Consequences For Minorities Research Articles

Effect of same-sex marriage legalisation on the health of ethnic minority lesbian, gay and bisexual people: a quasi-experimental study

BackgroundThe UK legalised same-sex marriage in 2014. We examine whether same-sex marriage legalisation (SSML), an exogenous policy change, affected the health outcomes among ethnic minority lesbian, gay, bisexual and other...

Perceptions of racial essentialism and social identity threat

While past research documents essentialist beliefs’ (i.e., believing social groups have inherent, unchangeable traits) impact on prejudice, no research has explored if stigmatized groups perceive essentialism as indicative of bias. With a sample of participants diverse in race and sexual orientation, we document that endorsers of racial essentialism were perceived as more likely to be racist and also as more likely to be sexist and heterosexist, relative to nonendorsers (Studies 1–2). As some essentialist beliefs about sexual orientation are associated with progay attitudes, another experiment parsed out dimensions of racial essentialism (i.e., natural kind and entitative beliefs) and examined differences in White sexual minorities’ expectations of bias from this race-based cue. Findings indicate that both essentialism dimensions elicited identity threat with potential consequences for sexual minorities’ desire to conceal their sexual orientation; thus, we broaden conceptualizations of cues that elicit identity threat while exploring nuances of the impact of perceiver identity and essentialism type.

Racialized economic segregation and health outcomes: A systematic review of studies that use the Index of Concentration at the Extremes for race, income, and their interaction.

Extensive research shows that residential segregation has severe health consequences for racial and ethnic minorities. Most research to date has operationalized segregation in terms of either poverty or race/ethnicity rather than a synergy of these factors. A novel version of the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICERace-Income) specifically assesses racialized economic segregation in terms of spatial concentrations of racial and economic privilege (e.g., wealthy white people) versus disadvantage (e.g., poor Black people) within a given area. This multidimensional measure advances a more comprehensive understanding of residential segregation and its consequences for racial and ethnic minorities. The aim of this paper is to critically review the evidence on the association between ICERace-Income and health outcomes. We implemented the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to conduct a rigorous search of academic databases for papers linking ICERace-Income with health. Twenty articles were included in the review. Studies focused on the association of ICERace-Income with adverse birth outcomes, cancer, premature and all-cause mortality, and communicable diseases. Most of the evidence indicates a strong association between ICERace-Income and each health outcome, underscoring income as a key mechanism by which segregation produces health inequality along racial and ethnic lines. Two of the reviewed studies examined racial disparities in comorbidities and health care access as potential explanatory factors underlying this relationship. We discuss our findings in the context of the extant literature on segregation and health and propose new directions for future research and applications of the ICERace-Income measure.

An ignored minority status: Consequences for sexual minorities living in a biased society

AbstractSexual minority is an umbrella term used to describe individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer and/or engage in sexual behavior with individuals of the same sex or gender. Drawing on previous models (Hatzenbuehler, 2009; Major et al., 2013; Meyer, 2003; Ryan et al., 2017) and social psychological theory, this article outlines the social and health consequences of the stigma associated with being a sexual minority and the societal, social, and intrapersonal factors that might lead to these health and social disparities. We highlight key responses to stigmatization such as physiological responses, affect, and behavioral reactions that may contribute directly and/or indirectly to health outcomes. In doing so, we propose that the stigma of sexual minority identity, manifested at multiple levels, is associated with disparities in health and social outcomes and that social psychology can provide a useful lens to begin to reduce health disparities.

Minority stress and sexual minorities of colour: the mediating role of mastery

ABSTRACT The minority stress model states that routine forms of discrimination are associated with adverse health consequences. Despite this well-supported association, there is a limited body of research applying this model for sexual minorities of colour. We utilise an intersectional approach to investigate how minority stress at the intersection of sexual and racial identities impacts psychological health outcomes. In the current study, we examine how various sources of minority stress (perceived stigma, internalised homophobia, and everyday discrimination) are associated with psychological health, through an indirect effect of mastery (Study 1) in addition to authenticity (Study 2) in two independent samples of sexual minorities of colour. Study 1 (n = 262) included sexual minorities of colour from Project STRIDE, and in Study 2, participants (n = 75) were recruited across several online platforms. Mediation analyses revealed that increased minority stressors, like discrimination, were significantly associated with a decrease in psychological health, through a decline in mastery. We did not find support for authenticity as a mediator. This study has important implications for understanding the experiences and health consequences for sexual minorities of colour.

