Powerful, and worth a watch. Even more impressive is the fact that the filmmaker is in high school.
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[...] 2007
A Girl Like Me
Posted by Joy under Uncategorized
I first saw this on Feministe, but evidently Feministing posted it as well. The doll experiment real [...]
Even though there is more diversity in the media now, the majority of people presented in advertising as normal and pleasant average consumers tend to be light skinned and have straight hair.
From an older male perspective there was a really powerful episode of Homicide: Life on the Street where Ghiardello (Yaphet Kotto) talked about dating women who told him flat out he was too dark for them. It was fiction, I know, but he is such a great actor that it made me cry.
Much like the doll exercise in this film did.
This makes me feel really bad about my cinematic take on the Norman invasion.
Wow. The part with the little girl explaining which doll she liked best (the white one), but then showing which one looked like her (the black one), was just amazing. Seeing a seven year old (?) put those ideas together was just heartbreaking.
OMG… I couldn’t keep watching after the doll experiment. That just breaks my heart to see children so young thinking of themselves as bad because of the color of their skin.
Amazing video. I agree about the part with the dolls. That was really powerful, but just having the teenage girls talking to the camera about their experiences — that was powerful, too. Yeah for this filmmaker!
I thought all the girls that were interviewed in this were incredibly beautiful. Which made it especially hard to hear what they were saying about themselves.
I wonder, would white kids choose the white baby too? Probably, but we are always trying to make ourselves darker. (Tanning.)
I once particpated (on the sideline) in a discussion between a Black American and an African (from Mali), and the African guy kept saying that Black Americans shouldn’t consider themselves African – they should consider themselves American, part of the US culture, and demand their proper place in that culture (the American guy agreed).
I was reminded of this, when the young women were speaking about being African.
In general, it would be better if everyone could accept themselves and everybody else as they are.
Oh, and the doll experiment was horrible to watch.
Wow! That was powerful. I know of people who care a lot about their ancestors and genelogy. I wonder how they would feel if all they was that they came from Europe and nothing else. That was just a remarkable short.
Dream
Some of those lines are amazing. Stuff I’ve never heard out loud.
“Stop it, you’re starting to look African.”
“Why’s that the good doll?”
“Because it’s white.”
Unbelievable.
That doll test was heartbreaking. My own doll story: When I was about nine or so, I asked my parents for – and received – a black American Girls baby doll (I’m white). I named him Benjamin, and he was my favorite doll ever ever. A few months ago I went into an American Girls store, wandered into the baby doll section, and found the doll I had as a child. I picked it up and smiled, and told the black saleswoman, “This was the one I had!” She looked at me as if I were crazy and said, “THAT one?”
Wow!
When they were talking about feeling left out of their culture, of knowing they were from Africa, and nothing else, it really made me think. I, like many white Americans of European descent, am separated from my ancestors who first travelled to this country by several generations. I mainly identify as American. There are, however, so many aspects of my upbringing and family traditions that have completely shaped my perspective on the world and my place in it. Those traditions come in large part from my Polish heritage. It makes me wonder what I would feel like if I only knew that my ancestors came from Europe. If all I knew about my heritage was that my ancestors were brought to this country against their will and forced to give up their entire culture, and to conform to what someone else told them they should be and do.