Southgate Institute for Health Society and Equity, Public Health, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
Soc Sci Med. 2011 Oct;73(7):1045-53. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.06.058. Epub 2011 Jul 23.
This paper examines responses to racism and the pathways through which racism can affect health and wellbeing for Aboriginal people living in an urban environment. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in 2006/07 with 153 Aboriginal people living in Adelaide, Australia. Participants were asked about their experience of, and responses to, racism, and the impact of these experiences on their health. Racism was regularly experienced by 93% of participants. Almost two thirds of people felt that racism affected their health. Using a thematic analysis with a particular focus on how agency and structure interacted, a number of key reactions and responses to racism were identified. These included: emotional and physiological reactions; and responses such as gaining support from social networks; confronting the person/situation; ignoring it; avoiding situations where they might experience racism; 'minimising' the significance or severity of racism or questioning whether incidents were racist; and consuming alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. A further theme was a conscious decision to not 'allow' racism to affect health. Our study found that most people used more than one of these coping strategies, and that strategies were selected with an awareness of positive and negative health impacts. While individuals demonstrated substantial agency in their responses, there were clear structural constraints on how they reacted and responded. We found that not only was racism potentially detrimental to health, but so too were some responses. However, while some strategies appeared 'healthier' than others, most strategies entailed costs and benefits, and these depended on the meanings of responses for individuals. This paper concludes that initiatives to promote health-protective responses to racism need to consider structural constraints and the overarching goal of reducing systemic racism.
本论文探讨了针对种族主义的应对方式，以及种族主义如何通过这些途径影响生活在城市环境中的澳大利亚原住民的健康和福祉。2006/07 年，对居住在澳大利亚阿德莱德的 153 名原住民进行了面对面访谈。受访者被问及他们对种族主义的经历和反应，以及这些经历对他们健康的影响。93%的参与者经常经历种族主义。近三分之二的人认为种族主义影响了他们的健康。本研究采用主题分析方法，特别关注能动性和结构性如何相互作用，确定了对种族主义的一些关键反应和应对方式。这些反应包括：情绪和生理反应；以及从社交网络中获得支持、直面个人或情况、忽略它、避免可能经历种族主义的情况、“最小化”种族主义的意义或严重程度、质疑事件是否具有种族主义性质、以及饮酒、吸烟和使用其他毒品等应对方式。另一个主题是有意识地决定不让种族主义影响健康。我们的研究发现，大多数人会使用不止一种应对策略，并且在选择策略时会考虑到对健康的积极和消极影响。虽然个人在应对种族主义时表现出了相当的能动性，但他们的反应受到了明显的结构性限制。我们发现，种族主义不仅可能对健康有害，一些应对方式也是如此。然而，虽然某些策略似乎比其他策略更“健康”，但大多数策略都有其成本和收益，而这些取决于个人对这些策略的理解和反应。本论文的结论是，促进针对种族主义的健康保护反应的举措需要考虑结构性限制和减少系统性种族主义的总体目标。
