I finally found an article (that I didn't have to pay for). It seems that they also have a website as well. You can checl them out as
www.ghettokidshood.com They even have one doll called Confederate Tammy that I guess is supposed to be "trailer park white trash" doll. I guess.....
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GHETTO KIDS
February 3, 2002 3:07pm
Source: The Sunday Mirror, February 03, 2002
EAMONN O'HANLON
A RACE row has blown up around a new toy range headed by an Irish doll whose dad is depicted as a hopeless drunk.
Hundreds of the multi-racial dolls - known as Ghetto Kids - have been snapped up since they went on sale in America before Christmas. Each doll is accompanied by a letter spelling out their tragic family problems, with their stories also played out in comic strips on the Ghetto Kids website. The biographies feature families who are struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction to those who are involved in organised crime and murder.The makers claim the dolls - with names such as East LA Lupe and Starlet Stephanie - are designed to help children cope with these "typical" problems in real life. But critics insist they pander to negative racial stereotypes, with the Spanish doll's father portrayed as a gangster who is killed in a drive-by shooting and the Puerto Rican's mum and dad as crack addicts. The Irish doll - dubbed Windy City Mary - is supposedly abandoned by her Belfast-born mother and left to fend for herself in an Irish "ghetto" of Chicago. In her comic strip story, intended for the under 10s, red-headed Mary finds a "dirty, unshaven" drunk, named O'Malley, asleep in an alleyway as she is out riding her bike one afternoon. The story tells how Mary is immediately struck by similarities between O'Malley and her hard-drinking Irish dad. The story says: "Mary Margaret hears a low grumbling sound and smells something bad: liquor. "Mary steps away. The odour brings back vivid images of her father. She tries hard to erase those images. She wants to forget those sad times when her father would come home drunk. "She feels sorry for the man. Maybe he is like her father; maybe he needs a drink to forget his problems. He doesn't know that drinking causes more problems. This man needs help. What can she do? She has never been able to help her father." Mary's story, which also touches on possible child abuse, has proved a winner with American youngsters. Ghetto Kids boss Tommy Perez said of all the dolls, which sell for $39.99, Windy City Mary was the most popular.
Mr Perez said: "The dolls are there to open the doors on all sorts of subjects before society closes the doors on children who live like this. "We hope, through our products, to provide a source of enjoyment for children as well as information for their parents to help develop healthy discussions about serious issues. "The information provided will hopefully prepare children and answer questions they might have regarding issues like homelessness, peer pressure, crime, gangs, drugs, cigarettes and alcohol."
The dolls, which are available in Ireland by mail order from the Ghetto Kids website -
www.ghettokidshood .com - have been slammed in the US for presenting a distorted picture of so-called ghetto life.
Chicago social worker Deborah Constance said: "These dolls represent the worst sort of negative stereotypes. "These children who live below the poverty line just do not live the sort of lives that these dolls are supposed to. "We see the kids from the Irish area of Chicago where the doll Mary is supposed to come from and they are little stars. They are angels. "Their parents are doing their best. Of Course there are alcholics and crack addicts out there, but you get those things everywhere. "It is very unfair to portray one racial group as drug addicts or alcoholics and it sends a very bad message to the children."
Copyright © 2002 Financial Times Limited - All Rights Reserved