Exploring Racial Discrimination: A Sociology Essay

This sociology essay delves into the multifaceted concept of racial discrimination. It begins by defining racial discrimination and its prevalence, particularly in countries like India. The essay then provides a comprehensive literature review, examining various authors' perspectives on the issue. It explores the negative impacts of racial discrimination on mental and physical health, including limited access to opportunities and increased health risks. The essay highlights the Australian Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and institutionalized racism. Furthermore, it discusses strategies to combat racial discrimination, such as promoting the participation of marginalized groups and fostering social and economic equality. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need to control and eliminate racial discrimination to ensure equal opportunities and access to facilities for all individuals. References from various studies are included to support the analysis.

Running Head: SOCIOLOGY
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Sociology
5/6/2019

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Racial discrimination.............................................................................................................................2
Literature review on Racial Discrimination...........................................................................................2
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
The proposal brings about the discussion of the concepts of racial discrimination
studied under sociology. The term ‘sociology’ is referred to the study of the social
relationships, following the interaction, and culture of everyday life. It is defined as the
aspect of social science, which utilises various methods of the empirical investigation and
assessment to develop and determine the aspects such as acceptance and social evolution
(Umaña-Taylor, 2016). For gaining an understanding of this study, a topic has been selected
in this proposal, i.e. ‘racial discrimination’. Therefore, the proposal will define the meaning
of the issue prevailing in the society using a literature review, i.e. from the viewpoints of
multiple authors.
Racial discrimination
The term racial discrimination is defined as the discrimination against individuals
based on race, and other factors. According to the survey conducted across various nations,
India has been considered as the second country high in racism, where people from other
countries are treated differently. The different treatment of the citizens of other countries in
India is done based on factors, skin, and the country of origin. It has been found that the issue
of racism can lead to a major impact on the health of individuals through causing effect on
several aspects of life (Kirkinis et al., 2018).
An act, Racial Discrimination Act 1975 is a statute or law, which has been passed by
the Australian Parliament during the Prime Ministership of Gough Whitlam. According to
this act, there are certain conditions when the racial discrimination needs to be prohibited.
Racial discrimination occurs under RDA, in the situation when a person is given
unfair treatment than other person is in a similar situation, based on race, colour, nation, or
ethnicity. The RDA also protects people from being treated unfairly due to their link or
association with the person belonging to the race or ethnicity in particular race.
Literature review on Racial Discrimination
Racial discrimination is defined as the systems within societies, which causes
unavoidable and leads to inequalities in context to power, resources, and opportunities
amongst individuals in different ethnic groups. The data from 293-survey study conducted

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on the individuals in US, revealed a fact that the issue of racism is related to the poor mental
health. The authors Yin et al. (2015) were of the view that it is essential to ensure that every
individual must have access to all the facilities to gain a better living. The study also
mentioned that a strong link between racism and mental health conditions has been found in
Asian American and Latino American.
The issue of racial discrimination against individuals is found to affect health through several
pathways, as mentioned below:
 The lack of access to the opportunities of employment, housing, and education
benefits or opportunities.
 The increase in the risk factors, for an example, unavoidable contact with the police.
 Adverse state of the cognitive and emotional health or wellbeing.
 Unhealthy behaviours such as increased consumption of alcohol (Bernard et al.,
2017).
The authors through the research and meta-analysis stated that the issue of racial
discrimination has led to many physical health problems that includes, hypertension, blood-
pressure and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, a control must be exercised on the acts of the
individuals in the society and racism must be reduced to help people attain sound health and
wellbeing (Paine et al., 2019).
Jeanne et al (2017) stated the issue of racism or racial discrimination and the leading
negative consequences on the birth outcomes of the child. The authors used fifteen studies for
analysing the aspect, and came to an understanding that in context to adverse birth outcomes,
racism acts as major issue.
The issue of racism is found at various levels, and these include institutional,
interpersonal, and internalized. The aspect of Institutionalized racism leads to the problem of
access to resources, services, and opportunities of society segregated by the element of race.
With respect to the available resources in the society, institutionalized racism explains the
disparities in access with the quality of education, housing, employment, health care
resources, and other facilities. This leads to the major impact on the women’s health
especially, during the pregnancy period. Moreover, the research has mentioned that minority
women experience or face the problem of higher exposure to the chronic stressors,
throughout life, thereby accelerating the risks or problems for the pregnancy outcomes
(Matsuda, 2018).

