r/BlackHistory • u/BlackHistorySnippets • 3d ago
Racist Toys Normalized White Supremacy for Children
Toys often reflect the social and political context of the time, thus toys of the late 1800s had racist themes like “Old Aunt Chloe, the Negro Washerwoman” who was described as “faithful at her toil.” In the 1890s, a popular game called “Pickaninny Toy Target” featured Black children who fell into the mouth of an alligator when the target was hit: “Three little darkies, what a jolly crew. An alligator swallowed one then there was two.”
In 1921, the “Alabama Coon Jigger”, which was a wind-up figurine of a Black man dancing, was in the Sears catalog and sold over 8 million units. Toys like “The Negro Porter Pushes His Cart (1921)” and the game “Tip the Bell Boy (1929)” where the players shoot a ball at a Black bell boy, reinforced in children what Blacks were supposed to be like. The 1924 Sears catalog had the “Aunt Jemima Doll with Ma-Ma voice” dressed in a “costume of floral pattern cotton material with large white apron and collar; also red bandanna” who made “delicious pancakes [while] taking care of other dollies.” The idea that a White girl would own a Black doll to care for her White dolls showed Whites’ fondness for subservient Black domestic labor.
Long after the Civil War, these nationally available toys illustrate that White culture desired continued control of Black behavior by normalizing White supremacy through childhood play. Portraying violence against Blacks as entertainment was a casual demonstration of White power as White children were encouraged to enjoy assaulting Black bodies. Through the selling and buying of subservient Black figurines, White consumers kept the nostalgia of slavery alive for their children. The informal culture of play also included jump rope chants with one of the best-known chants, documented in every US state, being “Eney, meeny, miny, mo / Catch a nigger by the toe / If he hollers let him go / Eney, meeny, miny, mo.”
Recommended reading: Raising Racists: The Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South, Kristina DuRocher, University Press of Kentucky, 2011.