Cosco pulls racially offensive doll

Parent Cafe
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<p>Hard to believe this could have happened. Does Cosco’s management not have any African Americans or people who even have African American friends?</p>

<p>"In August 2009, a Costco in North Carolina placed a shipment of “Cuddle With Me” dolls on its shelves without taking into account the perception one of the toys was likely to engender in the buying public. </p>

<p>An African-American version of one of the “Cuddle With Me” dolls sported a cap announcing “Lil’ Monkey” and held in its arms a monkey.</p>

<p>Though also a term oft applied to particularly lively children of all ethnicities, “monkey” is also employed by racists to denigrate African Americans, and thus has become a label best avoided …"
[snopes.com:</a> Cuddle With Me Doll](<a href=“http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/cuddlewithme.asp]snopes.com:”>Cuddle With Me Doll | Snopes.com)</p>

2

<p>What is the point of this post. You’ve pulled the pin and rolled the hand grenade into the room, without adding any substantive narrative of your own.</p>

3

<p>The Snopes article suggests that the same doll was made in multiple ethnic versions. You have to wonder how this occurred. I suppose the most innocent version is that the U.S. designers only saw a white prototype, and that the (most likely) Chinese factory made the multiple versions. I agree that it’s stupid, but not quite as stupid as I thought when I first read about this–I thought the white dolls were “Lil Panda” and the black dolls were “Lil Monkey”–whereas there were multiple versions of each.</p>

4

<p>I always called my kids “monkey” when they were little. One of my biggest fears has been that I would accidentally say it when talking to one of our black friends’ kids. Hasn’t happened, thank goodness, but something close has:</p>

<p>When I was in grad school, our best friends were Kenyan. Our son was two, and theirs was four or five. The Lion King had just come out, with the character Rafiki, a mandrill. We had told our son that rafiki means “friend” in Swahili, but his memory wasn’t so great at that age. Once when when our families were together, the two walked into the room together, and our son proudly announced, “Johnny is my rafiki!” We all nodded in agreement. Then I asked him, “And what does ‘rafiki’ mean?”</p>

<p>He answered, “Monkey!” We all died, my wife and I from embarrassment, and the other couple from laughter. We were just mortified, but they took it quite well.</p>

<p>By the way, whoever marketed that doll sure was a bonehead.</p>

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<p>KIds are called monkeys quite often- very descriptive- I don’t see the outrage.</p>

<p>I also don’t see outrage where I think outrage is more pertinent, as in offensive lyrics that demean women- I pay more attention when consumers are consistent.</p>

6

<p>Ah, yes, music…what sad things it says about us when our popular music is about abusing and killing one another. But don’t call a doll “monkey”.</p>

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<p>“KIds are called monkeys quite often- very descriptive- I don’t see the outrage.”</p>

<p>The outrage is because black people have been called “monkeys” by racists for a couple of centuries. </p>

<p>This is from a blog, so I can’t post the link here, but you can Google to read the whole article:</p>

<p>"Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture, but research presented in a new paper by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes.</p>

<p>In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the researchers.</p>

<p>Co-author Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford associate professor of psychology who is black, said she was shocked by the results, particularly since they involved subjects born after Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. “This was actually some of the most depressing work I have done,” she said. “This shook me up. You have suspicions when you do the work—intuitions—you have a hunch. But it was hard to prepare for how strong [the black-ape association] was—how we were able to pick it up every time.”</p>

<p>The paper, “Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization and Contemporary Consequences,” is the result of a series of six previously unpublished studies conducted by Eberhardt, Pennsylvania State University psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff (the lead author and a former student of Eberhardt’s) and Matthew C. Jackson and Melissa J. Williams, graduate students at Penn State and Berkeley, respectively. The paper is scheduled to appear Feb. 7 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association…</p>

<p>Scientific racism in the United States was graphically promoted in a mid-19th-century book by Josiah C. Nott and George Robins Gliddon titled Types of Mankind, which used misleading illustrations to suggest that “Negroes” ranked between “Greeks” and chimpanzees. “When we have a history like that in this country, I don’t know how much of that goes away completely, especially to the extent that we are still dealing with severe racial inequality, which fuels and maintains those associations in ways that people are unaware,” Eberhardt said."</p>

<p>Although such grotesque characterizations of African Americans have largely disappeared from mainstream U.S. society, Eberhardt noted that science education could be partly responsible for reinforcing the view that blacks are less evolved than whites. An iconic 1970 illustration, “March of Progress,” published in the Time-Life book Early Man, depicts evolution beginning with a chimpanzee and ending with a white man. “It’s a legacy of our past that the endpoint of evolution is a white man,” Eberhardt said. “I don’t think it’s intentional, but when people learn about human evolution, they walk away with a notion that people of African descent are closer to apes than people of European descent. When people think of a civilized person, a white man comes to mind.”</p>

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<p>There is a difference between not seeing and pretending not to see. </p>

