Addy Walker has heard her parents’ whispers about freedom before.
Enslaved on a plantation in 1864, Addy’s family must run away if they hope to be free. When Poppa and her brother, Sam, are sold away, Addy and her mother make the wrenching decision to escape to Philadelphia—to freedom—on their own.
But that means leaving Addy’s baby sister behind—her cries could cost them their lives. Addy must dig deep to find the courage to face a powerful truth: freedom sometimes has great costs.
Addy comes complete with:
An old-fashioned striped dress in cinnamon pink
Stretchy black stockings, drawers, and cap-toed boots
Thick black,STRAIGHT hair swept back by a silky blue ribbon, showing off her golden earrings
In this collection, even more authentic items bring Addy’s story to life:
A straw bonnet with calico ribbon
A kerchief to make a bundle for carrying things with Momma
A gourd for water and a replica half-dime from Uncle Solomon
The special African cowrie shell from her great-grandmother that Addy wears around her neck
What the hell?
Where does a slave girl get gold earrings? She's got a gourd for water from whence did THAT come from, and cowrie shells from her great-grandmother? This is bull-shit. A fabrication from the mind of someone who knows nothing of slavery and even less about the needs of modern, young, black girls in America.
This fantasy of African-American girlhood had to spring from the mind of someone whose idea of slavery as an 'unfortunate' occurance in history that held little to no consequences for those involved. So insignificant was the ordeal that one can derive pleasure from pretending to be a young slave girl in modern times.
I'm disgusted. I'm even more disgusted because this ridiculousness is all the rage among young, white middle-class girls who will internalize this message. A new store opened in Atlanta and all I can say is...."Boooooo!!"
10 comments:
Hi, I came here via Gem--I left a long comment at her site, so i won't go on and on here--but I just want to say--honest, the series is a really *good* series--the books are all written by a black woman, and they absolutely do NOT have slavery as some sort of bad experience with no consequences--the consequences of her escape with her mother stay with her through multiple books--her father and brother don't escape right away, her brother loses an arm (i think he fought in the army--and that was a decision that the whole family/community had to make--her sister doesn't join the family until after her father and brother do--and they're "new life" in "free north" is hard and has lots of complications--like how to find family after they've been sold away (the books make a point of showing that some families were never reunited), extreme poverty, the black community helping each other out, but at the same time, dealing with internal struggles like class--these books are not complicated like toni morrison complicated--but for 6-10 year old reading level--they are *incredibly* complicated and really deal with some profound things that young girls really have to wrestle with...i was really *really* reluctant to let my daughter read the american girl series, because I thought the same thing--but honest, those books are surprisingly honest and frank and *real*--I recommend them.
Thank you for your comment, brownfemi. I left a long comment there as well.
Thank you for offering a consumer's opinion, but I am adamantly opposed to anything that trivializes slavery in any way, especially when the effect of this atrocity are still so palpable, more to some than others.
Besides my general aversion to dolls of ANY kind, I find the $100 dollar price point to be of particular interest. This ensures that only children of a certain class level will be able to 'benefit' from the dolls. What is a girl to think when she gets to be a little older and comes in contact with people who look like her but act differently because of ripple effect of slavery. She may very well think that they're just making a big to-do about nothing. If you wanted to get out and overcome you would. Afterall, Addy and her family did it.
I wonder if anyone would feel the dolls were inocuous if they came out with 'Apartheid Annie' or 'Boat Bianca' from Cuba?
hi- interesting viewpoint. i never thought too much about the american girl doll phenomenon (when i was a kid my parents could never afford them), so reading your take on the situation was illuminating. at first i thought, well, it's a consumerist society, what can we expect but a simplistic, and slightly exploitive view of whatever 'american experience" they're selling? then, i thought about my own heritage (I'm third-generation Jewish-American and how I'd feel if they came out with "holocaust hannah" to go along with "apartheid annie" and "boat bianca"? you're right. disgusting.
great post. i remember when i was a little girl, my main thought was...why is there no black indigenous, or asian american girl? they were all white until addy came along when i was past the age to really be into them.
i think it's good to have the dolls deal with struggles in their stories, but maybe it would have been better to have a civil rights era black doll...that way you could pack in the slavery history without it being totally inaccurate (b/c it wouldn't be a first hand account) and i think it would offer a good history lesson on a positive pivotal point in black american history.
Apartheid Annie wouldnt bother me. PLENTY of people want their struggles to be recognized. And its a no win thing with us sometimes. Do they NOT use a black doll and then hear ppl complain that theres no black one? Do they use one and make her middle class and then hear blackppl complain that they are erasing history and making it as if blacks werent enslaved? Or do they have her as a slave and then people complain about that?
You cant please everyone
I'm Black college girl and I read ALL the American Girl books when I was little. They were my favorite series and I still have every single Felicity, Addy, and Samantha book. I actually had the Felicity doll instead of Addy because I was a horseback rider just like Felicity. Looking back its kind of funny how it never occurred to me that I should get Addy because she looked more like me. I agree with brownfemi in that the books are really well written and deal with slavery in an age appropriate way, and is actually really nuanced for a book made for little girls.
this woman: http://www.anneelizabethmoore.com/
did some work around the american girl series. click on projects, then scroll down to 'pocket full of wishes.' she also wrote a zine about her experiences doing the project. i have the zine somewhere, but i can't recall if there was a race based analysis or not. thought you might be interested.
Thank you all for your comments. I think that this doll maybe a good way for some people to start a dialogue with their children about slavery, but personally I find slavery to be something that should not be played with 'literally'. Like one of the posters said..Would 'Holocaust Hannah' be an appropriate toy?
And thank you, Nadia for the tip about annaelizabethmoore.com. I think that she has a really valid point. It speaks to my own feelings about the doll culture in general.
I had an Addy, a Felicity and another one can't recall her name, but I def thought it was soft on slavery by the time I got an Addy book, I had read/saw books and movies about slavery that were very graphic. I actually was obsessed with learning about slavery when I was little so Addy books did not do it for me. I don't feel like the dolls are aimed at black girls. MY Addy doll has curly/kinky hair, feels like that cheap hair ppl use for braids. I had a problem with the GAP in her front teeth, WAS SHE GOTTA HAVE A GAP ?lol
I remember Addy when I was a kid (I'm 25 now) and I can say this: it's interesting how much effort the makers of the doll and the series put into such a miserable failure of an idea. In fairness, the Mexican doll (Jacinda?) and the Native American doll are just as patronizing and dumb.
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