The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination Four Volumes 4 volumes (Race and Ethnicity in Psychology)

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The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Recent titles in Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Sources of Stress and Relief for African American Women Catherine Fisher Collins Playing with Anger: Teaching Coping Skills to African American Boys through Athletics and Culture Howard C. Stevenson Jr., editor

The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination VOLUME 1 RACISM IN AMERICA

Edited by Jean Lau Chin Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

PRAEGER PERSPECTIVES Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Jean Lau Chin, John D. Robinson, and Victor De La Cancela Series Editors

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The psychology of prejudice and discrimination / edited by Jean Lau Chin ; foreword by Joseph E. Trimble. p. cm.—(Race and ethnicity in psychology, ISSN 1543-2203) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-98234-3 (set : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98235-1 (v. 1 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98236-X (v. 2 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98237-8 (v. 3 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98238-6 (v. 4 : alk. paper) 1. Prejudices—United States. I. Chin, Jean Lau. II. Series. BF575.P9P79 2004 303.3'85'0973—dc22 2004042289 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright 쑕 2004 by Jean Lau Chin All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004042289 ISBN: 0-275-98234-3 (set) 0-275-98235-1 (Vol. 1) 0-275-98236-X (Vol. 2) 0-275-98237-8 (Vol. 3) 0-275-98238-6 (Vol. 4) ISSN: 1543-2203 First published in 2004 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Copyright Acknowledgment Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible. The author and publisher will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledgments in subsequent printings of the book, and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.

Contents

Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

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Introduction by Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

The Causes of Racial Prejudice: A Behavior-Analytic Perspective Afua Arhin and Bruce A. Thyer

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CHAPTER 2

From Tragedy to Triumph: The Tulsa Race Riot Yvonne M. Jenkins

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CHAPTER 3

Racial and Ethnic Prejudice among Children Sheri R. Levy, Tara L. West, Luisa F. Ramirez, and John E. Pachankis

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CHAPTER 4

Racism, Racial Stereotypes, and American Politics Frederick Slocum and Yueh-Ting Lee

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CHAPTER 5

The African Diaspora and Culture-Based Coping Strategies Edward Stephenson

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CHAPTER 6

The Aversive Form of Racism Gordon Hodson, John F. Dovidio, and Samuel L. Gaertner

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Contents

CHAPTER 7

“What’s Race Got to Do, Got to Do with It?” Denial of Racism on Predominantly White College Campuses Carole Baroody Corcoran and Aisha Rene´e Thompson

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CHAPTER 8

Combating Racism through the Kuumba Learning Model Technique: Elementary Students’ Perspectives Karen B. McLean Donaldson

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CHAPTER 9

Coping with Racism: A Spirit-Based Psychological Perspective Carla D. Hunter and Ma’at E. Lewis-Coles

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CHAPTER 10

Combating Racism: The Role of Psychologists and the United Nations Thema Bryant-Davis, Corann Okorodudu, and Bertha Garrett Holliday

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Index

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About the Series and the Series Editors

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About the Advisers

247

About the Contributors

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Foreword

Civilized men have gained notable mastery over energy, matter, and inanimate nature generally and are rapidly learning to control physical suffering and premature death. But, by contrast, we appear to be living in the Stone Age so far as our handling of human relations is concerned. (Gordon W. Allport, 1954, p. ix)

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lthough written over fifty years ago, the haunting words of the eminent social psychologist Gordon W. Allport may ring true today. His intent then was to clarify the various elements of the enormously complex topic of prejudice. Since the writing of his now well-cited and highly regarded text on prejudice, social and behavioral scientists have made great strides in furthering our knowledge of the field. Since 1950, for example, thousands of books, journal articles, and book chapters have been devoted to studying prejudice and discrimination. Professor Allport would be somewhat pleased with the numbers because that was partly his expectation when he said, “So great is the ferment of investigation and theory in this area that in one sense our account will soon be dated. New experiments will supersede old, and formulations of various theories will be improved” (1954, p. xiii). But has there been that much improvement that we have moved away from a Stone Age understanding of human relations to a higher level of sophistication? The question begs for an answer, but that can wait until later.

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Let me back up for a moment to explore another line of thought and inquiry that bears directly on the significance and importance of this wonderful set of books on the psychology of prejudice and discrimination. For as long as I can remember, I have been deeply interested in the origins of, motives in, and attitudes about genocide and ethnocide; as a young child I did not use those horrific terms, as I did not know them then. But I did know about their implied destructive implications from stories passed along by sensitive teachers, ancestors, and elders. The deep social psychological meaning of the constructs later became an intense interest of mine as a graduate student in the turbulent 1960s, an era filled with challenges and protestations of anything regarding civil rights, discrimination, racism, sexism, and prejudice. During that era I threw my mind and spirit into the study of Allport’s writings on prejudice—not merely to study them, but to explore every nuance of his scholarly works to expand the depth of my understanding and expecting to come away with fewer questions and more answers. I was not disappointed in my exploration. I was baffled, though, because I recognized more so just how complicated it was to prevent and eradicate prejudice and discrimination. As I write these thoughts, I am reminded of a sign that was once posted over the porch roof of an old restaurant and tavern in a rural South Dakota community adjacent to an American Indian reservation. The sign was hand-painted in white letters on a long slat of weathered wood; it was written in the Lakota language, and the English translation read, “No dogs or Indians allowed.” The store was and is still owned by non-Indians. The offensive, derogatory sign is no longer there— likely torn down years ago by angry protestors from the nearby reservation. While the sign is gone, the attitude and intent of the message still linger in and around the rustic building, except that it is more insidious, pernicious, and guileful now. The prevailing prejudicial and loathsome attitude is a reflection of many of the residents of the small town. Many of the town’s residents tolerate Native Americans because they dependent on them economically, but their bigoted and closed-minded convictions are unwilling to accept Native Americans as equals and provide them with freedom of movement and expression. The wretched, mean-spirited, pernicious attitudes present in that rural South Dakota town symbolize the prevailing changes in attitudes and behavior across North America—the blatant signs are gone, but in many places and for many individuals the prejudicial attitudes persist, sometimes in sly and subtle forms. On other occasions they are overt and repulsive. Chapters in these volumes summarize and

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explore the social and psychological motives and reasoning behind the persistence of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory practices. They go beyond the conclusions drawn by Professor Allport and other early writers on the topic and take us into domains represented by those who have experienced prejudice and discrimination firsthand, as did their ancestors. Indeed, a voice not included in early studies on prejudice and discrimination is intensified and deepened as more and more ethnic groups and women are represented in the social and behavioral sciences than in years gone by. Stories and anecdotes, too, recounted by the rising groups of diverse scholars and researchers, lend a new authenticity to the literature. Some of the accounts provide a different perspective on historical events involving racial hatred that provide more thorough descriptions of the details and perspectives. Revisionist historical approaches have a place in the study of prejudice and discrimination because for so long the authentic voices of the victims were muffled and muted. For example, as a consequence of European contact, many Native American communities continue to experience individual and community trauma, a “wound to the soul of Native American people that is felt in agonizing proportions to this day” (Duran & Duran, 1995, p. 27). The cumulative trauma has been fueled by centuries of incurable diseases, massacres, forced relocation, unemployment, economic despair, poverty, forced removal of children to boarding schools, abuse, racism, loss of traditional lands, unscrupulous land mongering, betrayal, broken treaties—the list goes on. Brave Heart and DeBruyn (1998) and Duran and Duran (1995) maintain that postcolonial “historical and intergenerational trauma” has left a long trail of unresolved grief and a “soul wound” in Native American communities that contribute to high levels of social and individual problems such as alcoholism, suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, and negative career ideation. The presence of Native American scholars contributed a voice that was suppressed for decades because some feared the consequences if these scholars told their stories. The stories and accounts of past racial events and their corresponding trauma also were not told because there were few visible ethnic scholars available. Decades ago the topics of prejudice and discrimination largely emphasized race and, more specifically, the racial experiences of black Americans. Over the years the topic has expanded to include the experiences of other ethnic groups, women, the elderly, those with disabilities, those with nonheterosexual orientations, and those with mixed ethnic heritages. The volumes edited by Jean Lau Chin expand

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the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism to add a broader, more inclusive dimension to the understanding of prejudice and discrimination. The addition of new voices to the field elevates public awareness to the sweeping effects of prejudice and discrimination and how they are deeply saturated throughout societies. The amount of scholarly attention devoted to the study of prejudice and discrimination closely parallels the growth of ethnic diversity interests in psychology. Until about thirty years ago, psychology’s mission appeared to be restricted to a limited population as references to blacks, Asian Americans, Native American and Alaska natives, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Ricans were almost absent from the psychological literature; in fact, the words culture and ethnic were rarely used in psychological textbooks. The long absence of culture in the web of psychological inquiry did not go unnoticed. About three decades ago, ethnic minority and international psychologists began questioning what the American Psychological Association meant by its use of human and to whom the vast body of psychological knowledge applied. America’s ethnic psychologists and those from other countries, as well as a small handful of North American psychologists, argued that American psychology did not include what constituted the world’s population. They claimed that findings were biased, limited to studies involving college and university students and laboratory animals, and therefore not generalizable to all humans. Comprehensive literature reviews reinforced their accusations and observations. Accusations of imperialism, cultural encapsulation, ethnocentrism, parochialism, and, in some circles of dissent, of “scientifically racist” studies, run the gamut of criticisms hurled at the field of psychology during that period. Robert Guthrie (1976), for example, writing in his strongly worded critique of psychology, Even the Rat Was White, argues that culture and context were not taken seriously in the history of psychological research. Given these conditions and the myopia of the profession, it is no small wonder that prejudice and discrimination were not given more widespread attention. The topic was not perceived as salient and important enough for extensive consideration. The four volumes in this set are a testament to the amount of change and emphasis that are focused on ethnicity, culture, and the topics of prejudice and discrimination. The changing demographics in the United States call into question the relevance of a psychology that historically has not included ethnic and racial groups and that fostered a research agenda that was ethnocentric and bound by time and place. This can no longer be tolerated,

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as the rapid growth of ethnic minority groups in the United States amplifies the need for more attentiveness on the part of the social and behavioral sciences. Consider the population projections offered by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. By 2050, the U.S. population will reach over 400 million, about 47 percent larger than in 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). The primary ethnic minority groups— specifically, Hispanics, blacks, Asian Americans, and Native American and Alaska Natives—will constitute almost 50 percent of the population in 2050. About 57 percent of the population under the age of eighteen, and 34 percent over the age of 65, will be ethnic minorities. America never was and likely will not be a melting pot of different nationalities and ethnic groups for another century or two. As the mixture and size of ethnic groups increase, we are faced with the disturbing possibility that an increase in prejudice and discrimination will occur accordingly. Given this possibility, the topics covered in these volumes become even more worthy of serious consideration, especially the ones that emphasize prevention. Given the demographic changes and the topical changes that have occurred in the social and behavioral sciences, the extensive contents of these four volumes are a welcome addition to the field. Editor Jean Lau Chin and her long list of chapter authors are to be congratulated for their monumental effort. The volumes are packed with useful and wonderfully written material. Some is based on empirical findings, some on firsthand experiences. The blend of various writing styles and voice adds to the breadth of coverage of the topic. The many points of view provided by the contributors will help shape the direction of research and scholarly expression on a topic that has been around since the origins of humankind. We can hope that the contributions of these four volumes will move the field of human relations from a perceived Stone Age level of understanding to one where we believe we are moving closer to eliminating prejudice, discrimination, and the vile hatred they engender. Joseph E. Trimble Professor of Psychology Western Washington University Bellingham, WA March 21, 2004

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REFERENCES Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. (1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 56–78. Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American postcolonial psychology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Guthrie, R. (1976). Even the rat was white: A historical view of psychology. New York: Harper & Row. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). Census of the population: General population characteristics, 2000. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Introduction

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rejudice and discrimination are not new. The legacy of the Pilgrims and early pioneers suggested a homogenous, mainstream America. Our early emphasis on patriotism in the United States resulted in a false idealization of the melting pot myth. Prejudice and discrimination in American society were overt and permeated all levels of society, that is, legislation, government, education, and neighborhoods. In the 1960s, attempts to eradicate prejudice, discrimination, and racism were explicit—with an appeal to honor and value the diversity within different racial and ethnic groups. This soon extended to other dimensions of diversity, including gender, disability, and spirituality. However, long after the war to end slavery, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, desegregation in the schools, and the abolition of antiAsian legislation—indeed, in the midst of growing public debate today regarding gay marriage—we still see the pernicious effects of prejudice and discrimination in U.S. society. Prejudice and discrimination toward differences in race, ethnicity, gender, spirituality, and disability have had negative psychological consequences, and they continue in primarily covert forms. Bias and disparities still exist and result in inequity of services, opportunities, and practices in American society. Combating prejudice and discrimination in today’s environment warrants some different strategies. We live in an environment of heightened anxiety due to war and terrorism. Thanks to technological advances in communication, travel, and the

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Internet, news and information from all parts of the world are almost instantaneously brought to us. We live in a global economy with a narrowing of borders between countries and groups. Generations of immigrants have resulted in the U.S. population becoming so diverse that there may soon be no single majority group within most major cities. Technological advances have eliminated the biological advantage of males in strength and the biological “limitations” of women of childbearing age in the work environment. Yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Irrational and unjust perceptions of other people remain—more subtle, perhaps, but they remain. This four-volume set, The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination, takes a fresh look at that issue that is embedded in today’s global environment. Images, attitudes and perceptions that sustain prejudice and discrimination are more covert, but no less pernicious. What people say, believe, and do all reflect underlying bias. We do not claim here to address every existing form of prejudice or discrimination, nor do we cite every possible group targeted today. What we offer are insights into a range from the most to least recognized, or openly discussed, forms of this injustice. Each chapter offers new perspectives on standing issues, with practical information about how to cope with prejudice and discrimination. The “toolbox” at the end of each chapter suggests steps to be taken at different levels to combat prejudice and discrimination and to achieve change. At the individual level, self-reflection needs to occur by both the victims and perpetrators of discrimination. Practitioners, educators, and all who deliver services potentially impart a bias perpetuating prejudice and discrimination. At the systems level, communities and policymakers must join together and have the will to combat discrimination. How does one remain “whole” or validate one’s identity despite persistent assaults to self-esteem from prejudice and discrimination? How does one raise children or teach amid societal institutions that perpetuate bias? Culturally competent principles and practices are needed to provide a framework for managing diversity and valuing differences. Volume 1, Racism in America, looks at stereotypes, racial bias, and race relations. How do we avoid internalizing racism or accepting negative messages about a group’s ability and intrinsic worth? How do we address institutionalized racism that results in differential access to goods, service, and opportunities of society? Volume 2, Ethnicity and Multiracial Identity, looks at discrimination toward differences due to immigration, language, culture, and mixed race. Volume 3,

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Bias Based on Gender and Sexual Orientation, looks at gender bias, women’s issues, homophobia, and oppression of gay/lesbian lifestyles. Volume 4, Disability, Religion, Physique, and Other Traits, strives to examine less-spotlighted bias against other forms of difference, and begins the difficult dialogue that must take place if we are to eradicate prejudice and discrimination. Written for today’s people and environment, these volumes are rich with anecdotes, stories, examples, and research. These stories illustrate the emotional impact of prejudice and discrimination throughout history and as it still strikes people’s lives today. While the chapters spotlight psychology, they interweave history, politics, legislation, social change, education, and more. These interdisciplinary views reflect the broad contexts of prejudice and discrimination that ultimately affect identity, life adjustment, and well-being for every one of us. Please take with you the strategies for change offered in the toolbox at the end of each chapter. Change needs to occur at all levels: individual, practitioner/educator, and community. The intent of the toolboxes is to move us from the emotional to the scholarly to action and empowerment. They are intended to encourage and compel readers to begin individual change that will spur community and social action. With each person who reads these volumes, gains understanding, and finds the motivation or method to help make his or her small part of the world a more just and open-minded place, we have moved closer to making our goal a reality. Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

The Causes of Racial Prejudice: A Behavior-Analytic Perspective Afua Arhin Bruce A. Thyer

Not as many theories have been offered on the subject of racial bias as one would think. . . . (Katz, 2003, p. 898)

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ccording to the theory of the tabula rasa, all persons are born with a mind that serves as a blank slate, upon which experience imprints knowledge. Furthermore, all persons are born innately good, independent, and equal (Locke, 1975). Assuming that this principle holds true, it is very interesting to find that racial prejudice is found in very young children (Aboud, 1988), with white children in particular expressing prejudice against blacks and other minority groups (Corenblum & Annis, 1993). Katz notes that “by the age of six years, over half of the white children in [Katz’s] longitudinal study showed significant degrees of pro-white, anti-black bias” (2003, p. 897). Racial prejudice is a phenomenon found between, and even within, so-called racial categories, and it pervades human history and contemporary life. For example, in 1935, a survey of Princeton undergraduate men asked them to rank various racial groups in terms of the undergraduates’ preferences for associating with them. Blacks were rated very low, indicating that these well-educated college undergraduates tended to avoid contact with them. This survey was conducted almost seventy years ago (Katz &

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Braly, 1935). In the recent National Longitudinal Survey of College Freshmen, 3,924 students were surveyed on their racial attitudes, aspirations, and motivations. It was found that black, Latino, Asian, and white youth saw themselves and each other as tending to discriminate against members of other groups. White, Latino, and Asian students were more likely to stereotype blacks as poor, violence-prone, welfaredependent, and lazy. Stereotypes of Latino people also followed a similar pattern. Asians were stereotyped as hardworking, intelligent, preferring to be self-sufficient, and tending to stick to tasks (Charles & Massey, 2003). It is striking how little change is evident among the views of college students. Even more compelling is the recent novel study by Bertrand and Mullainathan (2003), who sent out fictitious resumes, each with either a “black-sounding” name or a “white-sounding” name, to companies in Boston and Chicago that were advertising employment opportunities. “White” names received 50 percent more callbacks for job interviews. This disparity even occurred among companies that advertised themselves as “equal opportunity employers.” It is clear from this finding that we are far away from achieving a color-blind society in which people are judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin. Blacks and others continue to frequently encounter overt and subtle acts of racism in everyday contemporary American life (Swim, Hyers, Cohen, Fitzgerald, & Bylsma, 2003). Discrimination on the basis of skin color is expressed not only by white individuals, but also by darker-complected individuals such as blacks and Puerto Ricans, in that these racial groups express preferences for individuals with lighter skin tones (Hall, 2002; Hunter, 2002). Furthermore, it has been shown that these preferences significantly affect how individuals, regardless of race, interact and treat each other (Hill, 2002). How is it that racial discrimination is such a pervasive issue, even among highly educated individuals? Why do discriminatory attitudes exist and favor a lighter complexion among both whites and people of color? In this chapter we will develop some provisional answers to these questions, drawing upon literature related to the field of behavior analysis (see also Briggs & Paulson, 1996). A BEHAVIOR-ANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE ON RACIAL PREJUDICE Regardless of whether racial prejudice is a privately held attitude, the expression of discriminatory verbal statements; or expressed as

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overt, publicly observable action, it can be seen as a form of human behavior. As such, racial prejudice can be explained in terms of selected principles of learning theory and may, potentially, be preventable or amenable to change using interventions derived from learning theory. Prejudice can be defined as “an opinion about an individual, group, or phenomenon that is developed without proof or systematic evidence. The prejudgment may be favorable but is more often unfavorable and may become institutionalized in the form of a country’s laws or customs” (Barker, 2003, p. 372). Racism, the form of discrimination discussed in this chapter, is “stereotyping and generalizing about people, usually negatively, because of their race; commonly a basis of discrimination against members of racial groups” (Barker, 2003, p. 397). The actions referred to in the above definitions—opinions, laws, customs, stereotyping, and generalizing—are all examples of behavior, which was defined by B. F. Skinner as everything that a human does, regardless of its potential for public observation (1974). Skinner’s definition, of course, contrasts starkly with Watson’s (1913) much earlier position that the proper study of behavior, and indeed the subject matter of psychology itself, is limited only to investigating publicly observable acts. Therefore, the contemporary field of behavior analysis (the thriving discipline established by Skinner), defines behavior as “any action or response by an individual, including observable activity, measurable physiological changes, cognitive images, fantasies, and emotions” (Barker, 2003, p. 42). To the extent that empirically based principles of learning theory may play a role in the establishment of negative attitudes, opportunities exist to understand, intervene, and potentially prevent racial prejudice. We certainly recognize that a wide array of theories—psychological, sociological, sociobiological, and so on—exist and attempt to account for the phenomenon of racism, and we make no pretense at providing a comprehensive overview of such positions. Our much more modest goal is to present to the reader a preliminary account of how, when viewed through the conceptual lens of learning theory, racial prejudice could be established and maintained in children and adults. Applied behavior analysis is a discipline that overlaps considerably with the domains of other fields concerned with human comportment, such as psychology, sociology, nursing, social work, political science, public administration, and anthropology. While applied behavior analysis can certainly inform certain aspects of these other disciplines, it is slowly emerging as an autonomous discipline with

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its own journals, professional associations, legal credentialing, and code of ethics. Behavior analysis is based upon the application of principles of empirically based learning theories to the understanding and control of socially significant behavior. Presently there is a focus on explicating the roles of three forms of learning: respondent learning, operant learning, and learning via observation. The following text reviews the fundamental concepts of each type and then illustrates how these learning processes may shape and maintain racial prejudice. In the conclusion is a discussion of some promising leads derived from these self-same learning theories, which may be relevant to preventing and/or ameliorating racial prejudice. RESPONDENT LEARNING To many readers, the term respondent learning, or classical conditioning, may be synonymous with Pavlov’s dogs. The images that come to mind are those of a ringing bell, food, and a salivating dog. This form of learning appears to be possible among virtually all animal species ever tested, including human beings. Explained in brief, certain forms of environmental stimuli can elicit an almost automatic response in humans. A sudden noise elicits a flinch response. A puff of air to the eye elicits a blink. A sharp pain produces a withdrawal reaction. Ingestion of spoiled or toxic food induces nausea and vomiting. The environmental stimuli that elicit these automatic reactions are called unconditioned stimuli, and the responses engendered are called unconditioned responses. Many, if not most, environmental stimuli do not produce conditioned responses, and such events are called neutral stimuli. If, however, a neutral stimulus is paired (either naturally or via a contrived manipulation) with the immediate presentation of an unconditioned stimulus, then after one or more trials the neutral stimulus can come to elicit a reaction similar to that evoked by the unconditioned stimulus, at which point the previously neutral stimulus becomes known as a conditioned stimulus and the reaction evoked becomes a conditioned response. This model of learning appears to be involved to a considerable degree in the establishment of emotional reactions (both positive and negative) and in the development of avoidance and approach behaviors. Classical conditioning is known to occur among human fetuses and is present immediately after birth and throughout one’s lifetime (Bernard & Sontag, 1947; Kisilevsky, Muir, & Low, 1992). Indeed, it seems to be a learning process shared

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with all living animals, from one-celled organisms to human beings (Hennessey, Rucker, & McDiarmid, 1979). Respondent learning has obvious adaptive significance for the species. For example, there are profound biological reasons why we begin to avoid oysters after ingesting a single spoiled one. Indeed, such taste aversions are among the easiest to acquire and are difficult to get rid of. The learning theory mechanisms are easy to understand. The taste and smell of sherry were originally a neutral stimulus. But a large quantity of sherry, by itself, is an unconditioned stimulus capable of producing the unconditioned responses of nausea and vomiting. A single experience of pairing the neutral taste and smell of sherry with the convulsive aftereffects caused the taste and smell of sherry to become a conditioned stimulus, capable of causing mild nausea (the conditioned response) all by themselves. This effect has persisted for thirty-five years. A mild static shock (an unconditioned stimulus) to the fingertip produces pain and an immediate withdrawal response (an unconditioned response). During the winter, when humidity changes, touching a car-door handle often produces an unpleasant shock. After cold weather sets in and individuals have been shocked a few times upon touching the car-door handles, many find themselves pausing a bit before opening their car door, and in some cases having to force themselves to grasp the handle. In this instance, the door handle was initially a neutral stimulus, but after a couple of shocks it became an unconditioned stimulus and evoked the uncontrolled response of withdrawal simply upon being reached for. Classical learning principles apply not only to simple behaviors, but also to complex behaviors. For example, if selected words are paired with unpleasant stimuli, soon those words themselves can come to evoke conditioned reactions similar to those caused by the unpleasant stimuli (Gale & Jacobson, 1970). Such emotional reactions can include sentiments such as “fear,” “aversion,” “distaste,” and so forth, and in part these emotional reactions are derived from the environmental contexts in which these words occur. Consider the circumstance in which one initially hears words such as hillbilly, honky, hebe, spic, and nigger. If the circumstances surrounding exposure to these racially laden words are unpleasant and perhaps associated with a strong emotion such as fear or dislike, then the very words themselves may evoke related affective states. Not only affective states but also attitudes seem influenced via classical conditioning processes (Doyo, 1971; Miller, 1966; Staats & Staats, 1957). Such conditioned emotional states associated with initially neutral words seem to be particularly resistant

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to extinction (Baeyens, Van den Bergh, & Eelen, 1988). If one is raised in a society or culture where certain words are more likely to be uttered in a pejorative context—said with disdain, disgust, suspicion, or fear—then these negative emotions become inextricably intertwined with the very words associated with them. As noted, respondent learning involves not merely words, but more complex stimuli as well. It is unlikely that any person has encountered a “real-life” Santa Claus or an angel, but if encountered we would likely not be afraid. Similarly, few people in their lives have come across a serial murderer wearing a hockey mask and wielding a chain saw, but imagine finding one in your closet late at night. More realistically, Bar-Tal (1996) found that Israeli children as young as two and a half years old rated a photograph of a male figure more negatively when he was verbally identified as an Arab than when the photo was not labeled. The inculcation of prejudice in very young, perhaps even preverbal, children may well involve classical conditioning processes through exposure to frightening images on television; these are unconditioned stimuli that could elicit unconditioned responses of fear and avoidance in the young children. Emotional reactions can be classically conditioned in the absence of direct “real-life” encounters, but can be acquired vicariously through reading, videotape, or audio presentations, photographs, or listening to scary stories. Here are some more pertinent examples. Suppose one is frequently exposed to witnessing real or simulated acts of violence on television, in the news, and in videotapes and movies, and that a disproportionate share of the perpetrators are blacks. What not-very-subtle message of such portrayals is conveyed to the audience? No one is immune to such influences. The Reverend Jesse Jackson once recounted how, walking late one night in Washington, DC, he heard footsteps behind him. In looking back he saw that it was a white man, and Jackson felt relieved to see that it was not a black man! If someone should have a real-life frightening encounter with a mugger, rapist, or thief, he or she will create negative associations to various stimuli associated with the perpetrator; and the perpetrator’s race is among the most potentially salient factors available. Through the processes of respondent generalization, other similar-appearing individuals can come to evoke reactions (such as fear and avoidance) initially associated with the original traumatic act. Classical conditioning is not a part of advanced brain functioning; indeed, conditioned responses are largely not under people’s intellectual

