Morgan Ellis said:
I can't believe that in 2007 teenage African American girls still feel like this. It's so incredibly sad. The 'Doll Test' is just unbelievable.
Ditto for me. There appears to be a serious problem with self-depreciation in African American youth that some black leaders have touched upon elsewhere (like Bill Cosby) but becomes glaring when watching that short film. The one girl talking about having no culture apparently has no clue that she can be happy just being American if she wants but is likely pressured to find a link to her more distant roots by her peer groups. You certainly don't see such problems with white communities who are fine with being American and nothing else, so why are blacks not happy with that? Where is the pressure to be more coming from? Is it possible this perceived lack of identity prevents them from fully engaging in American society as a whole, and as suh prevents many from rising from poverty? And is this caused more by the black community and their tendency to introvert or can there be an argument that they are being prevented externally somehow?
I also had serious problems with the girls talking about beauty and wanting to have caucasian features because most of those girls didn't have anyting wrong with them and a couple of them are obviously going to grow up into heartbreakers. Who is it telling them they're not beautiful because those people need to be shot.
Finally, the doll test, to me, is significantly flawed as both dolls appear to have white features but the one is just painted black. It might've been more useful if each doll had ethnic specific features for such a study, or better yet use dolls with black features and then paint the one white. Another thing that factors into such a test is what the commercial norm is, as girls may pick what they have at home (and it was only bought because it was cheap) and not what they actually prefer. Personally, I don't think what is really going on in that footage is the same as what they say is going on.
