cassie- your absolutely right great comment

how is that racist?? there were white dolls with the same hat and monkey?????

Glad they took the doll off. I found somthing at Costco that is even cheaper on line. Its a plant you can grow that moves like an animal. It is a TickleMe Plant and it closes its leaves and lowers its branches when tickled. My students rush to class to tickle their Pet Plants. Just search The TickleMe Plant to get your own little greenhouse to grow one

That is ridiculously untrue--AND offensive. People get offended when something is not true as well as when it is, if the intention (or damaging amount of ignorance, if the intention isn't there) behind the offending act belittles or invalidates them. It's the tendency of a portrayal to marginalize or dehumanize the type of person portrayed that is the issue here.

Whether or not the doll is offensive, the fact that what it portrays is true or untrue has NOTHING to do with why someone would be offended by it.

So, Cassie, does that mean you will be offended if I call you a d0uche?

No one has even mentioned the fact the picture attached looks like village of the damned lol If all of the dolls had the same shirt and hats then I think people are over reacting. People now a days are getting so thin skinned it's unreal... look what England is doing with their vocabulary, sad sad.

This is crap. Before long we will have to revert back to the generic dolls. Racism is bad. Should I start to sue Chris Rock because he says that there are some "Cracka's" in the audience tonight. Comedians will be next on the list. We will not be able to say or do anything in the future. People need to live there lives and not worry so much about what other people are doing. If someone wants to purchase the doll or not, just do so and stop bitchin' about every little thing.

You are right.....and the truth is that it {monkey} has been used as a slur and continues to be used.

i laugh because black people refer to themselves as monkeys and niggaz all the time. Black people by far are more racist than most white people yet white people bend over backwards because at a young age they are taught to feel guilt for something that most of them had no part in (Blame the corrupt school system and the liberal teachers). Black people on the other hand are raised to feed off of that guilt and use it to their advantage. White people need to realise that black people (not all) are using that against white people. but both black people and white people need to realise that there are more than 2 races in this world.
WHITE PEOPLE WAKE THE FVCK UP!

still don't believe me? youtube: "LOUIS FARRAKHAN: White Folks, You Owe Us The Whole Country!"
and then see what i'm talking about.....

The only truth is you are the monkey you racist ape.

8650c46f


I had no interest in watching the news at present....I found a hot place, you guys should try it
----- S e e k a M i l l i o n a i re . C om---It 's where you have the opportunity dreaming about dating a millionaire and make it true!

We should have left the negroes in the African jungles with all the other monkeys. It's our own fault for bringing them into our great country. We should have picked our own cotton.

I am black, and I wasn't offended by the doll when I first saw it months ago, because I don't see myself as inferior to people of any race, and obviously because there were also white dolls of the same variety. But just because something is offensive, doesn't mean it's true. Self-esteem and self-image may alter your perception of yourself, but you aren't always what you think you are, for better OR for worse. You might have an athletic, muscular build, but if you're offended when someone calls you fat, it doesn't mean that you are. And yet, that three letter word is somehow powerful enough to send scores of housewives, teenagers, and celebrities in paroxysms of despair.

I encourage you to check out photos of these dolls to get the full impact that the woman in this story got. It would have been more conducive to understanding had Geoff Williams posted actual photos of these dolls. Perhaps then everyone would understand that there is merit to the woman's complaint. At the very least, this company should have mixed the various stuffed animals with the different racial types represented by the babies; this may, in fact, be the case. (Since i have not seen examples of the other babies, i cannot say for sure one way or the other.)

When seen in the best light, there is (at the very least) an unconcious racial bias in the choice of the monkey and the words "lil monkey" for the little black baby doll and a panda and the words "pretty panda" for the white baby. Also, the words, "Monkey has her own bottle," is inflamatory for no other reason that its double entendre, especially given the banana-eating-monkey comments spewed about by certain unenlightened people.

Racial bias DOES exist in our country. And it is important for those who do not go to the extreme of racism to understand that. And through that understanding a certain amount of compassion can be found for those who suffer under its weight.

At the same time it is important to realize that people of all races have suffered the sting of racial prejudice. No ONE RACE has a monopoly on being the victim of racism. Hate comes in many colors.

Also, it is important to acknowledge those of other races that choose NOT to participate in racism. For it is not blacks that are racist and neither is it the whites that are racists. Racists are the ones who are racist.

And the solution in the end is to see all people as being worthy of our respect regardless of their color.

PAX

Unless someone actually thinks they are a monkey why should a doll offend them? What is stupid is that ALL the dolls regardless of color came with the monkey and hat. It seems that black people want to own everything, nooses, the word monkey, the animal monkey, the word negro, the word ghetto, the word slavery, etc. Many people have been slaves in this country, have been hung by a noose, and have lived in ghettos, and they weren't all black or male. The word "negro" isn't even an English word. It is a bunch of hooey.

Oddly enough, I think you missed the sarcasm there, Al. Anyhow, my generation didn't even know about that slur until the police officer used it.

What irks me is all of these people out there just waiting to get offended by something as stupid and as simple as a baby doll.

I'm sorry that some people's great-grandparents were ignorant and fearful enough to use slurs and try to restrict african-americans. I'm also NOT sorry that that time is over, and has been over.

I personally don't walk around and listen to make sure that every person that's different from me respects me and my culture. Not only is that exhausting, time consuming and silly, all you have to do is watch BET. You want racial slurs, comments and stereotypes? Seriously. Tune in. And until you do, don't whine about a cute, cuddly baby doll that comes in 'monkey' for all races.

You're both absolutely right and you don't have to go as far as BET to see the hypocrisy and reverse racism. Just click on AOL's own Black Voices! Hmmm...could you imagine if we had White Voices? The world would be up in arms or at least pretend to me as not to offend the people of color.