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control, and thus the responses are very difficult to eliminate once established. Despite one’s intellectual knowledge that similar-appearing people can be quite different, it is hard to shake off aversive feelings upon encountering a new person similar in appearance or mannerisms to another individual with whom one had a frightening experience. Such responses are not a product of one’s intellectual functioning and are difficult to “reason away.” As Skinner has noted, “Discrimination is a behavioral process: the contingencies, not the mind, make discriminations” (Skinner, 1974, p. 105). OPERANT LEARNING Another major way in which behavioral development occurs is through the interaction between the behavior of a child and the consequences that follow behavior (Bijou, 1995). Operant behavior (behavior that produces effects on one’s environment) can be established via several distinct processes. If a behavior is followed by a pleasant consequence and thus becomes more likely in the future, it is labeled positive reinforcement. If a behavior is followed by the removal of something unpleasant and thereby increases the likelihood of that behavior recurring, it is called negative reinforcement. If a behavior is followed by the presentation of something aversive, and results in a weakening in the future occurrence of that behavior, this process is called positive punishment. Negative punishment occurs when the consequence of a given behavior results in the removal of something pleasant, and this reduces the likelihood of that behavior recurring. Note that reinforcement occurs if behavior is strengthened, and punishment is operating if behavior is weakened. The adjectives positive and negative refer to the presentation or removal of stimuli, respectively, not to whether or not a stimulus presented is deemed “good” or “bad.” In particular, note that negative reinforcement is quite distinct from punishment in that the former strengthens behavior while the latter weakens it. Imagine a child who says something like “I hate niggers!” or “I hate honkies.” If this statement is met with smiles of approval, pats on the head, or high-fives, then the utterance of such racist opinions will likely be strengthened. If, on the other hand, s/he is scolded, challenged, or slapped, the expression of such views will become less likely. Similarly, if a child listens to music performed by a member of another race or displays a poster in his/her room of a movie star of another race, and meets with ridicule or scorn from parents, peers,

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or older siblings, the future effects on this type of behavior will be likely quite different than if followed by approval or compliments. This is not uncommon. One of the authors overheard his elementary schoolage son say to a friend, “I hate gays!” Neither the boy’s mother nor father ever expressed similar views and certainly had not provided any reinforcement for such opinions. It is more likely that such sentiments were picked up via the boy’s peers or through exposure to the mass media. Imagine a white four-year-old who walks into a physician’s waiting room, already fearful over anticipating receiving an injection. If the waiting room is full of black adults with whom the child has had little experience, and the child begins to cry and seeks to leave the room, classical conditioning principles related to the environmental association between feeling fearful and subsequent exposure to black people may result in a generalized aversion to blacks. Moreover, if the mother subsequently removes the child from the waiting room, and the child calms down, then his or her escape behavior and complaints of being afraid have been negatively reinforced, and perhaps become more likely in the future. If the mother responds with soothing remarks, petting, and other forms of reassurance, then anxious dependent behavior will have been positively reinforced and again is more likely in the future. Relatedly, if a child or adolescent verbalizes a racial slur or bullies someone of another race, and his/her peers or parents smilingly approve of or otherwise support these actions, then positive reinforcement may have occurred, with a subsequent increase in the expression of such behaviors in the future. Indeed, the operant learning process called shaping may result in a gradual escalation of the magnitude and intensity of racially prejudicial behaviors over time. It certainly seems obvious that audience approval and other positive reinforcers were essential in shaping the content and emotionality of Adolf Hitler’s speeches during the 1930s. If fewer people had attended Nazi Party rallies as his anti-Semitic rhetoric escalated, then such behavior would have likely been reduced, as opposed to strengthened over time. In these more contemporary times, it seems obvious that one reason why white supremacist (such as Aryan Nation) or black supremacist (such as Nation of Islam) periodicals flourish is that people buy them! Money is a very potent positive reinforcer! Another operant learning process is involved with punishment. It is known that one of the side effects of punishment is a tendency to avoid the stimuli associated with punishment. If someone experiences

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a punitive or otherwise aversive event (a robbery, a paddling at school, bullying, etc.), the most salient features of the perpetrator may become discriminative stimuli for avoidance behavior. A black child punished by a white principal at school may tend to avoid white people in the future, or a white child bullied by a black teenager may similarly avoid blacks. Apart from contingencies of reinforcement provided in the everyday give and take of human interaction is the community or society establishment of larger-scale sets of consequences, codified as laws. The Nuremberg Laws limiting the civil rights of Jews in Nazi Germany are one egregious example; laws limiting the civil rights of American blacks earlier in our nation’s history are another. At one point in America, teaching blacks to read and write was punishable by law, and slave catchers were provided with considerable positive reinforcers in the form of rewards for tracking down escaped slaves. Indeed, all social policies can be viewed through the conceptual lens of learning theory, and analyzed in terms of how contrived conditions of reinforcement and punishment are established and codified into laws (Thyer, 1996). OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING Personal contact with contingencies of reinforcement or punishment is not essential in order to learn. One can also acquire new behaviors (including attitudes) by observing the actions of others and witnessing the consequences following these actions. This is called observational learning, modeling, or learning via imitation; and like classical and operant learning processes, learning via imitation also makes sound evolutionary sense. If members of a pack of primates who are the most vocal get picked off by predators more often than those who are quieter, expect the survivors to become a little quieter over the course of their lifetimes, and in turn to pass this tendency on to their offspring, as the louder ones fail to reproduce and the quieter ones have more descendants. If a primate observes a conspecific eating a novel fruit, and this individual later becomes sick, expect the observer of this effect to be less likely to eat that type of fruit. Learning from the observed consequences experienced by others makes sound evolutionary sense, and like respondent and operant behavioral learning processes, has been documented in a wide array of nonhuman species, including birds (Altshuler & Nunn, 2001), marmosets (Voelkl & Huber, 2000), cows (Veissier, 1993), cats (Karuki & Yanase, 1967), dogs (Adler & Adler, 1977), and chimpanzees

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(Hirata & Morimura, 2000), as well as among people. Observational learning is thus highly likely involved in the acquisition, shaping, and maintaining of racial prejudice. Parents, in particular, exert powerful modeling influences over their children. If a child sees his/her parents uttering racist remarks or practicing other racially discriminatory behaviors on a regular or even irregular basis, then one can expect that child to begin displaying similar behaviors. If the child’s or adolescent’s peers exhibit racist behavior, this behavior can be a powerful influence in establishing a long-term pattern of prejudice. If people see racist behaviors being reinforced, not being followed by punishment, or otherwise tolerated by society at large, expect a society wherein racism flourishes. The effects of observational learning are particularly powerful when the model is a highly valued or high-prestige individual, or if s/he resembles the observer. Governor George Wallace standing in the doorway to college, literally blocking the admission of black students, was widely applauded by white men in Alabama during the 1960s. If popular musicians loudly sing racist songs to the enthusiastic acclaim of their audience, expect others to model similarly racist actions (Grascia, 2003). If police abuse racial minorities, expect observers, including those watching via television, to be more likely to abuse minorities of color. If many individuals sign on to and read racist web pages, expect such web sites to expand and become ever more florid (Levin, 2002). Music lyrics and videos of “gangsta rap” are very prevalent in today’s culture. These explicit lyrics are illustrated by videos depicting sexism, violence, substance abuse, the degradation of women, and inappropriate sexual behavior (Sherman & Dominick, 1986). Many videos are highly reinforcing to watch, and since blacks perform many of them, the imitation of these problematic behaviors by black youth is very likely (Sun & Lull, 1986). Further, these negative images may validate and reinforce racial stereotypes, perpetuating racial prejudice. Historically, minorities have been very underrepresented on television, and those portrayals that do appear disproportionately represent negative stereotypes. There has been a slight improvement over the years with blacks somewhat more likely to be shown on television, while Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans remain virtually invisible. At present, however, the role of learning via imitation remains a speculative proposition in terms of accounting for racial prejudice. As Katz has recently noted, “no research has been conducted on how children’s racial attitudes might be modeled” (2003, p. 899).

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POTENTIAL INTERVENTIONS DERIVED FROM BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS What can be done to prevent or ameliorate racial prejudice? While genuinely experimental evidence from large-scale studies is lacking, there are a number of intriguing interventions based on social learning that provide some promising leads. An interventive study by Hauserman, Walen, and Behling (1973) employed twenty-five first grade children, including twenty whites and five blacks, as participants in a school-based study of the effects of reinforcement that is delivered contingent upon sitting with a “new friend” each day. The teacher maintained careful records of the children’s interracial lunchroom time and free-play time interactions, specifically noting the extent to which the children participated in interpersonal interracial engagements. Following a several-day baseline phase, reinforcers (coupons later exchangeable for snacks) were provided to those children participating in interracial interactions (playing or sitting together, talking, etc.) during lunch. It was found that racial integration strongly increased during lunchtime, when reinforcers were provided, and that this effect generalized to playtimes later that same day when reinforcement was not provided. To the extent that social exclusion could indicate racial bias, this simple study demonstrates that elementary operant methods have the potential to encourage black and white children to positively engage with each other to a far greater extent than would normally be the case, and that their likelihood of such engagement generalized to other contexts in which contrived reinforcement was not delivered. In a controlled nomothetic study, Primac (1980) found that simple verbal praise could enhance the use of positive adjectives by prejudiced white women when free associating to photographs of black persons. This is a powerful demonstration that listener responses exert a strong influence over the spontaneous emission of racially prejudiced remarks made by bigoted individuals (Guerin, 2003). Clearly, the phenomenon of racial prejudice should not be viewed solely as an idiosyncratic or characterological disorder, and it is much more likely to be a function of the social contingencies encountered during everyday life. A naturalistic experiment was reported by Hamilton, Pinel, and Roskos-Ewoldson (2002), which assessed people’s intent to donate money to black interest groups before and after a well-publicized act of racism occurred in the liberal arts college community, which was followed by public counterdemonstrations expressing outrage over the racist event. Behavioral intentions to donate money markedly increased

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following the racist event and counterprotests. This result may be interpretable in terms of observational learning. As vocal opponents of racism expressed their outrage and racially tolerant views were more widely promoted in the local community, observers would have seen a large array of role models, perhaps some being high-prestige or attractive individuals, displaying anti-racist behavior. This may have promoted similar behaviors among the observers. A more contrived social psychology experiment by Blanchard, Lilly, and Vaughn (1991) found much the same effect on a small scale. Female college undergraduates were either exposed or not exposed to strong anti-racist opinions during an experimental conversation in small groups. Exposure to these anti-racist sentiments served to enhance the subjects’ own endorsement of anti-racist views, which again suggests the powerful effects of modeling influences in ameliorating racial prejudice. Relatedly, it has been shown that drinking alcohol tends to increase the expression of racial prejudice among college students (Reeves & Nagoshi, 1993), suggesting that one environmental intervention to reduce racist events would be for colleges to work with their local communities to reduce happy hours, the hours during which bars are open, the offering of free drinks to women, and so on. At present in the United States, racial prejudice expressed as overt discrimination on the basis of race is a crime—for example, in systematically favoring whites over equally qualified blacks in job hiring or in refusing to rent apartments or hotel rooms to minorities of color, and so forth. Criminalizing such behaviors is a step in the right direction, but typically such behaviors are treated by civil penalties, fines levied against corporations, or mandating some form of employee training or restitution for those victimized. A further step in the eradication of racial prejudice would be to strengthen the penalties imposed upon those convicted of overt acts of racial discrimination, so that they receive criminal penalties and not merely fines, or pay some form of restitution up to and including prison sentences. Few interventions could be more potent than a couple of well-publicized CEOs of major corporations being sent to prison for racial discrimination in their companies’ job practices. Respondent learning suggests that exposing young children to members of other races under conditions of happy, pleasant circumstances may engender more favorable appraisals of racially diverse persons than would occur among individuals growing up in a largely racially homogeneous community. Katz’s (2003, p. 906) cohort-based longitudinal

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research shows that “[c]hildren with high racial bias at school entry had much more racially homogenous social environments throughout their early years than did low bias children,” and that very early on in life, children prefer to select same-race playmates over those of another race. Early intervention may be required to mitigate such effects. Providing lower dormitory rates for college students who agree to room with a member of another race might be another small step to enhance more liberal racial attitudes and behaviors among older students. To some extent this occurs naturally, but the liberalizing (in a racial sense) effects of education and college life may be promoted in a planned manner. The extent to which such behavioral engineering should be attempted is unknown. For example, would it be wise to disband exclusively black or white fraternities or sororities on campus, or to forcefully integrate historically black colleges and universities? These are not questions about which science may have much to say. The media over the years have created numerous interventions using modeling to impact racial attitudes and behaviors of children. One example is the Different and Same prejudice reduction curriculum for early elementary children, developed by the producers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (Lovelace, Scheiner, Dohlberg, Sergui, & Black, 1994). This curriculum consisted of videos of vignettes set in a school environment with animal puppets and racially diverse adult role models, played by live actors to help resolve difficult interracial situations. Overall, the curriculum was effective in positively influencing racial attitudes of children. As demonstrated, the media definitely have a potentially powerful influence on the behavior of young people. But traditional educational programs or diversity workshops appear to be relatively weak methods to inculcate anti-racist behavior (Hill & Augoustinos, 2001). DISCUSSION Numerous intervention strategies have been employed to rectify the prevalence of racial bias in children. Such strategies have included the use of multicultural curricula and materials for lessons that highlight the contributions of different racial, ethnic, religious, and other social groups. Other programs focus explicitly on providing counter-stereotypic information about groups (Bishop, 1992). Despite the variety of racial stereotyping interventions that have been reported in the developmental literature, most interventions have proven ineffective in altering children’s negative racial attitudes. This

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can be argued to be a result of the weaknesses of the theoretical and empirical bases of attitude formation and change on which the interventions are based (Bigler, 1999). It could also be suggested that the environmental (social and physical) conditions responsible for establishing and maintaining racial prejudice are so pervasive in our society that racial prejudice reversal or prevention in children is almost impossible. Behavioral analysts, however, approach the child’s racially related behavior holistically by examining (a) the child as a biological and psychological entity, (b) the environment of development, and (c) the continuous and reciprocal interaction between the behavior of the child and the environment (Bijou, 1995). From this optimistic behavior-analytic viewpoint, it can be suggested that effective strategies can be employed for change based on learning theory processes. Many behaviors can be strengthened or weakened by the contrived manipulation of the consequences following their occurrence. The types and schedules of reinforcement may influence the strength of racist and nonracist behaviors. In the traditional operant extinction model, reinforcers maintaining a behavior are simply not delivered. In the context of racial prejudice in a child, the extinction condition translates into complete nonreinforcement, either positive or negative, of any racially prejudiced behaviors that the child may exhibit. In a young child, this approach may be more practical to achieve, since his or her environment is more controlled. An alternative to the extinction procedure is the noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) intervention, in which reinforcement is delivered periodically, but not contingent on the specific behavior. For example, a child may be exposed to a stimulus for racial bias, such as watching a racially charged television show as well as two other benign television programs every morning. The mother who provides the same consistent, continuous commentary and attention to the child throughout all three shows, regardless of what shows they are, is exhibiting NCR (rather than emphasizing the racially charged show). NCR control is considered to be the most methodologically appropriate procedure for demonstrating the positive effects of positive reinforcement (Rescorla & Skucy, 1969). Differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) reverses the contingency by delivering reinforcers for the absence of a specific target behavior during a specified period of time. This suggests that a child who typically exhibits behaviors of racial bias can have this behavior reversed by being reinforced on occasions when such behaviors are not displayed. Positive reinforcement procedures have been found to

Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals

When you hear racist or prejudicial remarks made within your hearing, do not reinforce them by smiling, nodding or verbally agreeing. Instead, gently provide corrective information, or at least inform the speaker that you do not agree with those views, and do not like hearing them. Parents should avoid expressing racially discriminatory behavior around their children. Try and arrange for children under your responsibility to have the opportunity to positively interact with members of other races.

Community

Leaders can promote community events featuring crossover types of entertainment, likely to appeal to several races. Community leaders can be proactive in seeking out deserving members of racial minorities to receive community service awards and other forms of public recognition, or to be placed in appointive offices. Law officials can vigorously prosecute hate-crimes and other forms of racial discrimination which violate the law, as opposed to according these a low priority. continued

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Toolbox for Change (continued) For

Images/perceptions

Practitioners/ educators

Parents and teachers need to avoid exposing children to media portrayals of racially stereotypical behavior, in terms of books, magazines, television, videos, DVDs, and the theater. Provide access to positive portrayals of members of different races, and to books, music and other creative works created by members of different races.

Strategies for change Teachers can arrange for children in their classes to constructively work and play with each other in bior multiracial groupings.

be effective under a number of conditions and may be good techniques for diminishing racial prejudice in the young child. However, this cannot be done well without proper training of parents, preschool educators, and the community at large, in instituting effective contingency management programs. Another important component of effective strategies is the quality of the environment in which the child is developing. If the child has good peers from whom to learn and to imitate nonracial behaviors, and if s/he is not subjected to a barrage of negative images that promote racism, reinforcement programs may be an effective intervention in the young child. We freely acknowledge that much of what we have suggested in this chapter is speculative and weakly grounded at best in terms of scientifically credible evidence. However, this behavior-analytic perspective on racial prejudice is well supported by a strong theoretical framework, one that has widespread applications to a large array of interpersonal phenomena, and one that has also generated a considerably

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strong track record of developing effective interventions in related fields. Behavior analysis is also well supported by common sense and practical observations of everyday life. By being grounded solely in terms of environmental events, behavior analysis tends to promote a natural science approach to social issues such as racial prejudice. We believe that the learning theory processes undergirding the behavior-analytic perspective, while not yet offering convincing solutions to the vexing problem of racism, are undoubtedly implicated in the development and maintenance of the problem. We are equally convinced that these will be a part of the solution. REFERENCES Aboud, F. E. (1988). Children and prejudice. New York: Blackwell. Adler, L. L., & Adler, H. E. (1977). Ontogeny of observational learning in the dog. Developmental Psychobiology, 10, 267–271. Altshuler, D. L., & Nunn, A. M. (2001). Observational learning in hummingbirds. Auk, 118, 795–799. Baeyens, F., Van den Bergh, O., & Eelen, P. (1988). Once in contact, always in contact: Evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction. Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy, 10, 179–199. Barker, R. L. (Ed.). (2003). The social work dictionary (5th ed.). Washington, DC: NASW Press. Bar-Tal, D. (1996). Development of social categories and stereotyping in early childhood: The case of “the Arab” concept formation, stereotype, and attitudes by Jewish children in Israel. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 341–370. Bernard, J., & Sontag, L. W. (1947). Fetal reactivity to tonal stimulation: A preliminary report. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 70, 205–210. Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2003). Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Bigler, R. S. (1999). The use of multicultural curricula and materials to counter racism in children. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 687–806. Bijou, S. W. (1995). Behavior analysis of child development. Reno, NV: Context Press. Bishop, R. S. (1992). Multicultural literature for children: Making informed choices. In V. Harris (Ed.), Teaching multicultural literature in grades K-8 (pp. 37–53). Norwood, CT: Christopher Gordon. Blanchard, F. A., Lilly, T., & Vaughn, L. A. (1991). Reducing the expression of racial prejudice. Psychological Science, 2, 101–105. Briggs, H. E., & Paulson, R. I. (1996). Racism. In M. A. Mattaini & B. A. Thyer (Eds.), Finding solutions to social problems: Behavioral strategies

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for change (pp. 147–177). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Charles, C. Z., & Massey, D. S. (2003). How stereotypes sabotage minority students. Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(18), 10–12. Corenblum, B., & Annis, R. C. (1993). Development of racial identity in minority and majority children: An affect discrepancy model. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 25, 499–521. Doyo, M. C. (1971). Establishing and changing meaning by means of classical conditioning using the paired-associate method. Philippine Journal of Psychology, 4, 117–124. Gale, E. N., & Jacobson, M. B. (1970). The relationship between social comments as unconditioned stimuli. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 8, 301–307. Grascia, A. M. (2003). White supremacy music: What does it mean to our youth? Journal of Gang Research, 10(2), 25–31. Guerin, B. (2003). Combating prejudice and racism: New interventions from a functional analysis of racist language. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 13, 29–45. Hall, R. E. (2002). A descriptive methodology of color bias in Puerto Rico: Manifestations of discrimination in the new millennium. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1527–1537. Hamilton, J. C., Pinel, E. C., & Roskos-Ewoldsen, D. R. (2002). The effects of a racist act and public counter-demonstrations on race-related behavioral intentions: A natural experiment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 2611–2620. Hauserman, N., Walen, S. R., & Behling, M. (1973). Reinforced racial integration in the first grade: A study in generalization. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 6, 193–200. Hennessey, T. M., Rucker, W. B., & McDiarmid, C. G. (1979). Classical conditioning in paramecia. Animal Learning and Behavior, 7, 417–423. Hill, M. E. (2002). Race of the interviewer and perception of skin color: Evidence from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality. American Sociological Review, 67, 99–108. Hill, M. E., & Augoustinos, M. (2001). Stereotype change and prejudice reduction: Short- and long-term evaluation of a cross cultural awareness programme. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 11, 243–262. Hirata, S., & Morimura, N. (2000). Native chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) observation of experienced conspecifics in a tool-using task. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114, 291–296. Hunter, M. L. (2002). “If you’re light you’re alright”: Light skin color as social capital for women of color. Gender and Society, 16, 175–193. Karuki, Y., & Yanase, T. (1967). Observational learning in the cat. Annual of Animal Psychology, 17, 19–24.

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Katz, D., & Braly, K. W. (1935). Racial prejudice and racial stereotypes. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 30, 175–193. Katz, P. A. (2003). Racists or tolerant multiculturalists? How do they begin? American Psychologist, 58, 897–909. Kisilevsky, B. S., Muir, D. W., & Low, J. A. (1992). Maturation of human fetal responses to sound and vibration. Child Development, 63, 1497–1508. Levin, B. (2002). Cyberhate: A legal and historical analysis of extremists’ use of computer networks in America. American Behavioral Scientist, 45, 958–988. Locke, J. (1975). An essay concerning human understanding. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. (Original work published 1690) Lovelace, V., Scheiner, S., Dohlberg, S., Sergui, L., & Black, T. (1994). Making a neighborhood the Sesame Street way. Developing a methodology to evaluate children’s understanding of race. Journal of Educational Television, 20, 69–77. Miller, A. W. (1966). Conditioned connotative meaning. Journal of General Psychology, 50, 319–328. Primac, D. W. (1980). Reducing racial prejudice by verbal operant conditioning. Psychological Reports, 46, 655–669. Reeves, S. B., & Nagoshi, C. T. (1993). Effects of alcohol administration on the disinhibition of racial prejudice. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 17, 1066–1071. Rescorla, R. A., & Skucy, J. C. (1969). Effect of response independent reinforcers during extinction. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 67, 381–389. Sherman, B. L., & Dominick, J. R. (1986). Violence and sex in music videos: TV and rock ‘n’ roll. Journal of Communication, 36, 79–93. Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: Knopf. Staats, C. K., & Staats, A. W. (1957). Attitudes established by classical conditioning. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 57, 37–40. Sun, S. W., & Lull, J. (1986). The adolescent audience for music videos and why they watch. Journal of Communication, 36, 115–125. Swim, J. K., Hyers, L. L., Cohen, L. L., Fitzgerald, D. C., & Bylsma, W. H. (2003). African American college students’ experiences with everyday racism: Characteristics of and responses to these incidents. Journal of Black Psychology, 29, 38–67. Thyer, B. A. (1996). Behavior analysis and social welfare policy. In M. A. Mattaini & B. A. Thyer (Eds.), Finding solutions to social problems: Behavioral strategies for change (pp. 41–60). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Veissier, I. (1993). Observational learning in cattle. Applied Animal Behavioral Science, 35, 235–243. Voelkl, B., & Huber, L. (2000). True imitation in marmosets. Animal Behavior, 60, 195–202. Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158–177.

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CHAPTER 2

From Tragedy to Triumph: The Tulsa Race Riot Yvonne M. Jenkins

L

ike my parents, I am a native Oklahoman. I was born and grew up in Tulsa, better known as T-Town, my mother’s birthplace. Tulsa is the second largest city in Oklahoma and is located in the northeast region of the state. I moved east to attend a historically black university and discovered that some of my peers there, as well as others I have met since undergraduate school, found it unusual to learn that blacks live in Oklahoma. Until the media attention to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, introducing myself to others as an Oklahoman was commonly met with “Where?” or with “I didn’t know there were black people in Oklahoma!” or by those famous lyrics from the state’s musical namesake. I have been amused to discover that, even today, images of Oklahoma are often limited to Hollywood notions of cowboys and Indians, covered wagons, and other cinema representations of the Wild, Wild West. It is as if Oklahoma is perceived as a step back in time, Mars, or some other out-of-this-world entity. At a more serious level, the black population of Oklahoma has a very proud and distinguished history. Although there is much to celebrate about that history, it is important to acknowledge that it includes “one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in American history,” the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Ogletree, 2003). Aftershocks of that tragedy continue to impact the lives of Oklahomans as well as society at large today.

