Parents React To Doll Test

After watching 'The Doll Test' I came across a video where parents react to their children taking part in the experiment. The video is the same type of experiment in my last post however it has different people. It was very, very interesting to see these reactions from parents. Although I do not know these people, I felt as if I was watching my child. The anticipation built up every time when it was time for a child to answer. We as the auidence could see the anxiousness on the parents faces as they waited for their child to answer.

 In my documentary, I want to talk to young black people and see how they feel about being black. Watching these reactions made me think about how my audience would react to my film. Watching social experiments and race related issues is very touchy but I feel that it always needs to be adressed. I felt empathetic towards some of the young girls in this clip and it made me quite emotional. I hope to get an emotional responce from my audience too.

Doll Test

On YouTube, I found a social experiment involving dolls and children. The only distiction seperating the dolls were the race. As different children sat at the table, the interviewer asked them which doll they preferred, which one was nice, bad or pretty/ugly.

Each child pointed to either doll, illustrating their answer. The whole point of the video (in my opinion) outlines how racism can be adopted from a young age due to upbringing in the household or representaion from the media. There ws an added shock factor as these were children, we expect them to know nothing about rasicm or discriminate. Instead, most children said that the black doll was ugly or bad. Whereas the white doll was good or pretty. Another shock factor was that even the black children said that the black doll was bad/ugly. I think that it would be common for some people to think that black children would go for the black doll. The fact that they did not, may also connote that they are not taught to love themselves at home or anywhere else.

 It saddened me to see this as I know that most young girls like to play with dolls, and to see them have a preffernce due to it's race is upsetting. It was not only girls that took part in the social experiment, but boys too. They too also chose the white doll to be pretty or good. This may also be the root to them growing up to dislike women of their own race as they get  older. The whole video made me realise just how much children's lives are already polluted with the wrong message. I hope to do something similar in my documentary.