Is Your Baby Racist?

[Jenn! 918]

See Baby Discriminate

Kids as young as 6 months judge others based on skin color. What's a parent to do?

By Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman | NEWSWEEK

Published Sep 5, 2009

At the Children's Research Lab at the University of Texas, a database is kept on thousands of families in the Austin area who have volunteered to be available for scholarly research. In 2006 Birgitte Vittrup recruited from the database about a hundred families, all of whom were Caucasian with a child 5 to 7 years old.

The goal of Vittrup's study was to learn if typical children's videos with multicultural storylines have any beneficial effect on children's racial attitudes. Her first step was to give the children a Racial Attitude Measure, which asked such questions as:

How many White people are nice?

(Almost all) (A lot) (Some) (Not many) (None)

How many Black people are nice?

(Almost all) (A lot) (Some) (Not many) (None)

During the test, the descriptive adjective "nice" was replaced with more than 20 other adjectives, like "dishonest," "pretty," "curious," and "snobby."

Vittrup sent a third of the families home with multiculturally themed videos for a week, such as an episode of Sesame Street in which characters visit an African-American family's home, and an episode of Little Bill, where the entire neighborhood comes together to clean the local park.

In truth, Vittrup didn't expect that children's racial attitudes would change very much just from watching these videos. Prior research had shown that multicultural curricula in schools have far less impact than we intend them to—largely because the implicit message "We're all friends" is too vague for young children to understand that it refers to skin color.

Yet Vittrup figured explicit conversations with parents could change that. So a second group of families got the videos, and Vittrup told these parents to use them as the jumping-off point for a discussion about interracial friendship. She provided a checklist of points to make, echoing the shows' themes. "I really believed it was going to work," Vittrup recalls.

The last third were also given the checklist of topics, but no videos. These parents were to discuss racial equality on their own, every night for five nights.

At this point, something interesting happened. Five families in the last group abruptly quit the study. Two directly told Vittrup, "We don't want to have these conversations with our child. We don't want to point out skin color."

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Edited December 8, 2009 by Jenn!

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Do you think BY is right?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

[Jenn! 918]

Do you think BY is right?

bout what?

[Jenn! 918]

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

I think the article raises several interesting points, including how increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation. There were quite a few nasty comments about the story - people were offended by the notion that it is "abhorrent" to have "white pride", while "black pride" provides a healthy boost to self-esteem. People were also angry at the use of the term "racist" in the title - "But, but babies can't be racist, they're just noticing differences." That's the whole point of the article. People have different skin colors and we shouldn't be pretending that they don't.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

I think the article raises several interesting points, including how increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation. There were quite a few nasty comments about the story - people were offended by the notion that it is "abhorrent" to have "white pride", while "black pride" provides a healthy boost to self-esteem. People were also angry at the use of the term "racist" in the title - "But, but babies can't be racist, they're just noticing differences." That's the whole point of the article. People have different skin colors and we shouldn't be pretending that they don't.

I don't think that's a fair conclusion to make based on this study. How children judge others (whether primarily by character or by their appearance) also comes into play. It's not enough for a parent to embrace cultural diversity in their home if they tend to be superficial in their judgment of others, which the children will most definitely pick up on. If Dad makes an off-hand comment about a fat lady eating ice cream, that's going to leave a big impression on the children. That's the one thing that almost all of us can't shake ourselves from...that we seem innately prone to prejudice. Parents who want their children to realize MLK's dream have to go beyond just embracing cultural diversity. They need to show their children that they themselves don't make judgments about people based on appearance...which is difficult to do .

[Danno 1,228]

I read about this study not long ago and felt sorry for kids so young being put through such things.

I agree with the Study, the more diversity you have, the more people self segregate.

THese studies also are fixated on "Skin color", as if that is the sole difference in people.

Children endlessly taught "skin color"is the only difference, when this is only true some of the time.

[Jenn! 918]

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

I think the article raises several interesting points, including how increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation. There were quite a few nasty comments about the story - people were offended by the notion that it is "abhorrent" to have "white pride", while "black pride" provides a healthy boost to self-esteem. People were also angry at the use of the term "racist" in the title - "But, but babies can't be racist, they're just noticing differences." That's the whole point of the article. People have different skin colors and we shouldn't be pretending that they don't.

I don't think that's a fair conclusion to make based on this study. How children judge others (whether primarily by character or by their appearance) also comes into play. It's not enough for a parent to embrace cultural diversity in their home if they tend to be superficial in their judgment of others, which the children will most definitely pick up on. If Dad makes an off-hand comment about a fat lady eating ice cream, that's going to leave a big impression on the children. That's the one thing that almost all of us can't shake ourselves from...that we seem innately prone to prejudice. Parents who want their children to realize MLK's dream have to go beyond just embracing cultural diversity. They need to show their children that they themselves don't make judgments about people based on appearance...which is difficult to do .

Which is not a fair conclusion to make?

I think the study was confirming that we are innately prone to prejudice, from infancy in fact. They didn't really get into it, but I wonder how a biracial baby would respond to the images shown.

