Racism as a Social Determinant of Health for Aboriginal Community in Australia

Running head: HEALTHCARE
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Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
The concept of the racism traces back to the historical times regarding the attitudes of the
racist community followed up by the governmental negligence on the standards and the
legislations prescribed by the United Declaration of Human Rights. The contemporary scenario
of Australia is the approach of multiple of waves including immigration to the land (Currie et al.,
2015). The paper highlights the context of racism as the social determinant of health towards the
disadvantaged group or community of people. The paper sheds light on the aboriginal
community of Australia and the discrimination faced by them regarding their race in their daily
livelihood.
Racism can be described as the behavior or the belief in the basis on the notion regarding
that race is the general basis of the practice and the characteristics of human. Racism can be
highlighted as the social injustice that is based on the deeply embedded and falsely constructed
regarding the people and their relatively social values. The context of the racism in Australia is
used towards the justification of the disparities among the distribution of the resources (Janzen et
al., 2017). For the aboriginal and the Torres strait islander people, the context of the racism
manifest over multiple ways including the discrimination and looking down upon the community
by the superior no aboriginals in the form of the economic, political and the socio economic
power. Racial discrimination among the aboriginal population in Australia furthermore
reinforces some of the other ways were they are being discriminated against each other including
the socially constructed categories of disability, gender, sexual orientation and age.
Health problem

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The context of racism is an experience that is felt by many of the aboriginal community
people in Australia and also in Canada. It is a renowned health issue that needs to be understood
related to something which is lived and experienced by the aboriginal individuals, their families,
communities and the nations via their interactions and the structures of the regular world.
According to Spence et al. (2016) health among the population of human is a complex
and multifaceted phenomenon and is no less in the case of the aboriginal and Torres strait
islander people. Unlike the other non aboriginal population in the country, racism is the
fundamental driver for the indigenous people. The pathway from the racism towards the ill
health includes unequal and reduced access towards the societal resources that is required for
health. This includes the factors such as the education, employment, medical care and the social
support. Besides these racism furthermore contributes to the increased rate of exposure towards
the risk factors that is associated with the ill health including the toxic substances and the drugs.
The factors of the negative cognitive reactions and emotions together with stress tends to have
negative effect over the mental health of the aboriginal population together with affecting the
endocrine, immune and cardio vascular systems (Cave et al., 2018). Racism furthermore induces
the aboriginal population towards the engagement in some of the major unhealthy activities
including the alcohol, smoking and the use of the drugs. Furthermore disengagement from the
health related activities including the lack of exercise, sleep and taking of the unauthorized
mediations are some of the major influence of the racism among the community in Australia.
Targeted population
The aboriginal and the Torres strait islander has long been discriminated and have been
deprived regarding their rights and their opportunities together with the denial of their basic and
fundamental rights regarding the participation in the society due to the propagation of racism.

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From the time of the historical context, the racism of the aboriginal people ranges back towards
the disposition of their lands with the approaches of Terra Nullius (Lawrence et al., 2016).
Factors of the racial discrimination over the aboriginal population furthermore includes the
forcible removal of the babies and the children from the aboriginal communities and their
families focusing the painful history of the context of racism within the globe. As per the results
of the Australian Reconciliation Barometer, it has been recorded than more than 89% of the
aboriginal community have faced racism regarding their availing of the policies for a normal and
healthy living. 91% of the aboriginals reported to faced discrimination due to racism in case of
the access to the health care services leading them towards death.
Figure - The reported rate of discrimination due to race as per age
Source - (Goodman et al., 2017)
The above figure highlights the report by the aboriginal Australians regarding the rate of
the discrimination faced by them in various of the fields as per their ages. The rate of higher
among the 35-4 and 5-54 age gap, specifically due to the discrimination towards the access to
proper health care benefits. Often the aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people are