Prejudice and the Clark Doll Test Prejudice

¶ … 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 out of nowhere. 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 like a Negro child," "Give me the doll that looks like you." Overwhelmingly, the children named the white doll as more beautiful and because most of the children had indicated that the black doll was bad by the time the final question was asked, most stated that the white doll looked more like them. The Clarks concluded that the results proved that school segregation was having a devastating effect on the mental well-being of these children (Barreto, Ellemers & Fiske, 2010). They were clearly internalizing the stereotypes and racism they were constantly subjected to and as a result had developed a considerable level of self-hate and poor self-esteem.

The Clark Doll test was critical to the national racial discrimination conversation of the 1960s. The test results provided solid evidence that African-American children were well aware of the stigmatization of segregation and had drawn negative conclusions about what it must mean about them (Barreto, Ellemers & Fiske, 2010). In some instances, the children refused to make doll selections for some of the questions; others ran off in tears. The test also revealed that in various parts of the country, the results varied. In southern states where children were more likely to attend segregated schools, they were also more likely to prefer the white doll or indicate that it was the more desirable one to play with. This was particularly true for young, African-American girls. When asked to color a picture of themselves, most of the children used noticeably lighter shades of brown. Similarly, the test also revealed that children attending integrated schools in New York had fewer negative self-image issues. The study was used in the 1954 Brown v Board of Education case and helped encourage the Supreme Court to rule that "separate but equal" schools were unfair, unhealthy and unequal and should therefore be illegal (Gee & Heyman, 2007). This was a very important first step toward the demise of Jim Crow law.