One day, when you’re feeling particularly hearty of spirit, urge you to look into an eye-opening study called the Clark Doll Test, which demonstrates beautifully just how quickly institutionalized racism embeds itself in our nation’s children. (There’s even a YouTube video that’ll let you watch it unfold before your very eyes but, like I said, make sure you’re feeling strong that day.)
In the video, a child is asked a series of questions about two dolls — one black, one white — that sit on the table before them.
“Show me the doll that you like best or that you would like to play with.” The child points to the white one.
“Show me the doll that looks ‘bad.’” The child points to the black one.
“Show me the doll that is the ‘nice’ doll.” The child points to the white doll.
It would seem an isolated incident, save for the fact that every child, regardless of color or gender or age, chooses the white doll as the favorable doll time and again. When asked for reasons why the black doll is bad, it’s because “it has dark skin.” Over and over, lather-rinse-repeat. A recent viral video shows a more updated version of this when, upon unwrapping their gifts of two black dolls, a pair of young, white siblings breaks into tears. They abandon the dolls by video’s end, the disdain on their faces hiding nothing.
I find that folks who fervently insist that black people can be racist actually mean that black people can be bigoted … prejudiced. Racism, however, is evident when prejudice based on skin color has embedded itself into a society’s institutions and the mindsets of its people. For that to happen, you need (among other things) population numbers to prop up these skin-color biases to the point that they become systemic. The black community, at least in modern-day America, simply doesn’t have the numbers to mandate that the entire nation temper the societal progress of its non-black citizens — not that doing so is an agenda item for the nation’s black population, mind you. If its black community were able to infuse our nation’s public policy with the ability to deny the non-black denizenry the same benefits they themselves enjoy, well then … you’ll be able to thrash your finger at your powerful black overlords and properly accuse them of racism.
Until then, feel free to note the many injustices and actual racist activity in our nation. Or, if you’re unconvinced, try a more straightforward approach and follow along as a group of armed, white men take over federal grounds with (at the time of printing) no repercussions to speak of, while the cops gun down 12-year-old black kids with toy guns and face (at the time of printing) no repercussions to speak of. That’s a pretty in-your-face demonstration of our institutionalized racial double standard. Or just racism, as it’s called.
