Published April 20, 2007
"I remember when I was little and told that I can't be a princess because I'm black and princesses can't be black," says teen filmmaker Kiri Davis. Davis' film, "A Girl Like Me," is informing people that the self-consciousness caused by poor race relations in America has not changed much in the past 60 years.
Davis, like many young African-Americans, struggles with constant negative portrayals of blacks in the media. Racism, misogyny, colorism, distorted values, a lackluster community base and absent leaders all play major roles in the limited positive images of blacks in the public eye. Davis' film solidifies this argument.
Nicole Duncan-Smith, youth media specialist and author of the children's book, "I Am Hip-Hop," says, "Children cannot be left to their own devices in determining who they are and what their sense of idealized self should be. They come to us for direction and we ought to give it to them."
A recent development is Disney's announcement of its first animated black princess. The company's coming feature film "The Frog Princess" will star Maddy, a black chambermaid in New Orleans. The tentative setting is the French Quarter in the 1920s.
Many African-American mothers hope this film will assist in giving young black children a boost in confidence when they see a character who resembles them, though Disney has received criticism because of its needy portrayal of women.
The first half of Davis' film shows young African-American women talking about struggles with self-worth for black girls because of a lack of cultural connection and the need to live up to a European standard of beauty.
The second half covers a doll study created by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife, Mamie. His test presented the harmful effects of racism on black children and was used as evidence to support desegregation in the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
In the test, kindergarten-aged children are placed in front of a table with two dolls, one white and one black. The children are then asked to select the doll they believe is better. In Clark's study, an overwhelming majority selected the white doll.
Six decades later, "A Girl Like Me" shows 15 of 21 children tested saying they prefer to play with the white doll, or that the white doll is nice while the black doll is considered bad. One young girl says the black doll is bad and then says she looks like the bad doll. Though disappointing, these results aren't particularly shocking when a great deal of African-American images portrayed in the media are negative.
Despite the fact that many notable scholars, humanitarians, politicians, artists, spiritual leaders and scientists are of African descent, black children in America are constantly reminded that they are not ideal. English philosopher John Locke argued children are born tabula rasa, or a blank slate, and if that's the case, some outside source is making a number of black children believe they're inferior.
Melanie Davis, a fifth-grade teacher at Lakeshore Elementary in Shreveport says it comes from, "the images that they see on TV. Images that don't especially look like them seem to be the standard of beauty ... not them. It is hard to try and tell a student that they are beautiful on both the inside and the outside when all they see in the media is not their image."
Most importantly, let children know that they are loved for who they are and teach them to love themselves. Duncan-Smith adds, "I know that my daughter won't see herself as a queen if I leave it to her 7-year-old mind to interpret her world. It is my duty to place her on her throne."
Katrina L. Rogers is one of several twentysomethings columnists who appear on Fridays. Send comments to shreveportopinion@gannett.com.
