"American" is also married, heterosexual and bourgeois.

And this is why I cringe or worse whenever I hear talk of "everyday" "real" Americans. Certain groups love saying stuff like that so that people can't prove that their racist and all the rest, but it's pretty clear what that's code for when you know some of those people as well as I do (some of whom are pretty openly racist etc. when their guard is down).

I hope others see it for what it is.

Thanks for helping point it out.

uh, did anyone else notice that when you click the link for "famous african american paper dolls" that there are a bunch of "famous american" ones (plus for some reason it is only famous african american women?) -- including "ROBERT E. LEE AND FAMILY??

I realize that being a confederate officer does not necessarily make one a white supremacist, but he also was in support of some pretty racist things after the war, though claiming to be for reconstruction.

this makes me assume that he is pretty pro-southern, which I have no problem with as long as people acknowledge the racist history and try to move on from it, not just pretend it was never there as most seem to do (think the virginia politican who wanted to create 'confederate history month' while not even mentioning or thinking about the fact that the pride in the south was not meant for non-whites to be free).

I don't recall what brand of paper dolls it was, but I had historical themed paper dolls from different eras when I was young and it sparked a lifelong love of historical costuming. I'm too filled with nostalgia and desire to possess these to be critical. SERIOUSLY WANT!

Really, really creepy. It's like they've erased black people completely. And Asians. Seriously creepy.

Not that it excuses things, but Mr Tierney is 82 years old, and has been designing paper dolls for decades. (In fact, some of these designs are copyrighted in the 80s.) I doubt that there is any racist intent here, just the product of growing up in a different time period. My 80-year-old grandmother collects these paper dolls, and I doubt she has ever noticed this problem - she just has not been socialized to think about these things. I would hope that a similar artist growing up now would, in the future, be more inclusive in his vision of the American family.

Btw - there is a black woman on the cover of the Famous American Women book, though not on the Notable American Women book.

I'm reminded of the recent miniseries "America: The Story of Us", which BEGAN at Roanoke Colony in 1585 -- when humans had inhabited North America for millennia, and 45 years after Hernando de Soto's party reached the Mississippi River, and 20 years after the founding of St. Augustine, Florida. Okay, so we've learned who the "US" is in "The Story of Us" -- it's not only people of European heritage, but specifically people of ENGLISH-SPEAKING European heritage.

Anyone else have an issue with the "Victorian American Family?" Such as, perhaps, the fact that the term implies England under Victoria's reign? And why are they wearing what appears to be early 1900's swimsuits? What part of that even vaguely connotes the Victorian lifestyle. Surely Mr. Tierney could have gone with children in dank workhouse wear, a dandy gentleman, and perhaps one of Jack the Ripper's American cousins.

P.S.On those sites that I found, you have to pay money for book.I only need to see some pictures of her.))

My English is bad enough, because I live in Russia.))

Yes. “American” does = white. Who came here? Europeans. What is the color of the Europeans that came? White.

Yeah, so there were people here before them, but that's not the point. Europeans basically kicked them out and it became predominately white.

Though, nowadays that's not the case, but those dolls weren't made by someone who grew up in our decade.