Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome. I want to say thank you for joining us today for our webinar presentation. Our presentation is going to be called, But Why Though? The Marginalization of Black Americans in Children's Media. We are going to have about an hour for this presentation, and we will have some audience participation with polls, and then we'll transition into a discussion with our panelists. So before we get started, there are some housekeeping things that we need to do. The funding for the Striving to Excellence series was made possible by a SAMHSA grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The content of the presentations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of SAMHSA and or the Department of Health and Human Services. For those of you who are participating today, and will be looking for continuing education credit, the American Psychiatric Association, accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, is providing 1 AME credit. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in this activity, and there will be instructions for how to claim that credit later. This slide tells you how to download handouts that we will be using, or the presentation handout for today. We'll leave that up here for a couple of seconds, so that you can digest it if you want to download materials. Back to you, Dr. Carmichael. All right, and so the previous slide just showed how you can participate with the question and answer portion. There is a chat box located where you can type in your question, and throughout the presentation, we'll be able to see the chat and respond throughout the presentation as a whole. So, for the outline of this presentation, we're going to discuss the objectives. Then we're going to show some of the movie trailers and poll questions for the presentation. Then the audience will have a chance to look over the IAT skin tone test. Then we'll be followed by a discussion and informational exchange, which will end our presentation with closing remarks. Before we get started, I would like to introduce to you our presenters. So, my name is Dr. Carmichael. I am a board-eligible child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. I recently graduated from my fellowship, and I've decided to join as faculty at Morehouse School of Medicine. My co-chair is Dr. Williams. She is a board-certified adult psychiatrist and board-eligible child, adolescent psychiatrist who also just finished her fellowship and will be joining as adjunct faculty at Morehouse School of Medicine. Next, we have Dr. Baharani. He is a child, adolescent psychiatrist with a psychoanalytic background who will speak about the effects of film portrayal on the cognitive and emotional growth of Black children. He is also adjunct faculty at Morehouse School of Medicine. And then we have Dr. Reese. He is a clinical psychologist in the metro Atlanta area who provides treatment to Black adolescent and adult male patients. He will discuss how the media's portrayal of Black individuals not only shapes the minds of young Black children, but also influences society's view and opinion of the Black community as a whole. He is also adjunct faculty at Morehouse School of Medicine. For disclosure purposes, none of the panelists have any financial disclosures at this time. We would also like to let you know that this presentation was previously done at the 68th Annual Conference for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. We took this time to expand further on this previous presentation and hope you enjoy. With this notice, we just wanted to let the audience members know that there will be some opportunities for participation via polls and submitting comments and responses, as Dr. Williams mentioned earlier. There's also the IAT skin test that she mentioned that individuals can choose to take either during the presentation or after. And so that's why we mentioned a cell phone or electronic device may be necessary. Now on to objectives. Of course, we have to have this for learning purposes, educational purposes, all of the above. So throughout this presentation, we want you to be able to identify examples of Black marginalization through the roles of Black lead characters in children's films and media, discuss the impact of the controversy regarding the representation of Black Americans on the screen, discuss how darker features of villains convey unconscious associations of dark with evil or bad, and how this can shape Black children's view of self. And finally, review the social cognitive learning theory and how images children see impact their view of self. So without further ado, let's get started. So like I mentioned, we want to start with showing some trailers of popular children's videos, some produced by Disney, some not, that we felt like were relevant to our discussion. And we wanted to kind of get an idea of what the audience thought about how some of these individuals were portrayed. So we will go ahead and get started with The Princess and the Frog that aired in 2009 and is owned by Disney. I suppose you want to kiss. Kissing would be nice, yes? I am Prince Naveen. Prince? I was cursed by a dastardly witch doctor. One minute I am a prince, charming and handsome, cutting a rug, and then the next thing I know I'm tripping over these. Everyone thinks they know the story of The Princess and the Frog. You must kiss me. Excuse me? Please, princess, it will make me human again. Just one kiss? Unless you beg for more. But no one knows what happened after the kiss until now. How did you get way up there? And how did I get way down here and all this? This holiday season, in the tradition of Walt Disney's most beloved classics, comes the story behind the most magical kiss the world has ever known. It's gonna be good. Walt Disney Pictures' The Princess and the Frog. Come, we bugger. That's new. I think the overall concept that we were trying to get across came through, and so we were wondering, as a poll question, what percentage of the movie does the audience think Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen, sorry, stayed as frogs? I believe you guys can put in your responses and then we'll see them shortly. Okay, so it looks like the poll has been closed. We thank you for answering. It looks like 21% was the overall vote, and moving on to the next slide, the actual answer is 67%. That means more than half of the movie, the two main characters, the two Black characters, stayed in frog form or some other animal form and not their actual human form, versus some of the other characters. One of the princesses from Louisiana, she was thought to be a princess of Louisiana, she remained in her human form, she was Caucasian, for the entire film. So that is something that we thought was very interesting and kind of puzzling for us. So moving on to our next film. So the next film, this movie I think is more recent, titled Soul, which came to theaters in fall 2020, and it's by Pixar, which is also under Disney's umbrella, and we would like you to see the trailer and see what you think about it. What the... What is this place? What's your name, honey? I'm Joe. I teach middle school band. Got it, go for it! Today started out as the best day of my life. Back here tonight, first show's at seven. Yes! You know what that's gonna say? Joe Gardner! I did it, I got the gig! Must have been sudden for you. Whoa! