Buying biracial children gifts that are culturally appropriate can be challenging. Here are some buying tips:
1. Choose dolls and storybook characters that resemble the child. It’s unfortunate, but today’s toy industry is still dominated by blond-haired, blue-eyed dolls. However, it is very important for biracial children to grow up seeing images of people who look like themselves.
2. Don’t buy a white doll unless you clear it with the parents first. There’s nothing wrong with giving a biracial child a white doll, but some parents may want to make sure their children are secure with their mixed-race identity first.
3. Don’t be afraid to introduce kids of other racial mixtures. The books you buy don’t have to feature characters who have the exact racial heritage of the child. It’s healthy to read about kids of other racial mixtures too, as long as the characters are presented in a positive light. Also, by supporting the companies that publish books about mixed-race characters, you can help prove that there is a strong market for these products.
4. Buy biographies of prominent mixed-race individuals. For older kids, consider buying biographies of famous multiracial people throughout history. It can be very empowering for a child to have mixed-race role models. Here are a just a few people you can look for: golfer Tiger Woods (Asian-Black-Caucasian), sculptor Isamu Noguchi (Asian-Caucasian), Secretary of State Colin Powell (Black-Caucasian).
5. Look online for hard-to-find products. There are a lot of great online resources that sell books, toys and craft items and other culturally appropriate gifts for biracial children.
About the Author: Carmen Van Kerckhove is Belgian and Chinese. She is co-founder of EurasianNation.com, an online magazine and community for people of mixed European and Asian descent. Originally from Hong Kong, she now lives in New York City.
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