Racism Experienced By First Nations People in Canada's Healthcare
The purpose of this assignment is to maximize the opportunities for students to critique anti-oppressive theories within the context of the everyday realities of Indigenous practice and to engage in the critical reflection of practice against the backdrop of theoretical questions raised in this course. Students choosing this option will provide a thorough, in-depth examination of a case study (chosen in consultation with the instructor and written up in a way that protects confidentiality) through anti-oppressive and social justice lenses.
The paper should clearly indicate how their understanding incorporates concepts, theoretical perspectives, or knowledge that is a direct result of this course. More specifically, the reader should have a clear understanding of how various contexts (e.g. local/societal/professional/socio-political) and debates about social identities, power relationships, social justice, dynamics of exclusion/inclusion, colonialism, modernism/postmodernism, and so on come to bear on an analysis of the practice situation you have selected.
The paper should clearly demonstrate an understanding of readings covered in the course as well as evidence that scholarly, relevant, and rigorous research into the topic at hand was conducted and integrated into the analysis. Furthermore, the reader should—from reading this assignment--have a sense of what your exploration into anti oppressive practice has looked like and how it will continue.
Necessary reference: Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice, Social Justice Social Work" 3rd Edition by Donna Baines
Other suggested references:
Abberley, P. (1987). The Concept of Oppression and the Development of a Social Theory of Disability. Disability, Handicap and Society 2(1): 5-19. Adelman and Enguidanos (Eds.). New York: Harrington Park Press
Avery, D.M. (1999) Talking 'Tragedy’: Identity Issues in the Parental Story of Disability. In Disability Discourse. M. Corker and S. French (Eds.).
Bannerji, H. (1997). "Geography lessons: On being an insider/outsider to the Canadian nation. In Leslie G. Roman and Linda Eyre (Eds.). Dangerous territories: Struggles for difference and equality in education (pp 23-41). New York/London: Routledge.
Brah, A. (1992). Difference, Diversity and Differentiation. In J.Donald & A.Rattansi, eds. 'Race', culture and difference. London: Sage.
Brooks, A. (2000). Citizenship, identity, and social justice: The intersection of feminist and post- colonial discourses. In M. Arnot and J. Dillabough (Eds.). Challenging Democracy. London: Routledge / Falmer.
Brown, C. (1999). Feminist postmodernism and the challenge of diversity. In A.S.Chambon & A. Irving (Eds.), Essays on postmodernism and social work (pp. 33-46). Toronto: Canadian Scholar's Press.
Bruyere, G. (1999). The Decolonization Wheel: an aboriginal perspective on social work practice with aboriginal peoples. Delaney, R., Brownlee, K. & Sellick, M. (Eds.). Social Work with Rural & Northern Communities. Lakehead University, Centre for Northern Studies, Johnston, M. (Ed.) Northern and Regional Series, Volume 8, Northern Social Work Collection, Volume 4. Thunder Bay: Lakehead University
Charlton, J.I. (1998). Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment. Berkeley: University of California Press
Clark, C. (2002). Identity, individual rights and social justice. In R. Adams & L.
Dominelli L. & M. Payne (Eds.), Critical practice in social work. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave.
Day, L. (1992). Women and Oppression: Race, Gender and Class. In “Women and Oppression" Issues in Anti- Discriminatory Practice. New York: Routledge
Delgado, R. (2000). ‘Storytelling for oppositionists and others: a plea for narrative’. In: Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (eds.) Critical race theory. The cutting edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, pp.60-70
Dominelli, L. (1994). Anti-racist perspectives in the social work curriculum. In L. Dominelli & N. Patel & W. T. Bernard (Eds.), Anti-racist social work education: Models of practice (pp. 22- 35). U.K.: SSSU.
Dominelli, L. (1997). Anti-Racist Social Work. London: Macmillan.
