Darker Doll Experiment

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The film we watched in class on children and dolls was disturbing. The film shows children picking light skinned dolls over the darker ones. In fact, they thought the darker dolls were bad, stupid, and less worthy than the lighter ones. It was astonishing hear the children explain why they chose the lighter doll. I wonder if these children wish they could be a lighter shade. It was hard for me to realize they must see themselves as bad, ugly, and dumb too. I imagine they are mirroring what they see and hear in society This nation has not come very far with our race issues if young children believe the color of their skin makes them inferior. For instance, this experiment has been replicated over the years, and the results are the same. The children declare the darker dolls undesirable. Obviously, as a nation, we are failing to make black children feel accepted and loved. …show more content…

For example, Trayvon Martin was gunned down while walking home in his father’s neighborhood. An over-zealous, self-appointed neighborhood guard did not like the way he looked, so he shot Trayvon. Trayvon died because he was black and wearing a hoodie. Similarly, Michael Brown was shot in the back by a police officer. The officer was not in eminent danger, Michael had his back to him. Time after time, in America young black men are being detained, jailed, and killed because of the color of their skin. It is easy to understand the correlation between race issues and the results of this experiment. These children feel lesser because our society projects that message. If they are bombarded with images and dialog depicting blacks as bad, dumb, and ugly, they will believe it. It is unfair and disheartening, we need to do better for the

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