https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025628/
In
addition to the sociological impacts of racism, inequality impacts an individual
psychologically. Several posts on the blog have started conversations on mental
health awareness, as well as the impact that stress has on people of color. The
way the healthcare system currently works furthers inequality and
discrimination against people of color. For example, factors aside from
genetics led poor, colored people to be more prone to obesity. Fresh, healthy
food is often expensive and difficult to find. Memphis’s abysmal transportation
system does not provide an easy way for families to secure healthy meals
outside of food deserts. Additionally, high levels of stress over time (caused
by racial profiling, stress from living on a low income, sleep deprivation,
etc.) can cause unhealthy habits, including over eating and excessive drinking.
This turns into a vicious cycle, with poor health furthering money troubles,
and allowing for fewer opportunities to make better health choices. Being a
non-white person, especially those of lower socioeconomic status, has serious
negative effects due to the added stress of living in a racist society.
In
addition to the inequalities caused by our broken social structures, race
impacts mental health. It would be expected that the more stressful life of a
colored person would lead to higher rates of mental health disorders linked
with stress (such as major depression), but epidemiological studies would
disagree. Consistent findings from scientific studies have found that “compared
with whites, blacks report similar or, in some cases, lower rates of lifetime
mental disorders, even after accounting for the effects of socioeconomic
position, despite evidence that blacks report higher levels of psychological
distress” (Mezuk, 2010). Implicit biases against black folk from doctors in the
heath care system, as well as a larger population of black folk being unable to
afford proper healthcare could account for this. When fewer people identify
depression in one race demographic, the risk for suicide and poor quality of
life.
Interestingly
enough, while lower levels of depression reported in black demographics
indicate a health care system bias, mental illness is skewed towards minority
populations in other ways as well. “African
Americans were found to have substantially elevated rates of schizophrenia when
compared with Whites. Furthermore, Blacks with schizophrenia are
overrepresented in state psychiatric hospitals” (Mezuk, 2010). Stereotyping schizophrenia as
a ‘black’ disease, much like HIV is characterized as a ‘gay’ disease, is
harmful to many. Consistently, black patients in mental hospitals are diagnosed
as having more severe cases of the disease than their white counterparts. This
can lead to harsher/larger drug dosage (and the side effects) and fewer numbers
of black patients being able to live a normal life outside of a treatment center.
When planning our blueprints
for change, it is important to take into account how biases and the way people
think about race effects individuals just as much as our societal structures
do. To make change, we need to change both policy and minds.
This is what I have been studying in my Race Thinking and Health Disparities course this semester. Black people suffer from so many health disparities because of racism and the toll it takes on our bodies. The differences in quality of care and access to care play a role in affecting black bodies. This definitely needs to be addressed more in the college courses and programs that doctors and nurses take in order for them to be mindful of what is going on in society.
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