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By Root 712 0

includes Shani, the lead doll, who has a medium-brown complexion; Asha, who is very light; and Nichelle, who is very dark. In The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans, authors Midge Wilson, Kathy Russell, and Ronald Hall argue that skin color plays a part in the formation of social hierarchies within the African-American community. One of the many studies that the authors cite—mounted, in this case, by Wilson and two of her students at Chicago's DePaul University—shows how the self-image of black women is sometimes negatively affected by the darkness of their skin. In this study, eighty participants— black and white, male and female—were asked to examine photographs of twelve African-American women and describe them. "Regardless of the individual woman's attractiveness," Wilson, Russell, and Hall write, "the study participants nearly always rated the dark-skinned women as less successful, less happy in love, less popular, less physically attractive, less physically and emotionally healthy, and less intelligent than their light-skinned counterparts." They were, however, believed to have a good sense of humor—attributable to what the authors called "the Whoopi Goldberg effect."

Rather than deny the existence of color bias, Powell Hopson has found that by using dolls with different skin tones in play therapy, she can help undermine negative stereotypes—or at least determine how they took shape within a specific child's family. "A child might have the lighter-complexion doll—Asha—taking control or being the leader," Powell Hopson told me. "I'd see that and try to explore that with her. . . . And then I might see how that dynamic is reflected in her home environment—whether it's the lightest child feeling ostracized or more valued than her siblings because she's lighter in complexion."

Nor do all families give preference to lightness. "My grandmother, who was very light, used to say, 'You see this color? I'm not proud of this; this means my mother was raped by the white man,' " said Olmec founder Yla Eason.

Powell Hopson wanted at least one of the Shani series to have short hair— to reflect the way African-American women actually look. But because of little girls' fascination with "hairplay," the dolls have lengthy locks. Nor was Powell Hopson pleased that her guidelines for "Positive Play"—activities aimed at mothers to steer children toward greater self-esteem—were not packaged with the dolls. But otherwise, she was proud of the product and its launch.

"If you didn't know better, you'd think the Powell Hopsons designed it— to Mattel's credit," Yla Eason said. "If I were coming out into the ethnic market, I'd want to put a black face on my look, to say: 'I'm not exploiting you.' You never saw Jill Barad's face when they were talking about Shani; you only saw the Powell Hopsons." She added: "But all they really said was, 'Black dolls are good; they help black self-esteem. We've got a book and Mattel's got a black product.' "

Surprisingly, Mattel did not showcase designer Kitty Black Perkins, who, between her sincerity and up-from-Jim-Crow life story, is very hard not to admire. It has since rectified this by featuring her on a 1994 infomercial that highlights the work of individual Mattel designers. Black Perkins has come a long way from Spartanburg, South Carolina, where, during her childhood, segregation loomed. There were "a lot of things that when I look at now I cringe," she told me. "To this day, I don't think my mother will ever go to a restaurant in South Carolina because she had been discriminated against all this time."

Black Perkins took refuge from the unpleasantness in art class, where her talent, even then, stood out. "I must have been ten or eleven years old, and I always knew that I was going to do something with my hands, and something creative." Today Black Perkins has a cosmopolitan lifestyle; she jetted to Milan to work on the series of Benetton Barbies—multiracial dolls clothed not in Benetton miniatures but garments that evoked the company's "United Colors" feeling. "I