Which one is the pretty doll?" the person asked a black kid. The kid pointed to the white doll and said, "That doll!" "Why?" "Because it is white and has blue eyes." The kid answered. And the other kids followed his suit. "Which one looks bad and ugly?" All the kids pointed to the black doll this time."Why?" "Because he's all black!" A black girl answered. "And which one looks like you?" Now, a flash of sadness crossed their eyes. Their smiles faded as they pointed to the black doll.

This was the doll test. The "Doll Test" is a psychological experiment designed in the 1940s in the USA to test the degree of marginalization felt by African American children caused by prejudice.

Discrimination and racial segregation. It was conducted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940s. The experiment involved presenting children with four identical dolls, differing only in skin color (two black and two white), and asking them questions about the dolls' characteristics and which doll they preferred. Their preference for white dolls and negative associations with black dolls, particularly among young children, highlighted the damaging effects of segregation on their self-esteem and racial identity. This research was presented as evidence and played a crucial role in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, which ultimately led to the desegregation of public schools in the United States. But the dialogue in the first paragraph of my essay was not that of the experiment.

Conducted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940s. It is from a recreated version of the test on Italian children conducted just a few years ago. What does this mean? It is the popular media that these kids consume daily that shapes their views and beliefs. Even though today's movies and series have more black representation, the historical portrayal of black people as servants, drug lords fuels the stereotype. Even in a country like India, where the landscape is so diverse, where you can find people of every colour, the lead roles and the majority of its film industry's casts include only fair people. The minority of the dark people that are cast are portrayed as ugly and evil, and more often, the laughing stock of the film. Such a narrative further pushes the stereotype, and it becomes very evident in the new generation.

Ruby, a black girl, finds a can of white paint on the shelves of her school's storage room. She picks it up and dips her hands into it, and then gazes at her hands as the white paint slowly spreads across them. The next scene cuts to a campfire where Ruby suddenly emerges from the school, drenched in white paint, and does a cheerleading routine in front of her all white schoolmates. This is a scene from "Them", an American horror series that follows the lives of the Emory family as they relocate into an all white neighbourhood in East Compton from the rural southern United States in the 1950s. The patriarch of the Emory family is Henry Emory, an engineer, who faces racism in his white office despite being talented, and also faces violence in the neighbourhood. 

The series even goes to the extreme where Marty, one of their neighbours, cuts Henry's fingers. Then there is Lucky Emory, the matriarch of the family, who had been brutally sexually assaulted, her youngest son being stolen away from her and killed in front of her eyes by her white neighbours. Her oldest daughter, Ruby, is a high school student who faces an identity crisis as she constantly faces bullying in her all white school. And Gracie Emory is the youngest daughter of the family. The series effortlessly blends supernatural elements into the story as the evil manifests in different ways to the family.

This series made me curious to know where this extreme hate roots from? African Americans are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were Brought from their African homelands by force to work in the New World. Their rights were severely limited, and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social, and political progress of the United States. These individuals were not initially enslaved people but indentured persons bound to an employer for a limited number of years. By the 1660s, large numbers of Africans were being brought to the English colonies. Attempts to hold Black servants beyond the normal term of indenture culminated in the legal establishment of Black chattel slavery in Virginia in 1661 and in all the English colonies by 1750. Black people were easily distinguished by their skin color from the rest of the white population, making them highly visible targets for enslavement. Moreover, the development of the belief that they were An "inferior" race with a "heathen" culture made it easier for whites to rationalize the enslavement of black people.

It is this superiority complex that existed in the minds of the white people that made them suppress the race that felt 'inferior' and 'alien' to their culture and lives. Even after Emancipation, African Americans who were formerly enslaved were still subjected to unequal living conditions. With the oppressive conditions in the South, African Americans began relocating to the West, as we saw in the series "Them". There was racial segregation in every aspect of daily life in the nation. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, alongside legal battles and legislative actions, finally granted them the rights they were unfairly denied. Experiments like the 'Doll test' Led to the desegregation of public schools in the United States.

Then we come to the final question: What's the state today?

1,098 people in America were killed by police in 2019. There is a 3× chance of being killed by police if you are black. Since 2015, police officers have fatally shot at least 135 unarmed Black people nationwide.

#blacklivesmatter

The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 as an online campaign using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The hashtag gained momentum and went.

Trending on social media platforms after the death of George Floyd in 2020, which was filmed and widely circulated. It sparked massive protests all around the world, bringing attention to the movement.

What must be done?

What we need is diversity. What we need is diversity in the media and in everything so that the newer generation, like the kids in the recreated version of the doll test, never feels marginalized or the need to change. Even though it's not the 1950s, there is still a need for a change, starting with the better representation of black people, not only in Hollywood but also in the film industries of Asian countries like Korea, India, etc.

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