Monica Ahanon may be a model, but she is not always comfortable with the people who watch her.
That’s why, after preparing for a big event, wearing a white designer dress, make-up and heels, she still feels nervous.
“I don’t like people watching me,” she told TODAY. “I like to dress and wear crazy things, but I don’t like people looking at me at the same time.”
However, at the insistence of a friend, Ahanonu took a few pictures on the street to capture her appearance. As her friend took pictures, Ahanon realized that a father and his young child were nearby, watching and waiting to pass. “I felt bad waiting. That’s why I told him to go, and the father said that his daughter could walk across the street, “he explained to Ahanon, adding that he didn’t mind waiting. After all, because she’s not great at making people stare at her, she felt timid.
This is the funniest thing for children, said 31-year-old Ahanonu. They do not perceive the insecurity that adults accumulate in their lives.
In a video taken by Ahanon’s friend and shared on Instagram, the little girl pushes a toy cart past the model. The girl then pauses, pausing for a moment to enlarge the 5’5 “model before turning her stroller over so she can touch one of the flower appliqués on Ahanon’s dress. Constantly interfering, the girl’s father takes her hand away while Ahanon laughs.
The video is enjoying online excitement and has nearly 4.7 million likes as of Friday.
For commentators on the video, one of the most touching moments was when the little girl turned around and revealed that the doll in her stroller was also Black.
“Girl !!!! Levels up to that, “replied one user of the post, which is dotted with hundreds of emojis in the comments.
“The baby knows an angel when he sees it,” wrote another.
This was a touching moment, especially given the long-standing preference for dolls in the past and the race-based prejudices that were a factor.
The story continues
In the 1940s, Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife, Mamie Clark (both psychologists), conducted a series of experiments known as “puppet tests.” The experiment was an attempt to study the psychological effects that segregation has on black children between the ages of three and seven. The children were asked to determine the race of the dolls, to determine the “good” and “bad” traits of each, and to share which doll they preferred.
According to The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the Clark family found that “prejudice, discrimination and segregation create inferiority among African-American children and damage their self-esteem.”
In 2010, CNN commissioned another study to determine whether these racial biases had changed. In a study of 133 children, they found that nearly seven decades after the initial test, white and black children still prefer the white doll.
Ahanonu, a black woman with a mother who immigrated from Uganda and a father from Nigeria, remembers what it was like to have a race in her early days at the playground.
“My brothers and sisters and I were the only black children in our elementary school, high school and high school,” she explained. “(We) had black dolls, but I don’t think any of my friends really did.”
It is possible that the little girl in the video has just experienced how aspects of race affect colored women like Ahanonu almost every day. She also probably didn’t know that their brief interaction would be enough to make Ahanon feel encouraged.
“It was more of a confirmation than ‘Okay, I look good, I guess,'” she said TODAY, noting that she wouldn’t feel so real as an adult.
Ahanonu said the interaction made her feel secure for the future.
“It’s a good sign that we hope things will be less divided as we move forward,” she said. “These generations to come, (they) seem to be much less separated than the generation before us … These are subconscious things that we don’t even realize and haven’t realized for a long time, obviously, even when we were younger, so that it’s cool to see this and I’m curious, I hope that (of the younger generations) the subconscious will be different from what is ours or what our parents were. ”
Ahanon, meanwhile, hopes to learn more about the little girl soon.
“I wish I could talk to her father so much,” Ahanonu said. “I want to ask him about her and (see) what they think about it.”
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