Psychological Analysis On Discrimination
Most would agree that it is wrong to discriminate against someone, however, everyday many people, especially African Americans, endure the maltreatment. I will provide psychoanalysis on race and how the recipients of discrimination are affected. People’s lives are multi-dimensional and complex and must incorporate an intersectional analysis in order to capture authentic results. Depending on one’s race, class, gender and sexuality – coupled with the intersection of multiple factors – each will have their own experience with discrimination. These issues are important to discuss because all bodies deserve to be treated fairly and respectfully, discrimination is relevant in our everyday lives and the more
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Listed below are definitions of various important concepts, in order to ensure that there is a general consensus throughout. A researcher from The Institute for Intersectionality Research and Policy stated that, intersectionality promotes an understanding of human begins as shaped by the interaction of different social locations (e.g., race/ethnicity, indigeneity, gender, class, sexuality, geography, age, disability/ability, migration status and religion). These interactions occur within a context of connected systems and structures of power (e.g., laws, policies, state governments and other political and economic unions, religious institutions and media). Through this process, interdependent forms of privilege and oppression shaped by colonialism, imperialism, racism, homophobia, ableism, and patriarchy are created (Hanikivsky, 2014, p.2). Therefore, inequalities are never the result of single, distinct factors. Rather, they are the outcome of intersections of different social locations, power relations and experiences and are important to consider when doing social experiments. There are major …show more content…
In a study conducted by Stellers, et al, 2003, the researchers investigated possible direct, mediating, and moderating relationships among racial identity, racial discrimination, perceived stress, and mental health out comes in a longitudinal study of 555 African American young adults. And they found a relationship between racial identity variables and African American psychological functioning suggesting that stress may be one pathway by which experiencing racial discrimination may have deleterious effects on individual’s mental health. Racial hassles seem to make life more stressful for African Americans, which, in turn, have an affect on their levels of anxiety and depression. Interestingly racial identity was protective factor for some. Those who considered their race as a central identity to who they are were shielded from the negative effects of discrimination and stress. A possible explanation for protective factor could be that because their self-confidence about being black helps them dismiss the experience rather than internalize it as one about their selves. However, racial and ethnic minorities have health that is worse overall than the health of White Americans (Bahls, 2011). So it appears that discrimination in this case, caused increased psychology stress ultimately leading to mental health issues. Just like race, sexuality can be a subjected to
The text suggest from various studies that sexual freedom and expression is still limited. How women and men are taught to view their bodies, how they view their autonomy, how they view pleasure, and how marriage is perceived as respectability plays into the socialization of sexuality (49). These studies reminded me of the numerous reasons that many women especially black women conform to societal beliefs and limit their agency and pleasure in sexuality. These socializations of sexuality transcend into gender roles and how gender is considered in kin relationships. Robert Evans and Helen L. Evans suggest in their study Coping: Stressor and Depression among Middle Class African-American Men that men have become a critical group to understand in order to better understand the social and psychological climate of the African American community. They suggest that family issues, employment issues, environmental factors, and racism were the main causes of depression and emotional distress. Acknowledging these factors are essential to acknowledging a communities well-being. While reading numerous studies on the family structure from polygamy to motherhood to fatherhood to black female-black male relationship, I continued to consider the role that post-traumatic slave disorder takes. I so often refer back to the slavery, but I began to ask myself can we really blame everything on
Brent Staples and Richard Rodriguez’s autobiographical essays both start out with a problem, but they deal with it in different ways. Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By” deals with the issue of racism and social judgment he faces because he is African-American, while Rodriguez’s essay “Complexion,” details the self-hatred and shame he felt in his childhood because of his skin color. Both of these essays deal with race, appearance, and self-acceptance, but the authors write about them in different ways. When looking at the similarities and differences together, the points of these essays have a much stronger message about how to deal with discrimination.
“You would really be pretty if you lose weight”, maybe this sounds polite and kind of innocent but the actual tone and deeper meanings are very discriminatory. The Discrimination At Large by Jennifer Coleman is an article where the author demonstrates the price for being obese. Overweight people are being criticized all the time by many people. Moreover, they are now a mockery since people just make fun of them for their amusement. The movie Shallow Hal also shows how if we change our general idea of outer beauty of a person, we could benefit from it. Obesity has been a serious dilemma for the people in America. The society seems to not change their perception about obese people. In addition, people who are usually afraid to say any kind of
In the United States, racial discrimination has a lengthy history, dating back to the biblical period. Racial discrimination is a term used to characterize disruptive or discriminatory behaviors afflicted on a person because of his or her ethnic background. In other words, every t...
