From “Modifying
Child’s Racial Attitudes”
Quotes that “stood out” or “spoke” something to you:
- “Very few preventative programs exist for 3-year-olds, and fewer still have been evaluated.” My reaction: Well, duh. They’re 3. How can someone at such an early stage of development truly grasp a preventative strategy like this? Odds are, the child is going to associate with and gravitate towards other people who look like the people he/she is exposed to most (i.e. his/her parents, siblings, extended family, etc.), and again, odds are, those people are going to be mostly the same race.
- “While children are capable of learning attitudes from parents, particularly from parents who overtly express their prejudice, the attitudes of children in North American frequently do not match those of their parents.” How can we really say this? I would definitely think the opposite. I just saw the new film about Jackie Robinson this weekend, and one scene stood out to me in which this notion was directly challenged. A child is seen watching his dad at a baseball game yell out derogatory names like “Nigger” to Robinson on the field…then the child turns toward the field, thinks a minute, then decides to mirror his dad and yell the same names. This child was about 10-12 years old.
Questions that you may have:
- Use of media as a strategy to modify attitudes… what a concept... but how counterproductive would that be considering the media is also feeding the opposite message?
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