Woman spots newborn baby dolls at Target, then notices the stark contrast between the white dolls and those of color: ‘I got a bone to pick’
Someone should have probably screened the items
Few things are as unsettling as hyper-realistic newborn dolls, yet the doll industry seems determined to make people confront that discomfort. Brooke (b.aarabi) simply wanted to buy a “colored” doll for her daughter from Target, as she mentioned in her TikTok video’s caption, but was left confused by their appearances.
While standing in an aisle at Target, Brooke said, “I got a bone to pick with Target selling these FAO Schwarz newborn baby dolls.” Then she zoomed in on a doll with white skin and described its appearance. She said, “You wanna tell me why this white baby is all, ooh, porcelain skin. So cute.” She then zoomed in on a dark-skinned baby doll and highlighted several appearance-related differences between the two, with the dark-skinned one looking grumpier. “What? You’re joking. You’re actually joking me,” Brooke said before focusing on another dark-colored doll. “Okay, here’s one. No wrinkles, but it does have coming out of its nose and mouth.”
She then showed two dolls placed side by side, one light-colored and the other with a dark skin tone. Highlighting the white-skinned baby’s appearance, Brooke said, “She’s just chilling. Happy baby.” She turned the camera to the dark-skinned doll and said, “She’s got a runny nose. She’s pissed. Look at that.” She then turned to another dark-skinned doll on the shelf and noted that she was “pissed” too.
“We was supposed to be boycotting Target”
While Brooke may have intended to highlight the racial undertones by comparing how the white-skinned dolls looked with the dark-skinned ones, some people in the comments focused on other things. A few people asked Brooke why she was in Target in the first place, referring to ongoing conversations about it being problematic, leading several people to boycott it.
One person wrote, “We was supposed to be boycotting Target. You wouldn’t have seen em if you wasn’t up in there.” Another said, “Why are we still shopping at target?? We’ve already seen a lot of other stuff that proves they don’t care for colored people or the protection of children.”
A few others, on the other hand, agreed with Brooke’s point and shared their views. One person said, “Target is trolling black people and people of color.” Another wrote, “That’s actually a problem. I have boys so I’ve never noticed this. I’d be mad.”
One commenter, however, offered a different perspective. They said they had visited Target, seen the dolls, and noticed that both the white-skinned and dark-skinned dolls came in different variations. Both types included dolls with grumpy faces and snot, as well as dolls without them. They also noted that the Target store Brooke visited might have been out of the “normal”-looking colored dolls.
While sharing a side-by-side picture of a light-skinned doll and a dark-skinned doll with the same appearance, the person wrote, “I totally understand the outrage on the surface. I will not deny that companies and their microaggressions are awful – but they make the snotty nose in both a white and a black baby – both with “cute” faces, and both with “angry” faces. They may have just been out of stock at your store. (Don’t make me defend Target…).
Whether Brooke’s outrage was valid is for people to decide. However, as some commenters noted, Target has developed a poor reputation following recent incidents that might be considered racist. Given those circumstances, even if the situation was not intended to be discriminatory, it is understandable that Brooke would view the dolls as racist.
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