Black Barbie (2023) is a documentary on Netflix about Barbie dolls and their psychological influence on black kids. The primary half tells the historical past of those dolls. As a Barbie collector, I discovered it attention-grabbing, although I’ve by no means purchased a black doll. The second half is about Mattel’s DEI efforts and the way kids view Barbie in relation to their racial identities. There may be a whole lot of woke posturing: “nonetheless a lot work to do.” Author/director Lagueria Davis — black, in fact — interviews former Mattel workers, celebrities, and lecturers.
Historical past of black Barbie
The movie barely covers the historical past of the white Barbie doll, so I’ll. The Mattel toy firm was began in 1945 by Ruth and Elliot Handler. It made such toys because the Uke-A-Doodle (1947) and marketed on “The Mickey Mouse Membership” within the Fifties.
On a household journey to Europe, the Handlers’ 15-year-old daughter Barbara noticed a doll named Bild Lili in a store window in Lucerne, Switzerland. She favored the doll as a result of the clothes might be modified, however the one solution to get one other outfit was to purchase one other doll. Mrs. Handler purchased her 4.
After they returned to America, Ruth Handler started engaged on a doll for which there have been completely different garments and equipment. She named the doll “Barbie” after her daughter, and the Barbie doll debuted on the 1959 American Worldwide Toy Truthful in New York Metropolis. (In 1961, the Ken doll was launched, named for the Handlers’ son.) The field proclaimed Barbie as a “teen age trend mannequin.” The primary Barbie got here wearing a washing go well with, and there have been 23 outfits accessible. Barbie grew to become Mattel’s best-selling toy, and as we speak Mattel is valued at $6.3 billion.
Black Barbie begins with actress Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins, recognized for Expensive White Individuals, spinning a fantasy about how she imagines black Barbie was created. She imagines a lone, black worker at Mattel telling the white executives, “This isn’t proper, there’s no one who seems like me right here,” after which convincing the whites to make a black doll, although the whites assume it received’t make a revenue. “It took mentioned black particular person to maintain telling them of the worth that it had,” Mrs. Featherson-Jenkins imagines.
The true story is that the Handlers by no means hesitated to make black dolls. Mattel’s workers can also be very not like the depiction in final yr’s hit film Barbie: solely straight white males, from cubicle to board room, aside from one Hispanic receptionist. The corporate has had black and feminine inventive workers for many years, and as we speak it has a world head of DEI.
Black Barbie insists that it is crucial for black women to have dolls that appear to be themselves, however the two ladies interviewed about life earlier than black Barbie didn’t recall a need for black dolls. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) acquired white dolls from a charity for Christmas when she was a toddler. “There have been no black dolls. . . . We didn’t assume so much about it at the moment,” she admits, however later she “started to grasp how vital it was to have a black doll.”
Director Lagueria Davis’s aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, performed with white dolls as a toddler and Miss Davis asks if she wished a black one. She replies, “It didn’t happen to me; it was only a doll.” She remembers that the black dolls accessible on the time “have been like Aunt Jemima. They didn’t haven’t any fairly dolls.”
Mrs. Mitchell was employed by Mattel in 1953 to work on the meeting line, and she or he helped to make the unique Barbie. She says Mrs. Handler had a very good rapport with employees and would ask if they’d ideas. Mrs. Mitchell says she recommended a black Barbie. Mrs. Handler replied, “Effectively, good. We’ll see.”
In 1966, Mattel launched a white doll with blonde and brunette variants named Francie, marketed as “Barbie’s cousin.” The following yr, a “coloured” model of Francie was launched, which had darker pores and skin however the identical options. In 1968, Mattel launched a doll named Christie with extra African options.
After the Watts Riots of 1965, (known as the “Watts Rebel” in Black Barbie), a black man named Lou Smith started “Operation Bootstrap” to offer job coaching to unemployed blacks in south Los Angeles.
Mr. Smith’s son says, “My father . . . determined to make black dolls that appear to be black individuals, and he talked the homeowners of Mattel out of $200,000 to start out a toy firm,” which he known as Shindana.
Mrs. Mitchell remembers that Mattel despatched its personal staff to the Shindana manufacturing facility, “to indicate them methods to make black dolls.”
Within the Seventies, Shindana made a black Barbie-like trend doll known as Disco Wanda. The corporate had a worthwhile run earlier than closing in 1983. (The film notes solely that different corporations had began following its “enterprise mannequin.”)
In 1976, a modern younger black girl named Kitty Black Perkins answered an advert for a designer job at Mattel. “I went for the interview and I left there pondering I’ve to have this job. I can’t do the rest.”
She was given a doll and requested to make an outfit for it; Miss Perkins got here with six designs and was employed. Beulah Mitchell — the assembly-line employee — was promoted to receptionist in 1969. African American Research professor Patricia Turner claims that Mrs. Mitchell “laid the groundwork for Kitty [Perkins] to come back in as an expert. They’re acclimated to the presence of a robust, competent black girl within the office. That enabled the subsequent step, which is a robust, competent black girl as a designer. Whether or not or not Kitty would have been welcome had Beulah not been there, I’m unsure you may say.”
