The Unexpected Story Behind My Black Barbie
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
- #family #findingyourroots #ancestrydna #africanamerican # #italianamerican #familyhistory #genealogy
In today's video, we're uncovering secrets hidden in plain sight with dolls-from Barbies to Topsy-Turvy dolls, and the eye-opening Doll Test. We'll see how these toys reflect and shape views on race and identity.
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In my series "Italian Americans: Beyond White and Black," we're taking a dive into the Italian American experience, peeling back the layers of their unique racial and ethnic journey in the U.S. This series isn't just about exploring the shades between white and black; it's about understanding the Italian-American experience and their sometimes complex, sometimes collaborative relationship with African Americans. From historical alliances and cultural exchanges to moments of tension and misunderstanding, we're laying it all out on the table. Through stories, interviews, and a bit of history, we'll see how Italian Americans have navigated their identity, often caught in a dance of assimilation and authenticity, and how their path has crossed with African Americans in the quest for recognition and respect in the melting pot of America.
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Come join me on a new docu-series that explores identity, racial tensions in the South during the 20th century, and the unique experiences of those who historically called Louisiana home.
My name is Danielle Romero, and all my life, I have romanticized Louisiana.
Growing up in New York, it represented a place where I could step back the sepia-toned life of my great grandmother, Lola Perot, who died before I was born.
Now, it was time to go back to Louisiana--although I had no idea what the truth would be or what questions to ask---who was Lola really? Who were we?
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Greetings, how much do you charge to help find my family out of Louisiana. I have it a road block. My 2Gr grand papa Friday Gosey 1837 born around Sabine Parish Louisiana/ across the Sabine River Louisiana is Sabine Parish Texas ( Newton County South East Texas.
His son my great grandfather Robert Gosey born in Sabine Louisiana, but migrated to Newton County East Texas.
I have taken all the dna companies test.
Ancestry DNA ( Early Creole New Orleans). My 23andMe , first saying our southern European was Spanish, then it changed to Portuguese and then it changed to Southern Italy.
I I have 4 cousins matches 100 European American, but roots go to Italy.🇮🇹
I have been watching your journey. I would like to hire you to help me with my Gosey.
Please educate me about your thing for coffee. I am late to the party with this.😂
The sending a coffee? it's just like a tip jar online. I use it for coffees:)@@dewaynejeter4728
@nytn A tip jar. I think I get it now. People send you a little cash electronically so you can purchase coffee or whatever you want. It's like me sending my son some money via his cellphone number while he is away at college.
@@nytn Lou Farrakhan Give Reparations To Navajo
I personally don't think children need to exclusively play with toys which represent them, but they must certainly have toys which represent them.
I'd agree. It's extremely important to see yourself represented in positive aspects of society. So that you have pride and see yourself as equal. Part of that is also seeing other cultures in those positions as well. Lack of variety is damaging as well.
There is a doll that is sold with an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring sensor/transmitter. That should help kids with type 1 diabetes accept the technology which will prolong their lives and their health.
Nonsense! Of course toys like everything else have to represent who you are. f they don't have to then why the Insecure Jealous Childish-minded Whites always make it a big deal? Just like you(Whites) because of your insecurity you lied to your people and the rest of the world, except Africans the color of Jesus, Ancient Egyptians ( kemet), who were tge first Settlers in present day Europe ( mostly West), who are Moors, where Atlantis used to be, the real Jews etc...all were Blacks
Nonsense! Of course toys like everything else have to represent who you are. f they don't have to then why the Insecure Jealous Childish-minded Whites always make it a big deal? Just like you(Whites) because of your insecurity you lied to your people and the rest of the world, except Africans the color of Jesus, Ancient Egyptians ( kemet), who were tge first Settlers in present day Europe ( mostly West), who are Moors, where Atlantis used to be, the real Jews etc...all were Blacks
Yeah nobody is saying exclusively..but for example there was a time when dolls were exclusively "white" in America and the black ones were just caricatures... so it's many to combat the negative stereotypes and racial tropes that was common about people of color and African American or Black people in particular 💯
My step mom threw out my White Barbie when I went to live with them. She replaced it with a Melanated head Barbie that the hair extended in the middle. She wanted me to have a good sense of self. I believe it gave me a good sense of my Chocolate skin complexion to this day, a long with my Grandmother's Gullah Geechee teachings.
Fambul‼️🔥💯🥰
But why the long hair though? It's not a must that West African descendants have long hair like that because that is not our norm.
@@whoahna8438 that's the way the doll came in the 1970s. IT WAS CALLED THE BARBIE BEAUTY CENTER. IT CAME WITH A COMB, BRUSH, BARRETS (?), MAKEUP. ANYWAY, AS I GOT OLDER, I ALWAYS TO THIS DAY, WEAR MY HAIR "NATURAL WITHOUT CHEMICALS, WEAVES AND WIGS.