Queer urban activism under state impunity: Encountering an LGBTTTI Pride archive in Chilpancingo, Mexico

While southern Mexico’s state of Guerrero has faced rising socio-political violence and impunity for over a decade, with particular consequences for sexual and gender minorities, an LGBTTTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, travesti and intersex) rights movement has simultaneously emerged in the state capital, Chilpancingo, and in other cities and towns. In 2002, activists organised the state’s first Pride march in this small, peripheral Latin American city, and each year since, people have gathered for what has become an annual event in this remote place nevertheless formed by what happens in distant centres of power. Also, LGBTTTI marches, parades, drag competitions and other events meant to orient the community and state institutions towards recognition of the rights of sexual and gender minorities have extended to public spaces across the state. This article examines this incongruous actuality through a study of the photos and videos in the private collection of a local activist and professional photographer, visual data that provide a unique record of how the local LGBTTTI movement has drawn on transnationally recognisable symbols and local cultural motifs to bring attention to violence experienced by its members. Building on a dense description of this archive, this paper argues that an identity-rights-based movement can coexist with a weak state that has abdicated its responsibility to guarantee basic human rights. Through its use of urban public spaces, such a movement can convey its message and draw people together, though given the limits of state-sanctioned impunity it may opt for strategic silence on wider socio-political issues in order to make specific advances.

Multilingualism and Mobility as Collateral Results of Hegemonic Language Policy

AbstractThis article shows, with Malaysia as a case study, that an ethnonationalist language policy need not have disempowering consequences for minorities. Malaysia politicizes ethnic difference between Malaysians of Malay, Chinese, and Indian descent. Ethnic Malays enjoy economic concessions unavailable to others, law defines Malaysia as Islamic and speaking Bahasa, and Malay ethnonationalism constructs Chinese– and Indian–Malaysians as perpetual visitors. Nonetheless, Bahasa has only added to the multilingual repertoires of non-Malays, rather than replaced it. This article analyses survey data about the multilingual practices of Malaysian youth and their folk linguistic talk about what guides their multilingualism. By drawing on critical language policy, it appears that policy may be so ethnonationalist that it has caused disassociation, especially amongst Indian–Malaysians, and sustained multilingualism. The Chinese–Malaysian experience, however, is better explained by a posthumanist perspective whereby language choices appear guided by material and immaterial resources within the Chinese–Malaysian community, rather than by matters of power or politics. In any case, the relative greater multilingualism of Chinese– and Indian–Malaysians was perceived as empowering non-Malay mobility despite ethnonationalist policy.

The Sheltering Effect of Occupational Closure? Consequences for Ethnic Minorities’ Earnings

It has been widely documented that immigrants receive lower earnings than the majority of the population in most Western countries. Previous research has pointed to various forms of discrimination that affect immigrants’ wage rates. The authors discuss whether the source of this wage inequality can be found at the occupational level. In this article, the authors argue that occupational closures reduce within-occupation wage inequality. To test their expectations, the authors use Norwegian register data that span all employees. The results align with their expectations, as both occupational licensing and union density strongly reduce immigrant-majority earnings’ inequality. However, neither certifications nor credentialization reduces the immigrant-majority earnings gap.

