One World Many Colors

Improved Essays
One World Many Colors: Then Why Still See Black and White
The United States of America is known for its vast diversity in population. People of all cultures and colors are together as one. Like all good things, the vast diversity has its unfortunate side. Unfortunately, America is filled with racism. Racism is the hatred or intolerance of another race or other races (Racism Dictionary.com). Many people believe that racism simply does not exist anymore in today’s society. The fundamental reason behind the rise of racism is that people are completely oblivious to their surroundings. To them racism is not effecting their lives therefore it does not exist. It may seem that racism has vanished because people are more “open-minded” now, or
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Especially towards those whose race is a victim to racism. The young children that are victims to the racism grow up feeling inferior. Psychologist Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark conduct a doll experiment to study children’s attitude about race. Black children get a white and black doll and then the psychologist asks them which doll is “good,” “bad,” “nice,” and “mean.” The majority of the children associate positive qualities with the white doll and negative qualities with the black one (Proulx). Clark speaks of his findings at the Brown v.s. Board of Education case. “Eleven of these sixteen children chose the brown doll as the doll which looks “bad.” This is consistent with the previous result which [Clark] had obtained by testing over three hundred children, and [Clark] interpret it to mean a Negro child accepts as early as six, seven, or eight the negative stereotypes about his own group” (The Dolls). Kenneth Clark conducts his experiment in the 1940’s. People assume that the times are changing since then. In 2008 when America elects the first African-American president, Americans start to consider themselves as “open-minded” people and that racism is behind them. Sadly, this is not the case. Around the time Obama wins the election, a young girl named, Kiri Davis, directs a documentary called, A Girl Like Me. In this documentary Kiri conducts Clark’s doll experiment to demonstrate racial progression in America. Unfortunately, her results didn’t vary much from Clark’s “fifteen out of twenty-one children preferred the white doll” (Dir. Kiri Davis). Not only did Kiri Davis experiment show that racism is not changing in America as dramatically as people are believing it has but she also is showing how racism is affecting young African-American children. Decades after Clark’s experiment, African-American children’s self-esteem still remains the same. They still feel that

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