Dominic Pizarro

Professor Sartin
AFRS 100-04
1 October 2013
Impact of Racism upon Personal Health
Racism has been the bane of America beginning with the slave trade and continuing
presently despite our election of an African American president. Although racism may not be as
apparent, its influence exists within the health disparities encountered by African Americans.
Dominica Francoise McBride published her article Manifesting Empowerment: How a Family
Health Program Can Address Racism in the Journal of Black Psychology 2011, detailing her
study on the effects of current health disparities on African Americans physical health.
McBrides research points to the larger issue of deterioration of the African American by
unbridled racism. Underlying racism currently in society causes African Americans to develop
physical health complications, emotional distress, and low self-esteem.
In Manifesting Empowerment: How a Family Health Program Can Address Racism,
McBride begins by displaying the lack of progress in health care provided to African Americans,
and by doing so explains the exigence of addressing racism in individual and community
environments (McBride 337). McBride refrences Kirk Davis replication of Clark and Clarks
doll study, as an example of the continued negative mindset towards darker skin color. The
children in Davis study were given a black and white doll, and when asked which doll they
liked the best or thought was the nice doll 15 out of 21 children chose the white doll
(McBride 338). In an effort to address the issue of racism, McBride conducted a study inquiring
Pizarro 1
from African American parents/guardians and health care professionals what would be necessary
to construct a culturally responsive family health program(FHP). (McBride 340) Family,
McBride claims, is a prominent cultural tool and resource, a needed factor in the equation of
abolishing racism; McBride also understood African American parents are tasked with what M.F.
Peters describes as racial socialization, the need to provide for and raise children within the
mundane extreme environmental stress of racism and raise physically and emotionally healthy
children who are Black in a society which being Black has negative connotations. (McBride
339) McBride included professionals in her study to maintain an objective position and provide
an informed professional outlook of the issue. After separating the parents/guardians and the
professionals into two focus groups, each group was given a demographic survey followed by a
1.5 hour group discussion guided by preset questions. The documented results proposed a six
part solution: enhancing self-esteem and empowering the individual, providing positive Black
role models for youth, highlighting talents and manifesting strengths, education, increasing
cohesion within the Black community, and increasing cohesion with other ethnic groups within a
community. (McBride 344)
McBride presents a strong argument throughout her article, beginning with a concrete
establishment of racism and what she asserts must be done to prevent the further growth of
racism. The references to Davis study and Peters definition of racial socialization are essential
to the foundation of McBrides study and the shaping of her decision to choose African American
parents/guardians as study participants. Although McBride includes afore mentioned refrences
and produces a large amount of validity concerning her argument, she fails to provide the
viewpoint of a large social group highly affected by racism, African American youth. McBrides
Pizarro 2
limitation of her study to one neighborhood and not including the youths perspective, causes the
results to lack additional information needed to ensure success of an FHP. The failure to
implement the study results in an actual FHP, diminishes McBrides finding and raises the
question whether the results could work in practice and not only theory.
Viewing this topic from a broader perspective, the larger issue of underlying racism in
society becomes evident. Throughout schools, workplaces, and everyday activities, African
Americans are subject to the negative effects of racism. A young child who attends school and is
teased for the color of his skin can develop great emotional stress to the point of committing
suicide. An African American who works in a racial environment could develop health
complications leading to an early death. The failure to accept the African American culture and
people, causes harm on an immense scale not only for African Americans, but for the positive
development of the entire society. A society is not truly functioning until as Martin Luther King,
Jr. stated in his speech I Have A Dream, ...little black boys and black girls will be able to join
hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. (King 676) Racism is a
virus which continues to plague society, but is not as evident as in the past; the key to preventing
the growth of racism is to abolish the disparities between what ethnicities receive in healthcare,
education, and overall quality of life.
McBride developed a strong exigence for healthcare reform in her study and addressed
the larger issue of unbridled racism in society. Since the Emancipation Proclamation, America
has strived towards the abolishment of racism, and should continue pursuing that goal. If racism
is left unchecked, the African American community will continue to face its current hardships. In
a country that pledges to give every individual life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should
Pizarro 3
not idly standby as a racial minority is unable to receive equal treatment. A national standard of
equality must be set and not affected by racial discrimination for progress to continue.

Pizarro 4
Works Cited
King, Jr., Martin Luther. I Have a Dream Call and Response: Key Debates in African
American Studies. Eds. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Jennifer Burton. New York: Norton &
Co, 2011.
McBride, Dominica. "Manifesting Empowerment: How a Family Health Program Can Address
Racism." Journal of Black Psychology, 37.3 (2011): 336-356.


Pizarro 5