'The Doll Test'

  I have been reminded that it is Black History Month,and also about a study,which I remember reading about, that is quite disturbing and sad. That is, the results are sad. 
  Dr. Kenneth Clark,(not to be confused with British art historian and TV personality, Sir Kenneth Clark.),and his wife Mamie Phipps Clark, were African American psychologists. (Mamie was the first black woman to receive a doctorate of psychology degree from Columbia University.) In the 1940's they developed a series of tests,called 'the doll tests',based on Mamie’s Howard University master’s thesis,'The Development of Consciousness of Self in Negro Preschool Children'. 

Mamie being awarded the American Association of University Women's Achievement Award by Elizabeth Michaels, in 1973. The award is described on the AAUW website as, "presented to an individual whose record of achievement in any scholarly or professional field spans 20 or more years. Through this award, AAUW publicly recognizes the highest standards of service in the public and private sectors. The award underscores the significant accomplishments of those who advance the goals of AAUW". The AAUW's slogan is 'Empowering women since 1881".

  The tests were meant to study how segregation affected how African American children. perceived themselves.The idea was that racism and segregation made the children feel inferior and damaged their self-esteem and self-identity. Interviewed in the 1987-90 PBS documentary 'Eyes on the Prize', Dr. Kenneth Clark talked about the tests,explaining, “The Dolls Test was an attempt on the part of my wife and me to study the development of the sense of self-esteem in children. We worked with Negro children---I'll call Black children--- to see the extent to which their color, their sense of their own race and status, influenced their judgment about themselves, self-esteem." The tests involved the use of four dolls,identical except for colour. All the children involved were African Americans between the ages of 3 and 7. All the groups,except one, went to segregated schools.The kids were asked to give opinions of the dolls on several subjects,including which doll was“good” and which was “bad,”which doll they would like to play with,which doll looked looked “white,” and which doll looked “colored,” or “Negro,” which was 'nice' which was 'pretty',which was 'ugly' and which was 'bad',and which doll  looked most like themselves.

These are a couple of the actual dolls used in The Doll Tests. They now reside at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. They were donated by the Clarks' daughter, Kate Clark Harris. (There is also one at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas.) These dolls,Effanbee's 1964 Twinkie, are from a later study by the Clark's. The original darker baby had to be painted brown,since the Clarks couldn't find an actual brown skinned baby doll.

  The three year olds preferred the dark and light skinned dolls equally. But by the age of seven,76% of the kids preferred the Caucasian doll. Most of the children judged the Caucasian doll to have the more positive characteristics. In Arkansas one boy,when asked which doll resembled him, smiled, pointed to the brown doll and said,"That's a N----r. I'm a N----r.".  When faced with the same question,children in the Massachusetts Doll Tests refused to answer, or cried and ran out of the room. Dr. Clark wasn't sure which was more disturbing. In fact,the Clark's were so disturbed by the results of the tests that they didn't publish their findings for quite a while after the conclusion of the tests.

Dr. Kenneth Clark with a child during The Doll Tests.

  Some time after the tests were finished the NAACP heard of the Clark's work. The Clarks were asked to do more tests,and testify, to help in a class action case that would later become Brown Vs. the Board of Education, the case that resulted in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that ruled segregation was unconstitutional,stating that, "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Dr. Kenneth Clark was understandably afraid during the testing. One NAACP member was actually threatened while with Dr. Clark. Dr. Clark thought the work was important enough to continue though because, “These children saw themselves as inferior and they accepted the inferiority as part of reality.”
   In it's ruling the Supreme Court stated, “To separate Black children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”
  Similar tests to The Doll Test have been repeated over the years,most notably in 2006, 2009, and  2010. In 2010 CNN hired Margaret Beale Spencer to perform a similar test. Spencer used a questionnaire to test 133 kids  with different racial and income backgrounds. Her tests also included Caucasian children. The tests used cartoon children and a color bar of skin tones. Her results were somewhat different from the Clarks'. The African American kids had more positive reactions to the brown skinned dolls. The Caucasian kids were very biased toward the white dolls. Said Dr. Welansa Asrat,a specialist in cross-cultural psychiatry, “The black kids’ self-perception has improved since the 1940s, while the white kids’ remained invested in the stereotypes.”
  How do I end this post? That last sentence is pretty depressing. When will people realize that we are all just humans? The last few years have been discouraging,with blatant racism rearing it's ugly head again. The world had made strides in the right direction,but it has slipped back down an ugly slope. Let's hope this new decade will be different.
***For more on the dolls used in the tests,and for more on the study,please see Debbie Behan Garrett's excellent  post on the Black Doll Collecting blog HERE.***