May 17th, 1954: The incredibly moving court case, Brown vs. the Board of Education, ruled in favor of desegregation in all public schools across the United States.

Before this ruling, psychologist Dr. Kenneth Clark researched the impact segregation had on black children in the 1940s. His famous experiment became known as the "Doll Test" found segregation was detrimental to personality development in black children. His studies provided strong evidence that was used in Brown vs. the Board of Education. (Brown vs Board and Clark's Experiment)

Recently, his study was replicated in the short film A Girl Like Me (watch film here: A Girl Like Me). It is apparent our society's strides against racism haven't gotten as far as we hoped because children still favor white dolls over black dolls, even if they are black themselves because the white dolls are "nice" and look "good". To be exact, fifteen out of the twenty studied chose the white doll over the black one. 

Other girls were interviewed in the film and felt removed from their culture being generalized as "from Africa". Just as each state in America has its different culture so do the individual countries that form Africa, but slowly these girls are forgetting where they came from and their distinct roots.

Our nation has the tendency to label those that aren't white, which is only over-simplifying several cultures and throwing them into groups based off of skin color. Solely labeling people based on this ignores the culture that makes them who they are. It also impacts they way they see themselves, wanting to be white. The black girls from A Girl Like Me wanted the straight, blond hair white girls have. It seemed they saw themselves as less beautiful because they weren't white.

What I don't understand is why. Why did whites feel entitlement and superiority? What exactly is so special about us that makes us "better" than others? Who were we to think that? We shouldn't be entitled to anything nor should we feel superior to anyone strictly because we are white. 

Continuing to remove racism from our society is crucial because kids are still learning traces of it early on.
 

Maybe one day society will finally reach perfect equality without any hints of racism.