So I was going to start this post with a question on how gender plays a role in racial studies, but after watching the video, "A Girl Like Me," I'm much more interested in the doll test that was conducted.
If you haven't yet, please take the 7 [short] minutes or so to watch this video: A Girl Like Me
Was anyone else struck in the chest like I was when the children were told to choose which dolls were pretty and good and which dolls were ugly bad? Not that the question itself is bad, but when the little girl chose the white one that was "good," but "knew" the black one was "bad" and further CHOSE it when she was asked, "Which one looks like you?" - I just pretty much wanted to cry. It's a huge eye opener, and I just wanted to give her a hug. How does this happen? How do we not KNOW it's happening?! I would never want someone to feel inferior just because of the color of their skin.
When this same study was conducted by the Dr. Clark and Clark in the 1930's and 40's to study the effects of segregation, they came up with conclusion,
"They viewed the results as evidence that the children had internalized racism caused by being discriminated against and stigmatized by segregation." - Wiki Article Here
This idea of internalizing racism is and isn't a new concept to me. We've been talking about it throughout class that racism seems inherent, biological, but I think "internalized racism" is one we should add to the list. It's descriptive about racism in that we take these categories we base on biology, and rationalize them, and then internalize and apply it to our world in a way we don't realize how much we are doing it anymore. It really is quite an awakening to think about it in this way - but I find it hard to keep it in the forefront of my mind. It's what we need to start doing to start changing things. I never want that study to be reproduced and come to the same conclusions - that video itself should be enough to get us to change things.
So - what do you guys think of internalizing racism & how it's done? Also, how do you think America, society, and the media, works to perpetuate the stereotypes we see in the video? What do you all think needs to change and how should we start changing it?
Oh my gosh! My eyes watered when the little girl pushed the black doll towards the interviewer after the question "which doll looks like you?" immediately after she answered the question about the "bad doll" being black. How horrible. How wrong. I have a neighbor who is mixed..her mom is white, her dad black.. and I couldnt help but to wonder if she will experience the same feelings. It made me sick. I actually made several people watch that experiment afterwards (all white female friends) and they all had the same reaction I did...sadness and disgust. Since seeing that video, I have been looking at magazines and ads in a different light-- what messages are they sending about American beauty? And while you can see an attempt towards diversity, most models share the same characteristics- slender, tall, white models with sleek hair. I can't imagine knowing from age 4 or 5 that your race is seen as the "bad race." How can our society even claim to be diverse and tolerant when this is the message even children who are too young to be self-conscious pick up on?!
ReplyDeleteI am an education minor and I see a lot of potential for change in the school systems. Lessons about diversity and beauty of all kinds should be discussed at an early age along with equality and justice. Teachers have an invaluable window of time in which to teach not only facts, but also social lessons that are easy incorporated into lesson plans. No girl should feel ugly at age 4 or 5. It is just wrong.
I have a personal story. My son and I were talking about features or something. I don't remember how we got to this subject, but he told me that Black people were more attractive than African people. I was totally upset with him. He felt that the fact that Blacks and Whites mixed "evened out" our features. He felt it was an opinion. I had to drive home that this is internalized racism.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the computer to look up the definition. We talked about images of beauty, how the media choses to show people in Africa either starving refugees with flies covering their face, victims of AIDS or something else negative. Our family has traveled quite a bit and have lived in Africa and I was quite shocked to hear him say that. I thought that the exposure he had to different races, would not lead him to say that. However, the school system in which he belongs, he has experienced what I know and perceived to be blatant or undercover racism. As a child he was not in tune poltically.
I remember him asking me could we live around Black people because the children at his school were not very welcoming. It was not just the children, but it was his principal I am sorry to say. We are practicing Muslims and my son was practicing Ramadan (his insistence). I gave him lunch to carry to school in case he wanted to break his fast. I informed his teacher and the principal. She never questioned me or anything. Nevertheless she did not hesitate everyday to say to him that he could eat if he wanted to as if I was forcing him. I told him the same thing. She would put food in front of him. The final straw was she called the Department of Children and Family Services and stated that I was not feeding my children and added another tall tale that I did not believe in going to the doctor.