Also interesting was this idea of "essentialism", where we think positively of people who share physical traits with us, e.g. the red/blue shirt experiment.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

I think the article raises several interesting points, including how increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation. There were quite a few nasty comments about the story - people were offended by the notion that it is "abhorrent" to have "white pride", while "black pride" provides a healthy boost to self-esteem. People were also angry at the use of the term "racist" in the title - "But, but babies can't be racist, they're just noticing differences." That's the whole point of the article. People have different skin colors and we shouldn't be pretending that they don't.

I don't think that's a fair conclusion to make based on this study. How children judge others (whether primarily by character or by their appearance) also comes into play. It's not enough for a parent to embrace cultural diversity in their home if they tend to be superficial in their judgment of others, which the children will most definitely pick up on. If Dad makes an off-hand comment about a fat lady eating ice cream, that's going to leave a big impression on the children. That's the one thing that almost all of us can't shake ourselves from...that we seem innately prone to prejudice. Parents who want their children to realize MLK's dream have to go beyond just embracing cultural diversity. They need to show their children that they themselves don't make judgments about people based on appearance...which is difficult to do .

Which is not a fair conclusion to make?

I think the study was confirming that we are innately prone to prejudice, from infancy in fact. They didn't really get into it, but I wonder how a biracial baby would respond to the images shown.

Also interesting was this idea of "essentialism", where we think positively of people who share physical traits with us, e.g. the red/blue shirt experiment.

"increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation" - beyond being innately prone to prejudice, I think that human rationality functions mostly through categorization. Even in school, children are taught to notice "same" and "different." It most probably is part of our survival instincts. We can, however, teach children more complex concepts beyond visual similarities and differences. There's so much more beyond our exteriors and I believe that young children can be keen to those less obvious similarities and differences.

[GabiandVi 34]

The question about whether children see color if it isn't pointed out to them, and whether pointing it out to them is a good or a bad thing is very interesting. IMO pretending that everyone is the same and avoiding acknowledging differences teaches children that if you aren't the same, something is wrong with you. I find the attitude that "everyone is the same" very insulting. It's the sort of good intentions that pave the way to hell. It is an insidious form of racism.

And, it would be impossible to avoid acknowledging the differences among races in a truly integrated area. Just at Thanksgiving, two of my in-laws, one from LA and the other from Long Island, admitted that they had never met a Black person before they moved to the South. It's almost laughable. You would have to be living under a rock in the "racist" South to say that.

By the same token, my daughter immediately identifies with the Black kids in her daycare. She sees pictures of little Black girls and says they look like her. But her closest friends, her cousins, are White, some of them glow-in-the-dark White. Still, she doesn't really understand skin color labels yet. She identifies with Black people, and she says she is Black, but so is Mommy.

[Jenn! 918]

I think it's a very interesting question too. I do believe that children see skin color even if it isn't pointed out to them. I know that I did. I have drawings from when I was very little and I always drew myself as brown. Probably because I saw most of my peers using the "flesh" colored crayon and I recognized that I wasn't quite the same color as them. I also used to refer to myself as "brown baby". I know that I was always very aware of the fact that my skin was darker than my mother's.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The question about whether children see color if it isn't pointed out to them, and whether pointing it out to them is a good or a bad thing is very interesting. IMO pretending that everyone is the same and avoiding acknowledging differences teaches children that if you aren't the same, something is wrong with you. I find the attitude that "everyone is the same" very insulting. It's the sort of good intentions that pave the way to hell. It is an insidious form of racism.

And, it would be impossible to avoid acknowledging the differences among races in a truly integrated area. Just at Thanksgiving, two of my in-laws, one from LA and the other from Long Island, admitted that they had never met a Black person before they moved to the South. It's almost laughable. You would have to be living under a rock in the "racist" South to say that.

By the same token, my daughter immediately identifies with the Black kids in her daycare. She sees pictures of little Black girls and says they look like her. But her closest friends, her cousins, are White, some of them glow-in-the-dark White. Still, she doesn't really understand skin color labels yet. She identifies with Black people, and she says she is Black, but so is Mommy.

I don't think anyone is suggesting we are the same. What is more important though, what you look like on the outside, or your character? We as parents can shape our children's attitudes towards one or the other, and once they can recognize the differences of character, then the differences of appearance seem trivial.

[GabiandVi 34]

The question about whether children see color if it isn't pointed out to them, and whether pointing it out to them is a good or a bad thing is very interesting. IMO pretending that everyone is the same and avoiding acknowledging differences teaches children that if you aren't the same, something is wrong with you. I find the attitude that "everyone is the same" very insulting. It's the sort of good intentions that pave the way to hell. It is an insidious form of racism.

And, it would be impossible to avoid acknowledging the differences among races in a truly integrated area. Just at Thanksgiving, two of my in-laws, one from LA and the other from Long Island, admitted that they had never met a Black person before they moved to the South. It's almost laughable. You would have to be living under a rock in the "racist" South to say that.

