In the night garden light skinned doll

[spokette]

So according to the makers of In the night garden, the characters are toys, not representative of real people here?. I guess that is why most of the characters have light skin then.

One of the reasons I actually liked "In the night garden" is that there is a character who has dark skin and is therefore a positive reinforcement to my mixed race 4yo DTS because, there are very few dark skinned characters on TV and hence why their TV viewing is strictly rationed. Non-blacks will probably not understand why this is important but for those interested, I grew up in 70s Britain and the constant, relentless barrage by the media that black people were either criminals or only good at sports was not only dispiriting and erroneous but also insulting and designed to remind us of our place in society.

This cynical and deliberate ploy to market a lighter skin doll as oppose to the darker skin one was done to appeal to the non-black buying public as usual and demonstrates that the BBC, like many of these institutions are still paying mainly lip service to providing inclusive TV viewing.

Guess who will not be tuning in to this programme again?

I commute on the tube all teh time, I would certianly say the majority were white. Wat borough s do you visit? I have lived in a borough that was roughly 50% Asian - visitng the local shopping centre initially it felt higher than that but probably just because I was more used to a higher proportion of white poeple and it looked strange to my eye, however when you actually looked at the people I would say it probably was about 50:50.

Kewcumbers, I had to collect the forms in the last census before that - was flipping scary. I had to give up. Being young and daft I hadn't quite thought through the sort of reaction you'd get from people who don't speak very good English and may well have reason to fear or despise anyone in authority. Hadn't even thought about being on my own and walking into the houses of complete strangers, tbh.

Maybe they go around in pairs with briefcases full of leaflets in 56 languages now, but I'd be surprised if the organisers have managed to find a way of ensuring every single person in the capital is recorded.

no I agree Edam but I'd be amazed if the results were even 5% out - that would imply that 350,000 homes were incorrectly reporting their ethnicity or that 350,000 more non white people didn't report their ethnicity than white.

My guess would be that a lot of the under-reporting is evenly spread across ethnic lines for many different reasons. There is just as likely to be under-reporting of white non-english speaking familes - Poles for example as there would be for non-white non-english speaking familes.

I was a lot happier before it ever occurred to me that anyone could think of Upsy Daisy as being human.

its annoying when toys are different from the tv charicters on the tv shows, all the kids with sensory issues and ocd must get really upset/go into meltdown. heaven forbid that fifi or diego ever gets made in the "wrong" colour. this is a stupidity issue with the toy manufactors, not a racist issue. anyone who disagres feel free to shut me up by telling me what "ethnic group" upsey daisy is in.(info on the teletubbies and roary the racing car welcomed too).

by the way i couldnt give a toss about percentages of ethnicity.people are people, am speaking as a ginger minoraty! lol {smile]

I had never really thought about Upsy Daisy being a person or having a race.

In that case surely ITNG is multi-cultural because there are NO white characters?

"This implys that if there wasn't a dark skinned charactor, the show wouldn't be watched and that her kids tv viewing is strictly rationed because there are too few shows with dark skinned people in them. That then says to me that she rations her dc's tv because there are too many shows on with white people and that this is somehow wrong and not good for her dc to watch?"

What is wrong with this? I don't see any problem with people wanting their dc's experiences (eg being black/mixed race) reflected on screen, in books, etc, but particularly where that is an experience not constantly reinforced by the mainstream.

And the thing about them "just being toys". Well fgs really. Toys are massively researched, marketed. I would put money down that the manurfacturers of Night Garden merchandise have already had something of a say as to how the toys look on screen.

I agree with the OP, this is cynical and awful. We will show a mixed race toy on tv but will only market her as a light skinned toy, certainly not to the toddler market . I'll tell you what, it would NOT happen the other way round.

And this whole "I am so innocent of racism, I don't even notice the colour of people's skins.".

Great for you. Not so great for the toddler who sees no reflection of herself in her favourite programs because we are all being too innocent and self-congratulatory to stand up for her. Or even to acknowlege her experience.

I bet you'd notice if the show was 90% black and 10% white. Which would still be a better experience for white kids than what black kids are experiencing.

It's just the notion that alot of people think the reason why there aren't as many black people on tv must because the country is racist and not have anything to do with fact that only 3% of the population is black so with that percentage your going to have more white people on tv aren't you?

would it seem like I'm banging my head against a very hard brick wall if I repeat once agains that no-one has argued on this thread that there should be a disproportionate number of non-white characters on TV? [wasting my time emoticon]

Discussion was originally about whether Upsy was lightened to make her more "commercial" - which hopefully even you MrsSparkle would think unreasonable if that were the case. then moved on to the OP childrens viewing habits and I think shes quite entitled to steer her DCs towards programmes that she feels are more appropriate for tehm for whatever* reason

"alot of people think " - who are these lots of people?

Isn't the whole point of the news article the fact that the BBC have responded to complaints and are redesigning the doll to be more like the screen character???

i always find these posts end up the same, a splattering of non-white parents trying to make 'Engligh' parent understand their plight bringing up non-white children in this society. The responses mainly being we don't see colour and neither should you or other equally patronising / brush it under the carpet comments or worse still jokes like 'i'm ginger so a minority too'....ha ha bloody ha.

Everyone sees colour, its the first thing you see and its what defines us, initially, until those that are willing see us for who we really are. The reality is that in this society very few get past this initial 'judgement' and its important for parents with non-white children to make their children acutely aware of this and /or equip them to deal with these challenges. As toddlers this starts with family/parents/media/tv/books/toys, which is why its so important that we sanction what they are exposed to and try to ensure they have positive and 'accurate' images of self.
p.s don;t bother trying to get those to understand that have already made up their mind that this is a 'non-issue' they will only wind you up(smile).

btw
For those interested in how race is portrayed in the media, there is an interesting US based blog/feed, racialicious.

If you really want to understand, read the blog for long enough, and you'll start to get a feel for why BME (black,minority,ethnic) communities get het up about issues like this one.

Is maccapacca mixed race as well? - yes he is half Macca and half Pacca.

Ditto IgglePiggle.

There would have been outrage from the Macca, Pacca, Iggle and Piggle communitoes if either of them had been lightened to an ecru or very pale blue to be more commercial.

LOL!

lol kew - thought it was another mindless reply to this topic then saw your name!

Yentil - I understand the point you are making, but please don't assume that everyone who has agreed with the OP is either black or the parent of a mixed race child.

Well said RaspberryBlower!! lol

Seriously I think that in the Night Garden is a pile of crap and should be taken off our TV screens I'm not sure how anyone can base them on real life people children don't my two God daughters are mixed race and do not assume Upsy Daisy is the same colour as them or that she is the same colour as there father.

There isn't enough different Ethnic Characters and creeds on our TV shows especially for Children's programmes and should be with out a doubt more as the UK has a variety of different coloured people from all sorts of backgrounds also there is plenty of Black British and Asian British people in this country and I for one would like to see things like Eastenders more realistic.

I also live in London and it really does depend on where you go to who the majority is in that area tooting for instance the majority of people there are either Asian or Polish.

Unless i am very much mistaken, the Makka Pakka charactor is alot lighter on screen than the soft toy. The soft toy is much more tanned.

remember the gollywog days...that all had to be stopped because it was racist (which i do agree).

now we have the opposite end of the spectrum with this doll upsy daisy, which is lighter than it is on TV...christ, folk can't win.

I don't get the comparison feckit?