Social Stereotypes in America

1494 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: impact of socioeconomic factors on health.

Introduction

Imagine that you are of Arab decent you being screened more thoroughly than others at the airport. The only way the airport staff can identify that you are of Arab decent is based on your family name, Najjar. The airport staff constantly takes extra measures to confirm that you are not a terrorist. Stereotypes have existed in American culture for centuries. Early in American history stereotypes of Negroes and Mexicans predominately associate them with lower-class attributes (Campbell, 1967).

Major social events can have an effect on how various groups of people are viewed. For example, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, where several individuals of Arab decent brutally murdered hundreds of unsuspecting American citizens. The terrorist hi-jacked several aircraft carriers and set them on a crash course for various national landmarks.

Since the events of September 11th many Non-European American citizens have been targets of discrimination, prejudice, hate crimes, racism, and stereotyping. According to Holman (2008), Arab nurses reported experiencing discrimination in the forms of intimidation and patient rejection more frequently than prior to the attacks of September 11th.

Outside of the public arena, the discrimination is affecting the home life of minority citizens. In a 2011 study involving 18 Arab-American couples, researchers found a relationship between the events of September 11th and problems in marriage rooted in cultural identity (Kulwicki, 2011).

It is hypothesized that name discrimination affects the mental and physical health of those individuals who are being stereotyped. The current study examines the cardiovascular risk factors (i.e., smoking, body mass index, and number of endocrine ail...

... middle of paper ...

...onal Survey of Stress Reactions after the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks. New England Journal of Medicine, 345(20), 1507-1512.

Williams, D. (1999). Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health: The Added Effects of Racism and Discrimination. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896, 173-188.

Williams, D., and Chiquita Collins (1995). U.S. Socioeconomic and Racial Differences in Health: Patterns and Explanations. Annual Review of Sociology, 21, 349-386.

Williams, D., Harold Neighbors, James Jackson (2003). Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Health: Findings From Community Studies. American Journal of Public Health, 93(2), 200-208.

Wilson, W.J. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner-City, the Underclass, and Public Policy Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press

Wilson, W.J. (1996). When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor New York, NY: Knopf

Show More
Related

  • Racism in Health-care

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Smedley, B. D. (2012). The Lived Experience of Race and Its Health Consequences. The Science of Research on Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Health, 102(May), 933.

    Read More

  • Social Welfare System Mini-Paper

    1308 Words  | 3 Pages

    The public needs to address racial disparities in health which is achievable by changing policy addressing the major components of socioeconomic status (income, education, and occupation) as well as the pathways by which these affect health. To modify these risk factors, one needs to look even further to consider the factors. Socioeconomic status is a key underlying factor. Several components need to be identified to offer more options for those working on policy making. Because the issue is so big, I believe that not a single policy can eliminate health disparities in the United States. One possible pathway can be education, like the campaign to decrease tobacco usage, which is still a big problem, but the health issue has decreased in severity. The other pathway can be by addressing the income, by giving low-income individuals the same quality of care as an individual who has a high

    Read More

  • Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health." Public Health Reports. July/August 1998: 372 EBSCOhost. Available <http://www.epnet.com/ehost/login.html>. (11 February 1999)

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Racial Profiling

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racial Profiling The targeting of a certain group of people based on stereotypes of their race is called racial profiling. Many times this method is used by police, and other law enforcement agencies in order to prevent terrorism before it happens. They are influenced by the same things that we are, and they see things the same way we do.

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration as a Modern Racial Caste System

    1886 Words  | 4 Pages

    WESTERN, and CHRISTOPHER MULLER. “ RECONSIDERING THE URBAN DISADVANTAGED: THE ROLE OF SYSTEMS, INSTITUTIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS; SPECIAL EDITORS: MARIO L. SMALL AND SCOTT W. ALLARD: SYSTEM: Mass Incarceration, Macrosociology, and the Poor.”

    Read More

  • Prenatal Health Care among Low-Income Minority Women

    583 Words  | 2 Pages

    Paul, D.A., Locke, R., Zook, K., Leef, K.H., Stefano, J.L. & Colmorgan, G. (2006). Racial

    Read More

  • Racial Stereotypes In Sherman Alexie's Flight Patterns?

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sherman Alexie’s Flight Patterns, which discusses racial stereotypes, relates to the effects of 9/11 on American citizens, who tend to inappropriately judge Muslim and other cultures in the world today. Although 9/11 was a horrible day, it still should not be used to categorize and stereotype people. Stereotypes do nothing but harm to the people who receive it and to the people who dish it out.

    Read More

  • The Social Determinants of Health

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...an, P., Egerter, S., & Williams, D. R. (2011). The social determinants of health: coming

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment: A Lesson from the Past

    2309 Words  | 5 Pages

    Targets of suspicion: the impact of post-9/11 policies on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the US. (2004, May 1). Retrieved from http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/targets-suspicion-impact-post-911-policies-muslims-arabs-and-south-asians-us

    Read More

  • Racism and Health Care Disparity

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the institute of Medicine (IOM), racism is a problem in the health care system, that is, the difference between the quality of health care received by minorities and non-minorities is due to racism. IOM is a nonprofit organization that advises the federal government and the public on science policy. It released a report that on average, minorities receive a lower quality of care, even when factors such as income and type of health insurance are accounted for. The report by IOM states that racial stereotypes and prejudice are the cause of the health care disparities. The article by IOM points ...

    Read More

  • Resistance And Self Destruction Under USApartheid, By Philippe Bourgois

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the ethnography “Understanding Inner-City Poverty: Resistance and Self Destruction under U.S Apartheid,” Philippe Bourgois, in East Harlem New York, researches the misunderstanding of inner-city poverty with an intersectional approach because of the way he incorporates the culture of resistance, race, class, and gender.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Camara Jones's Three Levels Of Racism In The United States

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the level of institutionalized racism, it is what all community organizers strive to overcome. This form of racism entails the power and access to materials that everyone should be able to obtain. When there is racism involved, there is a level of differentiation in the access that each race is entitled to. For example, Blacks have less access to nutritional food and health care when the live in an urban residential area. These inequities are the result of an institutionalized difference between racial groups and it may lead to health disparities. Dr. Jones believes that the root of association between socioeconomic status and race in the United States is in direct correlation to this form of racism.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Iron Triangles

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, a half-Jewish and half-Arab woman was yanked off her flight, in handcuffs. She was then strip-searched and put in jail for more than 4 hours. Due to Hebshi’s and the two Indian-American men sitting next to hers’ ethnicity, they were targeted and then were ordered off the plane. Not one of

    Read More

  • Overview of Social Structural Explanations and Cultural Explanations

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wilson, William Julius. 2010. More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. New York. W. W. Norton & Company

    Read More

  • Language, Gender, and Culture in Society

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group they claim to be. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is.

    Read More

More about Social Stereotypes in America

Open Document