KINKY GIRLS: In Our Image

The Clark Doll Experiment was a study done in the 1940's that focused on the attitudes in which young children had about race. During this experiment they found that Black children often preferred to play with white dolls over black. The children were also asked to fill in a human figure with the color of their own skin, they frequently chose a lighter shade than their own. The children also gave the white doll attributes such as good and pretty, but the black doll was qualified as bad and ugly. The results of this experiment proved that these children had internalized racism caused by being discriminated against and stigmatized by segregation.

Although you may look at the information above and think, well things have changed, that was in 1940; well in 2006 this study was recreated and the results were the same. I feel that a lot of this has to do with some of the first images we are faced with as a child. For instance, how often do you actually see a black child playing with a black doll? These dolls (which are often white) are considered very pretty, dressed in the nicest clothing, long flowing hair, and have a fair complexion. At this time, that child is processing an image of what "beauty" is. Usually by the time a parent knows that a child is having some self-image issue, it may be too late. When I grew up all I had was black dolls; black cabbage patch dolls and black Barbies. So I saw my black as beautiful at an early age. The toys we give our kids are usually thought out as far as safety goes, but what about the image that toy is embedding into that childs head...is it worth it? That is not to say that this issue with self-image can be solved by dolls, but it can be a start. We need to make sure that these young children are seeing themselves as beautiful/handsome, and that they appreciate who they are from day one. Our black IS and ALWAYS will be...BEAUTIFUL!

I found some African-American dolls online, and I encourage you to purchase toys in our image. Although they use the same molds as the Caucasian dolls, this is a start till they make the dolls with the fuller lips, wider hips, and thickier hair. =)