By John Burl Smith
from thedish@ga.net
On August 12, 2010, CNN's AC360° aired the Doll Study Revisited: Girl Calls Her Skin "Nasty," which reexamined the famous "Doll Studies" (1939) conducted by Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark. Although not expressed, there seemed to be doubt about the validity of the Clark's work, especially in light of today's "color blind society." An updated version of the study, CNN said, The goal was to determine the status of children's racial beliefs, attitudes and preferences as well as skin tones biases at two different developmental periods. Specifically, kindergarten and middle childhood youngsters attending grade schools either in the Northeast or Southeast regions of the United States of America were tested by same race female testers.
The study was comprised of 133 children -- 65 early and 68 middle childhood subjects. There were 75 African American and 58 white children of which 64 came from 4 Northeastern and 69 from 4 Southeastern schools. The 8 schools were from suburbs around New York City and Atlanta (within a 2-hour radius). Very similar to the Clarks' studies, the results seemed to shock commentators, as well as researchers, since 70 years have elapsed between the two studies.
Following the original studies by the Clarks, there were suspicions that the black psychologists used "junk" science to concoct their results to give a false impression about effects of segregation and the doctrine of "separate-but-equal." Today, many thought that effects they measured were temporary and had faded with time, especially after the so-called changes that occurred since Brown v Board of Education (1954). The fallacy in such thinking results from white refusal to acknowledge that slavery/segregation produced persistent residual effects that society reinforced.
Interviewed for Eyes on the Prize (11-3-85), Dr. Clark spoke candidly. The attempt on the part of my wife and me was to try to understand how black children saw themselves -- whether they viewed themselves as equal to others. In fact, what we were trying to do is see how children develop a sense of their own being, their own person. Dr. Clark analysis highlighted the essential fact underlying blacks' perilous existence -- development of their self perception.
Although, whites and blacks went through slavery in tandem, each perspective was very different. Whites determined everything about slaves' lives and slaves were forced to accept and adapt to any demand made upon them by whites. White skin represented power, status, wealth, beauty and any other positive characteristics imaginable. Simultaneously, a slave's skin color was a stigma, a badge of servitude, a depository for attributing any characteristic whites despised. A slave's blackness stood out as no other pigment, drawing to him or her the dread and wretchedness of perpetual bondage.
Emancipation did not free slaves of what was their badge of dishonor. A curse that slave descendants spent their existence -- whitening and lightening -- trying to remove. Black skin means one can be denied equal access to the bounties of US citizenship ? the right to vote, equal pay, employment, education, etc.-- even though all justifications for such treatment have long since been proven false. Moreover, slave descendants' skin color justifies the denial of "equal protection" codified under the 14th Amendment to prevent discrimination, disparate treatment and hostile environment -- unequal justice, lynching, murder by police, school-to-prison pipeline, predatory lending, etc.
Dr. Clark explained what the process of segregation did to children he studied. Oh, of course, I saw the warnings signs, even before I knew there was going to be a case [Brown v Board of Education] against segregation. My wife and I saw them as fairly indicative of the dehumanizing effects of racism, of which segregation is the most concrete manifestation of racism, no question about that. In fact, we saw that so clearly that we were reluctant to publish the results, because the results of our studies were so indicative of the dehumanizing, cruel impact of racism in our allegedly "democratic society" and you know, these children were internalizing that. They saw themselves in terms of the society's definition of them as inferior. That's not a pretty thing to- and it was hard for us to pretend to be objective about it.Dr. Clark's perceptive statement has been borne out by the CNN study. The source of children's self perception is information from the society at-large. Metaphorically, like an umbilical cord, society feeds the young images of how it perceives them and they build up what is called "residual-self identifying imagery" which serves as the basis of their personality. All one needs to do in order to understand this process is to observe society's message to realize that nothing has changed. A white skin still represents power, status, wealth, beauty and any other positive characteristics imaginable. Whereas, blackness is still a depository for everything negative ? ignorance, indolence, ribald, poverty, crime, lack of opportunity, unemployment, degradation, homelessness, welfare, etc.-- attributable to people in American society.
