♪ my stardust melody a memory of love's refrain ♪ >> larry: love you, willie. >> love you too. >> larry: willie nelson. right now it is "ac 360." thanks, larry. tonight the bp disaster, the oil is no longer flowing, but a new investigation uncovers allegations of a shocking crime, a supervisor hired to oversee beach cleanup operations is now accused of raping an employee. it turns out the supervisor was already a convicted sex offender. somehow his criminal history was never looked into. no background check on him apparently were ever done. and he wasn't alone. how is it possible? we're keeping him honest tonight. also head, dr. laura apologized for saying "the n" word several times on her show, but some are calling for a boycott. we go in depth on race with new details on a pilot study we commissioned, a surprising finding of what kids, even young ones, think of race and skin color and how you can shape your

child's perception of it. the government point man to the disaster admiral thad allen said bp will go ahead with drilling the relief well. they're considering other options. he said some tests indicate the bottom kill procedure to seal the damaged well may not be necessary. meantime, a man, a contract worker who supervised oil cleanup workers in mississippi is in jail tonight, charged with raping another employee. a cnn investigation tonight uncovers his criminal history and raises questions about whether this incident could have been prevented by doing a simple background check. special investigations union correspondent abbie boudreau goes looking for answers and here is what she found. >> reporter: one of the thousands of cleanup workers who descended on the gulf coast was this man, rundy charles robertson. he was in charge of numerous workers on this now desserted mississippi beach. the problem was all these people who were coming to town were strangers and the residents here had no idea who they were or where they were coming from.

and apparently they had good reason to be concerned. robertson was a convicted sex offender, and he was breaking the law by not telling local law enforcement where he was living. >> i don't understand how they can have a man like that as our supervisor. >> reporter: do you think what happened to you could have been prevented? >> yeah, i do. yes, i do. that's whyt makes me a lot of times so angry. >> reporter: this woman came to this town because she was looking for work. she wanted to help clean up the beaches and she needed a job. she has four young children, and it was important for her to get hired right away and that's exactly what happened. rundy robertson was her supervisor. and show told us time and time again, i trusted him because he was my boss. i respected him. he was the person who was put in charge of me. you just weren't feeling well that day. and he offered to drive you home. >> yeah. >> reporter: and you thought he was a nice enough person to make that offer, i guess. >> yeah. he's my boss. i thought it was all right.

>> reporter: she says robertson asked to use her bathroom. and when he came out, she says he raped her. she's represented by attorney adam miller. >> i find it unbelievable because bp and their subcontractors had relationships with all local law enforcement. they had the opportunity and the ability to clearly check all of these people that they were hiring and bringing in to ensure the safety of the public. >> reporter: if anyone had checked robertson's background, they would have found a lengthy criminal history. and he was still on probation for a felony. instead, he was made a supervisor. we're in pass guolla, mississippi, here to talk to the local sheriff. several weeks before this incident, sheriff mike byrd says he met with bp's local head of security, about why bp was not doing background checks on beach cleanup workers. >> i asked him directly, i said are you all doing criminal histories and background checks on these people? and his answer reply was no,

we're not. i said, you're kidding me. he said, no, there is so many of them, we were told to do drug screens and that was it. and i said, well, that's not good at all. >> reporter: but you actually recommended that they get criminal background checks on their employees? >> yes, we did. and i told them that we would do that for them, we would do the background checks for them. and he said, no. >> reporter: robertson worked for a company called aerotek, that hired workers to remove oil from the beaches. want to come out and talk to you. >> i will, but give me a couple of minutes. >> reporter: i'm not going to shut the door and never see you again. >> i promise. >> reporter: so we waited. but they only slipped us a note through the door referring us to the corporate headquarters. did you realize you were hiring people who were registered sex offenders? >> thank you, ma'am. >> reporter: this is when the blame game begins. we talk to the general counsel for aerotek by phone. he said aerotek was the one that decided not to do background

checks. we're not liable for anything that happens. once we deliver the people to be supervised by our client, we don't have anything to do with them anymore. miller environmental group, which oversaw the cleanup and hired aerotek did not return our phone calls. then bp, which was paying for the beach cleanups, told us in a statement it normally checks its own employees, but "this was not done for all contractors in this response. the responsibility lies with the employing company for their own staff. the requirement on subcontractors to bp's contractors is one further step beyond bp's scope of control." >> the buck ultimately stops with bp. it was their site. >> reporter: robertson was arrested and he was then charged with sexual battery and failure to register as a sex offender. he tells police that the sex was consensual, but now he's being held on more than a $500,000 bond and he's sitting in jail. >> yes, he's in jail.

but you got a victim here. what is she going to live through the rest of her life? it is just going to be pure hell for her. that's what it is going to be. >> reporter: it could have been prevented. >> it could have been prevented, in my professional opinion. >> reporter: and you warned them? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: how does something like this just change everything for you? >> i go through anxiety, you know? i'm angry. i feel dirty. scared. i'm scared. >> reporter: abbie boudreau, cnn, pascagoula, mississippi. >> we'll continue to follow that story. as you know, dr. laura has apologized for her repeated on air use of the "n" word this is what she said to a listener who called into her show on tuesday. the listener named jade asked dr. laura about the use of the "n" word. here is some of the exchange. >> black guys use it all the time. turn on hbo, listen to a black

comic, and all you hear is [ bleep ], [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. i don't get it. if anybody without enough melon says it is a horrible thing, but when black people say it, it is affectionate. it is very confusing. don't hang up. i want to talk to you some more. don't go away. yeah, i think you too much sensitivity -- >> so it's okay to say [ bleep ]. >> it depends how it is said. >> is it okay to say that word? >> it depends how it is said. black guys talking to each other think it is okay. i'll say it again, [ bleep ], [ bleep ], [ bleep ] is what you hear on hb -- >> so what makes it -- >> why don't you let me finish my sentence. don't take thinks out of context. don't naacp me. she said i was trying to make a philosophical point and i articulated the "n" word all the way out and that was wrong. ahead on "360," in depth on the subject of race tonight. the pilot study we commissioned asking a team of seasoned

researchers to interview more than 130 kids, half in the north, half in the south, african-american kids as well as white kids to see how they view skin color and what you're going to see is even very young kids have already formed ideas about what it means to be black or white. >> show me the smart child. >> show me the mean child. >> can you show me the dumb child? >> show me the nice child. >> also tonight, the flooding in pakistan. houses torn from their foundations, people struggling to stay alive. more than 1300 have been killed. hundreds of thousands have been affected. now more rain and what is being called a second wave of flooding expected this weekend. we'll talk to our people on the ground coming up. you know, when i grow up, i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel.

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it has been 50 years since the civil rights act was passed and nearly two years since americans elected their first black president. a lot of people throw around the term post racial, but do we really live in a post racial society? that's what we wanted to know. children seemed the best place to start. >> there are lots of different colors for skin. >> i have questions for you

about these pictures of different children. >> after i read the question, i want you to point to the picture that fits the story. >> reporter: are children color blind in america? >> show me the smart child. >> show me the mane child. >> can you show me the dumb child? >> show me the nice child. >> reporter: is bias measurable even at an early age? >> why is she the bad child. >> because she's black. >> why is he the ugly child? >> because he looks like he's white. >> why is he the dumb child? >> because she has dark brown skin. >> why is she the bad child? >> because she makes fun of everybody else's skin color. >> reporter: how much do kids learn from what they see and hear from adults? >> show me the child who has the skin color most adults like. >> and show me the child who has the skin color that most adults don't like.

