattel released the first black and Hispanic dolls named Barbie.”
Allow me to rephrase my thoughts. I would prefer to say, someone snatched the hair off white Barbie’s head exposing the bald truth. These are some of the subliminal messages of unworthiness and incompetency sent to all of our black and brown girls including our daughters, nieces, granddaughters.
You are not enough
You do not have marketable power
You do not have status
You are created to be in a supportive role
Education and careers are not for you
You are incapable of being serious and focused, only fun
And the list goes on and one…does this sound like another vehicle to carry the determination detonators for our people? YUP YUP YUP
The Art of War
Back then but not so far behind us, the battle was ‘hot’ as they say and everyone was in the trenches of an ally or enemy. Maybe the one war for her daughter was all she had capacity for and that is well and good but for our wallets to continue to fund that war, our threat in that same war maybe should have been taken into consideration.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Trust me, I am not unfairly sitting on the pulse of covert racism. I do not sit in the mind and heart of Ruth Handlerset but no one should educationally and willingly fund a war in which deadly missiles and atomic bombs are also aimed at their race! I am just critically thinking here and assessing from both lenses that racism and sexism’s big and fat pink elephants took up more room back then in the fights for freedoms than we have today!
In a report emerging from the Black Barbie: A Documentary, Sheila Flynn, writer for The Independent, a British online newspaper draws out the missing files which tell the story of how 1980 Black Barbie came to be. I sigh as I read this because once again we see a black woman carrying the weight of injustice and misrepresentation while working for and producing revenue for the company, institution, church, or family committing the injustice. In her article ‘A little act of revolution’: How Mattel came to make the first Black Barbie,’ the reader discovers the uncovered and exposed holes in the head and think tank of Mattel. The preview subtitle would have all of us melanated sistahs to give that girllllll reaction in rolling eye formation. It reads
“Beulah Mae Mitchell was on the first Barbie production line at Mattel before becoming one of the first Black employees at the company’s corporate offices. In a new documentary, she reveals the journey to creating the first Black Barbie – and how it was about so much more than hair, clothes and Ken.”
Lagueria Davis in speaking about what she has learned from speaking to her cousin Beulah Mae Mitchell’s 45-year career at Mattel and the creation and evolution of Black Barbie herself shared;
“My aunt is kind of like the key that unlocks the door which is Black Barbie, which we can walk through and explore the greatest themes of representation and self-determination and intergenerational conversation on progress — through the prism of dolls,” Ms Davis tells The Independent. Ms Mitchell certainly saw it all firsthand, offering a unique and revelatory perspective that began with her childhood in heavily segregated Fort Worth, where she was born in 1938.
The article goes on to share that Ms. Mitchel said that Mrs. Handlerset was a strong woman and she would often pick their brains about marketing ideas and innovations.
Ruth was one who showed interest in the opinions of her employees, making it clear that she would fulfill the ideas and “make the toy.” Soon Mrs. Handlerset’s time came to keep her words.
“It was around 1960 when Ms Mitchell says that she and other workers suggested: “We want a Black doll.” She says the Mattel owner answered: “We’ll see.” “Asking Ruth Handler to consider incorporating a Black Barbie into the product line, that was a little act of revolution,” Dr Patricia Turner, an African American studies professor and dean of UCLA College, says in the film. A few years later in 1968, Mattel introduced its first Black doll, a friend of Barbie’s named Christie.
Freedom Exposed
So, why do I write all of this in a forwardly frustrating tone? Beloved and renowned poet, author, professor, and leader in the Black Arts movement, Nikki Giovanni said,
“Deal with yourself as an individual worthy of respect, and make everyone else deal with you the same way.”
Nikki Giovanni died recently on December 9, 2024 at the age of 81 years old. She reminds us that God’s value for black women has never diminished. In addition, the orders for how we not only view and deal with ourselves but also how we expect others to treat us, is appropriately stated in Nikki Giovanni’s quote. The more I delved into this journey, the more I felt the denial of representation for not just me but brown and black babies a whopping 31 years into their dreamland of toys. More specifically the heavily barbed wire arena of dolls for black and brown girls. 2020 arrived, ten years later and 51 years since the first doll had her debut. In this etched out moment, I celebrate the banner of inclusivity, breaking more of the glass ceiling for representation and inclusion.
USA Today’s writer Charisse Jones in her article, “Barbie gets more diverse: Mattel unveils dolls with no hair, vitiligo,” begins these words hammering more for the breaking of glass windows.
“If you're a little girl with a prosthetic limb, alopecia or the skin condition vitiligo, there's now a Barbie doll that looks just like you…“Barbie was once criticized by some observers for promoting a narrow, unrealistic ideal of what is beautiful. But the brand has been on a diversity push over the last five years,..."Consumers are asking for this,'' says Adrienne Appell, trend specialist and spokeswoman for The Toy Association, an industry trade group, who noted that the doll category had not been as inclusive in years past. Now "toymakers are embracing this ... showing what kids are seeing in the real world and representing that in the doll aisle.''
My second daughter Victoria fell ill with an autoimmune disease which caused her hair to fall. That remains one of the most emotional and heartbreaking times for her and us. Seeing our 8 year old girl go through this suffering while unable to answer her questions about why God didn't stop it from happening. We were helpless and grieved with her. This was the time that we desperately searched for a doll with a bald head to give her as her companion so that she would visually see that she was not the only child whose head was bald. I could not find any except the baby dolls but she was not a baby anymore.
Fast forward 24 years post Black Barbie and 18 years post Vicky’s crisis and I find myself belonging to a group of females who, not by choice but due to trauma, illness, and medication, stand afraid to look in the mirror at my bald head. I share her and many others pain but the difference for me is that because of the exposure of the biases and exclusion of the representation of Black anything, today we can say thank you Lord for all who fight for our black and brown babies including the resounding resolve of Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams-Earley, 3rd Company, 3rd training Regiment WAC, 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the advocacy of Ms. Beulah Mae Mitchell, line worker at Mattel, and so many more.
A call to be a conduit for the voices of black and brown babies is a gift from God to advocate by Exposing injustices for the reward of Freedom. If you are one of them, use it wisely but use it unapologetically.
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