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My personal preoccupation with the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 has been motivated by (1) a love for my home community, (2) the desire to learn about and acknowledge an important truth about its history, (3) the inspiration “to give back” by making known the enduring traumatic psychological impact of the riot, and (4) an appreciation of the resilience that has enabled its black community to survive, prosper, and triumph over this tragedy. My introduction to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was gentle, gradual, and without much elaboration. I recall times when my mother mentioned “the riot of 1921” that she had learned about from her mother and maternal grandmother. At the time of the riot, her mother was six months pregnant with her. At the age of nine, my mother lost her own mother after she was refused treatment for a life-threatening illness because of the racial discrimination of Jim Crow laws. When I was around ten years old, I learned of my maternal grandmother’s final resting place, an urban cemetery that we often drove by while riding from the segregated black community of north Tulsa to the segregated white areas of Brookside and south Tulsa where my mother worked as a domestic. In retrospect, I recognize that I never even paid attention to the name of that cemetery; rather, it was enough for me to know that it was my maternal grandmother’s final resting place. Decades later, I discovered that some believed that many of the riot’s victims might have been buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in a mass grave with no headstones to identify who they were, or when they were born or died. Neither was there any marker describing the tragic circumstances of their deaths. While reading an article about the riot in a Boston newspaper in November 1999, I discovered that my grandmother’s resting place and Oaklawn Cemetery were the same site. Given the timing of my mother’s comments about the riot, I am sure that some of her memories were triggered by media coverage of the civil rights strife in the United States during the late fifties, including the sit-ins in Tulsa and the race riots that followed during the sixties. I have always been interested in black history. By the time I left home for college, I had studied Oklahoma history as well as Negro history. I also took a course in Negro history at the college level. Yet, I do not recall any formal education about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Initially, I questioned whether my memory was accurate. Could I have simply forgotten an inclusion of this historical event in my studies after so many years, or had there really been such an important omission from those courses? For a while, I even hesitated to check this out with others who had taken both of the courses due to the possibility

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that my own memory was not intact. When I did, my memories were validated. As Herman wrote in Trauma and Recovery, In order to escape accountability, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator’s first line of defense. (1992, p. 8)

Later, my experience was further confirmed when I read a statement made by Mrs. Eddie Fay Gates, a member of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission. She acknowledged that children in Tulsa did not know about the riot and questioned how they could be expected to learn from it and to improve conditions if not educated about what had happened. More recently, I was stunned but not shocked to learn that information about the riot was banned for many years by book publishers, just as accurate accounts of U.S. and American history that included blacks and slavery had for so many years (Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, 2001). During my predoctoral internship at the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology in Boston, I became interested in the impact of community crisis intervention on social problems. My dissertation research focused on evaluating a training program designed to prepare community mental health workers to intervene in the Boston schools desegregation crisis that occurred in the late 1970s. Several years later, Carmen Fields, a Boston journalist and native Tulsan, produced “Going Back to T-Town,” a documentary about the riot of 1921 that aired on PBS in 1992 as part of the American Experience series. While viewing the documentary, I was reminded of my mother’s comments about the riot. From that point on, my interest in the riot soared. During the fall of that year, I purchased the videotape of the documentary, took it to Tulsa, and viewed it with my mother. My mother has always been a very quiet and gentle soul. Yet, her response to the documentary was enthusiastic and moving. The story of the riot clearly affirmed an important aspect of her experience as she listened to several senior Tulsans, blacks whose faces and stories were familiar to her, recall their experiences of the riot. Their stories probably echoed those she had heard from her mother and grandmother. It suddenly dawned on me afterward that my mother was an immediate descendant of riot survivors even though she had never been formally registered as such. Since the media paid more and more attention to the riot in the 1990s, during the millennium and beyond I read everything I could get my hands on about the riot. What seemed a bit strange to me was

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that my circle of friends and other family members who lived in the Tulsa area discussed the riot less than those I knew in other places. I also encountered a similar silence in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Later, I discussed this with one of my mentors in the mental health field. During that conversation, it occurred to me that silence, even secrecy, is often present in the aftermath of trauma. My mentor suggested that I write an article about the psychological aftermath of the riot as I struggled to understand the silence. At that time, her suggestion only interested me as a future possibility, since I was preoccupied with learning more facts about this horror that was still a mystery to me. In 2003, a Harvard-led legal team filed a lawsuit that sought reparations for survivors of the riot and their descendants. In 2004, that lawsuit was defeated on the basis that this injustice was long ago and filing deadlines had passed. Despite this legal setback, the filing of the lawsuit was significant in its own right since it was the first to seek reparations for “the continuing consequences of slavery” (Mansfield, 2003). The lawsuit was an important milestone in the healing of Tulsa’s black community in that it acknowledged an ugly secret as an injustice and formally honored the dignity of those who succumbed to and survived the riot as well as their descendants. TULSA, A MODEL FOR RECOVERY AND HEALING Like Tulsa’s black community, other communities of color across the country have been terrorized by racial violence over the years. Such trauma typically engenders fear, rage, helplessness, and preoccupation with basic survival. This stance is commonly reinforced by shame, silence/secrecy, and denial. To some extent, Tulsa’s experience has been consistent with this. Yet, Tulsa’s movement toward healing has also been progressive and instructive for community healing, recovery, and the ongoing confrontation of racism. It is hoped that shedding light on this community’s experience will promote the recovery and healing of other communities and individuals from violence and trauma rooted in racism and discrimination. BACKGROUND OF THE RIOT By 1921, descendants of African slaves who had accompanied Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, children and grandchildren of runaway

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slaves, and elderly persons who had been born into slavery had migrated to Oklahoma from the South to escape lynching, poverty, and other forms of oppression. However, there was the chilling reality that twenty-three blacks had been lynched in twelve Oklahoma towns in the decade leading up to 1921. None of the perpetrators were punished for these crimes. In fact, the final report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (2001) asserts that authority figures even participated in some of the lynchings. Meanwhile, in racially segregated Tulsa, blacks were prohibited from doing business with whites (Moorehead, 2003). Interracial marriages between blacks and Native Americans led to landownership where oil had already been discovered. Blacks took advantage of the economic boom by establishing their own businesses. These included two newspapers, medical and dental offices, a hospital, a labor union, three groceries, barbershops and beauty parlors, realtors, a branch of the U.S. Post Office, two movie theaters, a hotel, and Dunbar Elementary School. Furthermore, Tulsa County had the second lowest illiteracy rate in the state. By 1921, blacks had built a “self-sustaining, economically thriving,” and progressive community of 10,000 in north Tulsa known as Greenwood (Denniston, 2003). The Greenwood district was referred to as “Black Wall Street” by noted educator Booker T. Washington but disparagingly referred to as “Little Africa” by some in Tulsa’s white community. Although black Tulsans were very proud of their community, this was not everyone’s sentiment. In fact, some have speculated that it was resentment of this success that fueled the Tulsa riot of 1921 (Moorehead, 2003). On May 31, 1921, the day before the outbreak of the riot, Dick Rowland, a nineteen-year-old black shoeshine man in downtown Tulsa, took a routine bathroom break by going to the top of the Drexel building, his place of employment, where the only bathroom for “coloreds” was located. It was alleged that, while on that break, he assaulted Sarah Paige, a seventeen-year-old white woman elevator operator. The media was immediately alerted. The headline for the evening edition of the Tulsa Tribune read, “Nab Negro for Assaulting Girl,” while the editorial promised “[t]o Lynch Negro Tonight.” The latter is believed to have initiated the riot, because forty-five minutes after the newspaper went on sale, Tulsans were talking about lynching. That night approximately 2,000 whites gathered outside the Tulsa County Courthouse, which was only about five miles from Tulsa’s predominantly black Greenwood.

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Armed black war veterans also gathered and offered their help to the local police force after hearing about the white mob and out of concern for Rowland’s safety. However, their offer was rejected. Thereafter, according to Ellsworth (1982), as the black veterans were leaving, a white man demanded to know what a tall black veteran armed with an army pistol planned to do with it. The man, who had recently returned from duty in France, replied, “I’m going to use it if I need to.” The white man lunged at him, the gun fired, and the riot began. THE RIOT AND ITS AFTERMATH Fourteen hours of ensuing violence destroyed an entire community. Mobs were deputized, armed, and spurred on toward violence by city and state officials. In addition, the National Guard was called in by the governor to put an end to what was said to be “an uprising” by blacks. Powerful weapons were used with deadly force against blacks. After running out of ammunition, more than 4,000 blacks were held at the convention hall, other public buildings downtown, and the baseball stadium; or herded into the fairgrounds by torch-bearing whites, beaten, and shot. These sites served as internment camps. Many of the sick and wounded were dumped in front of the convention hall hours before medical attention was provided (Ellsworth, 1982). On June 1, with the aid of the National Guard and the Red Cross, several sites in Tulsa were turned into emergency medical facilities for wounded blacks. Forty-eight whites were also treated at hospitals. Initially, only those blacks who were employed by whites could be released immediately—if their employers vouched for them and assured authorities that the employees would be kept indoors where they were employed. Although the number of the dead has long been in dispute, the Department of Health’s Bureau of Vital Statistics estimated that three hundred blacks and ten whites died in the riot (Ellsworth, 1982). This is thought to be the highest mortality rate ever recorded for a riot on U.S. soil. In addition, 5,000 blacks were left homeless after at least 1,256 houses went up in smoke. Whites looted 215 black homes, and over $2 million in property damage accumulated over a thirty-five–block area. Many black Tulsans fled the area and found refuge in the Kansas City area, Chicago, cities in the Northeast, and California. Some whites and Maria Morales Gutierrez, a Mexican immigrant, offered their homes as refuge

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(Ellsworth, 1982). Meanwhile, Sarah Paige, the alleged victim, pressed no charges and Dick Rowland was later released. Even though a few blacks were charged with riot-related offenses, the impact of racism, prejudice, and discrimination was evident in that not one white person was ever convicted or sent to prison for the murders or arson (Moorehead, 2003). Authorities refused offers to help black survivors, attempted to confiscate land from those who were forced to leave their homes, and buried victims in unmarked graves, according to Kolker (1999). Meanwhile, only one block of the original Greenwood business district still stands. That land, which was valued at $13 million in 1921, is currently worth around $65 million. The report of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission (2000) suggests that two sources of information most accurately corroborate the property value of the total area of Tulsa destroyed by the riot. First, records of riot-related claims exceeding $1.8 million dollars were filed against the city of Tulsa between June 14, 1921 and June 6, 1922. However, the majority of those claims were disallowed. Yet, a white gunshop owner was compensated for guns that were stolen from his shop.1 Secondly, the sum of actual damage filed in 193 retrieved court cases against insurance companies and the city of Tulsa equaled $1,470,711.56. This amount bears a close relationship to the range of other estimates that spanned $1.5–1.8 million. A CHILLING TWIST Stories about how the remains of the dead were treated after the riot are filled with indignity and horror. For example, at the convention center where many black men were being detained, the body of a dead black man was publicly displayed to frighten and humiliate the group. Funerals and graveside rites for the dead were not permitted in the city. According to Ellsworth (1982), the leader of the National Guard, Adjutant General Charles Barrett, rationalized this action as “military policy, and [necessary because of] the emotional stress which still prevailed, and the fact that many churches . . . were being used to shelter the homeless” (p. 67). Ellsworth also revealed that some survivors, including my high school principal, the late Henry C. Whitlow, witnessed corpses being piled onto trucks before being driven away. It is believed that some corpses were dumped into the Arkansas River while others were probably buried in a mass grave in Oaklawn Cemetery.

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In 1999, the Tulsa Race Riot Commission approved the use of geophysics to look for any existing mass gravesites. In 2002, Clyde Eddie, an eighty-eight-year-old white resident of Tulsa, revealed a poignant memory to the Tulsa Race Riot Commission. At the age of ten, one day he was walking to his aunt’s house and saw piano crates just inside the fence at Oaklawn Cemetery. He stopped to peek beyond the fence and saw what he believed to be at least seven corpses inside the crates before being shoved away by some white men. It is now believed that at least 150 bodies were buried in that cemetery under the supervision of a Salvation Army officer. Early in 2003, state archeologists tested three sites with groundpenetrating radar to find a mass grave and proof of tragedy. Two of those sites, Newblock Park and Booker T. Washington Cemetery, have yielded no appreciable data. However, one subsurface anomaly in Oaklawn Cemetery bears all of the characteristics of a dug pit/trench with vertical walls and an undefined object within the approximate center of the feature. Because this anomaly is visible on electromagnetic induction (EMI) and growth-penetrating radar (GPR), some believe it is authentic even though this is not yet certain. THE ENDURING PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF RACIAL TRAUMA AND PREJUDICE Despite the secrecy that lingered for decades after the riot, “the physical, psychological and spiritual damage [it imposed] was apparent for years” (Ellsworth, 1982, p. 26). Certainly, since the early 1970s, the media has made the impact of the riot much clearer than ever before. For example, the terrorism inflicted on victims; the incredible loss of life, property, and an entire business community; the displacement of citizens; and other indignities have been revealed in horrific detail. Some may wonder whether this event that happened so long ago could still have lingering psychological effects. After all, isn’t it over? What could an event that happened so long ago have to do with the present? What is the use in dwelling on it? I recall that a similar sentiment about the psychological impact of slavery was debated back and forth by the audience after one of my presentations at the American Psychological Convention several years ago. In this era where so much is known about posttraumatic stress, it is startling that racial violence and prejudice suffered by blacks are often still paid minimal attention as trauma. Instead, rather than a more

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comprehensive systems perspective oriented toward social change, the “blame the victim” stance still surfaces as a general explanation for low self- and social esteem, self/community destruction, and other problematic behaviors. In the aftermath of the Tulsa riot, the blamethe-victim stance was perpetuated by distorted newspaper accounts and coverups by the local police; and also by a National Guard motivated by denial and a desire to hold on to an unblemished image, which was always important to socially and politically prominent white Tulsans, since Ku Klux Klan members who held powerful positions in the local government were thought to be criminally involved in the riot. Some black Tulsans felt certain that whites organized efforts to keep that secret. Mainstream allegations that Tulsa’s black community was responsible for the riot and other deliberate efforts to conceal the truth within a racist social climate that imposed second-class citizenship on blacks made it difficult to make the truth known for several decades. Despite this, some black Tulsans were brave enough to pass the story on to those who came after them. Others never mentioned it, possibly out of fear, shame, preoccupation with basic survival, and the mental dissociation that is often triggered by trauma. Since the riot, the black population of Tulsa’s movement toward recovery and healing has involved (1) rebuilding the Greenwood community, (2) breaking the silence and commemorating the riot, and (3) filing a lawsuit for reparations. REBUILDING THE GREENWOOD COMMUNITY The incredible resilience of those who stayed in Tulsa after the riot is still remarkable in view of the horrific trauma they had endured, the persistence of a hostile environment thereafter, and an uncertain future. Despite the wounding and grief they endured, the survivors rallied around each other in a spirit of collaboration, dignity, and determination. The help offered by the Red Cross and local businessmen was readily accepted, and more than 350 tents were erected within the first week after the riot. The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also made a sizable contribution to the survivors in October 1921. Other contributions in varying amounts came from as far away as California, New York, and New Jersey. By December of that year, efforts had begun to rebuild Greenwood despite obstacles imposed by the Tulsa City Commission and the Chamber of Commerce. Attorney B. C. Franklin, the father of eminent historian John Hope Franklin, and his

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law partners defeated a city ordinance that blocked the efforts of blacks to rebuild their community. BREAKING THE SILENCE AND COMMEMORATING THE RIOT Sharing the traumatic experience with others is a precondition of a sense of a meaningful world. (Herman, 1992, p. 70)

Basic to healing the psychological wounds of trauma is breaking—by acknowledging the truth about what has happened—the silence or secrecy that lingers in its aftermath. Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships, not isolation. The awareness gained from sharing also prevents a repetition of the past. I have often wondered what it was like for my maternal grandmother and great-grandmother to have experienced the riot and to pass their stories on to my mother. What was it like to bring a child into this world at a time filled with the trauma of so much loss and grief? What was it like to bring a newborn home to a community blemished by the ruins of burned homes, churches, and businesses? What was it like to live such a joyous experience in the midst of homeless families temporarily housed in tents, the sadness and even numbness of overwhelming loss, and the ever-present fear that the embers of racial hatred could ignite again at a moment’s notice? I can only speculate about what my maternal grandmother and great-grandmother experienced, since what my mother passed on to me was without much elaboration. After all, she was only a child when she heard their stories. Her mother and grandmother were both deceased by her mid-teens. I can only imagine that the timing of my mother’s birth must have been a bittersweet time for her family and filled with much uncertainty about the future. Even though I have never had the privilege of knowing my maternal grandmother or great-grandmother, I appreciate the courage and resilience they displayed by passing their stories on to my mother. At some level, they must have struggled with the threat or reality of emotional disconnection from one another or from my mother, since this is a frequent occurrence among traumatized parents. However, their strong sense of injustice and need for my mother to know about what had happened probably spared her the pain and suffering that such disconnection might have imposed on her as a child. Witnessing in the aftermath of trauma prevents children from becoming silent witnesses to parents’ suffering and feeling separated from them, according to Weingarten (2003).

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This same author contends that “children do better knowing something rather than nothing” and that dialogue “interrupts transmission of trauma and common shock from one generation to another” (p. 154). Even though black Tulsans have always acknowledged the reality of the riot more than their white counterparts have, memories of that event gradually seemed to vanish over the years. Eventually it was as if the riot had never occurred at all. Ellsworth (1982) contends that the white community’s silence was motivated in part by the need of prominent white Tulsans to maintain an unblemished image of the city. The necessity for blacks to restrict their acknowledgment of the riot to their own community was imperative since it was much harder for them to protest oppression in the absence of laws to protect them from the practices of racism and discrimination in the early nineteenth century. As Seymour Williams, a riot survivor and retired high school teacher, stated in his testimony to the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, “Blacks lost everything. They were afraid it could happen again and there was no way to tell the story. The . . . Negro newspapers were bombed. With the unkept promises, they were too busy just trying to make it . . . killers were still running loose [wearing] blue suits as well as Klan sheets” (p. vii). Williams’s view is supported by Herman (1992), who contends that “secrecy and silence are the perpetrator’s first line of defense” (p. 9). “Those who are already disempowered . . . are most at risk” (p. 60). Thus, the silence of black Tulsans proved to be adaptive and created a central relational paradox, even though this inadvertently promoted the denial of white Tulsans.2 In 1956, Don Ross, then a student at segregated Booker T. Washington High School, was informed of the riot by one of his teachers, W. D. Williams. He could not believe the story because no one he knew had ever mentioned it. It is important to mention here that the irrationality, intensity, and enormity of trauma also make it difficult for those who hear about it to believe that it really happened. A couple of common reactions are “Oh, that couldn’t have really happened,” “Is he/she really telling the truth?” and “It couldn’t have been that bad.” Meanwhile, Ross vowed to make the truth known. In 1971, he published the first detailed account of the riot, written by Ed Wheeler, in a magazine called Impact. Tulsa’s two daily newspapers had rejected Wheeler’s article. After Ross, a Democrat, was elected state representative, he proposed legislation for reparations. On June 1, 1996, the first official commemoration of the anniversary of the riot was held at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in North Tulsa. The original structure, which was brand-new in 1921, was

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destroyed in the riot. The historic church was filled to capacity. At least 1,200 people attended this moving ceremony, including survivors, descendants, and others from many different backgrounds. According to Gates (2003), dignitaries and powerful speakers participated. In addition, gospel choirs performed, and children sang and read poetry. The commemoration of the riot has since become an annual affair designed “to respect and honor those who survived [the riot], and to share dialogue on how to promote racial healing and harmony” (Gates, 2003, p. 39). This ceremony contributed much to the process of breaking the silence. In 1997, Don Ross’s efforts led to the passage of the bill that created the Tulsa Race Riot Commission and a full investigation into the riot. The media paid much attention to this historic development. By 1999, sixty-five riot survivors had been found (Kolker, 1999), and by 2001, 118 living survivors had been located and 176 descendants registered (Oklahoma Commission, 2001). The survivors’ stories are an essential component of the Commission’s final report that was issued in 2001. It was that report that officially broke the silence that had prevailed for nearly eighty years. FILING FOR REPARATIONS On February 24, 2003, a group of attorneys that included Los Angeles defense attorney Johnnie Cochran; Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree Jr.; and Leslie Mansfield, director of the legal clinic at the University of Tulsa Law School, filed a 139-page lawsuit for reparations. Following completion of the final report of the Commission in 2001, this lawsuit was filed after a yearlong effort to persuade local attorneys to take on the litigation. This was met with rejection. Therefore, the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of 200 plaintiffs who included survivors of the riot as well as descendants of victims, demanded reparations for the 300 lives lost during the riot, as well as the losses of homes and businesses. The lawsuit also alleged that state and local authorities failed to stop the riots and even participated in the violence at times (Robertson, 2003). Among those held responsible for the riot are “the current governor of Oklahoma as official successor of the governor in 1921, the current chief of police as the representative of the chief of police at the time of the riot, and the Tulsa Police Department” (Denniston, 2003). Furthermore, efforts will be made to identify at least 100 additional individuals who are believed to have been responsible for the riot.

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The lawyers who prepared the lawsuit for reparations believed that it embodied broader themes than those that applied to the Tulsa case. Therefore, it might support a series of preexisting lawsuits that seek reparations for slavery and other forms of racial oppression to be filed in the future. Toward this end, Ogletree believes that the Tulsa case is particularly compelling because “there are identifiable plaintiffs and defendants” and “a fully developed factual record in the form of an official state commission’s report issued in 2001” (Denniston, 2003). Finally, this lawsuit will establish whether or not injustices that were committed long ago can be addressed by courts when filing deadlines have passed. HOW DOES TULSA’S EXPERIENCE INFORM OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT PROMOTES RECOVERY FROM RACIAL TRAUMA? The immediate support of organizations like the Red Cross and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), shelter provided by a few white citizens, monetary donations from private citizens from across the country, and the attorneys who freely gave their services to rebuild that community were graciously received by the survivors and descendants of the riot as expressions of concern and compassion after that tragedy. Gestures such as these contributed substantially to reestablishing some semblance of safety and control. This was vital to survivors in the aftermath of trauma. To know that one is cared about at such a devastating time eases the pain of trauma suffered, decreases isolation by facilitating connection to others, and mobilizes hope for a brighter future. It is also important to acknowledge that the faith, prayers for healing, and the church communities of black Tulsans were a continuous source of solace and containment in the wake of relatives and friends who vanished during the riot never to be seen or heard from again, and also in the faces of unbearable sadness and flashbacks of terror. Other events that continuously promote recovery are annual commemoration ceremonies, the findings of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission in 1997, and the lawsuit for reparations filed in 2003, in that each is an important source of acknowledgment of the injustice suffered. The latter also seeks legal accountability for that injustice. Because of these events, the riot will never be covered up again. At another level, these developments have facilitated a community’s movement from remembrance and mourning toward reconnection with ordinary

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life (Herman, 1992) and broader extensive connection to global world community than ever before. Perhaps Gates (2003) says this best: “The riot has gone from being one of the most covered up events in history to being [common knowledge] all over the world” (p. 39). Although significant advances in race relations have been made since the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, in some ways things have not changed more than eighty years later. Prejudice, discrimination, and racially charged disturbances continue to threaten marginalized and disenfranchised communities today. This is evidenced by racially motivated violence, racial profiling, and other discriminatory practices that humiliate, provoke distrust and fear, and result in the maiming and murder of innocent victims. In view of these realities, the following Toolbox for Change is proposed to promote positive relations and to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. Embracing diversity is a lifelong process. This process involves the development of attitudes and behaviors that are informed by and appreciate the racial and cultural dimensions of the self as well as the same in others. Among those factors that facilitate the development of this process are culturally competent education and training, and community mental health practice. Culturally competent education and training are essential tools for change at individual and community levels. This is imperative from the time of a child’s earliest educational experiences in daycare and preschool throughout all subsequent academic levels thereafter over the course of one’s lifespan. Exposure to culturally competent curricula prior to and during the college years, integrated with multicultural education, can enhance one’s knowledge and appreciation of human diversity. In addition, meaningful and affirmative exposure to others from one’s own racial group as well as those from other racial and cultural groups are essential to shaping attitudes and behaviors that reflect acceptance and fairness. Educators must be adequately prepared to provide an inclusive learning environment via diversity training and self-reflection that enables personal as well as professional development in these areas. In predominantly white school settings, same-race affinity groups for children and adolescents can be effective for promoting positive racial identity development and cultural pride. Such groups benefit children from marginalized and disenfranchised populations as well as children from more privileged backgrounds, since positive racial identity development and cultural pride are essential to the mental and social health of all children. Prejudice and discrimination are rooted in ignorance and in isolation from targeted groups. Therefore, multicultural

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Toolbox for Change

Tools Culturally competent education and training Multicultural education Basic crisis Intervention Stress Management Meaningful & affirmative exposure Intra race affinity groups

Individual

Community

Human services professionals and educators X

X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

discussion and activity groups are also growth enhancing for adolescents who have achieved positive racial identity development and cultural pride via a solid foundation in same-race affinity groups or similar experiences. Like-minded groups for parents of students are also essential for nurturing healthy racial identity development and enabling parents to become effective role models for their children. After all, if positive racial identity development and cultural pride are not reinforced in the home, schools are limited in what they can achieve with children and adolescents in this area. The preparation of community mental health workers and other human services professionals for intervention in racially charged community crises is also essential. Without this, timely attention to those impacted by such crises may not occur and may lead to needless suffering on multiple levels. Training in crisis intervention stress management (Mitchell & Everly, 1998) or similar intervention that is informed by a particular community’s situation could be quite effective in promoting recovery and healing from racially charged community crises. Finally, culturally competent psycho-education and ongoing focus groups that emphasize developing strategies for social change could play a vital role in prevention. Such groups could be conducted in a variety of settings that include but are not limited to places of worship, police departments, city and state government, and corporations.

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REFERENCES Denniston, L. (2003, February 26). Lawyers hope Tulsa case can lay foundation for more claims. The Boston Globe, p. 10. Ellsworth, S. (1982). Death in a promised land. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University. Gates, E. F. (2003) Riot on Greenwood. Austin, TX: Sunbelt Eakin Press. Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books. Kolker, C. (1999, November 7). Unearthing a horror for Oklahoma blacks. The Boston Sunday Globe. Mansfield, L. (2003, February 26). In L. Denniston, Lawyers hope Tulsa can lay foundation for more claims. The Boston Globe. Mitchell, J. F., & Everly, G. S. (1998). Critical incident stress management: The basic course. Ellicott, MD: International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. Moorehead, M. (2003). U.S. ethnic cleaning: The 1921 Tulsa Massacre. Retrieved January 14, 2004, from www.iacenter.org/usethnic.htm Ogletree, C. T., Jr. (2003, February 26). In L. Denniston, Lawyers hope Tulsa case can lay foundation for more claims. The Boston Globe, p. A10. Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. (2001, February 28). The Tulsa Race Riot [court report]. Robertson, T. (2003, February 26). Quest for vindication: Survivors of 1921 Tulsa race riots hail suit for reparations. The Boston Globe, pp. A1, A17. Weingarten, K. (2003). Common shock. New York: Penguin Group.

