Eye on the Media – Before They Can Walk: Displacement of White Images in Baby Books and Toys

One good way to shove whites off the stage of the society they built is by displacing their image.  It’s noticeable everywhere:  advertising, television, magazines, billboards, movies and other media.  As a new parent, I’ve come to notice how this is happening even in a child’s world.  At the local Barnes & Noble the other day, I noticed a book, “I Am a Black Child,” which unapologetically told black children that it’s wonderful to be black, your ancestors are kings and queens, and so on.  Imagine “I Am a White Child.”

At a 2-year-old’s birthday party recently, one present was a toy fire truck featuring a sole firefighter figure:  a black male.  This is especially tweaking in light of the fact that firefighters even today are a predominately white group, so much so that lawsuits have been filed claiming that black would-be firefighters are discriminated against.


But the message is clear for the child:   the normal course is for blacks to be firefighters.  Like “Dora the Explorer,” the Hispanic child adventure character, it is pure propaganda, meant to affirm other groups and exclude whites.

Another bizarre gift was a book featuring animals on the cover and a single example of “baby”:  again, a black figure.  Message:  Babies are black.  Black is normal.  Accept black.  Accept it before you can even walk.

For whites in America, raising children is hard enough, but made harder still by the exclusion and denigration of the books, toys and other products that fill the shelves of the baby store.  Maybe it’s time for explicitly white-themed books and toys for white children.  How could non-white groups possibly complain, with books like “I Am a Black Child” around?

Christopher Donovan is the pen name of an attorney and former journalist.