Prejudice, the Clark Doll Test, and Racial Self-Image

A Personal Encounter with Racial Prejudice

I once witnessed an incident involving racial prejudice at a local Walmart store located in a predominantly white, suburban area of town. I was standing in a checkout line behind a white couple shopping with their young son. Standing directly 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 boy calling for his mom and saying that they needed to change lines. He was standing up in the shopping cart and giving the African-American woman dirty looks. She stood quietly, ignoring him.

The parents seemed completely oblivious; however, after several pleadings from their son, the mother turned and said, "What is it?" The little boy turned and boldly pointed at the African-American woman. There was an eerie silence as the cashier, the parents, the woman, and I all took note of what the child was communicating. The mother looked at the woman, did nothing to correct or quiet her child, and proceeded to complete 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 standing with someone of color. What made it so troubling was the fact that the parents ignored it entirely. There was no apology to the woman, not even an embarrassed smile to ease the tension. They simply disregarded what had just happened. It made me wonder how many times they had made similar comments around their child about African-Americans.

I have to believe that this small child did not arrive at this behavior on his own. I believe it was shaped by things he had seen and heard before, most certainly at home. As the family headed out of the store, I felt for the woman standing in front of me. I wondered how many times she and her loved ones had faced such experiences. I wondered how this small child was going to function in a larger society — when he attends schools with African-American teachers and students, or takes a job where someone of color is his co-worker or manager. I thought about the messages of superiority, prejudice, and fear being reinforced at home, and how his racist display had just gone unchallenged. I was certain it would not be the last time he acted that way, especially since there was virtually no repercussion for what had just happened. Lastly, I wondered how the woman on the receiving end must view the white couple, the child, the community, and — most importantly — herself.

The Clark Doll Study: Origins and Methodology

Prejudice has demoralizing consequences for those subjected to it. In the 1939 Clark Doll test, Dr. Kenneth Clark and Mamie 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," and "Give me the doll that looks like you."

Overwhelmingly, the children named the white doll as more beautiful, and because most had indicated by the final question that the black doll was "bad," most also stated that the white doll looked more like them. The Clarks concluded that these results proved that school segregation was having a devastating effect on the mental well-being of these children (Barreto, Ellemers & Fiske, 2010). The children were clearly internalizing the stereotypes and racism they were constantly subjected to and, as a result, had developed a considerable degree of self-hatred and poor self-esteem.

What the Doll Test Revealed About Segregation and Self-Image

The Clark Doll test was critical to the national conversation about racial discrimination in the 1950s and 1960s. The test results provided solid evidence that African-American children were well aware of the stigma attached to segregation and had drawn negative conclusions about what it implied about them (Barreto, Ellemers & Fiske, 2010). In some instances, children refused to make doll selections for certain questions; others ran off in tears.

The test also revealed that results varied by region. 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. By contrast, the test revealed that children attending integrated schools in New York had fewer negative self-image issues.

The Study's Role in Brown v. Board of Education

The Clark Doll study was used as evidence 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 critically important first step toward the dismantling of Jim Crow law. By demonstrating the psychological harm inflicted on Black children by a segregated school system, the Clarks gave the Court empirical grounds for ruling that legal segregation violated the equal protection guaranteed under the Constitution.

References

Barreto, M., Ellemers, N., & Fiske, S. T. (2010). "What did you say, and who do you think you are?" How power differences affect emotional reactions to prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, 66(3), 477–492. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2010.01657.x

Gee, C. L., & Heyman, G. D. (2007). Children's evaluation of other people's self-descriptions. Social Development, 16(4), 800–818. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00408.x