The Good Doll and the Bad Doll

(blog 1)
While reading the Montana Standard today, I came across an article by Leonard Pitts called Sammy Sosa: Cosmetics or Self-Image? He discusses the controversial practice of African Americans using skin bleaching creams to make their skin lighter.

I thought of this class when he mentioned a psychology study called the "doll test." In the 1940's, a black psychologist named Dr. Kenneth Clark conducted a study with children and dolls. In the study, black children were shown a black doll and a white doll, and asked questions about them. For example, when asked which doll is the "good" doll, most of the children would point to the white one. When asked why she was the good one, they said it was because she is white. On the other hand, the children often referred to the black dolls as "bad."

Leonard Pitts mentions a YouTube video called "A Girl Like Me" For this video, the study was recreated and black children were again asked to choose between a black doll and a white doll. They were also asked which doll was good and which was bad, and most of the children said the black doll was bad. When a young black girl was asked to show the researcher which doll looked the most like herself, she hesitated before reluctantly pointing to the black doll. 15 out of the 21 children preferred the white doll, and most children had negative comments about the black doll.



I remember watching a tv show awhile back (I think it may have been Tyra, Dr. Phil, or Oprah) in which parents admitted to bleaching the skin of their children, as well as their own. One mother used bleaching creams on her three sons every day because she said that it would make them more attractive. When the boys were interviewed, they said that they hated getting it done, but that they had to do it so that they wouldn't be ugly.

I find this sad because black children often grow up thinking that they are not good enough the way that they are. They pick up on negative stereotypes of themselves and other black people at a very young age.They are also pressured to change how they look in order to fit society's standards. The girls in the video above talk about how they are looked down upon if they don't straighten their naturally curly or kinky hair, and how they need to change their whole look in order to feel accepted.

White people aren't exempt from these types of pressures. Many white women (and some men) feel the need to go to tanning beds, use tanning chemicals, or sit in the sun for long periods of time to make their skin darker. As a fair-skinned girl with freckles, I often get negative comments from people about how "pale" "pasty" or "white" my skin is. I gave into peer pressure and tanned when I was younger, but don't anymore. For some reason, people don't understand why I would be ok with having light skin. When I was planning my wedding last year, many people asked when I was going to start tanning for my wedding. When I told them that I wasn't going to, they looked at me like I was crazy. For some reason, my light skin is seen as a negative thing by some people, and something that I should change (and harm myself while doing.)

I find it very ironic that while black people are using creams to lighten their skin, white people are doing things to make themselves darker.