Doctor Grandma

Dolls now pulled from the shelves at Costco after complaints they were racist, these dolls were called “CUDDLE ME BABY DOLL”.

The white doll was named “Pretty Panda” — the black doll was dubbed “LIL’ MONKEY”.

Teaching sociology, race class and gender, I can always count on some new story in the news to talk about in class. This summer there has been a multitude of stories. Two main ones that stand out are the arrest of Henry Louis Gates (see other stories in this blog about that) — and now, just before school begins, the “Lil’ Monkey” doll from Costco. Priceless for class discussion!! I usually show the black Barbie doll that came out and was taken off the shelves — the one titled “Miss Oreo”. She came with her own bag of oreo cookies.

What is astounding about these items for sale is the blatant disregard for our HISTORY of rampant racism in the US. Let’s say that the manufacturers were totally ignorant. Let’s just say, they had no racist intention. Then how could this marketing technique MISS the blatant historical link to racism in US history? How could that be missed altogether?

Can you imagine a meeting at the large, expensive, red wood table in the board room where these toys were introduced? Was there a black face in the crowd? And why would it have to be a black face? How can we as white people be so ignorant to not know the repercussions of these toys?? Does anyone care? Or was it a blatant racist attack to portray, once again, as was done for real in our past, that black people are closer to the animal, so it is okay to treat them like animals. So-called scientists of the 1800s did test after test to try to PROVE this “scientific” reality. The tests didn’t work. Does anyone know that at the World Fair in the late 1800s, real people were placed into exhibitions that portrayed them as “savage”, “barbaric” or “civilized”. When we entered or invaded the Phillippines, depending on your politics, the Phillippine people were literally drawn with African features in newspapers back in the old 48. African and Indian peoples were protrayed with animal-like features. It is a long, sad history and we need to be aware of it.

It doesn’t really matter if the individual people are RACIST. Good Lord, with the history of our country, how can we not have racist undertones to our business practices?? What matters is the CAPACITY, for board members to blatantly DISREGARD the implied meaning to the names GIVEN to these dolls, that differ by color. There is NO excuse! The same with the arrest of Dr. Gates, please do not waste my time worrying about whether or not an INDIVIDUAL police officer is racist or not. That is not the point, and we do not even care. The point is, there is no excuse for treating people of color one way, and white people another way, and we can NO LONGER AFFORD to ignore our own history. If Dr. Gates had been an older, white man walking with a cane, I do not believe he would have been treated the way he was treated, and pulled into the station in handcuffs. I just do not see that happening. He did not break any laws, he was just ticked off and yelling, and the officer refused to even state his name and badge number.

I continually, in class, bring up stories from American history, meaning black American history, that my students do not know. There is no excuse for that. If we are to be the “UNITED” States of America, then we must know and become familiar with the history of ALL its peoples. And that history is unique to each group, according to race and ethnicity. The Irish filled a certain spot in the American work world. They worked in industry and they worked on the railroad. Knowing your grandpa’s occupation gives you a hint or clue about his ethnicity. We KNOW this. It is easy to learn. There is no longer any LAME EXCUSE for not knowing our history, as a nation.

To Costco: Do you really think that your manufacturers would have made and sold these dolls with the names exchanged? I do not think so. The black doll would not have been “Pretty Panda” and the White doll “Little MONKEY”. That just wouldn’t happen. To create these dolls with different names for different colors was totally unnecessary and offensive. Do not make stupid excuses for yourselves. Have you ever heard of the psychological experiment where young  black children always choose the white doll, saying it is “better”? Look it up.

to the Barbie company: an “oreo” in the black community is known as someone who is black on the outside, WHITE on the inside. It is an insulting term. Though the term in itself is insulting, there is no excuse for making a black Barbie doll by that name, and you should have known it would BOMB.

Before we can come together, we need to recognize our different histories and experiences that we bring to the table of unity. It is unity in DIVERSITY. Diverse peoples uniting is the REAL strength. And we are not yet there in America, or in the world. We have no idea what unity in diversity looks like.

