Open Letter to Wal-Mart
Dear Wal-Mart,
It has come to my attention that you are in need of some damage control after a recent unfortunate incident regarding your line of black Barbie dolls. To wit:
Black Barbie Sold for Less Than White Barbie at Walmart Store
March 9, 2010 — Walmart is raising eyebrows after cutting the price of a black Barbie doll to nearly half of that of the doll's white counterpart at one store and possibly others. A photo first posted to the humor Web site FunnyJunk.com and later to the Latino Web site Guanabee.com shows packages of Mattel's Ballerina Barbie and Ballerina Theresa dolls hanging side by side at an unidentified store. The Theresa dolls, which feature brown skin and dark hair, are marked as being on sale at $3.00. The Barbies to the right of the Theresa dolls, meanwhile, retain their original price of $5.93. The dolls look identical aside from their color.
Wal-Mart, I feel your pain. There’s just no pleasing some folks. We always got to be angry about something. First we’re all “destruction of the black self image” and then when you give us scraps from the table, er, remember there’s dollars to be made, er, not only give us the black Barbie (and, way to go Mattel, saving money by not actually Africanizing her features!) but discount said Barbie to get her into as many hands as possible, folks go an turn on you.
"The implication of the lowering of the price is that's devaluing the black doll," said Thelma Dye, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development, a Harlem, N.Y. organization founded by pioneering psychologists and segregation researchers Kenneth B. Clark and Marnie Phipps Clark.
One word for Thelma, Wal-Mart: uppity.
We here at the Broaddus Institute of Creative Spin are currently devising the best ways for you to spin this. Free of charge, we offer you these options:
-Call it your 3/5 Constitutional compromise sale
-clear shelf space by auctioning off the black dolls a dozen at a time (applicable to damaged/defective dolls only)
-Two words for you: “discount darkies!”
-Say it with me “Negro clearance sale”
Be strong Wal-Mart. This is one good spin move away from being a non-story.
Your consigliere during troubled times,
Maurice
It has come to my attention that you are in need of some damage control after a recent unfortunate incident regarding your line of black Barbie dolls. To wit:
Black Barbie Sold for Less Than White Barbie at Walmart Store
March 9, 2010 — Walmart is raising eyebrows after cutting the price of a black Barbie doll to nearly half of that of the doll's white counterpart at one store and possibly others. A photo first posted to the humor Web site FunnyJunk.com and later to the Latino Web site Guanabee.com shows packages of Mattel's Ballerina Barbie and Ballerina Theresa dolls hanging side by side at an unidentified store. The Theresa dolls, which feature brown skin and dark hair, are marked as being on sale at $3.00. The Barbies to the right of the Theresa dolls, meanwhile, retain their original price of $5.93. The dolls look identical aside from their color. Wal-Mart, I feel your pain. There’s just no pleasing some folks. We always got to be angry about something. First we’re all “destruction of the black self image” and then when you give us scraps from the table, er, remember there’s dollars to be made, er, not only give us the black Barbie (and, way to go Mattel, saving money by not actually Africanizing her features!) but discount said Barbie to get her into as many hands as possible, folks go an turn on you.
"The implication of the lowering of the price is that's devaluing the black doll," said Thelma Dye, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development, a Harlem, N.Y. organization founded by pioneering psychologists and segregation researchers Kenneth B. Clark and Marnie Phipps Clark.
One word for Thelma, Wal-Mart: uppity.
We here at the Broaddus Institute of Creative Spin are currently devising the best ways for you to spin this. Free of charge, we offer you these options:
-Call it your 3/5 Constitutional compromise sale
-clear shelf space by auctioning off the black dolls a dozen at a time (applicable to damaged/defective dolls only)
-Two words for you: “discount darkies!”
-Say it with me “Negro clearance sale”
Be strong Wal-Mart. This is one good spin move away from being a non-story.
Your consigliere during troubled times,
Maurice
Labels: Ontological blackness, Wal-Mart
posted by Maurice Broaddus at 3/10/2010 04:50:00 PM
5 Comments:
If I ever screw up and have a major racefail moment, I want you as my spin-minister. You're a marketing genius! ^_^
This is simply a matter of economics for Walmart. The doll is either not selling or is being discontinued/not carried. Walmart does this on thousands of items; this doll just happened to be one. To ascribe ulterior motives to this would be a stretch. Just my opinion, as a Walmart employee myself.
What about packaging both Barbie dolls together with a little package of rasslin' mud and glitter?
See, he can do humour and wit when he wants! Only I want to see you move out of your comfort zone sometime and attempt social satire based on class, rather than race. Don't tell me you think all whites are privileged. (You'll have to do loads of reading of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn and all those things they (deliberately) didn't teach you at school!) And I hate to say it: but Anonymous above me there has a point: the polychromatic Barbies were discounted simply because they weren't selling well enough. Doubtless this is because there are far fewer black or Latina children than white, outside of certain areas. Also because unfortunately what the child psychologist said is true too: and society's current "values" simply mean that the black doll is not seen as attractive and "desirable" as the white - even to an extent among black (girl) kids. (Bet they wouldn't want Plump/Fat Barbie either. *African* kids might: different values/standards of beauty!) *I've* seen that wry movie with John Travolta. Good one.
Em, nice to see you getting around to putting up your comments, Mo! (But so, what was wrong with my follow-up here - ending I recall with my comment pointing out that the darling edifice of capitalism Wal-Mart were likely to cover this one up by taking the dolls off sale altogether - and that if so, couldn't people of conscience ensure that the dolls were donated to preschools and charities not landfills? (The other good effect would be that if a kid plays with a black doll in school or a dr's waiting room - they're more likely to want one as a present! I was like that as a kid. Trouble was - my biggest want thus inspired was a proper rocking horse - rather outside my parents' budget. I had to be content with a space hopper!) Sigh! d'you even read all of your comments mail?! That one was definitely "for publication". Sorry I couldn't put it all on the one post but you know I'm on a limited device for now!
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