Adriana Chavez

Adriana Chavez

Word Count: 597

The article, Discrimination and health among Asian American immigrants: Disentangling racial from language discrimination examines the role that racial language discrimination may have on chronic health conditions that Asian Americans have. Factors that were considered when looking at language discrimination were years lived in the united states, health, and race. This was looked at a result of studies that have shown that racial discrimination leads to stress, causing Asian Americans to have external and internal bodily health issues. At the same time, the stress that comes from racial discrimination has also shown to be related to mental health issues such as sense of belonging and self-esteem. However, little has been investigated in how language discrimination towards Asian Americans is related to chronic health issues and illnesses that are seen in the immigrant group. To evaluate the validity of this theory, a sample was pulled from the 2001, Health Care Quality Survey that focuses on a supplementary survey that asks a compilation of 717 Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese Americans about their experience when visiting a health clinic. To measure for the dependent variable, chronic health conditions, Asian Americans were asked to report if they had been diagnosed with issues like heart disease, high blood pressure, etc in the last 5 years. To measure for perceived discrimination for their language and race they were asked if they felt they were treated unfairly based on how they looked or spoke. Also measured for whether the individual was born in the U.S, their ethnicity, and 3 timeframes of the years they had lived here. Demographics were also considered. An issue that was controlled for was native born Asians over Asian American immigrants not born in the U.S. Findings showed that chronic health conditions were found more with less recent Asian American immigrants and the least with native born Asian Americans. Also, recent immigrants reported the most perceived language discrimination, then less recent and natives, the least perceived discrimination. Overall, the findings show that language discrimination is associated with chronic illnesses and health conditions.

The article, Racial Prejudice and Spending on Drug Rehabilitation: The Role of Attitudes Toward Blacks and Latinos examines another health concern that involves Latinos and Blacks. In this case, the study examines what is race coding/prejudice and how does it play into racial and ethnic support for drug rehabilitation for Latinos and Blacks. To evaluate this, data was gathered from the General Social survey which surveyed 18-year old's that spoke English from 1990-2000. The method used, took note of the demographics of the people but focused only on white people's racial attitudes while excluding the income of the respondents. The dependent variable in the study was, whites' thoughts on spending for drug rehabilitation. The independent variables were stereotyping, prejudice, and control variables such as religion, political association, and gender. Before finding out the results, researchers theorized that there would be prejudice and skepticism along with a lower acceptance for funding for drug rehabilitation for Blacks and Latinos because of racial coding and prejudice that lead white people to link these two minority groups to drug use. For example, whites are less likely to support welfare because they see it as a black problem and they link Blacks/Latinos to drug use, trade, and production because of media coverage. This in turn leads to intolerance to and fear of these groups. The findings of the study demonstrate what the literature has given insight to. Structural findings found that whites who attributed lower incomes, education, etc to discrimination were more likely to favor funding for drug rehabilitation and the disapproval for those on the other side of the spectrum. Overall, the findings showed that racial coding, stereotyping, and discrimination did play a role in attitudes towards other groups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

            Yoo, Gee, & Takeuchi. (2009). Discrimination and health among Asian American immigrants: Disentangling racial from language discrimination. Social Science & Medicine, 68(4), 726-732.

Nielsen, A., Bonn, L., & Wilson, S. (2010). Racial Prejudice and Spending on Drug Rehabilitation: The Role of Attitudes Toward Blacks and Latinos. Race and Social Problems, 2(3), 149-163.