A short film by a New York City high school student asks how far our society has come in its attitude toward race since the 1940s. In her film, “A Girl Like Me,” Kiri Davis recreates a famous 1940s experiment and finds that race attitudes have not changed.
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(18 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)
(18 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)
“Now, show me where he touched you.”
sorry you had to see this Donnshin
Statistically speaking you can’t really draw conclusions from the results on 20 African American children. They might all be from the same school.
Even so, the answers hurt. This calls for further investigation.
The answers hurt? Why did the answers hurt? What can you possibly deduce from such a simple experiment, other than simple and naive theories. This experiment, like the original, is interesting, but is seriously deficient in the wide range of additional statistical data that would be necessary to produce an informed hypothesis.
The only thing experiments like this tell us about society, is that human beings are persistent in their ignorance, and will jump to the most convenient conclusion available in an emotionally charged/politicized issue. Can you say “Global Warming?”
I do believe Obnoxious said that this needed further investigation. And the lil girl at the end associating herself with the “bad” doll has a profound statement that you obviously missed while you were busy being cynical.
OK jackass, let’s review:
“Statistically speaking you can’t really draw conclusions from the results on 20 African American children.”
True.
“They might all be from the same school.”
They might be. Though in the original experiment they were not. Useless speculation either way.
Neither of the first two statements, combined or separately, should lead to the emotional summation that “Even so, the answers hurt.” Why? Because there aren’t any answers yet, which leads to the only logical conclusion: “This calls for further investigation.”
So, “Bored,” what is that “profound statement” made by the girl at the end? What led her to make it? Where does she live? Where does she go to school? What is her home environment like? How much TV does she watch? Internet? Video games? Overall media exposure? Parental influence? Testing environment? What sort of social exposure/interaction does she have? Has this experiment been conducted on white children? Asian? Latino?
I grew up in a black neighborhood, and I had friends who had black dolls and action figures (remember the black GI Joe?), and as far as they were concerned, you could keep your cracker-ass toys! Does that account for anything? Probably, but who knows what?
You say cynical, I say rational.
Well, resorting to name calling totally loses credibility in any argument. That being said, does the fact that you growing up in a black neighborhood somehow make you an expert on the social aspects of all black people? And if i have to spell it out for you, since you obviously seem unable to comprehend, the meesage that is profound is that a little girl is already being taught she is less of a person just because she is black. I dont care how many children you ask, “What led her to make it? Where does she live? Where does she go to school? What is her home environment like? How much TV does she watch? Internet? Video games? Overall media exposure? Parental influence? Testing environment? What sort of social exposure/interaction does she have? Has this experiment been conducted on white children? Asian? Latino?” The fact remains that this IS still occuring whether it be in “seriously deficient” numbers or across the globe. Everyone deserves a world FREE of racism. And if you cant see THAT my friend then maybe you are part of the problem to begin with.
so wot, wow, most black kids prefer white dolls, whoopdy freakin doo! they should try this with real people instead off dolls, coz im pretty sure that the black children would mostly want to hang around a black person then a white person….this doll test proves nothing!!!
All this really is is a feedback loop. The kids are more used to seeing white dolls/action figures/people in cartoons etc. So they ask for what they are used to. If more people wanted black toys, they would grow more common in the stores and more people would want black dolls.
My sister actually got a black cabage patch kid when she was little, probably because the white ones were sold out but it didn’t make a difference to her.
Also most black guys I know prefer white women, try conducting this experiment on grown african americans and see what they pick.
Think Spooky J is harboring some hate. “keep your cracker-ass toys” why was that neccessary? Why do we have to have hate?
“Well, resorting to name calling totally loses credibility in any argument.”
No. Limited name calling is relatively innocuous, unless you are an oversensitive, elitist, PC jackass who claims a lack of credibility in order to divert the issue. Besides, I think it adds pizazz to an otherwise dull conversation.
“…does the fact that you growing up in a black neighborhood somehow make you an expert on the social aspects of all black people?”
Did I say it made me an expert? I did not. Again with the diversionary tactics employed only by those who can’t argue the facts! The FACTS are that I have had the experience of witnessing the exact opposite of what this “experiment” was intended to prove. The FACT that I (and apparently others) have personally seen evidence to the contrary of what this “experiment” purports to define, casts doubt on the credibility of the theoretical outcome of said experiment. It demonstrates that there could be more to your allegedly “profound statement” than meets the eye, and that the experiment itself is limited in scope, which in turn limits it’s conclusions. Fortunately, Doudomida, Shane, and Chad see past the “profundity” of your emotional and therefore limited observation, and have provided rational, “real world” alternatives to the popular knee-jerk reactions of this seriously deficient “experiment.”
“The fact remains that this IS still occuring…”
The fact remains that “THIS” is undefined. I assume you refer to racism, but this “experiment” does not conclusively demonstrate the effects of racism, either with the subject children, nor with the population as a whole. All children say things which make no sense to adults. Things which adults assume to mean one thing, could in fact mean something completely different to the child. That FACT in itself, which was not subject to control in this experiment, creates the possibility of alternate conclusions.
