Angela Williams, a Black writer in her 40s, remembers getting her first Black Barbie doll like it was yesterday.
However, when she arrived, she didn't disappoint. In 1980, the first Black doll named Barbie made her debut wearing a fabulous red jumpsuit with a wrap-and-snap disco skirt. Her striking attire was created by Kitty Black Perkins, a Black fashion designer who eventually became Mattel's Chief Designer of Fashions and Coll Concepts and was credited for creating more than 100 designs.
“During that time,” she continues, “there were justice boycotts and civil unrest from the African American community.” “I know it was not uncommon in that era for African Americans to be invisible,” she adds. “One of the reasons that girls and their mothers wanted the Black Barbie was to correct that invisibility.”
In the film, Issa Rae, a Black actor who is known for her entrepreneurial endeavors, plays President Barbie, a role that has yet to be occupied by a woman in the real world. “It just makes sense that Barbie should always be leading the way and showing us what’s next,” she adds.of another critically-acclaimed blockbuster, director Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer,” Elizabeth Wilson says she's hopeful that little girls of color will leave with something positive after seeing the film.
“I didn’t have a lot of that in my childhood. So I wanted to make certain that most of the dolls in our home reflected the world that she lives in and I wanted her to see that her dolls were just as beautiful as any white doll you can get,” Angela Williams says.
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