Mrs. Mitchell raves about Miss Perkins: “We have been happy with her! As a result of she drove a sports activities automotive, and she or he matched our concept of Barbie. We thought she was a black Barbie!”
Miss Perkins was assigned to create the primary black model of Barbie. The documentary doesn’t clarify why Mattel wanted a black Barbie along with the black Christie doll.
Miss Perkins wished a particular doll. White Barbie had lengthy hair and full-skirted costumes, so Miss Perkins designed a doll with quick, curly hair and a slim-flitting costume. She took inspiration from singer Diana Ross. “I wished her to be the exact opposite of Barbie. . . . I gave her daring colours, daring jewellery, quick hair and a wrap skirt that would truly present pores and skin.”
A black girl designer who specialised in hairstyles labored with Miss Perkins to offer the doll a “quick pure.” There was additionally a black sculptor who completed black Barbie’s face.
“The pores and skin was slightly bit lighter than the darkest that we may have executed,” Miss Perkins says, “It was actually a choice, and I most popular that shade.”
The doll was launched in 1980, 21 years after white Barbie’s debut, and little black women have been delighted. The field claimed, “She’s black, she’s lovely, she’s dynamite!”
Mrs. Featherson-Jenkins says: “Crowning the doll as Barbie . . . was telling the world black is gorgeous, too. I’m so grateful that we’re included now within the legacy of that.”
“I knew that black Barbie was completely different,” Miss Perkins says. “I by no means realized the magnitude.” The doll’s success led to different traces of black dolls, anniversary editions, and re-releases. Nonetheless, on the time of the doll’s launch, not everybody was happy. Miss Perkins remembers {that a} focus group of black moms felt their kids have been being slighted as a result of the doll didn’t have the lengthy hair and full costume that white Barbie had. Mattel consulted a toddler psychologist who agreed. “However when the kid psychologist came upon that the designer was black, all of it went away,” Miss Perkins recollects.
The documentary factors out that the primary black Barbie had not been marketed properly and didn’t have a tv industrial. Nonetheless, Miss Perkins’s subsequent black doll, Shani, debuted with a lot fanfare at a New York toy conference in 1991. There was a trend present with fashions dressed like Shani and her mates. The Village Voice “went on web page after web page” with protection. It was the primary black doll line that had its personal TV and print advertisements.
In 1996, Miss Perkins employed a black girl protégé who went on to design her personal line of black dolls. Miss Perkins retired after 28 years with Mattel.
The doll experiment
Black Barbie subsequent discusses the doll research performed by black psychologists Drs. Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark in 1947. They put two white and two brown dolls aspect by aspect on a desk and requested kids which dolls they most popular. Nearly all of black kids mentioned they favored the white dolls extra. When requested which dolls have been extra like them, the black kids typically expressed annoyance. In a taped phase, Mr. Clark is proven saying, “A few of these kids checked out me as if I have been the satan himself for placing them in that predicament. It gave psychologists understanding of the horrible harm that’s executed to human beings by racial rejection.”
Evidently, Black Barbie doesn’t inform the true story of the Clark experiment. The Clark doll take a look at strongly influenced Supreme Court docket justices in Brown v. The Board of Schooling (1954), which ordered faculty integration. Clark reported that if he confirmed black and white dolls to black kids attending segregated colleges and requested them which doll they favored higher, many picked the white doll. He argued to the Court docket that this proves segregation breeds emotions of inferiority. He failed to say that he had proven his dolls to blacks attending built-in colleges in Massachusetts, and that much more of those kids most popular the white doll. If his analysis confirmed something, it was that integration lowers black vanity. His courtroom testimony was dishonest.
In Black Barbie, Congresswoman Maxine Waters mentioned the doll experiment “despatched shockwaves by way of the black group . . . . Little black women didn’t have vanity, didn’t consider themselves as lovely, and would favor to have a white doll.”
For Black Barbie, Dr. Amirah Saafir, professor of kid and adolescent research at Cal State Fullerton, revisits the Clark doll experiment by having non-white kids play with Barbie’s present line of multiracial dolls. She says her research was impressed by the Clark doll research, “however not modeled after it.” After the kids are interviewed in teams of three, Dr. Saafir has a black panel of consultants interpret their responses.
The primary group of youngsters — all non-white — seems to be within the first grade. The kids have been requested which is the prettiest doll. One black lady replies, “The prettiest one to me is Brooklyn, as a result of she has black pores and skin like all of us.” She provides that she does love blonde Barbie’s outfit and coiffure. Nonetheless, slightly boy says blonde Barbie is prettiest — “Due to her costume and sneakers.”
When requested if they’ve heard of race, the primary graders say, “No, what do you imply?” A gaggle of three third-grade women thinks the phrase “race” may be a foot race. Within the oldest group — maybe fifth graders — a lady says race means “racism:” “when individuals choose you for the colour of your pores and skin and the way you look.”
Requested what their households inform them about being black, a first-grade lady says, “At all times be a lovely black queen.” One other says, “My mother says I needs to be happy with my black pores and skin and if anybody else who doesn’t have black pores and skin asks, ‘What’s black lady magic?’ I’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s nothing that you’d perceive.’ ” A fifth-grade boy says, “It’s not okay for cops to be imply to us and put us on the bottom as a result of we didn’t do something.”
