Yesterday I went out for breakfast at the nearby Tiny Diner Cafe, where I stitched a red-felt broken heart onto Bear (from the thrift store) to add to the memorial at George Floyd Square, a couple blocks away.
Bear found a friend to sit with--a sparkly baby dragon––right next to the angel figure of George Floyd (where the cops pinned Floyd to the ground).
I got the idea to add a bear from photographing other stuffies at the square.
I love them all, and they all touch my heart.
But I also noticed that few of the stuffies are the color of George Floyd himself---they are most often caramel or pastel colored.
I wanted to add a bear the color of a real-life brown bear.
Working at the thrift store, I can say that darker teddy bears are in the minority. In real life, bears come in a wide range of colors but are most often brown and black.
Does the toy manufacturers' choice of teddy bear colors reflect an attitude toward human skin colors?
I don't know.
But I think of how children who are black and brown might relate to toys that are always lighter colored than they are.
I thought it would be nice to see darker bears at the square.
So I brought one.
Also, I just wanted to add a stuffed animal, on behalf of all the toys and all the broken hearts.
We don't heal in order to 'get over it'.
We heal in order to carry on (work, hope, love).
