The short documentary "A Girl Like Me" by teen filmmaker Kiri Davis confronts the daunting topic of self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-image among black girls with an eerie bluntness.

The video will be part of the exhibit "Race: Are We So Different?" coordinated by the American Anthropological Foundation coming to the Missouri History Museum beginning today and running through April 4.

It's not an easy video to watch because it brings to the fore a few crushing realities. In about seven minutes, a few black teenage girls discuss how society and even their parents have subtly or overtly made them feel ugly because of the color of their skin or the style of their hair. But the most fascinating part of the video is a segment featuring black children selecting a toy.

Davis conducted a simplified version of the doll test developed by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940s to assess the consequences of segregation on black children. His results were so sobering that they became a key piece of evidence during the Brown v. Board of Education case, which brought an end to the "separate but equal" educational system.

The Clarks used four dolls. Davis used only two. The sets of dolls were identical except for skin color. And in each test, the children were asked a series of simple questions, such as which doll was most like them or which doll was better.

During each test, the majority of the kids, boys and girls from 3 to 7 years old, chose the white doll as better or nicer.

When asked, "Why?" by Davis, the most common response was, "Because it's white."

I sent the video to a few people and asked for their first reactions. These two seemed to sum up a variety of reactions from two schools of thought.

Amani Roland, 37, of Tower Grove, who is currently 8 months pregnant with a daughter, said that her first reaction was, "Oh, my goodness, I wasn't even worried about something like this and now I realize that this is something I'm going to have to deal with. Oh, God."

Roland is black and married to Eric Miller, who is white but has a mixed family tree that includes a black grandfather. Roland said that she isn't afraid of the conversations her daughter will want to have, and she isn't afraid of which doll she'll eventually pick.

"If she wanted a white doll, I'd buy her one, of course, but I'd talk to her about it later," Roland said. "I don't want her to think this is better than that or that a black doll is bad."

Roland said that as a child, she grew up in a neighborhood that was largely Jewish, and her five closest friends were white girls with long flowing hair. She wanted hair like that.

"I would probably have picked the white doll, too," Roland said of her 5-year-old self, but she doesn't feel like it damaged her psyche in any way. She said that being black doesn't mean that it takes precedence over everything else.

"I don't ever remember feeling bad because I was black. I felt different, and I had questions, but I think it stopped there," Roland said. She said she wants the same for her daughter.

She confessed that she wouldn't feel like she'd done her job as a parent if her daughter said the white doll was the better doll. "I'd want her to know that they were both good."

Raquel Hunter, 31, of Fox Park, also said that her 5-year-old self would probably have picked the white doll. But unlike Roland, she will not buy a white doll for her 7-year-old daughter.

She said that she believes it would damage her self-esteem. She wants her daughter to identify things that are most like her as beautiful, because there are too many things telling her she's not.

"It's like psychological warfare. You start to hate your hair, your lips, you nose, because you never see anything positive associated with things that look like you," Hunter said.

Hunter is black and married to Rahman Hunter, who is also black. And she admits that she comes from a family of conspiracy theorists, who think it's no coincidence that so many black children regard their natural features as somehow inferior.

She said that her daughter asks lots of questions about why she's different, and she's quick to tell her that she's special and beautiful just the way she is. One day, recently, her daughter asked, "What would you do if I married a white man?"

Hunter took a deep breath and said that she would accept him as long as he were a good person and kind to her. Then Hunter asked her daughter, "So who's better: black boys or white boys?" And her daughter quickly said, "They're both the same."

Hunter said that at that point she let out the breath.

Self-acceptance is a tricky little emotional balancing act.

The doll test was conducted on black girls and boys, but one wonders how many kids would pick a doll that looks most like them as the better doll.

Would the chubby doll be selected over the skinny doll? What about a doll with red hair? Or small eyes?

Such issues of self-acceptance are never just black and white, although it makes for a better contrast. Either way, the discussion is worthwhile, if only to affirm that we still have a long way to go.