@@sd247
I mean why you had to stress that part? Black folks act like long hair is a requirement for beauty or that it's a pride to have long hair. Natural Black people who are proud of who they are don't have this idea, like those Black women in the South Pacific who proudly wear their natural kinky/curly Afro hair
@@whoahna8438 It is sad, that we're still in bondages in many ways. I'm sure we all have a story about a friend/family member encouraging us to get a girl with long hair and light skin. Or saying "The girl black but kind of nice with it". 🤔
The story is ongoing
I love this video! cute pictures of you! I remember seeing the topsy-turvy dolls in person and in museums, though I have never played with one. I grew up playing with and owning both White and Black dolls. No real preference though I thought there should have been more Black dolls available, but they were hard to find. I am a huge Barbie fan because she was an adult woman and loved fashion. I love fashion too! I wasn't crazy about about baby dolls at all. Barbie was slow to create Black Barbies, I had a stiff Black knock-off from. the $.99 store and I named her Lolita Jackson my brother would borrow her to go on dates with his Black G.I.Joes, so we both loved her. She had long straight black hair. When the Black Barbie's came along I had one of course in the 70's. But, it never bothered me to play with either dolls, since I had friends from different cultural backgrounds.
My mom's best friends was African, but she was very light and she was the sweetest person. When I was 9 my mom said it would be the last year for dolls for me, so that year a doll called Baby Crissy came out. She was suppose to be the size of a 9 month old and you pulled her hair from the top of her head and it would lengthen to her hips. I was in love! but, she came in 2 versions: White or Black,when we got to the store the Blacks were sold out. My mom begged me to accept the White version even mentioning that the White's dress had 2 pockets, but I refused and I made her buy the damaged Black from the stockroom that they couldn't unload. Her leg had been damaged by machinery in the factory and it had swirls on the leg. But since she said this would be my last doll, I wanted her to look like me. I still have her. In a weird twist of fate a few months, I was hit by a drunk driver and my right hip was fractured and after surgery I ended up with a long scar on my right hip. My mother brought my doll to be with for the long hospital stay. and years late went to college together. We're still together! She's the best keepsake that I've ever had!
Oh my gosh, you just took me on a whirlwind of emotions. Im laughing, im tearing up and then... WHAT!? So sorry you had to go through that accident. Im spooky like this I guess, but I dont doubt that doll was sent just for you. Thats so beautiful, thank you for sharing
@@nytn Yes, I thought so too! The hospital stay ( actually 2 hospitals), one firing of a surgeon and rehabbing my leg once I got out of my body cast.. But, Baby Chrissy was right there through all of it. I would have given her to my daughter but I had a son and promises to give her to his future daughters along with my childhood books.
The brother that use to "borrow," the fake Barbie grew to become a decorated Gulf War hero, so he really did become G.I.Joe and a FBI Special Agent. He's huge collector of G.I.Joes. Who knew? Thanks for sharing the laughs!
Lolita Jackson 😳 !? Oh 💩........
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
For some reason i burst out laughing when you said that the kenyan fella stayed in your room, but then quickly clarified, not while you were there. Sometimes your comic timing is hilarious 😂
THAT
Hahahahaha😄
Hey 👋🏾 Danielle. So to answer your question (Im the Kenyan 🇰🇪 who commented on your original post about the dolls) Your father’s Friend Julius Wafula is probably from Western Kenya 🇰🇪.
Sounds like a Luhya name. That’s the name of the “tribe” (ethnic group I prefer to use that term cause Tribe is a derogatory term Europeans used to invalidate our ethnicities (but many people still use the term so don’t feel bad for using it i’m just saying)….
You forgot to mention the part of the ariel story when your mom freaked out when you cut her hair short 😅…. it says a lot about how we over value European long hair beauty standards and how difficult it is for black wonen to accept their natural hair. Even today in Kenya (apart from the super liberal conscious ones) women wear weaves and fake hair.
Also when you mentioned all the curio gifts and art and craft stuff your dad brought you I know exactly what it was because back in the 90s it was all the same stuff 😅. Little wooden carved safari animals, Maasai trinkets etc… I was actually born not far from upstate NY in Ontario Canada and moved with my family back to our home land around that time (1995) as a 7 yr old so just as you were getting introduced to my culture as a American I was getting introduced to it too 😅…
The world 🌎is a small place. Even back then. Thank God for the internet now it’s even smaller.
Have a good day Danielle 👍🏾
I cant wait to see if that was the group! Im so glad you had a suggestion. That is so awesome.
We immediately broke the giraffe because the long legs were so thin! Well, my little brother did. We had all the trinkets. I was born in Albany, NY! :)
What an interesting video. Fascinating, even. Keep making your videos.
First time I saw the topsy turvy doll.
I'm old--almost 75 years old. I vaguely recall them, but I didn't really connect them with racial divides. To me, they just were interesting--you got 2 dolls for the price of one. One looked one way; the other looked a different way. I grew up in northern Ontario and we would never have seen a black person except as porters and waiters on a train who looked so sharp with their dark skin and white suits. I never owned one.
Once again…fearless content and commentary. Thank you.
I got a Black baby doll for Christmas when I was 2, and I still have her. She's my favorite.💜
I had a neighbor with a topsy turvy doll, one side was Little Red Riding Hood and the other side was her grandmother, and if you took grandmother's cap off, the wolf was on the back of her head and you could put the cap on the wolf. I was fascinated and eventually I got my own topsy turvy doll, both sides were the same doll but one side was wearing a calico dress and the other side was wearing a fancier dress. I was much older when I learned that originally, one side had been Black and the other side had been white. As a child, I did have a Black doll and a Native American doll. I never really played with dolls, though. I liked them aesthetically, and I also liked getting dolls that looked like me (black hair, brown eyes) and so I would prefer a Black doll who had my same hair and eye color to a blonde haired, blue eyed white doll, like Barbie. I did ask for Barbie's Hawaiian friend Miko, which at the time (1985) was the only Barbie available who had black hair and brown eyes without also being Black. But again, I never really played with her. I just liked owning a Barbie who looked like me (and this was the same year that this Barbie was introduced). Barbies have, indeed, come a long way in terms of representation and diversity.