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One of the most used concept or the process is that the issue of racism or racial
discrimination operates as a psychosocial stressor, which tends to increase the risk of an
individual for the adverse health outcomes. Thus, the authors analysed these issues in
populations stating the need to devise some effective strategies for improvement or change in
the society, regarding racism (Bernard et al., 2017).
Further discussing about the preventive measures, policies and strategies it has been
found that several changes need to be made in the society to overcome the issue of racial
discrimination. First, by ensuring the participation of discriminated and marginalized section
or group of the society can be one aspect towards reducing racism. It states the need to
enhance and promote the equal levels of participation in public and political life of
individuals subjected to the racism. However, participation of these individuals remains a key
to the implementation of policy decisions on the issues related to the prevention of racism.
Increased levels of participations improve the interaction amongst various ethnic groups, and
thus resolve the conflicts of trust on different race or colour (Paradies et al., 2015).
Promoting equality in context to social and economic aspects of life also contribute vital
in reduction of the racial discrimination in the society. It has been found that ‘poverty’,
economic and social exclusion that is understood in both the ways, i.e. cause and effect of the
racial discrimination. Women or girls at young age face the problem of racial discrimination
more than men in many parts of the world face, and it remains vulnerable to the issues such
as human trafficking, abuse, sexual exploitation, and domestic violence (Holley, Tavassol &
Stromwall, 2016).
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that the racial discrimination or
racism is one of the significant issue within societies across countries. The issue of racism
affect or influences the health and wellbeing of the individuals especially, women in the
society. In context to Australian society, racism has been found arising due to financial or
economic burden. Therefore, it must be controlled to ensure every individual get equal
opportunity and access to the facilities. The concept of racism and other related aspects in
context to socio-economic society or community has been described in the above
assignment.

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References
Alhusen, J. L., Bower, K. M., Epstein, E. & Sharps, P. (2016). Racial discrimination and
adverse birth outcomes: an integrative review. Journal of midwifery & women's
health, 61(6), 707-720.
Bernard, D. L., Lige, Q. M., Willis, H. A., Sosoo, E. E. & Neblett, E. W. (2017). Impostor
phenomenon and mental health: The influence of racial discrimination and
gender. Journal of counseling psychology, 64(2), 155.
Goering, J. & Wienk, R. (2018). Mortgage lending, racial discrimination and federal policy.
United Kingdom: Routledge.
Holley, L. C., Tavassoli, K. Y. & Stromwall, L. K. (2016). Mental illness discrimination in
mental health treatment programs: Intersections of race, ethnicity, and sexual
orientation. Community mental health journal, 52(3), 311-322.
Kirkinis, K., Pieterse, A. L., Martin, C., Agiliga, A. & Brownell, A. (2018). Racism, racial
discrimination, and trauma: a systematic review of the social science
literature. Ethnicity & health, 1-21.
Matsuda, M. J. (2018). Public response to racist speech: Considering the victim’s story.
In Words that wound (pp. 17-51). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Paine, S. J., Harris, R., Cormack, D. & Stanley, J. (2019). Self-reported sleep complaints are
associated with adverse health outcomes: cross-sectional analysis of the 2002/03 New
Zealand Health Survey. Ethnicity & health, 24(1), 44-56.
Paradies, Y., Ben, J., Denson, N., Elias, A., Priest, N., Pieterse, A. & Gee, G. (2015). Racism
as a determinant of health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one, 10(9),
e0138511.
Quillian, L., Pager, D., Hexel, O. & Midtbøen, A. H. (2017). Meta-analysis of field
experiments shows no change in racial discrimination in hiring over
time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(41), 10870-10875.

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Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2016). A post-racial society in which ethnic-racial discrimination still
exists and has significant consequences for youths’ adjustment. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 25(2), 111-118.