Racism and the Over-representation of Black African-Caribbean Women in the Mental Health System - Essay Example

This paper looks at how racism, prejudice, suppression, and psychiatric diagnostic processes develop stress that leads to the onset of the persistence of mental illness in black women. While ‘black’ is a term associated with non-whites, the focus of the study here will be from the experiences of women of African-Caribbean origin. The world that we live in is a mixture of the rich and poor, the strong and weak, the affluent and the down-trodden, and men and women. Women have never been given equal rights analogical to men.

The rich and powerful countries still dominate the weaker and poor nations. The lives of the people in rich countries continue to be an illusion to those living in poor countries. However, even in rich countries, a certain section of society continues to live under constant threat and under-privileges. It’s a fact that women, whether white or black or brown, continue to suffer from discrimination, but those belonging to ethnic minorities are the worst hit. This is no different in the UK, where the face of racism rises above law to suppress any move to vindicate them.

The condition of the black and minority ethnic women remains appalling to such an extent that represents the poorest, unhealthy, and least educated part of the society. Invariably, to say the least, they are insignificantly the worst represented in the corridors of power than both white women and the rest of the UK population. Research studies have confirmed that the situation of these black and minority ethnic women in the UK highlights the massive inequalities and over-exploitation in health, education, employment and pay.

Lucy Ward, the social affairs correspondent of ‘The Guardian’ featured a report published by the Fawcett Society (a women's equality pressure group) on data on the 2.3 million BME women in the UK (2005), which made up of just under 4% of the total population and about 8% of the female population.

Not surprisingly, the report highlighted the stark inequalities faced by these women in the face of discrimination.