¶ … Prejudice and the Clark Doll test Prejudice Today and the Clark Doll Study

I once witnessed an incident involving racial prejudice at a local Wal-Mart store. The store was located in a predominately white, suburban area of town. I was standing in a checkout line behind a white couple shopping with their young son. Standing right behind them was a well-dressed, African-American woman with a few items in her hand. A white cashier was quietly ringing up the family's items when I overheard the preschool age, little boy calling for his mom and saying that they needed to change lines. He was standing up in the shopping cart giving the African-American lady dirty looks. She stood quietly, ignoring him. The parents seemed completely oblivious; however, after several pleadings from the son, the mother turned and said, "What is it?" The little boy turned and boldly pointed at the African-American lady. There was an eerie silence as the cashier, the parents, the lady and I all took note at what the child was saying. The mother looked at the lady, did nothing to correct or quiet her child and proceeded to carry out her transaction.

I felt embarrassed and a little ashamed despite the fact that this incident had nothing to do with me directly. It was so blatantly rude and there was an unspoken acknowledgement of why this child was insistent that their family change lines -- they were in line with someone of color. What made it so horrible was the fact that the parents ignored it. No apology to the lady, not even an embarrassed smile to calm the situation. They simply disregarded what had just happened. It made me wonder how many times they have made nasty comments around their child about African-Americans.

I have to believe that this small child did not come to this conclusion...

I believe his behavior was based on things he has seen and heard before, most certainly at home. As the family headed out of the store, I hurt for the lady in line in front of me. I wondered how many times she and/or her loved ones had had such experiences. I wondered how this small child was going to function in larger society when he attends schools with African-American teachers and students or takes a job where he has someone of color as a co-worker or manager. I wondered about the messages of superiority, prejudice and fear that were being reinforced at home for this boy and how his racist display was just reinforced. I was sure it would not be the last time he did something like that, especially since there was virtually no repercussion for what just happened. Lastly, I wondered how the lady on the receiving end must view the white couple, this child, the community we were in, and most importantly, herself.
Prejudice has demoralizing consequences for those subjected to it. In the 1939 Clark Doll test, Dr. And Mrs. Kenneth and Mammie Clark illustrated the negative impact of stereotyping and the racial segregation that existed in America during that time (Gee & Heyman, 2007). The experiment involved asking five to nine-year-old, African-American children to choose between white and black dolls in an effort to reveal their self-perceptions of race, beauty and acceptance. All features of the dolls were identical except for skin color. The children were asked a specific series of questions: "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'," "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…