Issue Of The Week II: Beliefs About Race Can Impact Beyond A Lifetime

It's hard to grasp the conclusions this study came to. How awful is it about the preferences young children showed? We were just talking the other day in my worldview class about how we think that racial discrimination/racial profiling is dwindling. According to this study, it most certainly is not. Maybe the children who were studied grew up in a rough neighborhood, thus the stunning conclusion. Perhaps there were some negative outside influences that led the children to choose the types of people they did. Hopefully, these children come to realize the full potential in everyone and that basing decisions off of what someone looks like is dreadful.

Personally, I would like to know where the child study was conducted because it most likely was in a predominately white area. Would these conclusions be the same in a predominately African American community? I am not sure, but it seems that the study needs a control group to compare it with. As for the other study, it seems that the economic racial divide is increasing, but has anyone noticed that, for the first time, we have a black president? I'm not arguing that these studies aren't true and shocking, rather I feel that races are becoming more equal than these studies portray. Basically, more and more African Americans are being employed/promoted in police agencies, are becoming more educated, and bettering themselves. It will just take time and one should not judge the quality of an entire race based on just a few studies...

The social construction of race is a dominating, historical, unchanged feature of society and it is this construction that allows stratification and notions such as "white superiority" to thrive, ultimately establishing a universal white culture; with the emergence of slavery, categories such as “white v. black” developed and were institutionalized. We, as a society, have failed to deconstruct this "reality", thus we are forced to experience it on a daily basis. The wealth gap is a product of this mindset and has always existed, meaning minorities are in constant, futile competition with whites for jobs and education because we have instilled this idea that the white culture is the dominant culture; whiteness coincides with greater intelligence, greater reliability, talent, success, good looks etc..., all of which we've dictated as purely white attributes. We do need to substitute public polices that reflect inequality and resemble almost a caste system, with enlightenment, recognition of community cultural wealth, and a realization that although people look different, we are all biologically related and thus share the same attributes and capabilities. Being white, I experience firsthand the stubborn mindset of the dominant culture and the terrible truth that those of us who do support equality still find it difficult to join the cause and give voice for fear of relinquishing white privileges, privileges credited by sole virtue of being white; there cannot be change if groups refuse to make adjustments. Many, especially white people, tend to exaggerate the progress and expansion of equality, not realizing it is still a goal that has yet to be reached. Sure the dominant group is convinced the playing field has been leveled with all the civil rights, job opportunities, educational opportunities, minority scholarships etc…, but those things hold little significance when formatted into a discriminate, prejudice structure. The children in the study have already been morphed by this structure and the dominant culture, thus they have the potential to carry forth its legacy or, if we help them, discard it.

The study truly shocked me, for children to think negatively about another race for no reason, but their skin color really upsets me. I was brought up in the suburbs, but live right by a city which completely affected my outlook on races, I never saw a difference. Since it is not said where this study was taken it might have been in a very suburban town where it is predominately white and kids might not be use to seeing African American people and just here stereotypical things about them and assume they are bad. I am not defending them by any means, but I just hope that when they start to get a little older they will realize that your skin color has nothing to do with your character. Another thing that shocked me was that middle-income whites were wealthier than high-income blacks. I could not believe that, white people are still payed more money than black people in 2010. What upsets me is people think that racism is over and it really isn't, people just try to hide it and act like it doesn't exist. I hope to live in a world one day when that actually comes true.

I know many African Americans, who hold prominent positions in companies and in communities. I asked one of them to comment on this article and they said, "When is enough, enough?" In their opinion, "the divide is only perpetuated by those who want an excuse." While there may be a disparity between whites and blacks in terms of pay or household income, I do not think it is because of this huge underlying problem in society. It is about initiative. Our society is growing more and more diverse and color (in my opinion) becomes a lot more invisible. People nowadays are judge more on their integrity, work ethic, and initiative, more so than the color of their skin. The more we have harebrained studies about which skin color is more appealing, the more we are perpetuating this discussion of "divide."

I can't believe it the study shock me. The conclusion that i got from the study was very discriminating. I believe the study was not study all around the United States. It was probaly some area where the study may have a very low percentage of the African American Race.

It all started during the 14th century when Columbus thought he discovered America. Our first views of Indians were described has savages who were believing in the wrong religion. This kind of prejudice and racism continued throughout the years, past down from generation to generation. It was the same thing when the slave trade started and we made up excuses about how ignorant the "blacks" were which allowed us to conquer them. That hate and ignorance was also passed down from generation to generation.
This study just shows how hate and racism is passed down through the family. For those kids some family member expressed their hate and the kids picked up on it. It is just sad to think that we still have those beliefs that can be passed down to our children. And of course we make up excuses about why our children think that way, and most of the time we blame it on the media or other things outside the family. But until we really start to confront that hate and racism that is there stuff like that study, that shows how real racism is, won't ever go away.