Dominelli, L. (2004). Social work- A profession in changing contexts. In L. Dominelli (Ed.), Social work: Theory and practice for a changing profession (pp. 20-61). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Dumbrill, G. C. (2006). Should I go or should I stay? An anti-racist child welfare training dilemma. In B. Lee & S.Todd (Eds.). A casebook of community practice: Problems and strategies. (pp. 149-155). Mississauga: Common Act Press.
Essed, P. (1991). Understanding Everyday Racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Evans, P. (1998). "Gender, Poverty and Women's Caring." In Caring: Feminist Perspectives on Social Welfare C. T. Baines, P.M. Evans, and S. Neysmith (Eds.). Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Fook, J. (2002). Social work: Critical theory and practice. London: Sage Publications.
Fraser, Nancy. (1995). Recognition or Redistribution? A critical reading of Iris Young’s “Justice and the Politics of Difference. 31 (2), 166-180.
Fraser, N., & Gordon, L. (1994). A geneology of dependency: Tracing a keyword of the U.S. welfare state. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 19(2), 309-335.
Gold, N. (1996). Putting anti-semitism on the anti-racism agenda in North American Schools of social work. Journal of Social Work Education. V 32. N 1. pp 77-89. Winter.
Henry, F., C. Tator, W. Mattis, and T. Rees (2000) The Colour of Democracy. Toronto, ON: Harcourt Brace.
Henry, F., and Tator, C. (2002). Discourses of domination: racial bias in the Canadian English- language press. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Hick, S. (2002). Anti-oppressive practice: challenges for social work. Critical Social Work. Vol 3. No 1. University of Windsor.
Hill Collins, P. (1999). Learning from outsider within: The sociological significance of Black feminist thought. In S. Hesse-Biber & G. Gilmartin & R. Lyndenberg (Eds.), Feminist approaches to theory and methodology: Oxford.
Hoare, T., Levy, & Robinson, M. (1993). Participatory Action Research in Native Communities. Canadian Journal of Native Studies. XIII (1), 43-68.
hooks,b. (2000). Feminism is for everybody. Boston, MA: South End Press.
Howe, D. (1994). Modernity, postmodernity and social work. British Journal of Social Work, 24, 513-532.
James, C. (1998) "Up to No Good. Black on the Streets and Encountering Police. In Racism and Social Inequality in Canada: Concepts, Controversies and Strategies of Resistance. V. Satzewich (Ed.). Toronto: Thompson Educational Pub.
James, Carl (Ed.). (1996). Perspectives on Racism and the Human Services Sector - A Case for Change. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Jeffery, D. (2005). What good is anti-racist social work if you can’t master it?: Exploring a paradox in social work education. Race, Ethnicity and Education. Vol 8. (4).
Jiwani, Y. (2006). Discourses of denial. Mediations of race, gender and violence. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.
Kich, G.K. (1996). "In the Margins of Sex and Race: Difference, Marginality, and Flexibility." In The Multicultural Experience: Racial Borders as the New Frontier. New York: Sage
Kivel, Paul. (1995). Uprooting Racism - How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.
Kumashiro, Kevin K. (2000). Toward a theory of anti-oppressive education. Review of Educational Research, 70(1), 25-53.
Leslie, D. and L. MacNeill. (1995). "Double Positive: Lesbians and Race." In Racism in the Lives of Women: Testimony, Theory, and Guides to Anti-Racist Practice.
Li, X. (2007). Voices Rising. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Linton, S. (1998). Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity.
Lorde, A. (1990). "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Differences." In Out there: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. R. Ferguson et al (Eds.). New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art.
Mackelprang, R. and R. Salsgiver. (1996). "People with Disabilities and Social Work: Historical and Contemporary Issues." Social Work: Journal of NASW 41(1): 7-14
McLaughlin, K. (2005). From ridicule to institutionalization: anti-oppression, the state and social work. Critical Social Policy, 25(3), 283-305.
