Your Children Are Prejudiced

[SEC=UGA]

See the results of the CNN-commissioned study on children's racial beliefs, attitudes and preferences, and see the children as they take the test on a special "AC360°" in front of a live studio audience, tonight at 10pm ET

 

(CNN) -- A white child looks at a picture of a black child and says she's bad because she's black. A black child says a white child is ugly because he's white. A white child says a black child is dumb because she has dark skin.

 

This isn't a schoolyard fight that takes a racial turn, not a vestige of the "Jim Crow" South; these are American schoolchildren in 2010.

 

Nearly 60 years after American schools were desegregated by the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, and more than a year after the election of the country's first black president, white children have an overwhelming white bias, and black children also have a bias toward white, according to a new study commissioned by CNN.

 

Renowned child psychologist and University of Chicago professor Margaret Beale Spencer, a leading researcher in the field of child development, led the study. She designed the pilot study and led a team of three psychologists: two testers to execute the study and a statistician to help analyze the results.

 

Her team tested 133 children from schools that met very specific economic and demographic requirements. In total, eight schools participated: four in the greater New York City area and four in Georgia.

 

Full doll study results

 

In each school, Spencer tested children from two age groups: 4 to 5 and 9 to 10.

 

Since this is a pilot study and not a fully funded scientific study, the sample size and race selection were limited. But according to Spencer, it was satisfactory to yield conclusive results. A pilot study is normally the first step in creating a larger scientific study and often speaks to overall trends that require more research.

 

Spencer's test aimed to re-create the landmark Doll Test from the 1940s. Those tests, conducted by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, were designed to measure how segregation affected African-American children.

 

The Clarks asked black children to choose between a white doll and -- because at the time, no brown dolls were available -- a white doll painted brown. They asked black children a series of questions and found they overwhelmingly preferred white over brown. The study and its conclusions were used in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, which led to the desegregation of American schools.

 

1947 Doll Test results

 

In the new study, Spencer's researchers asked the younger children a series of questions and had them answer by pointing to one of five cartoon pictures that varied in skin color from light to dark. The older children were asked the same questions using the same cartoon pictures, and were then asked a series of questions about a color bar chart that showed light to dark skin tones.

 

The tests showed that white children, as a whole, responded with a high rate of what researchers call "white bias," identifying the color of their own skin with positive attributes and darker skin with negative attributes. Spencer said even black children, as a whole, have some bias toward whiteness, but far less than white children.

 

"All kids on the one hand are exposed to the stereotypes" she said. "What's really significant here is that white children are learning or maintaining those stereotypes much more strongly than the African-American children. Therefore, the white youngsters are even more stereotypic in their responses concerning attitudes, beliefs and attitudes and preferences than the African-American children."

 

Spencer says this may be happening because "parents of color in particular had the extra burden of helping to function as an interpretative wedge for their children. Parents have to reframe what children experience ... and the fact that white children and families don't have to engage in that level of parenting, I think, does suggest a level of entitlement. You can spend more time on spelling, math and reading, because you don't have that extra task of basically reframing messages that children get from society."

 

iReport: Where do we go from here?

 

Spencer was also surprised that children's ideas about race, for the most part, don't evolve as they get older. The study showed that children's ideas about race change little from age 5 to age 10.

 

"The fact that there were no differences between younger children, who are very spontaneous because of where they are developmentally, versus older children, who are more thoughtful, given where they are in their thinking, I was a little surprised that we did not find differences."

 

Spencer said the study points to major trends but is not the definitive word on children and race. It does lead her to conclude that even in 2010, "we are still living in a society where dark things are devalued and white things are valued."

[bpwallace49]

racist

[untateve]

My son (age 10) was recently in a chess tourney and he got his ass kicked by an Asian kid. After the match he said, "Dad, I don't want to sound racist but the Asians are really good at chess."

 

I beat him for that slur.

[Big John]

My son (age 10) was recently in a chess tourney and he got his ass kicked by an Asian kid. After the match he said, "Dad, I don't want to sound racist but the Asians are really good at chess."

 

I beat him for that slur.

karate kick?

[cre8tiff]

Speak for yourself. My cracker-ass honkey daughters and thier dark chocolate funky brother get along fine.

[WaterMan]

The racists are outbreeding the non racists.

[Deathpig]

This is interesting, and I wish I had caught the show, but I'd love much more detail on the testing methodology.

 

I would assume that children, by default, would tend to associate positive things with the picture that looked like them and negative things with the picture that looked nothing like them. But I'd also wonder if the kids would be affected by the person giving the test and how that person treated the children (i.e. if a very nice black woman was administering the test, maybe the kids would be attribute more positive things to the picture of the black child). What order were the questions asked in? Did they choose positive or negative first? Did the children understand that they could answer multiple questions with the same picture? How many total questions (too many and a little kid is going to space out and just do random things)?

 

The reason I ask is because I've dealt with tons of market research and the like and you would be AMAZED at how phrasing a question, which answers you have to pick from, the order of the answers to choose from, the order of the questions, the person asking the question, the location at which you are asking the questions, etc., all affect the outcome of the survey.

[kpholmes]

On a side note, what is the racial diversity here at The Huddle?

[Big John]

On a side note, what is the racial diversity here at The Huddle?

Mostly caucasian.

[Perchoutofwater]

Speak for yourself. My cracker-ass honkey daughters and thier dark chocolate funky brother get along fine.

 

+1

 

My youngest daughter was birthday party last weekend. There were 9 or 10 kids there. She was the only white person at the party. My wife had dropped her off. You should have seen all the uncles heads turn and look when I picked her up.

[bpwallace49]

+1

 

My youngest daughter was birthday party last weekend. There were 9 or 10 kids there. She was the only white person at the party. My wife had dropped her off. You should have seen all the uncles heads turn and look when I picked her up.

 

Maybe you shouldnt have been carrying that AR-15 over your shoulder at the time . . . .

[SEC=UGA]

On a side note, what is the racial diversity here at The Huddle?

 

I'm white trash.

[millerx]

+1

 

My youngest daughter was birthday party last weekend. There were 9 or 10 kids there. She was the only white person at the party. My wife had dropped her off. You should have seen all the uncles heads turn and look when I picked her up.

Yeah, but were all the uncles named Tom?

[BeeR]

See the results of the CNN-commissioned study

No potential bias/agenda there I'm sure.

 

 

racist

Hey I'm working this side of the street