Race: Caucasian

In 1954 Kenneth and Mamie Clark did a series of psychological experiments using dolls in an effort to make a case for desegregation of schools in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. The study consisted of several preschooled aged children being given the choice between two identical dolls that differed in race.


The study showed that the majority of the children, specifically the majority of black children involved in the study, identified the white doll as the prettier and better than the black doll, which was seen as ugly.

The fact is that in America, white is normal. From 1949-1962 Crayola produced a crayon color called "flesh." This color resembled the skin color of white americans, Crayola changed it in 1962 to "peach," in response to the Civil Rights movement, and their aknowledgement of the fact that flesh comes in many different colors. But it remains that being white is the majority, it is the normal. White people, men specifically, are not percieved has having to "rise above" anything. White men are seen as existing without struggle.

The Kenneth and Mamie Clark experiments were re-created in 2006 by filmmaker Kiri Davis, and documented in the HBO special, A Girl Like Me. The results had not changed much.






Bibliography:
Kenneth and Mamie Clark Experiments
Crayola's Color "Flesh"