Think about when you were little. What did your parents tell you about race? Your friends?
I don't remember my parents telling me anything about race. I went to schools that were predominantly white. While I was friends with individuals of different ethnicities, I never gave much thought to how a person of a minority race might feel being one of the few black or asian or hispanic or any other race that is considered to be a minority. I also never gave thought to how being a minority might influence the way they view the world.
When I was in elementary school I rarely saw color. In fact my three closest friends were of varying cultural backgrounds. I spent much of my time with a girl who was of Greek descent, another of Japanese descent and another of Indian descent. We were like one little multi-cultural club and I wasn't even really aware of it.
Does this mean that at that time I was free from internalized racism? To be honest I don't know. Sometimes, it seems that young children don't care about race. That they do not see color until someone points out differences. Until they are influenced by parents, relatives, and the media.
But can it be true that in early childhood children do not see race as an issue? Ever? We hear stories in the news about young kids who bring guns to school, and pick on kids that are different because of color, gender, weight, clothing, etc.
So, when do children learn about race? When do we start to notice differences? When should parents begin talking to their kids about skin color and culture?
According to a recent Newsweek article, some researchers say it is best to discuss race as early as three as children have a tendency to categorize through favoritism. The article also states that some researchers feel that today's childrens multi-cultural tv programs are often too vague when it comes to encouraging interaction and friendship development with mixed races.
There have been many studies that seek to find how children feel about race. Many find that children often discriminate against darker skinned individuals even if they too have dark skin.
In 2005, 18 year old aspiring director Kiri Davis debuted a 7 minute award winning documentary entitled A Girl Like Me. The documentary examines issues surrounding skin color, hair and facial features for young African American women.
In, A Girl Like Me, Davis interviews her peers about society's beauty standards. She then copies the famous Kenneth Clark experiment. In the 1940s, husband and wife psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted an experiment where they laid out a black doll and a white doll before African American children. One and a time they asked the children which they thought was good or bad. The end result was that most African American children preferred white dolls. The husband and wife team concluded this was proof of internalized racism. Their research later became evidence in the Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision of Topeka, Kansas, which eventually ended school segregation in the United States.
When Davis repeated the the Clark experiment, 15 out of 21 children choose the white dolls over the black dolls. So, what does this mean? It appears that not much has changed since the 1940s.
This video strikes a chord with me and I think it does with many others. For many it has probably been quite some time since the Clark experiment has been mentioned or brought to a focal point.
I do think that as a society there have been many improvements in terms of race issues. However, Davis' film shows us that we may not be as far along as once thought. I think her film also tells us that parents need to be much more proactive in speaking to their children about issues of race and culture.
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