Our country went through two major pandemics. The first, COVID-19, is still relatively new, and with a vaccine, the incidences of this wretched disease should decrease and decrease over time. In contrast, the pandemic of white racism and supremacy has long been at the heart of the ongoing psychological, emotional, and behavioral racial tension and injustice we face in the United States. The senseless murder of George Floyd and other black citizens has re-raised awareness of the violence of white racism and the brutality of the police in many areas of society.
The National Institute of Mental Health recently published a report that found that between 17 and 22 million adults in the US require professional mental health services each year. It was also found that only 41% of these people received such services. The fact that the majority of adults in need of mental health services are not receiving this vital care is an ongoing health crisis in our country. And of course, COVID-19 stressors only amplify mental health.
When researchers focused on the racial differences associated with this pandemic, it was found that those with African, Asian, Latin American, and Indigenous backgrounds are significantly over-represented among adults who do not have or have no access to psychiatric care . This finding reflects what proponents of the Black Lives Matter movement, and many advocates of social justice in general, talk about when they point out the differences that arise from systemic racism and white privilege in this country.
Institutional racism at work
In 1982, almost 40 years ago, Derald Wing Sue wrote: "Counseling is the maid of the status quo." This phrase refers to the way many counseling educators, practitioners, supervisors, and students are inextricably linked to maintaining white racism and supremacy by remaining silent, noncommittal, and inactive in the face of so many forms of structural and institutional racism.
Unfortunately, this situation is still a reality as unintentional and covert forms of racial injustice continue to manifest in the training, research and practice of counselors. For example, how well prepared are students to work with people who speak English as a second language, beneficiaries of the “Actions on the Arrivals of Children” program, families in poverty, etc.? When are counseling education programs that require community service to become associated with the American Counseling Association-endorsed social justice principles and competencies? How do counselor training programs prepare students to speak to clients about racism? If counseling educators and counseling programs took up these three questions, they would find ways to expose racism and reduce their behavior as “maidservant of the status quo”.
Professionals and students alike must commit to courageous, courageous and morally sound actions. We need to go beyond our preferred way of working, which often involves the overuse of intellectual analysis of these social pathologies. In critically analyzing the psychological effects of these injustices on our clients' lives, we should remember that Martin Luther King Jr. warned us that too often an overemphasis on such intellectualization without substantial measures of social justice leads to a paralysis of analysis .
Questioning the status quo of counseling
In 1992, Michael D & # 39; Andrea, co-author of this article, wrote a column in Counseling Today (then called The Guidepost) entitled "The Violence of Our Silence: Some Thoughts on Racism, Counseling, and Human Development . "In this column, he claimed that if they continued to witness and bystand various forms of institutional, social and cultural racism, advisors and students would themselves be guilty of being racists through their silent complicity.
Some progress has been made because a minority of counseling educators, practitioners, supervisors and students have boldly taken steps to boldly and routinely describe how white supremacy and racism adversely affect the counseling profession and racially diverse clients Serve. It is clear, however, that much more needs to be done in these areas. Nowadays there are education and training programs to help professionals move away from audience behavior and take action. The #EquityFlattensTheCurve initiative offers a bystander anti-racism project.
Recognizing areas of urgency in the counseling profession is also part of exposing racism. Just note the contemporary counseling profession. As you do so, you are likely to see: counselor educators, PhD students, counseling center supervisors, textbook authors, the theories studied, the research methodology used in studies, visitors to the CACREP site and the guide to ACA, the Association for The Training and Supervision of Counselors, and other professional bodies all seem to have a homogeneous identity.
Hardly anything has changed in the last 50 years. A majority of white counseling students continue to be taught by a majority of white professors. Multicultural counseling is still a semester course. Theories of counseling, career development, and human development are Eurocentric in nature and dated. In addition, counseling research has not expanded knowledge of racism, white supremacy, and the well-being of colored people. Convenience tests are still normative, with many research participants coming from white, western European, English-speaking and often Christian backgrounds.
All of this leads us to claim that the consulting profession has stagnated. This maintenance of ongoing Eurocentric conformity will soon be irrelevant and will add to greater inequalities in the preparation of counselors and the provision of psychiatric care. This professional irrelevance will occur as a result of the unprecedented demographic change in our nation. For example, in 2013, for the first time, the percentage of Latinx high school graduates attending college was higher than that of any other group, as reported by the Hispanic Research Center, and that representation in colleges continues. How many consultants are aware of this demographic change?
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In 2003, the ACA Governing Council approved the Multicultural Counseling Skills (MCC), originally published in 1992 by Derald Wing Sue, Patricia Arredondo (a co-author of this article), and Roderick McDavis. The paradigm of awareness, knowledge and skills is as important to this day as it was in 1992 when the MCC was published and in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed. The MCC, the subsequent document on the operationalization of the competencies that promote overlapping identities in socio-historical contexts (1996), and the advisory competencies for multicultural and social justice (2015) remain anchors on which one can rely in these times to make necessary changes to achieve increased awareness and greater expansion knowledge and courageous action in the consulting profession. The 1992 competencies against racism are listed here for further application.
Culturally competent consultants have knowledge and understanding of how oppression, racism, discrimination and stereotyping affect them personally and in their work. This enables them to recognize their own racist attitudes, beliefs and feelings. While this standard applies to all groups, for white counselors it can mean understanding how they have benefited, directly or indirectly, from individual, institutional, and cultural racism.
Culturally competent advisors constantly try to see themselves as racial-cultural beings and to actively seek the development of a non-racist identity.
Culturally competent advisors are familiar with the socio-political influences that affect the lives of racial and ethnic minorities. Immigration problems, poverty, racism, stereotyping and powerlessness leave huge scars that can affect the counseling process.
Culturally competent counselors are actively involved in [ethnic/racial] minorities outside the counseling environment (through community events, social and political functions, celebrations, friendships, neighborhood groups, etc.) so that their view of minorities is more than an academic or helping exercise.
Culturally competent counselors strive to eliminate prejudice, prejudice and discriminatory practices. You should know the sociopolitical contexts of clients as they conduct assessments and provide interventions. They are also constantly trying to develop greater sensitivity to issues such as oppression, sexism, and racism, especially when they affect their clients' lives.
Race calculation: if not now, when?
The country has entered a phase of race settlement. New incidents of racism and behavior against black people are reported daily on the city streets, on college campuses, and in stores. The challenge of not being bystanders remains, and as advisors working to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, we must be social justice activists and advocates. We must face the task of exposing white supremacy and white racism in both our professional training and our practice as professional advisors.
We have to ask, if not now, when we will take these measures. If not us, who will make the changes to move the counseling profession beyond the “violence of our silence” and the role many educators, supervisors and students play as “maids of the status quo”?
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Patricia Arredondo is a past President of the American Counseling Association and the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development and a founding member of Counselors for Social Justice. She works with organizations to address diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives through the Arredondo Advisory Group. Contact them at [email protected].
Michael D’Andrea is Associate Professor at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is one of the founders of Counselors for Social Justice. Contact him at [email protected].
Courtland Lee is a past President of the American Counseling Association and the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. He is a professor in the Consultant Education Program on the Washington DC campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Contact him at [email protected].
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