Several of the articles that we read for this week make reference to the famous "doll test" conducted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark. The researchers found that a vast majority of the students expressed clear preferences for white dolls over black ones. The black dolls bore the weight of several negative associations in the minds of the children, while the white dolls were associated with cleanliness, kindness, and beauty. The results of that test were used, in part, to prove the damage done to African Americans by decades of racial segregation. Nearly fifty years later, a high-school student replicated the 'doll test' to quite interesting results. See the video , called 'A Girl Like Me' and tell me what you think.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Doll Test: Then and Now
Several of the articles that we read for this week make reference to the famous "doll test" conducted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark. The researchers found that a vast majority of the students expressed clear preferences for white dolls over black ones. The black dolls bore the weight of several negative associations in the minds of the children, while the white dolls were associated with cleanliness, kindness, and beauty. The results of that test were used, in part, to prove the damage done to African Americans by decades of racial segregation. Nearly fifty years later, a high-school student replicated the 'doll test' to quite interesting results. See the video , called 'A Girl Like Me' and tell me what you think.
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This "preference" for white skin really fascinates me. In India, "fair" skin is a national obsession. There are countless products, from soaps to creams, that promise fair skin. Even Garnier has jumped on the bandwagon (I think India is the largest market for fairness products. Here's a web page for Garnier products: http://mall.coimbatore.com/bnh/garnier/fairnessantimarks.htm)
Another Indian company even has something called "Fair and Handsome" directed at men.
I can go on and on about India's obsession with "fair" skin. I guess this is our melancholia, our way of dealing with the colonial legacy? "The conversion of the grief of being black [or brown] into the enjoyment of whiteness?" (Cheng, 18)
Following in the vein of social psychology research, a relatively new (I think anyway)study demonstrates the degree to which prejudice operates at the unconscious level (what psychologists have termed "implicit prejudice"). The Implicit Association Test, which is designed to reveal one's implicit prejudices (e.g., more readily associating "good" with "white"), accesses one's conscious and unconscious preferences in everything from music to race. Here's the "Project Implicit" website with the test as well as the relevant research on the topic (it's run/sponsored by Harvard, so I suppose it's legit).
I just realized that I didn't mention the website--here it is.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
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