>> reporter: these are questions that we along with cnn soledad psychogists hired by cnn spent months investiting through tests, interviews with children, and their parents. but there are questions that have been asked for decades. the first study ignited controversy in the 1940s when kenneth and mamie clark pioneered studies in the effects of segregation in schools by asking african-american kids to choose between black and white dolls. the so-called doll test found black kids overwhelmingly preferred white over black. those results were the center of the landmark 1954 supreme court case brown vs. the board of education that desegregated american schools. now with a first african-american president and nearly 60 years after segregation was overturned, we wondered where are we today? how do kids see differences in race. what we discovered might shock you. first, how we got there. >> skin color, child's skin color estimate. >> okay, yeah. >> reporter: we asked renowned

child psychologist and university of chicago researcher dr. margaret beale spencer to design a pilot study for cnn and analyze the results. >> our children are always near us, you know, because we're a society, and what we put out there, kids report back. and you ask the question, they'll give you the answer. >> reporter: spencer's team tested more than 130 kids in eight schools with very different racial and economic demographics. half of the schools were in the north, half in the south. >> oh! nicely done. >> reporter: the country's much more diverse today than in the 1940s, the children in this project are from two age groups and two races, white and black. to better allow comparison to the original doll study. 4 and 5-year-old children were asked a series of questions about the images. 9 and 10-year-olds were asked questions about the same images and the color bar chart. the tests led us to three major findings. first, white children as a whole responded with a high rate of

what researchers call white bias, identifying the color of their own skin with positive attributes and darker skin with negative attributes. >> show me the dumb child. >> dumb child? >> okay. why is she the dumb child? >> because she has black skin. >> show me the mean child. why is he the mean child? >> because he's brown. >> show me the bad child. why is he the bad child? >> because he's black. >> okay. show me the ugly child. why is he the ugly child? >> because he's brown -- black. >> show me the child who has the skin color most adults like. and show met child who has the skin color thoemost adults don' like. show me the child who has the skin color most children like. show me the child who has the skin color most children don't like.

show me the child who has the skin color most girls want. show me the child who has the skin color most girls don't want. >> reporter: the questions that got overwhelmingly white biased answers -- >> show me the dumb child. >> reporter: about 76% of the younger white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. >> show me the mean child. >> reporter: about 66% of the younger white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. >> show me the child who has the skin color most children don't like. >> reporter: again, about 66% of the younger white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. >> show me the bad child. >> reporter: more than 59% of the older white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. but some white children did have more race neutral responses. >> so could you show me the good

looking child? so what are you thinking? you pointed to them all. tell me what you're thinking. >> i'm thinking that i do not care if they are black, white, mixed or any kind of race. i think that it matters who they really are. >> that's how white kids responded to the test. when we come back, we'll show you how african-american children answered the exact same questions. and later we'll check in with andrew who took part in the test, whose mother was deeply upset with his answers. she called it a wake-up call. we'll show you change s she mad at home to actually talk more about race. a fantastic opportuy to get a great offer on an all new cadillac srx luxury collection crossover... ..with a bose premium sound system. and an ultra-view sunroof designed to let more summer time in. summer brings out the best in all of us, so now's the perfect time to get behind the wheel of a new cadillac. hurry in for great lease or purchase offers on an all new srx during cadillac's summer's best sales event

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before the break, we showed you how white kids responded to a test designed to measure how they view race. they showed a high rate of what researchers call white bias. as you're about it see, the responses of african-american kids in the pilot study were just as revealing. >> ready, set, go. >> reporter: our second major finding, even black children as a whole have some bias toward whiteness. but far less than white children. >> show me the smart child. and why is she the smart child? >> because she is white.

>> okay. show me the dumb child. and why is she the dumb child? >> because she's black. >> show me the ugly child. and why is she the ugly child? >> because she's black. >> show me the good-looking child. and why is she the good-looking child? >> because she's light skinned. >> and show me the skin color you believe most teachers think looks bad on a girl. >> i don't think it matters. i think each teacher wants to help a student learn either way what they look like and it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it just matters what you look like on the inside. >> show me the good-looking child. >> they look the same. >> yeah? show me the child you would like as a classmate. >> all of them. >> you like all of them as

classmates? >> mm-hmm. >> why do you say all of them? >> because i don't really care what color they have. >> reporter: this 5-year-old girl gave provocative answers during her test. i asked her about them later. why do you want that skin color? >> because it looks lighter than this kind because this looks a lot like that one. >> reporter: mm-hmm. and -- >> and i just don't like the way brown looks because the way brown looks looks really nasty for some reason, but i don't know what reason. that's all. >> reporter: so you think it looks nasty? >> well, not really. but sometimes. >> reporter: sometimes. and what color do adults don't like? do you remember what you said? this one? that's right. that's the one you said. why do you think adults don't

like that one. >> dark. >> reporter: dark. and adults you think adults don't like dark? >> well, maybe some adults do, but maybe some of them don't. >> reporter: hmm. the questions that got overwhelmingly white-biased answers -- >> show me the one you think most children would think looks bad on a boy. >> reporter: more than 70% of the older black children chose the darkest skin tones. >> show me a child that has a skin color that most children don't like. show me the ugly child. >> reporter: more than 57% of the younger black kids chose the two darkest shades. >> that one. >> reporter: dr. spencer says the research shows the bias toward white is still very much part of our culture. >> all kids are exposed to these stereoty stereotypes. what is significant here is that wild childr white children are learning or maintaining the stereotypes much

more strongly than the african-american children. >> reporter: that is our third finding. the finding that interested dr. spencer the most. that overall younger and older children keep the same patterns, stereotyping. in other words, their ideas c s change little from age 5 to 10. >> by the time children are older, there is a natural filter, you know, their own ways of thinking so that it aids them to rethinking the extreme stereo tippic responses to become less highly biased. >> reporter: that left professor spencer wondering what is causing this pattern. she speculates that kids are bombarded by stereotypical messages and adults in kids' lives have to fight to override the deluge. black parents may be more diligent about that, while white parents may not notice the need. >> the messages are the same for all children, and therefore the task is the same for all parents, parents have to reframe what children experience. >> reporter: we realize these

findings may be disturbing and that some people will question this project's conclusions. what stereotypical messages are being sent in a country that elected a black president? like all research projects, ours is not perfect. some kids were told ahead of time they would be told about race, some children identify one race, but came from biracial families, like this boy whose mother is white. but professor spencer tells us these are common answers in research. to be clear this is a scientifically informed and executed pilot study. which suggests the need for further research, the results point to major trends, but are not the definitive word on children and race. still, they underline what dr. spencer sees as an alarming conclusion. >> we are still living in a society where dark things or devalued and light things are valued. >> reporter: the question we're left with is where do we go from here? still ahead, we visit with andrew, a 5-year-old whose

answers to the test stunned and upset his mom and she says led to some big changes at home. >> you've got to talk about it. it will be uncomfortable for people. but that's where the real learning takes place. in the discomfort of it all. >> and later, an update on briele whose parents were upset about her answers to the test and what they revealed about her self-image. her family made some changes too.

waking up with morning pain drain the energy right out of you. fight it with (new) bayer am. it combines extra strength bayer aspirin to treat pain plus an alertness aid to help you get off to a running start. try bayer am - the morning pain reliever. we'll have more on kids and race in a moment. first, a "ac 360" news and business bulletin. president obama spoke out tonight over the controversy over the proposed islamic center and mosque near ground zero.