Intra-Unit Minorities in the Context of Ethno-National Federation in Ethiopia

After years of centralized rule emphasizing unity and territorial integrity, Ethiopia in 1991 adopted a federal system that aimed at accommodating its diversity. The system is designed to empower hitherto marginalized ethno-national groups by ensuring self-government in nine constituent units and redrawing boundaries to match with ethno-national boundaries. By designing constituent units, and, in some cases, local governments that ensure self-rule to major ethno-national groups, the constitution transforms these groups into majorities within the territories they control at constituent and local level. This article argues that while conferring territorial autonomy and self-rule to mobilized, territorially grouped ethno-national groups may be a step in the right direction to address the age-old ‘nationality question’, the design establishes a titular ethno-national group that claims exclusive control over territory, dominates public institutions, perpetuates majority rule and replicates the problems of the ‘nation-state’ at constituent-unit level. The combination of majority rule by titular ethno-national group and exclusive control over territory at constituent-unit level in a context of heterogeneous constituent units and increased inter-regional state mobility has therefore had grave consequences for intra-unit minorities. What the design provides is autonomy for a particular titular ethno-national group, not autonomy for all inhabitants in the constituent unit. Hence, the question arises: What institutional and policy options do we have to address the rights of intra-unit minorities in the states? It is argued that the process of empowering ethno-nationalist group at regional-state level was conducted without putting relevant institutional and policy mechanisms in place to minimize the marginalization of intra-unit minorities. The article therefore examines the institutional, political, legal and policy safeguards that exist for intra-unit minorities. It proposes four mechanisms that aim to address the concerns of intra-unit minorities: power-sharing as well as non-territorial autonomy; external checks by the federal government to monitor constituent units’ compliance with intra-unit minorities; and strict enforcement of human rights throughout the country. Enforcement of these packages of supplementary measures would mitigate the situation of intra-unit minorities and recast the conception of political power and territory in such a way that they are understood not as the exclusive property of a particular ethno-national group but a shared common good for all inhabitants of the constituent units.

Do Parents Matter? Revisiting Ethnic Penalties in Occupation among Second Generation Ethnic Minorities in England and Wales

The article studies the role of the class of origin in the occupational outcomes of second generation ethnic minorities and white British in England and Wales. In so doing, it reconsiders the relationship between ‘ethnic penalties’ and intergenerational social reproduction (or the reverse: intergenerational social mobility) by combining approaches from the migration and social stratification literatures. Two main hypotheses are tested. The first states that the class of origin, or parental social background, helps explain differences in occupational outcomes between ethnic minorities and white British; the second says that intergenerational social reproduction processes vary between groups. Based on data from the United Kingdom Housing Longitudinal Study (UKHLS: 2009–2010), the article finds partial evidence for both hypotheses. In particular, it reveals that the lower social reproduction of Pakistani, Caribbean and African men has particularly negative consequences for higher educated minorities, who do not gain – as the white British do – from more advantageous origins.

School Securitization and Latina/o Educational Progress

Increasing control and security has become a common strategy to address school violence. Some argue, however, that increasing social control has detrimental consequences for racial and ethnic minorities, especially Latinas/os. This study utilizes mixed methods to research the influence of school justice, fairness, order, and discipline may have on Latina/o youth dropping out. Quantitative data reveal any potential benefits of increased school justice, fairness, and order against dropping out are negated once Latina/o youth are disciplined. Qualitative data suggest Latina/o youth perceive differential treatment as a consequence of increased securitization that could lead to these students dropping out of school.

Diagnosing Discrimination: Stress from Perceived Racism and the Mental and Physical Health Effects*

Differences in health between racial groups in the United States are significant and persistent. Many studies have documented these differences as a result of a variety of different social factors. An emerging emphasis is the impact of racism in its various forms on physical and mental health. Social stress theory conceptualizes racism as a social stresssor which can produce negative health consequences for racial minorities. This study uses binary logit and negative binomial regression models of four items from the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to test social stress theory and examine the relationship between stress symptoms from perceived racism and overall health (N = 32,585). The effect of race on the experience of emotional and physical stress symptoms from racism is substantial. Furthermore, experiencing both emotional and physical stress from perceived racist treatment is an important factor in predicting the number of poor mental and physical health days, indicating that the experience of stress from perceived racism is related to overall poorer health.

Institutional Futility Policies are Inherently Unfair

For many years a debate has raged over what constitutes futile medical care, if patients have a right to demand what doctors label as futile, and whether physicians should be obliged to provide treatments that they think are inappropriate. More recently, the argument has shifted away from the difficult project of definitions, to outlining institutional policies and procedures that take a measured and patient-by-patient approach to deciding if an existing or desired intervention is futile. The prototype is the Texas Advance Directives Act, but similar procedures have been widely implemented both with and without the protection of the law. While this method has much to recommend it, there are inherent moral flaws that have not received as much discussion as warranted. Because these strategies adopt a semblance of procedural justice, it is assumed that the outcomes of such proceedings will be both correct and fair. In this paper, I argue that there are three main irremediable defects in the policy approach: there is the potential for arbitrary decision-making about futility in specific cases; there are structural, pre-ordained consequences for ethnic minorities who would be disproportionately affected by the use of these procedures; and the use of rationing justifications to support the use of these policies. These flaws detract so much from any benefit that could be derived that they make such strategies more harmful than helpful.

