Diversity Toy Drive 2012
December 18th, 2012 – Bloomington, Indiana
For the second year in a row Indiana University doctoral student Carl Darnell has coordinated a unique kind of toy drive. Originating as the Black Toy Drive in 2011, and developing to include a larger scope as the Diversity Toy Drive, this Christmas-time donation stemmed from a conversation Darnell had with his mentees and students in the Hudson & Holland Scholars Program (formerly the Minority Achievers Program). The HHSP scholars and Darnell came up with the idea when discussing the root issues leading to racial prejudice and discrimination. The students posited that many rural and suburban youth may not interact with people outside their race until high school or even college, by which time, feelings of otherness and white superiority may have already developed. The students of the HHSP freshman seminar course believed that spreading diversity awareness to rural youth as early as possible would be the best solution for stopping racism in a generation.
Taking into consideration the upcoming Christmas season and knowing the message delivered to children through toys and children’s stories, Darnell and the scholars proposed the class put on a toy drive as a class project. If the toys and children’s books resembled Black characters, children, still developing their ideas of normalcy and aesthetics, would see that their Black dolls were just as pretty as White dolls, and that their Black action figures had just as strong a kung-fu grip as their White toys. As an act of resistance and awareness, Darnell further proposed that all the toys be purchased in Bloomington. Traveling from store to store in South central Indiana, it can be challenging to find a doll or action figure that doesn’t have blue eyes. Darnell hoped the numerous requests, in-person and over the phone, for Black toys and children’s books would prompt local stores to have more diversity represented on their shelves.
Concerning the anticipated recipients of the donations, it was decided that the toys should go to the most needy pre-K and elementary school children in the surrounding city and county, regardless of race or ethnicity. So that possible donors would understand what kind of toys were desired, the drive was originally named the Princess Tiana toy drive, Princess Tiana is Disney’s first Black lead animated movie character. Partnering with the Black Graduate Student Association, of which Darnell was the vice president, the idea was adopted as the Black Toy Drive. To be fully inclusive of the Latino and Persian students in the HHSP freshman class, the scholars proposed a change in the name to the Diversity Toy Drive on the undergraduate side, BGSA continued the drive on the graduate and professional student front as the Black Toy Drive 2011. The toys and books collected in 2011 were all delivered to Middleway House New Wings shelter for battered women and children. Due to student publicizing and coverage in the student newspaper, BGSA members Darnell and Sam Davis had to make two trips to deliver all of the donations. In the second installation of the drive, the list of partnering campus organizations and anticipated community beneficiaries were expanded.
In an effort to further link IU diversity initiatives to Monroe County diversity support agencies in a “town and gown” partnership, Darnell linked the Black Graduate Student Association, the students of the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program, the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in a city-wide toy drive designed for people to bring in toys that “looked like them” and represented diversity. Additionally, the toys were delivered on December 18th to the original beneficiary Middleway House New Wings and to two new support agencies in the city of Bloomington. At the suggestion of a HHSP student leader, the Villages foster care center for kids was added to the list of beneficiaries. Finally, after several members of the BGSA attended the Crisis Pregnancy Center’s 2012 fundraising gala where a BGSA member was the keynote speaker, in honor of the speaker Tomika Ferguson and her baby Camille, the group decided to donate one-third of the toys to the CPC’s Hannah House for new mothers and infants.
The event overall was a success, and stakeholders on the Indiana University Bloomington campus, as well as the citizens of Bloomington, seem thankful and anxious for this diversity awareness activity, the social justice exercise, this partnership called the IU BGSA Diversity Toy Drive.
carldarnell 