The Doll Test — Racism and Sexism

The Doll Test was an experiment used in the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court case that ended segregation. Before this decision the accepted mantra was “separate but equal”, the supreme court decided that separation and inequality went hand in hand and therefore it was unconstitutional. The Doll Test was done in the 40s by Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie P. Clark and it was a way to understand self-perception in negro children (the paper where the results are presented is called Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children). The test was done in the following way: “the subjects were presented with four dolls, identical in every respect save skin color. Two of these dolls were brown with black hair and two were white with yellow hair.” The dolls were presented to the children, alternating between the white and brown doll, one group of children started with the brown doll and the other with the white. As the dolls were presented these questions were asked:

1. Give me the doll that you like to play with — like best.
2. Give me the doll that is a nice doll.
3. Give me the doll that looks bad.
4. Give me the doll that is a nice color.
5. Give me the doll that looks like a white child.
6. Give me the doll that looks like a colored child.