Yes! I had a piece about that little red riding hood doll but ended up editing it for clarity. I remember for my 9th birthday I got an American girl doll. I loved her! But I was disappointed because I wanted her to look like me....but there was not a wavy/ frizz hair option back then :D
I had one of those!! My Grandma gave it to me for my birthday. 💜
Auntie is so proud of you making these videos
the funny thing is, as a af/am man with asian, Irish, and Native American ancestry, to me, you look mixed as a child. Alot of your ancestry comes thru in the pics you show'd. Thanks for sharing this and taking us on this ride with you---it mirrors many of what has happened in our families
It's funny how you dont always realize the things that actually profoundly impacted you as a child, until you talk to other people and realize they had totally different kinds of childhoods!
❤❤❤
As a collector of Black memorabilia, I am familiar with the topsy-turvy doll. I am 74 years old so the dolls I had were all white. During my younger years (!-4) I never came in contact with a White person. Eventually I did and I had no problems interacting with kids my age. When Barbie came out my mother brought me one. Beautiful Black bisque dolls were made in Germany,
Here is another book for you. "Migration and Cultures, A World View" by Thomas Sowell
Take care
I was offered a topsy turvy doll as a child but turned it down because both girls didn't have legs and couldn't walk so as I told the woman who iffered the doll to me "I would have to take them apart and give both of them legs so they could play together, otherwise they would be disabled and need wheelchairs."... I was that type of precocious child.
the lack of legs really bother me too! Im like, okay the arms are legs? ugh
Another banger, great video; very riveting. 👍
Appreciate that
You are such a beautiful human being. ❤ Love your videos
Thank you so much for being here
I want a Danielle doll.
I would be so scared to see that thing
😂😂😂😂@@nytn
I had a Black G.I. Joe and a White G.I. Joe and got them for Christmas in 1972 when I was nine years old. Both had the life like hair but did not yet come with the Kung Fu grip.😂 I was living on an HBCU campus at the time which was my parent's Alma Mater as they were both educators by trade. I have known about the doll test for many years and it's very sad. My sister had both Black dolls and White dolls. I think the dolls we got were reflective of the way our parent's raised us. Additionally, G.I. Joe was a doll for guys.😆
G.I. Joe was a doll for war mongers. My son was never allowed a toy weapon. A friend gave him for his birthday a plastic sword that glowed in the dark. When, I saw him at about 5 attacking the cat with the sword, I took it away from him. When he joined the Navy Reserves at 17, the powers-that-be tried to recruit him for Afghanistan. He turned them down flat. "I didn't join the Canadian Navy Reserves to kill people." Mommy taught him well. Why not sell male dolls that are doctors, or nurses, or truck drivers or teachers or office workers, et al.? I don't think G.I. Joe was that popular in Canada.
Your videos are getting more and more profound.
I never saw and heard of these dolls. Thank you for sharing all of this. At leasat you had this connection to another part of the world, that is a gift.
You are so welcome!
There were story dolls when I was young like the topsy turvy. Red riding hood was connected to Woods man and Granny was connected to Wolf. So by flipping them you could tell the entire story.
Omg Great Show‼️🔥‼️
You are doing great work. I can see the growth.
I was a tom boy so never got into the Barbie thing. I was happy to play with Matchbox and Hot Wheels.
I was a tom boy, too, PROBABLY because I had no barbies LOL
@@nytn 😂 I think tom boys start getting interested in boys later. That's a good thing!
@@nytn Barbie has a rather dark (no pun intended) backstory, being based on a German doll, who was in turn based on comic strip character, Lilli. The comic strip character was, according to Wikipedia, a "golddigger, exhibitionist, and floozy."
@@nytn My daughter was very maternal as a child. She wasn't allowed Barbies either. Like my sister-in-law said about her step-sisters, "Barbie dolls, all grown up." They were R.N.'s not college grads and seemed to be infatuated with the latest make up and clothes. My sister-in-law was very beautiful, too, but never went for the over made up Barbie look although she seems to have been to enough formals when she was young and had a very formal wedding. Women are nuts.
@@nghtwtchmn129 You're surprised? That's hilarious! I was interviewed once in person by a survey maker for Mattel about Barbie's. The survey taker didn't reveal that until the end of the interview. I told her what I thought about Barbies in very plain terms, not at all complimentary. At the end of the interview, she revealed she worked for Mattel and gave my daughter a "Peaches and Cream" Barbie. She also said to me in a very disappointed tone, "The last mother I interviewed just loved Barbie." LOLOL! My daughter's response to that interview at 6 years of age was, "You should have let me answer the questions. I would have gotten the doll more quickly." LOLOL!
I like the backstory on why you had the Kenyan doll. I think it is cool that you had your Dad's Kenyan friend staying with your family and sharing stories from his homeland. The Continent seems so far away and I hope to visit at least a few of its countries one day. I've not heard of the Topsy Turvy doll before and the concept of it is intriguing.
Thanks for sharing. ❤
Toy stores tend to not stock many dolls of different ethnicities, in fact, some stores refuse any of the darker Barbies and such! They claim they do not sell well! I have seen the Topsy-Turvy Dolls, but only in museums.
When i went to Los Angeles in 1993 and lived there, i never understood the obsession with the Barbie look. I didn't even know she was suppose to be beautiful.