By the same token, my daughter immediately identifies with the Black kids in her daycare. She sees pictures of little Black girls and says they look like her. But her closest friends, her cousins, are White, some of them glow-in-the-dark White. Still, she doesn't really understand skin color labels yet. She identifies with Black people, and she says she is Black, but so is Mommy.

I don't think anyone is suggesting we are the same. What is more important though, what you look like on the outside, or your character? We as parents can shape our children's attitudes towards one or the other, and once they can recognize the differences of character, then the differences of appearance seem trivial.

Oh, I hear people say it ALL THE TIME!! Though not so much now that I've moved back home. That so many of these "multicultural" parents didn't want to discuss racial differences is what I'm talking about here, though.

Character trumps everything, of course. That goes without saying and only totally ignorant, hopelessly superficial people (see the diana savino thread ;-) would think otherwise. But to pretend that there are no differences sends the message that the differences are shameful or embarrassing, and a logical conclusion would be that character follows. Different = bad. By the same token, it is impossible not to notice physical attributes. (see the diana savino thread.)

In addition, the differences go way beyond skin depth. There are cultural differences as well, many, many, many related to race. Those cultural differences should be celebrated or if not, at least acknowledged, or again, you are implicitly teaching that the differences are bad.

[HAL 9000 96]

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

I think the article raises several interesting points, including how increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation. There were quite a few nasty comments about the story - people were offended by the notion that it is "abhorrent" to have "white pride", while "black pride" provides a healthy boost to self-esteem. People were also angry at the use of the term "racist" in the title - "But, but babies can't be racist, they're just noticing differences." That's the whole point of the article. People have different skin colors and we shouldn't be pretending that they don't.

Indeed. Rational adults, IMO, can understand the natural difference between likeness aggregation and overt racism. These are two very different things that are often characterized incorrectly and at times, those in the negative will hide in the positive/neutral one as racism becomes more and more socially unacceptable.

Then again, racism is not based on any sort of rational set of logic...

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

I think the article raises several interesting points, including how increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation. There were quite a few nasty comments about the story - people were offended by the notion that it is "abhorrent" to have "white pride", while "black pride" provides a healthy boost to self-esteem. People were also angry at the use of the term "racist" in the title - "But, but babies can't be racist, they're just noticing differences." That's the whole point of the article. People have different skin colors and we shouldn't be pretending that they don't.

I don't think that's a fair conclusion to make based on this study. How children judge others (whether primarily by character or by their appearance) also comes into play. It's not enough for a parent to embrace cultural diversity in their home if they tend to be superficial in their judgment of others, which the children will most definitely pick up on. If Dad makes an off-hand comment about a fat lady eating ice cream, that's going to leave a big impression on the children. That's the one thing that almost all of us can't shake ourselves from...that we seem innately prone to prejudice. Parents who want their children to realize MLK's dream have to go beyond just embracing cultural diversity. They need to show their children that they themselves don't make judgments about people based on appearance...which is difficult to do .

I think how kids learn from either of the two models of parenting definitely affects their socialization with others. Irrational racist teachings will obviously lead to a child with learned irrational racist beliefs.

[HAL 9000 96]

Interesting. There have been previous studies that attitudes can be affected/shaped by television. I got a give props to Sesame Street for shaping mine. Every child should get a daily dose of Sesame Street, IMO.

I think the article raises several interesting points, including how increasing diversity actually tends to result in self-segregation. There were quite a few nasty comments about the story - people were offended by the notion that it is "abhorrent" to have "white pride", while "black pride" provides a healthy boost to self-esteem. People were also angry at the use of the term "racist" in the title - "But, but babies can't be racist, they're just noticing differences." That's the whole point of the article. People have different skin colors and we shouldn't be pretending that they don't.

I don't think that's a fair conclusion to make based on this study. How children judge others (whether primarily by character or by their appearance) also comes into play. It's not enough for a parent to embrace cultural diversity in their home if they tend to be superficial in their judgment of others, which the children will most definitely pick up on. If Dad makes an off-hand comment about a fat lady eating ice cream, that's going to leave a big impression on the children. That's the one thing that almost all of us can't shake ourselves from...that we seem innately prone to prejudice. Parents who want their children to realize MLK's dream have to go beyond just embracing cultural diversity. They need to show their children that they themselves don't make judgments about people based on appearance...which is difficult to do .

Which is not a fair conclusion to make?

I think the study was confirming that we are innately prone to prejudice, from infancy in fact. They didn't really get into it, but I wonder how a biracial baby would respond to the images shown.

Also interesting was this idea of "essentialism", where we think positively of people who share physical traits with us, e.g. the red/blue shirt experiment.

I wouldn't call self-segregation (aggregation) prejudice per se- as it connotes a socially negative meaning. Its like the facial recognition brain activation in children. It is perhaps natural to have self-aware children to self-aggregate out of a drive to associate with familiar individuals first. This is a mechanism that likely is preserved into adulthood and to me at least, does not represent racist behavior, but can be often confused with such behavior- particularly when racism is still around socially and not repudiated by individuals that are aware of it in their surrounding environment.