BLACK OR WHITE? THE UGLY DOLL EXPERIMENT

In the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth Bancroft Clark (1914-2005) and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark (1917-83), designed the ‘Doll Study’ to measure the psychological effects of US segregation on Black children. The focus groups featured Black children ages 3 to 7, whom the psychologists asked to pick between Black and white dolls, which were pretty or nice, and which looked most like them.

The study found most Black children overwhelmingly attributed positive traits to white dolls and negative ones to Black dolls, confirming for the psychologists that policies, such as segregation, shaped how Black children viewed themselves. The study’s results informed the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in public schools because it was unconstitutional.

However, racial policies continue to disproportionately affect Black people in the US through every stage of our lives. For example, in January, the Trump administration issued an executive order terminating DEI and 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates, calling them 'illegal.’ Thus, the US resists correcting the ills of slavery and levelling the playing field between the privileged populations and its internal colonies, with Black people being among them.

Video credit: @MSNBC (X)

Sources

https://kennethclark.commons.gc.cuny.edu/the-doll-study/

https://www.naacpldf.org/brown-vs-board/significance-doll-test

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing

https://www.youtube.com/watach?v=jFaPb9ZReTE