The Importance Of Racial Stereotypes

Today a large amount of races is stereotyped, yet African Americans are one of the largest common racial groups stereotyped against. Ever since slavery, the opposing stereotypes of African Americans have been around. The stereotypes served a strong purpose and have come to affect the everyday lives of this individual group and their mental and health conditions. In the journal article “ The Cost of Color: Skin Color, Discrimination, and Health among African-Americans” by Ellis P. Monk, Jr, the negative image of dark skinned African Americans has led to a higher number of health issues and social disadvantages in our society. The topics of race and discrimination in the journal article show disturbing data of African Americans who are more …show more content…
Monk, Jr. works with the general topic of racial discrimination and health and then intervenes with the more specific details of his research. Ellis P. Monk, Jr. starts off with how African Americans tend to have higher health related issues than whites. Then he transitions in the history and then the findings. Transitioning onto the data and methods section of the journal article, the fieldwork of the study consisted of self-reports and interviewer–rated skin color. The self-reports are considered the highest amongst the black population and tend to more useful. But the one thing about the self-reports is the accuracy of these self-reports. With individual self- reports, the study could possibly provide invalid and inaccurate information. There could be a chance that an individual might have badgered the study so the outcome would be worse. To make things more precise, there should have been included a face-to- face interview, asking individuals if they had experiences with skin color discrimination. Questions that should be asked for example are: Have you been discrimination because of your skin color? Do you feel as if you have been looked at different or feel less of any sort? If so, would you like to share your experiences with me? Has your mental and physical health been affected from discrimination? Face-to-Face interviews would also help to know more about the wide range of other skin color discrimination factors …show more content…
It is an issue that society needs to further recognize. The fact that discrimination can lead to negative health consequences, feeling ashamed, and depressed of their self shows that we all must consider other aspects besides race to decrease the issue of racial health inequality. But one thing that I would add to this research article is the fact that no qualitative research existed in observing and interviewing dark-skinned individuals and light skin-individuals for reliable and precise information. This would be a remarkable addition to the study. For my alternative research method, I would use sampling, where I would pick clusters of dark skinned individuals and have them try to interact in public with lighter skinned people to see the responses and behavior they might experience back. Then I would select an individual who is not of color to see the differences they would experience with another individual. After testing out the sample, I feel like the research would be reliable for testing discrimination in the populated area. For instance, as the research method in the study states that dark skinned blacks are perceived as the least favorable and lights as favorable. I would test this hypothesis with my research method to see if the study consists of validity or at least