Researchers have found that Asian-Canadian and French-Canadian children seemed to prefer interacting with kids of the same ethnic background

At mixed-race daycare centers throughout Montreal, researchers took Asian-Canadian children and French Canadian children, ranging in age from three to five years old, and paired them up in rooms with toys such as a marble track or a Sesame Street-themed playhouse. When put in with members of the same race, children happily played together. When mixed with different races, however, the children usually opted to play alone. Preschoolers express a preference for same-ethnic interactions, according to the study. The revelation is nothing new. For more than 60 years, psychologists have been finding evidence of barely-toilet-trained children exhibiting prejudicial tendencies. In the late 1940s, American psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark tried to gauge the inherent prejudices of children by showing them black and white dolls and asking which was better. Whether the child was white or black, the child indicated a clear-cut preference for white. In subsequent American studies, researchers have found that black and white children start self-segregating as a early as kindergarten.