The dehumanizing impact of racism on a child's psyche is profound. Look at television, videos or movies; the desirability of being white is overwhelming. Children see white people perform all the positive functions of society, while they are inundated with negative roles blacks play in society. Unlike the Clarks' studies, the CNN study assessed both white (58) and black (78) children; however, the systemic socializing impact of racism was remarkably similar. The reality of the CNN study is that American society is breeding racism today just as it did during slavery or put another way, slavery never ended!
(Source: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/)
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I actually saw this study on CNN. It made me sick to my stomach. So many of our young black children chose the black dolls, like themselves, as being ugly and dumb. The children picked the white dolls as pretty and smart. This study also showd us as African American parents, why we must teach our children at a very young age, why the color of their skin is beautiful and that they should not look down on themselves. We much teach them about the reality of racism from the time they are first able to receive what race is. It made me so sad to see those small kids perceiving that the color of their skin is bad. This was a very educational study and eye opener about racism and the difference between white and black.
ReplyDeleteWell we can tell children all day long and that would help. Any help is better than none at all, but they're still going to get that perception from the billboards, internet,and television. For instance, Most young black males watch sports and 82% of the players in the NBA are black (www.nba.com) but there are only 3 blacks in general manager/CEO positions. So something needs to happen about the media because they broadcast what they want you to see. What's that? Entertainment and Sports. Basically rappers, athletes, and the latest big drug bust which will feature some young black male. They don't want us to see Quinton Primo III whose estimated fortune is at 300 million and the assets of his management company are worth at least 4 billion. But we as black people add fuel to the fire if we constantly tell children "white people have all the money" or "we gone move somewhere nice, out there in the white neighborhood. America perpetuates these images in our heads from the time we can walk and those negative feelings make blacks feel the need to compensate and we do it by consuming at a much larger rate than whites with a significantly different gap in wealth. I myself am guilty of consuming luxury goods: Nike, Ralph Lauren, and Blackberry all goes into the pockets of white men. These companies know if blacks are on board "we're making money." And the media associates the black race with being cool so whites consume because it's cool to be like black people. We can change it and the Montgomery Bus Boycott is the perfect example; stop riding the bus and shook up the economy of at least the city,classic.
ReplyDeleteFor years as a person who has dark skin
ReplyDeleteI have struggled with identity issues. I thought of myself as less than everyone else for years simply because I was always the darkest child in my classrom. Throughout my years in school, I often found myself crying because even though I was just as talented if not more talented I constantly had to prove myself and most of the time only being choosen as a last resort not only by my peers but my teachers as well. It wasnt until I became a college student and meant those who grew up in places like Kenya and other parts of Africa did I realize that I am beautiful, and it was the American society that I grew up in that tuaght me that I was not beautiful because
I was not Light skin or that I was not good enough or that I could not compete with my peers for the very same reason. I often still feel this way when I compete in music competitions and beauty competitions but now I have just accepted that as the way the world works. My mother was one of those parents who would never buy a white dolls so of course thats all I knew but what most parents overlook is that even when we buy black dolls these dolls still have white features they dont look like us. So even while their selling dolls that are ethnic they are still expressing to our children that they are not beautiful. In my opinion we really need a black owned doll company becuase we can show these companies that if they dont include us completetly then we can literally close their doors. So the question then becomes can we stop seperating ourselves within the black culture long enough to help it grow.
I agree with what LaTisha said during the CNN study. She said no one blamed her as a parent for the reason her daughter thought that brown was a nasty color. It is very easy to see that in society everyday. The examples she used where, you were white on your wedding day and black when your going to rob a store. While reading this article I was reminded that the good guys in movies were white cowboy hats while the bad guys were black. Its symbolism at its simplest. Also in the CNN clip LaTisha was reading a book to her daughter and that made me think of children's books and how segregated they are. If you have an African American book it is usually about African Americans and the other books are all full of white children. If we had more books that are a combination or white children and black children doing things together, then maybe when they got to school they would see each other as equals, who play and share together.
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