June 19

It is Juneteenth and, for the June Swoon today, I am watching a documentary that debuted on June 19th last year on Netflix. It had been at SXSW film festival in 2023. Lagueria Davis is the writer/director of Black Barbie: A Documentary.

The documentary looked at the creation of and the history of the black doll and how the process of Black Barbie came to be.

According to IMDB, “Love her or hate her, almost everyone has a Barbie story. Even if they don’t have a story, there’s a story as to why they don’t have a story. In this film, we tell the story behind the first Black Barbie, because yes, she has a story too. It started with the filmmaker’s 83-year old aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell and a seemingly simple question, ‘Why not make a Barbie that looks like me?‘”

Where as it seems like a trivial concept, the importance of black dolls, specifically Barbie, have upon the self-image and self-esteem of young black girls. Some of the most powerful comments of the film indicate how the young black girls would see themselves as ugly because of the color of their skin.

It is one more example of how important it is for play for children. How important it is for the people in the doc to have a doll that resembled them, and not just Barbie with brown skin.