TV Is Too White, Woke Professor Claims — and It Intensifies White Kids’ Racism

It was less than a year ago that journalist Piers Morgan published his book Woke Is Dead. “How Common Sense Triumphed in an Age of Total Madness,” the subtitle reads. If it has triumphed, though, some critics may wonder, why are woke bullets and bombs still raining down?

Just consider an eyebrow-raising new story about how shows such as Sesame Street can intensify white kids’ “racism.” As The College Fix reported earlier this week:

Could “Doc McStuffins” and “Dora the Explorer” be turning white kids into racists?

A professor from the University of Illinois thinks so.

“White children in the United States begin developing racial biases in early childhood that threaten the well-being of children of color and serve as the developmental roots for racial prejudices that persist into adulthood,” a new Psycnet study from Professor Michael Rizzo says.

The study reviewed the TV watching patterns of white kids as young as four and asked them about their willingness to play with a hypothetical person who was white, black, Asian, or Hispanic.

“With age, children whose favorite media portrayed fewer Black characters — and especially in high-status contexts and roles — were less likely to choose to play with a Black child, held less positive attitudes toward Black children, and were more likely to attribute Black-White racial inequalities to intrinsic racial differences,” the study found.

This is not, mind you, the first warning we’ve heard about “racist” white tykes. Way back in 2008, in fact, Britain’s National Children’s Bureau cautioned teachers to be alert for racist incidents among kids. An example?

One could be a three-year-old saying “‘yuk’ in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food,” wrote The Telegraph. Whether it’s racist when a non-white child says “yuck” in response to British food was not reported. (Though I could in that case sympathize.)

The Real Bias?

Oh, and why is only white children’s alleged racism mentioned? A 1996 study finding higher “aversive prejudice” among blacks explained it. “The prejudice of White Americans has been extensively studied,” noted the authors, “but that of African Americans has been comparatively ignored in the social sciences.” Gee, you don’t say.

This hasn’t changed much, either. As the recent entertainment study’s authors themselves wrote:

We focused on White, U.S. children because White children are the dominant and majority group in the United States and are the most likely to develop racial biases….

This, however, just “shows the bias of the authors of the study,” noted an MSN respondent commenting on the College Fix article. “They went into the study with the preconceived idea that White children are more racist.” And isn’t this racist itself?

As to the entertainment study’s results, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education relates a theory explaining them:

“Although experimental research suggests that media can causally shape children’s racial biases, it is also possible that children who hold racial biases are more likely to consume media that reflects those biases,” the authors write. “Indeed, the relationship between media consumption and racial biases is likely dynamic and self-perpetuating: Children who watch biased media develop more racial biases, which leads them to favor media that reflect and reinforce those biases. Our findings speak to the importance of breaking this cycle as early as possible.”

Then again, the problem may reside with the researchers. Might it be that when all you have is a racial hammer, everything looks like a racist nail?

Pathologizing Normality

Now, first note here that numerous studies show blacks are already overrepresented in American media and entertainment. For example, blacks constitute just 13-14 percent of the U.S. population. Yet in 2023 Super Bowl ads, 27 percent of the actors were black. This is even though the event’s viewership skews slightly white.

So, would the racial bean-counters have us make black entertainment representation 50 percent in social engineering’s name? (Note: Such obvious DEI-representation ploys can actually engender ill will.)

Second, all people, no matter their race or ethnicity, exhibit what’s known as “in-group bias.” Per Psychology Today in 2024:

Human beings need to belong. From our earliest cave-dwelling ancestors, membership in a clan or tribe was a requirement….

Humans who banded together in groups were more likely to survive and have reproductive success. Group membership enabled more secure access to resources and safety against predators. People outside the group — out-group members — were potential threats. This dichotomy between “us” and “them” became an asset.

Favoring in-group members and suspicion of out-group members was an adaptive strategy. In-group cooperation maximized the chances of survival for individuals and their offspring. Suspicion and avoidance of out-groups minimized the risk of conflict.

This is just common sense. Of course, none of this means we should deny the brotherhood of man. Christians know that Jesus himself said that

whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.

The Apostle Paul echoed this, stating:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This said, the Bible certainly doesn’t prescribe a naive denial of certain out-group dangers. For instance, Isaiah 2:6 criticizes people for being “full of superstitions from the East” and clasping hands with foreigners. And Deuteronomy 7:3-4 warns:

Do not intermarry with them [groups of pagans]. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods….

Note that this is common sense, too. The first two Bible quotations make clear that all those embracing Truth are equally yoked and can enjoy fellowship. We should be wary, however, of people who embrace toxic beliefs — regardless of their race or ethnicity. They can destroy souls.

So prescribed above is not prejudice — which means to “pre-judge” without adequate knowledge or reasoned analysis — but prudence.

As far as our little obsession goes, though, we’d do well remembering actor Morgan Freeman’s recommendation for eliminating racism. “Stop talking about it,” he famously said in 2005.

For sure, you don’t remedy a disease by endlessly moaning about it. People doing that are tiresome. You remedy a disease by effecting the cure. With human sin, this means focusing on God, His Truth, and the Virtues. All else is dark distraction.