Ciaopeople Media Group/Fanpage.it | 'Doll test: The effects of racism on children'
https://www.youtube.com/embed/QRZPw-9sJtQ
Background: "Back in the 1940s, Kenneth and Mamie Clark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_and_Mamie_Clark – a husband-and-wife team of psychology researchers – used dolls to investigate how young Black children viewed their racial identities. They found that given a choice between Black dolls and white dolls, most Black children preferred to play with white dolls. They ascribed positive characteristics to the white dolls but negative characteristics to the Black ones. Then, upon being asked to describe the doll that looked most like them, some of the children became 'emotionally upset at having to identify with the doll that they had rejected.' The Clarks concluded that Black children – as a result of living in a racist society – had come to see themselves in a negative light" (Sturdivant, T., 2021). Example: "Which doll is pretty"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZPw-9sJtQ&t=34s Example: "Why is she good"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZPw-9sJtQ&t=78s Example: "Why is she bad"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZPw-9sJtQ&t=98s More: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%27doll+test%27 Discussion: The clip illustrates a phenomenon known as 'structural racism', which according to the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) "is a product of a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various ways to perpetuate racial inequity, and has been a feature of the social, economic, and political systems in which we all exist." https://www.enar-eu.org/about/structural-racism/ Related: Aurélia Perreau (2021). 'Noirs en France' https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17241656/ http://newpractices.co.uk/campaigns/#nj1WEWcF3pE Related: CNA Insider https://www.youtube.com/@CNAInsider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNA_(TV_network) (30 March 2022). '4- to 6-Year-Olds Review Dolls Of Different Skin Colours' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8_EqAWFs4k Bibliography: Sturdivant, T. (2021, February 22). "What I learned when I recreated the famous 'doll test' that looked at how Black kids see race". The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-when-i-recreated-the-famous-doll-test-that-looked-at-how-black-kids-see-race-153780 European Network Against Racism (ENAR). (n.d.). Structural Racism. [online] Available at: https://www.enar-eu.org/about/structural-racism/ [Accessed 2 Feb. 2026].
