Ibram Kendi Worries His Toddler’s Attachment to a Doll Might Summon the ‘Smog of White Superiority’ – Opinion

The world is a colorful place, and that’s likely never been more true. In fact, we’re told to see color everywhere we look.

It’s a noted change from mere years ago, when the culture appeared intent upon a colorblind climb up Mount Unity. So far as I can tell, the climb’s been #canceled:

Professors Teach Preschoolers to See Color as Childhood Innocence Gets ‘Debunked’

Cartoon Network Educates Kids on Racial Righteousness: It Must Not Be Colorblind

Ivy League School Provides Rock Climbing Classes for All Students, Except White Students

Federal Government Officializes: Racism is Colorblindness

A new essay can be added to the mountain of evidence. Antiracist Strategies author Ibram X Kendi.

The Critical Race Theory proponent has penned a piece for The Atlantic in which he recounts a worrisome familial episode. At his one-year-old daughter’s day care, she became attached to a doll with pale skin and blue eyes.

Between him and his partner, he was first to notice…

Sadiqa, who picked Imani up the next day, also noticed my daughter with the white doll. We laughed about it. We anticipated that Imani would play with a new doll or toy very soon.

But she didn’t. Her frown on day one turned into a sharp “No!” on day two, when Sadiqa tried to take the doll out of her hands, which turned into a car ride of whining on day three, and into an all-out tantrum on day four as she held on firmly to the doll, not wanting to go home.

Ibram saw a Code Red — “the alarm was ringing.”

On his daughter’s fifth day of attendance, he inspected the facility’s toy collection:

The large toys were all around the daycare. As I searched through the toys, there was not one doll that I could identify as Asian, Native, Latino or Middle Eastern. Each doll that I came across was white.

Anger overtook me. Not at the day care’s owner—at myself. Imani was here several weeks ago, but I never once looked at the toys.

Imani did not choose to play with the white doll over dolls of color, I realized; she hadn’t had another option. After all these years, how many children still don’t have another option in their toy chests, libraries, or schools? How does this tell the children what their caregivers believe is most important about white dolls?

He was responsible for the business.

Before leaving, we informed the owner of the white dolls. The owner made some changes.

It’s surely natural for a child to play with a doll the same color as she; after all, she’ll likely one day have a baby who’s a similar shade.

But Ibram wasn’t just worried about the endeavor’s naturalness. He was also concerned about the effects of smog.

Sadiqa, as well as me, were likely to be oversensitive about this whole thing. But we wondered if our Black child’s attachment to a white doll could mean she had already breathed in what the psychologist Beverly Daniel Tatum has called the “smog” of white superiority.

The author then refers to an 1897 study in which a child psychologist discovered that white dolls were preferred by children.

Perhaps things have improved a bit since the start of the twenty-first century. This would appear to be the case.

And then again, it is said that the entire world is predisposed to prejudice.

Nature Journal Rips America’s National Park Names for Honoring ‘White Supremacy’

Major University Slams White Supremacy of Library of Congress

Professor Khalilizes Writing Rules and Whacks White Supremacy with Gonging Grades

Major University Claims Its Own Mascot Of White Supremacy

Colorado University Hosts Teacher Training to Fight the ‘White Supremacy’ of ‘Productivity’

Law Professor Denounces the Constitution’s ‘White Supremacy,’ Calls for an ‘Antiracist’ Replacement

We’re living in an interesting time. Long ago, white supremacy was noted because men said, “We people are white supremacists.” These days, we know of white supremacy because Democrats say, “Those people are white supremacists.”

The impression seems to be that if the entire world were crawling with these people, there would likely be a decent number of them. But for now, we’ll have to hear it secondhand.

Regardless, Ibram’s in luck — and in more ways than one. Given that he’s credited with igniting the “antiracism” movement — which, per UCLA Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, is the “active dismantling of systems, privileges, and everyday practices that reinforce …white dominance” — his daughter’s surely set for a life smog-free.

Secondly, he’s no prisoner to the whims of day cares; from the New York Post:

[K]endi…is a prolific capitalist in his personal life. He charges $20,000 an hour for virtual presentations and has merchandised his entire line of ideas, releasing self-help products and even an “antiracist” baby book.

Maybe a nanny might be in your future.

Meanwhile, if you’re concerned about your kids’ dolls, too, Ibram’s got you covered:

It is a pleasure to share the latest essay. @TheAtlanticThis excerpt is taken from Chapter 4 of my new book How to Raise An Antiracist. The book will be out next Tuesday (June 14). This piece is about how toys can reflect racial attitudes *and* shape them. 1/6https://t.co/Sr305KiGre

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 7, 2022

-ALEX

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