CHILD RACISM STUDIED

We all think of racism as an adult ignorance.  But how many of us consider what our children think of race and skin color?  And what happens when we learn our children are not as color-blind as we may think?

Children are sponges and often absorb what they see and hear around them, perhaps even more than we know.  So CNN recently created a psychological study among children to determine their level of absorption and thoughts on race and skin color.  Renowned child psychologist and University of Chicago professor Margaret Beale Spencer, a leading researcher in the field of child development, was hired by CNN to design and implement the provocative study.

Dr. Spencer and her team of psychologists tested 133 children from schools of varying economic and demographic backgrounds, including four schools in the greater New York City area and four in Georgia.  The children ranged in age from 4 to 10 years of age.  Five cartoon pictures were created on a single page,  each ranging in skin color from very light to very dark. The children were asked to point out the ugly child versus the pretty child; the smart child versus the dumb child; and the child most people would like versus the child they wouldn’t like, among other questions.  In an unbelievably huge majority of cases, the lighter or “white” child was always considered more favorable and likeable, whereas the darker or “black” child was considered less favorable and was disliked.

In a society that promotes white as pure, clean and beautiful, while black is evil, dirty and sinister, the results of this study were unsurprising, but still quite shocking.  Children are not born with any concepts or theories on race.  So the children in this study have obviously picked up these racial preferences and opinions via their parents, neighborhoods, the media, etc. and it was most disturbing. WATCH:

TOMORROW:  CHILD RACISM PT. 2  –  PARENTS REACT