CHAPTER 3

Racial and Ethnic Prejudice among Children Sheri R. Levy Tara L. West Luisa F. Ramirez John E. Pachankis

P

ervasive intergroup conflict continues to make national and international headlines, and acts of racial/ethnic discrimination are not limited to adults. For example, in a town on Long Island in New York where some residents were upset about the influx of Mexican immigrant workers, four unprovoked white teenage males set fire to the home of a Mexican family while the family slept inside (“4 teens,” 2003). As another example, a group of approximately thirty white teenagers living in an affluent suburb in Las Vegas, Nevada, apparently formed a hate group (311 Boyz) based on Ku Klux Klan principles and have been charged with numerous assaults on minority group members (including two Asian men), even videotaping their vicious acts (Friess, 2003, September 28). Besides such anecdotal evidence, decades of research indicate that racism is a serious problem among children and adolescents in the United States and other countries. Racism appears among children as early as five years of age (Aboud, 1988; Bar-Tal, 1996), suggesting that children often enter school with prejudiced views. With increases in the racial/ethnic diversity of youth in the United States, understanding how prejudice develops and can be changed is urgent. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2002), non-Hispanic whites will no longer be a numerical majority group in the United States starting in 2060. Thus, children in the United States will increasingly learn, live, and work in racially and ethnically integrated settings.

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Researchers, educators, parents, and other concerned individuals have long tried to understand and reduce prejudice among children. The goal of this chapter is to provide a summary of the tremendous strides researchers have made in understanding and reducing racial/ ethnic prejudice among children. For decades, researchers have tried to understand the atrocious acts that capture headlines, as reported above, and also those that do not make headlines, for example, when a five-yearold girl refuses to work on a puzzle with a new classmate of a different racial/ethnic group, or when an eight-year-old boy mutters a racial slur under his breath in reaction to a different-race peer. How do we understand these behaviors? Some might suggest that these acts do not represent the children’s true attitudes, but rather reflect their oblivious mimicry of the behavior of others. Thus, there is no prejudice to reduce and the acts should be ignored. In contrast, these behaviors may reflect the children’s true attitudes; consequently, children could be taught new, tolerant attitudes. An additional interpretation is that children’s attitudes and behaviors in part reflect their lack of social sophistication or ability to be tolerant; thus, reducing their prejudice requires developmentally appropriate training in more sophisticated thought processes. These interpretations reflect some of the main theories of prejudice among children. In this chapter, we review research on the development and reduction of prejudice among children. We begin by elaborating the main theories of the origins of prejudice among children and discuss the empirical research relevant to these theories. Then, we review and evaluate the prejudice-reduction interventions that have grown out of these theories. Future directions for research on understanding and addressing prejudice among youth are discussed. We will conclude with advice for parents, teachers, policymakers, and others interested in promoting tolerance among youth. THEORIES OF THE ORIGINS OF PREJUDICE AMONG CHILDREN In this section, we address the question, Why are children prejudiced? We define “prejudice” as the holding of negative beliefs and feelings toward a group and its members or the exhibiting of hostile or negative treatment directed at a group and its members (Aboud & Levy, 2000; Brown, 1995). Although there are distinctions between race and ethnicity (Ocampo, Bernal, & Knight, 1993; Quintana, 1998), racial and ethnic group memberships appear to

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have similar implications for prejudice; thus, we will discuss the findings of research on racial and ethnic identities together. We focus only on ethnic/racial prejudice because of the combined set of features differentiating it from other prejudices. For example, the category of race is less malleable (for example, people may move in and out of the category of overweight), more visible (for example, people’s sexual orientation is not a visible category), and allows for social separation more readily (for example, people may be biased toward members of the other gender, while also engaging in very close relationships with them) than other prejudices. We begin our review by describing traditional theories and then highlighting more contemporary theories. The Authoritarian Personality For many years, prejudice among children was considered a minor problem. This is partly due to the limited viewpoint of past theories of prejudice development. An early theory of prejudice among children suggested that it was an outgrowth of abnormal development and thus a rare occurrence. This idea evolved from a psychodynamic framework and was articulated by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson, and Sanford (1950) in their classic book The Authoritarian Personality. The term authoritarian describes a personality type characterized by excessive conformity, submission to authority, and hostility toward those deviating from conventions (that is, authority-sanctioned standards of behavior). Adorno and colleagues began their studies on the authoritarian personality in an attempt to understand the atrocities of Nazi Germany. They suggested that such personalities resulted from exposure in childhood to threat and punishment in response to expressions of unconventional behavior. In an environment that forcefully promotes conventionalism and submission to authority, it was thought that children would need to release their aggressive impulses, but that they would not be able to aggress against their authority figures (their parents). Thus, according to the authors, children projected their anger onto other people. Socially unconventional people were a good target since authority figures approved of aggression toward such social deviants, which could include racial or ethnic minorities in certain contexts. This process was thought to give rise to prejudice toward certain outgroups. However, it is clear that the authoritarian personality is not a reflection of a “German personality.” Prejudice is pervasive, and atrocities have occurred all over the world at the hands of many

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different groups. Prejudiced beliefs are no longer considered an abnormal occurrence (although acts of discrimination are illegal). The Social Learning Theory Another traditional approach to prejudice is the social learning theory, which suggests that children learn prejudice by observing and imitating important others (such as parents and teachers), becoming gradually more prejudiced with age. Gordon Allport originally proposed this theory in 1954 in his classic work The Nature of Prejudice. Allport suggested that children mimic, and then come to believe, what they are exposed to in their environments. A child who overhears a racial slur from a valued adult will likely repeat that slur, and to the extent that the child understands the meaning behind it, will come to hold the associated negative belief about the group. There is much evidence supporting social learning theory more generally (Bandura, 1977), and very few individuals would claim that we are not influenced by what we are exposed to in our environment. Research, however, has provided inconsistent evidence regarding the relation between children’s racial attitudes and the racial attitudes of others in their environment. Much research has investigated the relation between children’s racial attitudes and the racial attitudes of their parents. For example, a positive relation was found between the racial attitudes of white fathers and their adolescent sons, but not for black father-son pairs (Carlson & Iovini, 1985). In another study, third-grade children’s racial attitudes were not strongly related to their mothers’ racial attitudes (Aboud & Doyle, 1996a). Other research has suggested that as black children age, their attitudes toward whites and blacks gradually become more like their parents’ attitudes (Branch & Newcombe, 1986). Studies have also examined the relation between children’s racial attitudes and the attitudes of their peers. For example, one study found little overlap between black and white ninth graders’ racial attitudes and behaviors, and the racial attitudes and behaviors of their peers (Patchen, 1983). Similarly, it was also found that school-aged children and their peers did not generally possess similar racial attitudes, although the children believed that their peers did hold attitudes similar to their own (Aboud & Doyle, 1996a; Ritchey & Fishbein, 2001). These studies examining the relationship between children’s racial attitudes and the attitudes of their parents and peers suggest that children may not share their racial attitudes with many of the closest

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individuals in their lives. Indeed, evidence suggests that parents, particularly members of race-majority groups, rarely discuss prejudice with their children (Kofkin, Katz, & Downey, 1995, as reported in Aboud & Amato, 2001; Knight, Bernal, Garza, Cota, & Ocampo, 1993). Ironically, it appears that more racially tolerant parents may not discuss racial issues with their children for fear of bringing attention to race. Yet, it has been shown that when adults and peers address prejudice, it is decreased (Aboud & Doyle, 1996b). That is, it seems that the lack of strong relation between attitudes of children and their valued adult figures may stem from a lack of discussion, not a lack of influence. For example, Aboud and Doyle (1996b) found that low-prejudice (as assessed at pretest) white third and fourth graders who discussed their racial attitudes with a high-prejudice peer actually lowered their peer’s prejudice. Below are excerpts from the tape recording of a high-prejudice (HP) participant and her low-prejudice (LP) female discussion partner, as they discuss the traits of politeness and bossiness. The children were instructed to discuss various traits as they pertained to descriptions of three groups: Asians, blacks, and whites (Aboud & Doyle, 1996b, p. 170). LP: You go first. HP: I think polite should go with the White girl. LP: I think polite should go with all of them [referring to Asians, Blacks, and Whites], cause like everyone should, they don’t have to just because their colour or something. HP: Listen, most of the time, it’s really the dark, most of the time are not really nice. LP: But they are nice, though. So really all of them are polite. HP: Yea. So, who’s bossy? LP: All of them. HP: Let’s see if they’re all polite and bossy. It’s not the same thing. They all have to be. LP: Sometimes, you could be bossy and polite. HP: That’s kinda weird. It’s like you’re mean and nice. LP: Well, it’s like [name of classmate] HP: Yeah. LP: So, it’s possible. HP: They’re all the same.

In this example, a low-prejudice child was able to reduce the prejudice of a high-prejudice peer by pointing out instances of cross-race similarity (how members of all groups can be bossy sometimes) and also

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within-race trait variability (how whites can exhibit negative and positive traits). Thus, it appears to be possible for significant figures in a child’s life to influence his or her racial attitudes through explicit discussion. Current work on the social learning theory focuses on identifying the most effective types of anti-bias messages. This includes work on multicultural education (providing information about the cultural traditions and customs of groups) and anti-racist teaching (education about historical and contemporary racial/ethnic injustices). This will be discussed in the section describing prejudice-reduction interventions. The Intergroup Contact Theory A variant of social learning theory is the intergroup contact theory, also proposed by Gordon Allport (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew, 1998). According to intergroup contact theory, prejudice grows, in part, out of a lack of personal and positive contact among members of different groups. Thus, intergroup harmony can result from increased positive intergroup contact. It became clear after the initial desegregation of American schools that simply providing the opportunity for intergroup contact did not always lead to improved intergroup relations. That is, even though there was racial diversity in the schools, students of the same race tended to sit together in the classroom, in the lunchroom, and on the schoolyard. Unfortunately, schools help create “resegregation” by “tracking” children according to ability. This tracking tends to occur in discriminatory ways, separating children across race lines; this reduces opportunities for positive contact in the classroom, which transfers to the lunchroom and schoolyard (Khmelkov & Hallinan, 1999). As will be elaborated in the section on reducing prejudice, intergroup harmony can be increased when contact is set up to be individualized (one-to-one) and cooperative, when groups are of equal status, and when the contact is sanctioned by authorities. The Cognitive-Developmental Theory An important, relatively new, and influential theory is the cognitivedevelopmental theory of prejudice. This theory starts from the assumption that prejudice is not a minor problem among children and does not necessarily increase with age. The cognitive-developmental theory suggests that children’s attitudes toward racial and ethnic groups are

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influenced by their ability to think about group information in complex ways. For example, a child cannot express empathy for another person until she has the ability to see the world through another person’s perspective. Along the same lines, the cognitive-developmental theory suggests that children exhibit prejudice because they are not cognitively sophisticated enough to be open-minded and racially tolerant. With age, presumably all children obtain the cognitive skills that allow for reduced prejudice. These skills are apparently obtained when children are approximately seven to eleven years old. However, prejudice is not perpetually reduced with age. After developing these skills, children may not necessarily use them (as an adult capable of taking another’s perspective may not always express empathy [Levy, 1999]). The cognitive-developmental theory was originally articulated by Jean Piaget (Piaget & Weil, 1951) and was applied to the understanding of prejudice by Phyllis Katz (1976), Frances Aboud (1988), and Rebecca Bigler (Bigler & Liben, 1993), among others. According to cognitivedevelopmental theorizing, prejudice is seemingly inevitable among young children because they lack the skills necessary to view people as individuals. Children tend to focus on surface features and to exaggerate differences among groups (such as assuming that all members of group A do X); only later, as their cognitive systems mature, do they become capable of recognizing similarities across groups (for example, some members of group A do X and some members of group B do X) and differences within the same group (some members of group A do X, and some members of group A do Y). Consistent with these ideas, as early as preschool and kindergarten, race-majority group children exhibit prejudice; examples include prejudice of EnglishCanadians toward French-Canadians (Doyle, Beaudet, & Aboud, 1988), Euro-Australians toward Aboriginal Australians (Black-Gutman & Hickson, 1996), and Jewish Israelis toward Arabs (Bar-Tal, 1996). Young majority children typically assign more positive and fewer negative attributes to their own groups (ingroups) than to other groups (outgroups), but show a decline in prejudice at around age seven (Doyle & Aboud, 1995; Doyle et al., 1988; Powlishta, Serbin, Doyle, & White, 1994). Research indeed shows that shifts toward reduced prejudice levels are explained in part by acquisition of the social cognitive skills thought to enable prejudice reduction. That is, as children acquire specific cognitive skills, such as the ability to classify others on multiple dimensions (Bigler & Liben, 1993; Katz, Sohn, & Zalk, 1975), the ability to perceive similarities between members of different groups (Black-Gutman & Hickson, 1996; Doyle & Aboud,

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1995), and the ability to perceive differences within the same group (Doyle & Aboud, 1995; Katz et al., 1975), their reported level of prejudice decreases. There is some evidence that these age-related differences cannot be easily explained by increased concerns with appearing prejudiced (Doyle & Aboud, 1995). The cognitive-developmental theory, despite an impressive body of supportive evidence, is not currently defined in a way that explains individual differences in prejudice among children exhibiting similar cognitive skill levels (Black-Gutman & Hickson, 1996; Levy, 1999; Levy & Dweck, 1999). To address this issue, it may be necessary to consider both environmental and cognitive factors (Black-Gutman & Hickson, 1996). Indeed, some contemporary research is moving toward an integrative approach, combining elements of cognitive development and social learning theories (Aboud, in press; Killen, Lee-Kim, McGlothlin, & Stangor, 2002). Other research attempting to understand individual differences in prejudice among children who exhibit roughly the same cognitive skill level has examined children’s differing “lay theories” of prejudice (Levy, West, & Ramirez, in press). Like scientists, lay people have theories about how the world works. There are many different lay theories available to help individuals understand how the world works and how people should behave. Lay theories are often captured in everyday sayings such as “it’s never too late to turn over a new leaf ” and “a leopard never changes its spots.” These are examples of lay theories that contradict each other. This may in part explain individual differences in social judgment and behavior. For example, children who hold the lay theory that people can change will harbor less prejudice and are more willing to help disadvantaged others than are children who hold the lay theory that people basically cannot change their ways (Karafantis & Levy, 2004; Levy & Dweck, 1999). Other lay theory work has focused on the “color-blind” principle of ignoring racial and ethnic differences (Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee, & Browne, 2000; Schofield, 1986). Although laudable in suggesting that surface features like race are superficial, irrelevant, and uninformative bases on which to make judgments of people, the color-blind approach to education is controversial because race and other grouping characteristics do affect people’s lives, and efforts to assimilate immigrants and ethnic groups into the dominant culture often do not work (Garcia & Hurtado, 1995). In the section on prejudice reduction, we will further discuss the utility of a color-blind teaching approach by discussing an intervention based on the color-blind principle.

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Evolutionary Theory Contemporary theorizing has also begun to focus on an evolutionary account of prejudice. Although given little attention thus far, evolutionary perspectives seem to be gaining a more prominent place in the theorizing of the development of prejudice. According to evolutionary perspectives, prejudice and discrimination are nearly inevitable. Fishbein (1996) argues that the roots of prejudice began in hunter-gatherer tribes and continue universally today because of their success in that period of human evolution. One such proposed evolutionary mechanism relies on a history of related tribe members showing greater preference for each other than for tribe members to whom they are not related, therefore helping and protecting them, which would then maximize the percentage of one’s genes that are transmitted to successive generations. Fishbein offers this as evidence that humans are currently predisposed to show favoritism toward individuals who are most similar to themselves. Another such mechanism that may set the stage for prejudice is the human reliance on authority figures to transmit information to their young. This process encourages children to unquestioningly accept what they are told by authority figures, including information about outgroup members. The final mechanism that Fishbein proposes is the hostility that humans have developed in order to protect their children, females, and resources from outsiders. Fishbein argues that the development of prejudice is closely linked to the development of a group identity around ages three or four. Another evolutionary perspective suggests that children’s thinking about social groups is organized according to inherent theories about humans, which guide the way they gather and interpret information about social groups (Hirschfeld, 1995, 2001). These inherent theories help children attend to important group information and ignore unimportant information. According to this perspective, because the concept of race resonates quite well with children’s preexisting cognitive structures for differentiating social groups, race becomes a powerful organizing factor for humans. Despite growing interest in evolutionary theories of racial prejudice, these approaches have generally been criticized for suggesting that prejudice is natural and thus should be condoned. Still, it seems that certain aspects of evolutionary thought overlap with other approaches to prejudice. For instance, similar to the evolutionary mechanism that favors categorization according to similarities to oneself, the aforementioned cognitive theories propose that such categorization

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helps individuals simplify the wealth of social information that they encounter. Also, there are obvious similarities between sociocultural and evolutionary explanations that suggest that prejudice grows out of limited resources and social forces. Further, the evolutionary emphasis on accepting information from authority figures complements the social learning theory, which suggests that children learn prejudiced views from their parents and other important people in their lives. However, it may be that evolutionary approaches are best suited to explaining the roots of mechanisms currently facilitating prejudice (such as the methods humans use to categorize groups of people), whereas approaches focusing directly on the current mechanisms, such as the social learning theory or cognitive-developmental models, are best suited to understanding the more immediate, and hence most relevant (for our purposes), causes of prejudice. Summary and Future Directions In this section, we have reviewed the main theories guiding the understanding of prejudice among children. Research to date suggests that being raised in a prejudiced environment does not necessarily translate into developing prejudiced attitudes, nor does a tolerant environment necessarily lead to tolerant attitudes. It also suggests that prejudice is not exclusively a problem that concerns adult populations. Recent approaches emphasize the importance of integrating research and theorizing from cognitive, developmental, and social (including lay theories) perspectives on prejudice in the attempt to understand its development. For instance, a key finding is that children are more prone to adopt prejudiced attitudes as a result of cognitivedevelopmental limitations and that they are more capable of incorporating complex information from their environment around the age of seven. This information may be useful for designing interventions to counter prejudiced attitudes that arise from exposure to biased information. More work is still needed on the role of children’s lay theories (the ways that they understand their world) in prejudice development. REDUCING PREJUDICE IN CHILDREN Interventions to combat prejudice among children have taken many forms. Typically, these interventions are conducted during school and are sometimes integrated into the children’s regular curricula. At times,

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entire schools or districts have adopted interventions as a matter of practice, while others have been the choices of individual teachers. Generally in the United States, prejudice-reducing interventions have focused on the reduction of white children’s racial prejudice, given that they have been the dominant majority in society. Although researchers, practitioners, and educators have developed a wide variety of intervention strategies, we limit our discussion to interventions that have been evaluated using quantitative data. We organize our review around the theoretical approaches discussed in the previous section, beginning with interventions derived from traditional theories of prejudice development among children and then turning to interventions based on more contemporary theories. As noted, the early tendency to explain prejudice as an outgrowth of abnormal development has not proven tenable. Interventions based on this theory suggest that therapy is the appropriate treatment for children who exhibit prejudice. Therapeutic techniques have been used to “treat” prejudice (Cotharin & Mikulas, 1975), but are rarely used today. Relative to other types of intervention strategies, such one-on-one intervention strategies are less than optimal due to the widespread nature of prejudice. Another core traditional theory is the social learning theory—the idea that children learn, and therefore unlearn, prejudice from their social environment. Intergroup contact theory, originally proposed by Allport, has received an abundant amount of attention in the intervention literature. Intergroup contact that is individualized, cooperative, maintains equal status between individuals, and is sanctioned by authorities appears to be most likely to break down interracial barriers and promote intergroup understanding and friendships. Researchers have successfully shown that intergroup harmony can be promoted by altering features of the classroom environment in accordance with these principles. For instance, Aronson and Gonzalez (1988) designed what is called the jigsaw classroom, in which students work cooperatively to learn and teach each other components of an academic lesson. This technique replaces competitive aspects of the classroom with cooperative ones. For example, students in a classroom are divided into six racially and academically mixed groups, each consisting of six students. Each group learns one-sixth of the information that is unique, valuable, and necessary to understand the full lesson. Then, participants in each of the original groups are divided so that new groups are composed of one member of each of the original groups, thereby allowing them to teach each other the entire lesson. Thus, the jigsaw

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technique promotes interdependence and cooperation, as opposed to competitive attempts to solve the problem. This form of cooperative learning proved to be successful in improving children’s relationships with each other and increasing self-esteem, in addition to the fortunate side effect of enhancing students’ academic success. Other variations of cooperative learning are successful at increasing intergroup harmony (Johnson & Johnson, 2000; Slavin & Cooper, 1999). These are beyond the scope of this chapter, but include exciting research on bilingual education programs such as the Amigos Two-Way Immersion program in which monolinguistic Spanish- and English-speaking students spend half the day learning in English and the other half of the day in Spanish (Aboud & Levy, 2000; Genesee & Gandura, 1999). One unfortunate weakness of the cooperative learning strategy in improving intergroup relations is that cross-race friendships may not persist after cooperative learning ends. In general, cross-race friendships tend to decrease with age (Mendelson & Aboud, 1999; Khmelkov & Hallinan 1999). Decreased intergroup friendship with age is somewhat surprising given that there do not appear to be qualitative differences between cross-race and same-race friendships, which would warrant a greater reduction in cross-race friendships (Mendelson & Aboud, 1999). However, some have suggested that cross-race friendships are generally more fragile (Khmelkov & Hallinan, 1999), leaving them more likely to end when peer groups shrink and dating begins. Research on social reasoning by Melanie Killen and colleagues (Killen et al., 2002) suggests that shifts in children’s reasoning may in part account for why cross-race friendships decline. Killen’s work has shown that, with increasing age, children (such as seventh-graders) think that it is more acceptable to exclude other race peers from friendships because they believe that groups function better when everyone is of the same race (presuming that they share interests). Younger children tend to reason that exclusion based on race is morally wrong; thus reasoning-based interventions might prove fruitful for them. For example, an intervention could challenge the logic suggesting that one’s peer group functions better when everyone is of the same race. Finding ways to encourage racially diverse, cooperative group work in middle school, high school, and college, as well as in nonacademic settings, might also prove beneficial. Multicultural education (teaching about the history of cultural groups) and anti-racist teaching (teaching about historical and contemporary racial/ethnic injustices) represent two anti-bias messages deriving from social learning theorizing, and neither requires that children

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in the classroom be racially diverse. The most common forms of multicultural education seek to provide knowledge and understanding of diverse groups. Multicultural theory suggests that through learning about cultural groups (for example, being exposed to information about cross-cultural holidays and celebrations), individuals will come to understand and respect different cultures, thereby reducing negative attitudes (Banks, 1995). A criticism of the multicultural theory is that the celebration of differences may increase the likelihood that children and adolescents will place individuals into rigid categories, thereby increasing racial/ethnic stereotyping. This is especially true among children who lack the cognitive sophistication to recognize that individuals fit into multiple categories, for example, based on their age, race, or gender (Bigler, 1999; Kowalski, 1998). Similarly, Rebecca Bigler and colleagues (Bigler, 1995; Bigler, Jones, & Lobliner, 1997) have demonstrated that the use of perceptually salient social categories (such as gender) results in the development of biased attitudes. This occurs, for example, when a teacher uses that group category to differentiate people. Educational curricula that focus specifically on the history of certain racial groups within a racially diverse society may, by highlighting race and racial differences, inadvertently increase children’s racial biases. For example, the presentation of race-related educational material during Black History Month differentiates people according to racial group membership. Children exposed to this information may conclude that race is an important dimension along which individuals differ—thus, stereotyping will increase rather than decrease. This work points to the importance of limiting the use of race as a differentiating characteristic in the classroom or, when discussing race, to emphasize the similarities across racial groups and differences within. Banks (1995) further suggests that effective multicultural education requires that the total school environment be transformed to reflect the racial and cultural diversity of the American society and to help all children experience educational equality. Banks suggests that changes be made in the “values and attitudes of the school staff, curricula and teaching materials, assessment and testing procedures, teaching and motivational styles, and values and norms sanctioned by the school” (p. 329). Banks’s multicultural school reform proposal appears less susceptible to some of the concerns raised about proposals that include minimal additions to school curricula (such as inclusion of race-related material only as part of a month-to-month recognition of nonmajority groups).

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Often going hand in hand with multicultural education efforts, antiracist education seeks to provide an in-depth awareness of the history and roots of inequality (Fine, 1995). Thus, anti-racist teaching confronts racism head-on with descriptions of past and contemporary discrimination and inequalities, pointing out the forces that maintain racism. This may increase empathy and at the same time discourage future racism. However, if not done carefully, such teaching could be counterproductive for both perpetrators and targets of racism. By providing insight into the prejudice of the students’ ingroup and the students’ own prejudiced reactions, students may feel angry or selfrighteous (Kehoe & Mansfield, 1993). Yet, a reaction of guilt may have positive outcomes in older adolescents. For example, research with college-age students suggests that guilt can be a motivating force in reducing people’s expression of prejudice (Monteith, 1993). It is important to note, however, that discussions of race may be threatening or humiliating to children who are members of the discriminated group (McGregor, 1993). Therefore, although perhaps a powerful intervention, it is necessary that steps be taken to minimize potentially negative side effects of anti-racist education, for example, by providing examples of majority group members who are working to end racism and by pointing out similarities between groups to avoid stereotyping. Although relatively modern, cognitive-developmental theory has served as a base for several interventions, generally involving skill training. Katz (1973) trained children to perceive differences among members of the same group. This intervention targeted children who were just obtaining this ability (seven-year-olds) and those who likely had already obtained the ability (ten-year-olds). In this brief intervention lasting approximately fifteen minutes, Katz and Zalk taught white children to differentiate among photographs of either black children (experimental condition) or white children (control condition). Two weeks later, children in the experimental condition gave fewer prejudiced responses than those in the control condition, regardless of age. These findings were replicated in a follow-up study (Katz & Zalk, 1978) and extended by Aboud and Fenwick (1999), to be discussed later. Similar to interventions based on the cognitive-developmental theory, empathy training relies on age-related cognitive skills such as perspective-taking, but includes an additional focus on the understanding and experience of emotions. Presumably, through empathy training, children can place themselves in the shoes of outgroup members who are faced with discrimination, and thus be motivated to alleviate

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the others’ distress as if it were their own—that is, by acting in a lessbiased way toward them (Underwood & Moore, 1982). One of the earliest examples of an empathy-inducing intervention was the classroom demonstration devised by Jane Elliot in the late 1960s. In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher in a predominately white rural town, taught her students how it would feel to be a target of discrimination. Elliot chose eye color as a characteristic that would differentiate the students, telling students on one day that blue-eyed children were superior, and on the next day, that brown-eyed children were superior. She enhanced the lesson by showing preferential treatment to the “superior” group the entire day, and pointing out the successes and failures of group members as evidence of the group’s superior or inferior position. Therefore, for one day, each group of children had a first-hand experience with discrimination on the basis of an arbitrary characteristic. This demonstration is so powerful that it has been captured in two films, The Eye of the Storm and A Class Divided, which are often shown on public broadcasting stations and in schools. However, actual evidence of the effectiveness of the blue-eyes/brown-eyes simulation is minimal. Weiner and Wright (1973), as an exception, tested a variation of the blue-eyes/brown-eyes simulation with white third graders. In this case, the classroom teacher told children that they were members of “green” or “orange” groups and asked them to wear colored armbands. Like Jane Elliot, the teacher encouraged discrimination against each group for one day. Compared to the control classroom, participants in the simulation reported more willingness to attend a picnic with black children. These results provide encouraging support for the impact of role-playing the target of prejudice on subsequent intergroup behavior. One caveat with empathy training is that age-related cognitive and affective skills are necessary to adequately benefit from the training. Older children who are more cognitively sophisticated than younger children generally have more sophisticated empathy skills (McGregor, 1993). Thus, it is possible that if children lack the sophistication to engage in perspective-taking, as well as the ability to properly interpret the emotional arousal, empathic activities may not effectively reduce their negative attitudes and behaviors. It is also possible that children who do not know how to interpret or react to the emotional arousal may focus on the negativity of the empathy-inducing experience, resulting in an increased negativity or avoidance of the group with which they are supposed to empathize.

