Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Black Dolls

While commenting on another blogger's blog - I stated that a certain incident was one of class and not race.
The blog host gave a quick equation to explain her perspective; "Race=Class"
Really? Since when?
Or is this just her projecting her own insecurities onto a situation?
IMO- Race and class are two separate things. Sure, they can overlap, but they're NOT synonymous.

Good Morning America just did the Black Doll/White Doll experiment made famous by Kenneth and Mamie Clark back in 1954.
They wondered if things had changed since the election of Barack Obama as POTUS.
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_and_Mamie_Clark
http://blogs.abcnews.com/gma/2009/03/what-dolls-tell.html

So in saying that "Race=Class" - Isn't that just picking the Black doll as the bad doll?

5 comments:

  1. You're right race =/= class! Class is much older than race (as a social construct) and even if we were to somehow achieve a post racial society, class would still be an issue.

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  2. I'm really glad that more of these kids seem to be happy with either doll. I saw this experiment a few years ago as well, and the results weren't as even.

    I found it interesting that the kids that really picked/identified with the white doll were the ones that were bi-racial, one was white/black and the other looked asian/black.

    Does this have to do with the parent that they most identify with? Perhaps both of them had non-black mothers.

    Do any of the answers have to do with the person conducting the interview? If I am a child being asked which doll is better by a white woman and there is a camera and I look nice and I want to please this woman... Might I tell her what I think she wants to hear, or what I know is "nice?" maybe...

    Wonder if the results would change by any significant amount if the person conducting the interview was a black woman...

    In any case, race has nothing to do with class... And those with class know this already.

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  3. Even if you are a wealthy or well to do person of color, you will still succumb to the social construct that is racism at some point.

    I wish you provided a link to the Blog in question. I'd love to check it out and the subsequent conversation.

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  4. @ Noface - Yep.

    @ RunningMom - Yeah, there are many factors involved in any social experiment. But I like the results of the new study better.

    @ RiPPa - Only Racists use Race to qualify class.
    (The discussion was on Siditty's blog dealing with the Black patron in a "Posh" store. ("Posh"? When is Banana Republic a "Posh" store?)

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  5. "Only Racists use Race to qualify class." Very! Very True! I recently received an email showing "evidence" that racists tend to have double digit IQs. If that is correct, it would explain why anyone would believe that race=class.

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