Culture, Tradition in Spotlight at Event Celebrating Black Family

Make up a story about the doll, the children were urged. What does she think about herself?

Evelyn Henderson’s hand shot up.

“She’s very talented, she’s black and she’s beautiful,” the 7-year-old declared.

The little girl was among dozens of children packed into a tent at the fifth annual Black Family Reunion Celebration at Exposition Park on Sunday. She was attending a “positive play” workshop, designed to build self-esteem and pride.

“And what do you think about yourself?” asked Darlene Powell-Hopson, the psychologist leading the seminar with her husband, Derek Hopson.

Evelyn Henderson’s hand went up again. “I’m unique, and I’m beautiful,” she declared.

The workshop was one of a number of events, including concerts, African-American craft displays and panel discussions on health, relationships and employment at the two-day event.

The Reunion Celebration was started by the National Council of Negro Women in 1986 to celebrate the traditions and culture of the black family, as well as to combat negative images with positive approaches. It has been staged this year in Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, as well as in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles organizers estimated that more than 300,000 attended the event Saturday and Sunday. Evelyn Henderson’s mother, Ernestine Henderson, said she brought her child to the “positive play” workshop because it featured a new African-American doll introduced this year by Mattel.

Henderson, a Los Angeles respiratory therapist, said it is not only difficult to find toys “that little girls can relate to and see as being part of our family, but on television there’s not a whole lot of good black images we have.”

For this reason, Powell-Hopson said, “Parents should be more actively involved in their children’s play, as a way of teaching values, self-esteem and racial identity.”

She and her husband have been working on this subject since 1982 and have written a book, “Different and Wonderful: Raising Black Children in a Race Conscious Society.”

“Being black does not mean being anti-white,” Powell-Hobson said. “It means being for yourself. You have to be proactive about teaching children to respect and love themselves.”

Books, she said, still use predominantly white images, and so do children’s clothing designs. “Go to a department store and I challenge you to find an outfit with a picture of a black child on it. You can’t. They’re all white. What message does that give to the African-American, Asian or Hispanic child?”

Powell-Hopson said she uses fabric markers to recolor some images, but she advised parents to tell store managers “we want them to be more representative of the population.”