The Effect of Racism on the Self-Esteem of African...

Throughout the past, scientists have attempted to explain the health disparity between African Americans and Whites. With the completion of the human genome project, it was shown that there is very little difference between different races on the genetic level. However, â€Å"African Americans are twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease as their European counterpart,† the question that has arisen is where do these differences stem from (Harell, Floyd, Daniels and Bell). Recently, scientists have begun to believe that racism could possibly explain these differences (Belgrave Allison, 2010). Racism has been an issue for African Americans since the early days of slavery. Everywhere they go, they face a possibility of being†¦show more content†¦Participants For this study, two hundred African American students will be surveyed. They will be randomly sorted into three groups One quarter will watch a racist interaction between an African American and a White person, One quarter will watch a neutral interaction, and the last quarter will watch a positive interaction. The control group will be the group who viewed the neutral interaction. These groups are valid because the control group is not viewing any incidents of racism, which gives a basis to measure the other groups. The incentive for this study is that the students will receive some sort of academic repercussion. The students will give their informed consent to participate in this study and they will be allowed to back out at any time. All ethical guidelines will be followed. Materials Heart rate levels will be recorded when the participants view the interaction between the African American and White person by using a hand grip heart monitor. Blood pressure will also be recorded before the participants view the interaction and after. Self-esteem will be measured at the beginning of the experiment using the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale. Racism will be measured using the Perceptions of racists discrimination self-report and The Scale of Racial Socialization for Adolescence (Fischer Shaw,Show MoreRelatedRacism And The Australian Human Rights Commission1626 Words   |  7 PagesRacism, wherever it occurs, has damaging effects. It can be defined as the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race (Oxford dictionary). It can occur on individual, internal,or institutional levels, and it can be either subtle or obvious (Jones,2000). 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