Essay 1626

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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Why black kids have negative self-image

BY MONROE ANDERSON

Next Sunday, Lovie Smith will be the first black head coach in the Super Bowl -- as will his mentor, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts. So no matter who wins -- the Chicago Bears or that other team -- Super Bowl 41 guarantees that for the first time in professional football the world champions will be coached by an African American. That’s the two steps forward. Now the giant step back.

After more than two decades of Oprah, the Queen of All Media, you’d think that young black girls would have a better self-image. They don’t. Black boys neither. In our world of bleached blonds -- white-skinned, brown-skinned and black – black’s not beautiful, at least not among the majority of African-American preschool children interviewed by Kiri Davis, a high school student at Manhattan’s Urban Academy. As part of a school film project, Davis re-conducted psychologist Kenneth B. Clark’s “doll test” to see if progress has been made. Clark’s 1940s study, which had an impact on the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, determined that young black children preferred white dolls over dolls that looked like them.

History repeats in “A Girl Like Me.” Davis’ seven-minute movie asks some tiny tots in a Harlem day-care center to choose between two dolls that are identical, except one is brown, the other white. Fifteen of the 21 preschoolers decided white was all right.

“Can you show me the doll that looks bad?” Davis asks a little black girl, who is holding the one she’d selected as “the doll you like to play with.” The girl puts down the doll she’s holding and picks up the brown one.

“And why does that look bad?”

“Because she’s black,” the little girl answers.

“And why is this the nice doll?” Davis asks as the girl touches the white doll. “Because she's white,” the girl says.

“A Girl like Me” also features African-American teenage girls talking about perceptions of race. Two of the girls discuss the “good hair/bad hair” standard, explaining that the more naturally straight the hair, the better quality it is thought to be.

It’s amazing that two generations after the “Black is Beautiful” mantra of the 1960s, some African Americans still believe that it’s not. It’s amazing that four decades after James Brown’s chart-topper, “I’m Black and I’m Proud,” so many African Americans aren’t. It’s amazing that in the same year hip-hop artist Kanye West told the world that “President Bush doesn’t care about black people,” Davis was discovering that neither do shorties in Harlem.

It’s amazing, but I can see how it’s come about. Our children receive mixed messages. In the world of hip-hop, where black blonds proliferate and the N-word resonates, children are bombarded with video images of butt-shaking, almost-naked, black Kewpie dolls.

In the world of the Internet, Davis’ movie, with its disturbing tests, has been making the rounds through e-mail. Another e-mail chain, just as disturbing, is also in circulation.

“The sad thing about this article is that the essence of it is true. The truth hurts. I just hope this sets more black people in motion toward making real progress,” the e-mail bemoans before admonishing the receiver to “help prove them wrong! Read and pass on.”

Beneath that is a photograph of a white woman, Dee Lee, a certified financial planner, who, the e-mail tells us, reads these words on an unidentified New York radio station: “They are still our slaves. We can continue to reap profits from the blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves. Ignorance, greed and selfishness.”

The e-mail continues with the rest of the words it says Dee Lee read, and they are no less insulting. There is one problem with the provocative e-mail: mistaken identity. There is another Dee Lee. He looks like the brown doll. This Dee Lee is a black comedian and host of Dee Lee Reality Radio.

Ahhhh, how about those Bears?

[Click on the essay title above to view Kiri Davis’ video.]