http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luve-lex9nQ
Sparkling Wiggles sounds like a harmless thing for a child to say, but what does it sound like she is saying? The child has no idea what she is saying, but the parents definately do. While it may be cute to listen to the mistakes that children make in their language, how far is too far? The parents know what is being said, and is having her say it in more "humorous" ways.
The parents think they aren't causing much of a problem, but how would the child feel if she knew the extent to what she was saying? When she sees the video when she's older will she be angry that her parents let her say these things? If the chlid was out in public and was saying what she thought was "sparkling wiggles", but an African American heard, do you think something would be said?
This video has nothing to do with what the child is trying to say. The video has to do with what the child is actually saying and the fact that the parents are willing to post such a 'funny' thing on youtube for everyone to see. But why is it funny? Are we laughing at the little girl's inability to say sparkling wiggles correctly? Or are we laughing because the girl is innocently repeatedly saying an extremely pejorative word, putting it in to whatever context her parents wish her to in order to fit 'sparkling wiggles' in its place.
An example such as this reminds me of the Justification Suppression Model of prejudice (Crandall & Eshelman, 2004). In this model, social norms that discourage overt prejudice force individuals to suppress many emotions they might feel are socially undesirable or might get them into trouble. Suppression can be supported by any number of things including values, audiences, empathetic thinking, politics, etc. However, suppression, according to this model, takes a lot of mental resources and energy for some people, and can lead tension or anxiety in some circumstances. Justification of prejudice is the counterpoint of suppression. These are little things people can do to kind of release the suppressed emotions in a more socially desirable or justified way. Justification can come in the form symbolic values of individualism and work ethic, attributions responsibility, situational ambiguity, system justification etc. Humor fits in here as well in some cases, especially in this case.
It's very easy to say that it was cute, and there was nothing wrong with it because it was just a innocent child and she didn't know what she was saying. The parents new what she was saying, and they encouraged it. There might have been some excitement or arousal from getting away with having their kid say something so taboo. This may or may not be indicative of their actual feelings on the subject of race...we'll never know. But I must ask, if this was an innocent joke, why did the mother/woman voice in the video choose "Get a job" as her suggestion to the child? Is it possible that she was taking advantage of a justifiable opportunity?
Finally, on youtube videos I sometimes drift down to the comments to see what other viewers have to say. But, before I am drawn in by a disconcerting comment I always think of this and then I'm no longer tempted to respond (copy and paste)...http://xkcd.com/481/