Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Health

The way race or ethnic groups are presented and reflected in the culture has implications for identity formation, mental health, and life chances. Often minority racial groups are portrayed in stereotypical ways, creating negative images about people’s values, behaviors or, relationships. The impact of these pervasive images has been clearly documented in numerous experimental designs. For example, Pager and Quillian (2005) found that African-American job candidates received fewer callbacks from companies compared with white candidates with identical resumes. (You can watch Pager discuss this here). Thus, narrow, oppressive images can have negative consequences for life chances, such as when minorities are discriminated against based on negative images held by employers. Mental and physical health consequences, such as depression and anxiety, may also be linked to narrow or negative cultural definitions about one's group.

Reference
Pager, Devah and Lincoln Quillian. 2005. “Walking the Talk: What Employers Say Versus What They Do.” American Sociological Review 70:355-80.

Resource
Pager, Devah, Bruce Western, and Bart Bonikowski. 2009. “Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market A Field Experiment.”American Sociological Review 74:777-79.