A University of Baltimore lecturer says he refuses to take his young daughter to see ‘Barbie’ because she “already receives enough unintentional whiteness” in her life.
Dwight Watkins, who is also the editor of Salon.com, wrote an article explaining how his three-year-old daughter was hyped to watched the movie. But when Watkins sat down to watch the official trailer on his laptop, he said he felt “overwhelmed with whiteness.”
Watkins worried about exposing his daughter to “how movies and commercials in America act like white people have a monopoly on beauty.” He wrote:
“Barbie, which does have a few nonwhite cast members, including Issa Rae, America Ferrera, and Ncuti Gatwa, has one of the whitest trailers I ever saw in my life. And no, I’m not that guy; I genuinely believe that artists and filmmakers can create whatever they want, but I must be cautious of what I expose my daughter to.”
He then suggests that the reader “Google’ ‘attractive woman’ and watch the page fill up with white faces.” Well OK then, let’s give that a shot:
Seems like a pretty mixed bag to me? Anyway, Watkins continues:
“This doesn’t exempt me from religiously teaching her that Black is beautiful, even though Hollywood is only willing to show it in small doses. But avoiding films like ‘Barbie’ is a part of that teaching.”
Can’t help but feel bad for his poor daughter who just wants to go and see a movie that most of her friends will probably be allowed to go and see and she’ll have to sit there and explain that she’s not allowed to because her dad thinks Barbie is “too white.” This young child obviously doesn’t care about skin colour, which you’d think is an ideal mentality for any three-year-old to have. Does he want to keep her at home and stick on Boyz N The Hood instead?
Besides, the argument that white people have a monopoly on what is considered attractive isn’t even true IMO. How about Beyoncé, Rihanna, Halle Berry, Denzel, Idris Elba, Will Smith, etc? The media/culture has always considered and presented these celebrities as attractive (not that we can’t see it for ourselves). So what’s the big deal? Get over it, Dwight Watkins!
For the Scottish man fined £500 for rapping along to the N-word in Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Protect Ya Neck’, click HERE. Harsh.
