Wednesday, September 23, 2020

The Doll Test

(On International Declaration of Human Rights)

In the 1940s, to research the psychological impact of segregation on African-American children, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted a series of experiments call “The Doll Test”. The doctors used fours identical dolls with its color being the only difference to test children’s racial perceptions. Children ages three to seven were asked which doll is beautiful and which do they think has a good trait. Surprisingly, the African-American children prefer the white doll and associated brown-skinned dolls with the words ugly and bad.



According to the doctors, this experiment shows that racism creates a feeling of inferiority. It can affect the hearts and minds of a person and damage self-esteem.

Almost 10 decades after the experiment was done, the world is still full of prejudice. There is so much prejudice that oftentimes it influences our judgement. We start to think that black is bad, and if someone is black, then he/she is bad. If someone is white, then he/she is a superior human being created by God. This is why there are innumerable instances wherein black people were killed in the United States hence the Black Lives Matter movement. But let’s not go very far. In a case of a Filipino, if we hear someone speaking in a Bisaya diction, we often think that these people are uneducated, ignorant and only went to Manila to become a helper/nanny or security guard. But what about Miriam Defensor Santiago who was very smart, courageous and fought against the corruption in the Philippines?

Additionally, if we see Muslims, we often associate them with terrorism. We are even terrified to travel to Mindanao when the fact is only some parts of Mindanao have a conflict with the government and most part of the island is beautiful, much like Boracay and Palawan. Siargao and Davao, for instance.

In the workplace, stereotyping is also common as graduates of four big schools are given higher compensation than those from other schools albeit both have the same experience and qualifications.

In the province, it is also common that most women are deprived of education because they are expected to take care of the children and her family instead of working and providing for the family.

Also, I still encounter times where LGBTQ are being discriminated and people telling them they are “Salot sa Lipunan” or burden of the society when most have become an inspiration and made an impact to the society.

The Article 2 on United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights made me realize that we are all equal and we cannot make people of a race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status/background feel inferior.

Black people don’t have to die for us to start a Black Lives Matter movement. Gays and lesbians don’t have to experience pervasive discrimination to start Pride Parade. But I guess this is what we need to start valuing diversity and inclusion. Though I do hope that people will not only raise awareness on racial and gender discrimination but also on religion because Muslims are always being viewed as terrorists. In movies, we see them as the villain or those who kill. I just hope no bad situation will happen for people to start realizing this.

I hope that people will be more open-minded and will stop discriminating as this can affect a person’s physical, spiritual, and psychological well-being. I hope when The Doll Test is conducted again, children will be able to answer that white doll and black doll are both beautiful.

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