Module 8, Race, Ethnicity and Health Flashcards
What is Race?
race: a term without scientific basis that used skin colour and facial features to describe allegedly biologically distinct groups of humans
- today is it widely accepted that ‘race’ is a social construct with no basis in biology
- yet we continue to group people based on phenotype characteristics and treat these groupings as if they are ‘natural’
my notes:
- uses skin colour, facial features, or physical characteristics to describe distinct groups of humans
- race is a social construct as opposed to biology - it is a social matter to decide that these features and characteristics assign someone to a particular group and associate all sorts of different types of meanings to that membership and reproduce this group in different ways that have social implications (you can look at DNA and ancestry test but the meaning race has in your life is different)
What is Ethnicity?
ethnicity: refers to a shared cultural background and individuals who interact with each other on the basis of shared cultural identity and practices (shared traditions and place of origin for example)
- as a policy term, it is used to identify immigrants who share a culture that is markedly different from that of Anglo-Canadians
- in practice, it often refers only to immigrant from non-English-speaking backgrounds (non-white in race)
- can be used interchangeably with race in some ways
What is meant by the term ‘visible minority’?
- term used by Statistics Canada and other government bodies
- refers to persons, other than Indigenous peoples, who are “non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour”
my notes:
- asking others to group themselves in a group called visible minority whereas the intent behind it is to ask if they are white/caucasian
- this term was created at a time where primarily the population of Canada was white people, so in this case you were visibly different as you were a member of a racialized group living in Canada
- term that has taken on less and less relevance as times have passed as it just another way of asking as you are someone who has experienced racism, do you experience barriers in finding employment, have you been marginalized or oppressed (a nicer more subtle way of asking with visible minority)
- it suggests that privilege or marginalization comes with being in the majority group which can make it inaccurate as racism can be experienced even there is a large population of those who face it
- 2 things it does: groups people together that are not common except for the fact that they are not white/caucasian and links the notion of discrimination to numbers
What is meant by the term ‘immigrant’?
- officially, refers to individuals born outside of Canada (or born without Canadian citizenship)
- often divided into subgroups including economic immigrants (come here to work or study), family-class immigrants (immigrate on the basis of having relatives already with citizenship or permanent residency in the country who are able to sponsor them) refugees (have been displaced, lines have been in danger, and they human rights have been violated in their place of origin)
- in practice this term is applied more frequently to racialized groups / or visible minorities
- often only used to describe individuals who immigrate to Canada, who are also from racialized groups or visible minorities
Anti-Racist Frameworks
race is more than a theoretical concept. it is also an idea that governs social relations… the concept of race if used to establish advantage and privilege, as well as disadvantage and injury
- it organizes our societies and peoples experiences within society can be explained by looking at it through the lens of race and how that grants certain groups privileges and resources while marginalizing and discriminating towards other
Anti-Racist Frameworks (2)
- growing body of scholarship from various “critical” sociological traditions particularly critical feminist (come from same place of dissatisfaction with existing research and those foundational sociological theories - this is a response and critique of others that largely ignored effects of race)
- studies that centre their analysis on race based relations, racism and processes of racializations
- some key theorists include Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw
- strongly based on work by activists and social and civil rights movements including Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela
my notes:
- both racist and feminist theories deal with that notion of intersectionality, of trying to understand where power and privilege come from and how this shapes forces of oppression and understanding that those are both based on race and gender and other intersections of identity
Anti-Racist: Assumptions
a. race is a socio-political construction by which dominant groups exercise power and control over racialized ‘others’ (there are certain genetic or biological elements but the significance and meaning we assign to race is a social and political construction)
a. eliminating racism (ie. actively engaging in anti-racist practices) is central to achieving health equity (if health is thought to be a resource it is an unequally distributed resource as not everyone can achieve the best health due to discriminating structures and experience of racism)
b. race intersects with other social and cultural forces
Human Rights and Anti-Racist: Key Concept (1)
racialization
- “the social process by which racial categories are constructed as real, different, unequal in ways that have social, economic and political consequences.”
- use the term ‘racialized’ to indicate that this is something done to individuals and groups (rather than these being innate things and natural categories)
my notes:
- process of identifying a group as being other than or being other too different and then assignment meaning to that race
- the experience of being othered or seen as different and as belonging to a particular group
- categories that are created through social interactions and through the meaning that is constantly assigned within different contexts
- term that can also be used to refer to someone who experiences racism, who has experience of being racialized
Human Rights and Anti-Racist: Key Concept (2)
racism
- “a set of false beliefs that one racial group is naturally superior to another group based on biological differences. it perpetuates notion of cultural superiority and inferiority and is one basis for social exclusion and discriminatory practices.”
- like other forms of discrimination, racism and the implications of racism can be structural (systemic), relational and/or sociocultural
my notes:
- racialization is identifying an individual as belonging to a group and then identifying them different from the dominant group within society (white population) which is different to racism
In discussing race and health consider…
- intersection of race with other social determinants of health and the implication on health inequities
- beware research that conflates certain genetic or biological traits (or groupings of traits) with ’race’ or ‘ethnicity’ to make claims about the health status or ‘disposition towards disease’
- race based element within the contexts of social determinants of health - within education, housing, access to healthcare, how people are treated in early childhood
- understand that racism and the experience of being racialized have direct and observable impacts on a person’s physical health (e.g. hypertension, lower birthweights)
- can also have impacts that are less observable but no less real (e.g. feelings of exclusion, inferiority, not being valued) and that impact psycho-social wellbeing