Miller, Leslie J. (1993). Claims-making from the underside: Marginalization and social problems analysis. In J. A. Holstein & G. Miller (Eds.), Reconsidering social constructionism: Debates in social problems theory (pp. 349-376). New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Mock, K.R. (1996). "Anti-Semitism in Canada: Realities, Remedies, and Implications for Anti- Racism." In Perspectives on Racism and the Human Services Sector. (C. James, Ed.) Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Mohanty, C. A. Russo, and L. Torres (Eds.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press Espin, O. (1994). "Feminist Approaches." In L. Comas-Diaz and B. Greene (Eds.).Women of Color: Integrating Ethnic and Gender Identities in Psychotherapy. New York: The Guilford Press.
Monture-Angus, Patricia. (1995). Thunder in My Soul. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Mullaly, B. (2002). Challenging oppression: A critical social work approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mullaly, B. (2007). The new structural social work (3rd edition). Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.
National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO). (2006). Cultural safety/competence in Aboriginal health: An annotated bibliography. January 31, 2006. http://www(dot)naho(dot)ca/english/documents/Culturalsafetyannotatedbibliography.pdf
O'Neill, B. (1999). "Social Work with Gay, Lesbian, and bisexual Members of Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups." In Professional Social Service Delivery in a Multicultural World. Chap. 4
Razack, N. & D. Jeffery. (2003). Critical race discourse and tenets for social work. Canadian Social Work Review. Vol 19 (2).
Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience. Massachusetts: Montague.
Sakamoto, Izumi and Pitner, R. "Use of Critical Consciousness in Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice: Disentangling Power Dynamics at Personal and Structural Levels," British Journal of Social Work 35.4 (2005): 435-52.
Savin-Williams, R. (1994). "Verbal Abuse as Stressors in the Lives of Lesbian, Gay Male, and Bisexual youths: Associations with School Problems, Running Away, Substance Abuse, Prostitution and Suicide." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 62(2): 261-269
Schnitzer, P.K. (1996). " 'They Don't Come In!': Stories Told, Lessons Taught About Poor Families in Therapy." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 66(4), October.
Schragge, E. (2003). Activism and Social Change. Peterborough: Broadview Press.
Shera, W. (Ed.), Emerging perspective on anti-oppressive practice. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press.
Seidman, S. 1997. Difference troubles. Cambridge:. Cambridge University Press.
Spark, B. 1998. The academic shunning of fat old women. In: J. Stalker & S. Prentice, eds. The illusion of inclusion. Women in post-secondary education. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Tew, J. (2006). Understanding power and powerlessness. Journal of Social Work, 6(1), 33-51. Thompson, N. (1993). Anti-discriminatory practice. London: The MacMillan Press Ltd.
Tomlinson, D., and Trew, W.(eds). (2001) Equalising opportunities, minimising oppression: A critical review of anti-discriminatory policies in health and social welfare. London: Routledge.
Walkowitz, D. (1999). Working with Class: Social Workers and the Politics of Middle-Class Identity. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Watts, I. E., & Erevelles, N. (2004). These deadly times: Reconceptualizing school violence by using critical race theory and disability studies. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 271-299.
Weedon, C. (1999). "Class." Feminist, Theory, and the Politics of Difference. Massachusetts: Blackwell.
Weedon, C. (1987). “Principles of Poststructuralism”. Feminist practice and poststructural theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Young, I. M. (2000). Five faces of oppression. In M. Adams & W. Blumenfeld & R. Castaneda & H. Hackman & M. Peters & X. Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism and classism. New York: Routledge Press.
