Rough Draft

Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, and antagonism that is directed to a person or a group of individuals based on the belief that one's culture is superior to the other (McConahay, 1986). Racism started when races that felt superior to the other and thus started enslaving the other who were viewed as inferior races. Racism has been there for years and still exists in the contemporary world. As explained in this paper racism has been there, and its legacy still exists.

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In the 18th century, the US economy was dependent on slavery, for this reason, it became part of the culture to the extent that it was immortalized and romanticized in films. Public lynching was done in the US south where between 1889 and 1940 a total of 3, 883 people were lynched according to World council of Churches where 80% of these people were African American.

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Racism is still evident in today's world, the United States in one of racially and ethnically diverse nations. There is significant economic disparity among different races and ethnics. Research shows there is the likelihood of people of color being impoverished and subjected to low-quality life as compared to whites (LaVeist et al., 2000). African Americans earn only a 62% of the median of what white earns, which is the lowest in the country. US southerners are more likely to be uneducated, poor, unemployed and incarcerated in general but are even one for the people of color who are more likely to be living near an industry producing cancer-causing toxins or a toxic waste dump (LaVeist et al., 2000).

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Health is a valuable asset to every human on the planet, but racism has made it difficult for most people to be responsible for their health (LaVeist et al., 2000). Minority groups have been denied their human right and also quality healthcare. Racism still exists in the 21st century as doctors still entertain racial biases and infringe treatment of minority patients.

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In 1947 penicillin was used to cure diseases like syphilis (Norgaard et al., 201l). . Before 1947 cure for syphilis was not found and this led to medical researchers coordinating with Tuskegee institutes in Alabama. The collaboration was to seek a cure for sexually transmitted diseases (Norgaard et al., 201l). The team used their tests on the poor blacks who were promised free healthcare. The researchers later failed to keep their promises, and they failed to offer the health services as promised to the Tuskegee test subjects. This led to spread of the disease, and some died needlessly.

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Similar research was done in Guatemala, and it was conducted on people with a mental health condition and prison inmates (Norgaard et al., 201l). The victims of the Guatemala Syphilis Study were not compensated when the Tuskegee test subjects received settlements.

When the medical researchers carried unethical syphilis studies the targeted communities, government agencies also held their research on women of color for sterilization (Norgaard et al., 201l). The state of North Carolina was aiming at reducing poor and mentally ill people from reproducing .however the targeted amount of women were black women. The medical and the government in the US territory of Puerto Rico aimed at working-class women for sterilization to reduce unemployment cases.

Conclusion and Personal Opinion

People should not be discriminated despite their color of skin or gender. The government should, however, implement better ideas to bring different races together instead of regarding some group as special (Norgaard et al., 201l). The poor should be given a chance to participate in government programs without being forced. The health sector should also be very fair and treat all the people equally.

References

McConahay, J. B. (1986). Modern racism, ambivalence, and the modern racism scale.

LaVeist, T. A., Nickerson, K. J., & Bowie, J. V. (2000). Attitudes about racism, medical mistrust, & satisfaction with care among African American & white cardiac patients. Medical Care Research and Review, 57(1_suppl), 146-161.

Norgaard, K. M., Reed, R., & Van Horn, C. (2011). A continuing legacy: Institutional racism, hunger, and nutritional justice on the Klamath. MIT Press.