Racialization, Ethnocultural Diversity & Health

This flashcard set covers the sociological concepts of race, racialization, and ethnicity in the context of health outcomes and disparities in Canada and the US.

Iceberg Model

A model of factors influencing health outcomes that includes social determinants of health, stereotypes, assumptions, and bias.

Race (Modern Scholarship)

A human identity category constructed within and sustaining social relations of power, recognizing it has no inherent or coherent physical or biological meaning.

Race (Modern Popular Imagination)

A grouping of humans who share physical and social qualities.

Jonathan Graves (2002) Three Assumptions of Racist Thinkers

1. That races exist; 2. That each race has its own genetically determined characteristics; 3. That social hierarchy results from these differences.

Angela James (2008) Definition of Race

A biological fiction but nonetheless a social fact; an invention not of nature but of social institutions and practices.

Race

A social construct or idea built over time that continues to evolve and change, having concrete ramifications for people’s lives.

Racialization

The social process by which racial categories are constructed as real and the 'races' as different in ways that have social, economic, and political consequences such as social exclusion.

Racism

The belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to physical appearance and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.

Social Constructionism

Refers to the socially created characteristics of human life based on the idea that people actively construct reality.

Sickle-cell disease

A blood disorder that confers some resistance to malaria, which has been used to reify race as a 'thing' by being labeled a 'disease of the black race'.

Prevalence of Diabetes in Black Population (Both Sexes, 2022)

$$15.3\%$$

Prevalence of Diabetes in White Population (Both Sexes, 2022)

$$6.2\%$$

Moderate to Severe Food Insecurity in Black Population (Both Sexes, 2022)

$$22.8\%$$

Moderate to Severe Food Insecurity in White Population (Both Sexes, 2022)

$$5.7\%$$

Ethnicity

A cultural group that has roots in a particular place in the world and is associated with distinctive cultural practices and behaviors.

Culture

The social and behavioural norms found in human societies.

Healthy Immigrant Effect

The phenomenon where immigrants who have lived in Canada for less than $10$ years have better self-rated health and less chronic disease compared to native-born Canadians.

Immigrant Health Deterioration Timeline

After living in Canada for $4–10\,\text{years}$, immigrant health appears to converge with or overshoot the patterns found in the general non-Aboriginal population.

Tay-Sachs

A condition whose identification went hand-in-hand with the social creation of Jews as a 'race'.

Equity

A concept associated with achieving an equal outcome, contrasted with equality which may result in no equal outcome.