Wednesday, October 11, 2006

the doll

let me just say this has been rolling around in my brain for a few hours, so if it comes out a little crazy please forgive.

today i was in the car, listening to ryan cameron, my radio idol. he was talking about she revival of the doll study, where a child is shown a black doll and a white one and asked which was the good one. in the school in harlem, 16 out of 20 black children chose the white doll.

i have a problem with it right there. the conclusion is that the child is responding to the what they see in today's society. however, the angle of the question suggests that the child even has to chose, and will continue to chose in life.

when i took my sociology class last spring, i learned about an interesting aspect of american society. i cant remember what it was called but it had to do with only one being the best or the champ or the winner. i call it the highlander theory. "there can be only one." and to say you must chose is to say if this one is good, everything else must be bad.

i didnt read the study yet but i wonder if they asked the kids why they chose what they did. i dont think i ever had the idea that my race was inferior, but you can never be sure what a child is thinking. my favorite doll may have been of any race. she kind of looked like lauren. it wasnt her race that made me like her, it was her hair. i have always loved red hair, and even today i dye my brown hair burgundy.

i'm in no way trying to negate the truth that our society is racially biased. but we do now have the power to fix that. being from a mixed family and even my neighborhood, my mom has taught me that no one is better than me because they look different. we need to know that and make it a reality.

and are we black people the only race that feels this way? are we the only ones they studied? discuss.

4 comments:

Madam DLBG said...

OHMYGOSH...I was just explaining this study to my roomie yesterday!! I watched a 15 year old girls documentary about this study she did for a highschool class that was talking about engrained? prejudices and she decided to do the study. i was trippin at the results, saddened that even today Blaks still belive the "white is right" stigma that was embeded in us at teh start of Slavery and furthered with the Willie Lynch theory...damn shame Black folks...we need to teach out children Black is beautiful!!!!

the joy said...

say it loud! i'm black and i'm proud!

Jameil said...

yes, black people were the only ones they studied. the study originated with a study by a black psychologist, i think dr. kenneth clark, who was not seeing any psychology relating to the particular problems of black people. when he talked to the children, they DID feel the white doll was better. it wasn't just the hair or anything like that. there is a systematic effort of the last several hundred years to create a sense of inferiority among blacks. its still alive and well.

the joy said...

its unfortunate that that's true. but we should creat the idea of equality and not overcompensate. that will cause more problems.