The Problem With Saying 'Black Babies Cost Less to Adopt'
Every year, I teach writer Elna Baker's essay, "Babies Buying Babies" to my freshman composition classes as an introduction to narrative and critical thinking. We listen to her This American Life recording and I watch the students cringe, chuckle, and scoff as she recounts her former job at FAO Schwartz, where white Upper East Side moms refused to buy certain dolls because of their skin color. In the end, as non-black minority dolls gradually begin to be "adopted," Baker admits, "What were left were incubator upon incubator of black baby dolls."
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