Is it bad that I used to make all the white Barbies the "bad guys" when I was little?

Question

I am Asian and when I was little I think I had maybe two "ethnic" barbies (a supposedly Asian one and a Hispanic one) and then lots of standard blonde Barbies (why adults gave me blonde Barbies for Christmas is beyond me). I used to play these sorta bad girls vs. good girls scenarios and I always felt the white Barbies should be the evil ones. At the end of each game, I would have the ethnic Barbie be the superhero and beat up the white one. I swear I didn't learn any of this from TV, it was all from my own little mind. Is this bad for a child to behave like this?

Answer 1

Many studies have been done on things like this and it's usually the other way around. It's just how a child learns either from television or from their parents. The study consisted of different dolls white and black, female and male. The children were asked questions like "Which doll will go to college?" younger kids usually picked the white doll and some picked both white and black doll because they were older and realized that everyone has opportunities. Another question was "which doll is bad?" children picked the black doll because thats what it seemed to be on television and probably from hearing it from their parents. They also asked things like "which doll stays home and takes care of the baby?" some children chose both female and male doll black or white and some chose just the female doll. It basically has to do with how one was raised or their age. Since you are asian, you might have grown up in an asian household and yes, while there might have been white adults around you, you probably saw them as bad because you were mainly around asians. I am african american and actually come from a wealthy family and i'm from a town that is about 90% white. I was always surrounded by white people so there were times when i was young where i would be afraid of black people and think that they were bad because i was never around them growing up unless we had family things where all of my aunts and uncles are fairly high up on socioeconomic classes as well. I've got cousins that are very young right now that think the exact same thing. So yes, it does come from age but it also comes from parents teaching and the surrounding enviroments.

Answer 2

No I think that's normal. Kids don't really think of it as racism or hating another race. Kids find something they relate to and they want that to be the winner or the best in the game because everyone likes to win. So if you're Asian it makes sense to me that you would want the Asian Barbie to win, or if it was a little white blonde girl she would want a blonde Barbie to be the winner, and so on for other races as well. Kids do all sorts of things that would be deemed inappropriate for adults but that is just normal for kids because they think differently than adults. As long as you are respectful towards the various races now you have nothing to worry about :)

Answer 3

Behaviorally, it would be assumed that you "learned" or have been "taught" to view white-skinned persons as bad. Psychodynamically, it would be viewed that something in your childhood happened to cause you to think those things. Perhaps your parents or family were victimized by someone white or something along those lines. You may not even remember it. The object of psychoanalysis is to help you remember what could have happened. Of course any therapy session would be able to get a lot more information out of you about this topic than we can here.

To me, it's obvious that something in your past/childhood happened to help or make you think negatively about white people/girls.

Or perhaps you were already keen to the fact that there is a racial issue and you felt inferior to white skinned blondes and turned aggressive toward your dolls of that type.

Whatever the case was, it does not make you a bad child or person. Not unless you have grown to be that aggressive towards real people of that complexion. Then we'd have criminal issues at hand. But it sounds to me that you possibly grew up in a predominantly Asian community where white people were viewed as enemies. And quite possibly it could have very well been the case that whites were the enemy during some situation(s) or circumstances.

But no, it does not make you a bad person. Children live what they learn.



Edit: to comment on Cassie's post - socioeconomic status plays a huge role in issues of race. Keeping with the statistics I wish Cassie would have mentioned what economic scale that study was done on. It is very interesting but it's important to include the social status in reports like those. Nice post Cassie! :)

Answer 4

No. I love the idea of your playing these superhero games with these dolls! Excellent. Its wonderful in so many respects. Good for you!



Seriously, I don't think it indicates much at all. If you were a Mum making these observations about your child's behaviour now, one might make some observations about balancing attitudes. But I really think you should remember these games with pleasure, not regret - you seem to have turned out okay.



(Unless you're about to line me up with the other white guys and beat me up!)



Your story genuinely brightened my day. Thank you.

Answer 5

It is the way one looks at it. A good and nice feeling of repentance and not liking to repeat such mistakes, is more than sufficient I think.

Answer 6

i agree with naguru. and are you sure it was totally from your own mind. because it might be because you grew in an environment (family or friends) who complained about white people or spoke about them in a negative way. it could be because of their influence that you did this.

Answer 7

Yeah that's pretty ****** up. You are racist as hell.