Ethnic Discrimination Not Only Based on Prejudice

Our belief in power hierarchies is important in how we view and treat people. This is shown in a dissertation by Alexandra Snellman from Uppsala University that examines how racist and sexist prejudice creates social hierarchies and ethnic discrimination in various situations.

Discrimination and hierarchies are created not only as a result of our prejudices but are affected by other factors as well. Alexandra Snellman has studied how the social hierarchies we inhabit and our belief in power hierarchies, so-called social dominance orientation, impact our view of other people. Her studies shows that socially dominant individuals, that is, those who have a strong faith in power hierarchies in general, also tend to create hierarchies and practice ethnic discrimination more than other people do.

The existence of and background to ethnic hierarchies have previously been studied only in the Netherlands and the former Soviet Union. Alexandra Snellman’s findings show that an ethnic hierarchy exists in Sweden as well, where people have the least social distance to the upper groups and the greatest distance to the groups at the bottom of the hierarchy.

“Patriarchal culture, religious commitment, and how long immigrant groups have been represented in Sweden are among factors that probably affect where you wind up in the local hierarchy,” she explains.

The tendency to create such hierarchies is influenced, on the one hand, by whether a person is socially dominant and, on the other hand, by ethnic prejudice.

Using experimental situations Alexandra Snellman also investigated the behavior of test subjects when they were asked either to help or to punish various individuals. The individuals they were to punish would be either ethnic Swedes or immigrants from the Middle East. Here, too, it turned out that the test subjects who were socially dominant gave immigrants stiffer punishments.

The dissertation shows that social dominance is linked to how much one identifies with manly social behavior. This was true of both men and women participating in the study --­ the greater the identification with manliness, the higher the social dominance.

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White Supremacists Blame Immigration, Asians for Virginia Tech Tragedy, ADL Says

In the wake of the tragic shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, extremists and white supremacists and conspiracy-oriented Internet forums and Web sites have focused on the ethnicity of the killer in an attempt to blame Asians, immigrants and other minorities for the deaths and to spread a message of hate, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

"Extremists are using the Virginia Tech shootings to spread a message of hate against immigrants, particularly Asians," says Abraham Foxman, ADL national director. "They are using the shooter's Asian ethnicity as an excuse to pile on hate against Asians, Blacks, Jews and immigrants. It is yet another example of how the neo-Nazis and haters are seeking to create an atmosphere of divisiveness around the immigration debate and to engender fear of minority groups living in America."

Some white supremacists groups have posted virulently anti-immigrant, racist and anti-Semitic videos on YouTube, the popular mainstream videosharing site, with deceptive titles such as "Virginia Tech Shooting Update" that make them appear as if they were legitimate news clips dealing withthe aftermath of the shooting, ADL says.

Additional examples are available on ADL's Web site.

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Black-White Life Expectancy Gap Narrows, But Remains Substantial

Reductions in the death rate from homicide, HIV disease, unintentional injuries -- and among women, heart disease -- have contributed to narrowing the life expectancy gap between blacks and whites in the United States, although substantial inequalities and challenges remain, according to a study in the March 21 issue of JAMA.

Life expectancy at birth has generally been increasing in the United States since at least the late 19th century. For as long as data have been reported by race/ethnicity, life expectancy of blacks has been lower than that of whites, according to background information in the article. Since the early 1980s, the black-white life expectancy gap increased sharply, then subsequently declined. But the causes of these changes have not been investigated.

Sam Harper, Ph.D., of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues conducted a study to determine the contribution of specific age groups and causes of death to changes in the black-white life expectancy gap from 1983 to 2003. They analyzed data from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System, maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics, which collects information on all deaths occurring in the United States each year.

The authors report that after widening during the late 1980s, the black-white life expectance gap has declined because of relative mortality improvements in homicide, HIV disease, unintentional injuries -- and among women, heart disease.

"For females, heart disease made by far the largest contribution to the overall life expectance gap, accounting for 1.4 years (28 percent) of the gap in 1983, 1.6 years (28 percent) in 1993, and 1.3 years (30 percent) in 2003," the authors write. "Other important causes of the 4.5-year gap in 2003 include diabetes (0.5 years), stroke (0.4 years), and perinatal death (0.4 years)."

"Among males, the largest contribution to the gap was homicide in 1983 (1.1 years) and 1993 (1.6 years), but by 2003 heart disease became the leading cause, accounting for 1.4 years (21 percent) of the overall 6.3-year gap, followed by homicide (one year), HIV (0.6 years), and perinatal death (0.4 years)," they continue.

The current difference in life expectancy at birth between blacks and whites remains substantial, 6.3 years for men and 4.5 years for women. "Homicide, HIV, and perinatal death, although demonstrating favorable trends, continue to keep the black-white gap unnecessarily large, and unfavorable mortality trends in nephritis [kidney disease] and septicemia [bloodstream infection] are currently contributing to widening the gap," the authors write.

The authors emphasize that further narrowing of the gap will require concerted efforts to address the major causes of the remaining gap.

"Reducing social and individual risk factors for major causes of death and improving access and quality of care for blacks, particularly for cardiovascular diseases, should be a pressing priority for public health and health care," they conclude.


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