Effects of Everyday Discrimination on Mental Health

This article ties in with our class discussion on discrimination and prejudice. The article is made up of the conclusions of a recent study done by researchers at the University of Texas Austin campus. The study focused on the effects of discrimination on one‘s mental health over time. The study followed primarily African American and Caribbean blacks through a survey, aimed to gauge how blacks felt they were treated compared to others in their communities. The questions asked gathered data based on discrimination in a variety of categories, including condescension, disrespect, hostility, and character stereotypes.

The study’s results showed that the frequent perceived racism and discrimination faced by those surveyed led to higher levels of stress and with that. higher instances and the likelihood of mental health and substance abuse disorders. The staggering number of incidents reported through the survey was also off-putting; 83 percent of those surveyed had experienced discrimination during the past year, and about half the respondents had experienced recurrent incidents of various types of discrimination.

Groups who had recurring incidents were much more likely to express symptoms of depression. and alcohol and drug dependence. This article was interesting to me because I have only perceived racism once in my life.

The fact that almost everyone surveyed felt that they had been discriminated against in the last year was shocking to me. I also was surprised that half those surveyed had been recurringly discriminated against. The way the surveyors categorized types of discrimination was interesting to me.

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I mostly think about condescension and character stereotyping when I think about racist statements. The category of disrespect was most surprismg to me because of its simplicity, but it really ties in the fact that we are all human and have the same basic desire for acceptance.