>> i believe that muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. and that includes -- that includes the right to build a place of worship in a community center on private property in lower manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances. this is america. and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. >> and it turns out there is surveillance video after all of flight attendant's steven slater's infamous exit from a jetblue plane. you can see the chute deploy and slater slide down. slater is facing criminal charges for his meltdown on monday's flight. back to school shopping pushed up retail sales .4% last month, the first increase in two months, still below expectations. and more floodwaters are expected to hit surround pakistan where many residents are ignoring warnings to

evacuate. reza has more from islamabad. >> this is pakistan's katrina, the worst natural disaster this country has ever seen and one of the worst disasters anywhere in recent memory. the scope of these floods is astonishing. the u.n. says one fifth of pakistan is under water. to put that in perspective, that's the entire state of florida. these floods hit when pakistan's notorious monsoon rains started coming down a couple of dweeks ago and for a 48-hour period they didn't stop. over the past couple of weeks, parts of pakistan have received as much rain as they received in an entire year. and the results have been catastrophic. entire villages under water, more than 1300 people killed, 15 million people impacted, many left homeless without food or clean water. anderson? >> if you want to see how you can help the organizations working in pakistan, go to cnn.com/impact.

reza will continue to report from pakistan next week. we'll be right back with more on how kids see race and what you as parents can do to help shape their perceptions. boss: and now i'll turn it over to the gecko. gecko: ah, thank you, sir. as we all know, geico has been saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance... ...as well as motorcycle insurance... gecko: oh...sorry, technical difficulties. boss: uh...what about this? gecko: what's this one do? gecko: um...maybe that one. ♪ dance music boss: ok, let's keep rolling. we're on motorcycle insurance. vo: take fifteen minutes to see how much you can save on motorcycle, rv, and camper insurance.

the tests on racial bias we asked researchers to conduct months ago show that white kids had high rates of white bias.

we sat with some of their parents as they watched their kids' answers on videotape. it was upsetting for many of them, including one mom named laura. in may, she called her young son's answers shocking, evidence she needed to do a better job at talking to him about race and color. we caught up with laura and andrew recently to see what changed for them. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: this is how we first met 5-year-old andrew. >> show me the dumb child. why is he the dumb child? >> because he's really black. >> she me tow me the nice child. why is he the nice child? >> because he's the lightest. >> show me the bad child. why is he the bad child? >> because he's really dark. >> show me the ugly child. why is he the ugly child? >> because he's -- he's dark. >> show me the good-looking child. why is he the good-looking

child? >> because he's the lightest. >> reporter: andrew overwhelmingly identified his own skin with positive attributes and black skin with negative attributes, a high rate of what researchers call white bias. >> show me the child -- >> reporter: his mother laura was shocked when we showed her his answers. she was part of a panel of parents whose kids participated in the test. i saw you shaking your head. >> it is disappointing. i should be disappointed. i mean, it makes me think i need to be doing a better job at home. i need to teach him, you know, it is really upsetting. i spent 15 years as a teacher trying to teach first graders about all different societies and cultures and races and here is my own child, his finger went so quick to the whiteside, it is fascinating. i gisjust, you know, we have to more, talk about it more openly, definitely. andrew, want me to spin you around? >> reporter: we met up with laure why and andrew today. >> hold on tight.

>> reporter: she said seeing her son's answer was a wake-up calls. she realized his ideas on race are already being formed. >> i want to demystify the stereotypes. they create them so young. to me it was eye opening. he is already -- if he's not talking about it, it is already going on in his head. >> reporter: like an estimated 75% white families, laura never got specific about race. the doll test changed that. >> i've never said, black people are bad, but i've never said black skin is okay. black skin is great. i've always said it is okay to be different, but i need to be more open and up-front about it. and attack it head on. >> reporter: attacking it head on for laura means instead of glossing over racial differences, today she looks for reasons to point them out and celebrate them. both with andrew and her 3-year-old eleanor. what color is her skin, eleanor? >> black. >> is it okay to be black? >> yes. yes, she's beautiful. >> reporter: before the doll test, laura thought age 5 was too young to talk about race. now she feels age 3, she's already missed opportunities with her daughter who is showing

signs that worry her. >> i was like, look, eleanor, these three women are black and they're doing ballet and she's like, no, just this one. there are three. she already has preconceived notions already. just as simple as pointing it out, i think, is a good start. for sure. here it comes. >> reporter: while a tough thing to go through, she said her involvement in the doll test started conversations on race with family, friends, even colleagues. >> you've got to talk about it. it will be uncomfortable for people. but that's where the real learning takes place. in the discomfort of it all. >> reporter: and she'll continue to fight all stereotypes -- >> i could even be president. do you want to be president one day, eleanor? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> reporter: one conversation at a time. when we come back, we'll revisit another family who is making changes in the way they talk about race. i first talked to 5-year-old briele after she took her doll test. here is what she told me about dark skin. what color do adults don't like? do you remember what you said?

which one? that's right. that's the one you said. why do you think adults don't like that color? >> dark. >> briele's answers surprised her parents. we'll catch up with them just ahead. later, marcus' story. you think growing up in a biracial family would protect a child from white bias, well, think again. black or white, kids on race continues after the break. what's our slogan? bester stuff! - stuffy stuff! - good stuff for bettering stuff! guys? the best stuff on earth just got better. - good stuff, craig. - we're dating. [ announcer ] snapple. the best stuff on earth just got better. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more $2, $3 fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more paying to access your own money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it be like every atm in the world was your atm. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the schwab bank high yield investor checking(tm) account. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 zero atm fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a great interest rate. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no minimums. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and it's fdic-insured. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the schwab bank high yield investor checking(tm) account. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the biggest thing in checking since checks. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open an account at 1-800-4schwab or schwab.com.

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our pilot study into kids and race found that african-american kids have a substantial amount of what researchers call white bias. though not as much as white kids. take a look at what 5-year-old briele told me when i told her to show me which color of skin she would like to have. how about you? why do you want that skin color? >> because it looks lighter than this kind, because this looks a lot like that one. >> reporter: mm-hmm. and -- >> and i just don't like the way brown looks, because the way brown looks, looks really nasty for some reason, but i don't know what reason. that's all. >> that's part of my conversation with briele after she had taken the test and those

answers that she gave me matched what she said on the test. they're painful to watch. imagine how her parents felt, for them, like laura you saw earlier, the test was a wake-up call. soledad o'brien caught up with briele and her parents recently. >> reporter: this is briele today. her parents, byron and laetitia, focused on changing herself perception, shocked at briele's answers. >> it made me feel like, wow, what are we doing wrong? but we thought about some of the experiences that she has had, where she has noticed her skin color at an early age and we thought that it was affecting her a certain way, but we didn't realize that she realized it. >> her per accepting was that a lot of times the golden hair or the lighter skin kids got to be on line first for whatever or there was one incident in the way that they cast even the

christmas play. >> light skinned kin ened kids stars. >> right. but the part that she got was the one that nobody would have possibly wanted. >> what did she play? >> a donkey. could have been a sheep, could have been any other barn animal, you know, she ended up being the donkey. >> she knew at age 3 that that was not the animal to be. >> sure. and messages similar to those, i think at 3 years old, those are things that you actually do remember, i believe, in the subconscious. ♪ >> reporter: for briele's parents, counteracting those messages for her and her sister brianna is now more than ever a priority. >> most beautiful girls in the world as far as i'm concerned and they need to know that and i need for them to know that. i've tried to find ways to link that physical beauty, you know, skin tone, your pretty hair, your pretty eyes, whatever it

is, to the beauty -- i'm not speaking of beauty that is just because of what's inside, you're beautiful on the outside as well. >> reporter: briele's answers got a strong reaction from family, friends and parishioners at church. did someone say what are you teaching this child? >> no. they were shocked at her answer, but it wasn't, like, a negative thing. a lot of people who spoke to me, they took up for her. they said, well what do you expect? look at society when you get married, what do you wear? you wear white. when the bad guys go to rob a bank or a store, what does he put on? he puts on black. so what are the messages? >> reporter: beyond looking at what their daughters see and hear from the world, byron and latisha are looking inward. what advice would you give other parents who say i don't know what to say to my kid? >> honestly, i would say the first level is within.

