But this incident displays something about US society that's been going on for a while. It took public reaction for the company to capitualate.
The company obviously didn't care enough at that time. Im almost certain someone did question this. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. UPDATE: Comments on this post have been closed. Images from here, here, and here, via Resist Racism. In any case, I think this raises an even more interesting question: Does the history of associating black people with primates, and I will refer you again to this post, actually make any product that does so problematic? Does the fact that the doll comes in white and Hispanic erase any concerns about the fact that the black doll exists?Īs usual, our readers are quick to ask difficult questions and this discussion is already well under way in the comments. I’m not sure why none of the media coverage I came across noted this. UPDATE: Commenters alerted me to alternative media coverage that made it clear that “Pretty Panda” and “Lil’ Monkey” dolls both came in black, white, and “Hispanic”: And also: “Can I say I’m sorry again? In addition to racist, we were profoundly insensitive to centuries of violent hatred… and it is simply not okay.”
We are really bleeping sorry,” but with stronger curse words. We can’t fight racism unless we’re prepared to admit that we hold unconscious biases.īy the way, in my opinion, the proper response should have been: “Oh hell, we messed up bad. Their refusal to think about racism, in favor of a defensive reaction, is as racist as the doll itself. In fact, their defense actually makes things worse. Not thinking in that way consciously doesn’t mean that racism didn’t play a role in the manufacturing of a black Lil’ Monkey doll. The fact that we are all racist already, whether we like it or not, is the point that the manufacturer completely misses. (If you’d like to test your own unconscious biases, and see aggregate test results of others, I highly recommend Harvard’s Project Implicit.) Social psychologists have shown, robustly, that any given member of a society, even those who are the target of negative stereotypes, will hold pre-conscious stereotypical beliefs common in that society. We don’t operate in that kind of thinking. The manufacturer of the dolls is claiming that there was no intention to be racist. Here is the white counterpart, the “Pretty Panda” doll: A peeled banana points at the child’s mouth.
This week Costco pulled the black “Lil’ Monkey” baby doll from its shelves, along with its white “Pretty Panda” counterpart, as a result of protests that it was racist.Īs you can see, the black doll has on a hat that says “lil’ monkey,” is surrounded by products that have monkeys on them, as well as a stuffed monkey. This associations continue to be propagated (e,g., here, here, and here). Associations of black people with monkeys and apes have been used for centuries to make them seem less-than-human and justify hatred and exploitation.
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