3 levels of racism PDF

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HSCI 135 Written Assignment #1 The three levels of racism are institutionalized, individual, and internalized. Recognizing these three levels of racism and learning to diffuse these racial differences and stigmas that are associated with race can help society eliminate racism in time. The first level of racism is institutionalized racism, which captures the bigger picture of why health inequities exist. Institutionalized racism accounts for the differences of access to health care, services, opportunities and goods of society by race. This type of racism is even implemented in the U.S laws and is considered a structural barrier in society. Institutionalized racism is associated with access to power, which includes the access to education, quality housing, gainful employment, and a healthy environment. This type of racism includes different access to resources and information, but more importantly representation in the government. Institutionalized racism is rooted into our government by historical events but continues to live because of the continuance of structural factors that widen the health inequity gap in society. Because of institutionalized racism, there is an association between socioeconomic status and race. Since institutionalized racism plays the biggest role in recognizing health inequities in terms of race, the other forms of racism can be cured over time if institutionalized racism is lessened in society. Unfortunately, there lack of action to stop institutionalized racism and there needs to be more policies working to end the factors that contribute to institutionalized racism. In terms of the ecological model of health, institutionalized racism would fall under organizational factors and public policy. The second level of racism is individual racism. In simple terms, individual racism are the thoughts, assumptions, motives and intentions of others according to their race. Individual

racism can be simplified discrimination and is the most common form of racism. Individual racism occurs at both a conscious and unconscious level. Individual racism is recognized as avoidance, shopkeepers’ vigilance, poor or no service, and even lack of respect. It can start as little from suspicion to purse clutching, moving towards devaluation and scapegoating. Individual racisms dives into dehumanization of certain races, examples include hate crimes and police brutality. Since all individuals are guilty of committing this type of racism, it is what maintains the structural barriers because people act upon it. It is important to realize that individuals are feeding into this discriminative racism when we make assumptions about different races. An example of individual racism is stereotyping and example that I have experienced is because I am Filipino, I am automatically going to become a nurse, which is false. Internalized racism is the last level of racism present and is defined as when the stigmatized race believes what society assumes about them, therefore they start to act according to the assumptions made. Internalized racism is giving up on themselves and others of their same race. The stigmatized race surrenders themselves to the assumptions and starts to live by the limits placed upon them by society. Feelings associated with internalized racism are helplessness, hopelessness and discouragement. This might be the most dangerous type of racism because individuals feel hopeless to change the stigmas associated with their race. It can impact the stigmatized race individual mental health, leading them to an even bigger disadvantage. Once institutionalized and individual racism have thrived in a society, it leaves the individual to decide whether or not s/he will succumb to the racial remarks. I don’t experience internalized racism, but it is likely that internalized racism is more present in lower-income communities. At each level of racism, there are different health impacts. Institutionalized racism includes class/race-based policies. These policies can further affect individuals in terms of what

kind of health care access they get. This further breaks down into the employee benefits of certain jobs or equal access to gainful employments. However, it is important to note that there are a numerous number of factors that contribute to institutionalized racism. Individual racism affects our health because the experiences of chronic stress due to racism creates a heavy toll onto your body. Constantly feeling chronic stress due to racism creates a wear and tear on your body’s organs and system, creating an overload of stress hormones. Internalized racism largely affects mental health, since an individual devalue themselves and surrender themselves to the stereotypes of society. Consistent feelings of hopelessness and a loss of sense of self can lead to mental illnesses, such as depression. We can work collectively as a society to intervene each level of racism. Institutionalized racism needs to be addressed at a state/federal level because it has to do with policies or laws that are in place. To approach the issue of institutionalized racism, we can start by listing the health disparities to eliminate and upstream from there. It is also important to educate everybody as race being a health factor, and that health isn’t solely based on behavior choices. Intervening with individual racism can be helping people manage feelings of stress and threat, opposed to automatically assuming the worst of particular race. In order to defuse stereotype threat, creating a community helps foster the sense of belonging. Intervening at internalized racism can be giving the stigmatized race a supportive community. As a society, we don’t want people to fall into internalized racism because it will feed back into institutionalized and individual racism. Instead of recognizing the differences between races, we have to recognize what is the same and realize that these social difference because of race heavily impact the health of an entire community....