Racism In Dr. Neighbors

Now let’s look at the direct impact of discrimination or racism on the physical and psychological well being of Blacks. The research literature of Dr. Neighbors, provide strong evidence of a positive correlation between the perception that one has been the victim of racism and mental and physical health problems. Mental health problems studied included psychological distress, depression and anxiety disorders. And the physical health problems include likelihood of breast cancer , high blood pressure , increased tobacco and poorer health. A research conducted revealed that among pregnant Black women, perceived discrimination was strong linked to increased likelihood of preterm delivery and low infant birth weight deliveries. To further it has

People respond to prejudice and discrimination as they do to any threatening, and that this reaction increases the mental load on the body. Gradually these demands wear down the body’s regulatory systems, thereby increasing individuals’ susceptibility to disease.

In the United States, social and economic factors strongly vary with race. When studied as a group, Blacks are poorer, have less education, are less likely to be employed, and if employed, more likely to hold lower-status jobs than Whites (IOM, 2003). Hence, it is put forth that the socioeconomic disparities between Blacks and Whites are responsible too for the disparities between the two groups’ health status. Less educated people are unlikely to have health literacy and maybe because of this, they are less aware of appropriate disease prevention behaviors. Even when such differences in Socio economic factors are statistically controlled,

It seems unlikely that blatant and overt prejudices—that typified the United States 50 years ago are responsible for disparities in healthcare. Now it is reasonable to assume that the vast majority of healthcare providers reject blatant forms of racial discriminations in both their personal and professional lives. But contemporary discrimination and stereotyping take more subtle and indirect forms; it is these prejudices-related processes that the IOM Committee (2003) believed played a major role in race specific disparities in healthcare. Here the prejudices loop, bias loop, counter effecting loops all