D mentioned, way back at Christmastime, that she was having a hard time finding an African-American Cabbage Patch Doll for the Munchkin. I haven’t looked for CPK’s in an eternity (in fact, my grandmother used to hand-make mine so I only had a few “real” CPK’s growing up). I found it strange that there was a shortage of ethnically diverse CPK’s in a place like Philadelphia but then I figured, maybe they’re just out of them right before the holidays. Maybe other Mothers are buying them as well. I briefly looked for one as well when we were shopping together. None.

I forgot until just now. Dawn was writing about dolls and had links to eBay, which made me search for a black CPK on eBay. There are a few older ones… some as old as 1981 (you know, that glorious year, 26 years ago, when someone very cool was born)! So, I pulled up the Cabbage Patch Kid website… and proceeded to vomit. I had forgotten about N’s post until I looked at the website with the word adoption eveeeeeeeerywhere. Oh, really, it was too much. But I kept looking.

In fact, I went through THIRTY pages under the Play Along Kids heading. I found four AA boys. And two girls that could possibly be considered AA … but I can’t really tell for certain, their skin is so very light. Three of the four boys are on the last (as in THIRTIETH) page of the group. LAST! Only two of them are remotely dark, nothing like the dolls from 1981. (I didn’t bother to look through the 33 pages of Play Along Babies.)
I did find out that if I spend basically $300.00, I can design my own CPK with whatever skin tone, eye color, hair color and outfit I darn well please. They do include the darker skin tone of “espresso” on the design-your-own-kid version, where the ones in PAL are mostly mocha colored. There are also some pre-designed “Original Kids” (meaning, handmade) that are AA, but they’re also $285.00. THREE-HUNDRED DOLLARS? Seriously?

Under the “TRU” kids, which are sold at Toys R Us (which we don’t have here), there are some African American girls… dressed in fairy costumes at that which would go over big with the Munchkin. They also have the espresso skin tone, which is cool. But note the lack of selection in outfit/etc from the two categories. Interesting. Apparently AA dolls only need one style of hair whereas caucasian girl dolls need 30 pages of hair color and style possibility? WHAT?

I guess I’m just frustrated and flabbergasted. I enjoyed CPK’s when I was young. N reminded me of the adoption connection which doesn’t sit very well looking at it from my birth mother point of view… but, I was going to look past that in order to get something cool for the Munchkin. Now I’m just completely racially offended for our families. I’m sure there are other AA dolls that I could buy for the Munchkin but… I just wanted that connection with her… for her to have something that I had…

I think I might go for a super old one on eBay. Whaddya think? 1981? …did I just inadvertently call myself “super old?” Crikey.

D mentioned, way back at Christmastime, that she was having a hard time finding an African-American Cabbage Patch Doll for the Munchkin. I haven’t looked for CPK’s in an eternity (in fact, my grandmother used to hand-make mine so I only had a few “real” CPK’s growing up). I found it strange that there was a shortage of ethnically diverse CPK’s in a place like Philadelphia but then I figured, maybe they’re just out of them right before the holidays. Maybe other Mothers are buying them as well. I briefly looked for one as well when we were shopping together. None.

I forgot until just now. Dawn was writing about dolls and had links to eBay, which made me search for a black CPK on eBay. There are a few older ones… some as old as 1981 (you know, that glorious year, 26 years ago, when someone very cool was born)! So, I pulled up the Cabbage Patch Kid website… and proceeded to vomit. I had forgotten about N’s post until I looked at the website with the word adoption eveeeeeeeerywhere. Oh, really, it was too much. But I kept looking.

In fact, I went through THIRTY pages under the Play Along Kids heading. I found four AA boys. And two girls that could possibly be considered AA … but I can’t really tell for certain, their skin is so very light. Three of the four boys are on the last (as in THIRTIETH) page of the group. LAST! Only two of them are remotely dark, nothing like the dolls from 1981. (I didn’t bother to look through the 33 pages of Play Along Babies.)
I did find out that if I spend basically $300.00, I can design my own CPK with whatever skin tone, eye color, hair color and outfit I darn well please. They do include the darker skin tone of “espresso” on the design-your-own-kid version, where the ones in PAL are mostly mocha colored. There are also some pre-designed “Original Kids” (meaning, handmade) that are AA, but they’re also $285.00. THREE-HUNDRED DOLLARS? Seriously?

Under the “TRU” kids, which are sold at Toys R Us (which we don’t have here), there are some African American girls… dressed in fairy costumes at that which would go over big with the Munchkin. They also have the espresso skin tone, which is cool. But note the lack of selection in outfit/etc from the two categories. Interesting. Apparently AA dolls only need one style of hair whereas caucasian girl dolls need 30 pages of hair color and style possibility? WHAT?

I guess I’m just frustrated and flabbergasted. I enjoyed CPK’s when I was young. N reminded me of the adoption connection which doesn’t sit very well looking at it from my birth mother point of view… but, I was going to look past that in order to get something cool for the Munchkin. Now I’m just completely racially offended for our families. I’m sure there are other AA dolls that I could buy for the Munchkin but… I just wanted that connection with her… for her to have something that I had…

I think I might go for a super old one on eBay. Whaddya think? 1981? …did I just inadvertently call myself “super old?” Crikey.