From November 3rd to November 16th, the Black Harvest International Film Festival has been taking place in Chicago. The festival is “Chicago’s annual showcase for films that celebrate, explore, and share the Black, African American, and African Diaspora experience”. As part of the festival, I attended a screening of Black Barbie: A Documentary alongside a virtual Q&A with the director, Lagueria Davis.
The documentary is an in-depth look at the history of the Black Barbie and other Black fashion dolls at Mattel. Davis has the unique perspective of being related to Beulah Mae Mitchell, the first Black women in the Mattel corporate offices. Mitchell went from working in the factories to the corporate offices and paved the way for future Black women to get design jobs and be respected within Mattel.
From there we get introduced to Kitty Perkins, the first Black designer and creator of the original Black Barbie. This woman was the inspiration and motivating force behind Black Barbie ever being created; were she not there, Barbie and Mattel would look completely different today. She also paved the way for future Black women.
It was heart wrenching to hear from so many different Black women from different generations talking about their own experiences with Barbie and seeing themselves represented in their dolls. It’s a painful reminder of how people of color, especially Black women, are hurt by our current patriarchal systems.
What the documentary did so well, however, was not just end with the integration of more ethnically diverse Barbies to their line. Lagueria Davis went a step further, discussing the state of Black Barbie in the present day. Unlike the legacy left by Kitty Perkins, the current Barbie team is nearly entirely white. In fact, a white man designed the 40th anniversary doll. Young Black kids still don’t see Black Barbie as the “real” Barbie because of the way Malibu Barbie is centered in the TV series and Youtube vlogs.
The history of Black Barbie is layered and ongoing. What started with Beulah Mae Mitchell is continuing onward today, and Lagueria Davis did a remarkable job of chronicling the history, present day, and roadmap for the future.
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