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! Help! I'm not done! Oh my, oh my goodness! Huh? Is this heaven? No, it's the great before. This is where new souls get their personalities, quirks, and interests before they go to Earth. Meet 22. I don't want to go to Earth! Stop fighting this! I don't want to! Uh... Okay, look, I already know everything about Earth, and I don't want anything to do with it. You're missing out on the joys of life, like, uh, pizza. I can't smell. We can't... we can't taste either? All that stuff is in your body. No smell, no taste, or touch. See? Okay, I get it. Wow! It's my life. Is all this living really worth dying for? You're still alive? Can you help me get back? No way! There I am! What are we waiting for? Wait, not me! Ahhh! Hmm, that's weird. What is it? 151 000 souls go into the great beyond every day, and I count every single one of them. That counts off. Huh. And just like previously, we want to take a guess at what you think, what was the percentage that Joel was a soul blob throughout the whole? Was it A. 76%, B. 43%, or C. 91%? And it seems that we're split. Thank you again, audience, for participating. Everyone chose a different answer. Now let's see what the actual answer was. And... drum roll... the correct answer was A. 76%. I don't know if you're catching on to the theme or not, but it seems like over more than half of the movie, Joel was a soul blob. It's interesting to say, given the dynamics, that this was an African-American character throughout the film that spent most of his time outside of his body. Now on to the last video clip. So with our last clip, we are going to look at Spies in Disguise. It was released in 2019 by Blue Sky Studio. You might notice I'm familiar with this. But yeah, let me know what you think. Guess it's time to introduce myself. Just three ounces of pressure to the vagus nerve, and then look at your boy, sleepy night-night. Lance Sterling, a legendary spy who's always dressed to impress. Walter Beckett, graduated MIT at 15 and works in the Tech Innovations Lab. There are so many gadgets I want to test in the field. For example, the inflatable hook. Kind of a personal protection device I've been developing. This is a vile waste of taxpayer dollars. This is your next objective. None of our agents can get close to him. I have something that can help. It's called biodynamic concealment. Imagine if I can make you disappear. Hey, Lance, look at me. Look at you? I can see my butt and your face at the same time. That is so cool. Being a pigeon can make you an even better spy. Pigeons are everywhere and nobody notices them. In fact, pigeons can see in slow motion. That was tight. Did anyone else see a pigeon? And pigeons can fly up to 92 miles per hour. Don't you throw me off this roof. He'll figure it out. All right, Kimura, starting. It's about to get messy. Time to go sleepy night-night. I miss my hands. We have different skill sets. That's what makes us such a great team. You're squeezing too. What happens in the submarine stays in the submarine. Okay, so for our last question poll related to the trailers, what percentage of the movie was Lance Sterling a pigeon? 25%, 41%, or 60%? The results are in and I think you guys are starting to catch on a little bit. It looks like most of you chose 41% and then we had 60%, but it seems like you're starting to realize that it's not a low percentage. So the actual answer is 41%. So not half of the film, but almost majority or almost half of the film. So we thank you for participating and for watching these trailers with us. With this, I'm going to turn it over to Kimura. Kimura, can you tell us a little bit more about the film? So we thank you for participating and for watching these trailers with us. With this, I wanted to say, or wanted to ask, next slide please. Do you see any differences in how the characters are portrayed in these movie trailers compared to other children's films? So it looks like it was unanimous yes across the board. And that is something that Dr. Williams and I noticed as well, which is why we thought that this would be such a great topic to bring to the forefront of these discussions and to kind of have some insight onto what we've seen in our time with training for child and adolescent psychiatry, and then also what Dr. Lewis and Dr. Rahurani have seen, and then what the audience has seen as well. And just to kind of get this conversation going, just because it's something that I think a lot of people recognize is needed, but I don't hear the conversations being had often enough. So now we're going to transition into some fun facts. As such, we would like to let you know that by the age of six months, infants are able to categorize individuals based on race, gender, and even non-verbal communication. This is intriguing because we get a lot of comments from parents and such about how they're too young to understand these things and such. But this let us know via data that identification of race starts at even an earlier age than we thought. Also, if you didn't know, children also learn with social categories. And these are important because they observe their environment. So they may assume that they should avoid or dislike people with different skin colors than their own, even if no adult has ever told them to do this. The reference for this will be shown at the end during the reference page. So, you know, if you've been following along, it kind of sounds like we're saying there has there have been like kind of no representation in children's media. And, you know, the fact of the matter is that's not true. You know, we just saw three trailers that had some representation. And to be honest, there have there has been representation