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Other research suggests that lay theories relevant to prejudice can be altered, at least temporarily (Levy et al., in press). Research on the color-blind view is encouraging. One way to use the color-blind theory to reduce racial prejudice is to turn people’s attention toward the universal qualities of humans instead of racial group membership. Houser (1978), for example, examined whether stereotyping toward several ethnic groups would be reduced among five- to nine-year-old children who watched (versus did not watch) films promoting the message that it is important to focus on universally shared qualities. For example, one film called The Toymaker depicted the story of two puppets who were best friends until they looked in the mirror and realized that one had stripes and the other had spots. The toymaker pointed out that they were both created by the same person and were essentially connected to each other (each covering one hand of the toymaker). Although the film clips were brief (approximately ten to fifteen minutes), children who watched them reported a decrease in stereotyping toward several ethic groups from pretest to posttest, relative to children who did not view any films but rather participated in regular classroom activities. Alternatively, the color-blind theory could be used to reduce racial prejudice by redirecting children’s focus from racial group membership to the unique internal characteristics of individuals (such as likes and dislikes) (Aboud & Fenwick, 1999; Schofield, 1986). Aboud and Fenwick (1999), for example, found that ten-year-old white children who participated (versus did not participate) in an eleven-week school-based program that trained them to focus on the internal attributes of people demonstrated a decrease in prejudice toward blacks. Throughout the program, children participated in a number of activities in which the theme of each activity was “There is more to me than meets the eye.” To illustrate the idea that people possess unique qualities, one activity had participants presented with photographs of different children and then provided with those children’s names and individualized trait descriptions, such as the children’s likes, dislikes, and unique personality traits. An interesting aspect of the aforementioned interventions is that they incorporate aspects of cognitive-developmental theory in addition to the color-blind theory. That is, focusing on shared qualities overlaps with the evolving social-cognitive ability of noticing cross-group similarities. Likewise, focusing on unique qualities of individuals is similar to the evolving social-cognitive ability of noticing within-group differences. This overlap is an important one and suggests that social cognitive skills can be taught and strengthened through anti-bias messages.

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Summary and Future Directions Although there is not space to review all of the innovative interventions, it is clear from this selective review that researchers have made tremendous gains in understanding how to reduce prejudice. When the environment is racially diverse, implementing a cooperative learning technique is an effective vehicle for reducing prejudice and also enhancing academic success for all students. Regardless of the racial composition of the environment, other interventions based on social learning theory, such as multicultural education and anti-racist teaching, have much to offer. However, as mentioned, there are some counterintuitive traps in these interventions that could actually increase prejudice. Despite impressive progress, there is much that needs to be tested and integrated. This is an exciting time in the field, as abundant findings have begun to amass. It is clear that prejudice is multifaceted and is more likely to be reduced with multiple approaches. For example, it seems worthwhile for schools to consider implementing programs that draw on elements of multicultural education (to appreciate the richness and varying experiences of people from differences cultures) and anti-racist education (to highlight that racism is still a problem), as well as incorporating the color-blind view (to reduce the focus on surface features like race). It is also important that researchers expand intervention efforts and theorizing. Much research has focused on whites or white-black relations while ignoring other racial/ethnic intergroup relations. It is also clear that children’s ages, or social-cognitive skill levels, need to be taken into account rather than employing a “one size fits all” approach. In addition to directly intervening on children to reduce their prejudice, we might consider intervening on other levels as well (Banks, 1995). We have seen that children’s prejudiced attitudes arise from a variety of sources. Thus, we ought to consider a variety of sources through which to counter this prejudice. Indeed, some programs have added a teacher-training component (Verma & Bagley, 1979); and as discussed later, a strong alliance with teachers seems to be a necessity for interventions to succeed. Another issue in future research is the need to study students at schools with race problems. Not surprisingly, many of the schools that are most willing to participate in interventions are the schools that are already implementing prejudice-reducing strategies and, relative to other schools, have fewer race problems. It is clear that children at

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participating schools tend to have relatively low prejudice scores even before the interventions (Gimmestad & de Chiara, 1983). This limits the conclusions that can be drawn from the study and fails to accomplish the goal of the interventions—to reduce prejudice. Researchers have lamented the difficulty of securing participation from schools (Verma & Bagley, 1979), an obstacle made even more threatening as the recent emphasis on standardized testing has reduced the time available for nonacademic school-based activities. Thus, future interventions may need to be integrated into the regular lessons. As can be seen, a key to success in the design and implementation of effective interventions is a strong partnership among researchers, educators, and parents. CONCLUSION Children exhibit racial and ethnic prejudice from a young age. Prejudice is to some degree inevitable because of limited environmental resources leading to intergroup conflict and because of people’s limited cognitive resources. However, we now have a much better understanding of prejudice and potential ways to reduce it. It is clear that prejudice has multifaceted origins; therefore, a multifaceted approach to reducing prejudice is optimal. Drawing on the research reviewed, we offer suggestions for parents, teachers, policymakers, and others interested in promoting tolerance. The suggestions are summarized in the “toolbox for change” below. Parents, educators, and other important figures in a child’s life need to be actively engaged in monitoring and modifying children’s exposure to race information (including exposure to negative influences, such as particular movies or television shows). As noted, some evidence suggests that parents (including open-minded, tolerant ones) are not discussing race issues with their children; however, research suggests that discussions about race issues, with an emphasis on antibias messages, could reduce children’s prejudice levels. Research on the social-cognitive development of prejudice has shown that children’s cognitive skill levels and readiness for learning new skills (such as perspective-taking) influence their interpretations of race-related information. Thus, educators and parents must determine a child’s level of social-cognitive development and meet the child at this level with anti-bias messages or influences. Some techniques may be more flexible than others in the extent to which they can be modified to meet the cognitive needs and limitations of children.

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However, inducing cooperative and interdependent, as opposed to competitive, learning environments that involve children from different racial backgrounds appears to be beneficial regardless of age. Educators and policymakers need to make a true commitment to promoting racial tolerance in the schools. This can be accomplished by integrating racial tolerance into school curricula, assessment and testing Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions of current society

Strategies for change

Individuals

Discussions of race are not needed and could increase prejudice.

Discuss race with children openly and honestly at home and elsewhere at a cognitive-developmentally appropriate level. Promote interracial relations and learning about other groups, but be careful not to overemphasize differences among groups.

Community

Communities are already doing enough to encourage open discussion about race, and racism is not a problem among children.

Provide forums in the community where racism among all age groups is discussed. Institutionalize approval for nonprejudiced attitudes through policies that involve every part of the community.

Practitioners/ educators

School is not the place for prejudice-reduction interventions because time spent on interventions takes away valuable time from fostering academic success.

Integrate multicultural and anti-racist teaching into the basic academic curricula (such as social studies and reading). At racially/ethnically diverse schools, utilize cooperative learning strategies, which also foster academic success.

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procedures, teaching styles, and norms sanctioned by the schools. Care needs to be taken that methods do not set other groups apart, for example, by devoting each month to celebrating a different racial or ethnic group, as research has shown that this technique can actually increase prejudice. In conclusion, prejudice continues to create barriers for the learning and development of children from all racial and ethnic groups. With the increasing diversity of youth in the United States, it is particularly timely and important to make progress toward understanding and reducing racial/ethnic prejudice among children. The research reviewed in this chapter gives us reason to hope that prejudice can be reduced and tolerance can be increased in the near future. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0213660 to the first author. REFERENCES Aboud, F. E. (1988). Children and prejudice. New York: Blackwell. Aboud, F. E. (in press). The development of prejudice in children and adolescents. In J. F. Dovidio, P. Glick, & L. Rudman (Eds.), Reflecting on the nature of prejudice. Aboud, F. E., & Amato, M. (2001). Developmental and socialization influences on intergroup bias. In R. Brown & S. Gaertner (Vol. eds.), Blackwell handbook in social psychology, Vol. 4: Intergroup processes. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Aboud, F. E., & Doyle, A. B. (1996a). Parental and peer influences on children’s racial attitudes. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 371–383. Aboud, F. E., & Doyle, A. B. (1996b). Does talk of race foster prejudice or tolerance in children? Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 28, 161–170. Aboud, F. E., & Fenwick, V. (1999). Evaluating school-based interventions to reduce prejudice in pre-adolescents. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 767–785. Aboud, F. E., & Levy, S. R. (2000). Interventions to reduce prejudice and discrimination in children and adolescents. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 269–293). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswick, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper.

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Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: AddisonWesley. Aronson, E., and Gonzalez, A. (1988). Desegregation, jigsaw and the Mexican American experience. In P. A. Katz & D. A. Taylor (Eds.), Eliminating racism: Profiles in controversy (pp. 301–314). New York: Plenum. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Banks, J. A. (1995). Multicultural education for young children: Racial and ethnic attitudes and their modification. In W. D. Hawley & A. W. Jackson (Eds.), Toward a common destiny: Improving race and ethnic relations in America (pp. 236–250). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bar-Tal, D. (1996). Development of social categories and stereotypes in early childhood: The case of “the Arab” concept formation, stereotype and attitudes by Jewish children in Israel. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 341–370. Bigler, R. S. (1995). The role of classification skill in moderating environmental influences on children’s gender stereotyping: A study of the functional use of gender in the classroom. Child Development, 66, 1072–1087. Bigler, R. S. (1999). The use of multicultural curricula and materials to counter racism in children. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 687–705. Bigler, R. S., Jones, L. C., & Lobliner, D. B. (1997). Social categorization and the formation of intergroup attitudes in children. Child Development, 6, 530–543. Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L. S. (1993). A cognitive-developmental approach to racial stereotyping and reconstructive memory in Euro-American children. Child Development, 64, 1507–1518. Black-Gutman, D., & Hickson, F. (1996). The relationship between racial attitudes and social-cognitive development in children: An Australian study. Developmental Psychology, 32, 448–456. Branch, C. W., & Newcombe, N. (1986). Racial attitude development among black children as a function of parental attitudes: A longitudinal and cross-sectional study. Child Development, 57, 712–721. Brown, R. (1995). Prejudice: Its social psychology. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Carlson, J. M., & Iovini, J. (1985). The transmission of racial attitudes from fathers to sons: A study of blacks and whites. Adolescence, 20, 233–237. Cotharin, R. L., & Mikulas, W. L. (1975). Systematic desensitization of racial emotional responses. Journal of Behavior Therapy & Experimental Psychiatry, 6, 347–348. Doyle, A. B., & Aboud, F. E. (1995). A longitudinal study of white children: Racial prejudice as a social-cognitive development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 41, 209–228.

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Doyle, A. B., Beaudet, J., & Aboud, F. E. (1988). Developmental patterns in the flexibility of children’s ethnic attitudes. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 19, 3–18. Fine, M. (1995). Habits of mind: Struggling over values in America’s classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Fishbein, H. D. (1996). Peer prejudice and discrimination: Evolutionary, cultural, and developmental dynamics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 4 teens arrested in firebombing case: Charges in attack on immigrants’ Farmingdale home. (2003, July 31). Newsday. Retrieved December 10, 2003, from http://www.newsday.com/news/local.longisland/ ny-lifirebombing0731jul31.story Friess, S. (2003, September 28). A gang (or is it?) afflicts upscale Las Vegas area: Youth attacks appear to lack usual motives. The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 10, 2003, from http://www.boston.com.news/ nation/articles/2003/09/28/a_gang_or_is_it_afflicts_upscale_l Garcia, E. E., & Hurtado, A. (1995). Becoming American: A review of current research on the development of racial and ethnic identity in children. In W. D. Hawley & A. W. Jackson (Eds.), Toward a common destiny (pp. 163–184). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Genesee, F., & Gandura, P. (1999). Bilingual education programs: A crossnational perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 627–643. Gimmestad, B. J., & de Chiara, E. (1983). Dramatic plays: A vehicle for prejudice reduction in the elementary school. Journal of Educational Research, 76, 45–49. Hirschfeld, L. A. (1995). Do children have a theory of race? Cognition, 54, 209–252. Hirschfeld, L. A. (2001). On a folk theory of society: Children, evolution, and mental representations of social groups. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 107–117. Houser, B. B. (1978). An examination of the use of audiovisual media in reducing prejudice. Psychology in the Schools, 15, 116–122. Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2000). The three Cs of reducing prejudice and discrimination. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Karafantis, D. M., & Levy, S. R. (2004). The role of children’s lay theories about the malleability of human attributes in beliefs about and volunteering for disadvantaged groups. Child Development, 75, 236–250. Katz, P. A. (1973). Stimulus predifferentiation and modification of children’s racial attitudes. Child Development, 44, 232–237. Katz, P. A. (1976). Attitude change in children: Can the twig be straightened? In P. A. Katz (Ed.), Towards the elimination of racism. New York: Pergamon. Katz, P. A., Sohn, M., & Zalk, S. R. (1975). Perceptual concomitants of racial attitudes in urban grade-school children. Developmental Psychology, 11, 135–144.

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Katz, P. A., & Zalk, S. R. (1978). Modification of children’s racial attitudes. Developmental Psychology, 14, 447–461. Kehoe, J. W., & Mansfield, E. (1993). The limitations of multicultural education and anti-racist education. In K. A. McLeod (Ed.), Multicultural education: The state of the art (pp. 3–8). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto. Khmelkov, V. T., & Hallinan, M. T. (1999). Organizational effects on race relations in schools. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 627–645. Killen, M., Lee-Kim, J., McGlothlin, H., Stangor, C. (2002). How children and adolescents evaluate gender and racial exclusion. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 67, 1–119. Knight, G. P., Bernal, M. E., Garza, C.A., Cota, M. K., & Ocampo, K. A. (1993). Family socialization and Mexican American identity and behavior. In M. E. Bernal and G. P. Knight (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Formation and transmission among Hispanics and other minorities. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Kofkin, J. A., Katz, P. A., & Downey, E. P. (1995). Family discourse about race and the development of children’s racial attitudes. Paper presented at Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, Indiana. Kowalski, K. (1998). The impact of vicarious exposure to diversity on preschoolers’ emerging ethnic/racial attitudes. Early Child Development and Care, 146, 41–51. Levy, S. R. (1999). Reducing prejudice: Lessons from social-cognitive factors underlying perceiver differences in prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 745–766. Levy, S. R., & Dweck, C. S. (1999). The impact of children’s static versus dynamic conceptions of people on stereotype formation. Child Development, 70, 1163–1180. Levy, S. R., West, T., & Ramirez, L. (In press). Lay theories: Unitary and dual implications for intergroup relations. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), The European Review of Social Psychology. McGregor, J. (1993). Effectiveness of role playing and anti-racist teaching in reducing student prejudice. The Journal of Educational Research, 86, 215–226. Mendelson, M. J., & Aboud, F. E. (1999). Measuring friendship quality in late adolescents and young adults: McGill friendship questionnaires. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 31, 130–132. Monteith, M. (1993). Self-regulation of prejudiced responses: Implications for progress in prejudice-reduction efforts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 469–485. Neville, H. A., Lilly, R. L., Duran, G., Lee, R. M., & Browne, L. (2000). Construction and initial validation of the color-blind racial attitudes scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 59–70. Ocampo, K. A., Bernal, M. E., & Knight, G. P. (1993). Gender, race, and ethnicity: The sequencing of social constancies. In M. E. Bernal &

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G. P. Knight (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Formation and transmission among Hispanics and other minorities (pp. 47–59). Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Patchen, M. (1983). Students’ own racial attitudes and those of peers of both races, as related to interracial behavior. Sociology & Social Research, 68, 59–77. Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65–85. Piaget, J., & Weil, A. M. (1951). The development in children of the idea of the homeland and of relations to other countries. International Social Science Journal, 3, 561–578. Powlishta, K. K., Serbin, L. A., Doyle, A., & White, D. (1994). Gender, ethnic, and body type biases: The generality of prejudice in childhood. Developmental Psychology, 30, 526–536. Quintana, S. M. (1998). Children’s developmental understanding of ethnicity and race. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 7, 27–45. Ritchey, P. N., & Fishbein, H. D. (2001). The lack of an association between adolescent friends’ prejudices and stereotypes. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 47, 188–206. Schofield, J. W. (1986). Causes and consequences of the colorblind perspective. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 231–253). Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Slavin, R. E., & Cooper, R. (1999). Improving intergroup relations: Lessons learned from cooperative learning programs. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 647–663. Underwood, B., & Moore, B. (1982). Perspective taking and altruism. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 143–173. U.S. Census Bureau. (2002). Population division, population projects branch. Retrieved December 5, 2003, from http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/natsum-T5.html Verma, G. K., & Bagley, C. (1979). Measured changes in racial attitudes following the use of three different teaching methods. In G. K. Verma & C. Bagley (Eds.), Race, education and identity (pp. 133–143). New York: St. Martin’s Press. Weiner, M. J. & Wright, F. E. (1973). Effects of undergoing arbitrary discrimination upon subsequent attitudes toward a minority group. Journal of Applied Psychology, 3, 94–102.

CHAPTER 4

Racism, Racial Stereotypes, and American Politics Frederick Slocum Yueh-Ting Lee

PREJUDICE, NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES, AND POLITICS

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ut of the many stories illustrating the influence of racial animosities in American politics, the steady movement of white, workingclass voters of Macomb County, Michigan (near Detroit), from solidly Democratic in 1964 to solidly Republican in 1984 surely would, on the surface, rank as neither the most relevant nor the most dramatic. Indeed, this two-decade shift in presidential voting in one Michigan county would probably be no more than a footnote in history books had not national Democratic Party officials set out to study why so many Macomb County voters had abandoned the party in presidential voting. Macomb County was a largely working-class area, with a very high concentration of current and retired auto workers, and with strong union ties, which tend to favor Democratic voting. In 1960, Macomb voters supported Democrat John F. Kennedy over Republican Richard Nixon by a 60 percent to 37 percent margin. But in 1984, Republican Ronald Reagan carried the county 67 percent to 33 percent over Democrat Walter Mondale. Reagan, in cruising to a forty-eight–state sweep, benefited from similarly high levels of support among working-class whites in suburban Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and other midwestern and northeastern cities (Edsall & Edsall, 1992).

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In early 1985, national Democratic Party officials sponsored a series of focus groups to determine why so many working-class whites had so thoroughly repudiated the party. Pollster Stanley Greenberg summarized the results this way: These white Democratic defectors express a profound distaste for blacks, a sentiment that pervades almost everything they think about government and politics. . . . Blacks constitute the explanation for . . . almost everything that has gone wrong in their lives; not being black is what constitutes being middle class; not living with blacks is what makes a neighborhood a decent place to live. These sentiments have important implications for Democrats, as virtually all progressive symbols and themes have been redefined in racial and pejorative terms. The special status of blacks is perceived by almost all of these individuals as a serious obstacle to their personal advancement. Indeed, discrimination against whites has become a well-assimilated and ready explanation for their status, vulnerability and failures. . . . (Greenberg, 1985, pp. 13– 18, 28)

These conclusions indicate the central roles of racial prejudice and negative stereotyping in explaining the movement of these white voters away from the Democratic Party’s candidates in presidential voting. The apparent preference for all-white neighborhoods probably owes to negative stereotyped views that when blacks move into an all-white neighborhood, poverty, crime, drug trafficking, illegitimate births, decrepit homes and lawns, and ultimately declining property values, will probably result. The seismic political shift in Macomb County, then, reveals the central role of racial animosities and racial stereotyping in U.S. politics. Unfortunately, it is only one of many such cases. A cautionary note and some definitions are in order here. Research on stereotypes and prejudice has yielded complex but fruitful results when accuracy (accurate versus inaccurate stereotypes) and valence (positive versus negative stereotypes) are addressed (Corrigan, Watson, & Ottati, 2003; Fiske, 1998; Lee, Albright, & Malloy, 2001; Lee, Jussim, & McCauley, 1995; Lee, McCauley, & Draguns, 1999; Olson, 1994). The racial stereotypes addressed throughout this chapter are mostly inaccurate and negative. By definition, prejudice is a negative attitude toward some members of a group or things of a category (Corrigan & Penn, 1999; Tajfel, 1981; Lee & Ottati, 1993, 1995). By definition, stereotypes are the “ascribing [of ] characteristics to social groups or segments of society” (Lee et al., 1995). Examples of ethnic and racial stereotypes include the views that blacks are lazy, that Asian

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Americans are hardworking, and that Jews are prone to engage in shady financial dealings. The stereotype then is applied to varying degrees to individual encounters with a Jewish person, a black person, and so on. Not all stereotypes are negative—but many are. In this chapter, we concern ourselves with how negative racial and ethnic stereotypes intrude into American politics. This chapter examines the centrality of racism and racial stereotyping in American politics and the nature of that influence as well. We refer to both historical and recent cases and data. The chapter will show that in the political arena, racism and negative racial stereotypes have a frequent and continuing presence in American political campaigns and public policy. We begin by examining two sets of historical cases: first, the blatantly antiblack appeals found in the American South before the civil rights era and their political consequences; and second, anti-immigrant appeals made against Asian and other immigrants during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Next, we consider modern issues and controversies in U.S. politics, specifically examining prejudice against new immigrants, in campaign appeals, in public pronouncements made by government officials, and in voting. Throughout, we will examine our cases and controversies through the lens of psychological theories and research findings on the nature and consequences of racial prejudice and stereotyping. We conclude with some suggestions on how the information presented here can be used to combat racial prejudice and discrimination. RACISM, PREJUDICE, AND POLITICS: HISTORICAL CASES This section examines some cases illustrating the impacts of racism and racial prejudice in American political history. We focus especially on how prejudice and racial stereotypes are translated into electoral rules and public policies that suppress racial minorities and define them as less-than-welcome actors in the political community. Racism, Prejudice, and Politics in the Pre–Civil Rights South There can be no doubt that until the 1960s, southern politics was organized around ensuring white domination and the subordination and oppression of blacks in every walk of life. As Marion D. Irish

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(1942) concluded, “The elementary determinant in Southern politics . . . is an intense Negro phobia which has scarcely abated since Reconstruction.” Most Southern whites were highly prejudiced against blacks, and elected officials themselves held similar racial views, felt forced to become hard-line segregationists just to survive politically, or some combination of both. Southern senators like Strom Thurmond (SC) and James Eastland (MS); and governors such as Orval Faubus (AR), George Wallace (AL), and Ross Barnett (MS) were at the forefront of resistance against federal civil rights laws and decisions, even personally attempting to block the carrying out of federal court-ordered integration in some cases. The racist rhetoric of longtime Sen. Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi was so raw that even his fellow segregationists were embarrassed to associate with him too closely.1 Armed with negative stereotypes of blacks as lazy, intellectually inferior, lacking in thrift, sexually promiscuous, prone to violence, and unfit for leadership positions, the dominant white majority in the South constructed social and political arrangements that perpetuated white domination and black suppression (Black & Black, 1987). As of the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954), seventeen Southern and border states legally mandated segregated public schools; various state laws banned blacks from working in certain occupations altogether; and state laws and local ordinances enforced rigid racial segregation in wide swaths of society.2 In electoral politics, discriminatory poll taxes, literacy tests, the white primary, the grandfather clause, administrative delays and barriers for blacks registering to vote, the creative drawing of at-large electoral districts (to dilute black voting power), and threatened and actual violence combined to render blacks politically powerless in the Deep South, and to severely weaken their political power elsewhere in the South.3 By law, blacks were relegated to separate and inferior facilities in every public arena— bus and train stations, law schools, drinking fountains, and many others. Government-enforced racial discrimination was an unmistakable result of prejudice and racial stereotypes. The negative stereotype of blacks as unclean led whites to enforce segregated public places; the stereotype of black children as slow to learn, disruptive, and prone to violence led to segregation in the public schools; the stereotype of black men as sexual predators bent on sullying the virtue of white women led to antimiscegenation laws4 as well as extremely harsh treatment of any black male suspected of sexually assaulting a white

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woman. The stereotype of blacks as naturally lazy and unfit for leadership served to justify laws barring them from certain occupations and reserving public office for whites only. Government agencies even got into the act of reinforcing and maintaining these systems of white privilege and domination. The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission (1956–1977), a state-created and state-funded agency, spied on and harassed civil rights workers and activists, worked to preserve a segregated society, and launched public relations campaigns extolling Mississippi and its “way of life.” White southerners’ resistance to racial integration in public schools was as fierce as in other arenas. The Supreme Court had ruled that school desegregation must be undertaken “with all deliberate speed.” However, southern state and local officials responded with far more deliberation than speed—and far more defiance than compliance. Nineteen senators and seventy-seven representatives from southern states signed the “Southern Manifesto” (1956), which criticized Brown v. Board of Education and commended the motives of those states that had declared the intention to resist forced integration by any lawful means. Prince Edward County, Virginia, shut down its public schools from 1959 to 1964 rather than integrate, reopening only in response to a federal court order. During those five years, state funds supported private, segregated schools for the district’s 1,550 white students, while 1,800 black students were locked out of an education, save those sent away from home to attend school elsewhere.5 During the 1964–1965 school year, a full ten years after the Brown decision, 97.8 percent of the South’s black schoolchildren still attended all-black schools (Southern Education Reporting Service, 1967). For blacks in the South, the criminal justice system provided no refuge from racism and white domination. All-white juries were routine; blacks accused of crimes, especially those involving white victims, were speedily convicted, often with little regard to evidence and/or actual involvement in the alleged crime, and routinely received harsh sentences. Whites accused of crimes against blacks sometimes got off scot-free; in many other cases they received light punishment. In 1955, Emmett Till, a black youth from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi, reportedly whistled at a white female store clerk after buying candy. That same evening, he was kidnapped and brutally murdered. The store clerk’s husband and brother-in-law stood trial for the grisly killing, but an all-white jury acquitted them. The two messages were unmistakable. First, any black person who

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accused a white person of a crime in Mississippi would probably fail. Second, potentially violent reprisals awaited those who even tried.6 The 1964 murders of three civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Mississippi (later dramatized in the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning, partially based on real-life events) did result in state trials for murder and conspiracy; some of the suspects were law enforcement officers. The men were acquitted of murder in their state trials, but later were tried and convicted in federal court on civil rights violations. In 1963, civil rights activist and NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was shot to death in the driveway of his own home in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1964, Byron de la Beckwith, an avowed white supremacist, was tried twice for the killing (both times with all-white juries), but both trials resulted in hung juries. de la Beckwith remained a free man until 1994, when new evidence surfaced and prosecutors reopened the case against him. He was tried a third time, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, this time by a jury with eight blacks and four whites. In January 2001, he died in prison. Through 1965, southern history in general, and these examples in particular, richly document that southern politicians sought to harness the machinery of government to maintain racial segregation and white domination of the economy and polity. Virtually everywhere in the South, the Democratic Party was the vehicle for ensuring these outcomes. As Black and Black noted, Early in this century, most white Southerners looked upon the rest of the nation . . . with abiding hostility and suspicion. Unable to forget or forgive the nightmare of war, defeat and occupation, most whites shared the conviction that non-southerners must never again be allowed to interfere with southern racial practices. Acting almost as if it were an independent nation, the South pursued deterrence of outside intervention in race relations as the paramount objective of its ‘foreign’ policy. White southerners needed a political organization capable of maximizing their leverage on national politics, and the Democratic Party became that device. (1987, p. 233)

In short, politics in the pre–civil rights South was first and foremost a struggle to translate the white majority’s prejudice and antiblack stereotypes into legally mandated segregation and many other discriminatory public policies. Prejudice and racism clearly manifested themselves in political campaigns and had wide-ranging public policy consequences.