it is hard to have a conversation about acceptance or even about having healthy pride in your own race when there are some really very real predispositions within one's self. if i'm uncomfortable around white people, it is going to be hard for me to show my daughter to be comfortable. so make sure that we're doing all we can to adjust our own mind sets into one that really sees the equality of people. and not just in speech, in reali reality. >> it is interesting how briele's parents deal with her. they're not trying to talk her out of her feelings, her beliefs. >> absolutely. i think a lot of parents would do that. i think i would even do that. but they have a very interesting parenting strategy. and they're together in this, which is they believe what this little girl is feeling is as valid as anything else. they're going to be good role models for over things, but not

say you shouldn't believe this, you shouldn't believe that, don't worry about skin tone, talk her out of it. they say hey, we think she's nailing it, there are disparities in how people are treated and she's so little, we're going to try to make her love who she is and not talk her out of it. >> it is interesting how they have meat meade changes in the way they talk about race after their 5-year-olds took the test measuring racial bias. both kids showed white bias. their parents were stunned. but they weren't the only ones. >> absolutely not. we want to introduce you to marcus and his mom molly. his test, she said to us, just broke her heart. take a look. >> hi, marcus. >> reporter: we first met 6-year-old marcus when testing children in the south. his school identified him as african-american. sh sh . >> show me the dumb child. why is that the dumb child? >> because he's really dark brown. >> show me the nice child.

and why is that the nice child? >> because he's white. >> show me the mean child. ayen n aand why is that the mean child? >> because he's light brown. >> his answers showed the highest rate of white bias we have seen so far from any black child in the survey. >> show met child that has your skin color. okay. show me the child who has the skin color you want as your own. >> reporter: this is marcus' mom, molly, she's white. marcus' father is black. she was part of the panel invited to view the children's tests. and she was stunned. >> i'm kind of speechless of how he responded to that. >> is it upsetting for you to see that? >> it is hard to watch. after this, when they did the taping, he looked at me and he said, i wish i was -- i know i

can't be, but i wish i was white. and it just -- i don't understand. >> reporter: molly says this experience has changed the kind of parent she is to both marcus and his brother malik. >> majority of my friends are black. so i just assumed that my kids, you know, saw that like me. i don't assume anymore that my kids see things through my eyes. i always thought if you lived the life that they would follow, but you do have to communicate, you do have to talk about it. >> reporter: molly has a unique challenge. marcus has been attending a predominantly white school and his father, divorced from folly, li lives three states away. we asked him why in his test he said he wanted his skin to be light. >> because that's my favorite color, white. >> that's what he told me. i think there is more behind

that. but that is so far what he has told me and every time i ask him, it is the same answer. >> everyone in my school are white. have different eyes. eye color. >> reporter: molly says marcus' doll test has started broader conversations on race with 14-year-old malik. he admitted he went through a phase where he thought it would be easier to be white. >> at my middle school, i would be called a cracker or the "n" word and that got on my nerves too. and it kind of sucked. >> reporter: molly says while she experienced prejudice because of her bireischl kacial she can only teach them so much. >> i have never been called a name because of the color of my skin. i hope that's what his father can teach him and to give him that feeling of you're -- you have to be the strong, thick skin black man. >> reporter: marcus spends

summers with his father ray, who this summer focused on breaking down stereotypes and building up positive role models for his son. >> i said do you know who the president of the united states is? he said, yeah. he's like why did you ask me that? i said, because he's just like you and he's the president. i said, so now what do you think you can be? he says, i can do anything i want to do. >> reporter: ray and molly are optimistic they can teach marcus to love himself. just as they do for exactly who he is. >> it is really a challenge for parents to try to counteract messages in that -- that their child receives all around them. >> all messages, especially race. i grew up biracial, black kid in a white neighborhood, white school. you get a lot of messages. my parent's strategy was to say, you are black, you are latino, don't let anybody tell you otherwise. one thing that molly and i talked about a lot and she was mentioning to me, she has to do more of that, kind of helping

frame the world for a little kid who at 6 only sees white people around him. she's got to help him there. >> still ahead what you can do to help your kids recognize racial bias and try to see beyond it as we have shown you silence and pretending that racial bias doesn't exist is not the answer. so when is the best time to start talking to kids about race? we'll get answers from experts ahead. old legs. p.a.d., the doctor said. p-a-d... p.a.d. isn't just poor circulation in your legs causing you pain. it more than doubles your risk

of a heart attack or stroke. i was going to tell you. if you have p.a.d., plavix can help protect you from a heart attack or stroke. plavix helps keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots, the cause of most heart attacks and strokes. call the doctor about plavix -- please? i will. [ male announcer ] certain genetic factors and some medicines such as prilosec reduce the effect of plavix leaving you at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. your doctor may use genetic tests to determine treatment. don't stop taking plavix without talking to your doctor as your risk of heart attack or stroke may increase. people with stomach ulcers or conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines including aspirin may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. tell your doctor all medicines you take including aspirin especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than two weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. [ female announcer ] talk to your doctor about plavix.

you're watching a special "360" follow-up report, black or white, kids on race. through a pilot study we asked researchers to conduct we learned that overall both white and african-american kids display white bias. associating light skin with positive qualities and dark skin with negative qualities. even kids raised in biracial families or with parents with different race maze display white bias. this leaves many parents asking how can you detect warning signs your kid absorbed a biased view of race and how can you begin to correct that bias and when should you? soledad o'brien joins me again with angela burt marie and ashley merriman, co-author of "nurture shock." all the parents we revisit ready talking more to their kids about race. do you think their messages are effective? >> i think it is important to

talk overtly about race. and absolutely all of the parents who are increasing this conversation, i think they need to do all of it and more so. we don't want to wait for kids to develop a bias and then try to correct it. what we want to do is head them off at the pass. >> in your magazine, you deal with black women and beauty all the time. brielle thinks that dark skin looks nasty. how do you -- what do you tell her parents, trying to help her -- >> it is so heart breaking when you saw her reaction to her own complexion and i'm sure the parents are working really hard to try and reinforce positive images. but it is about continuing to do that, but also keeping the lines of communication open and making sure that everywhere she's going she's getting those positive messages. the magazines, the books, the shows that they watch on television, all of those things have to work together to reinforce the message, the positive message that their parents want to embark on this young girl. >> you can't control all the messages. >> you can't. but you can control the important ones.

at her age, brielle's dad said how he makes a more concerted effort to verbalize to both daughters, you're beautiful, you're the most wonderful person in the world. >> you want them to grow up with the idea that they should be looking for partners that affirm their beauty, and don't negate them in any way. >> they also felt that brielle was talking about something she was experiencing in school, which was that she thinks other people think black is nasty. she thinks teachers favor kids who are light skinned and they didn't want to squash that out of her. they didn't want to say, don't be ridiculous, honey, that's wrong. they wanted her to have her opinion. >> i don't disagree with anything you're saying. but april harris britt, a researcher out of north carolina, who is an african-american herself, has found that kids who hear constant messages of preparations for bias are looking for them. and they read bias in -- even in

ambiguous or neutral circumstances. we want her to understand and don't want her to be thrown by experiences of discrimination because as awful as they are, yeah, they're probably going to happen. but we don't want her to be so ready for them that she discounts her own ability to have an effect. >> i understand what you're saying about the research, but i do think that as african-american parents in particular, you have to proactively have these conversations with your children, particularly with your boys who are going to be in situations not only with educators, but with the police, and other situations where it can really turn into something really dangerous if your children are not equipped to handle it. i don't think that you should give your kids this kind of blanket, you know, you can dismiss anything that happens to you because somebody is just being racist. >> what i would also say is for any message of preparation of bias, you have at least one or maybe twice as many conversations about ethnic pride, ethnic history.

examples for especially the families, biracial kids, it is not just watch barack obama on television, it is look, barack obama has a biracial background, a white mom and black dad, and he worked really hard and you give them tools not just on how to react on incidents of discrimination, but how can they themselves go forward and build themselves their own identity? >> ashley, andrew's mom is talking to him about race. >> a lot of times think about your conversation, if it is in a picture book, you often would say, oh, look at the balloon, what color is the balloon? look at the boy's shirt, what color is the boy's shirt, and you describe everything about the color, and the height and the size, except for the fact that maybe that boy is brown. when you don't let the kid mention that, and you pretend to ignore it, at 1 or 2, we have this message, yes, you see it,

but it is so toxic, you can't even mention you would see it or acknowledge it and don't ask me what this means. >> i think you're right. i think you have to talk about it early and often. but you also have to think about what does your world look like. who do you worship with in your church? what does your community look like? what does your child's school look like? what does your child's play group look like? it doesn't help if you talk about it, but he or she doesn't have any actual interaction, any actual friends or he doesn't see you having any friends or close relationships with people who are different than them. that's what you have to talk about. that's the inclusion that you have to have in your life if you really want to raise a child who doesn't see race. >> great discussion. angela, thank you very much, soledad o'brien, ashley merryman, thank you very much. we'll follow the issue of race in america. thanks for watching "black aor

white: kids on race."

