Over and over and over again, we’ll see studies that indicate racial, ethnic, gender, and age differences in some variable or another. For instance, the infant mortality rate is higher among African American babies in the United States than it is among Caucasians. At the same time, the suicide rate among white males is high compared to black males. Asian women have a longer life expectancy than any other group; in fact, if I’m not mistaken, the life expectancy of a Japanese woman is 85.
While these facts are interesting in and of themselves, inquiring minds want to know WHY these differences exist. Rather than getting huffy or annoyed that your group is being spotlighted, it’s more helpful to realize that these findings are TRUE and that if we remain open minded, perhaps then we can change things. I’d certainly like to have a lower infant mortality rate among all American babies, and I’d like for white males to stop killing themselves…and for black males to stop killing each other!
What’s your feeling on this topic? Should we sweep these and similar issues under the rug and pretend that they don’t exist? Should we ignore differences and just hope problems will rectify themselves? Or do you think we should become more aware of our social differences and inequalities and perhaps become more educated about the WHY of events?
We're psychology instructors (Jayne, Mark, Myles, Katie-in order of our being hired) at a community/technical college who are energized and excited by psychology and its applications to daily life. After all, what's the point of knowing about synapses unless the knowledge improves your understanding of moods, disorders, and memory (to name a few).
We've found that just about everything relates in some form or fashion to the science of human behavior, and it's our goal to help others to see that. Accordingly, we'll be posting opinions, comments, and questions and hoping that you'll respond. We'll also provide links to relevant articles and websites to further increase your knowledge
5 responses so far ↓
johnathan cross // August 26, 2009 at 10:53 pm
I’m white and I’m suicidal My unkle killed himself before I was born so I’ve known about the subject from an early age. and I’ve meditated on it and even attempted at 7, 17and 21. I asked a black male at work if he would ever kill himself he said no then i laughed when he said he,d like to blow up the new police station, we used to argue and he would always bring clubs to work and tell me he would bust me up.
i’ve seen the 125 year old japenese women on television and I thought she was wrinkly and gross looking but she was loved and well taken care of
Naturally I don't have the research right in front of me (and am too lazy to look it up right this minute), but a black man has a much, much greater "chance" of being killed than of taking his own life. That's almost unheard of. Interesting, huh?Jennifer Allen // June 4, 2009 at 12:34 am
I think that we should find out why more african american babies are dying more often than any other race. Is it because of health care issues or more african american mothers are not taking care of themselves while they’re pregnant? Is there more hereditary problems than with other races? I really don’t know but I would like to find out why that is. I do believe that all babies should have a fair chance in this world no matter what has to be done to do it. The thing that gets me is why would it be african american babies who have the higher mortality rate when I see on the news all the time of caucasian women having children up in their fifties, knowing that they have a higher chance of complications with pregnancy and birth. It seems to me that it would be caucasian babies with the higher mortality rate because of that. But who really knows unless extensive research was done on that specific topic. And if they know what is causing it then maybe more babies will quit dying in the african american race.
Jennifer, I'm so glad to see you participating on the blog! You have a great (open and curious) attitude that's quite helpful in finding answers to this and other questions. By the way, one of the reasons of the higher infant mortality rate among African American babies is poverty. It's a sad but true fact that more "minority" babies live at or below the poverty line. I read just this morning that although overall poverty rates are no worse than they were 20 years ago, it has increased for children under the age of 3.Tricia Williams // June 1, 2009 at 2:44 am
The military is really good at getting rid of problamatic issues. Sensitivity aside, they call it what it is, they look for what is causing it and they implement changes for a more positive outcome. Finally, they get involved and keep eachother accountable. This approach led to a dramatic decline in suicide rates among military members as well as many other positive changes. As civilians we need to stop being so sensitive. We need to look at what’s causing it so we can find the solution. Once we find the solution we need to pass the on the information. Finally, like the military encourages it’s people to do, we need to step outside our little bubbles , get involved, and keep eachother accountable. – Speak up when you young mother shaking her baby. Offer her some assistance, maybe babysit for her so she can relieve some stress.
Amen. How can we progress if we're always so cautious about stepping on someone's toes?henry page // May 29, 2009 at 1:01 am
overall, i think we have to look at all of the smaller grey areas that may be leading up to theses issues in order to understand them. in my opinion most of these issue stem from social differences and expectantcies. the problem is that we are going to have to do some extreme stereotyping in order to really start to get to the bottom of things. for example white males that commit suicide are normally older, and somewhat at the top of their careers, im willing to put money on it that the stress experienced at a higher corporate level would play a strong factor in pushing someone to such drastic measures. i think alot of the problem here is that in order to really start to solve these problems someone is going to have to stand up and be willing to take the fire for making the claims that need to be made. Just think about it, we see it all the time, if it was a proven fact that white males can not handle stress well at an older age and someone actually came forward and said it someone would twist it into someone saying “white people cant handle stress” and then whoever made the claim is going to come under fire for being racist when that was never what was intended. so basically i think people are scared to state the obvious and tend to spend more time looking for reasons that can be presented in a little more of a politically correct manner.
I think I see what you're saying. Is it that while we KNOW there are differences, we sometimes get a little too concerned with saying things correctly so as not to offend anyone?Sheri Hannibal // May 28, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I think we should approach the issues to find out why !!! If asians live longer i want to know what they do to live longer. If caucasians are suicidal i want to know what 2 do to not be suicidal. What i mean is i don’t think we should turn our backs on the issues i think we should become more aware of them so we can learn from them. Learning from anothers is what makes us smarter and wiser!!!
Great attitude! I'm with you on this one. About those Japanese women, I think a lot of it is because of diet. Let's remember this topic to discuss in class when we get to the material on adulthood.