Apology for black doll

Press, 9 November 1988, Page 11

Apology for black doll

NZPA-Reuter San Francisco A Japanese company is donating $U5250,000 ($406,768) in toys to needy California children as part of an apology for selling Little Black Sambo dolls that American blacks said were racially offensive. Sanrio Inc, a Japanese toymaker which has a subsidiary in the San Francisco area, was criticised this (northern) summer in a “Washington Post” newspaper article for selling black-faced toys with kinky hair and big lips. Donald Tamaki, legal counsel for Sanrio, said yesterday the company had stopped selling the dolls, a move

that had cost it SUSIS million, and planned to donate $U5250,000 in toys to needy children through a San Francisco firefighters’ Toys for Tots project. The Black Sambo toys were distributed only in Japan. In addition, Sanrio was working with a children’s, magazine in Japan on a series of articles that would expose Japanese youngsters to non-stereotypi-cal images of all American children, he said. Mr Tamaki said the company was also setting up a pen-pal programme that would help youngsters from both countries understand each other better.