The Colored Doll
DOWN Magazine, September 2016
Hard plastic hands, peach skin, brittle synthetic lashes, pellet-filled body. Lifeless, but isn’t she precious? Baby doll?
The other day I saw a little Black girl holding her mother’s hand, boarding the bus to New Haven.
As her mother guided her onto the bus, I noticed, in the crook of the little girl’s arm, that little peach baby doll. Stark contrast against the little girl’s cheek and her cornrows threaded with beads.