Black rag dolls designed to be slammed against the wall as a stress reliever have been pulled from the shelves after customers and politicians complained that they were racist.
The “Feel Better Doll” sold in One Dollar Zone outlets in the US featured instructions to “whack” the doll “whenever things don’t go well”.
The dolls – made of black fabric with yarn hair of red, green, black and yellow in the style of dreadlocks – also came with the message: “As you whack … don’t forget to yell: I FEEL GOOD. I FEEL GOOD.”
New Jersey state legislator Angela McKnight said she found the toy “offensive and disturbing on so many levels” after visiting a One Dollar Zone store in the city of Bayonne.
“It is clearly made in an inappropriate representation of a black person and instructs people to ‘slam’ and ‘whack’ her,” Ms McKnight wrote on Facebook.
“When I saw the doll in person, I cringed and was truly disheartened by the thought of a black child being beaten by another child or an adult for pure pleasure,” she added.
Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis said in a Facebook post that the dolls were “insensitive” and “can certainly be considered racist”.
The president of One Dollar Zone said roughly 1,000 dolls were pulled from its stores following widespread complaints.
Ricky Shah apologised for the dolls’ appearance in the company’s stores and said they were all removed last week after images and criticism appeared online.
The New Jersey-based company had not adequately checked a large lot of items it had received before distributing them to stores, he admitted.
“This somehow slipped through the cracks,” he said.
The supplier Global Souvenir Marketing that shipped the order has offered to credit One Dollar Zone for the cost of the dolls, Mr Shah said.
The dolls’ manufacturer, the Harvey Hutter Co, is no longer in business, according to the supplier.
One Dollar Zone operates more than two-dozen outlets across the northeastern US, from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania.
Additional reporting by AP
