Last Friday night, I somehow found myself listening to this. I know it was meant to be entertaining. It is a performance after all. A 15-minute monologue by a New York actress who worked a season at F.A.O. Schwartz selling dolls—rather working in a “nursery” and helping girls under 8 “adopt” a baby. She gives an account of how the white dolls sold out and all that remained were babies with darker skin–Asian, Hispanic, and Black–and one “special needs” white baby–all dolls that well-off white mothers were shocked by.
Take 15 minutes and listen to it.
I was shocked when I did.
And embarrassed.
Embarrassed by my peers who I wish I could smack a bit, to be honest.
But, I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised.
We’ve only had about 47 years of legalized equality vs. 473 years of legalized slavery or legalized discrimination.
Shocking when you think of it that way, isn’t it?
And, apparently, it takes a long time to undo what has been learned. Thoughts. Feelings. Behaviors.
And, honestly, I wonder if it will ever be undone when just a couple weeks ago, someone looked at my daughter and asked me with genuine concern, “What is it?”
Don’t get me started about the treatment of the one baby with physical differences talked about in this monologue…
1492 – Columbus
1619 – 1st slaves to America
1787 – Legalized slavery & discrimination (3/5 person status)
1865 – End of legal slavery (Emancipation Procamation/13th Amendment)
1882 – Chinese denied citizenship
1896 – Separate but Equal made law (Plessy vs. Ferguson)
1954 – Separate but Equal laws overturned (Brown vs. Board of Education)
1965 – Civil Rights Act