. tonight, the bp disaster, the oil is no longer flowing, but a new investigation uncovers allegations of a shocking crime, a supervisor hired to oversee beach cleanup operations is now accused of raping an employee. it turns out the supervisor was

already a convicted sex offender. somehow his criminal history was never looked into. no background check on him apparently was ever done. and he wasn't alone. how is it possible? we're keeping him honest tonight. also head, dr. laura apologized for saying the "n" word several times on her show, but some are calling for a boycott. we go in depth on race with new details on a pilot study we commissioned, a surprising finding of what kids, even young ones, think of race and skin color and how you as a parent can help shape your child's perception of it. the government point man to the disaster admiral thad allen said bp will go ahead with drilling the relief well. they're considering other options. he said some tests indicate the planned bottom kill procedure to seal the damaged well may not be necessary. meantime, a man, a contract worker who supervised oil cleanup workers in mississippi, is in jail tonight, charged with raping another employee. a cnn investigation tonight uncovers his criminal history and raises questions about whether this incident could have been prevented by doing a simple background check. special investigations union

correspondent abbie boudreau goes looking for answers and here is what she found. >> reporter: one of the thousands of cleanup workers who descended on the gulf coast was this man, rundy charles robertson. he was in charge of numerous workers on this now deserted mississippi beach. the problem was all these people who were coming to town were strangers and the residents here had no idea who they were or where they were coming from. and apparently they had good reason to be concerned. robertson was a convicted sex offender, and he was breaking the law by not telling local law enforcement where he was living. >> i don't understand how they can have a man like that as our supervisor. >> reporter: do you think what happened to you could have been prevented? >> yeah, i do. yes, i do. that's why it makes me a lot of times so angry. >> reporter: this woman came to this town because she was looking for work. she wanted to help clean up the beaches and she needed a job. she has four young children, and it was important for her to get hired right away and that's

exactly what happened. rundy robertson was her supervisor. and show told us time and time again, i trusted him because he was my boss. i respected him. he was the person who was put in charge of me. you just weren't feeling well that day. and he offered to drive you home. >> yeah. >> reporter: and you thought he was a nice enough person to make that offer, i guess. >> yeah. he's my boss. i thought it was all right. >> reporter: she says robertson asked to use her bathroom. and when he came out, she says he raped her. she's represented by attorney adam miller. >> i find it unbelievable because bp and their subcontractors had relationships with all local law enforcement. they had the opportunity and the ability to clearly check all of these people that they were hiring and bringing in to ensure the safety of the public. >> reporter: if anyone had checked robertson's background, they would have found a lengthy criminal history. and he was still on probation for a felony. instead, he was made a supervisor.

we're in pascagoula, mississippi, here to talk to the local sheriff. several weeks before this incident, sheriff mike byrd says he met with bp's local head of security, about why bp was not doing background checks on beach cleanup workers. >> i asked him directly, i said are you all doing criminal histories and background checks on these people? and his answer reply was no, we're not. i said, you're kidding me. he said, no, there is so many of them, we were told to do drug screens and that was it. and i said, well, that's not good at all. >> reporter: but you actually recommended that they get criminal background checks on their employees? >> yes, we did. and i told them that we would do that for them, we would do the background checks for them. and they said, no. >> reporter: robertson worked for a company called aerotek, that hired workers to remove oil from the beaches. want to come out and talk to us. >> i will come out and talk to

you, but give me a couple of minutes. >> reporter: so i'm not going to shut the door and never seen you again? >> i promise. >> reporter: okay, he promises. so we waited. but they only slipped us a note through the door referring us to the corporate headquarters. did you realize you were hiring people who were registered sex offenders? >> thank you, ma'am. >> reporter: this is when the blame game begins. first, we spoke with the general counsel for aerotek by phone who said aerotek wasn't the one that decided not to do background checks. "we're not liable for anything that happens. once we deliver the people to be supervised by our client, we don't have anything to do with them anymore." miller environmental group, which oversaw the cleanup and hired aerotek did not return our phone calls. then bp, which was paying for the beach cleanups, told us in a statement it normally checks its own employees, but "this was not done for all contractors in this response. the responsibility lies with the employing company for their own staff. the requirement on subcontractors to bp's

contractors is one further step beyond bp's scope of control." >> the buck ultimately stops with bp. it was their site. >> reporter: robertson was arrested and he was then charged with sexual battery and failure to register as a sex offender. he tells police that the sex was consensual, but now he's being held on more than a $500,000 bond and he's sitting in jail. >> yes, he's in jail. but you got a victim here. what is she going to live through the rest of her life? it is just going to be pure hell for her. that's what it's going to be. >> reporter: it could have been prevented. >> it could have been prevented, in my professional opinion. >> reporter: and you warned them? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: how does something like this just change everything for you? >> i go through anxiety, you know? i'm angry. i feel dirty.

scared. i'm scared. >> reporter: abbie boudreau, cnn, pascagoula, mississippi. >> we'll continue to follow that story. as you know, dr. laura has apologized for her repeated on-air use of the "n" word. this is what she said to a listener who called into her show on tuesday. the listener, an african-american woman named jade, asked dr. laura about the use of the "n" word. here is some of the exchange. >> black guys use it all the time. turn on hbo, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is [ bleep ], [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. i don't get it. if anybody without enough melanin says it is a horrible thing, but when black people say it, it is affectionate. it is very confusing. don't hang up. i want to talk to you some more. don't go away. yeah, i think you too much sensitivity -- >> so it's okay to say [ bleep ]. >> and not enough sense of humor. it depends how it is said. >> is it okay to say that word? is it ever okay to say that word? >> it depends how it is said. black guys talking to each other think it is okay. i'll say it again, [ bleep ], [ bleep ], [ bleep ] is what you hear on hb -- >> so what makes it -- >> why don't you let me finish

a sentence? >> okay. >> don't take things out of context. don't naacp me. >> in her apology, she said "i was trying to make a philosophical point and i articulated the "n" word all the way out and that was wrong. ahead on "360," in depth on the subject of race tonight. the pilot study we commissioned asking a team of seasoned researchers to interview more than 130 kids, half in the north, half in the south, african-american kids as well as white kids to see how they view skin color and what you're going to see is even very young kids have already formed ideas about what it means to be black or white. >> show me the smart child. >> show me the mean child. >> can you show me the dumb child? >> show me the nice child.

also tonight, the flooding in pakistan. houses torn from their foundations, people struggling to stay alive. more than 1,300 have been killed. hundreds of thousands have been affected. now more rain and what is being called a second wave of flooding expected this weekend. we'll talk to our people on the ground coming up. ve been there s through good times and bad, when our clients' needs changed we changed to meet them. through the years, when some lost their way, we led the way with new ideas for the financial challenges we knew would lie ahead. this rock has never stood still. and there's one thing that will never change. we are, the rock you can rely on. prudential.

