Some time ago I saw a video of another study where children were being tested on how they responded to “authority.” One of the tests involved the adult showing the child a brand new school book. The child was then instructed to scribble on the pages with a crayon. The poor kids were so conflicted! You could see it on their faces. They knew this wasn’t something they should do, but here was an adult (an authority figure) telling them they had to do it. They were torn between obeying and pleasing the adult, or doing something they knew wasn’t right. Some did scribble in the book, reluctantly or as lightly as they could, but there were a few who thought the command was ridiculous and wouldn’t do it.

Consequently, I don’t know how much weight should be given to this study since kids are influenced by many things in their choices, including the person administering the test. Percola has it right–children need to learn healthy self-esteem and good messages at home.

I think the point is that they won’t affect the way I raise my children one iota, so why give them oxygen. I think the only things we can do as parents is give our children a thorough race education. We cannot control their thoughts or what doll they pick in a study such as this. We can only encourage them to have healthy self-esteems, give them good messages, and go from there.

As to the actual post, I’m so sick of people retaking this test. I’m with you, what are we supposed to do with this information? I also find it hard to care about these results now that they’ve come out the same for the nthteenth time.

I think the point is that they won’t affect the way I raise my children one iota, so why give them oxygen. I think the only things we can do as parents is give our children a thorough race education. We cannot control their thoughts or what doll they pick in a study such as this. We can only encourage them to have healthy self-esteems, give them good messages, and go from there.

I’ve thought about the dark/light issue a lot online and off, and lately I’ve become convinced that if work on my own self-esteem and represent for confidence as a dark-skinned black person, then my daughter will think about other dark-skinned women as beautiful and interesting. My mother had very low self-esteem where her looks were concerned and I think that is why black girls are still picking white dolls in these studies. It’s not all the fault of the MSM.

There’s a movement on among mother’s in general not to slam themselves in front of their daughters, so that they don’t develop body issues early on. I think we should do the same as mothers of color.

Just having our husbands tell you that you’re beautiful in front of our daughters will do loads more to affect your daughters attitude toward race than demanding that the MSM be more inclusive. I mean, don’t get me wrong — I would love to see better images of black women on TV, but it does start at home.

Here are my daughters answers:

Dumb child was the white child because she said a bad word. (lol? There’s a little girl in her class who says bad words, uh oh!)

The pretty child was the darkest child

The nice child was the middle child

The smart child was the white child

The mean child was the second white child

The cool child was the darkest child

The pretty child was the middle child

As you can see, she’s all over the place.