I remember hearing about that test as well as those dolls. When I was growing up we didn’t have many dolls but from what I remember we had various types that didn’t only look like us. It’s six of us so we spent most of our free time outside playing with each other, working in my maternal grandparent’s garden, shucking purple hull peas and trying to eat up the sugarcane🤦🏾♀️😂
The memories, hulling peas until the grocery bag from Winn Dixie was full.
@@redaleta Yes indeed and with sore purple thumbs.
Hello from Copperhill Tn.
Hello there!
There was a black doll,
Older hand me down, in my childhood.
Don't know who's it was.
Had forgotten all about it, Thanks.
Representation is Important ‼️🔥‼️
Everyone should look up the Doll Test and its significance 💯
I had two and I loved them, one of mine was made by my aunt and was a white and native. My cousins and I were able to talk about racial differences in our family because of them.
😊 there is there was no such thing as native and white it was either colored and white natives who are people of color and then Europeans who can technically be white sometimes even colored people Outlook or identify as white as
All my dolls were white..I'm from the Caribbean and colonialism was still a part of our culture even tho we were already a republic country..
Wow, thank you for sharing that! Would have guessed you would have more options
Wow! Were there no dolls that looked like your friends and neighbours? Or did your family just buy white dolls?
I may have seen something about the topsy-turvy dolls, but don't recall where. Fascinating history. I agree that sharing other cultures with children in an open and accepting way effects how they treat people as they go through life. Dad served in Korea in the 50s, and fell in love with Japan which he visited while on leave. Mom was obsessed with Hawaii and Chinese art. Both grew up in Los Angeles. Our house was full of Asian art, but my parents' record collection included jazz and what we now call 'world music'. I think the key is that children are taught (whether overtly, or by example) that differences are interesting and positive. Art, music, and food are good places to start. Once, when a group of work friends went to Popeye's Fried Chicken on a lunch break from an event, I was with a friend who had a strong African accent (originally from Uganda). He started asking me what the different items were on the menu, and how spicy they might be. I heard someone laugh, and then the Black man behind us says, "Lady, you made my day."
Great video, Danielle; I couldn't really relate to the doll story, but thank you for sharing a personal memory, of how it affected your life. I did relate to the comment you made about growing up in a multicultural environment. If we sent parents and their newborn babies home with the same recommendations a competent breeder gives you when you get a new puppy "make sure your new puppy (child) gets socialized early, by spending a lot of time with other dogs; different breeds, different ages, etc. They should also be around different people, of all age ages (and for humans, different nationalities) This will minimize unnecessarily aggressive adult behavior" Society would (and could) be a lot different. People are afraid of what they don't know, and don't understand; and that fear manifests itself in different ways---When you actually get to know who people are, behind the social / cultural masks that we wear, you learn that we are more alike, than we are different.
When you start understanding, you stop being afraid.
That's why I fought so hard to get an Early French Immersion programme established in Kingston, Ontario back in the 1980s. Early French Immersion programmes and French (first language) schools to which children are welcomed, children of all different creeds and ethnic groups and language backgrounds do that! God bless Canada.
Daniella,I know about the doll t best. This was invented by the late Dr. Kenneth and Mamie Clark. I also have seen similar dolls like this. And I was gifted with both the African doll and the Italian Barbie doll.
I have lots of vintage dolls and some are black. My daughter had a topsy-turvy doll that was Little Red Riding Hood and the flip side was the Big Bad Wolf. I don’t think she played with it.
Interesting because in 1993 my father had an apple computer. He had no Internet access obviously but you could word process with it and I even did some word processing with it and we have a VCR as early as 1978 although it was for beta max. But my dad, being electrician was into electronic gadgets.
We had a computer eventually that had MS Dos, I remember playing some "who dun it" kind of game that I cant remember the name of!
A long time ago fresh out of college I managed a toy and hobby shop. I had a lot of black customers buying dolls, and they said I was the only one in the city that stocked black dolls. I told them that it was not a problem, that any doll could be ordered by the stores as a black doll by simply adding a B to the stock number. If Baby Betsy was Stock Number 12345, then the black version was Stock Number 12345B. Just that easy. And I made sure we bought them. This was 45-50 years ago.
I had a black baby doll. I loved her and I remember her molded curls on her plastic head. I was probably 3 or 4 when she was damaged by the lawn mower. I left her in the grass. 😢
Oh no! That’s traumatic 😢
Screens… I got my first cell phone, a flip phone, when I was 18. At first my kids also did not have a lot of screen time, but that changed when health problems occurred with my kids that changed their personality and left them less mobile. Now it’s an almost constant addiction. We do screen detox camping trips to help combat it, and everyone comes back feeling better.
The "baby doll" is different than a Barbie doll.
A Baby Doll was practice for the passage into Mothering a Family.
The Barbie doll was the imitation of socialogical newly inventented Holly-weird version of being a "teenager."
Some Mothers thought that this was inappropriate for their Daughters.
The tragedy of the Clark Doll test is that it was performed 50 years later and provided the same results.
Actually, the market for the original Barbie was pre-teens, I think, so that they would grow up looking to snare a man. The doll began to appeal to a younger market later on. My younger sisters had Barbies. My one sister was always into the bourgeois wedding scene and wanted to marry wealthy, an upwardly mobile type. She did for a while, too, but her husband, her 2nd, eventually dumped her and didn't really share his wealth with her. The original Barbies, Kens and younger siblings came out just before the woman's liberation movement, just before women were allowed into med school and law school and engineering school on an equal footing with male candidates.
