Prejudice at Age 6

By age 6, many kids are well schooled in societal prejudice. In one
study, researchers interviewed 92 African-American first- and
sixth-graders from varying socioeconomic backgrounds about job status and
their own interest in particular occupations.

Children from all economic backgrounds associated white workers
with jobs that they saw as higher in status. Furthermore, when asked
about unfamiliar and even imaginary jobs such as a "tenic," someone who
organizes and marks handicapped parking spaces, children rated careers
pictured with white workers above those depicted with black workers or a
mixed group.

"It's troubling that children in our society take race as something
that defines the status, importance, and pay of jobs," says Lynn S. Liben,
professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University and coauthor of
the study, published in
Developmental Psychology.

Liben also found that poor children in the sixth-grade group showed
less interest in high status jobs such as a doctor or airline pilot,
which they saw as occupied primarily by whites. She speculates that
underprivileged children in particular may "self-select" away from high
status jobs because they assume a lack of access to the education and
resources needed to attain them.