InsaneJournal

In Which Dolls Play With People
This is about this journal comic:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/carapace/anecdata/series.php

which may require a bit of explanation.

I make dolls, of various sorts. For a particular craft fair, I made sock dolls. Sock dolls, are, naturally, white, or other-sock-colored, but the cheapest socks to use are white.

And sock white is a boring color, and doesn't look good with any fabric I had for clothing, and also white is boring. And I was painting on the faces anyway. So I painted the rest of them, too. It looked pretty cool.

For the record, the colors I painted them were gold, copper, garnet brown, and sand. I've got another batch that're going to be in greens and blues. I will probably not do red, because red overwhelms other colors.

Anyway. Those were the colors I went with. Glittery, and on the brown/neutral side of things.

And while I was away, my Lovely Assistant had the conversation related in the comic.

The whole thing just boggles me, because: (a) how are non-white dolls racist? Are white people so insecure that seeing any other color on a doll frightens and confuses them, and I must be sensitive to that? Is it racist to acknowledge that other skin tones exist? Was it the metallic-colored paint combined with the stylized facial features (though, really, these are *sock dolls*. They have no fingers, thumbs, or ears. A person might expect they'll be a bit a cartoony.)? I don't get it...

Especially because, (b), how does my not being white make it all ok? Because non-whites can't be racist? Because non-whites are *allowed* to be racist? I...I'm so confused.

Also, (c) only a couple of white people had any such comment to make. The dolls were a big hit with the black and hispanic kids in town, and I am so making more, so I can sell them cheaper. I like seeing happy kids.

Accolades to any who can explain this weirdness for me.

Also! Anyone who can teach me to hyperlink, or point me towards a decent tutorial for such? Please do so in the comments. I think I'm the only person on the internet still linking with the actual URL.


*No, I'm not white. I'm what used to be known as a creole, before that came to be associated entirely with Louisiana, and is now commonly known as Heinz 57, or mongrel. Practically, it means I can spend a day in the sun without worrying over either sunblock or sunburn, and yet get seated at a Denny's without having to make a federal case.