In the 70s, my mom gave me a Christie doll (Black) because all the others were blonde! We have Mexican-Irish heritage 😊.
I personally raised my daughter's to love and appreciate black dolls. Bl dolls are always under representing even in stores. I didnt allow them to play with yt dolls. I saved them for our yt relatives and friends. But i knew and know the psychology damage it does to bl little girls. After dolls its the media and the world telling them yt women are the standard of beauty like right now. Not my daughter's!
YT? what is that an abbreviation for?
use your imagination @@dinkster1729
When I was a little girl in the early 70’s the dolls had different prices. Yes I’m that old lol. The Black dolls cost more, so I always received a white doll. I requested Black dolls to no avail. I could see Black dolls in the store. We were poor
I remember in the '80s renting a VCR from Blockbuster so we could watch tapes 😂
Playing with dolls and barbies as a kid goes sooo much deeper than just having fun. It 100% is a reflection of a child's psyche. I still to this day have resentment towards my sister, and part of the reason why is because when we played with Barbies she would always get the fancy pink hot rod with the better dollhouse and the better looking husband, whereas I had my Barbies marrying women, walking to work, and living in the smaller dollhouse. The way we played reflected our dynamic with each other as sisters, the way we felt about ourselves & the way we wanted to insert ourselves into the world, and it truly says a lot about our personalities even today.
The thing with the American society is they know the damage they are doing but keep quiet about it as if it’s a shock to them
I have the caribbean topsy turvy dolls both sides are people of color.
I am a collector of ancestral artifacts (my ancestry) people are always surprised to see essentially the world reflected in my collection, dolls and artifacts are definitely a teaching tool to broaden the mind.
My father is a buddhist he hung out with Rasta’s, Muslims, and europeans from the deep parts of Kentucky so I grew up surrounded by different cultures which ultimately has shaped my worldview and my life path as an humanitarian, children who are not allowed to have diversity of culture are truly at an disadvantage and struggle with finding human connection outside of their politically racially designated group.
It’s interesting how we celebrate diversity in everything in nature except human beings.
I had a black Barbie and she was my favorite! My family was not black. I was very dark when I got out in the sun. So was my mama. In fact all of us could tan so easily and get so dark even with blonde hair and blue eyes. I had brown hair with a reddish tint in black eyes and I always wondered why people thought I was mixed. Well I sure was mixed but it was an extremely varied mixture with quite a bit of American Indian. I guess my favorite that doll because it was more like me than the blonde-headed blue-eyed white Barbies. I didn't even think of that consciously. Now I adore as an adult all the Barbies from different nations! Wish they had that when I was a little girl in the 60s!
I’m also from upstate.
Rhinebeck/Woodstock -ish…
I was and still am a collector of dolls. My parents never brought me or allowed family members to buy me a white doll. First doll was Native Hawaiian. All my dolls are of color.
Hey wow, I didn't know this was a "racial" thing. My father brought me home a very fancy doll from Brasil and one end was Spanish lady (maybe? or "Hispanic"?) in red and the other end was a woman with cocoa brown skin dressed in yellow with lace and big gold hoop earrings and a turban of some kind on her head. Both sides were very beautiful and the hoop skirt was enormous. I do not think the black doll was a working sort of doll. The lighter doll's dress was more intricate, but if I saw both ladies together I would figure they just chose different outfits.
Yeah! I didn't associate these dolls with race either. i just figured you got 2 dolls for the price of one. Northern Ontario didn't have any black families at all.
The kind of toys that someone played with as a child tells a lot about that person. As a child I did not like dolls. I loved stuffed animals. I am a huge animal lover who does not care for humans as much. People can be evil and I was born knowing that and didn't gravitate towards the human form nor wanted to nurture it the way i did with animals. Now i live happily alone with my rescue animals.
im glad to have you here :)
@@nytn Thank you
Those "Picaniny" dolls from the us south can sell for alot according to my antique dealer friend. Many people collect them.
I remember the 1st time i wver saw a black doll. Mid 60s - in the store- and i was fascinated by it.
My barbies were passed to me from a cousin- they were mostly pale skinned and blonde- completely unlike me.
Did they look like your cousin?
@dinkster1729 yes the barbies looked more like my cousin.
People outside of the "deep south" will never understand the interconnectivity of the culture. People often fall into the trap of thinking in black and white. I love Danielle's channel for exploring the nuances.
Yeah! I never connected 'Topsy Turvy" dolls with race at all. You just got 2 dolls instead of 1.
All my white dolls were yellowbone and red bone blacks anyway to me growing up . I was 8 when i got my first officially black dolls ( stacy todd Steven ( black ken ) my quints babies and My Malibu Black Barbie. I loved all my babies
Worth looking into Tennessean Richard Henry Boyd and the company he started in Nashville in 1909. I’d give more hints but the algorithm might get triggered by some key words. If you need some leads on it just give a holler. I remember when cabbage patch kids were the craze my cousins all got a wide palette of them, was really my first cognizant recognition of dolls other than white Barbie’s but in fairness, I was plying with GI Joe’s, Star Wars, He-man etc. interestingly all of them had a mixed representation when I was a kid and it wasn’t ever really a factor for my friends or I when we were building our little collections(I think the shows that supported these toys went a long way towards bridging some of those divides in boys toys.) I also wonder what impact the topsy dolls had on bridging that gap of the youth of slave owning plantations and their slaves. There are many accounts of the young men of the south being best friends with the younger slaves(as hard as it is to wrap our heads around with our modern perspective.) I think with each of these little concessions, each little reminder, be it a toy, media, oral history or other learning tool, the younger generations take another step towards getting it right. Keep up the good work Danielle.
