Interview Paper

1933 Words4 Pages

Communication is always a good way for one to express their thoughts. I interviewed two different people who were of separate races and ethnicities to learn about their experiences in the U.S. healthcare system. The interviews asked questions that centered around their racial and ethnic background and how their identities influenced their privileges or discrimination of or by health care officials. The two people I interviewed were from my physical therapy building. This was a great way to determine race and ethnicity seeing how the physical therapist is Indian and his assistant is Pacific Islander Filipino. Within public health, we see plenty of different races and ethnicities all around us. It is safe to say that an issue that emerged from …show more content…

A few of the questions in my interview that got answered really surprised me. One of the questions in which differed with each interview was the questions about knowing exactly when you realized what race or ethnic group you were from. These earliest moments in which they realized they were from a particular racial or ethnic group came from the heart on this one. My physical therapist said, “This would have to be the time (name) and I were looking for apartments down the street from here…We found a very nice home where there were these men outside working on the house so we figured we would go over and ask them about it. It turns out, that they told us we could never afford this area. It was then I realized that my race was being used against me in one automatically judging us based on how we looked…” On the other hand, his assistant said, “Hmm, I definitely have to think about this one. I think for myself, my earliest memory was not being able to speak English and having that define the language and culture barriers for myself...” This is a major discrepancy with relation to communication issues with not being able to speak English and being discriminated against because of race and …show more content…

My physical therapist insisted that “Ones race does influence their health. In example, this is shown in obesity within different races and ethnic groups. Not only are they obese because they may not have enough resources to provide decent food for their families. Obesity also plays a role because of their socioeconomic status...” Meanwhile, his assistant had a similar view, but she had a different reasoning behind her answer making it slightly intriguing to listen to. “I believe one race is more prone to certain illnesses based on the scientific studies, such as diabetes...” Although their answers may seem similar as to saying that ones race or ethnicity influences one’s health, their reasoning behind this was very different. Stating how they felt about this question really showed just how diverse our race or ethnicity can influence our thoughts. One interviewer was Indian and one was Pacific Islander Filipino, and yet one can tell from their answers that they think differently likely because of their identities, their race and

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