Barbie may have the reputation of being just a kid’s doll without much substance behind her shiny plastic face, but the truth is, the brand is seeking to do much more than that.

Last Wednesday, Barbie posted a video to her YouTube channel where she tackled the difficult topic of racism.

For those of you who don’t know, Barbie has a popular YouTube channel where she appears as an animated character in vlog-style videos. On her channel, along with videos like “DIY Rainbow Summer Party Ideas” and ” My Puppy Did My Homework?”, Barbie also tackles more serious topics from mental health to bullying.

In her most recent video, titled “Barbie and Nikki Discuss Racism,” Barbie invited her friend Nikki (who is Black) to discuss specific experiences in Nikki’s life where she felt she was treated unfairly due to the color of her skin.

Nikki then took center stage, telling stories of the microaggressions and unfair treatment that she has experienced as a Black woman. The language and concepts were in plain language that was easy for young viewers to understand.

Nikki starts by telling a story about how she was racially profiled. “Barbie and I had a sticker-selling contest on the beach last month. We split up and went our separate directions to see who could sell the most. While I was on the boardwalk, beach security stopped me three times. The security officer thought I was doing something bad, even though I was doing exactly the same thing that you were doing.”

Together, let’s keep listening, keep learning, and take action to inspire change.
For more resources on how to talk about anti-racism with your kids, visit: https://t.co/KqeamkFRPo

— Barbie (@Barbie) October 8, 2020

Nikki goes on to tell another story about how her new French teacher discounted her amazing exam results by telling her she just “got lucky”. Nikki decided not to join the French Club because she didn’t want to have to keep proving herself.

At one point, Nikki says: “People did these things because I was Black, and they made the wrong assumptions about me.”

Through the video, Barbie is an ideal ally, offering Nikki kindness, support and empathy. She never tries to make her feelings seem invalid. She even tells the viewers about white privilege: “That means that white people get an advantage that they didn’t earn, and Black people get a disadvantage that they don’t deserve.”

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This is our Commitment to the Black Community. Read the full statement via the link in bio.

A post shared by Barbie (@barbie) on Jun 12, 2020 at 3:38pm PDT

According to Mattel Executive Lisa McKnight, these types of videos are part of their quest to “leverage” their “global platform” to tackle important topics.

“Being an ally includes having difficult conversations to better understand discrimination,” McKnight said to Insider. “We hope that by leveraging Barbie and Nikki to explore these conversations in a kid-friendly format, we can spark productive discussions for families and empower our next generation of leaders to become advocates for change, raising their voices against racism.”

We can’t wait to see what else Barbie teaches children through her YouTube channel.

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Racism knows neither dignity nor bounds and Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the wife of Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, knows this first hand.

Fetterman, a Brazilian-American activist, philanthropist, and non-profit executive who co-founded 412 Food Rescue and is married to John Fetterman, said that she became the target of a racially-motivated verbal attack over the weekend. Part of the incident, which took place at Fetterman’s local grocery store, was captured on video and has gone viral.

Gisele Barreto Fetterman shared details of the incident on Twitter this past Sunday.

*TRIGGER WARNING* I love love love this country but we are so deeply divided. I ran to the local grocery store and was met by and verbally assaulted by this woman who repeatedly told me I do not belong here. The confrontation continued into the parking lot where I was able to pic.twitter.com/kzSoxCVJ2x

— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) October 11, 2020

“I love love love this country but we are so deeply divided, I ran to the local grocery store and was met by and verbally assaulted by this woman who repeatedly told me I do not belong here,” Fetterman shared in a tweet that featured the video. The two-second clip shared with Twitter shows an unidentified woman lowering her mask to say, “You’re a n*****,” into Fetterman’s car window.

Fetterman explained in an interview with the Washington Post that the woman in the video had confronted her in the store earlier and pursued her outside of the store later that day.

According to Fetterman’s interview with the Post, the woman told her that she didn’t “belong here.”

“She said, ‘There’s that n-word that Fetterman married. You don’t belong here. No one wants you here. You don’t belong here,’” Fetterman explained in her interview with the Post. “The fact that she was so comfortable and bold to just do it to my face with an audience … that was really scary.”

“I was just kind of frozen in that moment,” she went onto explain. “I was shaking. I was so nervous.”

“The confrontation continued into the parking lot where I was able to finally capture it after the crying winded down,” Fetterman shared on Twitter. “This behavior and this hatred is taught. If you know her, if she is your neighbor or relative, please, please teach her love instead.”

While the woman in the video has yet to be identified, Fetterman told the Post that the incident is now being looked into by state troopers.

Fetterman explained that she called her usual trooper escort after the confrontation and sent them a picture of the woman’s license plate.

Originally from Brazil, Fetterman came to the United States with her mother as an undocumented immigrant as a child. She became a citizen in 2009 is the co-founder of 412 Food Rescue, an organization that provides clothing and food to people in need. Fetterman’s mother came to the United States with a Doctor of Philosophy degree but ultimately took jobs cleaning hotels and houses to make ends meet after she moved to the United States. According to Fetterman, her mother’s pay was often withheld due to her status as an undocumented immigrant. She has never publicly identified as having Black roots.

Of course, Fetterman’s experience is shocking but in recent years has not become unusual, given current leadership

According to reports from the FBI published in 2019, racially-motivated verbal and physical assaults have been on the rise in recent years. No doubt the increase is congruent with Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies and continued anti-Latino and anti-Black sentiment during his campaign run for president and his time in office.

In 2015, Trump notably launched his presidential campaign with a speech in which he accused Mexicans of being drug dealers, criminals, and rapists.

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