Racism Effects

Words: 1511
Pages: 7

This paper will be taking a look at the research done up to date on racism and its effects on various components of well being; specifically, self-esteem, depression correlation, and perspective formation. This topic is of interest because being from a multicultural country, although almost everyone is very well accommodating and accepted, there are many individuals who are not. This makes certain experiences for certain individuals traumatic and negatively driven by race. Racism’s effects are not always temporary; many racist incidences have lasting effects, in some cases very extreme lasting effects, causing things like psychosis through trigger mechanisms. The research was found through databases, specifically and largely PSYCINFO. Racism …show more content…
Self-esteem is almost synonymous, in most of the research with identity; it is also similar in the impact racism has on them. Both concepts are negatively affected by racism. Self-esteem refers to an individual’s overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her worth…refers to how people feel about themselves, such as feeling competent and possessing a positive self-attitude (Marcussen, 2006, Chao et al., 2014). The ways in which one interprets and understands the reality of their situation [attitudes toward environment] and racial incidences determines the degree to which they are negatively affected (Rahimi & Fisher, 2002), but nonetheless it is a negative effect. Racism invokes feelings of loss of self-esteem, hopelessness, and loss of control, which act as triggers for all other problems created by racism (Fernando, 1984). Racism has been seen to lead to issues like eating disorders and distorted self-image. It does this as a result of segmenting society into racial clusters, and certain races are put above others (namely Caucasians), and with this preference comes the idealization of all that those ‘superior’ races entail: whether that is physical attributes, intellect, or even dressing sense. This leads to those minority races to feel the need to conform and many times that means drastic changes in appearance (Cheng, 2014). Many researchers agree that individual attitudes and perspectives can affect the ways in which one is affected by certain situations. So even though, yes, minorities are often victimized by derogation and exclusion, it is also important to remember that due to their increased exposure to this they should be better equipped with coping mechanisms (Tajfel, 1981, Rahimi & Fisher, 2002). Having said that, Tajfel (1981) did mention that this would only be valid if the individual has an accurate perception of the nature of the racial incidence, if they fail to understand the motivations