Week 5 Questions Intersectionality -- Some isms and a phobia

Fernando, S. (2012). Race and culture issues in mental health and

some thoughts on ethnic identity. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 25(2),
113-123.
Q. #1 Fernando identifies the difference between individual acts of
racism, and institutional racisms. Find the definition of institutional racism
in the article and think through the different ways in which individual and
institutional racisms work.

failure of an organization to provide a service to people because of colour,

culture or ethnic origin.
institutional racism is seen in attitudes and behavior that result in discriminating
through prejudice, ignorance and stereotyping that disadvantages minority ethnic
people

institutional racisms works when:

in the medical system schizophrenia is diagnosed at high levels to black people
Medicated at a higher rate
they are often portrayed as acting irrationally and in a uncivilized way
it is seen in the example of the program of black family life in order to save
black children from becoming schizophrenic

Q. #2 Fernando notes that 2 main issues in current mental health

practice are: 1) the over-representation of Blacks being diagnosed as
schizophrenic; 2) the over-representation of Blacks being compulsorily
detained and medicated. What 3 research solutions does he propose to
help address this issue?
1. Fernado carried out a study of depression in Jews in east London in the
1960s. He explains ethic links/ ethic ideates as protecting Jews from depression, while
others who werent connected to Jewish traditions didnt have a protective effect. He
concluded that strong ethic identities protected individuals against psychological
consequences of ethic hostility/ racism - transcultural theories
2. Study on students measuring how they saw themselves not related to
ethnicity. depressive symptoms diminished as the selves of self-complexity increased.
Meaning several ideates was not a buffer against symptoms of depression or stress,
they were not based on ethnicity or racism. By using ethnicity as a category of
monitoring is useful for finding discrimination and correcting them ethic identities
should not be made into a hue part of the individuals.
3. last study concludes that at the micro level, someones inner world of
strong ethnic identities produces alienation from our sense of self. Meaning these
ethnic identities could offer stability - but they can show an idea that we can never
be identical .

Metzl, J.M. (2009). Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a

Black Disease. Boston: Beacon Press.

Q. # 1 Prior to the 1960s, how was schizophrenia characterized and who was
understood to be affected by it in popular culture?
Side fact: Drapetomania: mental illness of African American slaves
running away from white masters thought to be cured by extensive
whipping
People understood schizophrenia to be affected by housewives (basically
the white middle class) that had emotional disharmony women would
be seen schizophrenic because of their mood swings
It was understood to be characterized by antisocial behavior - reclusive
sensitive friends
Symptom called grandiloquence poets with flowery language was a
sign of schizophrenia
Indeificication with certain groups of people while rendering other groups
invisible
Q. # 2 How did this change in the 1960s? What does Metzl identify
as the contributing factors to this change?
National Institute of Mental Health found blacks have high rate of 65%
Case files from Ionia State Hospital show racial tensions between doctors
and patients : shows the phenomenon of institutional racism
60s: American civil rights era
Fear of articulate, angry, black men fighting for their rights Malcolm X
-they threatened the social order of white America
Schizophrenia changed their meaning from white feminine passiveness to
black male hostility
Words that characterized schizophrenia in DSM-II also changed to hostile
and aggressive also linked to racial anxieties
Shows: how illness can be used to control bodies
Bilge, S. & Denis, A. (2010). Introduction: Women, Intersectionality
and Diasporas. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 31(1), 1-8.
Q. #1 What are the origins of the idea of intersectionality and why do you
think it is important to know this history?
Early as 1832 African American writer Maria Steweart talked about racial
and gender based-oppression, now known as intersectionality
Sojourner Truth former slaved challenged a suffragette meeting with
Aint I a Women speech showing discrepancies between feminist
claimes and hegemonic understandings of the conditions of African
American Women.
It is important because It remembers slavery and colonization
understanding past oppressions
Q. #2 The authors note that by using an intersectional approach it
allows you to study the matrix of power relations. What does this entail?
Matrix of Power is the analysis of multiple intersecting sources of
oppression meaning that the impact of subordination ay vary depending
on its combination with other subordinations.
It is a way of understanding current privileges with lived realities
It is not just a tool to subordinate subject positions, it can be used to
problematize dominance like whiteness, class, privilege
Provide axes over territory of origin intersectionality using border
crossings

Provide axes in social locations class hierarchy in everyday lives

Social categories and power relationships shape identity