Think about the last time you left the house. Did strangers on the street acknowledge your presence with a smile or avert their glance? Chances are that the answer depended on your age, gender and, of course, your race.
There is no shortage of evidence that racism persists. Despite the fact that science has demonstrated that racial groups are defined by society rather than biology, an individual's experience from the moment they are born is colored by the color of their skin.
Recently, high-profile incidents have focused attention on how people can be treated differently by authority figures, such as police officers, because of their race. However the majority of discrimination experiences are much more subtle.
In fact, subtle bias may actually be more mentally damaging than overt bias. This is because overt bias can be more easily dismissed as ignorant. However subtle bias is able to "get under the skin" to influence physical health.
[For more of this story, written by Zaneta Thayer, go to http://medicalxpress.com/news/...bad-health-kids.html]
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