This Video Of 2 Girls Playing With Dolls Is Parenting Done Right

This mom posted a video of her daughters playing with dolls to show the importance of diversity.

A few weeks ago, an awful YouTube video made the rounds, in which a mom presented her white daughters with black American Girl dolls and then laughed as they cried and threw the dolls down in disgust. It was a shocking display of racism, but now a Wisconsin mom has posted her own awesome response to the video, and it’s going viral.

Katie Nachman is a mother of three who tells NBC15 she was disgusted by the original video. “I just thought it was really awful to see, even as a white woman, it bothered me so much,” she said. “I mean, I can’t imagine being a person of color and seeing a little girl throw a black baby doll on the floor in disgust.” She felt so strongly about what was depicted in the video that she posted her own video of her daughters happily playing with the black American Girl dolls they got for Christmas.

In the post, she explains the video that inspired her to take action and then says it’s a “great (racist) example of how NOT to parent your kids.” She then says she wanted to create a “replacement video” because her daughters got black American Girl dolls for Christmas, and their dolls have been “carried around non-stop, changed in and out of outfits constantly, and lovingly put to bed every night.”

She adds that her kids also have white dolls, Asian dolls, and Hispanic dolls because having diverse toys “demolishes the expectation that in order to love someone, care about someone, be a friend or play with someone, the other person has to look like you.” She finishes with:

“…white parents have an obligation to teach our kids about race from a young age, so they won’t grow up to perpetuate the cycles of institutional racism and injustice that are eating away at our country from the inside. Little things like this matter, because you are creating an environment in your home that is inclusive to everyone, and invites discussion.”

Since the video went up, it’s been watched over three million times, and almost 54,000 people have shared Nachman’s post. It’s not hard to see why. In the space of a few paragraphs, Nachman absolutely nails what was so deplorable about the original video and points out the very real responsibility we each have to teach our kids about race and racism. She also updated her post and added a link to a Change.org petition asking American Girl to choose a black doll as their 2017 Girl Of The Year.

Racism is still very much an issue, and if you doubt that, you need only to look at things like the original video to which Nachman was responding. It shouldn’t be funny or disappointing to kids to play with dolls of different races or ethnicities. In fact, it should be encouraged of all kids. Talking about race early and often teaches kids acceptance and helps them to point out injustice when they see it, and toys are a great and natural way to start the conversation. Kudos to Nachman for encouraging other parents to put “colorblindness” aside and raise their kids to be inclusive and aware.