CNN tests children on racial attitudes

11 Responses to CNN tests children on racial attitudes

1. Catherine says:

   May 19, 2010 at 12:13 pm

   After watching this I am aching to know what kind of follow up is done with these children, who are basically forced into choosing a “bad child” =’s this or that. I mean when the researcher says; “OK” in her sweet voice, after the child points to a dark skinned image, and then moves onto the next question, what lasting impression does that leave with the child? Doesn’t it give the message that this child’s beliefs are OK too?

   I know there were only 150 respondents, but that is 150 respondents! And, how many others are going to start replicating these questions for their own purposes?

   Were the children read a story, and then told to pick the “dumb” child in the story as they saw them?

   If anyone has more info on this particular study and how it was administered please leave the link. Thanks.
2. Rita says:

   May 19, 2010 at 12:32 pm

   The second video was very interesting, and serves as a caution against drawing too simplistic conclusions from those doll tests. The straight up test gives us no way of knowing: are kids answering based on their sincere views? Are they answering what they think adults want to hear? Are they answering based on how they perceive the world works?

   More important that the simple test is to talk with kids and understand how they process the issue of skin color. I’ve just finished reading “The First R,” which probably a lot of people on this site have read, and it talks about how studies like the doll test are not really suited to understanding how kids view race, both their own and others.

   At any rate, I’m glad to see both videos getting out there in mainstream media. While this is a really difficult time in terms of racial issues, what with having a black president, I also think there is a hunger among many people to seriously address racism in this country, so I’m encouraged by mainstream stories like this – particularly when they manage to reduce the issue to simplistic soundbytes.
3. jstevens says:

   May 19, 2010 at 12:43 pm

   Catherine,

   The full text of the report is here

   I don’t know if there’s info there about follow-up or not…

   Rita,
   I had the same question about the sincerity of the kids’ answers, particularly the “color doesn’t matter” type answers.

   “The First R” is a terrific book, isn’t it?

   -Julia
4. jennifer p says:

   May 19, 2010 at 1:21 pm

   Is it just me, or is this study really problematic? As a number of the kids pointed out in the follow-up interviews, you can’t tell from the color of someone’s skin whether they are smart/dumb/mean/nice (duh!), and the fact that most of the kids obediently make the choice when asked by an authoritative grown-up (with white or light-medium brown skin) in a test-like situation rather than questioning the terms of the questions they were being asked does not seem to me very clear evidence that the same kids would make such judgments as simplistically in real life.

   Moreover, the crying-white-mom pointed out, because of the way the figures are drawn (facial features consist of black lines only), the facial expressions are difficult to see on the fourth picture and almost invisible on the darkest one. So to the extent that kids are actually trying to make judgments based on the arguably relevant evidence of facial expression, the fact that they choose the ones where they can actually see the smiles clearly (any of the first three) is hardly surprising. You have to wonder whether kids confronted with photos, or even drawings of the types from children’s books, where illustrators seem to have no problem presenting highly expressive dark-skinned faces, would express such a clear-cut “white preference.”

   I actually found it pretty heartening that in the follow-up interviews–and in at least one case, during the test itself–most of the kids were quite willing to question the assumptions of the study with a considerable degree of insight, even as they recognized that people do make race-based judgments.

   I’m not saying I don’t believe that kids are color-conscious and often racially prejudiced in a wide variety of ways, but I’m not sure how well this particular study helps us to understand the much more complex ways in which kids experience and make judgments about race.
5. Audrey says:

   May 19, 2010 at 9:55 pm

   Re: how the pictures were drawn, I’m not sure I understand how the facial expressions being drawn in black matter. The children said the dark drawings were bad/ugly/mean because of how dark they were, not because they couldn’t see a smile. While I feel for the crying mother, I think her shock and her child’s answers were due to lack of exposure (in everyday life, media), hence her child making assumptions.
6. slackermom says:

   May 20, 2010 at 12:57 am

   i am just glad to see some open-ended portions of the study. whether experimenting with dolls or cartoons or color shaded squares, asking young children questions as if there were “right” answers is a serious flaw. if i ask you which one is the smart one, and you are a young child, you will typically believe there IS a right answer, and will respond with the answer you think is most likely to be correct. this doesn’t necessarily reflect what you personally feel or believe, it more likely measures what you feel the test administrator or society believes.
7. Dana says:

   May 20, 2010 at 2:42 pm

   I feel that the the study illustrates perfectly that if you ignore race and think your children will just automatically be colorblind because of it you are leaving your children to make their own assumptions about others based on perceived differences. Similar to the way that avoiding talking about sex leaves your children to figure it out on their own, sometimes to disastrous consequences for themselves and others.
8. toyamma says:

   May 21, 2010 at 2:01 am

   @ slackermom, I def. agree that the children, particularly the younger group, probably felt pressured to pick a right answer. But, based on other studies that I’ve read and run, if kids were pointing to a doll just to have an answer to give the adult, then all 5 of the dolls would have been chosen equally often. Instead, they overwhelmingly pointed to the darkest ones, and without hesitation, which suggests that they responses were somewhat unconscious. At the very least, they know the value that dark skinned persons and POC are assigned in society which is scary enough!

   Still yet, i agree that studies like this need to be run more carefully.
9. Manda says:

   May 21, 2010 at 10:57 pm

   Mod note: Welcome, Manda. I’m glad you’re coming to this site and I think you’ll find there’s a lot to learn about here.

   I’m not going to publish your comment, because I don’t think it contributes to the safe space we try to maintain here. Please take a look at the resources at the bottom of this page. I think they will address some of your questions. I hope you will stick around here and listen to what our contributors and commenters have to say.
10. Kam says:

    June 2, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    When I see a beautiful black child looking at her own brown skin and saying that brown skin is “kind of nasty” the tests being somehow flawed (and I don’t believe they are) are the least of my worries.

    I think it’s telling that the mother in one of the videos, tries to say that it’s because the dark face doesn’t show expression (which might be because she’s watching it on a screen and doesn’t have the paper in front of her), but then says that they’ve never talked about race. We KNOW that this is a surefire way for kids to pick up negative racial stereotypes. Why blame it on the study? Besides as others have pointed out, this test has been used with dolls, whose expressions could surely be seen.
11. teachermrw says:

    June 9, 2010 at 3:55 am

    I wrote a post on my blog when the four-part series aired. I truly believe it is time for the dolls to be put to bed.