Racism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Racism - Essay Example Racial discrimination is treating people differently on the basis of race. In famous case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,* by overturning its earlier rule the United States Supreme Court, declared that the establishment of separate public schools for black and white students inherently unequal. This victory paved the way for integration and the Civil Rights Movement. The same decision was repeated in the Bolling v. Sharpe's** case also. Racism produces its effects through segregation, socioeconomic stratification, and marginalization as well as through the individual experience. Institutionalized racism produces discriminatory effects on health through public policy, the physical environment, social and medical services and preventive health policy. Perceived inequity and frustrated goals combine with policies that make the urban environment physically or psychologically hazardous to affect the family, sense of self and sense of community. This affects social buffers and supports while increasing the chance of experiencing a life event. Decreased social efficacy combined with a decaying physical environment promotes "alternative" lifestyles and economies, these can overcome the resilience of a community and undermine their buffering effects. The impact of racism on the individual, family, community and physical environment may --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Brown Vs Board of Education of Topeka 347 US 483 (1954)** Bolling Vs Sharpe 347US 487 (1954) 2 lead to psychological and physical harm to children and so produce a future generation of problems. The US government has formulated a number of programs for tracing the racist elements which is deep rooted in the society and to find out the solutions to eradicate this ever going problems. Department of Behavioral Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston *conducted a research and found out that racism is the one of the fundamental cause for the racial disparities of health commonly founds in people. According to their opinion the physiological changes which occur when African-Americans encounter everyday racism are thought to lead to poorer health in the long-term. The association between experienced racism and ill health is modified by social status and personal coping strategies. A wider conceptualization of the processes through which racism is linked to ill-health demands an understanding of the effects of racism at a political, socioeconomic, community, and family level. Such effects are as pertinent to illness rates as the experience of the individual. From the above discussion a question naturally arises. It is true that the segregation of the people as per their color