Racial prejudice among children of early childhood education: Revisiting Clark & Clark (1947)

Abstract

The racial prejudice among children is an extremely important issue in exploring the genesis of this social virus. However, few researchers in Brazil were interested in the subject. The main objective of this paper is to replicate the classic Clark and Clark's experiment (1947). Ninety-nine children from Paraíba, black (51) and white (48) participated. About 86.9% of the children chose the white doll to play with; 78.8% of the children considered the white doll as the good one; 76.8% chose the black doll as the bad one; 92.9% of the children considered the white doll as the nice one; 84.8% of the children indicated that the white doll looks like them; 85.9% stated that they would do academic activity with the white doll. The main results denounce the color prejudice in children in the school environment. More studies are expected to highlight racial prejudice among school-age children, highlighting the role of the media, the family and the school.