even, you know, decades ago. But what did that representation look like? Was it positive? You know, we seeing strong characters showing education or showing, you know, encouraging the children that, you know, they can be the next president, they can be a doctor, a lawyer, they can be, you know, a therapist, they can, you know, have healthy relationships, happiness, or did that representation show more of what individuals would like to traditionally think of when they think of black individuals. So thinking of the person who stays at home and like, takes care of someone else's kids, and, you know, all they do is cook and clean, and they don't really have much of an education. They are stealing or they're doing something that's underhanded. And so in looking at these images that we have, some of these cartoons, you may remember from your own childhood, like Tom, from Tom and Jerry in the bottom left, and we see that he's pictured with a black female who is known as Mammy Two Shoes. And then we also see Bugs Bunny, who's pictured with a young black male who is later named Sambo. We can see the extremes in just how they're drawn and their coloring, compared to, you know, the wide variety that we see in the black community. And so at this time, you know, I wanted to give Dr. Reese and Dr. Baharani a chance to share their views, opinions, and just some insight into how they think children, or black individuals are being represented in the media right now. Well, I would just hop in and say that these particular characters were also, you know, seen as comic relief. They weren't seen as intelligent, to your point, Dr. Carmichael. And so a young child who is trying to make sense of her, his world, is going to take on these cues and almost kind of begin to assign a value of themselves based on some of the characters that they see. In addition, their peers who may not be black are also forming their own opinions about what value black people may have, what their characteristics, and, you know, some of these, a lot of these media representations can lend themselves to stereotypes or generalizations that then can affect the Black child in a negative way, especially when the portrayals are so limited and negative. So the only thing I would add to what Dr. Maharani just offered is, one, we've seen an evolution in the portrayal of these characters representing Black folks. But the question, you cited the statistic earlier that at six months that people can make distinctions, kids can make distinctions around race and gender, and that really matters because when we start thinking about development, we start thinking about developmental trajectory and what are the things that influence trajectory, that these representations of human beings matter and begin to influence that process. And one of the things, and this goes to the dehumanization of Black folks in the media, is this idea of Black folks as either entertainers or villains or individuals who take care of other people or take care of other people's kids, that all begins to set precedent in terms of influencing how you see yourself in the world. And as Dr. Maharani made reference to how other people see you in the world. And so as we think about who are the authors of racial socialization, as parents, we often want to think that it's us, that we are the ones who are racially socializing our kids to have a positive view of themselves, that is affirming and validating of their intrinsic self-worth, et cetera. What the videos that we've seen today very directly do is call that into question, one, that there are other actors that influence the racial socialization of Black children and of non-Black children, for that matter, and that we need to be particularly attentive to that as we think about issues of psychological functioning and adjustment, because this has import when kids begin to develop peer relationships and begin to enter school and how they will continue to evolve. As we proceed to the next slide, I wanted to bring some attention to the history of toys in terms of diversity. One of note is the Barbie doll franchise taken from their actual website. They highlight the history of bringing in diversity to their toy line with 1968 being the first time that Christy, the first ever Black doll, was released, and thereafter we see through the time that they start having others like Nurse Julie, who's the first Black celebrity doll, 1971 actually having live action Christy, and 1980s when they're actually having careers for the minority representation of dolls. Also of note, we see that the Band-Aid brand by Johnson & Johnson, now in 2021, start having different shades of hue for their Band-Aids to have representation and diversity. And to me, this seems very alarming that it's had this low progress for this to happen. And it brings up the question of why do we think it takes so long to create representation toys as well with companies in general? Is there a problem with diversity within these companies? Dr. Reese, Dr. Baharani, feel free to chime in on your thoughts regarding this as well. So the obvious question, I mean, there's historically been a devaluing of Black and Brown lives in terms of their portrayal in a positive way. One of the lessons I learned in terms of why people begin to think differently is oftentimes about capitalism. And so that as the market share in some communities increased, you began to see them pay more attention to the representation of images that looked in more in a positive way of members of that community or spoke the languages. And so when we look at Tomundo in terms of kind of some of the images and the language that's being spoken there, that they were paying attention. But the drivers of that were financial. And I think in the space that we as behavioral health professionals exist, that the question around what does the devaluing, this is what I think the question is, what does the devaluing of my Blackness mean for my well-being and for how not only do I see myself in the world, but how others see myself in the world. And while these are positive observations in terms of this evolution, the question of why we're having this conversation in 2022 and why we have to continue to have this conversation in terms of understanding the impact on a unique role of media representations on how Black and Brown folks are understood in the world and thus then treated, because this has all kinds of implications for what we see when people come in to receive treatment from us. And so I'm really interested in some of the audience's thinking, but