The Ethnic Division of Education and the Relations Among Non-Serb Minorities in Kosovo

Kosovo’s education system is divided along a Serb-Albanian line, with consequences for the non-Serb minorities. While Serb-Albanian relations have been researched and analyzed extensively, relations among non-Serb minority communities have typically been neglected. Although there are some studies addressing the treatment and rights of individual minority groups in Kosovo, there is very little written on the dynamics and relations those groups establish among themselves. This article uses education as the backdrop for analyzing the emerging inter-minority relations in Kosovo. The paper provides some background about minority education rights and the consequences of their partial implementation for those minority groups—i.e., the Kosovo Bosniaks and Turks—whose members opt to follow the Albanian (Kosovo) educational system. In addition, it offers insights into some of the economic and political considerations behind the decision of the Gorani community to endorse the Serbian educational system. Finally, I analyze the relations between the Goranis and Bosniaks that have been developing around education and language rights.

Is Multiculturalism or Color Blindness Better for Minorities?

A debate is raging in workplaces, schools, universities, and political and legal arenas: Is it better to ignore or acknowledge group differences? Multiculturalism, a pluralistic ideology, stresses recognizing and celebrating group differences, whereas color blindness, an assimilationist ideology, stresses ignoring or minimizing group differences. Both ideologies arguably advocate for equality, but what are their actual consequences for minorities? Previous research documents divergent patterns of relationship between these ideologies and racial bias (see Park & Judd, 2005). Among dominant-group members, multiculturalism— whether experimentally manipulated or measured as an individual difference—predicts lower bias, whereas color blindness predicts greater bias (Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee, & Browne, 2000; Richeson & Nussbaum, 2004; Verkuyten, 2005; Wolsko, Park, & Judd, 2006). Yet no study has examined how the diversity beliefs of members of the dominant group affect the outcomes of targets. Furthermore, no study has tested this link in the ‘‘real world’’ among majority and minority individuals occupying the same setting. Therefore, in a field study, we investigated the effects of Whites’ diversity beliefs on their minority co-workers’ psychological engagement, a meaningful target outcome. Given that multiculturalism predicts decreased bias, and thus contributes to a positive diversity climate, and color blindness predicts increased bias, and thus contributes to a negative diversity climate, we hypothesized that Whites’ multiculturalism is associated with higher minority engagement and that Whites’ color blindness is associated with lower minority engagement. We tested these hypotheses in 18 work units in a large U.S. health care organization.

Review: Politics in North America

POLITICS IN NORTH AMERICA Redefining Continental Relations Edited by Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Radha Jhappan, and Francois Rocher Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2008. 502pp. $46.95 (ISBN 978-1-55111-642-6)The various authors of this volume of readings attempt to describe North American politics and economics within a regional focus. It is one of a number of recent efforts to fashion a new arena of study based on the member countries of the North American free trade agreement and it is clearly the best attempt to date. The readings provide an overview of many aspects of the three countries, including their historical origins, political cultures, their institutional similarities and differences, and their experience in a number of areas of social policy. The defining context is that of NAFTA and how it constrains and shapes the politics and economics of the three countries.In broad terms, the readings focus on five aspects of democratic experience. The first is the role of the state and how it has evolved in the three countries. Second is the impact of forces associated with globalization and their impact on the sovereignty of NAFTA countries, especially Mexico and Canada. Third, the authors discuss the state of democracy and the legitimacy of existing institutional structures in the member states. Fourth, the authors discuss recent developments in the emergence of a sense of community (or lack thereof) among the member states of NAFTA. Fifth, the readings focus on the evolving state of respect for human rights among the member countries. It is in this last area of analysis that this book makes its greatest contribution. In particular, the emphasis on the differing experiences of the indigenous peoples of the three countries without sacrificing attention to most of the usual areas of comparison is welcome.The contributions to this edited volume are generally of good quality, especially those in the first two parts. The overall view of NAFTA and its role in North American politics as presented by the various authors is largely negative. NAFTA is seen to be a force undermining national sovereignty, limiting the rights of minorities, and reinforcing the constraints imposed by neoliberal free market orthodoxy on the social policy landscape of all three countries. The greater emphasis on the consequences for minorities based on gender, colour, income, and sexual orientation, as well as for the indigenous peoples - all of whom are potential beneficiaries of an activist state leads to a political perspective on the NAFTA trade regime that is largely pessimistic. …