Racism Experienced By First Nations People in Canada's Healthcare System and Practicing Through an Anti-Oppressive Lens in Canada's Healthcare System
Name
Institution
Racism Experienced By First Nations People in Canada's Healthcare System and Practicing Through an Anti-Oppressive Lens in Canada's Healthcare System
Introduction
The indigenous Canadian people are faced with multiple challenges that emanate from the disparities depicted by the healthcare system. According to Mathews (2017), the experiences of the First Nation's people in Canada are highly capable of lowering their health outcomes; an aspect that is heightened by the inadequacies of access to high-quality medical services and their lower socio-economic statuses. On the other hand, Browne et al. (2016) demystify that the Indigenous Canadian people living in the remote areas of the country also experience deficiencies in their ability to access satisfactory medical services and infrastructure. The Canadian healthcare system lacks “reasonable assurance that eligible First Nations individuals living in remote communities in Manitoba and Ontario had access to clinical and client care services and medical transportation benefits as defined for this performance audit.” (Martin et al., 2017), On the other hand, McDonnell et al. (2017) demystify that the country’s healthcare management system has periodically experienced failures in ensuring that the existing regulations, strategies, and policies are implemented to the latter. Rahaman, Holmes, and Chartrand (2017) explain that issues of racism such as systemic prejudice in the Canadian medical system have acted as noteworthy contributors to the lower health outcomes depicted by the indigenous population.
Rousseau et al. (2017) reveal that racist prejudices in the Canadian healthcare system are not only tied to the interpersonal relations depicted when providing medical services but also in the organizational and administrative dimensions. Goodman et al. (2017) demystify that structural discrimination against the first nation’s people is evident in the regulatory frameworks, policies, and practice; an aspect that imposes profound negative effects on the ability of this populace to access critical services. According to McNally and Martin (2017), the issues of colonization and racial discrimination in Canada are related and do play a crucial role in imposing negative effects on the health status of the indigenous population in Canada. On the other hand, Baines (2011) reveals that for over 100 years, first nation’s people have been managing prejudice and its associated effects at their personal, family as well as societal dimensions by demonstrating their abilities to persevere whenever they are faced with tormenting circumstances such as communal violence, culture-based genocides, legislated discrimination, and economic oppression. The current study seeks to undertake a critical analysis of the oppressive situations the first nation’s people in Canada are forced to bear due to the underlying issues of racial discrimination depicted by the country’s healthcare system.
The Effects of Canadian Colonization on the Social Aspects of Health
Rousseau et al. (2017) reveal that colonization has been considered as one of the critical determinants of the current determinants of the medical position of the indigenous populaces across the globe. For instance, the government of Canada puts much emphasis on the important role played by issues such as social segregation, inadequacies in the levels of self-determination, racist ideologies and colonization in fostering the prevailing state of health disparities experienced by the Indigenous populations.
The Indian Act
The Indian Act of 1876 played a significant role in influencing the social determinants of health. According to Rahaman et al. (2017), the policy accorded the Canadian government the inherent powers of choosing the members of its community that could be considered as Indians and therefore the right to have unlimited access to certain essential services. Apart from imposing governmental control on the issue of indigenous identity, the policy was of critical essence in enabling the Canadian government to relocate the Aboriginals from their ancestral lands to the health insufficient “reserve lands.”
Systemic Racism in Canadian Healthcare
Giesbrecht et al. (2018) reveal that administrative organs, frontline staff, and physicians continue to deny the fact that the prevalence of racism is one of the significant contributors of the poor health statuses depicted by the first nation’s people in Canada. According to Wagner et al. (2018), racist ideologies are habitually put into conceptualization at the personal levels. To date, the Canadian healthcare system is permeated with racist discourses, particularly in the consciousness of key stakeholders and staff such as the caregivers, specialists, social workers, and even receptionists. Wagner et al. (2018) reveal that most of the settler citizens have upheld the conventional cultural viewpoint that issues such as ill health, death or other injurious conditions occur in one’s life as a result of their faulty lifestyles. Such a notion leaves the Canadian healthcare system with little understanding of the roles played by cultural subjugation, the organizational styles of the West, socio-economic variation, and racial segregation on the health conditions of the indigenous populace.
