Ethnic Minorities : Perceptions, Cultural Barriers & Health Inequalities

Intergroup relations are, by definition, a two-way process, yet the perspectives of minority group members have been given considerably less attention than the perspectives of dominant group members in social psychology. For decades, researchers have explored the nature of white Americans'' attitudes, opinions, stereotypes, and behaviors toward African Americans; however, ethnic minorities'' perceptions of white Americans have been grossly understudied. Chapter one of this book on ethnic minorities aims to diversify the perspectives and approaches that psychologists pursue to understand intergroup dynamics by investigating ethnic minorities'' attitudes toward white Americans. The following chapter examines the effects of neighborhood level and individual level characteristics on the attendance of religious services among first-generation Muslim immigrants and native Christians in the Netherlands. Chapter three examines the political representation of minorities on the example of the ethnic Turkish minority in Bulgaria, an unconventional case of minority participation in politics under the liberal democratic model. Chapter four attempts to illustrate how the notion of Hong Kong Chinese Orientalism emerged from the racial hierarchy of white-yellow-black by reviewing the racial and ethnic discourses in China and Hong Kong. Chapter five attempts to construct an analytical survey of the political participation of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong after the region was handed over to China in 1997. The last chapter''s objective is to critically consider the challenge of incorporating discussions of social determinants of health into human subjects research study design; and developing strategies to help racial and ethnic minorities overcome these barriers, in order to increase their enrollment in research studies.