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Abstract: Our first African American president of the United States is in his second term. Does the broad spectrum of success of Blacks have influence on Black children's self-perception today? The purpose of the current study was to replicate the "Doll experiment" originally conducted by Clark and Clark (1947). Fifty African American children (five to ten years of age) were examined to determine whether preference for skin tone still exists. Participants viewed pictures of dolls of varying skin tones and responded to questions relating to doll preference as well as self-concept. As hypothesized, there was a shift in children's preference for the White doll over the Black doll. This may indicate that positive self-concept regarding skin tone is on the rise.
Keywords: self-concept; skin tone preference; doll experiment; racial identification; eurocentric perspective; self-identification; hair texture; self-hatred thesis
Our first African American president of the United States is nearing his second term of office. Over the past few decades African Americans made great strides with our first African American attorney general, secretary of state and female Oscar winner. Therefore, does the broad spectrum of success of African Americans have an influence on African American children's self-perception? With the country's first Black or multiracial president, one may inquire how much have this country's race relations changed? Are Americans headed toward a positive attitude toward diversity to the extent that skin tone preference is no longer an issue? Despite the fact that there is growing representation of individuals of color in governmental leadership, the United States, a country very diverse in people, continues to be plagued by racial conflict and protest. Believing that the civil rights movement in the 60's and the Black Power movement in the 70's reduced overt experiences of racism and discrimination, there is a misconception that institutional racism no longer exist (Wing, 2015). Nevertheless, racial relations in the U.S. has undergone some positive changes; for example, our knowledge of race, racism and racial relations have increased. Race is now viewed as a sociopolitical concept, and captured the attention of many African American researchers who have attempted to understand coping strategies of people of color in adversity situations.
In addition, psychologists and other social science researchers are still wrestling with the historical legacy of...