I've also want to hear from my colleagues here. I just think this is super important. And I would just add, I mean, I think Dr. Williams, you alluded to this earlier that the decision makers sort of matter and the diversity and the room of the people that are kind of making decisions of which products to put out there. And I would suspect that, you know, Band-Aid, Barbie, the executives at Disney have a makeup that doesn't truly reflect the diversity of the country. And I don't think there's a ton of Black representation at the table, so to speak. And so I think that's kind of part of the reasons why maybe it takes so long, in addition to the reasons that Dr. Reese mentioned. You know, one of the things that would be really powerful is to have folks from animation at these companies participate in a conversation, a dialogue like this as well, to understand kind of what informs the development of their characters and how those characters are portrayed. And, you know, the polls that Dr. Williams and Carmichael offered earlier, like if we offered that to a room full of scriptwriters and folks who do animation, how would they have responded to these questions? I mean, I think we get it in part because of what we do, but I think that we have to broaden the conversation for those people who are responsible for creating some of these images. Thank you. I definitely feel like to add, it's alarming that we still have these conversations in regards to things happening in real time, like if we recall the H&M kids t-shirt line where there was a Black child model who was wearing a shirt saying monkeying around, and how that it went through all of these aspects before it became known that it was controversial and harmful in that marketing ploy and what that meant for Black children to see, for someone to call attention to it and correct the wrongs when it should have been stopped in the first place before it became public knowledge. And it's just these things we see every day, constantly reminders of the lack of knowledge and awareness and cultural competency around these things that has a great and detrimental effect at times to the children who watch these things unknowingly, not getting how this can affect them long term and such. And speak to the point of capitalism, how it's just seems this keeps going on and why is it not at the table and having an actual thoughtful conversation, which leads to our next slide as well, regarding more marketing tools. Yeah, yeah, I am, you know, I agree with everything that you all said, and especially the part about who's at the table when these decisions are being made. I have some friends that are involved in production in different areas, and, you know, hearing them say it's really hard being the only Black person at the table, you know, I feel like I have the weight of the entire race on my shoulders, or they just don't feel supported enough in those spaces. And so they decide to leave those areas in favor of, you know, more diverse areas or even just Black organizations in general, just for that own personal comfort. And so it's a very interesting, hard place to be, I think, because a lot of people recognize that progress is needed, that representation is needed, but at what cost, right, to the individual themselves, at being at a table that isn't welcoming, that isn't friendly or warm, that isn't listening to you. There's one thing to be, you know, invited to the table, and there's another thing to be actually heard at that table, and to be supported at that table as well. And so looking at, you know, our slide, American Girl Doll, they've kind of blown up over the decades, but they were first created in 1986, and that's when they released their flagship dolls. They had about six young women that, of varying races, but mostly, they were mostly white slash Caucasian. They did have one Black doll, her name was Addie, I remember having her when I was younger, and, you know, they gave her nice clothes, you know, they made the doll look nice, but her backstory was mostly centered around the negative part of history, the negative part of Black history, specifically slavery. You know, as the books went on in the series, yes, she did, you know, get an education, and you know, they did show that she, you know, was craving knowledge, but I wonder if that part was needed, you know, going back to that slavery piece, like yes, it is a part of history, but is that the only part of history that we should focus on, or should we have shifted a little bit sooner in the book series, and in her character development into, you know, showing what she can be, like who she becomes, what her dreams and aspirations are, and what she is able to obtain. I don't know how hard it was for other panelists, or for people listening to this, when they were growing up, if it was difficult for their parents to find them toys that represented them, or if their parents had an easier time, kind of some food for thought, and feel free to put your responses in the chat section, if you care to share any stories or memories that you have, and that you felt would be relevant for the rest of us to hear. So, moving into our next question. So, thus far, with all that we've discussed, is this something you've noticed or thought about prior to this presentation? This is not an actual poll question, just something to reflect on, and share your thoughts if you choose to. For those of you who said yes, do you feel as though this has been a constant conversation that you've had to have regarding this information, and your thoughts surrounding it? For those who thought no, is this something that you feel like you would want to discuss further, and have more active conversations and involvement in trying to create change? Just a food for thought about what we've discussed, and what can we do next? As we move forward into our presentation, we want to talk about something that may be helpful in understanding things. So, we mentioned earlier the IAT skin tone test. It is linked to Harvard University. They are currently doing a research project surrounding biases that individuals have, and so they have created numerous short tests that individuals can take. Obviously, we picked out the skin tone because it was relevant to this discussion, but they have some on gender, they have some on religion, on occupation, the list goes on and on. These tests are really to give you a chance to look and see if you have any biases, and what those biases may be. I think a lot of individuals would like to work towards not having any of those