Introduction

Research on the ethnic minorities has concentrated upon those who do not describe their origins as white. Much of this chapter also concentrates upon these groups: in Britain, the majority originate from the African–Caribbean countries and South Asia. The uneven distribution of these groups can have marked effects upon the lists of general practitioners (Gillam et al., 1989). This chapter aims to outline the important factors which need to be taken into account by general practitioners considering mental illness in people of ethnic minorities.

Terminology

Description of people of different racial and ethnic origins is a complex area; as a source of discrimination, it is also a sensitive one which warrants a short explanation. In this chapter, I have used terms in common current usage in Britain: ‘black people’ as a broad category to describe all those people whose origins are not ‘white’ who, although different in many respects, share the exposure to racism: ‘African–Caribbean’ to describe those people who originate from Africa and the Caribbean of African descent, ‘Asian’ or more correctly ‘South Asian’ to describe those people who originate from the Indian subcontinent, and other self-explanatory terms, e.g. ‘Chinese’.

Race and ethnicity

There are differences between the terms ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’. The historical development of the word ‘race’ sheds light upon the complexities of its interpretation. ‘Race’ was a term coined in the sixteenth century to describe the lineage of people connected by common descent or origin.