The Power Of A Black Barbie

Illustration: Damon Dahlen/HuffPost; Photos: Getty Women say Black Barbies left an indelible, positive imprint on their racial self-conception. “Playing with my Black Barbies in the ’90s allowed me to feel proud in my skin as I imagined myself in Barbie’s ‘career’ and having the lifestyle that I created for her,” Oliphant told HuffPost. “I didn’t grow up seeing Black women in my community as my doctor, dentist, business executive, but Barbie could do all that.” Indeed, in Barbie’s 64-year history, the doll has been the ultimate career girl: She’s been an astronaut, a major league baseball player, even a health care worker modeled after a Canadian psychiatry resident who advocated against systemic racism in health fields. As Black journalist Lisa Jones wrote in the The Village Voice in the ’80s, Mattel simply fashioned a doll made of “brown plastic poured into blond Barbie’s mold.” But even Black Barbie’s detractors couldn’t deny her powers. “When my girls were younger, not much had changed.” Now, in 2023, she’s heartened to see Mattel diversify its “diverse” dolls: In the last few years, the toy company has released dolls paying homage to Black iconic figures from the past ― aviator Bessie Coleman, writer Maya Angelou ― and a number of diverse Black dolls ― a Barbie Fashionista doll with vitiligo and a Black doll in a wheelchair.