Making Healthy Connections with Racialized Communities

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The need for physical exercises to a healthy society as well as culture was one of the ideas that the author covered in the article. This move particularly targeted girls and young women. Through physical exercises, the assumption is that this category of people could establish a lifelong active and healthy living. It also assumed that girls and young women could develop preventive effects against suicide, anxiety as well as helping the targeted groups develop a sense of control over their own bodies. In a nutshell therefore, through physical exercises the implication is that a healthy society would be achieved. A healthy society is a productive society.

The author also presents a form of racial “profiling”. This is in the sense that immigrant population more often than not suffer from lifestyle diseases of obesity as a result of lack of physical exercises. This author supports this by noting that the participation of girls and young women from ethnic communities in physical exercises is lower compared to the native communities. The author then goes forward to recommend an all inclusive health program by the concerned governmental agencies. According to the author, this will go a long way to achieving the alleviation of lifestyle diseases among the ethnic communities.

The author’s main argument is that girls and young women from the racialized communities have not embraced the culture of healthy living as compared to the same group of people among the natives. In a way, the author addresses this in the article as the governmental agency designed a program aimed at addressing the gap in healthy living between the ethnic community and the native community. However, the author’s argument is subject to criticism in the sense that, physical fitness in as much as it is important, it is an individual initiative and not a group initiative as put forth by the author. Findings however indicate that individual commitments, financial constraints and redefined priorities among other reasons as barriers to achieving healthy lifestyles,

The author supports his argument by saying that indeed in as much as Canada is a multicultural nation state where all the existing cultures were in a way equally valued. He notes that policy and practice had undermined this ideal. To reinforce this case is that based on the Diversity Survey carried out by Statistics Canada, 20% of the population from the racialized community felt in a way or the other that they had been subjects of unfair or discriminatory treatment.

This article is similar to quite a number of already published literatures in the sense that when it comes to matters of race and ethnic relations in Canada, the racialized groups have always been subjects of discriminatory treatment as well as other forms of social prejudice. However, when it comes to matters of keeping healthy, it would be naïve to say that race and ethnic relations affect healthy living in the sense that matters of physical fitness as well as keeping health is not a group initiative but an individual one. As a matter of fact, a number of those interviewed cite work and school related commitments as the obstacle to a healthy life.

A number of inconsistencies arise from the article. The author cites the current initiatives as well as programs put in place for the racialized groups. This raises the question, in comparison to whom? When a government puts in place initiatives for its citizens, the initiatives are in a way that all the legal inhabitants of that particular nation state should be served by the latter irrespective of skin color, gender, age, physical ability among other features.

The author’s arguments imply that the government should address the issue of racialized groups being inferior to the native groups. This would go a long way in solving other issues both socially, politically, economically as well as in medical and health terms.

The article in one way suggests that as a vice, racism should be absolutely wiped out. At this age and time of civilization, people of the different races should not look at their skin colour as the basis of social differences but as that of exclusively biological.

This article portrays some form of racism. According to the author, the Canadian government and its respective agencies does not address issues in a manner perceived by all as equal. Indeed when it comes to matters of race relations, the racialized groups composed majorly of the immigrants are not subjects of equal treatment with their native counterparts. In this scenario, the members of the white community are not second to any other race.

This article view on the concept racialization is deeply anchored on the fact that the existing racial categories of people in Canada are in a way based on social perception, unequal and imbalanced. According to this article, the racialization process has resulted in negative social and health impacts.

As a result of race, racism and racialization already having taken shape, it follows suit that lack of power and inequity coexists between and among the racialized groups. The author supports this argument by the fact that even in government induced programs and initiatives, the programs of members constituting these groups come second to those of the native groups. This implies lack of power as well as inequity.

The need to have a variety of programs which are less competitive and intimidating among others are some of the reasons cited by the target groups that would help in building a healthy culture.