‘Lazy Baby’ Dolls Sold in Schnucks Grocery Store Cause Controversy

Baby dolls called “Lazy Baby” are causing controversy among store patrons who say the dolls are racist against black people.

“It was disappointing for me because I know the power of language. Words matter,” said Pastor Traci Blackmon, who saw the dolls at a Schnucks store in Ladue Crossing, Missouri.

Blackmon, a pastor at Christ the King United Church of Christ in Blackjack, Missouri, told KTVI that she posted a Facebook Live about the dolls.

“Historically, in the effort to denigrate black people, words like ‘lazy,’ ‘shuffling,’ words that refer to a lack of intelligence of black people, have been used,” Blackmon said.

A store worker then brought out a white “lazy baby” doll from storage to show that both are in stock, but Blackmon said having both color dolls does not ameliorate her concerns.

“Having white dolls there with black dolls means that it’s not a conscious decision. It is still an issue,” she said. “I don’t think that Schnucks was intentionally making a racist statement. I want to be clear about that. What I do want to point out is that it shows a lack of diversity in the people who are in charge of making such decisions.”

Erica Van Ross, the vice president of communications for Schnucks, said she understands where Blackmon is coming from as a black woman herself, but she was not concerned because there were both white and brown versions of the doll.

“We ordered both white and brown versions of this doll,” Van Ross said. “Had this been a doll that only came as a brown doll or had we only ordered a brown doll, I certainly would have some immense concerns but that’s not the case.”

Van Ross said the Ladue Crossing store pulled all the dolls from its shelves but Schnucks is not making a company-wide decision to pull the dolls from its stores.

This is not the first set of dolls to be pulled from a store over complaints about race.

In July, hundreds of black rag dolls were axed from New Jersey store shelves over outrage that the dolls had a racist connotation, CBS New York reported.