Although she's only 25, Angelique Giles can still remember a time when it seemed that dolls came in only one color.
"Back then, if you were going to get a doll it was white," says Giles, a Lynwood resident and mother of Michel'le, 2. "Now they have dolls, like Barbie dolls, and Cabbage Patch and Raggedy Ann-style dolls that are black. It's a good thing, but you look back on it and say, 'Now why didn't they have that when I was a little kid?' "
Cultural diversity in dolls and other toys is an old issue, but a new trend. Actually, in 1968, the year Giles was born, Mattel introduced a black companion to Barbie--the world's most popular doll with sales of more than $1 billion this year. But Christie, like other early "ethnic" dolls, was criticized as simply a white doll molded out of brown plastic, not a true representation of African Americans.
In recent years, however, toy makers have created nonwhite dolls that more accurately reflect the characteristics of other races. Stroll through any Toys R Us store--where nearly one out of every four toys are sold in the United States--and you'll find a vast array of culture-specific dolls, ranging from Tyco's "Kenya, the Beautiful Fashion Doll" to black, Latino and Asian versions of Barbie to "My Buddy" boy dolls in black and white versions from Playskool. Mattel's "Baby Rollerblade" comes in black and white versions, as does Tyco's "Mommy's Having A Baby" pregnant doll, subtitled "Help Mommy Have Her Baby Again and Again!" The list goes on.
"It's just not acceptable anymore if a doll only comes in white," says Michael Goldstein, vice chairman of Toys R Us. "I'm not saying the situation is perfect, but it's definitely improving."
Also on the shelves is an increasingly wide variety of toys and dolls manufactured by minority-owned toy makers, such as Minneapolis-based Cultural Exchange Corp. and New York-based Olmec Corp.
"The big boys (toy manufacturers) have stuck their toe in the multicultural water," says Cultural Exchange President Jacob Miles, an African American and former Tonka toy-company executive whose fledgling company makes toys geared toward blacks, Latinos and other groups. "But what they've traditionally done is just mold dolls in brown plastic and say, 'OK, here's your doll.' We've made our dolls and toys more reflective of the facial features and characteristics of African Americans and Hispanics and other multicultural groups."
Olmec was founded in 1985 by Yla Eason after she heard her 4-year-old son say that he wanted to be like He-Man--a popular blond action figure of the time--but couldn't because he is black. The company started out with a black action figure called "Sun-Man," who derived power from the melanin in his skin. Later the company began selling--through Toys R Us and other stores and catalogues--a wide range of dolls and toys, including "Imani, the African American Princess," and Bronze Bombers, military figures based on all-black American military units. They also have Latina "toddler dolls" and a Latina fashion doll called "Consuela."
Like most companies in the highly competitive toy business, neither Olmec nor Cultural Exchange would provide sales figures.
"It's getting better. They (toy companies) are starting to target Latinos and other groups more," says Abelardo de la Pena Jr., 40, communications director for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Los Angeles and the father of six children--including an 11-year-old adopted daughter, Debra, who is of Mexican-Cuban-African descent. "I remember when my 11-year-old was 7 or 8, Barbie was her ideal, and she wanted to have long blond hair. It was hard. We had to look around, but we finally found her a Kenya doll--they come in three different shades--to show her, here, this is you, and you're beautiful."
"Eight years ago most buyers for mass marketing (toy) outlets were apprehensive about buying black or Hispanic dolls," says Renau Daniels, national sales manager for Olmec. "They always maintained that blacks and Hispanics wanted white dolls. But what we discovered was that customers were not given a choice of attractive black or Hispanic dolls. . . . When given a choice, they go for our dolls."
The reason for this growing attention to African American and Latino toy buyers is simple: money.
"The African-American and Hispanic communities have been speaking out," says Diane Cardinale, assistant communications director for the Toy Manufacturers Assn. of America, which represents 260 toy manufacturers and U.S.-based importers nationwide. "They've been saying, we want toys that reflect our culture. And one thing they (toy manufacturers) can't ignore is the tremendous buying power of these groups."
