Kristen Bell accused of glorifying ‘colourblindness’ in children’s book

Actor's story is about a 'purple person' who 'looks for similarities before differences'

Actor Kristen Bell has been accused of writing a children’s book glorifying “colourblindness” rather than acknowledging the differing life experiences of people of different races.

The Good Place star's book, The World Needs More Purple People, is about a “purple person” who “looks for similarities before differences”.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Bell said: “The world loves debate, I do, and debate talks about differences. It’s layering difference upon difference upon difference, ‘I think this’, ‘no, you should think this’, it’s just constantly pointing out divisive narratives.

“Our kids are absorbing all of that and maybe we needed a bit of a road map to show them that it’s actually great to start with similarities first.”

She continued: “Hopefully that will allow kids to have a little bit more of a social identity and be able to see similarities and through that have their mind opened by some people who they thought were different.”

However, her comments caused division on social media, as many people accused the actor of promoting “colourblindness” rather than acknowledging that people of different races have very different life experiences.

“'I don’t see colour’, the book,” one Twitter user joked, while another added: “‘I don’t see colour’ people need to go, be quiet, listen to actual people’s experiences, read some educational pieces instead of writing about nonsense.”

“Colourblindness isn’t the path forward,” a third person responded. “I know she probably means well but she needs to get better people on her team who can give her a dose of reality.”

Some people pointed out the similarities between the purple character and the phrase “I don’t care if you’re black, white, purple” which is often used to shut down conversations about racism, with one critic writing: “The world does not need more fictional purple characters. We already have Barney and Tinky Winky.”

“You guys will do everything but teach your kids about racism against actual Black and brown people, because reality makes you ‘uncomfortable,’” they continued, while another echoed: “Just...use actual races instead???”

“Kristen Bell has written ‘all lives matter: the children’s book,’” another critic tweeted. The Independent has reached out to Bell’s representatives for comment.

On Thursday (11 June), Bell was also mocked for taking part in a “cringe-worthy” anti-racism PSA alongside Stanley Tucci, Sarah Paulson and Aaron Paul.