Childhood experiences of racial animosity, discrimination, and prejudice can have lasting impacts on the life of pupils, research suggests. Studies show that it can actually lead to depression, poor academic performance, and negative health outcomes. The notable section discusses why equality and justice is essential to the developmental science discipline and that it has the power to influence policy and practice, aimed at tackling inequality directly while simultaneously mitigating the adverse experiences of traditionally discriminated against people.
This ties into our class lessons on institutional instruments that are put in place that effect minority communities and their ability to succeed. This prejudice that minority students may face, feeds into the low expectations set for minority students and limits their ability to succeed. Mental health is something else that has in the past- been used to stigmatize and to detain minority populations- as we can see in Toni Morrison’s Home. However now mental disease is being used as a crippling, silent killer that is seemingly dismissed by the same system that used mental health as an excuse to unjustly detain. We first saw mental health as an excuse to detain, and now we see it ignored and permitted and used to hold back minority populations.
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20161019/New-research-provides-insights-into-impact-of-childhood-discrimination-experiences.aspx