Retailers Price Black, White Barbies Differently

Why are black Barbies priced differently than white Barbies? It's a tough question and one that some of America's biggest retailers are having to answer amid the biggest shopping time of the year. For example, on Tuesday afternoon Wal-Mart's website listed an African-American ice skater Barbie for $11.87, while the Caucasian version costs just $9.88. The retailing giant said the pricing discrepancy was an unintended error. "They should always be the same price, across all ethnicities," a Wal-Mart spokesman said Tuesday evening. "This is just a pricing error. We corrected it immediately."