According to Hole et al. (2018), the prevailing prejudices and disparities in the health position of the first nation’s people and the non-indigenous populaces in Canada can be attributed to the country’s colonial history. Jacklin et al. (2017) reveal that the regal activities of the colonial masters played a critical role in infecting the indigenous populace with deadly infirmities that had a great negative effect on the stability of the local communities. According to Beavis et al. (2015), the colonial regime imposed poor regulatory frameworks and policies that forced the first nation’s people to issues such as malnourishment, imprisonment, confinement of the community to reserves, and discontinuing children from schooling activities. Such torture had a great negative effect on the state of physical health and wellbeing of the indigenous populace. Mackay et al. (2018) reveal that these processes imposed multiple disruptions on the indigenous people’s systems of knowledge, education and social well-being as they forced the original inhabitants to relinquish their traditionally accepted spiritual and medicinal practices. This aspect undermined the health systems of the first nation’s people because these communities greatly benefited from these practices in the processes of sustaining the medical requirements of their people.
Mathews (2017) demystifies that the colonial rule in the Canadian landscape considered the organization of the medical and social institutions upheld by the indigenous people as an essential aspect of instilling their powers. According to Browne et al. (2016), the current healthcare system was preconceived through consideration of the premise that the Indigenous people in Canada needed to be exposed to a demeanor scheme compared to other members of the community as a way of lowering the per capita expenditure on this populace. As a consequence, critical services such as health, education and social amenities targeting the Indigenous people were tailored in such a way that they met the goal of spending the least financial resources while foreseeing the colonial aim of ensuring that the first people’s nation was segregated, eliminated and assimilated. As a consequence, the colonial masters’ ideologies of withholding or providing limited healthcare services that were based on a miniature budget with nursing services that were highly ineffectual played a crucial role in ensuring that the Canadian administration was in total control of the new found territory at the expense of the Indigenous populace.
Gendered Impacts of Deprivation of Health on the Indigenous Populace
Indigenous women are faced with multiple disparities and barriers in their efforts of accessing high-quality healthcare services. According to McDonnell et al. (2017), the racist policies and regulatory frameworks put in place by the colonial administration played a significant role in shaping the lives, health status, and well-being of these indigenous women due to their effects in demeaning them with adequate access to high-quality medical services. For instance, Goodman et al. (2017) reveal that historical prejudices such as sterilization of indigenous women act as critical determinants of the present day alarming rates of infant mortality, overall poor health as well as maternal mortality and morbidity. Further, Giesbrecht et al. (2018) reveal that the underlying historical practices imposed a great negative mark on the lives of the indigenous women by emasculating traditional midwifery, disproportioning the communal mechanisms aimed at fostering child welfare interventions, and imposing regulations that called for the immediate evacuation of expectant women from their remote societies. According to Mathews (2017), the issue of ongoing violence against the health statuses and wellbeing of the indigenous women is even perpetuated by the current Canadian political regimes based on its position of laxity in ensuring that the prejudices faced by the aboriginal women are adequately addressed. According to McNally and Martin (2017), there are greater tendencies that Aboriginal women will be faced with the challenges of spousal, non-spousal and other forms of violence compared to their non-aboriginal counterparts. On the other hand, the Indigenous Canadian women face greater likelihoods of being faced with the challenges of homicide and are more likely to be murdered by their intimate partners.
Impacts of Racist Activities on the Health Status of the Aboriginal Populace in Canada
Issues of discrimination imposed among the indigenous populace in Canada are adequately documented by survey agencies such as the Aboriginal People’s Survey, Our Health Counts study, and the Toronto Aboriginal Research Project. According to Baines (2011), there is a growing body of scientific inquiry and research aimed at fostering the documentation and delineation of the relationships that exist between racial prejudice, access to healthcare services and indigenous health. According to M...
👀 Other Visitors are Viewing These APA Essay Samples:
-
Explanation of the Sources Concerning the Issue of Racism
2 pages/≈550 words | 10 Sources | APA | Social Sciences | Research Paper |
-
Global Futures Research Paper. China’s Energy in 2050
10 pages/≈2750 words | No Sources | APA | Social Sciences | Research Paper |
-
Radicalization Models: The Wiktorowicz and NYPD Model
3 pages/≈825 words | 2 Sources | APA | Social Sciences | Research Paper |