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RACISM, PREJUDICE, AND THE HISTORY OF ANTI-IMMIGRANT APPEALS In 220-plus years of U.S. history, almost nothing has been more politically charged or laden with racial bias than the immigration and naturalization process of the United States. Unfortunately, in social science and humanities studies, little attention has been paid to how U.S. immigration and naturalization policies systematically relate to ethnic contact, social identity, and racial power. According to Takaki (1989), Asian Americans experience much prejudice and discrimination in the United States because they differ from Europeans in three ways—geographically (region of origin), culturally/religiously, and physically/racially. There was much evidence of historical discrimination and prejudice against Chinese Americans (see Dinnerstein, Nichols, & Reimers, 1996; Dinnerstein & Reimers, 1999; Lee, Quinones-Perdomo, & Perdomo, 2003). In the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants began coming in ever-larger numbers to the United States. The Chinese came to the United States for three major reasons: European powers had intruded in China, resulting in internal turmoil and emigration; gold was discovered in California; and the industrial development of the United States required a large labor force. With respect to the latter, by the end of the nineteenth century, Chinese laborers worked long hours and received less pay than their competitors—Irish immigrants who themselves were mistreated. Many Caucasians considered the Chinese to be “yellow devils” who should be driven into the Pacific Ocean (Joshi, 1999). Personal accounts of Chinese immigrants give witness to their special experiences (Rico & Mano, 2001). Although Ellis Island in New York was seen as a symbol of freedom for Europeans, Angel Island in San Francisco was seen as a place of imprisonment, where Chinese immigrants were jailed. This was evident in The Gold Mountain Poems, anonymous works written by early Chinese immigrants to the United States (Rico & Mano, 2001, p. 261). Here is one of the poems. So, liberty is your national principle; Why do you practice autocracy? You don’t uphold justice, you Americans, You detain me in prison, guard me closely. Your officials are wolves and tigers, All ruthless, all wanting to bite me. An innocent man implicated, such an injustice! When can I get out of this prison and free my mind?

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The above poem expresses the hardship and discrimination the Chinese immigrants faced when arriving in America. American immigration policy has been racist, or at a minimum, racially biased. The first anti-immigration law in the history of America was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. This act was not repealed or abandoned until 1943. A 1901 “gentleman’s agreement” slowed the immigration of Japanese laborers. In other words, while millions of Europeans immigrated to the United States of America, very few Asians were allowed the same privilege (Cao & Novas, 1996; Takaki, 1989). In innumerable other cases, immigration, naturalization, and citizenship policies were based on ethnic identity and white dominance (Aguirre & Turner, 2001; Hu-DeHart, 2000; Lee et al., 2003). That is, only whites were allowed to naturalize ethnic nonwhites. Consistent with Roger Smith’s research on politicians who create citizens, the first famous case was Dred Scott v. Sandford (U.S. Report, 1997).7 Scott, a slave, escaped from the South to the North and asked the Supreme Court to grant him freedom. However, access to the courts was predicated on citizenship. Dismissing Scott’s claim, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared in 1857 that Scott and all other blacks, free or enslaved, were not and could never be citizens because they were “a subordinate and inferior class of beings” (Lopez, 2002, p. 8). A more blatant case of judicial reasoning based on a racial stereotype can scarcely be imagined. In the early twentieth century, there were two other famous cases concerning Asians and citizenship. In Ozawa v. United States (1922), Takao Ozawa petitioned for U.S. citizenship, but was turned away. He appealed and argued that Japanese people should be considered “white” (Fong & Shinagawa, 2000, p. 17). The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against him on two grounds: the existing law simply did not include the Japanese as part of a legitimate category, and “white” meant “a person of the Caucasian race.” The Court dismissed Ozawa’s argument that he was more “white” than other darkerskinned “white” people such as some Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese (Fong & Shinagawa, 2000, p. 17). After the Ozawa case, the Court considered United States v. Thind in 1923. This time the Supreme Court ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind could not be a citizen because he was not “white,” even though Asian Indians were classified as Caucasians. The Court stated, “It may be true that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable differences between them

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today” (Fong & Shinagawa, 2000, p. 17). In other words, only “white” Caucasians were considered eligible for U.S. citizenship. In short, American citizenship and immigration policies have been strongly influenced by ethnic and racial identity, white dominance, and white power. The cases of white racial domination in the South and immigration policy each furnish strong evidence of the influence of racial prejudices and stereotyping in American political history. But to what extent do racism, prejudice, and racial stereotypes influence American politics today? The next section examines this question closely. Racism, Prejudice, and American Politics: Modern Issues and Controversies A close reading of post-1960s American politics raises suspicion that racism, prejudice, and racial stereotyping hold an active and continuing sway in American politics. Indeed, we contend that even today, race remains the “800-pound gorilla” of American politics. Racial issues have become a central division between the Democratic and Republican parties (Carmines & Stimson, 1989). The nature of some racial issues has changed from conflicts centering on equal opportunity (such as integration of schools and public places, and workplace discrimination) to those centering on equal outcomes (affirmative action, language instruction in schools, etc.). Racial conflicts have also evolved away from black–white dynamics alone and toward the multiple racial and ethnic interactions and dynamics found in an increasingly diverse nation. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hastened this process; since then, complaints of discrimination against Arab Americans and Middle Eastern nationals by airlines and government alike have surfaced.8 Recent psychological research has further confirmed this discrimination (Lee, Takaku, Ottati, & Yan, 2004). The impacts of prejudice and negative stereotyping in politics have evolved, but they remain potent even today. We support this conclusion by examining the roles of prejudice and stereotyping in, first, immigration politics; second, election campaign rhetoric; third, noncampaign rhetoric by government officials; and fourth, in voting and elections. Prejudice against and Stereotyping of New Immigrants: The Case of California’s Proposition 187 California’s Proposition 187 (1994) offers a case study of recent government action against illegal immigrants. California’s direct

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initiative process allows voters to decide policy questions directly (bypassing the conventional policymaking route of enactment by the state legislature). Proposition 187 would have deprived illegal immigrants of welfare benefits, education, and all but emergency medical care. In addition, teachers, police officers, and welfare workers would have been required to report any knowledge of illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). After organizers gathered the needed number of signatures, the proposition was placed on the ballot for the 1994 general election. In the heated election campaign that followed, Republican Governor Pete Wilson highlighted his support for Proposition 187 and attacked his Democratic opponent, Kathleen Brown, for opposing it. Pro-Wilson ads emphasized the campaign’s racial overtones, showing blurry, sinister images of illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border into California as a sinister voice intoned “they keep on coming.” The effect, if not the intent, was to foster a sense of California under siege, being overrun by hordes of illegal immigrants, and to intimate that Wilson would protect the state against this menace. Wilson won reelection, and the voters passed Proposition 187. But it was never implemented because the courts struck it down. Lee and his colleagues (Lee & Ottati, 2002; Lee, Ottati, & Hussain, 2001) performed a series of studies after Proposition 187 by presenting a scenario to various American participants. The participants read the following scenario (written in English), supposedly from a U.S. newspaper, about “Carlos Suarez’s life and work in America.” In 1985, Mr. Carlos Suarez emigrated from Mexico City to California (United States) without proper legal documents. He is considered an illegal alien. The reason for his immigration was to escape poverty, homelessness, and unemployment. Mr. Carlos Suarez found a manual job as a part-time worker in a small California town. In 1986, he returned to Mexico City to marry. When he returned to the United States a few months later, he brought his new wife with him. Since then, they have had three children. The eldest child is seven years old and ready for elementary school. The family lives in a tiny, inexpensive home in the barrio section of town. Carlos still works long hours for below-minimum wage and remains ineligible for social and welfare benefits. In 1994, California approved Proposition 187, which deprives illegal immigrants of welfare benefits, education, and all but emergency medical care. In addition, California teachers, police, and welfare workers

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are required to report any knowledge of illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Services for the purpose of deportation.

After reading the foregoing scenario, participants were asked various questions, including whether or not they supported Proposition 187. Of the white respondents, 70 percent voted in favor of Proposition 187, compared to 12.6 percent of the black and Asian Americans and 3.5 percent of the Latinos. Dropping abstaining participants produced a strongly significant ethnicity effect, c2(2, N ⫽ 240) ⫽ 125.20, p ⬍ .001. Overall, there was a statistically significant difference among ethnic voters. But how were they different? When a comparison was performed between any two groups, it was found that the whites significantly differed from the Latinos, c2(1, N ⫽ 140) ⫽ 80.15, p ⬍ .001, and from the black and Asian Americans, c2(1, N ⫽ 186) ⫽ 87.53, p ⬍ .001. There was no significant difference between black and Asian Americans, and Latinos did not achieve significance, c2(1, N ⫽ 154) ⫽ 3.45, p ⬎ .10. In other words, the minority Americans displayed the same voting behavior or attitudes toward Proposition 187 (that is, much less in favor of it than white Americans) based on what Lee and his colleagues found (Lee & Ottati, 2002; Lee, Ottati, & Hussain, 2001). Lee and his colleagues (Lee & Ottati, 2002; Lee, Ottati, & Hussain, 2001) also assessed prejudice toward Mexicans as “illegal” or “undocumented” immigrants. Prejudicial attitudes toward Mexicans were then assessed using Westie’s (1953) Interpersonal Prejudice Scale. This contained six items, all beginning with the phrase “I would be willing to have a Mexican (or Chicano) as. . . .” For the six items, the remainders of the sentence were “a close personal friend,” “a dinner guest in my house,” “a person I might often visit with,” “an acquaintance,” “someone I might say hello to” and “someone I might see on the street,” respectively. For each item, subjects responded on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree). These six items were summed to produce a total “interpersonal prejudice” score. Higher scores on this index reflect greater prejudice against Mexicans. Regression analysis revealed that both perceptions of economic threat (b ⫽ ⫺.61, p ⬍ .0001) and interpersonal prejudice (b ⫽ ⫺.35, p ⬍ .0001) operated as highly significant (and unique) predictors of attitudes toward immigrants generally and toward Proposition 187 specifically. An analogous analysis was used to predict the “children’s education” item. Again, both perception of economic threat (b ⫽ ⫺.33, p ⬍ .001) and interpersonal prejudice (b ⫽ ⫺.43, p ⬍ .0001)

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operated as highly significant (and unique) predictors. Importantly, perceptions of economic threat and interpersonal prejudice were essentially unrelated (r ⫽ ⫺.13, p ⬎ .10). Thus, these two indices function as relatively distinct and nonoverlapping predictors (Lee & Ottati, 2002; Lee, Ottati, & Hussain, 2001). These results demonstrate that perceived national economic threat and prejudice against Mexicans operate as distinct predictors of white attitudes toward Proposition 187 and “illegal” immigration. Importantly, perceived economic threat and anti-Mexican prejudice were relatively independent predictors. This discounts the possibility that perceptions of economic threat simply function to justify prejudiced attitudes toward Mexicans. If this were the case, perceptions of economic threat and prejudice toward Mr. Carlos Suarez and other “illegal” Mexicans should have served as redundant predictors (Lee & Ottati, 2002; Lee, Ottati, & Hussain, 2001). Prejudice and Negative Stereotyping in Political Campaign Rhetoric The 1960s federal civil rights laws put an end to the most egregious government acts of segregation and discrimination. However, they did not halt ambitious politicians’ use of racial prejudice and stereotypes in campaigns. Even in the 1990s, campaign messages that appealed to white prejudices against, and stereotypes of, minorities were not difficult to find, despite the “norm of racial equality” that prohibits the too-explicit use of racial appeals in campaigns (Mendelberg, 2001). One of the most explicitly racial campaign ads in recent American politics was aired in the 1990 North Carolina Senate race between Republican Jesse Helms and his Democratic opponent, former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, a black. The Helms campaign aired a television commercial showing a white hand crumpling a job rejection letter as an announcer intoned, “You wanted that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.” The ad went on to trumpet Helms’ position against affirmative action, implying that Gantt supported racial quotas. The ad was aired only during the final days of the campaign and apparently boosted Helms to a narrow victory in a campaign that had been a dead heat one week before the election. The issue of violent crime has provided opportunities for politicians to bait white stereotypes about violent young black males. The Willie Horton television ads (run on George Bush’s behalf during the 1988

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presidential election) featured a menacing image of Horton, a black escapee from Massachusetts who fled to Maryland and broke into a couple’s home and attacked them, raping the woman and stabbing her husband. The ads, sponsored by a group supporting George Bush’s presidential bid with the Bush campaign’s apparent endorsement (Mendelberg, 2001), showed a menacing, scowling head shot of Horton. The ads highlighted Horton’s crimes and attacked Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis (then governor of Massachusetts) for the weekend release program under which Horton had fled the state. The Willie Horton TV ads were widely criticized for fueling white stereotypes of violent and criminal tendencies among young black men. Mendelberg shows that Republican political operatives had planned the Horton campaign as a means of winning white support by making implicitly racial appeals.9 Mendelberg summarizes the role of Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater in endorsing implicit racial appeals: Atwater concluded, based on his experience in southern campaigns, that a Republican candidate for the presidency had to make appeals to race but mask them. Atwater did not arrive at this strategy from scratch, nor did he acquire it in 1988. It was already considered a tried-andtrue method by the top echelons of the Republican Party. (2001, p. 144)

The Willie Horton ad was a textbook implicitly racial campaign appeal—and by no means has it been the last. In other campaigns, implicitly racial issues (especially welfare) have figured prominently. In his 1989 bid for a Louisiana U.S. Senate seat and his 1991 campaign for governor of Louisiana, Republican candidate and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke made blatantly racial appeals. Duke attacked the “welfare underclass” and decried “welfare systems that encourage illegitimate births” and “set-asides to promote the incompetent” (Anti-Defamation League, 2004). Even though Duke lost both races, he received 44 percent of the overall vote—and 60 percent of the white vote—in his 1989 Senate bid. In 1991, Republican (and political unknown) Kirk Fordice won the Mississippi governor’s race by using implicit racial appeals: opposing quotas, saying that welfare recipients should be forced to work, and attacking policies for coddling criminals. In the 2003 Mississippi governor’s race, Republican Haley Barbour issued a veiled racial appeal by using the term “welfare” in criticizing state social spending.10 Arguments that these are legitimately race-neutral appeals are questionable at best, in light of numerous research findings on racial coding

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and implicit racial appeals. A number of studies indicate that welfare and crime are both racially loaded terms (Tursky, Lodge, & Reeder, 1979; Gilens, 1999; Hurwitz & Peffley, 1997; Slocum, 2001). These terms, and related ones like underclass and welfare queen,11 activate whites’ preexisting racial stereotypes about the “typical” welfare recipient (a black or Latina single mother), the violent criminal or crack cocaine user (a young black male), or the inner city resident (a black or Latino person), for political gain. Campaign appeals that activate white stereotypes about blacks and Latinos are not the only manifestations of racial prejudice in campaign rhetoric. The 1983 Chicago mayor’s race exposed extraordinary racial divisions, pitting black Democrat Harold Washington against white Republican Bernard Epton in a city that previously had never elected a black mayor. The campaign featured bare-knuckled and nonsubtle racial appeals. The campaign slogan “Epton: Before it’s too late” was viewed widely as a masked racial appeal—to vote for Epton lest Washington, and by extension Chicago’s black community, take over City Hall. More explicit still were the pro-Epton bumper stickers that proclaimed, “Vote right, vote white.” Negative racial stereotypes can also be injected into the congressional redistricting process—always an intensely political exercise. Every ten years, the U.S. Census Bureau must seek an accurate count of the U.S. population and that of each state—the latter determines how many U.S. House of Representatives members a state will have. States may gain one or even two House seats if their population growth exceeds national population growth; conversely, slower-growing states may lose House seats. States that gain or lose one or more House seats following a census must redraw their House districts; other states may redraw them. State legislatures are responsible for redrawing districts; the majority party there naturally seeks to draw districts for political advantage. Thus, a state may choose to redraw districts in response to a shift in party control in the state legislature. In Texas, the 2002 elections swept Republicans into control of both chambers of the state legislature. At the behest of U.S. Representative and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Republicans in the Texas legislature pushed through an unprecedented mid-decade redrawing of the state’s U.S. House districts. Normally, redrawing takes place only once per decade, following the release of population data from the U.S. Census. The 2003 Texas redistricting, if it survives court challenge, may set up a situation of near-complete racial polarization by party in the state’s congressional delegation—and perhaps not by accident. In October

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2003, Texas Republicans, in control of both houses of the state legislature and holding all twenty-nine statewide elected offices, redrew the state’s U.S. House districts to elect more Republican U.S. House members from the state. Currently, there are sixteen Democratic and sixteen Republican House members from Texas (following Rep. Ralph Hall’s January 2004 party switch from Democratic to Republican). The redistricting would probably yield a seven-seat Republican gain, with a House delegation of twenty-three Republicans and nine Democrats from Texas after the 2004 elections. Depending on who runs and the election results, Texas’s U.S. House delegation may become nearcompletely polarized by party and race combined. A likely outcome is that the twenty-three Republicans will include twenty-two whites and one Latino, while all nine Democrats will be black or Latino. This effectively would stamp a “black or brown” face on the Texas Democratic Party in terms of its congressional delegation, as white Democrats are driven into extinction. It seems reasonable (at least) to speculate that Texas Republicans intend exactly this result: to define the Texas Democratic Party as beholden to “black and/or brown” interests, and thus to lock up the lion’s share of the majority white vote and extend its current dominance into the foreseeable future. Through redistricting, Texas may have an effort to create a congressional delegation that will either give birth to a negative stereotype among Texas voters that Democrats serve black and Latino interests only, to reinforce any existing such stereotype, or some combination of both. This is not an implausible scenario; in 2002, Texas Democrats ran a Latino candidate (businessman Tony Sanchez) for governor and a black (former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk) for U.S. Senate— a “dream team” that fell flat; both candidates lost by wide margins in an election dominated by national security issues and President George W. Bush’s popularity. Clearly, political campaign rhetoric has at times contained racially coded appeals, and even the redrawing of congressional districts can carry racial overtones. Overall, there is substantial evidence of the use of covert (implicit) racial appeals in U.S. elections (Glaser, 1996; Mendelberg, 2001). These appeals do not create new white racial stereotypes; instead, they activate already-existing ones for political gain. In addition, the Texas redistricting may be an effort to create new (and/or reinforce existing) stereotypes, this time about the opposition party, also to secure a political advantage. Interestingly, efforts by a party or candidate (usually Republican) to define the (usually Democratic) opposition as beholden to “black”

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interests seem commonplace; similar efforts targeting “Latino” interests are rarer but still can be found; similar efforts targeting Asian American or Native American interests appear virtually nonexistent. This probably owes to the more positive stereotype of Asian Americans as a “model minority,” distinguished more by studiousness and a strong work ethic, rather than the often-negative stereotypes attached to blacks and, to a lesser extent, Latinos. Also, only a handful of Asian Americans hold statewide or federal public office, most notably Gary Locke, the governor of Washington state, and several U.S. House members from California and Hawaii. For Native Americans, their numbers almost everywhere are too small for them to elect one of their own to statewide or federal office. Still, one U.S. senator (out of 100) and one U.S. representative (out of 435) are Native American. Also, Americans’ views of Native American are probably less influenced by negative stereotypes than they are for blacks and Latinos, in part because Native American are much less numerous, so fewer people have had direct contact with them. PREJUDICE AND STEREOTYPING IN ELECTED OFFICIALS’ STATEMENTS Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, several lawmakers, all white, southern, conservative Republicans have made comments widely regarded as insensitive to various racial or ethnic groups. On December 5, 2002, Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi (then-Senate majority leader) addressed a crowd attending the 100th birthday party of then-Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC): I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president (1948), we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.

In 1948, Thurmond had run as the Dixiecrat Party’s candidate for president under a segregationist platform.12 Lott’s words provoked gasps from the party guests—and a firestorm of nationwide criticism that subsided only when Lott resigned his position as Senate majority leader. Lott’s remarks were by no means the first time he had faced charges of racially insensitive speech.13 Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, several U.S. House members also have offered racially insensitive remarks. In a radio interview (September 17, 2001), then-Representative John Cooksey

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(R-LA) implied that someone appearing Middle Eastern should expect to be questioned in the investigation of the attacks: If I see someone who comes in that’s got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over. When you’ve got a group of people who are not American citizens, who are of Arab descent and they were involved in killing 5,000 Americans . . . I think we can and should scrutinize people who fit that profile until this war on terrorism is over. (McKinney, 2001)

Cooksey later added, “[T]hat gets back to something called racial profiling.” After Sikh Americans (many of whom wear turbans) and Arab Americans expressed outrage over these stereotyped comments, Cooksey apologized, admitting a “poor choice of words.” Similarly, then-U.S. Representative (now Senator) C. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) told a November 2001 gathering of Georgia law enforcement officers that an appropriate response to terrorism would be to “turn the sheriff loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line” (CNN Crossfire, 2002). Chambliss later expressed regret and apologized for the comment. Three Republican U.S. representatives from North Carolina, Cass Ballenger, Howard Coble, and Sue Myrick, also made comments widely seen as racially insensitive. During an interview with the Charlotte Observer on December 19, 2002, Ballenger said that “in some areas of the South . . . there are people who get rubbed the wrong way and think, ‘We’ve got to bend over backwards; we’ve got to integrate’ and things like that” (Morrill, 2002). During the same interview, he disclosed a “segregationist feeling” toward Democratic then-Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia (who is black) and referred to her as “a bitch.” Ballenger later apologized as well. In a radio talk show (February 4, 2003), Coble defended as “appropriate at the time” President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to send Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II. Coble said the internment helped protect Japanese Americans against a fearful, often intolerant public, and helped ensure national security. “Some [Japanese Americans] were probably intent on doing harm to us. Just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us,” Coble said. In 1988, Coble had opposed the congressional bill providing monetary reparations to survivors of the internments. Myrick, in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation on domestic terrorism (January 28, 2003), referred to Arab Americans

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and said, “Look who runs all the convenience stores across the country” (Morrison, 2003). Myrick defended her remarks by saying she simply wanted to remind communities of the threat of terrorism, including “the illegal trafficking of food stamps through convenience stores for the purpose of laundering money to countries known to harbor terrorists.” Myrick later said she did not intend to insult any ethnic group. The comments by Lott, Cooksey, Chambliss, Ballenger, Coble, and Myrick can be brushed off as unrelated, isolated incidents. However, this view strains credulity; there is a disturbing pattern here. Lott’s statements appear to condone an openly segregationist philosophy; Ballenger’s seem to imply support for segregation twice over, once in referring to a black lawmaker and once again in implying that integration “[rubs] people the wrong way” and means “bending over backward,” as if racial segregation were a more comfortable alternative. The statements of Chambliss, Coble, Cooksey, and Myrick all reflect ethnic stereotyping of people of Arab and/or Middle Eastern ancestry. Chambliss’ suggestion that law officers “arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line” and Coble’s “just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us” needlessly amplify some people’s fears that in light of 9/11, Arabs and/or Middle Easterners pose a security threat. Cooksey’s gratuitous indulgence in ethnic stereotyping was evident in his reference to Arab Americans, coupled with the offensive “diaper on his head” remark, a crude reference to the turbans worn by some Sikh Americans (who are not Middle Eastern but South Asian, and who are racially and religiously distinct from most Arabs and Middle Easterners). His remarks also indicated approval of ethnically targeted racial profiling of Arab and/or Middle Eastern individuals. Myrick’s statement lent credence to two other stereotypes: the curious one that Arab Americans own convenience stores and the far more offensive implication that they use those stores to channel funds overseas to support terrorist activities. These remarks are even more disturbing considering that they came from the mouths of U.S. lawmakers. Individuals in such high office represent districts with thousands of people. They have an obligation to represent all their constituents—including blacks, Asian Americans, and those of Arab or Middle Eastern ancestry. These insensitive and/ or stereotypical remarks surely call into question these lawmakers’ credentials to represent diverse constituencies, and they leave reason to wonder whether at heart, these lawmakers harbor prejudices that ultimately could not resist expression, however inadvertent. The

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knowledge that all six of these lawmakers represent conservative, southern districts does little to dispel these suspicions. These comments furnish striking evidence of varying combinations of racism, racial insensitivity, and/or racial/ethnic stereotyping by people elected to high public office (the U.S. Congress) and altogether outside the heat of an election campaign. If these lawmakers—a highly educated group—truly harbor the views suggested by their statements, one can only wonder about the racial and ethnic attitudes harbored by at least some of their constituents—in particular, the white majorities in Trent Lott’s Mississippi and the other lawmakers’ House districts. Recent research on white southerners’ racial attitudes has used an unobtrusive “list experiment” methodology that allows individuals to report prejudiced views without the interviewer knowing them (Kuklinski, Cobb, & Gilens, 1997). The results, though tentative because they are based on small sample sizes, are disturbing, if not appalling. The list experiment methodology yielded an estimate that 10 percent of non-southern whites, but fully 42 percent of southern whites, would be angry or upset at “a black family moving in next door.” Similarly, an estimated 11 percent of non-southern whites, but 63 percent of southern whites, would be angry or upset at “interracial dating, with black teenagers taking out white teenagers” (Kuklinski et al., 1997; Kuklinski & Cobb, 1998). Although further research is needed, these stunning results suggest that white southerners’ racial attitudes may be far less positive than usually reported in nationwide surveys that use direct, overt measures of racial attitudes. Trent Lott and the other five lawmakers, all white, conservative southerners, may be reflecting racial attitudes that are widespread among the whites who comprise majorities of their constituencies. Overall, racial and/or ethnic stereotyping is highly evident in a sampling of recent (post–9/11) comments made by elected officials. Indeed, racial animosities and stereotypes have scarcely disappeared from either campaign or noncampaign rhetoric. We now consider the extent to which racism and prejudice are apparent in voting. PREJUDICE AND STEREOTYPING IN VOTING Voting rights are one element that distinguishes a democratic state from a totalitarian one. However, the right to vote is meaningful only to the extent that qualified would-be voters are actually allowed to vote. To vote in federal elections, a person must be eighteen years old, a U.S. citizen, and not institutionalized or a convicted felon. The

