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That brought tears to my eyes and reminded me of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

I am white but make sure my children have dolls and books that are diverse and representative of real life. I hate barbie and think the black and hispnic barbies are insulting.

How do we change this?

On one of those shows recently (Dateline or 20/20), they conducted a similar experiment where a bunch of children (of all colors) were shown pictures of people of different ethnic backgrounds. They were asked to identify who was "good/bad", "smart/not-smart", "drug dealer/doctor", etc. The results were just as soul-crushing as this video. Linda asks the perfect question...

And Linda, I think what you're doing with providing multi-cultural toys to your kids is great early socialization for them and shouldn't be underestimated. I have to admit that I played with Barbies when I was young (in the 60's). Do you know that I still have my "talking-Nurse Julia" doll in a trunk filled with childhood treasures. She was THE favorite of all my Barbies. And I think that was the first exposure I had to the fact that there were people out there who didn't look like me. Of course, for me - a white girl playing with a black doll offered positive social role-play. Unfortunately, for these girls on the video the reverse takes on completely different and more tragic overtones.

The question of WHY the children have these views wasn't addressed.

Is it their exposure to television, where minorities are disproportionately portrayed negatively, in the news and on fictional dramas?

Would results be different depending on the economic makeup of the children, and the location in which they live?

This was a fascinating video to watch, but leaves a number of unanswered questions.

Tyler,

True. The video was made by a young student. It's not really complex enough to delve into those questions.

I think there was a brief blurb during it that said the results were consistent across class boundaries though.

Hi Tanya - thanks for the clarification. It saddens me when I see barriers in front of children that prevent them from reaching their full potential. When the filmmaker talks about how she couldn't have been a princess, because princesses aren't black, for many minority kids, I suspect that "princess" could unfortunately be substituted with doctor or lawyer or businesswoman.

Just as Tiger Woods as a multicultural figure (black and Korean) is single-handedly changing the face of golf for generations to come, my hope is that Barack Obama (of Kansas and Kenya) can do the same for politics and other minority leaders can also continue to be elevated as positive role models in their fields.