Sisters Got A Brandnew Doll

At some point in my life, I remember my daddy speaking of an experiment that went on years ago, where a black doll and a white doll was put before a Black child. The child was asked to chose a doll she'd most want to play with. The child chose the White doll. The same results happened time and time again.

Many years later, I thought about this experiment when my own daughters taught me a valuable lesson.

I'd always wondered "why?". I guess if you live long enough, you are bound to get an answer to some of the questions one asks in life.

Well, shortly after a divorce from my older daughter's father, I hit hard times. Therefore, I had to make a choice to temporarily leave my older daughter , along with her older brother, with my parents.

While with my parents, my eldest daughter was being influenced by her environment. She was attending a predominately White school, watching anchors on the news that all had White faces, and was being exposed to people who weren't accepting themselves, as they were.

During the time that my older daughter was staying with her grandparents, I was putting together my life, again. I'd soon remarried. My new husband and I decided to stay in the city of Ft. Pierce, Fl., my birth place.

While in Ft. Pierce, my younger children where being influence by their environment. They where exposed to different people and different cultures. There were Haitian children, Latino children, Jamaican children, and American born children. Not to forget, that my new husband was from Jamaica and had a father that was Chinese and a mother that was Black, but grew up on the island of Jamaica speaking Patwa ( I think that's the spelling).

Finally, it was time for my older daughter to rejoin the family.

Upon her arrival, I gave her a welcoming present, a little doll. She said thank you, but later I saw my younger daughter running across the living room with the doll. I wondered "why?".

I thought that it was a beautiful little doll. A little darker that my older daughter, but a slight resemblance.

I wanted to understand the situation. Upon opening the room door, there I saw my older daughter playing with a White, blond, blue-eyed doll, that was very thin. This doll looked nothing like her.

The following days, I made a quest to influence my older daughter by exposing dolls of different shades and colors to my older daughter. Still, she decided to only play with that one doll.

After a while my older daughter just got fed up with my tactics and stopped playing with dolls, completely.

I was beginning to understand, when the dolls that I purchased, where taken up by my younger daughter. She hopped and skipped with all of the dolls in her arms. The Latino looking one, the darker one with bright island type clothing, and the white colored one were all embraced by her. Therefore, I wasn't surprised when she sat the dolls on the floor and pretended as though they were all sisters.

After being in Ft. Pierce for a few more months . My older daughter started a new school with children of all shades and cultures. She even began trying new hairstyles, including braids. That was something she confessed that she'd never thought she'd try.

One day, during the weekend, I peeked into my older daughter's room. She was smiling, while playing with the dolls. ALL of the dolls.

I guess, if you live long enough, you are bound to get an answer.