Discrimination : Social And Economic Consequences On Ethnic Minorities

Racism imposes additional health issues on people of color because it is an unnecessary stressor in their every day lives. “African Americans die earlier and have higher rates than whites of many chronic diseases across the social gradient” (Unnatural Causes, 2008). Increased cortisol levels, which are caused by stress have been linked to high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and other health problems.

When compared to European Americans, minorities are at a higher risk to experience emotional and physical stress. According to a census, “The death rate for African Americans was generally higher than whites for heart diseases, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and homicide” (Office of Minority Health). This census brings into light how African Americans are disproportionately impacted by such growing health concerns as compared to European whites. Based on a study performed by Kathleen Anderson discussed in the article, she found that racism causes greater stress in minorities leading to poorer mental and physical health (Silverstein). “Anderson found that 18.2 percent of black participants experienced emotional stress and 9.8 percent experienced physical stress. Comparatively, only 3.5 and 1.6 percent of whites experienced emotional and physical stress, respectively” (Silverstein). Even though European-American also have a sense of fear built in towards law enforcers, but it is nothing nearly comparable to the amount of fear that exists in minorities.

There is a positive association between racial discrimination and blood pressure that shows in African Americans who have had experiences of racial discrimination and unfair treatment. In the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study (1996), Krieger and Sidney studied self-reported experiences of unfair treatment and racism from 4,086 black and white men and women ages 25 to 37 years old. Krieger and Sidney found out that working class blacks reported experiencing two or more discrimination cases when getting a job or looking for housing. Their blood pressures were 7 mmHg higher than working class whites (Arriola, 2002; Barksdale, Farrug, & Harkness, 2009). This showed that working class blacks also had higher blood pressure than professional blacks (Leary, 1996). The professional black males who experienced one or two discrimination situations had higher rates of hypertension than those professional white males. In addition, the blood pressure of professional black females who had two or more experiences of racial discrimination was higher than professional white females. These findings show that there’s a relationship between discriminatory experiences and hypertension (Krieger & Sidney, 1996)(Barksdale et al., 2009). More experiences of racial discrimination, result in blood pressure that is high.

Minority health disparities continue to be a pervasive problem within the United States.The Institute of Medicine defines disparity as, “differences in treatment provided to members of different racial or ethnic groups that are not justified by underlying health conditions or preferences” (Snowden 526). Despite adjustments made to access-related factors, insurance and income, minorities still tend receive lower-quality health care than whites (Flores, Olsen and Tomany-Korman 183). According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Relatively little progress has been made toward the goal of eliminating racial/ethnic disparities” (Gronman and Ginsburg 226). In this paper, I will describe the different health disparities that racial, ethnic and sexual minorities experience throughout their lives. I will then discuss the policies health care providers and government entities have put in place in order to eliminate the disparities between minorities and whites.

The physical and mental ramifications of racial discrimination have been the subjects of scholarly inquiry. Health disparities between different racial groups have been well established in the literature (Williams, 2003). Specifically, scholars have examined the disparate death rates between African Americans and White Americans (Kung, Hoyert, Xu & Murphy, 2008), racial differences in blood pressure (Williams & Neighbors, 2001), and racial differences in cardiovascular disease (Wyatt et al., 2003). Furthermore, researchers have investigated the role of everyday discrimination on self-rated physical health among Latina/os (Molina, Alegria, & Mahalingam, 2013). To address the issue, the authors examined data collected from the National Latina/o

Discrimination of any form impacts many Indigenous people and can carry with it lifelong issues. Stress and self-diminishing emotional reactions are major factors caused by discrimination and can have unfavourable impacts on one’s physical and mental health and wellbeing. One’s animosity and humiliation can provoke a range of biological responses in the body causing cardiovascular diseases, heightened blood pressure and disrupted neurological processes that can affect immune functions in the body (Larson, A., Gillies, M., Howard, P. J., Coffin, J. 2007)

According to numerous studies, the disparities that exist among minorities not only affect individual lives but impact society as well. In other words, bad health care for socioeconomically challenged minorities ensues poorer health for civilization. Notably, understanding minorities and the way their status affects the health care they receive results in enhanced health for society as a whole.

