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A Florence, Kentucky mother is making headlines after exposing a significant pricing difference at Walmart between Black and white versions of the same doll set.
Asheria Brown explained that she became aware of the pricing inequality after searching online for a Black version of a Kid Connection doll set that her oldest daughter saw a white version of while shopping in-store at Walmart.
“She picked out the white one, with all white little babies in the store,” Brown told WCPO. “So I went home and went to Walmart.com and found one set in white and one in Black.”
“They were 14 dollars and 97 cents more expensive than the white babies I saw in the store,” Brown detailed.
Explaining how there was no reason for the two sets to have different pricing since they offered the same amount of dolls, Brown noted, “There are seven Black babies and there are seven white babies,” adding, “But one set is $39.97; the other is $25.”
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A spokeswoman for Walmart responded with a comment on the pricing inequality by partially telling WCPO:
“We lowered the price on a select group of toys, including only one of these dolls, to help drive sales. Unfortunately, we overlooked the impact these changes would have on similar items. This was an unintentional error and we sincerely apologize to anyone it may have offended.”
According to Dr. Sabrina Thomas, a Duke University professor and doll historian, Black dolls are often priced higher than white dolls due to inequalities often found in doll production.
“The problem, I believe,” Thomas said, “when we look at these discrepancies in pricing is that toy manufacturers do not produce Black dolls in proportion to the number of people in the human population.”
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Additionally, the doll historian also noted that Black dolls are less common than their white counterparts and often hand-crafted, adding to their higher price tags.
Brown shared that getting her daughter a doll set that reflected their African-American background was important to her as a mother, and feels families shouldn’t have to file complainants so “they can show their kids that they can have a baby that looks like them without paying an extra $15 to do that.”
Great point.
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