it has been 50 years since the civil rights act was passed and almost two years since americans elected their first black president. a lot of people throw around the term post racial, but do we really live in a post racial society? that's what we wanted to know. children seemed the best place to start. >> there are lots of different

colors for skin. >> i have questions for you about these pictures of different children. >> after i read the question, i want you to point to the picture that fits the story. >> reporter: are children color blind in america? >> show me the smart child. >> show me the mean child. >> can you show me the dumb child? >> show me the nice child. >> reporter: is bias measurable even at an early age? >> why is she the bad child? >> because she's black. >> why is he the ugly child? >> because he looks like he's white. >> why is she the dumb child? >> because she has dark brown skin. >> why is she the bad child? >> because she makes fun of everybody else's skin color. >> reporter: how much do kids learn from what they see and hear from adults? >> show me the child who has the skin color most adults like. >> and show me the child who has

the skin color that most adults don't like. >> reporter: these are questions that we along with cnn's soledad o'brien and a team of psychologists hired by cnn spent months investigating through tests, interviews with children, and their parents. but they are questions that have been asked for decades. the first study ignited controversy in the 1940s when kenneth and mamie clark pioneered studies in the effects of segregation in schools by asking african-american kids to choose between black and white dolls. the so-called doll test found black kids overwhelmingly preferred white over black. those results were the center of the landmark 1954 supreme court case brown vs. the board of education that desegregated american schools. now with a first african-american president and nearly 60 years after segregation was overturned, we wondered where are we today? how do kids see differences in race. what we discovered might shock you. first, how we got there. >> skin color, child's skin

color estimate. >> okay, yeah. >> reporter: we asked renowned child psychologist and university of chicago researcher dr. margaret beale spencer to design a pilot study for cnn and analyze the results. >> our children are always near us, you know, because we're a society, and what we put out there, kids report back. and you ask the question, they'll give you the answer. >> reporter: spencer's team tested more than 130 kids in eight schools with very different racial and economic demographics. half of the schools were in the north, half in the south. >> oh! nicely done. >> reporter: the country's much more diverse today than in the 1940s, the children in this project are from two age groups and two races, white and black. to better allow comparison to the original doll study. 4 and 5-year-old children were asked a series of questions about these images. 9 and 10-year-olds were asked questions about the same images

and this color bar chart. the tests led us to three major findings. first, white children as a whole responded with a high rate of what researchers call white bias, identifying the color of their own skin with positive attributes and darker skin with negative attributes. >> show me the dumb child. >> dumb child? >> okay. why is she the dumb child? >> because she has black skin. >> show me the mean child. why is he the mean child? >> because he's brown. >> show me the bad child. why is he the bad child? >> because he's black. >> okay. show me the ugly child. why is he the ugly child? >> because he's brown -- black. >> show me the child who has the skin color most adults like. and show me the child who has the skin color most adults don't like. show me the child who has the skin color most children like. show me the child who has the

skin color most children don't like. show me the child who has the skin color most girls want. show me the child who has the skin color most girls don't want. >> reporter: the questions that got overwhelmingly white biased answers -- >> show me the dumb child. >> reporter: about 76% of the younger white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. >> show me the mean child. >> reporter: about 66% of the younger white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. >> show me the child who has the skin color most children don't like. >> reporter: again, about 66% of the younger white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. >> show me the bad child. >> reporter: more than 59% of the older white children pointed to the two darkest skin tones. but some white children did have more race neutral responses.

>> so could you show me the good looking child? so what are you thinking? you pointed to them all. tell me what you're thinking. >> i'm thinking that i do not care if they are black, white, mixed or any kind of race. i think that it matters who they really are. >> that's how white kids responded to the test. when we come back, we'll show you how african-american children answered the exact same questions. and later we'll check in with andrew who took part in the test, whose mother was deeply upset with his answers. she called it a wake-up call. we'll show you changes she made at home to actually talk more about race. junior, run the numbers! price on a flight to maui. >> on it, dad. >> nobody move!! >> hrmmm? ♪ priceline negotiator >> i'm calling a family meeting. >> there's no time... we're searching hundreds of sites for the cheapest flight. >> what you're doing is setting a bad example for the kids. on priceline, you can shop all these flights, and get the best price guaranteed.

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before the break, we showed you how white kids responded to a test designed to measure how they view race. they showed a high rate of what researchers call white bias.

as you're about to see, the responses of african-american kids in the pilot study were just as revealing. >> ready, set, go. >> reporter: our second major finding, even black children as a whole have some bias toward whiteness. but far less than white children. >> show me the smart child. and why is she the smart child? >> because she is white. >> okay. show me the dumb child. and why is she the dumb child? >> because she's black. >> show me the ugly child. and why is she the ugly child? >> because she's black. >> show me the good-looking child. and why is she the good-looking child? >> because she's light skinned. >> and show me the skin color you believe most teachers think looks bad on a girl. >> i don't think it matters. i think each teacher wants to

help a student learn either way what they look like and it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it just matters what you look like on the inside. >> show me the good-looking child. >> they look the same. >> yeah? show me the child you would like as a classmate. >> all of them. >> you like all of them as classmates? >> mm-hmm. >> why do you say all of them? >> because i don't really care what color they have. >> reporter: this 5-year-old girl gave provocative answers during her test. i asked her about them later. why do you want that skin color? >> because it looks lighter than this kind because this looks a lot like that one. >> reporter: mm-hmm. and -- >> and i just don't like the way brown looks because the way

brown looks looks really nasty for some reason, but i don't know what reason. that's all. >> reporter: so you think it looks nasty? >> well, not really. but sometimes. >> reporter: sometimes. and what color adults don't like? do you remember what you said? this one? that's right. that's the one you said. why do you think adults don't like that color? >> dark. >> reporter: dark. and adults you think adults don't like dark? >> well, maybe some adults do, but maybe some of them don't. >> reporter: hmm. the questions that got overwhelmingly white-biased answers -- >> show me the one you think most children would think looks bad on a boy. >> reporter: more than 70% of the older black children chose the darkest skin tones. >> show me a child that has a skin color that most children don't like. >> reporter: more than 61% of the younger black children chose the two darkest shades.

>> she me t >> show me the ugly child. >> reporter: more than 57% of the younger black kids chose the two darkest shades. >> that one. >> reporter: dr. spencer says the research shows the bias toward white is still very much part of our culture. >> all kids are exposed to these stereotypes. what is significant here is that white children are learning or maintaining the stereotypes much more strongly than the african-american children. >> reporter: that is our third finding. the finding that interested dr. spencer the most. that overall younger and older children keep the same patterns, stereotyping. in other words, their ideas change little from age 5 to 10. >> ordinarily, by the time children are older, there is sort of a natural filter, you know, their own ways of thinking, so that it aids them in sort of rethinking the extreme stereotypic sort of responses to become less highly biased. >> reporter: that left professor spencer wondering what is causing this pattern. she speculates that kids are bombarded by stereotypical

messages and adults in kids' lives have to fight to override the deluge. black parents may be more diligent about that, while white parents may not notice the need. >> the messages are the same for all children, and therefore the task is the same for all parents, parents have to reframe what children experience. >> reporter: we realize these findings may be disturbing and that some people will question this project's conclusions. what stereotypical messages are being sent in a country that elected a black president? >> i, barack hussein obama. >> reporter: like all research projects, ours is not perfect. some kids were told ahead of time they would be told about race, some children identify one race, but came from biracial families, like this boy whose mother is white. but professor spencer tells us these are common answers in research. and the answers can still be trusted because of the sample size. to be clear this is a scientifically informed and executed pilot study. which suggests the need for

further research, the results point to major trends, but are not the definitive word on children and race. still, they underline what dr. spencer sees as an alarming conclusion. >> we are still living in a society where dark things or devalued and light things are valued. >> reporter: the question we're left with is where do we go from here? still ahead, we visit with andrew, a 5-year-old whose answers to the test stunned and upset his mom and she says led to some big changes at home. >> you've got to talk about it. it will be uncomfortable for people. but that's where the real learning takes place. in the discomfort of it all. >> and later, an update on brielle whose parents were upset about her answers to the test and what they revealed about her self-image. her family made some changes too.

