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.
6 Responses to “You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me”
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Twitter: thiswomanswork
says:
If you do decide you want one of the TRU ones, lemme know and I’ll go haunt the TRU near us (it’s in a neighborhood that’s about 60%-ish African American so USUALLY there are some black dolls there as opposed to the TRU on Sawmill).
Madison has two CP preemies both found at thrift stores, which she adores (one for the bath and one is her favorite Baby Baby) and then the rest of her dolls I get off ebay because it seems like in the 70s and early 80s there was a rush to put out black dolls with Afro- features. Like that Fisher-Price one — the lapsitter that we call Baby April. That’s from the My Friend series where Mandy was the first? And the African American ones have different features than the white ones (as opposed to, say, the Madame Alexander dolls, which I had and which I could NEVER find one for Madison because they look like Al Jolson in blackface — hideous). I would really love to find her the African American version of Mandy (I forget her name) because she also has a ‘fro but she’s incredibly rare and expensive thus the Baby April instead.
I used to have a fantastic doll with plastic head and soft body and yarn hair that was made by a company that put out only African American dolls but I gave her to a friend of mine on the birth of her daughter. I wish I could remember the brand because it was a great little girl doll with sneakers and overalls and I’d love to get her for Madison.
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oh jenna.
I remember that I got one years ago when they were popular (was 1981 really so long ago). My mom got me an AA CPK. Her name was Bliss Emma. I loved her. I remember my friends all having different colored ones (more peachy skin)…but I loved that mine was different. DIstinctly mine, no chance of getting them mixed up with my friends and “accidently” taken. I had forgotten about her until I was packing my things for college (too long ago). I wish I could remember where I packed her. I’d send her to you in a heartbeat (if you’d even want a gently loved (refuse to do the math in my head and realize how long ago that was) CPK.
Hugs to you this day.
Holding you and your family aloft in prayers
Blessings,
Mary
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Did you try Target? That’s where we got one for Celeste (niece/Elyse’s a-sis) for Christmas. We also found another one at Kohl’s (which was J’s brother’s present to Celeste). We did look at TRU but I wasn’t a fan of the ones there either…
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Ohhhhhh, those Cabbage Patch Dolls! I did get an Asian one for Nate which barely looks Asian. And the adoption angle always did bug me, but I overlooked that aspect; just threw the stoopid “adoption papers” away. But yeah, they don’t do very well with the ethnic dolls, do they?
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I think those ebay ones look pretty good. I made some dolls for my boys and it wasn’t hard at all. If you don’t sew maybe you know someone who does? A family member or friend could whip you up a doll in no time. Especially at $300 holy cow!
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There are also some really cook AA / biracial looking dolls that I saw linked on a website for Ethiopia Adoption (the kids often tend to “look” more biracial than most Africans, so parents struggle to find something that looks like their kid…..). Erin H put a few links on where to find AA Raggedy Ann dolls and on THOSE sites were great Ethnic dolls. Ask her for the links. :-)
I had an AA CPK doll when I was little to. At the time, my dad had to hunt one down and drive to a town 100 miles a way (more urban) but even he had a hard time finding one….. sheesh.
We go the Only Hearts Club doll for my daughter, they have a great AA looking doll. There is also a super cute “fairy” at Target (in the section w/ the play food…..it has a pink dress and has a pink chair..I will try and find the link). Also, Groovy Girls have black dolls. The Childrens Place sell Groovy Girl dolls in their store that have matching clothes as the big kids. The Groovy Girl dolls often have a large AA selection, but they are ‘groovy” (as in, some have blue hair streaks, etc). I love that you can get them TONS of clothes–that is a big issue w/ my daughter.
Good Luck!!! (and I feel your pain….the search continues….)
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