CNN's "Black Or White: Kids On Race"

Click here for CNN's special series on children's attitudes on race. The series is based on a version of the "doll test" developed decades ago by the late Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark. The CNN study tested white as well as black children. A 5-year-old Georgia girl, who happened to be white, viewed five cartoon pictures of girls ranging in color from light to dark. "When asked who the smart child is, she points to a light-skinned doll. When asked who the mean child is she points to a dark-skinned doll. She says a white child is good because 'I think she looks like me,' and says the black child is ugly because 'she's a lot darker.'" The mother of the child, watching these responses, cried.

Leonard Pitts' column on the CNN series is recommended. He writes: "Children are not idiots. They hear and see us. They watch television, they listen to radio, they read magazines, they live in our world. So very early on, they know what we think. And often enough, it becomes what they think, too."