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if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, stop taking cialis and call your doctor right away. 36-hour cialis or cialis for daily use. ask your doctor if cialis is right for you. for a 30-tablet free trial offer, go to cialis.com. we'll have more on kids and race in a moment. first, a "360" news and business bulletin. president obama spoke out tonight over the controversy of the proposed islamic center and mosque near ground zero. he hosted an iftar dinner, the traditional breaking of the bread fast in the holy month of ramadan. list listen. >> i believe that muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. and that includes -- that includes the right to build a place of worship in a community center on private property in lower manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances. this is america.

and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. and it turns out there is surveillance video after all of flight attendant steven slater's infamous exit from a jetblue plane. you can see the chute deploy and slater slide down. slater is facing criminal charges for his meltdown on monday's flight. back to school shopping pushed up retail sales .4% last month, the first increase in two months, still below expectations. and more floodwaters are expected to hit surround pakistan this weekend where many residents are ignoring warnings to evacuate. reza sayah has more from islamabad. >> this is pakistan's katrina, the worst natural disaster this country has ever seen and one of the worst disasters anywhere in recent memory. the scope of these floods is astonishing. the u.n. says one fifth of pakistan is under water. to put that in perspective, that's the entire state of florida.

these floods hit when pakistan's notorious monsoon rains started coming down a couple of weeks ago and for a 48-hour period they didn't stop. over the past couple of weeks, parts of pakistan have received as much rain as they received in an entire year. and the results have been catastrophic. entire villages under water, more than 1,300 people killed, 15 million people impacted, many left homeless without food or clean water. anderson? >> if you want to see how you can help the organizations working in pakistan, go to cnn.com/impact. reza will continue to report from pakistan next week. we'll be right back with more on how kids see race and what you as parents can do to help shape their perceptions. my subaru saved my life.

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the tests on racial bias we asked researchers to conduct months ago show that white kids had high rates of white bias. we sat with some of their

parents as they watched their kids' answers on videotape. it was upsetting for many of them, including one mom named laura. in may, she called her young son's answers shocking, evidence she needed to do a better job at talking to him about race and color. we caught up with laura and andrew recently to see what changed for them. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: this is how we first met 5-year-old andrew. >> show me the dumb child. why is he the dumb child? >> because he's really black. >> show me the nice child. why is he the nice child? >> because he's the lightest. >> show me the bad child. why is he the bad child? >> because he's really dark. >> show me the ugly child. why is he the ugly child? >> because he's -- he's dark. >> show me the good-looking child. why is he the good-looking child? >> because he's the lightest. >> reporter: andrew overwhelmingly identified his

own skin with positive attributes and black skin with negative attributes, a high rate of what researchers call white bias. >> show me the child -- >> reporter: his mother laura was shocked when we showed her his answers. she was part of a panel of parents whose kids participated in the test. i saw you shaking your head. >> it is disappointing. i should be disappointed. i mean, it makes me think i need to be doing a better job at home. i need to teach him, you know, it is really upsetting. i spent 15 years as a teacher trying to teach first graders about all different societies and cultures and races and here is my own child, his finger went so quick to the white side, it is fascinating. i just, you know, we have to do more, talk about it more openly, definitely. andrew, want me to spin you around? >> reporter: we met up with laura and andrew today. >> hold on tight. >> reporter: she said seeing her son's answers was a wake-up

call. she realized his ideas on race are already being formed. >> i want to demystify the stereotypes. they create them so young. to me it was eye opening. i'm like, wow, if he's not talking about it already, it is already going on in his head. >> reporter: like an estimated 75% white families, laura never got specific about race. the doll test changed that. >> i've never said, black people are bad, but i've never said black skin is okay. black skin is great. i've always said it is okay to be different, but i need to be more open and up-front about it. and attack it head on. >> reporter: attacking it head on for laura means instead of glossing over racial differences, today she looks for reasons to point them out and celebrate them. both with andrew and her 3-year-old eleanor. what color is her skin, eleanor? >> black. >> is it okay to be black? >> yes. yes, she's beautiful. >> reporter: before the doll test, laura thought age 5 was too young to talk about race. now she feels age 3, she's already missed opportunities with her daughter who is showing signs that worry her. >> i was like, look, eleanor,

these three women are black and they're doing ballet and she's like, no, just this one. already at 3. she already has preconceived notions already. just as simple as pointing it out, i think, is a good start. for sure. here it comes. >> reporter: while a tough thing to go through, she said her involvement in the doll test started conversations on race with family, friends, even colleagues. >> you've got to talk about it. it will be uncomfortable for people. but that's where the real learning takes place. in the discomfort of it all. >> reporter: and she'll continue to fight all stereotypes -- >> i could even be president. do you want to be president one day, eleanor? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> reporter: -- one conversation at a time. when we come back, we'll revisit another family who is making changes in the way they talk about race. i first talked to 5-year-old brielle after she took her doll test. here is what she told me about dark skin. what color adults don't like? do you remember what you said? which one? that's right. that's the one you said.

why do you think adults don't like that color? >> dark. >> brielle's answers surprised her parents. we'll catch up with them just ahead. later, marcus' story. you think growing up in a biracial family would protect a child from white bias, well, think again. "black or white, kids on race" continues after the break. the hundred thousand mile powertrain warranty caught my attention. it's the chevrolet summer event, which means the only thing left to decide is who drives it home. me! her. me! qualified lessees now get a low mileage lease on this malibu ls, a consumers digest best buy, for around $199 a month. call for details. the switch begins at chevydealer.com.

our pilot study into kids and race found that african-american kids have a substantial amount of what researchers call white bias. though not as much as white kids. take a look at what 5-year-old brielle told me when i told her to show me which color of skin she would like to have. how about you? why do you want that skin color? >> because it looks lighter than this kind, because this looks a lot like that one. >> reporter: mm-hmm. and -- >> and i just don't like the way

brown looks, because the way brown looks looks really nasty for some reason, but i don't know what reason. that's all. >> that's part of my conversation with brielle after she had taken the test and those answers that she gave me matched what she said on the test. they're painful to watch. imagine how her parents felt, for them, like laura who you saw earlier, the test was a wake-up call. soledad o'brien caught up with brielle and her parents recently. >> reporter: this is brielle today. her parents, byron and latisha, focused on changing her self-perception, shocked at brielle's answers. >> it made me feel like, wow, what are we doing wrong? but we thought about some of the experiences that she has had, where she has noticed her skin color at an early age and we thought that it was affecting her a certain way, but we didn't realize that she realized it. >> her perception was that a

lot of times the golden hair or the lighter skin kids got to be on line first for whatever or there was one incident in the way that they cast even the christmas play. >> light skinned kids were the stars. >> right. but the part that she got was the one that nobody would have possibly wanted. >> what did she play? >> a donkey. could have been a sheep, could have been any other barn animal, you know, she ended up being the donkey. >> she knew at age 3 that that was not the animal to be. >> sure. and messages similar to those, i think at 3 years old, those are things that you actually do remember, i believe, in the subconscious. ♪ >> reporter: for brielle's parents, counteracting those messages for her and her sister brianna is now more than ever a priority. >> most beautiful girls in the world as far as i'm concerned

and they need to know that and i need for them to know that. good job. i've tried to find ways to link that physical beauty, you know, skin tone, your pretty hair, your pretty eyes, whatever it is, to the beauty -- i'm not speaking of beauty that is just because of what's inside, you're beautiful on the outside as well. >> reporter: brielle's answers got a strong reaction from family, friends and parishioners at church. did someone say, what are you teaching this child? >> no. they were shocked at her answer, but it wasn't, like, a negative thing. a lot of people who spoke to me, they took up for her. they said, well what do you expect? look at society. when you get married, what do you wear? you wear white. when the bad guys go to rob a bank or a store, what does he put on? he puts on black. so what are the messages? >> reporter: beyond looking at what their daughters see and hear from the world, byron and latisha are looking inward.

