Friday, April 18, 2008

Racism: not dead, affects young children

Cross posted at Essembly

Video:

A 17 year-old's documentary tests how black children perceive race. Mirroring a study done before desegregation, black school children are asked to choose which baby doll is the "good" or "bad" doll, which doll looks like them, and which one is their favorite. The two dolls are identical except for their skin color.

The results mirror the study done centuries before: out of the 21 black children, 15 prefer the white doll as the "good" doll, although all of them recognize that the black doll looks more like them.

It is not rocket science to conclude that the black children, who both know that the black doll is "bad" and looks like them, probably have already picked up on cultural racial stereotypes. What kind of sick world do we live in where children are taught to hate the color of their skin?

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