ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 18, 1995 TAG: 9512180104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: CAROLENE LANGIE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thousands of parents are paying exorbitant prices for much sought-after Happy Holidays Barbies, even though the dolls are available for the asking in stores across the country.
The problem is that only the black version can be found easily. And psychologists say even black girls seem to prefer the white version of the leggy doll in her billowy green gown.
``Right now, we only have Afro-American Happy Holidays Barbie left,'' said Jennifer Picard, a saleswoman at F.A.O. Schwarz in Boston. ``We don't have any Caucasian ones left.''
So many shoppers want the sold-out white holiday Barbie that Mattel Inc. is offering vouchers redeemable in April. Offers for the white doll on the Internet are running up to $200. The retail price is in the mid-$30s.
Mattel Inc. refuses to give exact figures for the special-edition doll, but toy store managers say that after making too few of the black dolls in 1994, Barbie's manufacturer overcompensated this year.
The black dolls are drawing complaints from buyers, who say they are too generic or too ethnic.
``Don't try to paint a white doll brown. And as for the Afro-centric dolls, I don't think most kids want that. They want to be like the other kids with American toys,'' said psychologist Brenda Wade of San Francisco.
Several other psychologists cite studies done from the 1960s to today, in which black girls still associate white dolls with beauty, purity and goodness.
``Our children are inundated with white dolls, so why would they want to be black? So why would they want a black doll?'' asked New Jersey family psychologist Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant.
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Jacki Taylor shops for a black doll for herby CNB5-year-old daughter in Torrance, Calif. Black children tend to
prefer white dolls, to fit in with the majority, surveys show.