This morning GMA (Good Morning America for those outside the US), ran a report on a "revist" of the infamous doll test. The doll test was an experiment used to show how racism made black kids feel bad about black people and the way they judged two identical dolls who differed only in "skin" color was how these attitudes were revealed. Did I mention that test was first done 60+ years ago?
First there is the problem with the Dolls themselves. At time marker -4:46 we see the dolls in question. They are clearly different in shade but no where near the kind of skin tone spread that is observable in the real world. In my opinion the brown doll ought to have been much darker. I'm talking Hershey candy bar dark. If you look at the footage at time point -4:20, you'll notice that the "black" doll was in fact darker than the dolls used in this current experiment. Also it appears that the dolls had "racially" appropriate hair. These I think are significant in and of itself. In fact I would have liked to see the following:
1) A spectrum of dolls ranging in complexion from practically white to Hershey dark chocolate brown.
2) With hair colors from blond, red black, brown reflective of what happens naturally in nature (That is no chocolate brown dolls with blond hair).
3) Hair textures that are also genetically appropriate: No Blond straight haired chocolate dolls and no afro'd blond white dolls.
4) Different nose widths on the dolls reflective of what happens in nature. So we can have chocolate dolls with flat wide noses AND narrow noses, but no blond white dolls with flat wide noses.
Now going into the "findings" we find the following:
88% of the African-American children in the study said the tan doll looked like them. We'll interpret this to mean that having the idea implanted in their minds that the tan doll was the "black" doll and since they are "black" they My the cognitive association between themselves and the doll. That is we see the common phenomenon of black folk associating whatever is defined as black as being a part of that group. Furthermore the association is relativistic. That is relatively speaking the tan doll most resembles most of the respondents.
But then the report gets muddy. You'll note that Diane Says: "The majority would prefer to play with the darker doll, or both or neither." This is clearly confusing. The implication of the statement is that a majority would prefer to play with the darker doll, but that is not what the actual statement says. The actual statement is that as a collective group the respondents who would prefer to either play with the dark doll, both dolls or neither, represented a majority over those respondents who wanted to play only with the white doll. That doesn't really mean much. What would be important is how many of the respondents only wanted to play with the tan doll and how many wanted to only play with the white doll. Are they split equally? I haven't seen the actual study so I don't know.
The same problem arises with the question regarding which doll was "nice." and again the majority of our kids said the black doll was nice,or both dolls equally so. Again this lumping of two clear categories to represent a "majority" is misleading. It is even more problematic because the segment proudly boasts the "88%" who identify with the tan doll but is unwilling to post any percentages in regards to the other questions. Clearly a majority is simply 51% or more. So we could imply that half the respondents thought that that tan doll was not only not nice but also not worthy of being played with. Certainly that would not be the feel good results which the program would be trying to project.
but then we get to some real deep issues. At time -2:47 we have a tan skinned girl (who incidentally is the same complexion as the tan doll) who expounds on why the white doll is nice and tan doll is bad:
In regards to the nice white doll: "It always be good and listens."
In regards to the bad black doll: "It talks back. It don't follow directions."
Now clearly this child is projecting not HER thoughts on the doll but the thoughts of her parents and/or teacher. Having never seen the doll before in her life there is no rational reason for her to claim that the doll is "always good." Furthermore; since the doll is clearly an inanimate object it could never have actually been good, or bad or ever followed directions.
If you follow the eye movement of the child before she answers the question about the nice doll you'll note that she looks up and to the right (her left). In psychology this indicates that she is constructing a visual image rather than remembering something. So it is clear that she is creating a narrative. Then she looks dead ahead which is a sign of visualization. She does the same thing with the question on the bad doll though there is a camera cut at the point where she would be making her initial eye movement. But she does show signs of visual construction during her answer.
It is clear that this young girl has been fed particular images associated with black folk and is able to reconstruct and project these images onto others at a subconscious level. she has no clue that she is creating good and bad people literally out of thin air.
The next issue was the boys answer to which doll was the prettiest. All the boys said both. With one stating matter of factly that they aren't really different except for skin color. Of course this is a statement of fact. This underscores my position that a wider range of dolls with varied physical features would have been more useful. Clearly we know that differences are far more than skin color.
Now in what I can only call a clear setup: They showed a what I assume to be, by her own statements, a biracial child who had a complexion closer to the white doll. Not a problem right? She says that the white doll is pretty? Why Because she likes the color white. Is it fair to judge this child on a color preference? Is that a broad statement? Since she, skin tone wise, is closer in color to the white doll what is wrong with her feeling an ID with that doll? Furthermore since she is biracial it means one of her parents are white (by her own admission), therefore it should be expected that she's going to have different affinities than someone who does not have a white parent or guardian.
Going back to the dolls. She says that she does not like the "brown doll" because it's brown. You'll note that this is a different answer than the answer to why she thought the white doll was pretty. In that case she made a blanket statement about color preferences and in the latter case she made a specific object color reference. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I think it's significant.
However; most disturbing was her response to the which doll she ID's with question. She claims to ID with the brown doll because as she says: "I'm brown cause I'm mixed up with white and black." While she makes this statement (time code -1:20) she puts her hand to her head as if she's trying to figure something out and makes a face that shows clear confusion and exasperation as to how she identifies herself. When she ID's the tan doll as the one that looks most like her she blurts out "but I'm not mean." (time -1:13). Clearly then someone has informed her that brown people are mean.
Taking this "mean" theme, the next child, clearly black and not biracial though her specific lineage is not disclosed, states that the tan doll is the ugly doll because it is frowning. Never mind that both dolls are physically constructed the same. Unfortunately the between the angle of the camera and the girl's eyeglasses it is impossible to see how she is constructing her reasons for the supposed ugliness of the doll but she is clearly troubled by either the question or the possible mental processes going on because she nearly broke off her fingers while her eyes darted left and right looking for a justification for a statement she has already taken to be true.
The other problem with this line of questioning is that the questioner has given a powerful suggestion to the child. By asking which is the ugly doll she has implanted the idea that one of the dolls MUST be ugly. Therefore the child, who is more susceptible to suggestion, must think that there must be an ugly doll on the table and therefore goes about trying to justify whatever choice they are going to make. I think that this particular child was torn by this suggestion. Had she been asked if she thought either of the dolls were ugly would she have said something different? What about instead of asking which doll they would want to play with, tell them they have to go to another room and they need to bring one of the dolls and see which they choose.
There are clear problems with how the study was done and how it was presented. I think if some of the issues I brought up were addressed the study could be far more useful. Secondly I think that the focus on Obama at the end of the piece is also misleading. Between 1940 and 2009 there have been a lot of changes in the visible rolls of black folk (and some not so much). The black pride movements in the 60's and late 80's /early 90's have created a parent class that is different than those of the 1940's. Obama's election is the culmination of a lot of changes as well as a lot of missteps by the previous administration. But also it's simply not just about skin color.
(17 years of informed commentary)