Brit Bennett penned a great essay on the complicated history of black dolls in American culture. “Dolls have never simply been toys,” Bennett writes, “especially not throughout America’s racial history.” She centers her essay on American Girl doll Addy Walker, a fictional historical figure whose stories focus on her time as a slave and her eventual escape.
Addy’s inclusion in the American Girl doll line is a controversial one: Are traumatic stories of slavery appropriate for a children’s toy?
Bennett weighs in on that discussion and ties it to a larger conversation about the history of black dolls in America, including racist “pickaninny” dolls and the famous “doll test” that helped drive reform during the Civil Rights movement. She writes:
Addy is not a pickaninny doll. She is beautifully crafted, and her story portrays her as a girl who is smart and courageous. Generations of black girls before me would’ve loved to hold Addy in their arms. But she is still complicated, fraught with painful history. If a doll exists on the border between person and thing, what does it mean to own a doll that represents an enslaved child who once existed on that same border?
The article provides insightful, nuanced perspectives on both black dolls and black childhood. The full piece is well worth a read and it’s available on The Paris Review.