Racial Inequality, Aisle Five

I picked up a doll stroller for my Gram to give to Natalie for her birthday. It's the same one that her BFF has so Madam will be thrilled beyond words. Gram was fretting that it's not enough so I promised that I would find something else to put with it. Something small with the emphasis most emphatically on SMALL. I mean, a.) the woman is on a fixed income, b.) the child is going to get a ton of presents and c.) she already has pretty much everything a 3, I mean, FOUR year old girl could want. A doll to ride in the stroller seemed like a good idea so off to Target I went. (Any excuse to go to Target!)

Lots of choices in the doll aisle -- dolls that blink (cute), dolls that cry (no thanks, we have the live version of that), dolls that mess their diapers (oh HELL no) and then some plain ol' quiet dolls with no bells and whistles which is my speed, thank you very much. Natalicious will like it because Dolly comes with a Bjorn-like front carrier so we can be twins and bonus, the toy is on clearance so less cash needed from Gram.

I march the doll (and many, many other items -- have I mentioned that I love Target?) up to the register and watch the cashier ringing up my stuff. Wait, hold on, the doll is on clearance for $10.48 but rang up as $14.99. Not much of a difference but hey, better in my pocket than theirs, right? Turns out, the doll is on clearance but not the white version. The doll in my cart is full price while the one on the shelf that is identical in every way except skin tone and eye color is almost 5 dollars cheaper. Whaaaa???

I ask the girl if she is serious. She is. So is customer service. At this point, I'm totally annoyed. Should I be pissed for myself and my fellow fair skinned folk that we have to pay $5 more to get a doll that looks like our daughters or offended for my dark skinned neighbors whose toy counterparts are undervalued in comparison to their caucasian twins? I settled for being mad about both (why not, I'm on my period) and left without either the blue eyed doll I'd brought to the register or the brown eyed doll that I was too lazy to go get from the back of the store.

Am I crazy? Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill which I've been known to do a time or two. It just seems C-R-A-Z-Y that in this age of political correctness and broken color barriers at the highest level, dolls are priced differently based on skin tone. I'm in Wilmington, DE not Wilmington, NC for crying out loud! I guess it could be a supply and demand issue but it's hard to believe that soooo many more white dolls are being purchased when this particular Target is frequented by a pretty diverse population. I would think little black girls want dolls that look like them for their birthday just like little white girls do. I say that but Natalie actually would have no idea that it was a "black" doll and she wouldn't care about the doll's skin color differing from hers. It's the eyes that would earn the thumbs down. Her dolls have to have blue eyes. Not because she does but because Cinderella, the meter by which she measures beauty, does. Some ask, "What would Jesus do?" Not our Madam. She ponders, "What would Cinderella do?" or even more likely, "What would Cinderella WEAR?" Little girls, God love them.

Anyway, am I wrong here? Is Target using Jim Crow pricing, practicing affirmative action or setting prices based on some unknown factor? You be the judge.