Hey Chris,
You have such a way with words. I agree, every generation is makeing incremental progess, and over time, it's a lot of progress.
Im looking up RHB now!
My kids just got a vintage Cobra GI Joe off ebay this week. They're obsessed with the GI Joes right now. Who would have guessed
@@nytn I’m better in writing than in person 😂 I was originally going to comment how envious I was of what an incredible story teller you are. You’re able to keep us all captivated with mostly just a shot of you talking(a testament to your uncanny storytelling prowess.) I have a face for radio, every time I show it on camera I watch my audience shrink 😂 Keep on crushing it, you’re doing great, enjoy your reading on RHB!
a face for audio!!! hahahahaha
Danielle, your sound quality is excellent but your volume level is significantly lower than the majority of other channels. Just fyi.
Thank you! I always wonder how loud to make things.... I will increase it! I was up to 12 dB on this video.😆
YW! Keep up the great content :)
Grew up in German Lutheran migrant valley in Australia. My mum refused to have a barbie. Too much make-up and extreme body shape. I had a plain doll, average figure, mid brown hair. She was nice. I preferred animals. Also had a small American Indian doll. She was wonderful - long, glossy black hair, happy, kind face. Watched cowboy/Indian on TV. Plus I fell in love with a vanilla smelling black rubber baby doll. Still got her ❤.
I had a topsy turvy doll in the 80s. Neither doll was attractive. They were made of cloth. The white doll had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was very light almost white. The Black baby doll was dark skinned and her hair was short. The doll came with adoption papers. I played with them like they were conjoined twins. Most of my dolls were Black.
my mom in the 60s wouldnt let me have a barbie either. she thought they were too sexy for kids. but i did have a skipper, her flat-chested little sister doll
Wow. I didn't know Danielle was a natural blonde.
I wasnt, but that picture definitely looks like it!
I had the Native American Barbie, she was my favorite fr the collection. I didn’t know if any of them were “me”.
That exists?
First off, 🇰🇪 Kenya landscapes and peoples are gorgeously beautiful. Can't wait to go back. I had a few Black action figures from Star Wars like Lando Calrisian (Billy Dee Williams) and GI Joe's characters. They meant everything to my childhood. Representation is everything especially when there's less of it. Great videos.
ahhhh I lovedd Lando! I first saw this at that movie at like 8/9 and when Lando first comes out to meet the ships in that cape, I remember thinking he was Italian like us. Oops 😂
Your dad was a cool dude
Actually my favorite doll to play with when I was a little girl was my Charlie baby I think he was one of the few boy Cabbage Patch dolls and he was white I love the fact that I had a boy Cabbage Patch doll and not a girl until I got my Amanda doll and that was the first cabbage patch that you could actually take into the bathtub because she was totally plastic but she was beautiful and dark skin so I had my Charlie and my Amanda and they were my babies
I can't help you on this when I was a GI Joe kid, the original in the Kung Fu grip I did like the black GI Joe I just never had one
Has anyone had an experience with a Barbie Cabal at their school? It was the mid 80s and most of the 1st and 2nd grade girls at my small parochial school brought their Barbies to play with at recess. My parents were strict and I wasn't allowed to have any Barbies. I was grudgingly allowed to join the Barbie Cabal a couple of times and play an extra doll someone had. It became very clear that I wouldn't be welcome without a doll of my own. I ended playing with rowdy boys or by myself at recess.
3rd grade my younger sister and I got Barbies for Christmas from my grandmother who lived with us at the time. Mom was not happy. I got black Day and Night Barbie & Ken. My sister got My 1st Barbie. Mom was horrified to later find all 3 dolls together undressed in what to her looked like a compromised situation 😅 Mom had no idea what a pain in the neck it was to change Barbie's outfit. Needless to say those dolls disappeared.
4th grade I was promised a reward for memorizing my times table flash cards. Of course I wanted a Barbie. That was how I got the black Heart Family. Those dolls looked like they were dressed for church so I even got to play with them on Saturday/Sabbath.
Even my older brother had it tough with toys since we couldn't have toys with weapons, so no G.I. Joe or Star Wars.
Exactly! My kids got games and books from the library. No Barbie. No G.I. Joe. No weapons. My son didn't even play hockey except in pick up games on an outdoor rink near his school. I wonder what Wayne Gretzky had to say about Brian Mulroney today? I'll listen to his eulogy later.
Not exactly a toy experience, but I remember as a small child thinking because my Italian dad and grandpa are darker skinned than Anglo-Americans on tv that we weren’t Americans aka “white”, though I didn’t have racial terms at this age.
TV is a great example, I should have mentioned that!
Yea I can see that bc my dad's side is mixed with Italian. Most of them look bl like the other side. 😂😂
@lilpaulettenthegang7869 Sure we can occasionally look half-black but not what I meant 😄, more quasi-Turkish like Cenk Uyghur, but that’s still different from the pale majority I saw on tv.