One of the major reasons why the children would pick lighter skinned children because our society unconsciously or consciously still portrays in the media and everywhere else that White=Good. Looking at movies and television most of the time a light skinned character is the good guy, while a dark skinned character is the bad guy. Also if children are exposed to the news when their parents watch it, most of the time if there is a criminal it is described as a minority.

This study was very shocking to me. First of all it is quite discouraging to see that the gap between white and African American has widened. Clearly the racial divisions have not changed. It is also sad to see that young children at such age are already coming up with certain perceptions about themselves and African Americans. Some of the reasons those children could have came to those conclusions could be directly tied in with their parents or their household. A child wouldn't know right from wrong if they aren't taught the correct way. It is what they see and hear that makes them think of such things. If they continue to be influenced and taught in such ways that they believe that white is better and that African Americans are below them, they will grow up with these kinds of ideas and it may get worse. It also has to do with society. Many people may still believe that only white means wealthy, successful and smart and that being African American directly means being poor, dumb and uneducated. It is also the way the media portrays things.

These beliefs that this article speak of can obviously have negative impacts many generations down the line in different cultures. As we have seen in many examples of the African people, beliefs about them being less than human or a different species from whites made it possible for slave laws to come into play which enforced the moral background rules of our society and of slavery. The same thing happened with American Natives. These people were seen as savages and people that were in need of Christianity, and in turn, they were treated as less than human, and subjected to such things as separated families, and things all the way up to physical abuse. In conclusion; beliefs, as simple as they can be at the time, can lead to large consequences down the road.

The results of the study were astounding, especially the study that tested the children. It is gut-renching that even the most innocent and juvenile individuals already have racism ingrained into their systems. I agree that a lot of this perception on society has to do with the media. The media sends forth messages that portray an unbalanced society. Most of the childrens' programs portray the lives of white characters, and the colored characters in the show are usually depicted as being helpless. This supports my agreement that race is socially constructed. We have the power to make a movement towards justice and equality. The study shows how childrens' perspectives are so easy to mold and how their perspectives are based upon what they see around them. Children are the future and if the study reflected the views they have, racism will never end. We need to stop the pattern of hate. We need to send messages of equality and unity. I think that the studies gave us good insight on the perspective of many people in our society. This shows how much work is going to be needed if anything is going to change.

I think it's so important for our new children to be brought up in an environment without racism in the home. Children get all their ideas from the people they spend most all of their time with- their parents usually. I know most parents won't change their views on how they feel about other races but wouldn't it be nice if they brought their children up differently so they could learn to give every race, color, ethnicity equal treatment. They could base their likes and dislikes about people on something other than skin color. Children are the future of America so I think they are the most important to start with in teaching these values.

Racism can be observed in children as young as four. This is interesting, and completley telling of how society develops. From a very young age, race is seen and opinions are created. The article doesn't mention the average tendency of Black students and how they judged there peers. I know a that their is a self-preservation bias which means we have a tendency to judge ourselves higher than others. I'm wondering if the same sort of bias occurs with phenotype. If someone looks like you, you judge in his or her favor. Either way, studies have shown that young children have the potential to become racists. The famous "brown eye, blue eye" experiment in the 50's although extremely unethical was also very telling. Children with blue eyes were told that they were better than students with brown eyes. Once the "fact" was heard, it was reinforced immediatly amongst the blue-eyed crowd. The next day, the teacher switched the groups so that the brown-eyed children would feel superior. And the same dominant behavior took place. It seems children and adults to not need much of an excuse to make themselves feel more secure. It is saddening, but a reality. Racism will be a constant struggle and temptation in regards to a method of gaining supremacy. People of all ages need to remember we are all equal, even though we don't all look the same. Differences should not be categorized into vertical boxes of importance, but rather, celebrated on a horizontal display of admiration.

Even though I read about studies like this all the time it still shocks me about the correlation the mindset we have as children connects to the poverty level and who we see at the poverty level versus the wealth level. I actually saw the cnn special and found it more shocking that not all the black children associated well with the white dolls that were shown and not all of the black children associated bad children as the black dolls. I wasn’t surprised however that all the white children thought the black dolls were bad and the white dolls were good. It doesn’t shock me because when we look at the other study it shows that white people are on top as the “good” workers while no matter how hard the African Americans worked they were never going to attain the level of their white co workers. In my soc class we discussed a theory that talked about not creating possiblities. For examples schools only teach us what we need to know to get along but yet what they made think we need to know is not enough to cover what we need to know. Coming from different cultures how is one set of beliefs that leans towards the dominant groups opinion, shape our whole education requirements? I feel that this article is really an eye opener to that no matter how much progress we think we are really making, we aren’t if our economic levels are still like this and our children are still thinking “the lighter the better”. We have more work in store for us than we imagined.

