Racially Ambiguous Barbie

"I get asked 'What are you?' A lot. People can be insensitive. Still, I consider myself lucky. I get new clothes, purses, shoes every day. My mom's generation really suffered. She could only bend at the knees. I am fully-jointed."

  "I came to America to study Opera. My college enrolled me in the Engineering program by mistake, because they thought I was Asian. I'm from Iceland. And they go, "Oh, like Bjork!" That's the only thing they know."

  "I'm Burmese, but in America I'm just called 'Asian'. I get mistaken for Chinese. When I say I'm from Burma, they get embarrassed and say, 'Oh, I didn't think people from Burma looked like you.' Like they ever thought about Burma. Puh- leeze ."

"I'm the default model. Just White. Nothing else. If you go on Amazon, you'll see I'm the cheapest. Always on sale. Because for every 1 Black or Brown one they make, they make 10,000 Blondes. Some days I just want to die."  

  "Yeah, that's me. I'm the Black Karen. I'm actually Blindian, but in America, I'm just Black. I'm a swimsuit model. I have to be careful about sun. I hate it when White people say Black people can't tan. It's so wrong. I tan. I also melt."

  " Actually, my name is Luule. I go by 'Wong' because it's more in-your-face. My dad's Cantonese, my mom's Estonian. They met while working on a cruise ship. I'm 6'2", speak six languages, and wear men's jeans." 

  "I'm half-Japanese, half-Portuguese. My parents are from Brazil. If it weren't for modeling, I would have jumped out the window. I get called 'Hispanic', then 'Latinx'. My first year in college, my hair fell out from stress. I had to have a re-root."

  "Skated for Team USA for years. Nobody knew I was American. So this year I decided to skate for China. Suddenly people are calling me a defector. I don't mind. The commies pay well; the food's better. Not that I eat much."

  "This is my sister, Casey. Our mom is Chinese and our dad is Ethiopian. We are 5 siblings. Our complexions range from pale to dark. I'm the palest one, and my oldest sister Casey is the darkest one. People can't believe we are related. Can't you see our faces are the same though?"

  "Great-Grandma was a Japanese war bride. When Great-Grandpa sent for her to come to America, he could not meet her at the train station because Blacks weren't allowed in the main waiting area. She gave me my name 未来. It means ' that which is to come.'"

It began during the first year of the pandemic. I started collecting modern Barbies out of boredom. They were relatively cheap, plentiful, and - to my delight - now racially ambiguous.  Due to the relentless demand for relevance and fashion, Barbie now comes in a fascinating range of skin tones, hair colors, and eye shapes. Yet, because of the exigencies of mass production, the dolls often have the exact same face sculpt. Imagine my wonderment when I realized that a "Black" Barbie can actually have the same face as an "Asian" Barbie, just different skin tone and eye paint.  Race is an artificial construct, these rubber faces seem to say. To the women and men who now design her -- thank you. You've taken an old toy that was deeply problematic and limiting and made her into a totally rad thing. Where do we go from here? Wena Poon,  Photographer www.wenapoon.com