In early March, I was fortunate to join Professor Emakoji Ayikoye and his Contemporary Social Issues class in discussing a very important topic, racism. He began by showing us 2 YouTube videos, studies conducted both in Brazil and in the US, called The Doll Test. As explained on the YouTube page, “the ‘doll test’ is a psychological experiment designed in the 1940s in the USA to test the degree of marginalization felt by African American children caused by prejudice, discrimination and racial segregation. Given the considerable increase of the phenomenon of migration in Europe in recent years”.
Even though the test was first conducted by Kenneth B. Clarke in the 1940s, recent tests, the most recent with Anderson Cooper of CNN, continue to reveal disturbing results.
Given the compelling nature of this video, Professor Ayikoye gently guided the class through a discussion on learned prejudice, racism and discrimination, and the differences between them. Students felt free to share their point of view, personal experiences, and began to talk about a deeper understanding of what racism encompasses, how it manifests in their lives, and the difference between discrimination and prejudice.
This group of students and their professor worked through probably one of the most difficult classroom topics in a respectful and honest way. For me, it was a heart-wrenching yet enlightening discussion and class.