I understand lol@@dantesabatino5429
I had tons of barbies white black asian and hispanic all was black to me just differently lol
IF YOU NOTICE, BOTH MAMIE AND KENNETH CLARK WERE NOT "DARKSKIN BROWN." THEY WERE NOT BLACK. THEY WERE "GOLD." WHY WERE THEY "NOT" CONCERNED ABOUT CHILDREN WHO WERE THEIR........"COMPLEXION?" MAKING SURE THAT CHILD HAD A DOLL HIS OR HER COMPLEXION. EVEN KENNETH AND MAMIE CLARK EXPERIENCED A CASE OF......"THE DOLL STUDY"💯💯💯
I didn't have a Barbie doll though I was of that age in the mid 1960s. I had her cheaper, knock-off cousin, "Babs."
By time my (twin) sons were born, the Cabbage Patch Doll frenzy had ended. One son became enchanted by a (light-skinned, yellow-haired) Cabbage Patch Doll HEAD attached to a (pink) crocheted BODY -- someone had "Frankensteined" -- at a thrift store we visited. [It was hideous in my eyes, but only $1.] So at age 2 or 3, he had his doll. (The other son showed no interest.) He also had the requisite number of cars, trucks, balls, and Lego. Today both sons are attentive, loving fathers of babies. Who knows if this contributed to his attitude toward children?
I used to play with GI joes and loved firefighters and soldiers when I was little mostly because I had family that were firefighters and my dad was in the army. Speaking of exposure to other cultures. My dad said getting deployed to other countries actually made him hate those people even more. He still refers to Arabs as “hadjis”
I'm Canadian. We weren't allowed to watch television, except for Hamlet with Christopher Plummer in the lead role and Karen Kain dancing with the Canadian Ballet Company out of Toronto. What was its name? Or Don Messer. or part of the hockey game and the news. I liked the Plouffe family in English, too, although some people called it racist. LOLOL! Isn't political correctness wonderful?
Do you now think your mom giving you topsy turvy doll as well as Italian Barbie and Kenyan Barbie was her way of telling about the mixture of herself, Lola,etc.?
Babytoys and barbies for the girls and guntoys and GI Joes for the boys.
Life in a nutshell.
My daughter loved Cabbage Patch kids. She once told me with pride, "I have 32 of them." She was counting a couple of hair clips someone had given her as well and a couple of figures for her doll house, etc. My husband's step mother gave both my kids Cabbage Patch kids for Christmas one year. My son was about 3. and got a boy Cabbage Patch kid. He was very disappointed and threw the doll across the room immediately. LOLOL! My daughter picked it up immediately and trotted off to her room with it. That doll was the most unloved doll in history when my son got it, I think. Interesting how boys and girls already have an image of themselvesr as male and female by 3 and 5, right?
@@dinkster1729 I dont think that they have an image of themselves as male or female, they just have preverences which we adults see as male or female.
@@tobiasphilippwittlinger8753I think it's been pretty definitely proven you can't change a kid's gender just by giving him/her male or female clothing and toys and activities that play to gender stereotypes.
@@dinkster1729 absolutely, kids choose instinctively by their gender yet they dont see it as female or male but as their preverence.
The awareness comes later.
I thought you were Italian
I am mostly.
Your mom is crazy. Barbie was awesome she literally had millions of jobs. You all keep looking at her body, not her mind. I had a doctor Barbie lawyer , Barbie and the rockers , Vet barbie I mostly had her careers dolls so Barbie was different for me . I seen her as a woman who could do it all just like i could . Being a pretty girl doesnt change your intelligence We had School pride Barbie wnba barbies etc.
I had g.i figures some where native and black I didn't care they couldn't all look the same they where a group of soilders
Greetings, how much do you charge to help find my family out of Louisiana. I have it a road block. My 2Gr grand papa Friday Gosey 1837 born around Sabine Parish Louisiana/ across the Sabine River Louisiana is Sabine Parish Texas ( Newton County South East Texas.
His son my great grandfather Robert Gosey born in Sabine Louisiana, but migrated to Newton County East Texas.
I have taken all the dna companies test.
Ancestry DNA ( Early Creole New Orleans). My 23andMe , first saying our southern European was Spanish, then it changed to Portuguese and then it changed to Southern Italy.
I I have 4 cousins matches 100 European American, but roots go to Italy.🇮🇹
I have been watching your journey. I would like to hire you to help me with my Gosey.
Have you tried Reddit/genealogy or Facebook? There are search angels who will help you. Good luck!!!
@@tknows470 : I am a trying to connect with this CZcams because of Ancestors ties.
My Gosey are part of the Ashworth families, that she did a report on, or branch move to Beaumont, orange and Newton County. That is Part of the Texas Ashworth Act
czcams.com/video/n60NTrKs-wc/video.html Here's a story that might interest your followers. The history of a painting is very interesting. Actually, I think this painting should be in Louisiana in an art gallery, not in New York City. It would help race relations, wouldn't it?
I tried to send you some info on tiktok. After i typed everything out tiktok said i could not send you the message bc you dont follow me. Smh 😢this was a few weeks ago 😢
ahhhh! I cant log in I cant remember my password LOL. Can you send it on facebook? or email howdy(at)nytonashville(dot)com
ok thx @@nytn
Still agitating ……🙏🏻
Kids are taught racism at an early age when they see it on television in the news and talked to buy adults🤔
Right… let’s be honest, this doll test is a bit contrite and grounded in white supremacy. When I was of doll-playing-age before like 9 whenever my brother who had white skin and hair, or I would see a doll with brown skin, we would freak the F’ out,
we were mesmerized, we NEVER EVER thought of the brown doll as ugly or dumb or the white doll as prettier or smarter actually we would act as if the white dolls were black too -because black people looked like all the race. But here you have this study showing us the baffled black kids pointing to white dolls -it’s incredible.
