UP Projects’ team and Trustees attended the second of our learning sessions with Ishreen Bradley and Nuttall of Belonging Pioneers focusing on the creation of an anti-racist culture at work.
The session explored issues relating to privilege and bias. It provided positive guidance on how to be an ally and also how to apologise authentically when you realise you’ve tripped up: “Acknowledge what went wrong, take responsibility, apologise for and take time to understand the impact”
We also looked at the often cited “doll test” developed by scholars and civil rights activists Mamie and Kenneth Clark in 1940’s America during segregation.
The Doll Test looked at 253 black children aged three to seven years old who each were shown four dolls: two with white skin and yellow hair, and two with brown skin and black hair. Each child was asked to identify the race of the doll and which one they preferred to play with.
The majority of the black children preferred the white doll with yellow hair, assigning positive traits to it. Meanwhile, most discarded the brown doll with black hair, assigning it negative traits. The Clarks concluded that black children formed a racial identity by the age of three and attached negative traits to their own identity, which were perpetuated by segregation and prejudice.
Pioneering at the time, the Doll Test was used as evidence for the need to desegregate schools. Viewed today, the methodology used in the Doll Test seems unnecessarily stressful and traumatic for the children taking part, however, a more recent experiment conducted by Toni Sturdivant, Professor at Texan University-Commerce and specialist in Early Childhood Education demonstrated that while the methodology might seem harsh, what it evidences still prevails strongly in 2021.
Toni Sturdivant explains “ my young daughter started saying she didn’t like her dark skin…..[The Clarks’] findings about Black children’s negative view of themselves were attributed to the effects of segregation. But I knew from experience that the preference for whiteness that the Clarks found….was affecting Black kids in integrated schools in the 21st century as well…”
Conducting a similar experiment but this time simply observing a small group of Black children play with dolls of different racial identities, she found a great deal of bias evident in how they treated the dolls, rarely choosing the Black dolls and if they did, often mistreating them.
Sturdivant concludes “Children are constantly developing their ideas about race, and schools serve as just one context for racial learning. I believe adults who care about the way Black children see themselves should create more empowering learning environments for Black children.
Whether it be in the aisles of the beauty section of a grocery store, the main characters selected for a children’s movie, or the conversations parents have at the dinner table, Black children need spaces that tell them they are perfect just the way they are.”