True Story

This is Nora Marcella. When I was growing up, Cabbage Patch Kids where the toy for Christmas. I wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid just like every girl my age. However, I wanted a black Cabbage Patch Kid. Since that was my only request, I think my whole family was on a mission to get the CPK, My godmother came through, and I remember cherishing little Nora Marcella from the moment I got her.

Like you see young girls today toting around American Girl dolls, you would see young girls toting around their CPK back in the early 1980s. One vivid memory I have was shopping with my mom after Christmas, at Metro North Mall. I had Nora Marcella with us just as if she could appreciate the experience like any other little girl. A another little girl, who appeared to be having the same experience with her mother and CPK were also in the same pattern of shopping as we were. We kept seeing each other in the shoe department, then the accessories, and so on. The next time I saw the little girl, she astounded me by walking over to me and smacked my doll on it's head and told me that Nora was ugly. I couldn't believe it, I thought she was going to say "Hello, my name is.... ". I did not expect Nora Marcella to be assaulted! I don't think I made a connection as to what my doll ugly and hers pretty until I was introduced to this video at a National Staff Development Conference a few years back. A school had used this to start the conversation about the perceptions of our own biases. I couldn't help but to wonder if the perception of "black" is what made my doll ugly.