biases, This test can be a way for you to highlight areas where, hmm, I guess this is showing that I think a little differently than I thought I did. Given the time that we have, we're not going to stop and take the test right now as a whole. However, we invite everyone to take this after this presentation, or at your leisure, and feel free to disseminate this link to other individuals so that they can get an understanding of themselves as well. I did want to mention that, because this is a research study, they will ask for your consent on utilizing your results. If I remember correctly, you don't have to give your name or any of that stuff. They just want the overall answers. However, if you choose not to share your results, that's completely fine. You're still able to take the test. Next slide, please. So, as we lead into our discussion portion of this presentation, I want those who are replaying this or taking a moment to look over their IAT skin tone test results and ask themselves, did the results surprise you? And how did you expect to score on the test? We want you to think about the responses when we go through these questions at this time. And as we move forward to the next, the first question, we would like to know, and this is for our panel to start off, but feel free, the audience members, if you have any thoughts or comments to share them in the chat. But first question is, what are your thoughts on social cognitive learning theory and how it relates to this topic? Again, we'd like to ask Dr. Baharani and Dr. Reif if you would love to give your comments on this question. I can jump in there first. Sorry, I'll look for you first. Okay. Go ahead. So, social cognitive theory, there's an emphasis on human behavior being shaped by observations. So, this is in contrast to strict behavioral theory, where human behavior is thought to be directly shaped through conditioning and reinforcement. Albert Bandura, who is the author of this social cognitive theory, thought that people learned observationally through modeling. So, from observing the behavior of others, you get an idea of how new behaviors are performed. And on later occasions, this information gets encoded and serves as a guide for future action. So, Drs. Carmichael, Drs. Williams have highlighted the modernization of Black characters in children's media. And this is really important because media serves as aspirational models and standards of beauty and intelligence. So, when Black children don't see themselves reflected as the hero or heroine, they may internalize some of these negative messages in a sense that they or other Black children are less worthy or valuable than others. And I think it's also important to bring out that while there's like a dearth of positive Black characters in children's media, there can be overrepresentation of negative Black characterizations of Black people. So, for example, there's studies showing that Black people are overrepresented as perpetrators of violent crime. So, when you pair the two together, you know, the dearth of positive characteristics and the abundance of negative portrayals, this can be encoded by Black children. As Dr. Reese pointed out, during a time where they're developing and they're forming their own social identity, a very vulnerable period of time. And so, and just to add to that, the observations that Bandura talked about are the observations you can make based upon what you're exposed to, what's in your environment, right? And so, we think about the observations that a child makes within his or her family, within their community, and then those societal observations they make about how they see images that look like them being represented. This is the thing that I think that we have to pay particularly attention to. And so, one of the things that when, you know, I work with young people and we talk about future orientation, how do you see yourself showing up in the world down the line? And there's a disproportionate kind of discussion around the role of professional athletics or being entertainers. And so, the most simplistic response to that is to say, you're thinking too small. The odds are really against you for wanting to be successful in that space. And I think one of the questions that Dr. Williams asked earlier is, how often have you been having or thinking about this conversation in the work that you do? This is actually a place for us to ask that question. So, why do we see some of those trends, particularly around particular social classes, et cetera, in terms of like people who may have had limited resources, had limited exposure to certain career fields, et cetera? It is in no short part measured that when we think about the environments where they see images of them, they often see them as professional athletes. They often see them as entertainers. And this is one of the concrete and practical places in which we see the impact of social learning show up in the lives of kids about how they see themselves. I mean, when you think about Doc McSuffins, right? Why was that important? Because then you had a whole generation of little girls who started to think about themselves as potentially being physicians. As a father of daughters, remember, still have a picture of my girls at Disneyland with Doc McSuffins and being, hey, yeah, I want my child taking a picture with this Black female doctor because I have daughters, right? Well, that was an opportunity for them to see themselves kind of futuristically. And that's not an experience that all kids have. And this is the thing that we really have to unpack. We're not just talking about cartoons. We're not just talking about movies. We're talking about things that have impacts in terms of development over the course of time. And as it pertains to social learning theory, that when you see that learning affirmed, right? And you continue to see it promoted. Because I can't pick the villain. And so the other portrayal of Black images are these, you know, more obviously negative things. I want to move away from that because these roles of entertainer and athlete are more valued. And so there's a really important and uncomfortable conversation that we need to have around kind of how this affects future orientation. Yeah. I, you know, you mentioned Dr. McSuffins. And when I was sitting here thinking about it, we actually have it towards the end of this. But back in my day, on the Rugrats, Susie Carmichael and her, I mean, her parents were, her dad was an entrepreneur, I believe, and her mom was a doctor. And that wasn't really highlighted