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Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 24th Amendment (abolishing poll taxes), and several Supreme Court decisions combined to effectively abolish most racially discriminatory voting practices. However, some reports of more subtle forms of voting discrimination, possibly based on race, continue to surface. We consider prejudice and stereotyping in voting in two senses. Our first concern lies in the voting process itself: efforts to suppress minority voting may contribute to an election win for the candidate supported by most white voters—usually, the more conservative candidate is the beneficiary. Our second concern lies in the potential role of prejudice and stereotyping in an individual’s vote choice itself, especially in elections pitting a white candidate against a minority candidate. In both cases, there is much reason to suspect that hidden prejudices influence efforts to suppress minority voting and the individual voting decision in elections where white and minority candidates face off. Racial Prejudice and Stereotyping in Voting Procedures Voting is more available to all voting-eligible Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity, as a result of the Voting Rights Act (1965) and other government actions and court decisions. However, there are a number of alleged cases of racially targeted voter suppression efforts that were done to influence the results of hotly contested elections. Here we consider some examples of this phenomenon, as well as one allegation that never was proven true. When they surface, allegations of racially motivated voter suppression efforts often come from southern states, where blacks make up sizable shares of state populations—up to 36 percent in Mississippi. In Louisiana’s 2002 U.S. Senate runoff election, there were allegations of efforts (presumably by Republican supporters) to suppress black voter turnout. According to the reports, flyers were distributed at mostly black public housing complexes in New Orleans, telling residents they could vote on December 10 if the weather was bad on Election Day (which was December 7). This was a complete fallacy, as the election ended when polls closed December 7. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, with overwhelming support from Louisiana’s black voters, won reelection to a second term, despite these voter suppression efforts targeting blacks. In a somewhat “cleaner” tactic in the same election, Louisiana’s Republican Party paid for political signs in black neighborhoods that read, “Mary, if you don’t respect us, don’t expect

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us”—an attempt to emphasize complaints by some blacks that Landrieu had not paid enough attention to their issues. In the 2003 Kentucky governor’s race, there were complaints of a different method of suppressing black turnout: stationing Republican election observers at polling places in largely black Louisville neighborhoods. On October 23, 2003, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Republican plans to place Election Day challengers in fifty-nine voting precincts in mostly black Louisville neighborhoods. Republican leaders defended the plans as a legitimate means of enabling challenges to people suspected of being ineligible to vote. However, leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called the plans “blatant intimidation” and “an effort to suppress the African American community.” The chairperson of the Jefferson County Democratic Party said, “[They] have only one purpose: to intimidate and suppress votes in the West End and other minority areas.” Although not illegal, Kentucky Republicans’ poll-watching efforts do seem vulnerable to charges that they are targeting black voters in hopes of suppressing black turnout. However, a race-neutral objection could be raised: that the Republican goal is to reduce turnout in Democratrich neighborhoods and the fact that many are heavily black is mere coincidence. In the face of these competing claims, divining actual motives is difficult. Claims that Republicans deliberately set out to prevent people from voting because of their race are thus difficult to verify empirically. Although most voter suppression efforts seem aimed toward suppressing black turnout, more subtle means can be used to suppress turnout among Latinos and/or immigrants from elsewhere. A 1975 amendment to the Voting Rights Act requires the use of bilingual ballots in voting districts with low voter turnout and where 5 percent or more of residents have a first language other than English. A county where 4 percent of residents are Hmong (for example) may choose to, but is not required to, provide bilingual ballots for Hmong residents. A decision not to print bilingual ballots may save the county money, but it would probably lower voter turnout among the Hmong minority. In general, the decision to provide or not provide ballots, voting instructions, and/or translators for citizens whose first language is not English sends (intentionally or unintentionally) an unmistakable symbolic message about how welcome these citizens are in the electoral arena—and in society more generally. One additional, never-proven allegation of racially targeted voter suppression came from Ed Rollins, campaign manager for Christine

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Todd Whitman, the Republican candidate in the 1993 New Jersey governor’s race. Rollins initially stated that Republican officials had distributed $500,000 in “walking around money” to black ministers who agreed to help suppress the black vote. Rollins later recanted this testimony, but it nonetheless ruined his political career. The charges were never proven, and the New Jersey Democratic Party, which initially had contested the election in court, dropped its challenge, realizing that there was no proof that the alleged actions alone had swung the election Whitman’s way. The Louisiana and Kentucky examples show that efforts to suppress black turnout are very real. Since blacks vote Democratic by a lopsided margin (for example, 90 percent for Al Gore and 8 percent for George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election), Republicans benefit to the extent that they can engineer lower turnout among black voters. Efforts to suppress voter turnout among other racial or ethnic minorities are rare because the party loyalties of Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans are more divided than those of blacks. Latinos of Mexican or Puerto Rican origin tend to favor the Democratic Party (not as lopsidedly as blacks do), but those of Cuban origin (found mostly in Florida) are heavily Republican. Asian Americans vary by nationality, but a large share, up to 35 percent of some groups, identify as independents. Native American party loyalties vary by tribe, and trend Democratic overall—but again, not by lopsided margins. The fact that most blacks are visually identifiable as such makes it easier to seek ways to dampen turnout. In contrast, heavily Republican constituencies, such as business executives and evangelical Christians, are not visually identifiable: it is impossible to simply look at a person and identify him or her as an evangelical. This helps explain why voter suppression efforts, when they occur, often are racially targeted, and are more often attributed to conservative and/or Republican causes or supporters. Racial Prejudice and Stereotyping in Individual Vote Choices Here we consider the role of racial prejudice in individuals’ vote choices. In an election pitting a minority candidate against a white opponent, race and/or ethnicity is especially likely to affect voting. In such cases, racially polarized voting is common: white voters tend to vote for white candidates, while minority voters prefer minority candidates. This pattern was evident in the 1983 Chicago mayor’s race

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between Harold Washington and Bernard Epton; in the 1990 and 1996 North Carolina Senate races between Jesse Helms and Harvey Gantt; and in the Philadelphia mayoral races of 1987, 1999, and 2003.14 However, racial-bloc voting is not inevitable when a white candidate and a minority candidate contest an election. In the 1983 Charlotte, North Carolina mayor’s race, Harvey Gantt, a black, defeated a white opponent with a biracial voting coalition combining overwhelming black support with significant white support. All these elections involve a white candidate opposing a black candidate—the most common scenario. Elections in which a white candidate opposes a Latino, Asian American or Native American candidate can be found, but are far rarer. Most winning Latino candidates hail from districts where Latinos make up a majority or near-majority of residents (seen in parts of California and the Southwest, in some South Florida districts, and in a few congressional districts in the Chicago area and other urban areas). In the rarer cases where an Asian American wins elective office, there usually is a notable Asian American presence in the electorate (seen in Hawaii, the San Francisco area, other portions of California, and the Seattle area in Washington state). The same holds true for Native Americans; the only U.S. House member of Native American ancestry hails from near Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a congressional district with a sizable Native American presence. Invariably, a winning minority candidate benefits from strong voter mobilization among members of the minority group in question. When a minority candidate loses (for example, Tony Sanchez, the Latino candidate for the Texas governorship), the loss often can be attributed to factors other than the candidate’s race or ethnicity. In Sanchez’s case, the Republican trend among Texas whites coupled with an unfavorable national political trend favoring Republicans probably doomed his electoral prospects and would have done so regardless of his race or ethnicity. Racially polarized voting usually damages the prospects of minority candidates, because most voting districts have a white majority. The mere presence of racially polarized voting, however, does not demonstrate per se that white voters fail to support minority candidates because of their race. Establishing such a proposition requires that potential other (race-neutral) reasons for vote choice be ruled out. Determining with certainty the motives behind voting decisions is difficult and probably impossible without individual interviews or extensive survey research. In the 1990 and 1996 North Carolina Senate races, Gantt enjoyed overwhelming black support, but his white support was short

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of what he needed to win. White Helms supporters may have had race-neutral reasons for preferring Helms, who had close ties to social and religious conservatives. In North Carolina, as elsewhere in the South, conservative whites outnumber liberal whites (Black & Black, 1987), and many white voters may have preferred Helms because of his more conservative views, not because of his race. One case in which we can more reasonably suspect racial motives behind racially polarized voting is the 1989 Virginia governor’s race. L. Douglas Wilder, a black Democrat and descendant of slaves, faced a white Republican opponent, Marshall Coleman. Preelection polls consistently showed Wilder leading Coleman by 4 to 11 percentage points; yet Wilder won by a far narrower margin, with only 50.1 percent of the vote. The polls tracked opinion right up to Election Day, meaning they should have detected across-time changes in the candidates’ relative support. The most likely explanation for the discrepancy between the preelection poll results and the election outcome is Wilder’s race. Some poll respondents (almost certainly, heavily white) probably told the pollster they would support Wilder, but insincerely; in the privacy of the polling booth they voted for Coleman out of discomfort over the prospect of a black governor. Here, hidden prejudices loom large, and raceneutral alternative explanations are less convincing: if perhaps 5 percent of poll respondents who said they would support Wilder later changed their minds in Coleman’s favor, why did other polls taken up to Election Day still show Wilder comfortably ahead and not detect this shift? The claim that these white voters preferred Coleman for a raceneutral reason (such as his conservatism) rather than his race also is unconvincing. Elections commonly involve two candidates of the same race, one relatively more liberal, the other relatively more conservative. But they rarely witness a sudden Election Day shift in the conservative’s favor that goes undetected in preelection polls. The Wilder-Coleman election, however, involved a black against a white— a situation ripe not only for racial-bloc voting, but also for some (unknown) fraction of whites to insincerely report their voting intentions so that the white candidate suddenly wins a larger share of the white vote than preelection polls showed. We cannot say we have conclusively ruled out other factors explaining this curious result. However, the strange disconnection between the election outcome and the poll results, and the fact that polls did not reveal it, are entirely consistent with the pattern we would expect if some white respondents told the

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pollster they would vote for Wilder, only to vote for Coleman instead— and it is hard to conceive of any reason for this other than Wilder’s race. The 1989 Virginia governor’s race, moreover, is not alone. In the 1989 New York City mayor’s race, David Dinkins, a black, won the election narrowly even though preelection polls showed him leading by 5 to 15 percentage points. Here again, Dinkins’s actual victory margin was far less than the polls suggested. In sum, these elections suggest that hidden prejudices may still work against the election of minority candidates in local and statewide races. Although racial stereotypes are commonly attributed to many racial and ethnic minorities, those attached to blacks (including laziness/lack of work ethic, violence, and lack of sexual restraint) are probably more negative overall than those attached to other groups, especially Asian Americans, who as a “model minority” are stereotyped in more positive terms. Thus, black candidates especially face a disadvantage in an election against a white opponent, owing to the widespread nature of racial stereotypes among the white majority, coupled with the especially negative nature of black stereotypes. Overall, there is evidence suggesting that racial prejudice and stereotyping continue to play a significant role in voting in U.S. elections— both in the voting process, through efforts to suppress voter turnout among minority groups, and in the vote choice exercised by the individual voter, through hidden but electorally potent discomfort among some whites at the prospect that a minority candidate, and especially a black candidate, might win elective office. CONCLUSION In this chapter, we have examined both historical and current issues and cases of racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination in political arenas. The issues we have examined include historical legal discrimination, anti-immigration politics, campaign and noncampaign rhetoric, and voting. If politics is related to power and control, American politics cannot be separated from race and ethnicity. There are at least two major contributors to racial and ethnic elements in American politics. One is identity (who we are culturally or racially); the other is contact, which often leads to conflict. Racial identity and contact are interrelated. Based on this, social conflict (including negative stereotypes and prejudice) occurred in the past, continues to occur today, and has notable and wide-ranging consequences in American politics. Politics would have been much simpler if there were

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just one ethnic or racial group. According to the integrative model of ethnic contact, identity, and conflict (CIC) (Lee, Quinones-Perdomo, & Perdomo, 2003), the seeds of complicated group relations and intergroup conflict (for example, negative attitudes, prejudice, and discrimination) were planted on the day when Europeans came to this land and contacted Native Americans. The arrival of black slaves and Chinese Americans brought here as “coolies” only intensified political conflicts between racial and ethnic groups. As can be seen in Myrdal’s research (1944), Americans have faced an unresolved dilemma that holds true today and tomorrow. On one hand, Americans want to maintain democratic values, human rights, and civil rights. On the other hand, there are realistic conflicts of group interest (in terms of values and political and economic interests)—as seen in contemporary conflicts over language policies and affirmative action.15 Immigration, racially polarized voting patterns, and events since September 11 further confirm this tension. Two psychological notes are in order before we conclude. First, past racial appeals in politics have been directed mostly toward the white majority, and have targeted (sought to arouse and exploit hostility toward) black candidates and interests. Any future racial appeals may also target other minority groups: Latinos, Asian/Pacific Americans, Native Americans, and others. Future research should attend to this possibility. Psychologists have demonstrated that people show a common preference for ingroup members (called ingroup favoritism), and prejudice against outgroup members, especially during any competition (Brewer, 1979; Lee, McCauley, Moghaddam, & Worchel, 2004). Second, this chapter has considered only negative racial stereotypes and their impacts on U.S. politics. This does not mean all stereotypes (racial or nonracial) are negative or inaccurate (Lee, Jussim, & McCauley, 1995). But negative stereotyping probably facilitates racial appeals during political campaigns. Perhaps understanding and appreciating human differences may help us to reduce intergroup conflict and racial appeals, as shown in the “toolbox for change” below. In any event, it is important that covert racial appeals, when made, be exposed publicly. When that happens, covert racial appeals lose their effectiveness, owing to the prevalent “norm of racial equality” in the United States (Mendelberg, 2001). In sum, hidden prejudices play a central role in American politics. They influence the campaign messages that parties and candidates deliver (by promoting covert racial appeals and racially laden symbolism), and the noncampaign messages provided by elected officials, which

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Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals

Learn positive attitudes toward immigrants and minority candidates.

To be exposed to different cultural and racial groups and gain knowledge and information about them.

Community

Be more receptive to immigrants and more aware of and fair-minded to minority candidates.

Help new immigrants to settle into communities; expose and protest racial appeals and discrimination.

Practitioners/ educators

Campaign managers: Be aware of covert racial appeals; commit to “fair” (race-neutral) campaign messages and strategies. Educators/counselors: Understand and appreciate ethnic and cultural differences by studying stereotypes.

Candidates, activists, and voters should speak out immediately when a racial appeal is made in political campaigns. Educators and practitioners should participate in diversityrelated workshops and training in combating racism and discrimination, and interact with different racial and ethnic groups.

at times reveal racial and ethnic stereotypes. Hidden prejudices also affect strategies of voter mobilization and suppression (as shown in racially targeted voter suppression efforts), and voting patterns, especially those of whites, when a white candidate and a minority candidate run against each other. Though we may not resolve the tension between Americans’ support for democratic values and human rights and the realistic group conflicts that underlie racial divisions in society, we are not hopeless or pessimistic about the future. We know there are differences wherever and whenever there are human beings. Over the long term, education, coupled with a commitment to understanding and appreciating differences, may help reduce negative stereotypes, racial prejudice, discrimination, and their consequences in the political and social arenas.

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NOTES 1. In 1934, Bilbo won his first Senate race by further ratcheting up his already notable racist rhetoric. He advocated deporting blacks to Africa, called U.S. Representative Claire Booth Luce a “nigger lover” and in 1938 praised Adolf Hitler on the floor of the Senate. In attacking interracial marriage, Bilbo opined that “one drop of Negro blood placed in the veins of the purest Caucasian destroys the inventive genius of his mind and strikes palsied his creative faculty” (Anonymous, 1997). 2. Some of the segregation ordinances were sublimely absurd in their wide scope. In 1922, Mississippi passed a law mandating segregated taxicabs; a 1932 Atlanta, Georgia, ordinance required that black and white baseball teams play at least two blocks apart; Birmingham, Alabama, had a law on the books prohibiting interracial domino playing. 3. In Mississippi, the state in which racially hostile voting practices were most effective in suppressing black registration and voting, only 6.7 percent of blacks, but 69.9 percent of whites, were registered to vote as of March 1965; in Alabama, the corresponding figures were 19.3 percent for blacks and 69.2 percent for whites. Regionwide in 1960, 61 percent of whites were registered to vote, but only 29 percent of blacks were. 4. Antimiscegenation laws were laws banning interracial marriage and/ or sexual relations. In Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court ruled such laws unconstitutional. 5. See Donald P. Baker, “Shame of a nation.” The Washington Post (2001, March 4), p. W08. 6. The two men charged in Emmett Till’s murder were Roy Bryant, the store owner and the husband of the clerk, and J. W. Milam, his brother-inlaw. At trial, the prosecution had trouble finding witnesses willing to testify against them. Finally, Emmett’s sixty-four-year-old uncle, Mose Wright, stepped forward, and several other blacks joined him in identifying Bryant and Milam as the two men who had kidnapped Emmett. For their own protection, all of them had to be hurried out of the state after their testimony. In his closing statement, the defense lawyer told jurors, “Your fathers will turn over in their graves if [Milam and Bryant are found guilty], and I’m sure that every last Anglo-Saxon one of you has the courage to free these men in the face of that [outside] pressure.” The all-white jury then returned not guilty verdicts after deliberating less than an hour. 7. Regarding Smith’s work, see Smith (1997). 8. For example, ethnic or nationality-based profiling of people perceived as Arab or Middle Eastern has led airlines to force some such individuals off airplanes even after they cleared stringent security checks. These involuntary removals have been justified, supposedly, because the pilots or other passengers felt uncomfortable flying with someone of Arab or Middle Eastern descent on board. Source: Sasha Polikow-Suransky, “Flying while brown.” The

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American prospect 12(20) (2001, November 19). The federal government itself has been party to some arguably discriminatory actions against Arabs and Middle Easterners. A report from the U.S. Department of Justice’s inspector general concluded that the department’s roundup of hundreds of illegal immigrants in the months after the September 11 attacks was riddled with “significant problems, that forced many people with no connection to terrorism to languish in jails in unduly harsh conditions.” The same report added that FBI officials “‘made little attempt to distinguish’ between immigrants who had possible ties to terrorism and those swept up by chance in the investigation.” Source: Eric Lichtblau, “U.S. report faults the roundup of illegal immigrants after 9/11” (The New York Times, 2003, June 3). 9. Lee Atwater, a native South Carolinian and Bush’s campaign manager, got his start in politics in the 1970s as an aide to Strom Thurmond, the Dixiecrat-turned Republican who was an early pioneer of implicit racial appeals. Atwater considered Richard Nixon’s 1968 “Southern strategy” of appealing to racially resentful white southerners “a blueprint for everything I’ve done in the South.” Early in 1988, Atwater told the press, “The Horton case is one of those gut issues that are values issues, particularly in the South, and if we hammer at these over and over, we are going to win.” Source: Andrew Rosenthal, “Foes accuse Bush campaign of inflaming racial tension” (The New York Times, 1988, October 24). 10. Barbour also highlighted his opposition to affirmative action and favored a voter identification requirement strongly opposed by black legislators in his state. Barbour’s veiled racial messages included not only words but also imagery. During the campaign, Barbour wore on his lapel a pin featuring the Mississippi state flag, which includes the Confederate stars and bars emblem. In Mississippi’s 2001 referendum on whether or not to retain the Confederate emblem in the state flag, voters supported keeping the Confederate emblem, 65 percent to 35 percent, in an intensely racially polarized vote. In two 80 percent-black counties, the vote was 83 percent to 17 percent in favor of removing the Confederate insignia; in two 85 percent–white counties, the vote was 90 percent to 10 percent in favor of retaining it. 11. The pejorative and racially loaded term welfare queen found its way into national political discourse due to Ronald Reagan’s liberal use of the term during his 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns. In 1976, Reagan often recited the story of a woman from Chicago’s south side who was arrested for welfare fraud. “She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards, and is collecting veteran’s benefits on four nonexisting deceased husbands. And she is collecting Social Security on her cards. She’s got Medicaid, is getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names,” Reagan said. Variants of the tale had other details, including that she drove a Cadillac to pick up her welfare check, and that she used food stamps to buy vodka. The “welfare queen” Reagan spoke of was a myth,

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but it did serve as a lightning rod for white resentments over paying taxes that supported welfare programs that presumably allowed such cheating. The “welfare queen” stereotype centers on a black woman, probably a single mother, who prefers to collect welfare checks rather than work, and who has one or more children born out of wedlock—a toxic stew of noxious white stereotypes of black laziness, sexual promiscuity, illegitimacy, and devil-maycare irresponsibility. 12. In 1948, Strom Thurmond led a walkout from the Democratic Party by white segregationists in the Deep South who bitterly opposed President Harry S. Truman’s support of modest racial reform in the United States. The most recalcitrant segregationists in Southern politics—Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor of Alabama, Roy V. Harris of Georgia, and Leander Perez of Louisiana—led Thurmond’s Dixiecrat Party. On the evening of his nomination for president at a convention in Birmingham, Thurmond’s supporters celebrated by lynching President Truman in effigy. During his campaign for president, Thurmond said, “I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there’s not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.” 13. In 1999, reports surfaced that Lott several times had addressed meetings of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group whose bias against blacks and other minorities is scarcely concealed. Lott has been photographed in at least one CCC meeting. The CCC has ties to more openly white supremacist groups, and it inflames racial fears and resentments using issues like black-on-white crime and nonwhite immigration. In addressing a 1992 CCC meeting in Mississippi, Lott commented, “The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let’s take it in the right direction and our children will be the beneficiaries.” 14. In the initial 1999 matchup between white Republican Sam Katz and black Democrat John Street, Katz carried 97 percent of the 742 voting divisions with white majorities, while Street carried 98 percent of the 750 voting divisions with black majorities. “The level of racially polarized voting is nowhere as high as it is in Philadelphia,” said David Bositis, a scholar with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, an urban affairs think tank in Washington. 15. The recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action in public colleges and universities (Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger, both in 2003) will probably only enhance public debates over the value and fairness of race-based affirmative action and the acceptable limits of its application.

REFERENCES Aguirre, A., Jr., & Turner, J. (2001). American ethnicity: The dynamics and consequence of discrimination. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Anonymous. (1997, July–August). Death of a demagogue. American Heritage, 99–100. The Anti-Defamation League. (2004). Extremism in America: David Duke. Retrieved July 19, 2004, from www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/duke.asp Black, M., & Black, E. (1987). Politics and society in the South. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Brewer, M. B. (1979). Ingroup bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 307–324. CNN Crossfire (2002). Is the U.N. being unfair or does Israel have something to hide? Is privacy dead in public places? (aired April 30, 2002). Transcript accessed July 20, 2004 at http://www.cnn.com/ TRANSCRIPTS/0204/30/cf.00.html Cao, L., & Novas, H. (1996). Everything you need to know about Asian American history. New York: Plume. Carmines, E., & Stimson, J. (1989). Issue evolution: Race and the transformation of American politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Corrigan, P. W., & Penn, D. L. (1999). Lessons from social psychology on discrediting psychiatric stigma. American Psychologist, 54, 765–776. Corrigan, P. W., Watson, A. C., & Ottati, V. (2003). From whence comes mental illness stigma? International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 49(2), 142–157. Dinnerstein, L., Nichols, R. L., & Reimers, D. M. (1996). Natives and strangers: A multicultural history of Americans. New York: Oxford University Press. Dinnerstein, L., & Reimers, D. M. (1999). Ethnic Americans: A history of immigration. New York: Columbia University Press. Edsall, T., & Edsall, M. (1992). Chain reaction: The impact of race, rights and taxes on American politics. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. Fiske, S. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 357–411). New York: McGraw-Hill. Fong, T. P., & Shinagawa, L. H. (2000). Asian Americans: Experiences and perspectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gilens, M. (1999). Why Americans hate welfare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Glaser, J. (1996). Race, campaign politics and the realignment in the South. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Greenberg, S. B. (1985, April 15). Report on Democratic defection. Washington, DC: The Analysis Group, pp. 13–18, 28. Hu-DeHart, E. (2000). Rethinking America. In V. Cyrus (Ed.), Experiencing race, class, and gender in the United States (pp. 168–171). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes. American Journal of Political Science, 41(2), 375–401.

