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In the below clip, Anderson Cooper details the results of a study commissioned by AC360° to explore children's perception of race. Part I of the "Kids on Race: The Hidden Picture" series, takes an in-depth look at how young children interpret ambiguous racial drawings. The findings are rather interesting. The AC360 study found that white children are far more likely to have a negative perception about racial interactions, than black children. Why do you suppose this is the case?
Is it simply a matter of children learning directly from their parents and community to have a negative perception about others due to skin color? I find it sad that children are learning destructive beliefs about others, at such a young age.
If that's the case then it essentially proves that "racism" as we know it in american society is an instinctual reflex and not learned through social interaction.
Perceptions about race are all about one's interactions with the other race. While parents may be a factor, I think racism simply comes from one's personal experiences, not some preconceived notion put in someone's head. All stereotypes are rooted in a bit of truth. The truth comes out via experience. Eventually, with enough experiences, the totality of the circumstances molds a certain expectation when dealing with other races. How many times must one experience a certain action before it becomes evident that that "must be how they are?"
In the below clip, Anderson Cooper details the results of a study commissioned by AC360° to explore children's perception of race. Part I of the "Kids on Race: The Hidden Picture" series, takes an in-depth look at how young children interpret ambiguous racial drawings. The findings are rather interesting. The AC360 study found that white children are far more likely to have a negative perception about racial interactions, than black children. Why do you suppose this is the case?
Is it simply a matter of children learning directly from their parents and community to have a negative perception about others due to skin color? I find it sad that children are learning destructive beliefs about others, at such a young age.
Well for one thing, kids have to actually be around other races to know they exist. A kid raised in the heart of Kenya or Korea or Austria might never see someone of a different race as a young child. Racism happens in the USA because we have more races here.
First thing they tell you is blacks aren't smart enough to make it without affirmative action and other government programs.
They don't mention which states this study is done. Red states are statistically more racist than blue states. Not surprisingly, red states are also poorly educated in comparison to blue states.
I suspect that you'd have different results in a educated metropolitan state than an uneducated midwestern rural state.
Kids pick up on these cues from their elders. We really need to examine our own biases because kids do pick up on it and they react from it.
One of the things they ALWAYS tell us in healthcare is when you're taking care of a kid, you make sure and talk to the parents first and make them feel comfortable because little kids pay attention to their parents and if their parents aren't comfortable, neither will they.
We really need to pay attention to our world. There's quite a few messages out there for kids to pick up on.
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