I mentioned this in class the other day and figured that I'd expand on it a bit further on the blog. Has anyone heard of the "Clark doll experiment?" It was originally conducted by two educational psychologists called Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark. It involved showing children two dolls, identical except for skin color, and asking them a series of questions including which doll they "liked" the best and which doll looked like them the most. They found that overwhelmingly children preferred the white dolls instead of those which had darker skin colors. They presented their evidence in court during the hearings for Brown v. Board of Education to demonstrate the negative effects of segregation on black children. Here are a few excerpts of their testimony in court
Kenneth Clark: "I presented these dolls to them and I asked them the following questions in the following order:
"Show me the doll that you like best or that you'd like to play with,"
"Show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll,"
"Show me the doll that looks 'bad',"
and then the following questions also: "Give me the doll that looks like a white child,"
"Give me the doll that looks like a colored child,"
"Give me the doll that looks like a Negro child," and
"Give me the doll that looks like you."
I found that of the children between the ages of six and nine whom I tested, which were a total of sixteen in number, that ten of those children chose the white doll as their preference; the doll which they liked best. Ten of them also considered the white doll a "Nice" doll. And, I think you have to keep in mind that these two dolls are absolutely identical in every respect except skin color. Eleven of these sixteen children chose the brown doll as the doll which looked "bad." This is consistent with previous results which we have obtained testing over three hundred children, and we interpret it to mean that the Negro child accepts as early as six, seven or eight the negative stereotypes about his own group. . . . . The conclusion which I was forced to reach was that these children .... like other human beings who are subjected to an obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their personalities; that the signs of instability in their personalities are clear, and I think that every psychologist would accept and interpret these signs as such."
(sourced from: http://varenne.tc.columbia.edu/class/common/dolls_in_brown_vs_board.html)
Years later, in 2007, a high school student named Kiri Davis sought to conduct her own version of the Clark doll experiment and made a short film about the role race plays in dominant perceptions of beauty and the impact this has on how young black girls perceive themselves. Her experiment replicated the Clark experiment's result and is actually pretty painful to watch:
Kenneth Clark: "I presented these dolls to them and I asked them the following questions in the following order:
"Show me the doll that you like best or that you'd like to play with,"
"Show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll,"
"Show me the doll that looks 'bad',"
and then the following questions also: "Give me the doll that looks like a white child,"
"Give me the doll that looks like a colored child,"
"Give me the doll that looks like a Negro child," and
"Give me the doll that looks like you."
I found that of the children between the ages of six and nine whom I tested, which were a total of sixteen in number, that ten of those children chose the white doll as their preference; the doll which they liked best. Ten of them also considered the white doll a "Nice" doll. And, I think you have to keep in mind that these two dolls are absolutely identical in every respect except skin color. Eleven of these sixteen children chose the brown doll as the doll which looked "bad." This is consistent with previous results which we have obtained testing over three hundred children, and we interpret it to mean that the Negro child accepts as early as six, seven or eight the negative stereotypes about his own group. . . . . The conclusion which I was forced to reach was that these children .... like other human beings who are subjected to an obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their personalities; that the signs of instability in their personalities are clear, and I think that every psychologist would accept and interpret these signs as such."
(sourced from: http://varenne.tc.columbia.edu/class/common/dolls_in_brown_vs_board.html)
Years later, in 2007, a high school student named Kiri Davis sought to conduct her own version of the Clark doll experiment and made a short film about the role race plays in dominant perceptions of beauty and the impact this has on how young black girls perceive themselves. Her experiment replicated the Clark experiment's result and is actually pretty painful to watch:
I think that the film as well as the doll experiments demonstrate fairly well that people often perceive different races to have different characteristics and that people, especially children, often internalize negative perceptions related to their race and develop, what might be called, racial self-hatred. What do you think is the impact of this? Also, if you have any thoughts about the video, please let us know in the comments.
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