Subconscious racial bias in children

Mikayla is a seventh grader at a majority white middle school.

Her responses completely changed depending on the race of the children in the picture.

Marcy and Renee are in school together and they're in the hallway and I'd like you to tell me what you think is happening in this picture.

She probably looks like she's going to steal it because Marcy's like, "Oh no, what happened?" and Renee's like, "Hey look, 20 bucks."

And so, do you think that Renee is doing something good, bad, or just neutral?

I think she, I don't, I think she's going to take the money.

Do you think that Renee and Marcy are likely to be friends or not?

Not really.

And what do you think about Marcy's parents? Do you think they'd be comfortable with her being friends with Renee or not?

Um, well, if they find out the situation that happened, they might be a little concerned about if Renee's a thief.

In this one we have Erica and Allison, and they're also in the hallway at school. Can you tell me what it seems is happening in this picture?

Allison looks like a sweet girl.

So, I think that she would pick up Erica's money and give it back to her.

Okay.

So then, do you think Allison's doing something good, bad, or neutral?

Um, pretty good.

And what about Allison and Erica? Do you think they're probably friends or not so much?

Yeah, they're probably friends.

Okay. Do you think Erica's parents would like it if she was friends with Allison?

Yeah.

Her responses, according to our expert, Dr. Melanie Killen, could indicate a subconscious racial bias, a bias that kids develop from messages they hear at school, at home, the characters in the TV shows they watch, and what they see online.

And Mikayla's reversing the scenarios based on race wasn't unique. 24%, almost a quarter of all children, both white and African-American, saw their own race more positively than the other race.

And this happened across all ages and all school types, no matter the racial demographics.

What do you think happened in this picture?

Um,

they got a bust.

And what do you think is going to happen next?

Brenda's going to help her for books.

So, do you think that Randy's doing something that's okay, not okay,

or kind of in the middle?

Not okay.

Not okay.

Is Andre doing something good, bad, or just okay?

Good.

Mikayla's answers were very much in line with her.

Mikayla's parents, Jim and Jennifer, agreed to watch their daughter's test and talk about her responses.

Well, if they find out the situation that happened, they might be a little concerned about if Renee's a thief.

Allison looks like a sweet girl.

So, I think that she would pick up Erica's money and give it back to her.

When you see that, what goes through your mind?

Is there a conversation you want to have with her?

Is there stuff you want to know more about?

I I would definitely want to pursue that conversation with her and find out why her perception was different based upon the color of the of the girl's skin.

What changed in that scenario in her head?

It's a teachable moment.

It's a, you know, it's a realization like, oh, maybe we have to do,

you know, a better job or uh focus more on um distinguishing like uh about racism and and, you know, diversity.

And just um influence our kids and and let them know that you have to judge a person by their character,

not their skin color.

And it's this possible subconscious racial bias versus explicit bias, actually consciously thinking and verbalizing racism,

that our expert says shows how far we need to go, but also how far we've come.

Explicit racism and prejudice has diminished dramatically over 50 years.

But what remains is more the implicit, the implicit biases and uh the implicit

forms of racism and prejudice.

And those are the things that we're not aware of.

The things that we do when we don't realize it because it seems that

it's these implicit biases that are still what we really have to work on.