This is an ABC podcast.

Hey, just letting you know this episode is one from our archives, and it's on a topic that

sits pretty close to my heart.

It's about how young kids develop their ideas about race and the fascinating ways that

dolls can reveal their attitudes.

Here it is.

A few years ago, Dr. Tony Sturdivant was looking for a preschool for her three-year-old daughter. After considering a number of schools around the Texas

suburbs she lived in, she thought she'd found the perfect place. I fell in love with this beautiful

school on acres of land with mature trees and green grass and whatever.

And so I said, this is where my children would go. There was just one issue.

My children were the only black children with two black parents that attended the school.

And the materials in the school weren't very diverse either,

and they weren't talking about diversity or race or anything like that.

If you're thinking that's not that big a deal,

Tony didn't think it would be a problem either to begin with.

It did become a problem, though, just a few months later,

when her daughter, we'll call her Lisa, came home one day

and said something that really worried Tony.

My child said to me that she didn't like her dark skin, to which I replied, I like it,

and she said, well, you can have it.

That crushed me, not just because, you know, this is my daughter and I don't want her to not

love her skin color, but also because I knew that I had taken steps in my home to create an environment

...