An unnatural metropolis: wresting New Orleans from nature

Strategically situated at the gateway to the Mississippi River yet standing atop a former swamp, New Orleans was from the first what geographer Peirce Lewis called an impossible but inevitable city. How New Orleans came to be, taking shape between the mutual and often contradictory forces of nature and urban development, is the subject of An Unnatural Metropolis. Craig E. Colten traces engineered modifications to New Orleans's natural environment from 1800 to 2000. Before the city could swell in size and commercial importance as its nineteenth-century boosters envisioned, builders had to wrest it from its waterlogged site, protect it from floods, expel disease, and supply basic services using local resources. Colten shows how every manipulation of the environment made an impact on the city's social geography as well - often with unequal, adverse consequences for minorities - and how each still requires maintenance and improvement today. For example, while the massive levee system has controlled the unpredictable Mississippi, it also captures heavy down-pours, creating a new set of internal flood problems. Urban geographers frequently have portrayed cities as the antithesis of nat

In Defense of Judicial Review: A Reply to Professor Kramer

Almost thirty years ago, I decided to go to law school because I wanted to be a civil rights lawyer. Although I have been a law professor for over two decades, at heart I am still very much the civil rights lawyer that I set out to be. Thus, as I read Professor Kramer's stunning new book about constitutionalism,' I kept thinking about what his theory would mean for civil rights and civil liberties litigation. The answer is chilling. Popular would mean that courts would be far less available to protect fundamental rights. The rights of minorities would be largely left to the whims of the political majority with severe consequences for racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, and language minorities as well as criminal defendants, public benefits recipients, and others. Literary theorists tell us that the reader always brings his or her experiences to a text. I have spent much of my time the last few years representing several individuals who are serving life sentences for shoplifting under California's three strikes law. In fact, I literally began reading Professor Kramer's manuscript on the plane returning from arguing one of those cases before the Supreme Court. My client, Leandro Andrade, received a life sentence, with no possibility of parole for fifty years, for shoplifting $153 worth of videotapes. What would Professor Kramer's popular constitutionalism have meant for him? California's three strikes law was adopted by the state legislature and then reenacted by the voters through an initiative. This must be the epitome of popular constitutionalism: the people expressing their interpretation of the Constitution. Indeed, the people of California, wittingly or not, were implicitly limiting the reach of due process and sanctioning a life sentence for shoplifting as within the bounds of the Eighth Amendment. Although

Redefining the first freedom: the Supreme Court and the consolidation of state power

For over two hundred years, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has prevented government from establishing an official religion and from supporting or inhibiting privately held religious beliefs. Nonetheless, agreement over the proper constitutional boundaries separating religion from the state remains elusive. In this timely book, Ivers demonstrates that recent trends emerging in the Supreme Court point toward a weakening of the constitutional protections extended to religious minorities and a widening breach in the wall separating church and state. In the last decade, Ronald Reagan, who openly expressed his contempt for the Court's religious clause decisions, appointed justices who shared his view that majorities should have greater control over questions involving the place of religion in public life. This pattern has been continued by George Bush's appointments to the Court. In rigorous and comprehensive terms, Ivers examines the profound changes hi the church-state jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. Rather than viewing law and politics hi mutually exclusive terms, the author explains how this Court's drastic departure from established precedent is not value-neutral as claimed but represents a carefully crafted political jurisprudence designed to advance the interests of majoritarian religion. In case after case, Professor Ivers illustrates that the Court has abandoned its role as a countermajoritarian institution, a posture that has had, and continue to have, grave consequences for religious minorities not well positioned hi legislative bodies. Brilliantly argued and written hi a lucid accessible manner, Redefining the First Freedom will appeal to constitutional scholars, political scientists, and civil rights activists. It Inject new vigor into the debate over the Court's role as guarantor of individual rights, the meaning of the First Amendment religion clauses, and the appropriate relationship between religion and government.

Christian and Islamic valuation of human rights: consequences for minorities, vol. xi, no. i

"Christian and Islamic valuation of human rights: consequences for minorities, vol. xi, no. i." Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 12(1), pp. 171–172