Race & Ethnicity Issues - Essay Example

Race and Ethni Race and ethnicity A racial group is composed of a cluster of people who are perceived to have unique biological and physical characteristics. Race is and has been assumed to for centuries as being biologically-based and even biologically distinguishable between various groups. Ethnicity defines the cultural, religious, behavioural, and geographical commonalities that are imputed to people belonging to a particular area, as opposed to genetic inheritance. The boundaries of authenticity are also very fluid and can depend on political, social, and historical situations. This paper will scrutinize the concept of race and ethnicity and how it affects the society in terms of education and health in details. Racism is not regarded as a manifestation of profound inadequacy. As a result, this term has turned out to be a term of abuse. Since racial discrimination is understood as fundamentally evil, charges of racial discrimination can be deployed as an indisputable moralistic sledgehammer. Nevertheless, it is one while is comparatively easy to dodge. Those who view suggestions with intolerant chauvinism have long since learned to preface their own influence with proclamation about how much they detest racism, after which they normally go on to make all manner of outrageous criticisms of the conduct of people of colour, and the extent to which such practices are undermining the established development. This leaves an uncomplicated way open for increasing arguments in which they persist that they are not racist but patriots who dare to confront the issues which our wish-washy liberal opponents- caught up as they are in political correctness-dare not to even acknowledge. In the health and the educational sectors, extraordinary improvements have been made since the 20th century. Nevertheless, not everybody benefits equally from these improvements in the public’s wellbeing and education sectors. Health and education disparities among specific population groups that result from cumulative social disadvantages exist for many minority populations. The term minority as used in this paper means those populations in the public that are in a position of intellectual and opinionated non-dominance and disadvantage. As a result, they may experience reduced healthcare quality and access, and increased rates of disease, disability, and death compared to the overall population. The minority might include racial and ethnic minorities, limited English proficiency populations, people living in poverty, and homeless persons (Kronenfeld, 2012). Material and structural explanations emphasize the direct effects of socio-economic factors, such as poor housing and employment, on members of minority groups. Members of minority ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in lower socioeconomic groups. While material disadvantage impacts negatively on the health of minority ethnic groups, it is unlikely that social class alone can explain the excess mortality observed in minority ethnic groups. Racism describes the patterns of ethnicity and health. Racism can affect the health of minority ethnic groups through several pathways, including, restricted access to social resources, such as employment, housing, healthcare and education, racism also can cause increased exposure to risk factors, such as unnecessary contact with justice system. Reduced uptake of healthy habits, increased adoption of unhealthy behaviours like substance misuse either directly or indirectly via reduced self-regulation, and direct physical injury caused by racist violence. Racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive poorer quality care and education compared with non-minorities, even in situations where access-related factors, including insurance position and revenue are controlled. The sources of cultural and ethnic healthcare discrepancy include variations in geography, inability to access sufficient health coverage, communication hitches between patient and the doctors, cultural obstruction, provider stereotyping and inability access providers. Reducing the health care inequality gap is a hard, multifaceted mission. A study that analyzed 14 racial and ethnic marginal subgroups found out that health disparity could be reduced by providing the marginalized with better wellbeing insurance coverage, more adequate language skills and support, and high incomes (Kronenfeld, 2012). In education, Poverty in homes makes students to be excluded and hence not getting high grades. Racial discrimination is the major reason why students from minority groups fail in their classes. The underachievement of the students who come from the segregated communities is as a result of the chaos that they experience in their classes, also the black students fail due to the accusations of racism that they get from others. On addition, black student fail because when teachers try to correct them they are accused of racial discrimination. Although racial discrimination and ethnicity affect the performance of the students, there are other factors such as gender and culture that influence the performance of students to a great extent. It is imperative to maintain high expectations in students regardless of their race ethnicity, and gender. All students should be helped to maintain higher expectations whether they are white, male or female, black or brown, rich or poor, disabled or not (Asthana, 2010). Underlying social structural factors such as low-income environments and racial segregation have such significant effects on health that they should be consistently collected in order to make better sense. Prejudice against the poor, of whatever race or ethnicity, works against the educational achievement of underprivileged students. For example, in some situations teachers of underprivileged students do not let them go with some materials to their homes, out of fear that the resources will not at all be returned. Yet these same learners tend to be happy to have the obligation for going with the materials to their homes and are generally extraordinarily careful to return them. Such prejudice can be as blatant as forcing harsher discipline on marginalized students or as delicate as lowering the prospect for poor kids because they have difficulties in their home lives (Cole, 2008). Poor and minority students are often denied to access to demanding coursework. Counselors assign them remedial or unchallenging courses, and since more challenging courses often oblige students to have taken precise introductory classes, students can never change to a more challenging track. Teachers sometimes do punish poor and marginalized students more harshly than they do other students for the same mistakes. Furthermore, suspension is often the penalty of choice, and this causes students to miss important class time. One factor associated to the non-achievement of black children is the disproportionate use of harsh disciplinary practices that leads to black students’ segregation from classes, their sensitivity of mistreatment, and judgment of alienation and denunciation, which result in their disobedient and leaving the school (Cole, 2008). Residential isolation, inability to access of quality education, and obstruction to economic chances, among others, are all factors that take part in determining an individuals’ wellbeing status. Inability to access insurance has strict consequences associated to a person’s health position, their capability to get preventive care, and their capacity to deal with health problems, such as constant diseases. At the personal level, health insurance increase access to care, health results, and superiority of life and prevents high medical expenditures; on a broader level, wellbeing insurance coverage manipulate provider practice practicality, employee outputs, and social health. Those without insurance have worse outcomes and die sooner than those with health coverage. Being in a lower socioeconomic class usually means having poorer housing conditions, fewer opportunities for higher education, less health insurance coverage, and lower access to healthcare. Environmental health risks such as degradation; air, water and soil pollution; and other physical hazards are more widespread in low-income racial and ethnic minority groups. Individual risk factors for poor health are pronounced among many racial and ethnic minorities, and these risks are irritating by the disproportionate illustration of minorities in the inferior socioeconomic classes, as well as hazardous and low-paying occupations (Kronenfeld, 2012). Socioeconomic position and other social-structural factors play important roles in health outcomes for all people. One part of one’s socioeconomic position is how race and ethnicity are alleged and acted upon in our communities. Prejudice based on race or ethnicity has definite effects on individuals’ health, socioeconomic position, and opportunities in the society. References Asthana, A. (2010, October 10). Britains divided schools: A disturbing portrait of inequality. Retrieved June 6, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/oct/10/britains-divided-school-system-report Cole, R. W., & ASCD Improving Student Achievement Research Panel. (2008).Educating everybodys children: Diverse teaching strategies for diverse learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Kronenfeld, J. J. (2012). Issues in health and health care related to race/ethnicity, immigration, SES and gender. Bingley, U.K: Emerald Read More