Antwann Michael Simpkins of UCLA’s Division of Sociology says, “Barbie will not be going to do something that you just [the parent] haven’t executed. . . . I don’t wish to place onto Barbie the work that we needs to be doing as a society to dismantle. To me, the last word finish work of genuine range, fairness, and inclusion is to disrupt the violent establishments, the violent buildings, the violent dolls, doll-like worlds that exist due to the lengthy legacy of colonialism.”
Mason Williams, Mattel’s international head of DEI, is proud that his daughter views all Barbies equally. “We have now the entire diaspora [sic] of colours, pores and skin tones, physique shapes. . . . I’d guess that in the event you seize 30 youngsters proper now, and also you ask, What does Barbie appear to be? You may get 26 completely different solutions.”
The research reveals that blonde Barbie’s legacy looms giant. To the query, “Which one would you say is the actual Barbie?” each group identifies the blonde doll.
Dr. Saafir, who did the research, thinks it’s as a result of blonde Barbie continues to be introduced as “what’s regular, what’s excellent, what they need to be striving for . . . . The societal construction of energy and privilege, the place black persons are on the backside, is clearly articulated to youngsters.”
There may be one other rationalization. Barbie is not only a doll; she is a media product. The animated TV collection Barbie: Life within the Dreamhouse (2012–2015) and Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures (2018–2020) was about blonde Barbie, her three youthful blonde sisters, and naturally blond Ken, who’s at all times portrayed as a goofy good pal, not a boyfriend. A primary-grade lady in Dr. Saafir’s research says that blonde Barbie is the actual Barbie as a result of “that one has her personal present.”
Some black moms within the documentary aren’t comfortable that their kids are watching cartoons with a white important character. Stylist Rebecca Gross says that the black characters in Dreamhouse are at all times sidekicks. “It’s like a present-day model of the exclusion that was taking place when there wasn’t a black Barbie doll.”
Barbie can also be on social media; there’s a Barbie YouTube channel that reveals Barbie’s vlogs. Mattel employed a black girl to write down a vlog episode “to speak in regards to the points that have been taking place in 2020.” Barbie’s black pal Nikki says “seaside safety” stopped her for peddling kids’s coloured stickers on the seaside, however didn’t cease Barbie. Barbie provides, “That’s not truthful, as a result of which means white individuals get a bonus that they didn’t earn, and black individuals get an obstacle that they don’t deserve.”
Actress Gabourey Sidibe commented, “I like it if it really works. If the little white women that look as much as Barbie . . . begin declaring racism when it’s taking place and standing up for his or her black mates or their Latino mates.” Satirically, she additionally says, “I’m unhappy that children can’t simply be youngsters.”
Since 2011, Mattel has launched at the least one Barbie film per yr, every a couple of line of dolls, and white Barbie is at all times the principle character. In 2021, black Barbie grew to become her co-star.
In Barbie: Huge Metropolis, Huge Goals, white Barbie attends a summer season arts program in New York, the place she meets a black lady whose identify can also be Barbie. To keep away from confusion, they determine to go by the names of their hometowns; white Barbie is “Malibu” and black Barbie is “Brooklyn.”
Malibu and Brooklyn compete for a solo efficiency in Occasions Sq.. Blonde Malibu struggles with every part whereas black Brooklyn performs effortlessly. Malibu is out of step in dance class and her guitar strings break. Malibu’s suitcase on wheels rolls away and Brooklyn catches it with a swish ballet transfer.
But Malibu practices, and by the point the 2 carry out a duet within the finale, they’re equally competent. The “consultants” within the documentary disapprove of Malibu’s dedication to do properly, and of the story of strangers changing into good mates. They need Brooklyn to win the solo spot and upstage Malibu. They assume whites at all times get a leg up once they compete in opposition to higher certified blacks.
Mattel’s DEI head explains that Brooklyn might be “getting an entire universe for herself,” together with a TV present and a line of Brooklyn dolls. A black teenage lady who’s interviewed says she doesn’t assume the Brooklyn-centered present might be as profitable “as a result of we dwell in, I don’t wish to say it” — inspired by her mom to go on — “we dwell in a predominantly white world, and most profitable individuals that you just consider is white, proper?” She thinks whites received’t watch an all-black program.
Director Davis wonders, “Are we actually doing the job if it’s 2024 and our youngsters nonetheless assume the world is predominantly white?” A pie chart seems, exhibiting that whites are a world minority.
Being Barbie’s pal wasn’t sufficient; being Barbie’s namesake wasn’t sufficient; being Barbie’s co-star wasn’t sufficient. Black Barbie needs to be heart stage, and the white doll that constructed the Mattel empire must be pushed out.
As I watched interviewees discuss how vital it was that Mattel launched a black doll named Barbie, I remembered that once I was slightly lady, the very first thing my mates and I did with Barbie dolls was make up new names for them. Any baby had the facility to call a black Christie doll or a Shani doll “Barbie” if she wished. Blacks can by no means be happy.