I collect Monster High Dolls, I have hundreds, they are soooo diverse - I was selling some of them at a Pink Elephant sale, and I noted that 90% of the kids 98% of which were white, along with adults and collectors, would go ‘admiringly’ to the black and brown dolls first???
Those monster dolls are cool! my girls also pretend the dolls can change into whatever they need as they are playing!
"Black people looked like all the race"?
That's deep
As a kid, I enjoyed Superman and Batman on TV. They were white. So what, that's just how it was. I had GI Joe, Captain Action, but my all time favorite was Cheif Cherokee. The sports guys I liked, Wilt Chamberlain, Muhammad Ali, Bubba Smith, Earl Monroe, OJ Simpson, Johnny Unitas. I didn't care what color they were, I just admired how they played the game. Been in school with mostly white people, only rarely did I not feel equal. And then it was most likely just growing up things🙂. I'm sure others have different experiences tho.
I collect dolls. I have that Kenyan doll plus others from the African continent. Plus 1 Irish doll fr that collection. By the way my husband Said you look like a light skin bl woman to him as well.
You always talk about your Black and Italian heritage but never about your Latino/Hispanic side. Romero is a Spanish name, not an Italian one.
Danielle's paternal grandfather came from Italy. That settles it, no?
When Jesus comes he will make everything alright. So wipe your tears for everything is gonna be alright.
The Dolls test came before Television and Movies that shows Majority White casts and characters doing the 1950's before the Mid 1960's when Hollywood finally showing more NonWhite Actors in there shows and movies
You're parents were the possibility of the utopia we could've had. There was a similar test in Texas in the 80's that had the opposite results. It's all sad.
Danielle, I've been enjoying some of your videos, but I do think you're being shallow on this one. Playing between black and white kids (the masters and the enslaved kids), was obviously much more nuanced than in your descriptions. Rules would have been learnt yes, but more often in a much more painful manner.
When you touch a part you touch your whole, so looking after the white kids by day and the black kids by night, needs to go into the whole psychological trauma and arrested development of seeing a child suckling on the breast of your mother while you cannot have any.
When it came to playing horses and one child would ride on the others back, how do you see that working? Even with children of the same ethnicity, if one rides the others back too much, the over-riden child's parent will be secretly telling them "Don't always be the one being ridden". Never mind in situations where one group would be powerless to retort like that. I've never seen a picture of a black child riding a white child's back from those times. Only ever the other way round as play things.
Also the "Black & White doll" test has been done again recently with similar results to the first time. What does that say?
I could go on, but a CZcams comment section isn't adequate space.
In finishing, I'll say that a wider lense than you are demonstrating here is needed to accurately assess the cultural/historical significance of the "topsy turvy doll".
You're enthusiastic and have the ability, so please revise this video.
p.s.
Your father's friend from Kenya Mr Wafula, by his name would have been from the Luhya (ALSO LUYIA, LUHIA, ABALUHYA people.
You gave a great addition to this video, thank you! It can be hard to cover deep topics in a short amount of edited space.
I also am not an expert in every topic I make video on, often learning while making it, so there will always have more to add. Im going to call my dad and ask about the Luhya people, thank you!
@@nytn you're most welcome. I do understand about not being able to cover everything in short posts and also recognised that you are sometimes learning as you go along and whilst inviting people to come along the journey with you in a quite open way. I do know also that because of the nature of your content (that may by all accounts seem heavy to some), you may at times feel under attack for myriad reasons, from contributors and platform moderators alike. But because of your nature so far, I felt safe that you wouldn't take me for an attacker.
I have stuff you might be interested in. May email you some day.
Thanks for your posts
Walk good 👍🏿
Absolutely took this comment as a friendly one! Appreciate you taking the time. ☺️
Don't women have two mammary glands? Why couldn't they just use one for her children and one for her masters children? I'm not quite agreeing with this take.
You need to start your own comedy channel.... If you can find anyone that will laugh at your kind of "humour"?¿?¿?¿?¿😮@@Based_Gigachad_001
Integration/exposure leads to comparison. Comparison is the thief of Joy.
Desegregation is not the answer. In fact, shielding, isolation, attention to the present moment, things within your immediate surroundings.
No screens or Internet to take you away from our immediate time and space.
_"As above, so below."_ Child-like microcosms bearing the reflections of a world full of dualities and microcosms. Where one doll must be on top of the other, which lead to the white doll being chosen as the reflection of "good," or what's on top. And made the black doll, inexorably, the reflection of what's tainted or "bad," or what's on the bottom. That doll, among other things, teaches the childlike subconscious what the conscious mind doesn't fully grasp: *That both can't both be upright simultaneously.* Only 1 can be on the top, whether tou understand the reasons or not. Which goes back to the racial hierarchal ladder 🪜 post Bacon Rebellion.
Those TT dolls really are profound
I think it's best to give kids a variety of dolls. Even as a little white girl, I thought having only blonde Barbies was boring. I wanted variety in my dolls and I love the new lines. I've bought several new dolls of different shades as adult, because that's what I wanted as a kid. My world wasn't only blond people.
When I teach preschool, I make sure the dolls are racially diverse and get treated the same. Most kids don't care about the color.
Most kids really dont, but they love the options! You are doing a great job, thank you for teaching