Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted experiments called “the doll tests” to study the psychological effects of segregation on African-American children. In the experiment, children ages 3-7 were asked about four dolls that were only different in regard to color. Children were asked to identify the race of the dolls they prefer. A majority of the children preferred the white doll and assigned positive characteristics to it. Although these experiments were conducted in the 1940's, they have been replicated over the years.   

Read more about The Doll Tests here. Click here to learn more about how children learn about race. 

In this video, Gloria Ladson-Billings discusses the use of the label, at-risk students. She argues, “[w]e cannot saddle these babies at kindergarten with this label and expect them to proudly wear it for the next 13 years, and think, “Well, gee, I don’t know why they aren’t doing good.” So if anybody gets it, I know that writing project people know language matters. What you call something matters.” 

Language matters! Consider how references to individual people or groups lead to inclusive OR divisive language. See this Guide to Inclusive Language. Consider the issue with using certain language. For example, Eric Acton, a linguist from Eastern Michigan University, notes that using the word "the" in front of a group is a way of highlighting the group's otherness from the speaker and his or her audience (i.e. the blacks, the Hispanics). "There's this distancing effect, like they're over there...They're signaling they're not part of it — they're distancing themselves ..."

Even without “the,” there’s a grammatical flaw in “blacks” and “whites” as nouns. The singular forms, “a” black and “a” white, clearly mischaracterize millions of people’s lives. The issue with this language is that it implies there’s a word missing—person. A black person. A white person. "It’s the grammatical equivalent of de-person-ization, or dehumanization: Person is gone. Race is all" (Daniel King and Dodai Stewart, 2016). Rather than using the words “blacks” and “whites” as nouns, use “black” and “white” as adjectives, followed by “people” or whichever noun that fits the sentence.