For most of her life, Lagueria Davis "hated" dolls. It starts in the early 60s, when Davis's aunt told Barbie's creator Ruth Handler: "We want a Black Barbie." Later that decade, Mattel released two different Black dolls, but they had Eurocentric features and didn't carry the name Barbie, instead being marketed as Barbie's "babysitters" and "best friends". Davis made Black …
Adapted from the book Wannabe by Aisha Harris. On her Fox News show The Kelly File, Megyn Kelly’s producers corralled a panel of Fox contributors and commentators to bring my piece “Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore” to the attention of the world. She said I’d gone “off the rails” in suggesting Santa Penguin, and insisted, with …
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 …
