2008 Woodie Awards
What's the Real Deal?
The first apology of its kind
Ta-Kara Roquemore
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: Voices
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Virginia had the right idea when they became the first state to apologize for slavery last month. I know the people who made the apology were not responsible for this particular horrific event in our history, but I saw it as America acknowledging it had made some mistakes. To date Virginia is the only known state to have apologized.
In Virginia both House and Senate came together to approve of this resolution on February 24, 2007. They did this just months before their annual May celebration of Jamestown, which was the first English settlement founded in 1607.
Why apologize for something you didn't do? Even though it's been less than 200 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 that liberated slaves, the effects of slavery are still being felt on an economical scale as well as a racial one in the lives of African Americans.
Kiri Davis, a 17 year old from a New York City high school produced a short documentary called A Girl Like Me. In it she interviews 21 black four and five - year - olds from a Harlem school. Two identical dolls were placed in front of them. The only difference was their color.
She asks them questions about which doll they see as being better. The results were, 15 out of 21 of the children pointed to the white doll. When asked about which doll was the bad one, 15 out of 21 children said the black doll.
The actual video and story is on youtube.com. Just type in her name, Kiri Davis, and the video will appear.
Originally, a black professor and psychologist named Kenneth Clark did this test in the 1940s.
In the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme court case in 1954 the "doll test" was used. It showed how segregation had a negative effect on the way black children viewed themselves. The experiment that Davis has reawakened asked black school-aged children ranging from seven to nine these questions: show me what doll is the nice doll, they pointed to the white doll. When asked which one was the bad doll they pointed to the black doll. Ten out of 16 children he interviewed preferred the white doll to the black.
I am not pointing fingers and playing the blame game. I am just saying that maybe we have to do something different. If not, I don't know if much has changed in 50 years. I may not be an expert to make that type of claim, but who has to be when they watch both Clark's and Davis' videos? Consider this: if African American children don't like who they are, what does that mean what kinds of distortions are being perpetuated in American society that makes little children prefer one color over the other?
Because injustices were permitted and embedded deeply in our society, an apology is needed. America has just begun to stand on the Constitution of what the fore fathers put in place ("….we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal…"). Our country has become the standard for freedom.
There is still a long way to go.
In Virginia both House and Senate came together to approve of this resolution on February 24, 2007. They did this just months before their annual May celebration of Jamestown, which was the first English settlement founded in 1607.
Why apologize for something you didn't do? Even though it's been less than 200 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 that liberated slaves, the effects of slavery are still being felt on an economical scale as well as a racial one in the lives of African Americans.
Kiri Davis, a 17 year old from a New York City high school produced a short documentary called A Girl Like Me. In it she interviews 21 black four and five - year - olds from a Harlem school. Two identical dolls were placed in front of them. The only difference was their color.
She asks them questions about which doll they see as being better. The results were, 15 out of 21 of the children pointed to the white doll. When asked about which doll was the bad one, 15 out of 21 children said the black doll.
The actual video and story is on youtube.com. Just type in her name, Kiri Davis, and the video will appear.
Originally, a black professor and psychologist named Kenneth Clark did this test in the 1940s.
In the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme court case in 1954 the "doll test" was used. It showed how segregation had a negative effect on the way black children viewed themselves. The experiment that Davis has reawakened asked black school-aged children ranging from seven to nine these questions: show me what doll is the nice doll, they pointed to the white doll. When asked which one was the bad doll they pointed to the black doll. Ten out of 16 children he interviewed preferred the white doll to the black.
I am not pointing fingers and playing the blame game. I am just saying that maybe we have to do something different. If not, I don't know if much has changed in 50 years. I may not be an expert to make that type of claim, but who has to be when they watch both Clark's and Davis' videos? Consider this: if African American children don't like who they are, what does that mean what kinds of distortions are being perpetuated in American society that makes little children prefer one color over the other?
Because injustices were permitted and embedded deeply in our society, an apology is needed. America has just begun to stand on the Constitution of what the fore fathers put in place ("….we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal…"). Our country has become the standard for freedom.
There is still a long way to go.
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