“Everyone deserves a world FREE of racism.”
No one “DESERVES” anything, ever.
Is racism something that should be addressed and corrected by a civilization with any hope of continued existence? The obvious answer is yes, and progress is being made in that direction, but the surest way to achieve that result is through the analysis of all of the FACTS… something that this “experiment” fails at miserably.
And finally, to obvious man:
Harboring some hate? WTF are you talking about? It’s obvious, man, that you are another one of these jackasses who can see only what you intend to see. Figure it out first, then get back to me.
very long comment duke
Fake!
no seriously though, you need a random sample survey for this to be valid information. all of these kids were from the same race and possibly the same school/area.
but see there is something they are missing, they are KIDS! i don’t think if you asked a random group of adults from various parts of the country that the results would come out the same way.
here here
this does seem completely staged, the way the kids hesitate, reciting it just as the they told them to. its quite easy to tell they are told to say what they do.
who cares…
I’m sorry to read that a few of my misinterpreted words call for this kind of aggressive countering, especially seeing that we don’t really have a dispute. My lack of explanation, no doubt. Blame my insufficient English.
When I stated that “They might all be from the same school” I did not intend to make assumptions on how she retrieved her sample. I simply wanted to point out that the sample MIGHT just be extremely disproportionate. We already know it is in no way representative, because it is far too small (20 children). The “same school” remark was my casual suggestion what a LIKELY scenario might have been for interviewing a number of children, (and I might add, not a totally unrealistic one for a high school student).
Hell, my job deals with quantitative research through personal interviewing. I know that representative sample is key, and I wanted to express that in a few words. Not to mention the questionnaire itself, which might just have it’s questions pointing the respondent towards the favoured answers. And there are a number of other external factors that influence a balanced outcome of a survey. Not to mention how an edited video can tell a different story.
So yes, of course we could be looking at a delusive show. Then again, we could not be. Whatever the circumstances that made these children, on the surface of things, APPEAR to associate ‘black’ and ‘bad’ in this video SUGGESTS there is a deep-rooted (self?)-contempt. On purpose? Accidentally? Or truthfully?
At least I find that suggestion by itself very, very worrying. So I called for further investigation, just because I would like to know better.
Sorry about the thorough dissection of your original comments here Obnoxious; It seemed like a good place to start though.
This last post of yours (17) was beautifully written and thoughtful. I still disagree with your conclusion that the “…suggestion by itself [is] very, very worrying,” simply because as you stated, there isn’t enough quantitative data produced to draw any valid conclusion, worry or otherwise, in the first place.
One thing is certain. This topic has had enough, and I’m going to go watch cute kitten videos now.
Unless you are 40 plus yrs old I highly doubt anyone still experiences racism on that high a level. I nor my father, grandfather, etc. never owned slaves. Nor did they (at least from what I know) ever partake in that type of poor behavior of discrimination. Regardless, I doubt any current living black person is or ever was a slave, and I doubt the under 40 crowd has had to deal with the same scenarios as their former generations. So why is it that alot of the hate and reverse racism eminates from the black community? Everyone blames whites for their problems. I have personally lost out on jobs and was point blank told it was because of tokenism that spot was filled (be it color or gender). It seems to me that society goes out of its way to over compensate for its past mistakes and that the black people seem to make a bigger deal about being discriminated against than the white people that are actually “discriminating”. Of course, it could just be a white persons point of view. I realize that I haven’t had those particular hardships, but I also no that I don’t practice that type of hatred. Point is, I have never owned slaves, and don’t dare use the N word, I don’t know of any Black people who have been or are slaves, but they use the N word all the time. So where is this Racism and hatred coming from?
Smart kids
tgghg
im competely shocked, thats just plain brainwashing children
Was the girl asking the dark skinned children a dark skinned person herself? Or was she perhaps of the paler complexion and thereby she became a factor in the results, as there is a possibility that the children were trying to please the girl with their answers.
I am white and personally i think that this experiment doesn show anything good about me.
Okay Okay, all of this arguing between Duke, Spooky and Bored. Calm down.
You clearly missed what the intent of the experiment was. These results were pretty much the same in the 1950s. There is nothing wrong w/ a black child playing w/ a white doll, however there IS something wrong when a black child sees the doll of their colour as a bad doll or a mean doll. There IS something wrong when the little girl @ the end of this study was reluctant to even acknowledge which doll she looked like when she realized that in her mind that she was the bad doll.
The point of this experement(as it was in the 50s) was the show the brainwashing that segregation did some some black children. They see themselves as mean, or a bad race b/c of being black.
White is seen as nice, black is seen as bad. Not just in attitude, but look at what else the media protrays. Light skinned is the status quo. It’s even gotten to the point where blacks are bleaching their skin in hopes of coming close the what the ideal person should look like. Why not embrace natural features?
Okay I know I’m going from subject to subject, but I really wanted to get this out.