A new friend of mine wrote a blogpost today that really echoed my thoughts, Brown Dolls Are Not Enough! She?s right. Painting white dolls brown is not enough. I have been concerned for quite some time about dolls, and how to support a strong self image in my beautiful brown children through toys games and media with the limited items that are available to me as a parent consumer. Although, as bad as it is for me today it was 1000 times worse for my mother raising me in the 70?s. I remember how difficult it was for my mother to find characters and actors that I could look to, and see myself in. It was an ever present source of conversation in our household. My mother was actively fighting for integration in my schools, therefore, I was keenly aware from an early age what diversity was and when it was missing. Sesame Street was so important when I was growing up because it was one off the few shows on television where I could see people like me. Sesame Street gave me the performing bug through their music and artistry, but it was their diversity that empowered me with the belief that I could reach for my dreams.
I grew up and became an actress myself with a sense of greater responsibility planted deep in my soul.
I know that every time I come in front of the young public, live or on television or radio, I am a role model. Not just in what I do, but in how I look. My hair, my features, the shape of my body, represent a vastly under represented type of person. However, generally I cannot control how I look when I work for other companies, which so often want to straighten my hair for convenience sake. They?ll tell me, ?but it looks so pretty.? It?s hard to explain to a room full of white women with generally straight hair how incredibly ignorant and disrespectful that seemingly benign comment is. They have never lived in a World where all of the images and idols around don?t represent anything of them. They have no frame of reference for how difficult it is to go to school and have people study you like an experiment, and endure questions about why your hair is so puffy-wiry-kinky, and why your nose is shaped so wide-round-flat! They usually don?t know what it feels like to have children make fun of you saying you have a moustache, or to call out to the teacher and complain that they can?t see the chalk board around your hair. I know that when I come in front of an audience those little eyes peering up at me are looking for reassurance that they too are okay. They delight in commenting to me that they have hair like me, freckles like me, a nose like me, skin color like me. My image, just as the new images of the family in the White House, do even more to embolden our young people than any words of encouragement could ever do. Seeing often is truly believing.
That?s why the fight my mother fought in my youth is far from over. The vestiges of Jim Crow, and the genesis for Brown vs The Board of Education still permeate society today. Since the dolls of today are only white dolls with painted brown skin, for all intents and purposes, our children are still picking the ?white dolls?. Our kids aren’t seeing the beauty of their own features because we consumers aren’t demanding that they have access to toys that celebrate them. Parents of every color should rise up for this because our children learn through play. They don’t just learn their ABC’s and 123′s either. Through their play they also begin to formulate their foundation for socio-emotional communication and relationships. Every child needs to be exposed to diverse representations of people so that they can begin to understand and appreciate our beautifully colorful society.
So I say, ENOUGH! with straightening the hair of every person of color. ENOUGH! with the hair extensions that leave children feeling that they need ?Rapunzel? hair to be beautiful. ENOUGH! with formulaic bodies with a distinct lack of ethnic curves. ENOUGH! with the universal nose that could only be achieved with the knife of a plastic surgeon. ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH! It?s time that we showed our children that they are ENOUGH! just as they are. All our children deserve it!
SMILE On!
ML
Miss Lori can be found Musing from her Minivan at MissLori.TV and ChiacgoMomsBlog. you can also see her Activating to Be Great at Miss Lori’s CAMPUS on Youtube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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