The Doll Test Rhetorical Analysis

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The tone in which the word “black” is uttered is something to be evaluated. It drips with disdain and concealment as if there is something to hide. The way that we do not differentiate between facial structures, cultural characteristics and personality sets us up for faulty expectation in which black women are undesirable. The biggest issue is that they believe this too. The doll test was conducted in 1947 by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark. They asked if the colored children preferred to play with black dolls or white dolls, the children all chose the white doll. They made these decisions based off of their personal rhetoric. With products like hair straighteners, skin lighteners and social media displaying the stereotypical angry …show more content…

There are no black dolls with naturally textured hair or cultural attire which says something. It speaks about our inability to see the value of the colored woman’s culture. Just because a woman is black does not mean she is African or southern. The doll test shows that there needs to be more done to show youth what makes black people beautiful and how much variety is within the various cultures. From African descents, to Haitian to the other Caribbean islands, each culture has something unique and wonderful to offer America, however, if they are just tossed under the general umbrella of “black” and then segregated by shades, the entire country suffers. The country should encourage cultural diversity and allow for the ideals of beauty to crumble so that children are not under the impression that beauty lies in the lighter skin tones alone. There should also be more encouraged discussion about women of color in all areas of life that is positive in tone and uplifting in content, especially within the black …show more content…

Color is just another thing to add to that list. However, these women need to know now more than ever that their beauty is not limited to their shade and that they are all beautiful regardless of how light skinned or dark-skinned they are. These women need to be encouraged to stay true to their hue and the multiracial women need to be accepted for all that they are so that women who are actually just black don’t feel the pressure to become a lighter quality of black to bleach themselves. There are countless of black women, who from the times of slavery, were able to pass as white. They spent their lives keeping one of the biggest secrets to themselves, that they possessed black ancestry. They allowed the secret to die with them because they were ashamed of it. In the CNN article, Roland Martin tells the tale of his own Aunt Rita who passed away. She was the kind of black woman who could be considered white because of how light she was in complexion. She spent her life hiding the fact that a fraction of who she was black and now her offspring will never have to know. Halle Berry faces a similar situation with her daughter Nahla who everyone wants to categorize as white because of how she looks. Berry refuses to speak on the issue much and has declared that she will not decide for her daughter, she will allow her to choose when the time is right.

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