“The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. If you meet those of different race and colour from yourself, do not mistrust them and withdraw yourself into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness. Think of them as different coloured roses growing in the beautiful garden of humanity, and rejoice to be among them.”   (Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 53)

“Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest.”   (Baha’u’llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

and so we now have the 2 sides digging in their heels, as I predicted. Meanwhile, President Obama made some very intelligent and wise remarks on television about the incident of Dr. Henry Louis Gates being arrested in his own home. He alluded to research that shows a history of law enforcement committing racial profiling, which we know is true, but also said words on both sides were probably sa,id that were not necessary and results would have made more sense if “cooler heads” would have presided. He made the big mistake of refering to the arrest of Dr. Gates in terms of the police acting “stupidly”. With that comment, Pres. Obama committed a cardinal sin. The police involved do not think they acted stupidly in the least bit, and even if they do, they could never admit it, especially to the public!

Let me just state what happened. Police responded to a call from some neighborhood know-it-all who saw 2 black men on a porch in her neighborhood and suspected them as burglars who did not belong there. Police arrived to find Dr. Gates in the house, and did their thing, asking him to step outside. Rather than comply as citizens are expected to do when the guy with the gun tells them to do something, Dr. Gates indignantly refused. He had not done anything criminal. He was in his own home. Instead, he asked the officer for his name and badge #. Now the officer is pissed off and he refuses. The man before him is supposed to follow orders. His authority is in question. How dare a citizen ask him for his name and badge no. And it escalated from there. When Dr. Gates called him a racist, told him he had not heard the last of him, and followed him onto his front porch still in a tirade, the officer did what any police officer is allowed to do when confronted with an unruly citizen: put him in handcuffs and arrest him for “disorderly conduct”. The charges have now been DROPPED so they didn’t amount to anything. Their purpose was to bring the unruly professor into submission.

Now, Dr. Gates is “demanding” an apology. And the guy ain’t gonna give it no way. So here we sit.

It is not that white people are “racists”. It is that white people live and breathe a sense of privilege that they themselves are not even AWARE OF. And so they live in complete denial, while still benefitting from it every hour of every day. There are a million ways this plays out. They are never doubted for their intelligence, their morality, their ability to do a job, teach a class, buy a certain product, or even their athleticism, due to their skin color alone. They are never followed in a store, so how can that behavior still happen? They never see it. They are never turned down for a date due to their skin color alone — ever. These experiences do not exist in their daily reality.

Yet, they know in their heart, how their parents or aunts and uncles at the family reunion would react, if they married a person of color. Suddenly, color would be an issue. But never mind, we are all just individuals. We can live in that reality UNTIL something happens that smacks us in the face with another reality. Like thinking about attending a function where they might be the only white person there. Never happens. So color doesn’t exist. Until it does. Until a black man is elected President, or they contemplate being the “minority” in the year 2050 or whenever that is predicted to happen.

is the white cop a “racist”? That is not the right question. Was he affected by Gates calling him a racist? Absolutely. Would he have arrested an older white man in his own home? Probably not. Was the arrest of Dr. Gates unnecessary? I think evidence says yes, absolutely. Was D r. Gates out of line?  Any time words are shouted and not stated, bad things will come out of that interaction. Either side could have calmed the situation down. Neither side did. And today, demanding an apology? Not the right tactic. Insisting on a private consultation, for the purpose of promoting better relations? better one. Adamantly stating race had NOTHING to do with this situation? That is “acting stupidly”. Of course it did, it always does, especially when a dignified professor is calling you a racist. Next time, GIVE THE MAN YOUR NAME AND BADGE NUMBER! That is his right as a citizen to have that information and you know it. You both were out of control.

President Obama was nieve about his use of the word “stupidly”. He is learning the magnitude of denial. He is used to interacting on an academic level. My students have no understanding of racial profiling as a reality. The very topic offends them and brings a strong emotional reaction. But I thought his comments were fair and wise. He evidently did not understand Gates was arrested finally for disorderly conduct — not breaking and entering. He is learning.

Obama spoke tonight for his national health care plan. I did not even turn it on, and have not listened to the 10 million reviews of it which I’m sure have taken place by now. I wanted a peaceful evening.