<p>If you truly do not see, do one minute worth of research on the term monkey and racism in the United States.</p>

9

<p>“I also don’t see outrage where I think outrage is more pertinent, as in offensive lyrics that demean women- I pay more attention when consumers are consistent.”</p>

<p>There are plenty of consumers who don’t like offensive lyrics that demean women and who also don’t like things like the Cosco doll. There also have been plenty of black people including those like C. Dolores Tucker who have complained about the demeaning lyrics.</p>

<p>It’s silly to think that a person who’s complaining about a doll perceived as racist isn’t also complaining about other offensive things.</p>

<p>It’s also much easier to view an offensive doll than to hear offensive lyrics. Many people like me don’t listen to that type of music, but could easily see an offensive doll while simply walking through a store.</p>

10

<p>I have heard the term- however- they pulled the doll- but apparently that isn’t enough.
But since the manufacturer offered dolls of various ethnicities that came with a toy monkey,- would it not cause just as much outrage if the brown doll did * not* come with a monkey if the other dolls did?</p>

11

<p>“When people think of a civilized person, a white man comes to mind.”</p>

<p>As a white woman, I am offended. Why is a white man a “civilized person” and not a white woman?</p>

<p>I am offended by the term “white”, when applied to people of diverse heritage by people who self-identify as “non-white”.</p>

<p>I am offended by anyone thinking a white baby should wear a hat identifying him/her as a “panda”.</p>

<p>I am offended by the list “Caucasian, Hispanic, and African-American” (from the article). What is a “Caucasian”? I am not from the Caucasus:
[caucasus</a> region - Google Maps](<a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps)
…although nobody in my family has much of a sense of direction, we didn’t wander that far, even in our horn-hats (Swedish).</p>

<p>As a Swedish-American, I am offended by the terms “Caucasian”, referring to ALL peoples of European ancestry, “white”, and anyone better not put a hat on my doll calling it a “Panda”.</p>

<p>That’s it. I’m boycotting Costco. They have just gone too far.</p>

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<p>“I have heard the term- however- they pulled the doll- but apparently that isn’t enough.
But since the manufacturer offered dolls of various ethnicities that came with a toy monkey,- would it not cause just as much outrage if the brown doll did not come with a monkey if the other dolls did?”</p>

<p>I doubt that there are many people who’d want to buy black dolls that have headbands calling them “monkeys”. </p>

<p>I can understand the appealingness of having a doll come with a stuffed animal. I don’t understand the headband suggesting that the doll is an animal.</p>

<p>Both of my sons loved stuffed animals -particularly monkeys, but they never expressed a desire to have clothing suggesting they were monkeys or any other animal for that matter…</p>

<p>Older S even sent his brother a small stuffed monkey for his 21st birthday.</p>

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<p>“That’s it. I’m boycotting Costco. They have just gone too far.”</p>

<p>To clarify, because they put it on the shelf, or because they pulled it?</p>

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<p>*I doubt that there are many people who’d want to buy black dolls that have headbands calling them “monkeys”. *</p>

<p>THen that seems a perfect example of learning by logical consequences.</p>

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<p>The Snopes story only indicates that the problematic doll made it to store shelves in one Costco store, and was pulled from all others when somebody complained. Costco has also apologized. Doesn’t it make a difference that there was apparently a white doll with the exact same monkey, at least in terms of what the intention was?</p>

16

<p>This is what happens when design and production get outsourced… However, the idiot buyer who brought this product to Costco should have known better!</p>

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<p>" Doesn’t it make a difference that there was apparently a white doll with the exact same monkey, at least in terms of what the intention was?"</p>

<p>Sure, it makes a difference. They weren’t trying to be offensive.</p>

<p>However, I do wonder about the racial composition of Costco’s management because I don’t think the black doll with the headband saying “monkey” would have slipped by most African Americans. </p>

<p>Anybody beside me remember the 1993 flap over AT&T’s producing a map showing international calls? On all continents except Africa, the callers were represented by humans. The caller in Africa was represented by a monkey.</p>

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<p>It would be interesting to know how a product like this is approved by Costco management. How many people actually see it? I suspect that if they are smart, they will be looking at their procedures after this.</p>

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<p>One of my former neighbors was a head buyer for Costco. He frequently travelled to China and other places to select products and negotiated purchases. Very often he’d bring back “samples” which his kids were playing with. His garage was stuffed with boxes and boxes of such “samples”. I doubt he’d buy the monkey dolls, though.</p>

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<p>Having spent a few years in the consumer products industry, I can vouch for this. Buyers’ eyes light up at the prospect of getting cheap goods; they often overlook the details. I’m willing to bet that the Costco doll was not only made but also designed in China, with only a cursory look-over by the importer before they started production and shipped directly to stores.</p>

<p>Some people think it’s silly that Wal-Mart refuses to carry books and magazines with provocative photos on the cover or CDs with offensive lyrics, but at least that shows that someone’s paying attention.</p>