(Brenna Donnelly, May 17, 2010)
I was sitting in the Wilk and I overheard this story on CNN. Anderson Cooper reported on a re-creation of the 1940s doll study where five or so dolls of varying skin color were the subjects of questions asked to children, such as "Which doll is prettiest/most dumb/meanest/most liked/etc?"
I'd like to think that we've changed our racial attitudes since the 40s, especially in the younger generations, but watch as 4-5 and 9-10 year old children reflect racist attitudes, calling the black doll the "one with the skin color that most adults don't like" and adding that they'd most like the white doll "to be my classmate, because he's white."
I'm following up with a few questions I asked myself-- do you think this experiment was leading in anyway? The children also had a camera in their face, do you think that altered what they said at all? And they only had black through white options, I mean what are they going to base their decisions on?
***UPDATE: I watched a few more of the videos and there WAS both a white and a black interviewer. Props to CNN for being fair. Here's the video on the study's accuracy: ***
Also, where do you think these kids got these ideas? Do they know a black child who is dumb and mean? Do their parents make racist comments? Is it from the media? Do they just associate black with bad and thus the black person does more bad things?
Here's a girls mom reacting to her daughter's test: Maybe I'm skeptical of the experiment because I don't want to think that my kids might one day look at a paper of pictures and say they don't like the dark one because that one looks mean.
What do you think?
That was rather interesting. The young girl who mentioned that she thought that skin color didn't matter to teachers was so cute. Her father's reaction was interesting. He mentioned that race is still a factor, but his daughter is proof that children have the power to change society. This makes me optimistic. I, too, would like to know more behind the rationale of the child...very interesting
ReplyDeleteI thought this study was interesting but also leading in some way. I wish they gave the kids an option of not picking any of them. Also the fact that the interviewer was white (we think) may have pressured this kids to answer a certain way. It is human nature to want to impress other people and tell them what they want to hear, and even children know how to "impress" adults. So I think there could be improvements for later studies, but I still think that the results were astonishing that so many kids associated positive things with the white pictures and negative things with the black children.
ReplyDeleteI liked this, more due to the fact that Anderson Cooper of all people was running this stint. Anyhow, it highlights what I think is still a conscious affirmation held by many here and abroad that, white is still considered privileged.
ReplyDeleteI agree, "in the mouths of babes" we can still learn a tonne. An excellent example of social construction-ism and the whole nature vs nurture debate regarding social conditioning and how kids view the world.
I agree, this is a very interesting story. There are definitely points to be improved, especially because there weren't many things the children could say, why they picked one to be bad and one to be good, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have a solution that would make this a perfect study, but they did do a good job showing what children will say, at least to adults, in front of a camera.
ReplyDeleteEven with the study's shortcomings, it still shows children's opinions and how early they start picking up on things like race.
Once again I agree with everyone that this is an interesting story. I think we can all agree that this study does have a lot of holes in it that could be worked out to make the findings more accurate, but we can't look past what was there. The girl that got me the most was the one that said she wanted to be lighter, not because the teachers or adults liked it but because her brown skin color was dirty look. Does she think this way because of adults or parents, who have taught her that white is better? I guess its just another hole in the study to be worked out.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot can be said about racism in the mother's response. She said the only reason her daughter chose the way she did was because she is not exposed enough. She is only ever around other white kids, so in her schema they are smart, pretty, nice, all the things most children are. But when asked to chose, she didn't have an option of none. Since she knows lighter children to be all the good things, the darker children must be the bad ones. Maybe we should expose children to different races/cultures more, so they can decide personally what different colors of people are like, instead of having to decide that without any solid reasoning.
ReplyDeleteI thought this study was really interesting. As I watched this documentary, I could not help but wonder the source of their prejudices. Why would these kids associate certain attributes with certain colors of skin? My hypothesis is that these kids have been influenced by what their parents think and what the media portrays. This point illustrates that our society is still struggling with certain prejudices. Succeeding generations will continue to believe these same ideas unless our generation exhibits equality in our actions and our words.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting to do this same study in another country where maybe whites are not the majority. It would be neat to see if the children would respond differently, and if so, how? I wonder if this study was done in South America or Africa or somewhere like that if the children wouldn't always pick the pictures of the white children as the most favorable and the darker children as the mean/ugly/stupid children.
ReplyDeleteI thought this study was really interesting. I was very impressed with the little girl that talked about skin color not being a factor in a person’s true identity. It was interesting that her father even said that race was a big factor in life and she did not. This proves that children are not always influenced by their parents/society.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great study though have so hidden biases its pretty good at showing how people still think today. If they did this study with older people i think the results would be alot different though because they will then be answering what they know looks good and not what they might really feel. also by using children we can also have some idea of how they feel and what there parents might be teaching at home. Like with the little black girls where she said they were all pretty, you can tell that could most likely what her mother has been telling her, her entire life. so it teachs us that there is still a lot of work to do before we make it to a society with perfect equality.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this article and coverage of this issue was very interesting. Although I agree there was an aspect of leading questions and offering the children an answer of "None," I believe that it showed us the underlying biases that are under the surface. I think its obvious that no one is appalled by these children or assume that they have horrible racist parents, but I think that children see things so much more simply than we do.
ReplyDeleteThey can tell when a teacher has a bias, they see when their parents avoid certain people on the street, they overhear the whispered criticism when walking past the homeless guy, and I think that they are sincere. It comes down to understanding and embracing the biases and the differences. You can't stop a leak if you refuse to acknowledge that it exists (shout out to BP), and likewise you can't solve racial bias problems without accepting that they do exist.