Race and health outcomes are heavily correlated and attention to the two needs to be considered. Racial classification has a profound impact on daily life experience and societal perceptions. Racism is a factor in health issues, barriers to receiving medical attention, and the quality of services and care provided. I liked how the article divided the framework for understanding racism into three levels: institutionalized, personally mediated, and internalized. Institutionalized racism often manifests as inherited disadvantage; Internalized racism is defined as the stigmatized races of negative messages about their own abilities and intrinsic worth; and Personally mediated racism are prejudices and…
In analyzing the Wealth Inequality in America, there are three political approaches that can be used. All of the three approaches are categorized under political liberalism which emphasizes individualism. The first approach is libertarianism, the second approach is free market conservatism, and the third approached is liberal contractarianism. Libertarianism is a laissez fair approach to political liberalism that advocates minimal government intervention within the lives of its citizens.…
Race and ethnicity has little effect of genetic makeup, but it has a great effect on the level of care that an individual receives. There are many studies indicating that minority groups receive more expensive and lower quality health care. Some studies take a look at whether the site of care affects the quality of care among minority groups and how different lifestyle factors could also influence health. Using race in the health care system creates unnecessary discrimination. This discrimination leads to adverse health effects for minority populations.…
For many years there has been a tremendous gap between health related diseases among the different racial groups. For example, some of the health diseases argued and researched over the years include: cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. In America, research has always led to the fact that black African Americans tend to have a higher mortality rate than those that are white. However, throughout the studies of racial inequality between health there is a question that comes into place as to whether or not "fundamental biological differences" is a cause of the health related problems that some people get. Through research it is shown that biological differences isn't a leading cause in the different health issues among race, social economic…
Generally, whites have better health statuses than racial/ethnic minorities. Why is this so? Certainly, there are a number of factors associated with this problem such as one’s socioeconomic status and social support, but one of the main reasons is mistrust and/or communication difficulties with one’s physician. A patient-physician non-concordance relationship impacts disparities in patient satisfaction and delivery of health care services due to trust and communication barriers. In fact, there are numerous studies that examine trust and communication between a patient and his/her doctor on two racial groups, namely, whites and another minority group (i.e. blacks).…
America is equal and America is free: is a saying I have heard many times throughout my life as a student. In elementary school, we learned about the American Revolution and the fight for freedom and equality against the British. We learned about the Civil War and the freedom of slaves. We learned about the Industrial Revolution and how people immigrated over to America from Europe and found a better life. We learned about the Civil Rights movement and how the abolishment or Jim Crow lead to the equality of black and white people.…
The wealth inequality in the U.S. has been growing gradually for decades and still, showing no signs of resolving it from any political candidates. It has been a vicious cycle that delivers detrimental outcomes to everyone. The rich people are getting richer due to the wealth they already have or inherited and resources that are ready to invest in lucrative activities or trades that are able to accumulate and could produce more rapidly new wealth. Additionally, children that were born or grown up in a rich family are more likely to attend college due to their tremendous influence and economic advantage, which may increase their chances to earn higher wages than any other social class. Whereas poor people are getting poorer due to individualism…
How did you relate to the readings, videos and forum discussions? I related to the readings about cultural and linguistic competence as a future health care provider. I saw how my knowledge of these topics could affect the care and well being of real people. One hypothetical that struck me was about a nurse practitioner choosing a cheaper and less effective medication for a black patient. The nurse had done this with the well-meaning intention of saving a poor person from the bills that come with a higher level of health care, not realizing that the patient was of a high socioeconomic status (Hall and Fields).…
Devon Kaminski Soc-309 Essay 4 Ch. 2 1. What factors lie behind rises in income inequality in the U.S. in recent decades? While many factors play a role, the few that strike as most pertinent are declines in earnings growth, which is a rise in workers that make less money and an ever growing gap between the higher skilled and lower skilled workers, an economical shift from production of goods to production of services, shifts in demand for high/low skilled workers which opened up temporary positions with little to no benefits, a change in the working age group (thanks to the baby boomers), a rise in uneducated and less-expensive labor in the form of immigrants, declining unionization, downsizing in industries (which could mean cutting less skilled workers), globalization and of course government policies like minimum wage changes, budget cuts and tax reforms.…
The United States is a country founded on ideals and unfulfilled aspirations of a perfect nation in which all are equal and no one group of people has too much power. Our history is filled with the constant struggle between fulfilling those ideals and maintaining status quo and allowing the nation to stagnate or regress allowing inequality to reign and certain groups to control the country. While our nation has struggled on this point it bears to ask whether real political and social change is actually possible in the United States, or if throughout our history and in our future we simply continue as we have since our nation was founded? While change has never come quietly and it often feels as though the journey is a constant one step forward…
Social class still matters to America Social class refers to divisions in society based on the money you make, the economy and social status. People who in the same social class typically have the same level of wealth, education, achievement, type of job and income. The American is an open society and social class is still a matter to American today. Social class matters in almost every type of social situation today because it defines who you are in life, how other people treat you, and it also determines whom you hang out with, which school you go to, the type of health condition you are in, and the type of environment you are growing up in. Overall, social class is everything about you.…
As society progresses in time, there seems to be less opportunity for the poor and more for the affluent. There is a huge gap of income, there seems to be no room for those on the bottom to move up. However, there seems to be a relationship between opportunity and income inequality for that the higher someone excels so does the equality of income. There have been signs of the rich only being able to prosper while hourly wage is decreasing. Big Bucks such as Wal-Mart have been prosecuted giving their workers low income and fewer promotion possibilities.…
Now after explaining the background behind the income inequality and the disappearing middle class, the next step is to make something legislative if you plan to make a difference. My solution of creating more entry level jobs would need to start at the top level in government in order for it to take effect in the entire country. First, I will contact my local Senator Barbara Boxer to show her my bill as well as see if she had any bills that were similar to mine. In the past she has sponsored multiple different bills pertaining to the middle class and income inequality including the Middle Class Success Act as well as the Middle Class Opportunity Acts of 2007 and 2009.…
In a capitalistic based economy such as the United States, it creates incomes that are small and large. Having an unequal amount of large or low incomes is called income inequality. Income inequality has become a major problem in the United States, increasing 24% from 1968 to 2012” (Cochran). The gap between the rich and the poor is growing at an ever increasing rate. In the United States the gap is measured by relative poverty, or “being below one-half the nations income” (Cochran).…
Since the use of genetic data to define the validity of race erupted in the 1970’s, some scientists have addressed the notion that genetic variation by means of racial differences represents a form of racialization and therefore racism, in healthcare settings and within health spectrums in general. By using race as an indicator of genetic disparities we are acknowledging race as a biologically based enigma rather than a social construct. We allow discrimination to color a picture of embodied inequality among healthcare measures. Just as the anthropological definition of culture defines cultures as static entities defined by geographic boundaries, we cannot perceive race as a biological marker of genetic variation because it to is complex and static. Human biology, no matter what geographic location one hails from, is…