Needless to say I was livid. I could go on but, she thoroughly harrassed my son. I guess as adults you can see how one in ignorance or note will display prejudice against their peers. I cannot fathom how anyone with a heart could practice racism against a child. I have struggled with this forever with my children and in my own personal life. One just learns to live with. Unfortunately self-hatred ends up being the side affect.
I strive to give my children diversity in topics, experiences and cultures, but images in institutions such as school, media and others are powerful.
I'm not quite sure how relevant this is to the more recent study, but when I took an African American Psychology course, we actually talked about the Clark and Clark research. We actually talked about how the experiment was flawed in many ways. We discussed many of the factors that may have contributed to the fact that the black children showed a preference for the white dolls over the black dolls. They included: familiarity (there were not many black dolls on the market), nature of the dolls (the black dolls were created by painting over white dolls), race/ethnicity of the researchers (many of the researchers who collected the data were white), and presence of demand characteristics (the children picked the doll that they thought the researcher wanted them to pick).
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely not saying that this negates the findings. It is incredibly sad to see these young children making statements that illustrate internalized racism. The media plays such an enormous role in the perpetuation of these stereotypes. In order to stop the perpetuation of these stereotypes, our society needs to actively portray diversity in a positive light and pursue the use of diverse role models to spread messages of racial pride. When children see their role models as loving themselves for their diversity, they may be able to follow suit.
Also, I wanted to bring up the notion that the concepts of self-esteem and self-hatred are incredibly complex. In the class, we talked about how self-esteem is multidimensional. Specifically, we talked about how racial self-esteem differed from personal self-esteem. Additionally, we further discusses how these different dimensions of self-esteem could correlate to the fact that many individuals may show pro-white tendencies, but still be very proud to be black.
Reading your post, I'm reminded of two instances. One is rather recent. I work at a daycare. I usually work with the babies, but one day I was sent to work with the three years old. I met this really sweet kid, but what struck me was his first words to me, "You're white, like the other lady who works here." That is the first time anyone told me I'm white! But what is more surprising is that this three years old kid who hasn't even learn to speak grammatically correct has already learn to racialize; his racialization isn't correct but he has already distinguished the me (black) vs the other (white) so that anyone who doesn't look like him is considered white. I find that rather sad.
ReplyDeleteThe other story that I'm reminded of that follows very closely to your post is little Asian girls' idea of beauty. I remember when I was in middle school, all of the Asian girls in my school wanted to dye their hair blond and different shades of brown. I admit, I was one of them. Thankfully, my parents stopped me. We just thought the different shades of hair that white girls have (blond, strawberry blond, light brown, etc.) were really cool compared to our monotonous black hair. We also thought their different eye colors were very pretty as well, but that's a different story. Anyways, so there was a rave over dying our hair different colors. One of my friends apparently had to bleach her dark hair several times until it was able to absorb the chemical in the dyes.
Asians' idea of beauty has become influenced by Western standard of beauty almost just as much as blacks' idea of beauty. I know of bizarre instances were Asian girls use toothpick or invisible tape to try to make a fold on their eyelid so that they can look like they have those deep double eyelids that are common among white girls. I didn't go that far, but as you can imagine, I also had a hard time dealing with my self-image as a child. It takes being with friends who are comfortable with and love who I am that allow me grow comfortable and happy looking the way I am.
So yeah, this is a huge problem that is very predominate in the minority population. In fact, it is predominate in many parts of the world where Western culture is the standard to emulate.
This was extremely sad to watch. I never thought when I was younger why there were no dolls of other colors. Then when I got older and experience societies dictation of beauty based on dolls and models I associate the pain with white girls; I never stopped to think how do girls my age who are black, asian, or hispanic fell about social pressures of beauty. That is the saddest part for me. The fact that at the time I was so ignorant I assumed it only effected people who actually looked like that. Here are these women and children who are effected by social norms of body, hair, but also skin type.
ReplyDeleteThe other day as I was sitting in a waiting room I noticed a little African-American girl with a white doll. I know today they have dolls that are black and I was wondering why her mother still buys her dolls that are going to lead to pain. But I realized that is in no way her intention. She is simply trying to let her daughter fit in as much as possible in letting her play with the dolls everyone else is playing with. It pains me to see that image is such a strong influences just from dolls.