Saturday, January 27, 2007

Young Student's Documentary Leaving Audiences Stunned

A high school student recently filmed her replication of the Kenneth & Mamie Clark "doll studies," well known within psychology, or to anyone studying ethnic identity development.

As cynical as I usually am, I found myself surprised by what she found. I then asked myself what results did I expect.

My honest answer: I don't know.

This, by the way, is not one of the series of studies I referred to in my previous blog entry. I just found out about this study today. However, assuming it was done properly, this study is a thought-provoking example of how deep issues of race may be and how early associations about race are embedded in our psyches. There are other possible explanations, sure, but this is another reason why it is not so far flung to suspect that people are "subconsciously racist."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check out the story on C-13 of today's Times-Picayune...

Or here.

Anonymous said...

OMG, EJ, that broke my heart, and dashed my hopes a little. I had truly hoped that by this time something like the doll experiment would have changed, at least THAT. I am horrified and disheartened.

Do you know where I can find the entire film??

E.J. said...

I don't know where to find the entire film. Maybe the news station that ran the story would know.

Thanks for the reference, B. Not exactly what I wanted to read today (lol), but one of those things we all need to know.

TravelingMermaid said...

Here it is:

http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/#

E.J. said...

Thank you, TM!
:-)