美国国家公共电台 NPR Racism Is Literally Bad For Your Health

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Let's turn now to a related topic. Most people can acknowledge that discrimination has an insidious¹ effect on the lives of minorities from being passed over for jobs to being shut out of desirable housing. Most people are painfully aware of the tensions between African-Americans and police. But discrimination can also lead to a less obvious result - tangible², measurable, negative effects on health.

A new survey conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health asked members of different ethnic³ and racial groups about their experiences with discrimination. Among African-Americans, 92 percent said they believed discrimination against African-Americans exists today. More than half reported being discriminated⁴ against themselves. And all of this can be deadly according to Harvard University Public Health professor David Williams, who spent years studying the health effects of discrimination and talked to us about his findings.

DAVID WILLIAMS: Well, basically, what we have found is that discrimination is a type of stressful life experience that has negative effects on health similar to other kinds of stressful experiences.

MARTIN: Can you just give us one scenario⁵ where it would lead to a tangible, measurable effect on health?

WILLIAMS: The research indicates it's not just the big things of experiences of discrimination like being passed over for a job or not getting a promotion⁶ that someone felt they might have been entitled to, but even the day-to-day little indignities⁷ - being treated with less courtesy than others, being treated with less respect than others, receiving poorer service at restaurants or stores.

Research finds that persons who score high on those kinds of experiences - and if you follow them over time, you see more rapid development of coronary heart disease - the number one killer⁸ in the United States - by looking at what is actually happening to the arteries⁹ and the narrowing of the arteries. That occurs more rapidly among persons who record these day-to-day indignities of discrimination than persons who score low on those measures. That's just one example. Another example would be research finds that pregnant women who report high levels of discrimination give birth to babies who are lower in birth weight.

MARTIN: You know, our poll also found that almost a third of African-Americans said that they've experienced racial discrimination when going to the doctor. Could you talk a little bit about that?

WILLIAMS: Sure. That data is quite consistent with something that we in the medical and research community have known for some time - that across virtually every medical intervention¹⁰, from the most simple medical treatments to the most complicated treatments, blacks and other minorities receive poorer quality care than whites.

MARTIN: Now, I can imagine that some people hearing our conversation might argue that this is really about class not race, that this is a function of socio-economics. But you specifically studied this question. What have you found?

WILLIAMS: There are, in the United States, striking differences in health and in access to health care by income and education and occupational status. But what the research finds is there still is a negative effect of race at every level of socio-economic status so that African-Americans who are college educated, for example, do more poorly in terms of health than whites who are college educated.

And these racial differences in the quality and intensity¹¹ of care persist for African-Americans irrespective of the quality of insurance that they have, irrespective of their education level, irrespective of their job status, irrespective of the severity of the disease.

MARTIN: Professor Williams, you've been studying this for quite some time. Does your research indicate a solution? I think one might assume that most medical professionals don't think that they're discriminating¹² against black people.

WILLIAMS: Yes. That is a really important point. We think the majority of the discrimination that occurs in the health care context is driven by what we call implicit¹³ bias¹⁴ or unconscious, unthinking discrimination. If I am a normal human being, I am most likely to be prejudiced - why? - because every society, every culture, every community has in groups and out groups. And if there are some groups that you have been taught, just subtly as you were raised, to think of negatively, you will treat that person differently when you encounter someone from that group without any negative intention on your part, even if you possess egalitarian beliefs. And the first step to addressing it is to acknowledge it could be me.

MARTIN: That's David Williams. He's a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Professor Williams, thank you so much for speaking with us.

WILLIAMS: It's been great to talk to you. Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOUR TET'S "LUSH")

1 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

2 tangible   

adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的

参考例句：

• The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处。
• There is no tangible proof.没有确凿的证据。

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

5 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

6 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

7 indignities   

n.侮辱，轻蔑( indignity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The soldiers who were captured suffered many indignities at the hands of the enemy. 被俘的士兵在敌人手中受尽侮辱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• What sort of indignities would he be forced to endure? 他会被迫忍受什么样的侮辱呢？ 来自辞典例句

8 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

9 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

11 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

12 discriminating   

a.有辨别能力的

参考例句：

• Due caution should be exercised in discriminating between the two. 在区别这两者时应该相当谨慎。
• Many businesses are accused of discriminating against women. 许多企业被控有歧视妇女的做法。

13 implicit   

a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的

参考例句：

• A soldier must give implicit obedience to his officers. 士兵必须绝对服从他的长官。
• Her silence gave implicit consent. 她的沉默表示默许。

14 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。