With this understanding it can be acknowledged that one can be an oppressor at one point in time but be oppressed at another. These roles are constantly changing based on a variety of factors. Integrative anti-racism allows a better understanding these social oppressions. The author argues that in order for oppression to be vitally explored, the factors that create oppression must be realized. Oppression gives material advantage to the oppressor. "All social relations have material
In system like this it is very important to understand what intersectionality means and to my understanding intersectionality is something that overlaps and it depends on each other. Just like how race, gender and class depend on each other. However according to google dictionary it defines as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage”. The way I would explain intersectionality is your identity and how you are being viewed by the society. You could be a poor black female who is discriminated and at disadvantage because of her race, gender and class which is an overlapping and they all depend on each other which makes it intersectional. The theory of intersectionality is a feminist sociological theory first highlighted by Kimberle Crenshaw in the year of 1989.p Intersectionality is a methodology
The intersection of race and gender and the experiences of discrimination and prejudice are paramount in defining and understanding the mental health of African American women (D. Brown & Keith, 2003; Canady, Bullen, HoIzman, Broman, & Tian, 2008). Behaviors seen in African American women are adaptations to a complex set of gender, generational, chronic, and extreme life stressors (hooks, 1993) and should be viewed in terms of the psychosocial and cultural factors unique to this
Intersectionality is a term used to describe a situation whereby an individual has multiple identities and as result, the person feels that he or she doesn’t belong to one community or another. Because of the many conflicts in an individual’s identities, he or she could be a victim of multiple threats of discrimination (Williams, 2017). The discrimination could be a result of race, gender, age, health and ethnicity among others. To give an example, a black transgender woman could be discriminated in the workplace because of being black and also because she is transgender. From an intersectionality perspective, the woman faces multiple threats of discrimination because of the overlapping identities of gender and race and therefore the transwoman faces a bigger struggle (Barber, 2017). Transwomen of color will most likely encounter prejudices in the form of homophobia, racism or sexism in many dimensions of their life. The perspective of intersectionality is not only applicable to women but it can also be applied to males. For example, a gay Latino man could be discriminated based on race because he is an immigrant into
The Association of Black Psychologist (ABP) (2013) defines colorism as skin-color stratification. Colorism is described as “internalized racism” that is perceived to be a way of life for the group that it is accepted by (ABP 2013). Moreover, colorism is classified as a persistent problem within Black American. Colorism in the process of discriminatory privileges given to lighter-skinned individuals of color over their darker- skinned counterparts (Margret Hunter 2007). From a historical standpoint, colorism was a white constructed policy in order to create dissention among their slaves as to maintain order or obedience. Over the centuries, it seems that the original purpose of colorism remains. Why has this issue persisted? Blacks have been able to dismantle the barriers faced within the larger society of the United States. Yet, Blacks have failed to properly address the sins of the past within the ethnic group. As a consequence of this failure, colorism prevails. Through my research, I developed many questions: Is it right that this view remain? How does valuing an individual over another cause distribution to the mental health of the victims of colorism? More importantly, what are the solutions for colorism? Colorism, unfortunately, has had a persisted effect on the lives of Black Americans. It has become so internalized that one cannot differentiate between the view of ourselves that Black Americans adopted from slavery or a more personalized view developed from within the ethnicity. The consequences of this internalized view heightens the already exorbitant mental health concerns within the Black community, but the most unfortunate aspect of colorism is that there is contention on how the issue should be solved.
Oppression of race, gender, sexuality or national origin intersect varying systems of power. Collins uses the phrase “intersectionality” to refer to concurrent coincidental multiple forms of oppression or domination. (Collins 1990)
Intersectionality also known as intersectional theory originally was a theory which was encoded in feminism. Intersectionality was a term in which feminists developed to explain how they were being socially oppressed because they were woman, in particular this theory addressed issues of the women’s suffrage movement and women wanting to retain the same rights as their male counterparts. As time progressed it became more common to see see it branched out into multidimensional levels of institutions such as- race, class, sexism, culture, religion, and even biological transgender. Intersectionality by definition aims to analyze multiple identities exposing different types of discrimination and disadvantages that occur
If one was required to put a definition on analytical discrimination, what would it mean? In the article “Discrimination is a virtue,” author Robert Keith Miller discusses the word “discrimination” and its true meanings, stating it as just knowing a difference. So if the question were asked once again, would it be possible to discriminate the appeals used in analytical analysis? Miller presents us stories and examples to point out a “lost” definition of a word often overheard, but never studied. His use of appeals sides with logos, discriminates against ethos, and makes anti-pathos a reality. His writing appeals to the mind, leaving much to ponder, though these thoughts may be lost in the whirlwind of ink ideas thrown into a paperback debate.
Racism is still a very prominent yet controversial topic in the United States today. Discrimination in the United States dates back to the 1500s when America was first founded. As generations passed, it has become a social norm to believe that darker skin tones are less desirable to society. The foundation of this country was built upon the false impression that Whites were superior to not just blacks, but all other ethnicities. From this, the idea of white privilege was derived and is still prevalent in society today. Those who are victims of discrimination are sometimes not aware of the psychological effect and the overall impact it can have on one’s life. The persistence of racism over generations has been in correlation to adversely affect the mental health of the victims economically, socially and in turn physically.
Despite critiques and apprehensions regarding intersectionality, Bowleg (2012, p. 1268) writes that “the fact cannot be dismissed that intersectionality provides a unifying language and theoretical framework for public health scholars who are already engaged in investigating intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, and disability to reduce and eliminate health
However, in a realistic context it would be unrealistic to eliminate radical alterity in a real life context, as so many individuals have to so many thought processes ingrained into their psyche. Therefore, it would take a lifetime to learn and unlearn problematic ways of thinking. Although, there is a way of ensuring that anthropologists regulate themselves in an intellectual process, especially when conducting ethnographies - through implementing the concept of intersectionality in their personal capacity. Intersectionality is a feminist theory coined by Crenshaw. It is defined as a concept that used to illustrate oppression, using social markers that create different identities in society. When these intersect each other, nodes of various oppressions are produced as the outcome (Shields, 2008: 302). For example, oppression experienced by black women, Crenshaw terms as a “double discrimination” ; as oppressive hegemonies are designed to oppress various groups on the basis of race, class and gender. Although with black women, it has double the intended effect (Crenshaw, 1989: 149). Therefore, when presenting a detailed ethnography, it would be in the anthropologist’s best interest to incorporate intersectionality as a theory to address radical alterity. Even though it cannot eliminate the existence of radical alterity completely, it is able to help the observationist, who is usually the anthropologist, to help keep