All Kids are the Same
According to the official Cabbage Patch Kids website: http://www.cabbagepatchkids.com/, Cabbage Patch Kids were invented in 1976 by a young man named Xavier Roberts. Legend has it he was walking through a magical cabbage patch when he saw bunnybees sprinkling the cabbage. Out popped “all sorts of different babies and kids each with their own special look.� He then started the Babyland General Hospital where people could “adopt� a little baby complete with their own adoption papers. In 1983, the Coleco Toy Company began mass producing the dolls and received their new title the “Cabbage patch Kid.�
I can remember growing up and adopting around 10 of these dolls myself, they were my favorite. I had white dolls and Hispanic dolls but never really put much thought into the difference between them.
I decided to look at the availability in the market of the Cabbage Patch Kids. Naturally I looked on the Cabbage Patch Kids official website first. There, I found an official brochure that had an array of different ethnicities ranging from Hispanic to African American to White to Asian each individually labeled. They also had a skin tone selection chart with the options of; cream, latte, mocha, and espresso.
Next, I looked at the Toys R Us website. There, I found a list of twenty dolls on sale ranging from every ethnicity to both sexes. Not listed in any particular order and all priced the same. Finally, I searched Wal-Mart’s website and found the same results.
In conclusion, I see the Cabbage patch dolls as a very realistic display of ethnicities. Each doll on the ethicality spectrum had a couple of different “traits� including; different hair and eye colors for each. Therefore, children can not only learn about other races by playing with Cabbage Patch Kids but also interact and participate with them from a young age. This, in my opinion, will help educate children and in addition neutralize them from judging people by color.