Love and Hip-Hop star Bambi is defending herself today after fans took issue with the color baby doll she chose to let her daughter play with. The ever outspoken reality fixture took to her IG to let people know she does not care for their opinions especially when it comes to a child’s toy. However, many feel she is missing the point of the outrage and have been in the comments attempting to give her a history lesson.
Bambi shares a beautiful daughter, Xylo Richardson, with rapper Lil Scrappy. Xylo is around a year old and already has an Instagram boasting almost 90k followers. In the latest post from baby Xylo’s page, you can see the happy little girl adorably shuffling through the house with her big blue hair bow, pink purse and baby doll in hand. While many found the video cute, some quickly pointed out that Xylo is carrying a white baby doll.
Bambi was not here for the negativity and took to her own page to dismiss those trying to find something negative in the image. “Why are so many adults concerned about what color a doll baby is? Weird asf…” she said in her post. She followed this up with the caption, “My babies have black, brown, white and every doll in between. Who tf cares??? Adults are weird asf. Y’all so woke you can’t even let kids be kids. I promise they’re not worried about the color.”
Actress Amanda Seales responded to her “Because representation matters,” promoting over 100 responses from Bambi’s followers. Over on The Shade Room, some followers tried to educate Bambi on the history of baby dolls, their color and its impact on children. One person responded, “brown vs. board doll test.” Anyone familiar with the Brown vs. Board of Education doll test will understand the powerful implications of what color baby doll a young child decides to play with. In the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark developed a series of experiments using baby dolls to study the psychological effects of segregation in the school system. The goal was to identify children’s racial preferences and perceptions.
When presented with virtually identical dolls that only differed in skin tone, kids chose the white dolls. When asked why, the black children would explain that they thought the white doll was better, prettier or more desired. All of this is based on their perception of whiteness. Now some 80 years later, social media serves as its own litmus test for what appearance is the most desirable. Women like Bambi get the most flack; black women who have done extensive surgeries to appear more fair skin or European.
Bambi makes it clear this is not her worry and believes she should be able to buy her kid whatever doll she wants. “Y’all should mind your business,” said one supporter. “It’s about representation. But your kids, your preference.” said another. Should she be more cautious of what kind of representation she allows her kid to interact with?