what advice would you give other parents who say i don't know what to say to my kid? >> honestly, i would say the first level is within. it is hard to have a conversation about acceptance or even about having healthy pride in your own race when there are some really very real predispositions within one's self. if i'm uncomfortable around white people, it is going to be hard for me to show my daughter to be comfortable. so make sure that we're doing all we can to adjust our own mindsets into one that really sees the equality of people. and not just in speech, in reality. >> it is interesting how brielle's parents deal with her. they're not trying to talk her out of her feelings, her beliefs. >> absolutely. i think a lot of parents would do that.

i think maybe i would even do that. but they have a very interesting parenting strategy. and they're together in this, which is they believe what this little girl is feeling is as valid as anything else. they're going to be good role models for other things, but not say you shouldn't believe this, you shouldn't believe that, don't worry about skin tone, talk her out of it. they say hey, we think she's nailing it, there are disparities in how people are treated and she's so little, we're going to try to make her love who she is and not talk her out of how she's feeling. >> it is interesting how they have made changes in the way they talk about race after their 5-year-olds took the test measuring racial bias. both kids showed white bias. their parents were stunned. but they weren't the only ones. >> absolutely not. we want to introduce you to marcus and his mom mollie. his test, she said to us, just broke her heart. take a look. >> hi, marcus. >> reporter: we first met 6-year-old marcus when testing children in the south. his school identified him as african-american. >> show me the dumb child.

why is that the dumb child? >> because he's really dark brown. >> show me the nice child. and why is that the nice child? >> because he's white. >> show me the mean child. and why is that the mean child? >> because he's light brown. >> his answers showed the highest rate of white bias we had seen so far from any black child in the survey. >> show me the child that has your skin color. okay. show me the child who has the skin color you want as your own. >> reporter: this is marcus' mom, mollie, she's white. marcus' father is black. she was part of the panel invited to view the children's tests. and she was stunned. >> i'm kind of speechless of how he responded to that.

>> is it upsetting for you to see that? >> it is hard to watch. after this, when they did the taping, he looked at me and he said, i wish i was -- i know i can't be, but i wish i was white. and it just -- i don't understand. >> reporter: mollie says this experience has changed the kind of parent she is to both marcus and his brother malik. >> majority of my friends are black. so i just assumed that my kids, you know, saw that like me. i don't assume anymore that my kids see things through my eyes. i always thought if you lived the life that they would follow, but you do have to communicate, you do have to talk about it. >> reporter: mollie has a unique challenge. marcus has been attending a predominantly white school and his father, divorced from mollie, lives three states away. we asked him why in his test he

said he wanted his skin to be light. >> because that's my favorite color, white. >> that's what he told me. i think there is more behind that. but that is so far what he has told me and every time i ask him, it is the same answer. >> everyone in my school are white. have different eyes. eye color. >> reporter: mollie says marcus' doll test has started broader conversations on race with 14-year-old malik. he admitted he went through a phase where he thought it would be easier to be white. >> at my middle school, i would be called a cracker or the "n" word and that got on my nerves too. and it kind of sucked. >> reporter: mollie says while she experienced prejudice because of her biracial kids, she can only teach them so much. >> i have never been called a name because of the color of my skin.

i hope that's what his father can teach him and to give him that feeling of you're -- you

the answer. so when is the best time to start talking to kids about race? we'll get answers from experts ahead.

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you're watching a special "360" follow-up report, black or white, kids on race. through a pilot study we asked researchers to conduct we learned that overall both white and african-american kids display white bias. associating light skin with positive qualities and dark skin with negative qualities. even kids raised in biracial

families or with parents with different races may display white bias. this leaves many parents asking how can you detect warning signs your kid absorbed a biased view of race and how can you begin to correct that bias and when should you? soledad o'brien joins me again with angela burt marie and ashley merryman, co-author of "nurture shock." all the parents we revisited are talking more to their kids about race. do you think their messages are effective? >> i think it is important to talk overtly about race. and absolutely all of the parents who are increasing this conversation, i think they need to do all of it and more so. we don't want to wait for kids to develop a bias and then try to correct it. what we want to do is head them off at the pass. >> in your magazine, you deal with black women and beauty all the time. brielle, this beautiful little

girl, thinks that dark skin looks nasty. how do you -- what do you tell her parents, trying to help her -- >> it is so heart breaking when you saw her reaction to her own complexion and i'm sure the parents are working really hard to try and reinforce positive images. but it is about continuing to do that, but also keeping the lines of communication open and making sure that everywhere she's going she's getting those positive messages. the magazines, the books, the shows that they watch on television, all of those things have to work together to reinforce the message, the positive message that their parents want to embark on this young girl. >> you can't control all the messages. >> you can't. but you can control the important ones. at her age, brielle's dad said how he makes a more concerted effort to verbalize to both daughters, you're beautiful, your the most special, wonderful thing in the world with your sister. >> you want them to grow up with the idea that they should be looking for partners that affirm their beauty, and don't negate them in any way. >> they also felt that brielle

was talking about something she was experiencing in school, which was that she thinks other people think black is nasty. she thinks teachers favor kids who are light skinned and they didn't want to squash that out of her. they didn't want to say, don't be ridiculous, honey, that's wrong. they wanted her to have her opinion. >> i don't disagree with anything you're saying. but april harris britt, a researcher out of north carolina, who is an african-american herself, has found that kids who hear constant messages of preparations for bias are looking for them. and they read bias in -- even in ambiguous or neutral circumstances. we want her to understand and don't want her to be thrown by experiences of discrimination because as awful as they are, yeah, they're probably going to happen. but we don't want her to be so ready for them that she discounts her own ability to have an effect. >> i understand what you're saying about the research, but i do think that as african-american parents in particular, you have to proactively have these

conversations with your children, particularly with your boys who are going to be in situations not only with educators, but with the police, and other situations where it can really turn into something really dangerous if your children are not equipped to handle it. i don't think that you should give your kids this kind of blanket, you know, you can dismiss anything that happens to you because somebody is just being racist. >> what i would also say is for any message of preparation of bias, you have at least one or maybe twice as many conversations about ethnic pride, ethnic history. examples for especially the families, biracial kids, it is not just watch barack obama on television, it is look, barack obama has a biracial background, a white mom and black dad, and he worked really hard and you give them tools not just on how to react on incidents of discrimination, but how can they themselves go forward and build themselves their own identity? >> ashley, andrew's mom is talking to her 3-year-old about

race and wishing she had started earlier. >> a lot of times think about your conversation, if it is in a picture book, you often would say, oh, look at the balloon, what color is the balloon? look at the boy's shirt, what color is the boy's shirt, and you describe everything about the color, and the height and the size, except for the fact that maybe that boy is brown. when you don't let the kid mention that, and you pretend to ignore it, at 1 or 2, we have this message, yes, you see it, but it is so toxic, you can't even mention you would see it or acknowledge it and don't ask me what this means. >> i think you're right. you have to talk about it early and you have to talk about it often. but you also have to think about what does your world look like. who do you worship with in your church? what does your community look like? what does your child's school look like? what does your child's play group look like? it doesn't help if you talk about it, but he or she doesn't have any actual interaction, any