ever at all. He was seen as being the more insightful out of the kids. But I don't feel like she received nearly as much time as, say, Angelica, who was kind of causing havoc, who was, you know, belittling others and all that. And it's interesting to me that it kind of played out that way. And I wonder if the individuals who were in charge of deciding which character got more screen time, if they were to say, well, I mean, we did include a black family. We did include, gave the mom a nice job or something. I mean, so it was there. I don't understand what the problem is. It's like, yeah, it was there, but it was like off in the corner and like given two seconds out of like a decade series kind of thing. So it is one of those, those pieces that we don't think about. I think initially on how the characters that we put in front of our children, even their coloring plays a part into it. And so if we go on to the next slide, this is an example of that. This slide and the slide after it kind of go hand in hand, but we're going to look at this one first. And so my question would be, what do you see? Take a moment and look at each picture between the four. You know, for me, when I first looked at it, I saw Disney princesses and Disney prince of sorts. I see a lot of smiles. I see a lot of brightness and happiness, which I'm sure other kids see as well. But if we look at it on a little on a deeper level, we see a lot of bright coloring. We see Jasmine is supposed to represent, I believe, an Indian culture but she is more the lighter skin tone side we have two white princesses we have Simba who is still like a brighter yellow color we see a lot of happiness we see warmth we see welcoming like these are princesses that we would run up to and talk to like we would engage with these individuals or even looking at me Simba's a lion but he looks like a very friendly welcoming lion someone that you know we would want to be we want that in our rooms like kind of highlighted on walls and such but when we look at the next slide kind of asking like what do these characters have in common and as dr. Carmichael mentioned these characters they're portrayed as the villains they have more dark muted colors like black red violet as such they if we expand even further past just representation for black children they are also in the realms of villainy having disabilities it's another topic that's coming down currently being discussed how characters in the Disney films as villains somehow have some disability going on for instance scar he has a scar on his face and such but the fact is this all tends to be comparing both the two slides is that light equals good dark equals bad and we question how does that affect children and what they think of themselves especially if we think about the Clark doll study that is one of the landmark studies in child psychiatry where they did assess this and the results were astounding but it wasn't like uncommon or not unsurprising I say would be a better word and dr. Bahrain dr. Reese I don't know if you have any other thoughts about this but to me I think that plays a lot into children's development seeing these representation is that they feel like having a darker skin tone means that they're bad or evil when that's not the case you know I think unfortunately I have seen I've had to experience too often of darker complected clients and patients making negative attributions about themselves and to some extent that also being connected to there's their skin color I've had kids talk about not wanting to be dark and pluck it or wanting to avoid the Sun out of fear that they would get darker and so you where does that messaging begin how is that messaging reinforced and why is it being kept alive that something that is fundamental to a child's humanity the complexion of their skin is called in the question in terms of how that that child sees his or her work and so it's a real thing so now we're we really are then the kind of racial socialization of peace that we're talking about in the way around Melanation kind of begins to play in and the attributions that our society has made around that and I'm for sure that when we talk about psychological well-being having a positive sense of yourself and seeing yourself positive that we're not talking about this I would just add it sort of as an update to the the Clark study there have been some more recent studies to surveys of children ages 10 to 17 there was a multi-racial sample that looked at 1,200 boys and girls and asked them to kind of assign different characteristics to black and white characters and you know unsurprisingly the children associated criminal made and janitor with african-americans with african-american characters while boss secretary police officer and doctor were associated with white people and this is you know school age early adolescence period that we're talking about again it's a really critical period of time and development so these media portrayals are having true impacts on the way that you know children are seeing themselves and others I want to raise to our consideration and what happens when dark is assigned or viewed in those negative ways and then it didn't also influences behavioral choices that if this is how I'm perceived you know this is this is how I should comport myself is that a stretch or is that something that actually influences the behavioral choices of young people I don't think that's much of a stretch I mean we kind of think of that and we try to teach teachers that when it comes to ADHD and just as an aside we can go on to the next slide since we're already kind of talking about it this fits perfectly with that but you know when we speak to teachers about working with children with ADHD we try to remind them it's more about positive reinforcement versus always criticizing or pointing out things they're doing wrong because at some point those children are gonna say well you know I can't do anything right I'm the bad kid I'm the problem and if you're gonna see me this way what's the point of even trying to do these other positive things like I'm just gonna live in this role that you've kind of created for me and then you know that's when they're young and you still kind of can work with kids when they're younger but then when they turn to teenagers that's when they get brought into the office and it's well they're the problem child it's like no you know this space was created for them by society by the adults in their area and so now we have to teach them that that is not who you are you know yes you might