Helen Valverde
Professor- Koritzke
Psychology-01
10 October 2013

Media Has Affected African-American Children Self-image Modern advertisements have devastatingly affected African-American children through teenagers; pushing realized their own faults, marketers bombarded them with magazine covers and ads of “perfect” beauty. Media images have great influence on societal ideals–particularly when it comes to African-American children. African-Americans are often portrayed in movies as low income citizens, criminals, or drug addicts. Mass media portrays white females as being the primarily beauty, it's no wonder African-American children focus on looking more Americanize. Children are bombarded with gender and racial stereotypes. The media misrepresented and manipulated purposely to make children believe they should look a certain way. Today’s media has affected African-American children self-image.
In the 1940s an experiment was conducted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark. They asked African-American children about two dolls, one white and one black. The research test African-American and white children abilities to distinguish their difference in race. “According to Ahuja the majority -- 63 percent of them -- said they'd rather play with the white doll. Most said the white doll was nicer than the black doll and in the most poignant answer of all, 44 percent of the black children said the white doll looked most like them”(Ahuja). These results were devastating to watch African-American children prefer white doll that look nothing like them. An identical experiment from the doll test was made by Good Morning America this time nineteen African-American children from ages five-nine. The majority of the children decided to want to play with the black doll. Good Morning America news results were more different