The road forward in achieving equity in health care Essay Sample

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The road forward in achieving equity in health care
The cycle of oppression
The cycle of oppression shows the link between elements that explain the perpetuation of oppression in society. The cycle comprises stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression elements.
The stereotype element refers to the exaggerated or generalized fixed images that people, groups, and decision-makers, hold of other people as a group regardless of their differences. This classification of social reality into convenient categories based on shared properties leads to misinformation about a people and misrepresents a minority group, most often in negative ways (Wayne et al., 180). This element sets the cycle of oppression in motion. The broad generalizations people have of others form the basis of stereotypes they hold, which form the basis of people's prejudices of the minority groups. Stereotyping informs the whole way of thinking, which leads to people having negative beliefs about an entire group of people and the group's members. This prejudging attitude emanates from the dominant sector, and the opposing ideas are invoked to justify power and privilege. These negative beliefs may be either conscious or unconscious and embedded in oppressive power relations, reinforcing the stereotypes.
When it happens that the person holding the prejudice has additional power and can use it to deny others opportunities, resources or access to a person because of their membership to a given group, discrimination occurs. Discrimination is the third element in the oppression cycle, and it is equal to prejudice plus power. Discrimination is defined as the actions or inactions of a person based on the bias the person holds (Wayne et al.,180). The oppressive power relations make possible or condone the actions or inactions indirectly or openly. When many acts of discrimination build up over time with a more robust social group perpetrating against a less powerful group, it leads to a state of oppression. Oppression is the fourth element in the cycle of oppression, and it happens when institutional power gives reinforcement to discrimination (Wayne et al., 180). Systemic power relations such as government policies and procedures in different sectors reinforce discrimination. Oppression becomes institutionalized in society because institutional power influences the oppressors and has synergistic effects with the state's coercive authority.
Expressions of the stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression in the film The Road Forward
In the film "The Road Forward: Indigenous Resistance," Marie Clements paints a moving picture of how the Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood movement transformed into a powerful voice advocating for social, political and legal changes and eventually leading to profound change at the national level. Expressions of stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression are evident in the documentary film primarily through the musical vignettes and interviews. When Pioneers of Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood talk about their struggles, the white man is the subject. The pioneers speak of the belief among white men that the Indian people did not have rights to the ocean to fish and the...