need a little bit extra assistance it might have been harder for you to sit still or pay attention but that does not make you a quote bad child right like we as adults as educators as you know parents what-have-you we have to work on shifting how we kind of present the world to kids how how we help them see what they look like the mirror that we put up for them and taking responsibility for that and realizing that you know kids are gonna pick up on what they see and like their immediate like surrounding they're not really going to think outside the box around the corner and all that they don't have the capabilities to do that when they're younger but or so it matters like what we put in their line of view and to that effect when we think of just a question on the slide because we sort of brought in the conversation with the first question do we think this impact is worse for black girls versus black boys we know that this has impacted their view of themselves but does one gender experience it differently or worse than the other that's a big question so I would I would not respond to the worst part does one experience it worse versus males versus females or females versus males I absolutely think that there's a differential effect and I think that when we begin to unpack what uniquely influences I do work with black boys and like adolescent males primarily what begins to impact how they see themselves how they understand themselves why they question themselves and and where does that come from you know dr. Carmichael was talking about the teacher interacting with a kid around ADHD but we also can talk about how teachers interact with black boys and the same teachers who've been also impacted by the media representation of African Americans and how that gets influenced in these other kinds of things the back in the 40s when Malcolm X expressed interest in being an attorney his teacher told him you'll never be an attorney you know you should try to be a trash collector or something like that I forget the precise language but the point is that that teacher had an image of black males that that image came from somewhere and this child who said that they wanted to pursue a career in the law was discouraged from from doing that that's a very clear impact and we have thousands of those kinds of stories as experienced by both black boys and black girls so the question is is there an impact absolutely and when we think about issues about adjustment and functioning and well-being it has all kind of implications for that and I would agree I think it's a difference in what they experience but that one doesn't trump the other we can see how for black girls dealing with a in black boys in general just adultification but in various forms where black boys are seen more older and perceived as being more criminals where girls are more sexualized and seem older as then they are because of just their body habitus how the society portrays them to be when it's not the case we see times times again like dr. Reese has brought up with even more recent studies like there was a yellow study published about how teachers were they were basically seeing how they can the study was focusing on if the teachers can catch kids not paying attention and doing the instructions properly when actually they were screening the teachers seeing who they were targeting the most as a class of diverse people and they saw all that out of that class of diverse children that all the teachers regardless of the race of the teachers were focusing in on the black boy when they were following the instructions all equally and so it just shows that these are conversations that are very common amongst black kids black adults that they've experienced throughout their lives and unfortunately this is a common circumstance that they deal with as we lead to the next question now we wonder with all that we see in terms of media portrayal do we think this contributes to generational trauma I would say yes I think there's even now with mainstream media episodes like I can recall Grey's Anatomy that there was episode called the talk whereas black children and black adults know what that means of having the conversation of how to present themselves society so that they're not targeted by people especially law enforcement how to act and behave like you have to arrive early to be considered on time you have to do twice as much to be considered doing just enough these conversations whereas our counterparts and the children do not experience such and they have a very different growth and development pathway through their years of rearing but what do everyone else think I want to offer something for the group to consider and so earlier we talked about darker images and hues reflecting villainous behavior or moral compass etc and then you've asked a question here about does this contribute to generational trauma relative to media media portrayal it's not in in the genre of cartoons or animated movies but when we think about portrayal and generational trauma I would have us consider what it has meant for the trauma impact adverse childhood experiences if you will the number of public executions that our children have seen of black males and how the media has continued to play those over and over and then we started getting making those connections between this is how I view this is how I see and and these these are examples how of how my life could end because of I see this on television yeah trauma is it's such a broad term and generational trauma even more so I think we we need to be thinking about what trauma words we're talking about because I think that has generational impact in a variety of ways that Dr. Reese I believe you cut off towards the end hopefully we're able to recapture all that you said but I wholeheartedly agree there's a lot that we have to deal with and have to talk about on some amongst our families I also think that there's a lot that we're our actions and our families from previous generations actions are contributed based off the trauma they experience how for instance various ways of punishments things for doing things when the parent wouldn't tell you why they're punishing you and the overall idea is because they're scared and the fear of what will happen to you and they rather you know ahead of time before it happens to you by somebody else and those things also they may have internalized some some negative anti-black images themselves that you know so certain behaviors that are just kind of developmentally appropriate behaviors amongst children period