Discrimination in the United States: Perspectives for the future

Objective: To summarize findings from this Special Issue, which examine reported experiences of discrimination among six underrepresented groups in public opinion research-blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) adults, and women.

Data source and study design: Data come from a nationally representative, probability-based telephone survey of 3453 US adults, conducted January-April 2017.

Methods: We calculated the percent of adults reporting discrimination in several domains, including health care.

Principal findings: In health care encounters, 32 percent of black adults reported discrimination, as did 23 percent of Native Americans, 20 percent of Latinos, 18 percent of women, 16 percent of LGBTQ adults, and 13 percent of Asian Americans. Significant shares also reported experiencing racial, gender, or LGBTQ identity-based violence against themselves or family members, including 51 percent of LGBTQ adults, 42 percent of blacks, 38 percent of Native Americans, and 21 percent of women. At least one in seven blacks (22 percent), LGBTQ adults (18 percent), Latinos (17 percent), and Native Americans (15 percent) reported avoiding health care for themselves or family members over concerns of anticipated discrimination or unfair treatment.

Conclusions: Taken together, this polling effort illustrates the significant and widespread level of discrimination against many groups in America today, as well as the complex manifestation of these experiences across different groups and different areas of life. While it is beyond the scope of these results to make specific recommendations for how to end discrimination in each area of life we studied, this Special Issue provides important evidence that more research and practice on discrimination are sorely needed in health services research.