Ep. 3 Courtroom of the Dolls & the Sculptor of Horrors

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In this episode of My Favorite Feminists, Megan & Milena cover fellow University of the Arts alumnus Meta Warrick Fuller & developmental psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

It’s 1899, you’re 22 years old and traveling abroad for the first time. Its taken endless persuasion to get your family to agree to it – after all you’re an unaccompanied young lady – but finally they consent. The ship has sailed and you’re in Paris, about to start your professional career as a sculptor when, well, will you look at that – some good old fashioned American racism! 3,705 miles away from your home shore is not far enough to escape the second-class reality of being an African American.
Thankfully for us that did not stop Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller from pursuing her art. Despite the racism she faced by another American on her first day in Paris, she spent decades creating sculptures that exemplified the realities of being black in early 20th century America.  Before the Harlem Renaissance, before the Black Arts Movement she was a lone woman documenting the often-painful narrative of what it meant to be black in America – a reality still relevant a century later.

Selection of Meta’s Surviving Art
The Savings Bank, a 1907 diorama from the Warrick Tableaux in which Meta showed
African Americans doing everyday things, despite the prevailing dehumanizing
racism that inhibited, and in many cases killed, African Americans of the time. And
by time I mean that shit is still a reality today. On the bright side, Meta took home a
whooping 47,602.04$ (adj. for inflation) for her commission
8 foot tall 1913 sculpture Emancipation. After Meta’s art was destroyed in a fire this is the
piece that got her back in the studio and making kickass work, all thanks to a certain
W. E. B. Du Bois for suggesting she get back into art making. At the Harriet Tubman park in Boston, MA
Commissioned for another piece, this time by W. E. B. Du Bois, Meta created Ethiopia in 1921. It’s regal and powerful and unfortunately necessary because of fucked-up racists’
stereotypes that her work combated
Fucked-up American Racist Shit of the Era, Early 1900’s
HOLY FUCK
?!!!
You can blame Thomas Rice for his creation, the ‘Jim Crow’ character
THIS IS THE SHIT META HAD TO DEAL WITH. THIS IS WHY ‘ETHIOPIA’ IS SO IMPORTANT

Mammie Phipps Clark

When did you first show signs of self consciousness? Mamie Phipps Clark could probably answer that question for you. Say hello to the developmental psychologist that made waves in the world of segregation in the 1940s, and helped shape the future of millions of African American children.


250 African American Children sat in a room where these dolls were placed in front of them and asked questions on self and racial identification. The results were a conclusive overall bias towards the white doll.
Frustrated with the lack of resources for African American youth in Harlem during the 1940s, Phipps started the Northside Center for Child Development. The Center is still going strong today, offering multitudes of after school programs, in-school counseling, and support programs for families struggling with abuse. This picture was taken from their website, Northsidecenter.org
Above is a quick shot from the footage taken for the 2010 CNN segment on Margaret Beale Spencer’s recreation of Clark’s doll test. Children were presented with 5 skin tones and asked the same questions Clark asked the children in her study. You can read about the study HERE

As always, music by EeL