SOCIO: Race and Ethnicity in Health and Illness

Question 1

Define ethnicity *

Answer 1

ethnicity is a way to distinguish a group from a whole population that has shared cultural characteristics. These can be:
- geographical and ancestral origins
- language and cultural traditions
- other characteristics we attribute such as nationality, migrant status, religion etc

ethnicity is a social construct

Question 2

What 2 concepts does ethnicity incorporate?

Answer 2

ethnic group: based on an individual conception of which social group we belong to and our personal identity

ethnic origin: an allocated definition based on common ancestory or place of origin

Question 3

Define institutional racism *

Answer 3

the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin.
- can be seen or detected in: processes, attitudes, behaviour
- which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist sterotyping
- which disadvantage minority ethnic people

Question 4

Define culture

Answer 4

a social construct
- the sets of ideas and beliefs that a defined social group draws upon to identify and manage the practical problems of their every day lives

Question 5

What are the problems with operationalising ethnicity *

i.e. defining and using it as a social concept and for science

Answer 5

• it is a social construct and not a scientific concept - reifying is happening (treating it as a concrete concept when it is actually abstract)
• it assumes that boundaries between ethnicities are clear and fixed - they are actually vague and fluid
• this is because cultural boundaries are constructed and maintained by social groups themselves, so they will change as mentalities change
• also, ‘ethnic difference’ label is often given by the majority groups in a society - they construct minorities as ‘other’

Question 6

What are the guidelines on using ‘race’ in science, following the Human Genome Project’?

Answer 6

1. always define race and ethnicity in the context of what you are using for that specific study
2. explain how these categories are related to the hypothesis
3. describe assigning of the participants to each race group
4. always mention the limitations

Question 7

Why is cultural awareness and an appreciation for the impact of ethnicity important as healthcare practitioners? *

Answer 7

• the experience of racism is definitely a real social phenomenon
• many ethnic minorities experience discrimination as a result of cultural sterotyping
• HCPs need to be aware and sensitive to the complexities of ethnicity because they can manifest in health beliefs and behaviours
• an awareness can serve to challenge the stereotypes that may otherwise affect the clinical asessment of a patient
• can remove institutional racism e.g. patients from ethnic minorities being identified as falling outside constructed ‘norms’ of patient behaviour

Question 8

Describe how race is a social construct

Answer 8

• classifications based on ‘race’ have no biological basis
• they are social constructions of categories that we assigned before the discovery of genetics