There is an age old quote that comes to me after reading “Beliefs About Race Can Impact Beyond A Lifetime”. It is “Like father like son”. This may actually be hurting the children. The beliefs of a child’s parents are picked up by their children and then they do what they hear. In a study conducted between 1984-2007, it is said that the poverty and wealth divide quadrupled. Middle-income white households gained far more wealth than high-income African American households, but why is that? Why are African Americans still making less than whites? Is it still because the color of their skin? If somebody is qualified to do a certain job, it should not matter what color or gender they are and they should receive the same pay. Relating back to the study with the children, the white kids picked more of the African Americans to be “ dumb, mean, bad and ugly”. If this carries over to when they are older, this idea of everyone besides whites being bad will affect thousands of people.

I have seen a similar study done on young children like the one presented in this article. In the study, young children were presented two pictures. One picture had a drawing of a black kid reaching to pick up a wallet, and another drawing of a white kid walking away from the wallet although he clearly dropped it. The other picture was the exact same drawing except the color of the children was switched around. The young students asked what was going on in each picture. For the drawing of the black kid reaching for the wallet, most children said that kid was going to steal the wallet. For the other drawing, most of the children said that the white kid was picking the wallet up to return it to the black kid. This shows that even children these days are becoming racist. I do not think that they are doing this on purpose, I believe the cause of this involves the environment that child grows up in.

Unfortunaetely this is the reality of life. I dont think anyone should be shocked about the results of this expirement. Our childrens thoughts and ideas are constructed by society, the people that surround them. Im not saying that all parents are racist and that they teach their children to hate people of color, but perhaps they dont teach their children that everyone should be treated equal regardless of skin tone. Lets not forget that there is a difference between non-racist and anti-racist. One can say that they are not racist and wont care when a racist action is occuring, a anti-racist will step in and do something to prohibit that racist act. If children see that their parents or someone that they know doesnt say anything about a racist act they will analyze that action as acceptable. I think we should all practice being more anti-racist so our children can have a life time of equality.

A big issue today is the difference between whites and blacks. After blacks gained their rights they wanted to work and support their families. A white family during this time would make more money than an African American family. They may do the same job but whites would still get paid more. This is a horrible fact because they worked the same job. A middle class white family would bring in a lot more money than an upper class African American family. White families would have more assets to their names than African Americans. African Americans would have more debt because they would have fewer assets than the white family. If the white family had more assets then it is less likely for them to fall into debt. This was a big issue because rich African American families aren’t making as much money as a normal white family. That is a cause for concern and it should be evened out with more opportunities for African Americans.

A big issue today is the difference between whites and blacks. After blacks gained their rights they wanted to work and support their families. A white family during this time would make more money than an African American family. They may do the same job but whites would still get paid more. This is a horrible fact because they worked the same job. A middle class white family would bring in a lot more money than an upper class African American family. White families would have more assets to their names than African Americans. African Americans would have more debt because they would have fewer assets than the white family. If the white family had more assets then it is less likely for them to fall into debt. This was a big issue because rich African American families aren’t making as much money as a normal white family. That is a cause for concern and it should be evened out with more opportunities for African Americans.

This article seems to be split in two parts one being how whites overall economically earn more than blacks which is still a problem today. What the article then proceeded to say disturbed me quite a bit, of how if a black does everything right down to the T, gets an education, earns that well-paying job and works hard at it will never equate to what his white counterpart is or will make. It’s like what does the African American race need to do to be held equally among the whites? Honestly i cannot find the answer. The next part of the article speaks of how children as young as 7 are associating negative traits such as ugly, dumb and stupid with the darker skin toned classmates. And i am not shocked by this for it is the upbringing of the child which blame points back to the parents and media for how it portrays races in not the best of lights most of the time. All i have to say is America has a long ways to go before the word equal applies to all races.

The first part about the wealth gap even when African Americans do everything right I do not know much about and cannot comment on. Racism in children is manifested in many ways, but a large part of it comes from the family. If a child is extremely racist, most likely he or she learned to be that way from their parents. As the child gets older, it is their responsibility to change his or her racist ideas. It is this way in all aspects of life. If your parent raised you to eat unhealthy, it is your responsibility to become healthy. If your parent raised you to be rude, it is your responsibility to be nice. As people become responsible for their beliefs and see their racist ways are wrong, then their children they raise will carry on their non-racist ways. I am not surprised at the children study because there are still many people alive today that were passed down racist ideas from their parents before the 1960's. My grandfather was born and raised before the Civil Rights movements and is a racist person. My mother, my grandfather's daughter, is a loving person, but there are still subtle racist actions I see. Now it is my turn to see where my family has come from and to make this a better world by throwing racist ideas to the ground and teaching the next generation how to treat everyone as equals. This is mine and my generation's responsibility to undermine racism.

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