Contributions:
Kenneth Clark and his wife were a team, and together they continue to study the effects of discrimination. Their most revolutionary contribution was being cited in the ruling of the Brown vs. The Board of Education for what is known as the “Doll Test.” The doll test was originally Clark´s wife graduate thesis on how African American children identified with their race (Nyman 2010). The research consisted of three tests: the doll test, the line test, and the color test (Clark & Phipps, 1950). They used four dolls: two that were black and two that were white—all identical, to measure how children felt about the color of their skin. They tested dozens of children in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Worcester, Massachusetts, and rural Arkansas (Henderson, A. N.). This was the first research project Clark worked on, in collaboration with his wife. They worked on this project for about five years before parts of it was published in the Newcomb and Hartley’s Reading in Social Psychology [1947]. Then, after being convinced by Newcomb and Hartley, they …show more content…
He viewed the black children in the experiment as defenseless human beings being required to incorporate into a developing sense of their own; having negative awareness of the fact that the society rejected them. Also incorporating themselves into their self-image characteristics that they were inferior. He felt it was disturbing to see the children in the test situation placed in the terrible conflict of having to identify with dolls to which they had previously ascribed negative characteristic. What impacted Clark the most, was when he asked him, “Now, show me which doll is like you.” The boy looked up into his face and smiled pointing to the brown doll, he said: “That’s me. That’s a nigger. I’m a nigger.” That hurt me as much as the Northern children who cried. (Nyman, 2010, p.
Kenneth Clark and his wife were a team, and together they continue to study the effects of discrimination. Their most revolutionary contribution was being cited in the ruling of the Brown vs. The Board of Education for what is known as the “Doll Test.” The doll test was originally Clark´s wife graduate thesis on how African American children identified with their race (Nyman 2010). The research consisted of three tests: the doll test, the line test, and the color test (Clark & Phipps, 1950). They used four dolls: two that were black and two that were white—all identical, to measure how children felt about the color of their skin. They tested dozens of children in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Worcester, Massachusetts, and rural Arkansas (Henderson, A. N.). This was the first research project Clark worked on, in collaboration with his wife. They worked on this project for about five years before parts of it was published in the Newcomb and Hartley’s Reading in Social Psychology [1947]. Then, after being convinced by Newcomb and Hartley, they …show more content…
He viewed the black children in the experiment as defenseless human beings being required to incorporate into a developing sense of their own; having negative awareness of the fact that the society rejected them. Also incorporating themselves into their self-image characteristics that they were inferior. He felt it was disturbing to see the children in the test situation placed in the terrible conflict of having to identify with dolls to which they had previously ascribed negative characteristic. What impacted Clark the most, was when he asked him, “Now, show me which doll is like you.” The boy looked up into his face and smiled pointing to the brown doll, he said: “That’s me. That’s a nigger. I’m a nigger.” That hurt me as much as the Northern children who cried. (Nyman, 2010, p.