A Question of Black Pride

By Anastasia Toufexis

It has long been an article of faith among psychologists and educators that black achievement in business, sports, politics and the arts would result in growing self-esteem among black children. That belief was challenged last week by two studies, reported at a meeting in New York City of the American Psychological Association, indicating that the poor self-image of black youngsters seems to have changed little over the past four decades. Concluded Kenneth B. Clark, professor emeritus of psychology at City University of New York, whose classic study of black children in 1947 first disclosed the depth of the problem: "There haven't been any significant changes in American racism. The rhetoric of racial pride didn't influence the children."

The new studies duplicated the groundbreaking investigations by Clark and his late wife Mamie, also a psychologist, into the development of racial identity among American black children. The Clarks asked 253 youngsters, ages 3 to 7, who attended schools in Springfield, Mass., and Little Rock to choose between four dolls, two black and two white. The startling result: two-thirds of the children preferred white dolls. So important were the findings that they were cited by the Supreme Court in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision mandating school desegregation.

Two years ago Psychologist Darlene Powell-Hopson of Middletown, Conn., tested 155 black and white youngsters between the ages of three and six in Headstart programs or preschools in New York City, on Long Island and in Connecticut. Using 20 Cabbage Patch dolls identical except for color, Hopson asked the children to give her the doll that "you want to be, you want to play with, is a nice color and would take home if you could." To Hopson's surprise, 65% of the black youngsters selected white dolls.

Comments from some of the children particularly disheartened Hopson. One boy, for example, insisted he was white, pointing to his palm. "Black is dirty," declared another. Still, says Hopson, her study does not show that black youngsters "are full of self-hatred or that they want to be white. It does mean that the message they're getting is that it's preferable to be another race."

In the second study Sharon Gopaul-McNicol, an educational consultant on Long Island, surveyed 144 black and white preschoolers in Trinidad. She found that 74% of blacks chose white dolls. Though the Caribbean island has a black government and many successful blacks in business, says McNicol, they apparently are not enough to overcome the legacy of white supremacy, passed on by 400 years of British rule, and the influence of North American and European television.

Extending the Clarks' work, both studies examined whether self-esteem could be bolstered. In a half-hour session after the test, Hopson praised youngsters who chose a black doll and had them recite, "This is a nice doll . . . We like these dolls the best." When the preference test was repeated, Hopson reported a dramatic reversal: two-thirds of the black children selected a black doll (as did two-thirds of the whites). Inexplicably, McNicol's subjects showed no such change of heart.

Some experts express reservations about the new research. Recent surveys of black elementary and high school children, they point out, show racial pride is improving. Still, says Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the N.A.A.C.P., "for those who are concerned about the future and progress, the studies remind us there is still a lot of work we have to do together."

With reporting by D. Blake Hallanan/New York