Race: How Far Have We Come?
Today I was reading the news articles on the WCCO website and came across this one: (http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_066193629.html). The subject of this article was about how children think of race these days. It was based on an experiment that took place in the 1950s and focused on how children think of race.
I was surprised that of the 21 young black preschoolers who participated in the study 15 of them chose to play with the white dollinstead of the black doll. Many of the preschoolers said that the white doll was the good doll and that the black doll was the bad doll.
This relates to the class because we have been talking about the different stereotypes of genders and how things have changed. Apparently there is still a feeling that black people are the bad people and white people are the good people.
Comments
Wow, I’m blown away by this study.. I would have believed the results had they shown up in 1950, but in 2007? Children judging race in pre-school??!! What happened to peace and love? Where has it gone?
This is incredibly disappointing, especially when you have hope that the educated society of change and empowerment is coming. What are our children being taught? There is no change without our efforts. This article can’t be true across the board for the majority of pre-schools’. It’s good this information was published, hopefully it will insight teachers to be on their toes when it comes to teaching children about love and equality.
Posted by: Grant Heuke | March 8, 2007 10:44 AM
It is amazing how much the language and the images linked with different races paint a picture of how different races ought to be. I thought of the video clip we’ve seen in class from the movie “Malcolm X�. Its been a long time since I’ve seen the movie and read the autobiography, however, I think that this clip (the inmate explaining to Danzel Washington the different meaning of the words ’black’ and ’white’)
really explains how words and images linked to certain races are naturalized and never questioned, even by the subjugated groups. Hence, in this case, the black children chose to play with the white doll, not because they liked it better (in fact the dolls are exact replica of each other, except their color), but because the kids live in a society that links 'whiteness'to 'goodness' and 'niceness.'
In the documentary, the teenage filmmaker asks the kids, “Can you show me which one is the nice doll?� And some kids pick the white doll, then the filmmaker asks, “And why is it that the nice doll?� One kid says, “Because it he is white.� She goes on and asks, “Can you show me the doll that looks bad?� And the kid picks up the black doll, and she ask, “And why does that look bad?� kid: “Because it is black.�
Words such as ‘nice’, ‘good’, ‘pretty’, which describe goodness and beauty is linked with whiteness, while ‘bad’, ‘criminal’, ‘ugly’ is linked with blackness. These words might not be so obvious, but if you look at around and pay attention, from dictionary definitions to magazines to television, certain language and images are linked with blacks, whites, and other races. These images and language become naturalized and unquestioned, even by the non-white groups being described by the images/language, just like the kids in this documentary film. Sad, but true!
Posted by: Sadia | March 8, 2007 7:49 PM
The most famous doll in the world is Barbie, and obviously, Barbie does not represent many people in this country, even if they are white. Hence, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the children in the documentary chose the white doll over the black doll, even when they themselves are black. One might think that times have changed and that this kind of thing is very shocking, however, that is not the case. In fact, growing up in Somalia, I always used to play with dolls that have white skin and blond hair. Even in a all-black nation, the white doll is still the doll of choice (in fact, I’ve never seen a black doll growing up in Somalia). This tells us a lot of about our assumptions about the difference between the black and white race. Although times change, the ideas about race take different forms, but are still relevant to contemporary/modern society.
Posted by: Qadro | March 8, 2007 8:14 PM