posted September 06, 2009 02:11 PM         

The goal of Vittrup's study was to learn if typical children's videos with multicultural storylines have any beneficial effect on children's racial attitudes. Her first step was to give the children a Racial Attitude Measure, which asked such questions as:

How many White people are nice?
(Almost all) (A lot) (Some) (Not many) (None)

How many Black people are nice?
(Almost all) (A lot) (Some) (Not many) (None)

During the test, the descriptive adjective "nice" was replaced with more than 20 other adjectives, like "dishonest," "pretty," "curious," and "snobby."

Vittrup sent a third of the families home with multiculturally themed videos for a week, such as an episode of Sesame Streetin which characters visit an African-American family's home, and an episode of Little Bill, where the entire neighborhood comes together to clean the local park.

In truth, Vittrup didn't expect that children's racial attitudes would change very much just from watching these videos. Prior research had shown that multicultural curricula in schools have far less impact than we intend them to—largely because the implicit message "We're all friends" is too vague for young children to understand that it refers to skin color.

Yet Vittrup figured explicit conversations with parents could change that. So a second group of families got the videos, and Vittrup told these parents to use them as the jumping-off point for a discussion about interracial friendship. She provided a checklist of points to make, echoing the shows' themes. "I really believed it was going to work," Vittrup recalls.

The last third were also given the checklist of topics, but no videos. These parents were to discuss racial equality on their own, every night for five nights.

At this point, something interesting happened. Five families in the last group abruptly quit the study. Two directly told Vittrup, "We don't want to have these conversations with our child. We don't want to point out skin color."

Vittrup was taken aback—these families volunteered knowing full well it was a study of children's racial attitudes. Yet once they were aware that the study required talking openly about race, they started dropping out.

It was no surprise that in a liberal city like Austin, every parent was a welcoming multiculturalist, embracing diversity. But according to Vittrup's entry surveys, hardly any of these white parents had ever talked to their children directly about race. They might have asserted vague principles—like "Everybody's equal" or "God made all of us" or "Under the skin, we're all the same"—but they'd almost never called attention to racial differences.

They wanted their children to grow up colorblind. But Vittrup's first test of the kids revealed they weren't colorblind at all. Asked how many white people are mean, these children commonly answered, "Almost none." Asked how many blacks are mean, many answered, "Some," or "A lot." Even kids who attended diverse schools answered the questions this way.

More disturbing, Vittrup also asked all the kids a very blunt question: "Do your parents like black people?" Fourteen percent said outright, "No, my parents don't like black people"; 38 percent of the kids answered, "I don't know." In this supposed race-free vacuum being created by parents, kids were left to improvise their own conclusions—many of which would be abhorrent to their parents.

posted September 06, 2009 03:29 PM         

thanks for sharing.

It doesn't surprise me either.

I read the comments to it.

As multiracial child that's part black, I had discussions about matters of race as a child. I remember my aunt Dominga told me that I am black, and I told her that I am brown. When I was 9 years old, my mom made me check out a book on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because I needed to know about my people. On my 9th birthday, I was called the n'word for the very first time. When I was in special education, almost all the children that called me "retard" were white boys. Interestingly,no girls gave me a hard time for having special education needs. I had friends of all races too. I didn't discriminate when it came to race.

when my mom registered me for high school, she referred to racial category thing as stupid. She marked down multiple races.

When I have children, I am going to have a deep,honest discussion about race too.

I am curious about the views of interracial dating,relationships by parents today. I wonder how many think it's okay or not okay for their children to date people of another race. As a teenager, being multiracial was very tough.

Raymond

------------------
“It is absolutely the perfect name,” Dr. Brown said, given the continuing discord among astronomers and the public over whether Pluto should have retained its planetary status.

In mythology, Eris ignited discord that led to the Trojan War.

“She causes strife by causing arguments among men, by making them think their opinions are right and everyone else’s is wrong,” Dr. Brown said. “It really is just perfect.”

posted September 07, 2009 10:39 AM         

Bigotry and racism are part of America. A large part. You can paint over it, and ignore it, but I see it every day. (I'm Caucasian)

posted September 08, 2009 04:42 AM         

christians.

gay people.

ugly people. ugly people do not get treated the same as attractive people. i get free coffee every morning at the gas station, if i was fat and ugly i kinda doubt i would get free coffee everyday.

as much as we try to not be a society that has prejudice, it is almost impossible to completely eradicate it.

the last time i said anything about it, i was told i am from the white priveledge and wouldn't understand racial issues.

go to texas and ask african americans the same questions about mexicans, and just see what responses you get.

it has come a long way. but never far enough.

and glacous, i am sorry you endured that, but in this day and age i don't think anyone would say that word without severe immediate consequenses. it is not socially acceptable whatsoever.

30 years ago, 40 years ago, different story.
why does the glass have to be half empty, we should be proud it is half full and how far we actually have come.