According to Franklin et al., (2006) Race-related stress is an outcome of perceived that can cause emotional abuse and psychological trauma. The stress, emotional abuse, and

Some people have the option to have a great health care system and reinsure that their well being is being greatly taken care of. However, this is not the case for others. African Americans are proved to have the worst health outcomes (Golash-Boza, 2015). Throughout history, African Americans have always been discriminated based on skin color. Because of this disadvantage African Americans are more prone to stress, leading to negative health outcomes (Golash-Boza, 2015). Discrimination can lead to stress, stress leads to stressful conditions such as poverty, crime, or poor housing. These stressful conditions can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as illegal crime, smoking, or substance use (Golash-Boza,2015). Due to the stressful resources African Americans are dealing with they can deal with these situations by eating unhealthy foods, therefore, causing a negative health outcome. Racism and health are indeed correlated with one another. As stated by Golash-Boza in Race and Racisms, “racial discrimination continues to be prevalent in our society and leads to negative health outcomes for people of color”. Overall racism can affect health in many ways. Those who live in poor neighborhoods, racial bias in medical care, the stress of experience of discrimination, and the social brand of inferiority can have consequences for health (Williams, 1999). Race can be a big factor in the type

History shows how minorities within America have been marginalized. Minorities have endured many forms of social injustices. Racial profiling and stereotyping are just two forms in which minorities have been facing for years. In today’s world, these injustices still remain an issue and arguably have become worst. These are issues that have left minorities feeling as though they are belittled and not treated as fairly as the majority in our society. This leaves lasting impacts, not only emotionally, but mentally and psychologically as well.

Race has a great impact on the health of a population because it affects the perception of a potential patient. Minority groups face harsh stigmas that dehumanize the quality of their life. Movements such as Black Lives Matter seems to be the 21st century solution to systematic oppression that has been with the United States since the creation of this country. However, this has placed a great barrier for African Americans, Hispanic/Latino and many other underrepresented minorities that is now irreversible. This barrier is detrimental to the physical and mental state/health of minority individuals. Those who do not have to worry about social issues such as police brutality and whether their safety will be compromised because of the pigmentation

“In a recent review focusing on African and Asian-American adults, greater self-reported racial discrimination was associated with increased risk of mental health problems in 37 of 40 studies.”

The most common forms of discrimination are racial remarks, slurs, being called insulting names and being the butt of hurtful jokes. Studies have found that discrimination, racism and harassment may have significant mental and physical health consequences such as frustration, stress, anxiety, depression, possible nervous breakdown, or high blood pressure that can cause heart attacks. Effects of discrimination physically and

movement. The dual legacies of discrimination against ethnic minorities and the country’s uneven economic development have created strong support in non-Persian areas for political reform. During recent presidential elections, the non-Persian electorate tilted heavily toward the reformist wing. Support for democratic political change among Iran’s ethnic minorities is likely to persist so long as the country’s periphery remains an economic backwater. Although the Iranian economy has been growing, the symptoms of underdevelopment remain acute in Iran’s ethnic enclaves. Discrimination, compounded by poor economic conditions, could motivate ethnic groups to challenge the Iranian government in the future. A combination of state-sponsored suppression of Azeri sentiment (during the Pahlavi rule) and a massive integration movement toward the Iranian mainstream (under the Islamic regime) has prevented the rise of ethnic nationalism in the northwest. As a result, there has been the crystallization of an overarching sense of Iranian nationalism, which has been skillfully manipulated and intertwined with allegiance to the tenets of Shi‘i Islam, which makes a universal devotion to Iranian national identity possible.

Discrimination against members of certain social groups deteriorates social welfare. Despite such undesirable consequences, numerous papers have shown that discrimination exist in the hiring processes (e.g., Bertrand and Mullanthain, 2004; Bush, Dahl and Dittrich, 2009). Such findings imply that employers make biased hiring decisions, and do not always maximise their companies’ productivity. In addition, the discriminated social members are discouraged to improve their productivity, which further increases the social deadweight loss.