MMW LETTER: Response to Printakid Founder and President
CVK & JC
After we posted our thoughts on Printakid’s problematic racial assignations to skin tones on February 3, the founder and president of Printakid, Noemi Berlus submitted a comment to our post, explaining why they did things the way they did. Here’s the letter we sent her in response.:
Noemi,
Thank you for posting your comment on Mixed Media Watch.
We absolutely agree with you that words and illustrations play a crucial role, especially in products that educate children. That’s exactly why we started our organization. In case you didn’t know, Mixed Media Watch–apart from being a blog–is a grassroots coalition that works to promote more realistic, three-dimensional portrayals of mixed people, couples, families and transracial adoptees in film, television, radio and print media.
We just announced our 1st Annual Mixed Media Watch Image Awards. You can find out more about those here.
It’s good to know that you’ve given all these matters a great deal of thought. We realize that your company is based in Canada, and that it’s possible attitudes towards words/phrases such as “mulatto” and “Asian eyes” are different there. However, if you are hoping to court American consumers as well, we would urge you to make some changes.
You said: “Some more politically correct words such as mutli-racial, mixed race or métis were too ambiguous to be used.” However, by only referring to mixed people as “mulatto,” you are completely excluding the many mixed people who are not of black and white descent. In the 2000 US census, 2.2 million Americans self-identified as Latino and white, 1.08 million as white and American Indian/Alaska Native, and 870,000 as white and Asian, not to mention countless other combinations. In fact, only about 11% of people who marked two or more races were of African American and white heritage.
We can agree to disagree that terms like “mulatto” and “Asian eyes” are offensive. But here’s a suggestion. Since the Web site is a visual medium anyway, why not avoid the problematic terms altogether by using graphic depictions only? In your skin tone category you already have colored boxes showing the different options, why not just offer those with no words next to them? Same with the eye shape. Rather than asking it as a text-based question, why not illustrate the different eye shapes available and allow people to select those that best resemble their child?
By doing this, you don’t make any assumptions of what skin tone and facial features people should have based on their race, and you’ll avoid offending potential customers.
Your idea for Printakid is a good one. We would hate to see a good concept go to waste because of its problematic execution.
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Jen and Carmen
Ron Nurwisah wrote:
Being Canadian I can say with almost complete certainty that the term “mulatto” or a descriptor like “asian eyes” would raise just as many hackles here as they did south of 49.
Keep up the great work everyone!
Posted 10 Feb 2005 at 11:12 am ¶
Noemi Berlus wrote:
Thank you so much for taking the time to give me feedback on my site.
There are a few reasons why I did not just leave the graphic description:
1) The colours depicted on screens can vary widely between different computer screens. I tested the look on several different screens and realized that the colours are not always clear (i.e. all the browns looked the same on some older screens).
2) The differences between the skin tones are sometimes quite subtle. Many of my customers are grandparents seeking to order for their grandchildren. 80% of people over the age of 40 wear eyeglasses. I want to make sure that my website can be navigated by people with limited eyesight. I am especially concerned about this as my husband has a degenerative disease which is slowly making him blind. I plan to start providing stories for children with handicaps in the future and I want to respect that group as well.
3) I have a black and white paper version of my order forms for people who cannot order online.
The criteria for selecting the terms were the following
Clarity - can people (including people with disabilities) clearly differentiate between the options and select the one that best represents the child?
Length - does it fit on my paper order form (20 characters max)?
Respect - Is it as respectful as possible of the people I am trying to represent?
I would love to find better words than those I ended up with. I know that they are problematic. The people I asked in Montreal felt that this was the best I could do, however my study was not scientific.
As you know, I started this company because most of the members of my family and many of my friends are not represented in media today (mixed-race, raised by grandparents, gay). The last thing I want to do is compound the feeling of isolation for other people because I used the wrong terms.
I have started working on a new naming scheme and I would appreciate any advice. Do you think this is respectful and clear? Would you know what category to select if you were ordering a book for yourself or someone you know?
Pinkish white
Light yellow
Bronze-red
Light brown
Dark brown
Please let me know what you think.
I think that your website (and especially the award) is a great initiative and I hope that you will continue to give me feedback.
Posted 16 Feb 2005 at 5:12 pm ¶
Charlette wrote:
I have called myself Splendid Blended. At 18 I was multicolored. Stop it already. The biologist’s have determined that facial characteristics can not cover every race individually because humans features and skin tone and even bone structure adapt to climate and geography.
Posted 16 Aug 2005 at 5:11 pm ¶
Kaylum Luma Martinez wrote:
I am a strong mixed race being of caucasion eastern european scandinavian and dominican black and ecuadorian latin . I am so confused as I feel good in myself I feel confused in myself as my family take the piss out of me all the time coz im different. I have more black friends more than anything else, and I have a black boyfriend who sees me more as a person of colour han a white person. I have never had contact from my ethnic family but my white family make me feel horrible, I am a strong proud woman of my roots dont get me wrong but I would love for some advice how to feel good from other biracial people. please.
f
Posted 25 Dec 2005 at 4:21 pm ¶
Kaylum Luma Martinez wrote:
Please help from above comment before about being mixed race
Posted 25 Dec 2005 at 4:23 pm ¶