may be labeled as kind of like bad because of some negative internalized ideas and perceptions so I think that's part of it as well yeah I am and I think that this is a also just kind of a nice segue into your next question that I'm posing to everyone as providers where do we go from here like what recommendations do we have in regards to connecting and developing on a deeper level and having a deeper understanding of the challenges that black children face I know that I know that this is something that's asked many many times I in media in society in general there's a huge push for diversity I don't know if it's trickled down to children yet but I know at least in the adult world they are pushing to have more diverse councils at various workplaces and various community activities and such but when we're talking about kids specifically what resources do parents have you know I dr. Williams and I were talking and she had mentioned the Sesame Street town hall for parents on how to talk about difficult topics and how to make those conversations age-appropriate for physicians you know recommending seeking that cultural competency if you're you're treating a certain patient population or community getting involved within that community even if it's not your own even if you and your family live somewhere else it's good for you to understand the challenges within that population and within that county town what-have-you get on the boards in those areas so you understand like what they need and how you can be most effective and helpful when these patients come into your office sitting and just listening to your families people are willing to tell you things about themselves and about what's helpful for their families and what they believe if you're willing to listen and not just feeling like medicine is the same for everybody doesn't matter we know for a fact that other cultures treat things differently they describe things differently and so that's something we need to be mindful of and I think joining this webinar is a good first step but like continuing this on we do have a page at the end with some resources as well and I just wanted to see if any of our other panelists have something they wanted to add so I think one of the behaviors that can mitigate the impact of negative media portrayal is kind of like racial socialization so that's this idea of parents promoting cultural socialization for their black children parenting for biases how to cope and egalitarianism and ways to promote a healthy identity amongst their black children so that's one way to kind of mitigate the negative impact of media as well as society there are also a few evidence-based community programs like celebrating the strengths of black youth that focuses on prom promoting a positive racial identity and increased self-esteem amongst african-american children that's one particular example but finding other resources for families similar to that I think could be helpful and I agree dr. Carmichael being open to talking about a child's experience of their own race either through play or through direct conversation talking to the parents experience about the parents experiences of race will be key as well just letting them know that you know as a mental health provider that's a topic that you can handle and that you want to know more about as we're wrapping up because time has escaped us we have a couple of statement slides that we want to take a second to show the audience prior to closing out so we'll give a moment for each slide so that everyone's able to read it you as well as this slide and now as we go to the final slides so we've talked about how their representation is lacking but we as child psychiatrists have to be aware of the cultural societal biases as dr. Bahrami has mentioned earlier that play a part in the growth and development of the patients we see as also dr. Reese has mentioned earlier especially in the unconscious forms such as media including TV shows movies etc however society is starting to make some changes and becoming more progressive and showing diversity in a positive light with as a whole recent years if we consider just you know the 90s going forward there has been emergence of TV shows such as Craig of the Creek on Cartoon Network Susie and dr. Lucy Carmichael who was OBGYN from the Rugrats dr. McStuffins as we mentioned earlier as well as the proud family we also noticing new things such as the princess and the frog is having a theme ride at the Disney World and Disneyland Park so there's some things that are changing but as we've mentioned there's things that continue needs to be worked on and lots of conversations need to be had well I can't believe our time has come to an end we are at the end of this webinar series but keeping in mind that this is ever going conversation so it definitely doesn't need to stop here and we encourage and invite you to continue these conversations with individuals around you in your community your family your friends what have you but we did want to give a huge thank you for participating we thank you to the audience for your attendance for answering our polls and for just being in this time in this space with us we would like to give a thank you to the APA for allowing us to present in this webinar series and finally we'd like to give a big shout out and thank you to our panelists for taking the time to help us create a healthy discussion surrounding a topic that is near and dear to both of our hearts it is something that affects our patients their families and communities on a daily basis and I think dr. recent if you have any final words on how to claim credits and sure it's time to come up off mute so this slide tells you how to claim credit give you a few seconds here to both pay attention to the instructions and to act on them there will be a contact there in the email learning center at psych org if you have any questions about how to claim credit and here are the references again there was a slide earlier that talked about how to download the handout and so if you have interest in these references they will be made available to you this presentation will also be placed on the website and it can be retrieved from there as well and with that we really want to thank you again for your time and I hope that you keep this conversation going thank you so much

Marginalization of Black Americans

children's media

representation

negative portrayals

self-esteem

identity

social cognitive learning theory

disparities in representation

diversity

positive representation