Minority Groups And Discrimination In The United States

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (Kassandra, A., 2015), the issue of health disparities have impacted many people’s lives in the community where the minority groups do not have equal access to the quality health care. These

In the United States minorities are denied equal opportunities based on race and ethnicity in work, housing, and education this should change. They 're labeled and stereotyped based on preconceived notions hurting their image in society we need to start educating the public on how these assumptions are untrue. This treatment violates their constitutional rights by denying their equality highlighting this country 's failure to uphold its promise for a better life. Their race, sex, and ethnicity are still obstacles despite claims, but nothing has been done to improve the lives and treatment of minorities. The term "Race" is a social construct used to categorize groups of people in countries it’s what you claim in important documents like Black, White, or Hispanic. However, this system is the cause of many social issues segregation, injustice, and racism being the most common instances have caused division within the United States. A change needs to happen, but the populace affected by these issues need to take a stand and work to insight change in the country.

Through the weekly courses, lectures and readings, I have learnt a lot about racial and ethnic disparities, racism amongst minorities (Hispanics, African American-Black, Asians, Latinos). America is a nation of immigrants and their health and healthcare consists of multi-ethnic immigrant stories. I want to share some thoughts on racial and ethnic health disparities, on why I think that America is still a racist nation and racism is so insidious and pervasive. Health disparity is defined as a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater obstacles to health based on their racial

Health disparities endure tenacious issues in the United States of America, setting certain groups at higher risk of being uninsured, limited access to care, facing a poorer quality of care, and overall negative health outcomes. The high incidence of health disparities reflects the range of individual, social, economic, racial/ethnic and environmental magnitudes. Among the minority groups, African-Americans disproportionately access health care and the health disparities clearly glow in the nationwide.

America has always been labeled the “melting pot” and the “land of the free,” but when one is analyzing the history and social norms of the country, these statements are far from true. America has thrived through the oppression of minority groups and social pressure towards these groups to conform to the majority culture. In any historical sense, from the near extermination of Native Americans to the racial profiling of Muslim individuals after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, minority groups have always been the victims and have always been viewed as different if they do not assimilate into the “typical” American culture. Numerous works of literature have successfully displayed the struggles that minorities face when attempting to conform. Two works in particular, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman and When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, tell stories of two different minority groups: Native Americans living in the 21st century and Japanese-Americans during World War II. While these stories are separated by several decades, it is clear that American culture has not changed, as each story exemplifies how difficult it truly is to leave old cultural norms behind in order to be accepted by the majority.

Health disparities amongst African-Americans continue to destabilize not just the various communities but the health care system as a whole. Minority groups especially African-Americans are more probable to agonize from certain health illnesses, have higher mortality rates and lower life expectancy than another other race in the nation. Health disparities are complex and incorporate lifestyle choices, socioeconomic factors such as income, education and employment and access to care services. For the elimination of health disparities within the African-American community, there requires a need for equivalent access to health care and cultural suitable health ingenuities.

Disparities in health and health care in the United States have been a longstanding challenge resulting in some groups receiving less and lower quality health care than others and experiencing poorer health outcomes. Hispanics, Blacks, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and low-income individuals are more likely to be uninsured relative to Whites and those with higher incomes. Low-income individuals and people of color also face increased barriers to accessing care, receive poorer quality care, and experience worse health outcomes. The Department of Health and Human Services Disparities Action Plan (HHS) sets out a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve a vision of a nation free of disparities in health and health care.

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 United States’ whole social structure and system of relations developed based on race, and this prejudice has stuck around to this day, specifically in the U.S.’s healthcare system. It has been found that minority groups often receive less and lower quality treatments than those who are white. On a national scale, ethnic health disparities have become more of a priority in recent decades. Specifically since The Office of Minority Health was established in 1986, and more recently, since “Healthy People”, a popular magazine, named the elimination of these disparities as one of its national goals to accomplish by 2010 (Yang). This paper will explore some of the possible solutions to this extreme gap in health.

(2015) notes that “Starting in 1997, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires federal agencies to use a minimum of five race categories: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.” Each minority group differs in health status and disparities and health promotion. In this paper the writer will focus on a specific minority group, the Black or African Americans, and will

This paper focuses disparities and if racism has any influence on treatments given by healthcare providers. The results of the study showed that of the 37 cases tested, 26 of them showed slightly significant evidence of racist beliefs. One of the more confusing aspects of this paper was that I didn’t understand how the researchers measured racism. I felt that measuring racism was an almost daunting task as there is an element of human subjectivism. Furthermore, a better are of study would have been to analyze the geographic influence on disparities. Similar to what we learned in class, disparities often occur because people of a particular region do not have direct access to healthcare. Overall, I felt that this paper had numerous statistics about how and why racism plays a role in disparities, but the results were rather ambiguous in my eyes.

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.

There are many people who say that we are living in a post racial society in the United States today and there are aspects of life in which that seems to be true. Yet there are many areas of life however in which race still is an important divider that has a major impact on the experiences of the minority peoples in the United States. In 2010, about 41% of the U.S. population identified themselves as members of racial or ethnic minority groups. According to the Centers for Disease Control, compared to non-minorities, some minorities experience a disproportionate level of preventable disease, death and disability (. http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/populations/remp.html ).

In the United States today discrimination is still an issue in society. As a society progress has definitely been made, but it has never fully gone away. Some of the most discriminatory action takes place in the American justice system. Young minority males between the ages of 25-29 are subject to being treated the most unfairly while whites of the same age are still being treated better than any race in this country. African American and Hispanic males are being incarcerated at higher rates than white males in America. Not only are minorities being incarcerated more, but also they are subject to harsher sentencing terms, fall victim to police racial profiling, and have disparities in the war on drugs. Also whites are still the dominant

Minority groups in society have faced prejudice and discrimination throughout history and they continue to face it today. Religion and government have immense power to dictate what is seen as “correct behavior” in society. Furthermore, it is when minority groups infringe on these beliefs, that they can face this extreme prejudice and discrimination. Minority groups who have faced these adversities include First Nations and LGBTQ+ groups. Two stories that show the adversities that these groups face are A Word From the Nearly Distant Past by David Levithan and Totem by Thomas King.