My views on a nationalized health care plan are simple. Over 40 million Americans cannot afford, and do not have, health insurance. Now, that may not be that big of a deal if we were Canadians. Or Brits, or French. We could go to the emergency room at our local hospital there, and get patched up for free. We wouldn’t get funny looks or rolled eyes when we said we didn’t have an insurance card to show them before being admitted. We wouldn’t get patched up, sent home and then had the bill sent to a collection agency as soon as we couldn’t pay the few thousand dollars our visit cost. But this is America. And that is exactly what happens in America. People going to the emergency room in America did not go to their doctor for regular check ups for exactly the same reason. No health insurance. So they go to the emergency room when the condition becomes critical and they or their loved one is in pain.

Do I trust the President to put together a health care package for me? HECK YEAH. It can’t be any worse than doctors being able to turn patients away when they need prenatal care,  which happened to me when we were poor. People don’t believe these things. But they happen every day. Doctors in America get paid more money for their work than any doctors in the world. They do not as a general rule practice preventive care, let alone herbal or natural healing. I TRUST THE PRESIDENT TO GIVE ME A HEALTH CARE PACKAGE because so many Americans have NONE if we do not take this step!! What is so hard about that? I just don’t get all the uproar.

The uproar must be from people who stand to make LESS money if all this goes through. The medical profession and the drug companies. That’s all I can figure. So I am for it.

Try being poor in America for awhile. It’s no picnic. Most of Europe and every other Western-style nation has a nationalized health care plan, paid maternity leave for fathers and mothers, paid vacation time for part-timers as well as full-time workers, and subsidized daycare. Only the USA does not have those things. Our independent spirit sometimes makes no sense. Society has to take better care of its struggling multitudes. We do not excel at this task. Other nations do it better, and we stand to learn something from them in this case.

Yes, I was alive, and I was old enough to remember it. Today is the 40th anniversary of the 1st landing on the moon by John Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and the other guy we never can remember the name of — Collins, who circled the moon and picked them back up. They actually walked on July 20th. Where was I? I was a 15-yr-old teenager in Indiana, on vacation from our home in PA., visiting relatives. I was actually in Fort Wayne, Indiana that day, at the home of my aunt & uncle, & cousins. The entire family gathered around the tv set for days. We did not have CNN and 24-hour news in those days. But we did that week. July 1969. One reason it is fixed in my mind, was that it was my last vacation with my father. Just after my 16th birthday, he died at the end of the next month, at 50 years of age, of a heart attack, on the night of my mom’s birthday. And my life changed forever.

We all know “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Buzz Aldrin said, when he stepped out, “Beautiful! Beautiful! Magnificent desolation.”

It doesn’t mean that much to me, to have us plant an American flag on the moon. Or even walk on the moon. But I love watching the stars, thinking about the illimitable space. The pics from the hubble space telescope — now THAT is something.

“Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form, when within thee the universe is folded?” — Imam Ali. Quoted by Baha’u’llah in His book, The Seven Valleys.

When my kids were little, I put them into a summer camp that was predominantly African American. In my view, this accomplished 2 important things: 1) It was a high-quality, low-cost camp that gave my kids a happy summer experience with lots of sports activities, and 2) My white kids were able to interact and make close friendships with kids of non-white “races”.

What I did not expect was what happened at a local swimming pool and on field trips. At a local pool, the children in this camp were called racial names. Then my own children were asked, “Are you N’s too?” “What’s your name? Your last name is black? Then YOU are black! ha ha ha…” My kids were only having the experience that African American kids have every day in America.

On the way home from a field trip to Chicago, our bus pulled into a small town gas station to use the restroom and buy snacks. . We were on our way home from the Museum of Science and Industry. We were tired. The faces of workers in the gas station fell as about 50 mostly black and brown children loaded off of the bus. We were told the restroom facilities were broken. One of the black mothers on the trip actually decided to kick in the restroom door, which she accomplished, and found that the toilet facilities worked fine! It was an experience I will never forget.
–at that time in Indiana.