Black Lives Matter + Tips for Spotting Bigots

I am pleased to see that the online doll communities where I hang out overwhelmingly agree that Black Lives Matter, and that we need to stay politically and socially engaged to protect them.

When this topic began trending on social media, a few reborn artists outed themselves as unapologetically racist. Sculptors Bonnie Sieben and Jorja Pigott made racist comments on Facebook and doubled down on their assertions when challenged. Bonnie Sieben also promoted conspiracy theories and unsafe practices regarding the current pandemic. Sieben’s and Pigott’s racism is particularly egregious because both sculptors profit off images of Black babies. A reborn artist whose specialty is painting dolls of color, Anna Sheva, was conspicuously silent during the ongoing conversations about race and racism. Thankfully, a lot of reborn doll collectors denounced the blatantly racist sculptors. I saw less conversation about sculptors and artists who stayed silent. A couple reborn artists told me privately that they would no longer paint kits by Sieben. I’m glad that my friends and favorite artists were as disgusted by the blatant racism as I was, but the overall community response was underwhelming.

Another issue that was discussed—although not enough—is colorism in the reborn hobby. It’s a rampant problem: artists paint “biracial” or “ethnic” babies in shades of light brown and give them blue or green eyes. “Albino” Black babies are almost more common than Black babies with brown skin tones. Darker skin tones and brown eyes (including on white babies) are vanishingly rare. The aforementioned Anna Sheva specializes in light brown babies with light eyes. When I mentioned this in a comment, I got an angry response from a prominent collector, who apparently believes that one or two brown-eyed babies over the course of an entire career excuse Anna Sheva from any accusation of wrongdoing. But the prejudice against darker features extends far beyond a single artist. Before I even owned my first reborn doll, I blocked an artist who said that dark brown eyes look like “demon eyes.” It’s unfortunately true that darker skin tones require more time and talent to paint, but there are artists whose beautiful work demonstrates that it’s possible and worthwhile (check out the gorgeous dark-toned dolls by my friend @hand_painted_babies for high-quality, affordable options, and make sure to check out amazing Black artists like @precious_paz as well!). Colorism continues to be a big problem, but artists can address it by giving babies brown eyes and learning to paint realistic darker skin tones; and collectors can address it by buying and loving dark baby dolls. And of course, we can all call it out when we see it and continue to remind the community that it’s not okay.

Over in the American Girl fandom, the racism is just as bad. On the bright side, it’s well-documented, and fairly easy to identify and block before it ends up all over your feed. I have a few tips for spotting racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic community members before they even start to mutter “all lives matter.” Look for these clues in bios: “wife,” “just a mom,” “patriot,” “Christian,” and Bible verses (not all Christians are bigots, but the ones who need you to know they’re Christian are telling you something specific about their flavor of Christianity). Look for these clues among photos: few or no dolls of color, big Fourth of July photoshoots, rainbow photos in June that are suspiciously devoid of Pride mentions, and the weirdness that is Flag Day photoshoots. Look for these clues in comments: “can’t we all just get along,” “let’s spread kindness,” and use of the word “drama.” And finally, beware private accounts with 1000+ followers. Small private accounts are people who value privacy; large private accounts are often people who used to be public until they said something bigoted and got publicly chastised. Bigots are easy to spot in the American Girl community, so there’s no excuse to tolerate them for even a second.

In both the reborn and the American Girl communities, I saw a few snobby comments from Europeans, to the effect that racism is an “American problem.” Of course, European countries are complicit in the same systems of anti-Black oppression that are present in the United States. The Canadians with whom I’m connected seemed pretty good about confronting anti-Black racism in Canada. They also acknowledged that we can’t talk about anti-Black racism in Canada without also talking about anti-Indigenous racism. Racism is certainly not just an “American problem,” and I’m only interested in being friends with doll collectors who understand that we all need to be actively anti-racist, no matter where we live.

In addition to spreading awareness about racism, lots of doll collectors were promoting Black-owned doll-related businesses, which was awesome! I was reminded of Herstory Doll, maker of 16” articulated Black dolls. Herstory Doll had been on my radar for a while but I recently learned that the artist and owner lives in my city. Canadians get excited about these kinds of things, probably because it’s so unlikely in a huge country with a relatively small population. That was the little push I needed to finally buy a Herstory Doll. There’s only one available at the moment, but she’s my favorite of the three prototypes. I named mine Giselle and I’m currently making her some clothes (I’m hopeful that she can wear AGAT size). Let me know your favorite Black-owned doll and doll accessory businesses in the comments!

Racism continues to be a problem even as social media trends move on. Let’s make sure we listen to and support Black doll hobbyists, and continue to do what it takes to end racist oppression in and beyond our hobby communities.