Description
Book SynopsisDoes racial discrimination harm Black children''s sense of self?
The Doll Test illuminated its devastating toll.
Dr. Kenneth Clark visited rundown and under-resourced segregated schools across America, presenting Black children with two dolls: a white one with hair painted yellow and a brown one with hair painted black. Give me the doll you like to play with, he said. Give me the doll that is a nice doll. The psychological experiment Kenneth developed with his wife, Mamie, designed to measure how segregation affected Black children''s perception of themselves and other Black people, was enlightening-and horrifying. Over and over again, the young children-some not yet five years old-selected the white doll as preferable, and the brown doll as bad. Some children even denied their race. Yes, said brown-skinned Joan W., age six, when questioned about her affection for the light-skinned doll. I would like to be white.
What the Children Told Us is