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Irish, M. D. (1942, February). The Southern one-party system and national politics. Journal of Politics, 4, 80. Joshi, S. T. (1999). Documents of American prejudice: An anthology of writings on race from Thomas Jefferson to David Duke. New York: Basic Books. Kuklinski, J., Cobb, M., & Gilens, M. (1997). Racial attitudes and the “New South.” Journal of Politics, 59(2), 323–349. Kuklinski, J., & Cobb, M. (1998). When white Southerners converse about race. In J. Hurwitz & M. Peffley (Eds.), Perception and prejudice: race and politics in the United States. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Lee, Y.-T., Albright, L., & Malloy, T. (2001). Social perception and stereotyping: An interpersonal and intercultural approach. International Journal of Group Tension, 30(2), 183–209. Lee, Y.-T., Jussim, L., & McCauley, C. (1995). Stereotype accuracy: Toward appreciating group differences. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Lee, Y.-T., McCauley, C., Moghaddam, F., & Worchel, S. (2004). The psychology of ethnic and cultural conflict. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Lee, Y.-T., McCauley, C., & Draguns, J. (1999). Personality and person perception across cultures. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lee, Y.-T., & Ottati, V. (1993). Determinants of ingroup and outgroup perception of heterogeneity: An investigation of Chinese-American stereotypes. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 24, 298–318. Lee, Y.-T., & Ottati, V. (1995). Perceived ingroup homogeneity as a function of group membership salience and stereotype threat. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 612–621. Lee, Y.-T., & Ottati, V. (2002). Attitudes toward American immigration policy: The role of ingroup-outgroup bias, economic concern, and obedience to law. Journal of Social Psychology, 142(5), 617–634. Lee, Y.-T., Ottati, V., & Hussain, I. (2001). Attitudes toward “illegal” immigration into the U.S.: California Proposition 187. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 23(4), 430–443. Lee, Y.-T., Quinones-Perdomo, J., & Perdomo, E. (2003). An integrative model of ethnic conflict, identity, and conflict (CIC): Application to U.S. immigration and naturalization. Ethnic Studies Review, 26, 57–80. Lee, Y.-T., Takaku, S., Ottati, V., & Yan, G. (2004). Empirical research on perception of terrorism, justice and peace. In Y-T. Lee, C. McCauley, F. Moghaddam, & S. Worchel (Eds.), The Psychology of Ethnic and Cultural Conflict (pp. 217–234). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Lopez, I. F. H. (2002). Racial restrictions in the law of citizenship. In A. A. Kromkowski (Ed.), Race and ethnic relations (12th ed., pp. 7–12). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin. Mendelberg, T. (2001). The race card: Campaign strategy, implicit messages and the norm of equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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McKinney, J. (2001). Cooksey: Expect racial profiling. The Advocate [online edition]. Retrieved July 19, 2004, from members.tripod.com/ocssa/ turban.htm Morrill, J. (2002, December 19). Myrick calls for Sen. Lott to step aside; Ballenger agrees but says he’s also had ‘segregationist feeling.’ The Charlotte Observer [online]. Retrieved July 20, 2004, from www. charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/4779957.htm Morrison, P. (2003, February 28). Two N.C. Republicans draw fire for “outrageous” ethnic comments. The National Catholic Reporter Online. Retrieved July 20, 2004, from www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/ archives/022803/022803k.htm Myrdal, G. (1944). An American dilemma: The Negro problem and modern democracy. New York: Harper & Row. Olson, J. (1994). The psychology of prejudice: Ontario symposium on personality. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Rico, B. R., & Mano, S. (2001). American mosaic: Multicultural readings in context. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Slocum, F. (2001). White racial attitudes and implicit racial appeals: An experimental study of “race coding” in political discourse. Politics and Policy, 29(4), 650–669. Smith, R. M. (1997). Civic ideals: Conflicting visions of citizenship in U.S. history. New Haven: Yale University Press. Southern Education Reporting Service. (1967). A statistical summary, state by state, of school segregation-desegregation in the southern and border area from 1954 to the present. Nashville, TN: Southern Education Reporting Service, pp. 2, 43–44. Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Takaki, R. (1989). Strangers from a different shore: A history of Asian Americans. Boston, MA: Little Brown. Tursky, B., Lodge, M., and Reeder, R. (1979). Psychophysical and psychophysiological evaluation of the direction, intensity and meaning of race-related stimuli. Psychophysiology, 16, 452–462. U.S. Report. (1997). Opinion of the Supreme Court, December term, 1956. (Original work published 1856) Westie, F. R. (1953). A technique for the measurement of race attitudes. American Sociological Review, 18, 73–78.

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CHAPTER 5

The African Diaspora and Culture-Based Coping Strategies Edward Stephenson

Dominating all the complex systems which drive Western societies, white racism singled out Africa and Africans of the Diaspora for a holocaust of five hundred years and more one which shows no sign of letting up. On the eve of the twenty-first century, white racism threatens Black people with continued exploitation, degradation, social confinement, and marginalization and, failing that, extermination. (Munford, 1996, p. 3)

T

he problem of the twentieth century, W. E. B. Du Bois (1969) prophetically proclaimed, would be the problem of the color line. As we embark upon a new millennium and witness the technological advances that have represented the hallmark of our civilized progress, we must ask ourselves whether such progress has been accompanied by improvements in our social relations, particularly as this relates to the treatment of racial and cultural minorities. Although such treatment has historically been determined by a host of social and cultural factors, perhaps the most important of these factors is the experience of prejudice and discrimination. Consequently, in determining the relevance of Du Bois’s prophetic proclamation to the quality of our social relations, we must then ask ourselves whether racism is a thing of the past. Should we no longer take heed to the cry of the prophets,

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given that slavery has long ended and the American creed of equality and justice stands at the forefront of the moral and ethical consciousness of most Americans? If on the other hand, racism is indeed alive and well, the relevant question then becomes, how is racism manifested in postmodern, multicultural, and multiethnic America? Are people’s encounters with racism the same for everyone, or are there inter-ethnic variations? How are the various ethnic groups impacted by racism, and in what ways do they cope? The present chapter attempts to answer the above questions by using the concept of the African Diaspora as a conceptual guide for interpreting and analyzing both inter- and intra-group differences in relation to African American blacks’ and West Indians’ encounters with racism in the United States. Because ethnic labels such as black, African American, and West Indian are often used interchangeably, it is important that, for the purpose of conceptual clarity, these terms be operationally defined. Thus, African American, in the present context, refers to blacks whose heritage is contained within the geographic boundaries of the United States, while black American is used as a more all-inclusive concept to refer to both indigenous blacks and those who originated from the West Indies but who presently reside in the United States. Historically, the terms West Indies and the Caribbean have been used interchangeably, since the West Indies are a group of islands stretching from the north coast of Venezuela to the south coast of Florida, situated in the Caribbean Sea (Gopaul-McNicol, 1993). The term West Indian is thus used here to refer to individuals from the Caribbean. THE AFRICAN DIASPORA AND INTRA-ETHNIC VARIATIONS IN THE EXPERIENCE OF RACISM The African Diaspora refers to “the global dispersion (voluntary and involuntary) of Africans throughout history; the emergence of a cultural identity abroad based on origin and social condition; and the psychological or physical return to the homeland, Africa” (Harris, 1993, p. 3). As a mode of intellectual inquiry, the African Diaspora concept originated in 1965 when the International Congress of African Historians convened in Tanzania and included in its program a session titled “The African Abroad or the African Diaspora” (Harris, 1993). Since that time, scholars from various disciplines have conducted research about the African Diaspora in Asia, the Americas, and

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Europe; thus expanding our understanding of the presence and contributions of people of African descent outside the continent (Harris, 1996). The concept of the African Diaspora is posited here as a useful conceptual tool discussing intra-ethnic variations in the experience of racism. Not only does the concept acknowledge the shared experience of racism, it more importantly alerts us to the varied nature of this experience and the fact that such variations result from black people having been dislocated and decentered from their core African selves and cultures. Therefore, when we consider the impact that racism has had on the lives of blacks in the United States, it is important that we keep in mind the heterogeneous nature of the group and, in so doing, make distinctions with regard to their ethnicity. Such interethnic variations have, however, been ignored by researchers, whereby most of the research on blacks in the United States has focused primarily on them while ignoring other Diaspora ethnicities. In concurring with this view, Rogers (2001) asserts the following: In much of the influential scholarship on racial and ethnic politics in the United States, there has been a longstanding tendency to treat the Black population as if it were a homogeneous lot. Many studies routinely ignore intra-group differences, tensions, and conflicts within Black politics. Such treatments simplistically assume or imply an undifferentiated Black community bound by common experience and wedded to some unitary vision of a political agenda. (p. 164)

Consequently, even though an extensive body of research attests to blacks’ continued exposure to racial discrimination (Kessler, Mickelson, & Williams, 1999) and the deleterious impact that it has on their psychological and physical well-being (Jackson et al., 1996; Salgado de Snyder, 1987; Browman, 1996; Murrag, Khatib & Jackson, 1989; Plummer & Slane, 1996), we however know very little in terms of intra-group and inter-group variations in black people’s experience of racism and the differential impact it may have on their lives. The rapid increase in blacks from Latin America and the West Indies necessitates social scientific inquiry into the ways in which these groups are similar to and different from their black counterparts, particularly regarding their encounters and experiences with racism and prejudice. What is race like in such contexts? How does racism affect such groups, and how do they cope with racism upon migrating to a culture where race is often the “master” status marker that defines

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and shapes, more than anything else, people’s humanity and their relations with each other? Furthermore, do West Indians share the same firm sense of racial identity as blacks, and does this shared identity serve to unite both groups? On the other hand, do ethnic differences between the groups override the influence of racial identity to the point of being responsible for divergences in attitudes and behaviors? That is, is ethnicity superordinate to race in structuring the nature of black and West Indian social relations? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in subsequent sections of this analysis. While racism continues to be an integral part of the black experience, people are affected differently depending on the particular type of racism involved. Thus, before proceeding to discuss intra-group variations in the experience of racism, we will examine the various types of racism, doing so in a manner that considers the relevance that these typologies have for describing the experiences of not only blacks but West Indians as well. TYPOLOGY OF RACISM: INDIVIDUAL, INSTITUTIONAL, AND CULTURAL Perhaps the most comprehensive typology of racism to have been developed thus far is that offered by Jones (1991), whose conceptualization includes three dimensions: individual, institutional, and cultural. The first type, individual racism, refers to “the belief that black people as a group are inferior to whites because of physical (that is, genotypical and phenotypical) traits. He or she [the black individual] furthermore believes that these physical traits are determinants of social behavior and of moral and intellectual qualities, and ultimately presumes that this inferiority is a legitimate basis for that group’s inferior social treatment” (Jones, 1998, p. 417). Because of being experienced on a personal level, individual racism may be more easily recognizable than the other two forms. For instance, many blacks have had the experience of walking into a store and being perceived with suspicion or ignored while standing in line. Examples such as these represent the more subtle forms of individual racism, what Pierce (1995) refers to as “micro-aggressions.” Pierce notes that an individual may have numerous encounters of this type, most of which, while being overlooked, may contribute to one’s overall level of stress. The pervasive nature of individual racism is reflected in a study by Landrine and Klonoff (1996), who found that 98 percent of the 153 people who participated in their study reported experiences with racial

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discrimination in the previous year. More significant, one third of the sample reported instances of the more overt forms of individual racism, including being hit, shoved, picked on, and threatened with harm. While West Indians share with blacks the experience of individual racism, there is, however, a difference in terms of the degree and severity of this experience. Blacks, unlike West Indians, were exposed to the harsher and more blatant forms of American racism that existed prior to the 1960s civil rights era. These earlier forms of racism were more visible and were expressed more openly and with greater animosity than they are today. Such “old-fashioned” or “dominative” (Kovel, 1970) forms of racism manifested themselves in such behavior as lynching and were institutionalized in the forms of slavery, segregation, and in social norms and customs. Such overt forms of individual racism were a product of the white supremacist mind-set that characterized the period, a mind-set in which blacks were perceived in negative stereotypical terms: as hyperaggressive, hypersexual, superstitious, lazy, happy-go-lucky, ignorant, and musical. Such stereotypical views were the basis of white contempt for blacks and resulted in a desire to maintain social distance (Bogardus, 1925). It is no wonder then, that given their historical legacy of racism, some blacks possess a large degree of race-based hostility and resentment toward white Americans. Furthermore, perhaps it is because of not sharing in this historical legacy that West Indians have traditionally been known to have more optimal and harmonious relations with whites compared to their black counterparts. The second form of racism put forth by Jones (1997) is institutional racism: policies and procedures that are used to exclude blacks from full participation in the institutional spheres of life. An example of institutional racism is the use of culturally biased assessment procedures that result in blacks having more negative outcomes compared to their white counterparts. For instance, in the mental health area, according to Sue and Sue (1999), white therapists are inclined to assess black clients as nonverbal, paranoid, angry, and most likely to have character disorders or to be schizophrenic. In addition, intelligence tests have often been used to argue that blacks are intellectually inferior to whites (Jensen, 1969; Herrnstein & Murray, 1994). While both West Indians and blacks are presently exposed to institutional discrimination in various spheres of life—education, media, occupation, etc.—the impact that such discrimination has in shaping attitudes and behavior is mediated by the historical nature of their encounters. It is indeed the case that blacks have had a longer history

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of being excluded from equal participation in American life than the relatively recent West Indian arrivals. By virtue of their immigrant status, West Indians were not subjected to the dehumanizing effects of legally mandated segregation. They therefore did not have to attend segregated schools, drink at separate water fountains, sit in the back of the bus, or live in particular neighborhoods as did blacks. It is perhaps because of not having such experiences that West Indians tend to be more optimistic in their relations with whites and that they feel that their aspirations are ultimately realizable. For blacks, on the other hand, their historical experience of institutionalized discrimination may be responsible for inculcating within the group a sense of limited social mobility, truncated aspirations, and an overall negative outlook on their perceived social and economic possibilities. The last form of racism, cultural racism, is defined as “the individual and institutional expressions of the superiority of one race’s cultural heritage over that of another race” (Jones, 1998, p. 15). Cultural racism, that which is ultimately responsible for devaluing various aspects of black culture, is pervasive in its influence, affecting all aspects of life. According to Ramseur (1998), three major themes emerge in the literature on cultural racism: (1) blacks as unattractive and not socially valuable, (2) blacks as unable to be effective and to achieve in the world, and (3) blacks as characterized by identification-based stereotypes: being sexually and aggressively impulsive and uncontrolled. While being exposed to cultural racism, the cultural background of West Indians mediates and restructures their experience of such forms of racism. West Indians are often distinguished from blacks on the basis of culture. While American blacks are generally perceived as inferior cultural entities, West Indians are perceived in a more positive light by virtue of their cultural attributes. It is indeed the case that in explaining the differences that exist between themselves and blacks, West Indians often point to their perceived cultural superiority. Consequently, West Indians attribute their relative success in American society to such cultural attributes as hard work, high motivation and perseverance, and the ability to delay gratification, virtues that are thought to be absent in their black counterparts. One consequence of this perceived cultural difference is the tendency among some West Indians to distance themselves from blacks. As Waters (2001) puts it, “Indeed, one finds cultural distancing from black Americans among the immigrants we interviewed. They argued that West Indians merited inclusion in American society because of their strong work ethic, the value they placed on education, and their lack of pathological

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behaviors. By asserting a cultural identity as immigrants and as members of a model minority, West Indians make a case for cultural inclusion in American society” (p. 212). A CLOSER LOOK AT INTRA-GROUP VARIATIONS IN THE RACISM EXPERIENCE The overriding themes of this chapter are that black people’s encounters with racism, the impact it has on their lives, and the manner in which they cope are determined in part by their particular ethnic backgrounds. Blacks in the United States constitute a heterogeneous group, many of whom are West Indian or from West Indian backgrounds. West Indians are, themselves, a heterogeneous group whose customs have been influenced by African, Spanish, British, French, Dutch, Asian, and American cultures. With the exceptions of Trinidad and Guyana, people of African heritage make up 90 percent of the population in most of the region’s islands. European and American whites make up about 5 percent, and Chinese and biracial individuals make up the remaining 5 percent (Gopaul-McNicol, 1993). Demographically, in 1990 there were over one million foreign-born people residing in the United States who identified themselves as black with Caribbean origin. Approximately 230,000 Haitians and 334,000 Jamaicans composed the majority of non-Latino Caribbean black immigrants (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993), who were concentrated in a few states, including 50 percent in New York and 17 percent in Florida. FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DIFFERENT PERCEPTIONS OF RACE AND RACISM BETWEEN BLACKS AND WEST INDIANS West Indians’ De-Emphasis of Race In addressing the West Indians’ encounter with racism and the impact that it has on their lives, it is important that their ethnic and racial statuses be considered, particularly in terms of how the status characteristics distinguish them from their black counterparts. There are identifiable differences between West Indians and blacks in their perceptions of race and racism. A dominant perception of West Indians regarding race is that while racism exists to a certain degree in the United States, it is not a problem in the West Indies, this being

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attributable to a number of factors. First, there are demographics: the fact that in many West Indian societies, black members constitute the majority of the population and occupy a variety of roles. Vickerman (1999) contends that blacks’ occupation of high-status roles is commonplace and understandable. Race is detached from notions of success and failure, because within the same race one may observe many individuals covering a full spectrum of social possibilities. Unlike in the United States, a correlation is not routinely made between race and success: failure is not viewed as “black,” and success is not viewed as “white.” In the United States, however, race is very much seen as a determinant of success. With power resting in the hands of the white majority, racial discrimination is pervasive and real in its effects, penetrating all aspects of life—institutional, cultural, and interpersonal. A second factor responsible for the lack of importance West Indians place on race is ideology. Within many West Indian societies, the prevailing ideology is multiracialism, which is often interpreted to mean nonracialism: the belief that everyone is the same regardless of race and that race makes no difference in the scheme of social relations. In Jamaica, the ideology of nonracialism has achieved penetrating power through institutionalization by the educational and political systems. The former has tried to substitute alternative criteria for achieving upward mobility. It has included the following core assumptions: (1) upward mobility is possible for all regardless of race, (2) education is the means of achieving this, (3) because the system is meritocratic, whether individuals rise or fall depends on how hard they work, and (4) as more than mere acquisition of knowledge, “education” means adhering to such values as law and order and speaking “properly” (that is, standard English) (Vickerman, 1999). A third factor that explains the different perceptions that West Indians and American blacks have regarding the importance of race is the culture associated with immigration. The notion of voluntary and involuntary minorities is one that was originally made by Ogbu (1990). Voluntary minorities have chosen to move to a society to improve their well-being, while involuntary minorities were initially brought into the society through slavery, conquest, and colonization. This distinction becomes crucial, Ogbu argues, in explaining the different responses that both groups have toward the experiences of racism and discrimination. Specifically, because they use their home country and culture as a frame of reference, voluntary immigrants do not react to discrimination in the same manner as involuntary minorities, thinking that it is something that they can overcome. Consequently,

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immigrants have a more positive view of white Americans and their institutions than do blacks. Involuntary minorities, because of not having a homeland with which to compare their current treatment nor to root their identities in, tend not to see discrimination against them as a temporary barrier to be overcome. Instead, recognizing that they belong to a disparaged minority, they compare their situation with that of their white counterparts. The prejudice against them seems permanent and institutionalized, leading involuntary minorities to conclude that solidarity and challenges to the rules of the dominant society are the only ways to improve their situation, this manifesting itself in what Ogbu terms “oppositional identities” (Waters, 1999). These oppositional identities mean that involuntary minorities come to define themselves in terms of their opposition to the dominant group. For blacks in America, Ogbu (1990) asserts, the very meaning of being black involves not being white. A strong value is placed on solidarity and opposition to the rules perceived as being against them; when a member of the group is seen as cooperating with the dominant society’s institutions, his very identity is called into question. THE IMPORTANCE OF RACIAL IDENTITY One of the most useful theoretical constructs that we may use to describe the different experiences of race between American blacks and West Indians is that of racial identity. The development of racial identity, in terms of how it has been conceptualized, is thought to occur in a stage-wise fashion. While several models of racial identity now exist, one of the earliest of these models is the negrescence model of Cross, Parham, and Helms (1998), which consists of five stages: preencounter, encounter, immersion-emersion, internalization, and internalization commitment. In the preencounter stage, the individual views the world from a white frame of reference and behaves in ways that devalue or deny his or her blackness. In the encounter stage, the individual experiences events that challenge his or her previous mode of thinking. For instance, a black person who views his or her race as not important and wishes to be accepted just as a human being is denied access to living in an exclusive neighborhood because of skin color. In the third stage, immersion-emersion, the individual withdraws from the dominant culture and immerses himself or herself in black culture. Black pride begins to develop, but internalization toward one’s own blackness is minimal. The fourth stage, internalization, is

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characterized by inner security as conflicts between old and new identities are resolved. Global antiwhite feelings subside as the person becomes more flexible, more tolerant, and more bicultural. The manner in which West Indian and American blacks negotiate the above stages depends on a number of factors, one of which is the manner in which identity is constructed. American blacks have traditionally adhered to the “one-drop” rule in their construction of race. That is, they have defined themselves as either black or white. Thus, while a light-skinned black person is seen as black here in the United States, in the West Indies, he or she may be seen as “West Indian white.” West Indians, therefore, define race broadly enough to give the individual some latitude for negotiating identity. Color distinctions range from dark-skinned African black at one end of the spectrum to light-skinned European white at the other, with many gradations in between. Thus, phenotypically light-skinned persons who migrate from the West Indies and who are suddenly told that they are black because American society does not recognize the existence of physically intermediate positions, find themselves in a dilemma (Gopaul-McNicol, 1993). Many West Indians, both phenotypically black and white, tend to discover race upon entry into the United States. Most come with an absence of racial awareness and may be thus characterized as being at the preencounter stage of development. Predictably, such West Indians may attempt to assimilate into white society while denying their blackness. Moreover, they may attempt to distance themselves from other American blacks to avoid the imposition of a more restrictive and less affirming identity. This was confirmed in a study by Waters (1999), who found that many of her West Indian respondents adopted a very strong ethnic identity, which involved distancing themselves from American blacks. These individuals tended to agree with parental judgments that there were strong differences between Americans and West Indians. This often involved a stance that West Indians were superior to American blacks in their behavior and attitudes. The fact that Jamaicans and other West Indians claim to have discovered their “blackness” only after migrating to America appears puzzling, but only until it is realized that they are referring to the social meanings attributed to skin color, rather than skin color itself. As Vickerman (1999) explains it, These social meanings differ significantly between the West Indies and the United States. In America, Blackness signifies a whole continuum

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of negative attributes, ranging from low intelligence to criminality. In the West Indies, negative attributes have, also, long been attached to Black skin, but significantly, these have tended to be less all pervading and have not acted as an absolute bar to upward mobility. Because of this relative difference, Black West Indian immigrants can, in migrating, discover the full implications of anti-black stereotyping. They learn what it means to be Black because in the transition from one country to another, the social expectations of those having African ancestry and/ or Black skin become much more constrained. (p. 26)

In many instances, continued exposure to racial experiences causes many West Indians to enter the encounter stage of racial identity. By this, one means that West Indians (1) come to understand that race permeates all facets of American life, (2) expect to have unpleasant encounters because of race, and (3) often become pessimistic that the United States will become “color-blind” anytime soon (Vickerman, 1999). One of the major factors in the transition that West Indians make to the encounter and immersion stages of racial identity centers on their experiences of interpersonal racism. Because of such experiences, their openness and willingness to respond to whites as individuals eventually erode. As Waters (1999) says, “The suspicion that any individual white might treat one badly because of skin color begins to shape every encounter between black and white. Interpersonal racism ultimately undermines the ability of blacks and whites to ever forget race. The ghost of past bad encounters influences current encounters. The immigrant learns to expect race to permeate every potential encounter with a white American” (p. 169). In addition to encounters with interpersonal racism, West Indians have also been subjected to institutional racism, including residential segregation. For instance, in studying West Indians in New York, Crowder (1999) found that these West Indians, in being denied access to white neighborhoods, were concentrated in largely black tracts within the metropolitan area. In being subjected to such forms of discrimination, there may be a greater tendency for West Indians to identify and bond with their black counterparts. In discussing these black-identified West Indians, Waters (1999) suggests that they do not see their ethnic identities as important to their self-image. When their parents and friends criticized American blacks, these individuals disagreed. They instead tended to downplay an identity as Jamaican or Trinidadian and described themselves as American. Finally, there are some West Indians who adopt more of an immigrant attitude toward their identities than either their black-identified

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or ethnic-identified counterparts do. These individuals have strong identities as Jamaican or Trinidadian but do not distance themselves from American blacks. Instead, their identities are strongly linked to their experiences in the islands, and they do not worry about how they are seen by other Americans, white or black (Waters, 1999). COPING WITH PERCEIVED RACISM: THE ROLES OF CULTURAL RESOURCES AND ADAPTIVE BEHAVIORS Even though there is a growing body of knowledge that informs us of racism’s effects, we know very little about how blacks and other minorities cope with racism (Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999). The particular style with which blacks cope with racism depends on the particular context in which it occurred (Feagin, 1991). For example, racial hostility encountered in the street is most likely met with withdrawal, resigned acceptance, or verbal retort. In situations in which blacks experience racism in public accommodations, the response is generally verbal counterattack or feigned acceptance. West Indians, like their American black counterparts, utilize a range of strategies to deal with racism, the most important of these being an increasing consciousness of race. In his study of West Indians in the United States, Vickerman (1999) described the types of racial encounters and coping strategies used by West Indians in dealing with racism. Vickerman describes four types. The first are confrontationsituations in which racial agents approach West Indians in an overt, aggressive manner. The latter perceive this to be the case and respond in kind. Examples include situations in which West Indians perceive themselves as being physically attacked, threatened, or insulted. Assertion, the second type, involves situations in which racial agents, while not approaching West Indians in an overt way, nevertheless affect them adversely because of their race or ethnicity. West Indians perceive these situations in a negative manner and act assertively. Examples include situations in which racial agents (usually whites) refuse to serve West Indians or to promote them on the job. The third type is resignation. This is similar to assertion in that racial agents do not overtly approach West Indians but, nevertheless, affect them negatively. The latter, while understanding this, nevertheless choose to avoid confrontation. A preeminent example of this are situations where whites deliberately avoid blacks in public. The final category, pragmatism, describes situations in which racial agents approach West Indians aggressively, but the

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latter, fearing the consequences of a similar response, opt for a subdued reply. Encounters with the police are the main examples of this type of situation (Vickerman, 1999). One of the most dominant and mutually shared strategies used by American blacks and West Indians in coping with discrimination is the tendency to minimize their personal experience of discrimination. In elaborating on the use of such a coping strategy by secondgeneration West Indians, Bashi Bobb and Clarke (2001) contend, Second-generation West Indians seemed to be well aware of racism’s existence and unanimously declared it to be a big problem for Blacks, detailing the way it negatively affects the level and shape of Blacks’ participation in economic and social life. However, they varied as to whether they felt it had affected them personally. While some felt that they had been treated unfairly by the system in general or by particular White persons, others felt that they had not encountered unfair treatment. Still others thought that, although they had encountered racism, they were able to ignore, circumvent, or counteract the expected negative consequences. (pp. 225–226)

The tendency to minimize one’s personal experience of discrimination is not unique to West Indians but rather is a phenomenon that applies to minorities in general. Known as the “person-group discrimination discrepancy phenomenon” (Taylor, Wright, Moghaddam, & Lalonde, 1990), such behavior may be adaptive in terms of bestowing certain psychological benefits for the individual. This was demonstrated by Ruggiero and Taylor (1997), who found that when blacks attributed negative events to discrimination directed at them personally, these attributions resulted not only in a loss of self-esteem but also a loss of perceived control over personal events. While some individuals tend to minimize the experience of discrimination, there are others for whom discrimination is perceived as an integral part of their lives. What are the factors that determine individual differences in people’s perceptions of discrimination? One factor is the individuals’ level of identification with groups (Crocker & Major, 1989). In exploring this idea in relation to blacks, Shelton and Sellers (2003) found that group members for whom race was a central component of their identity were more likely to attribute an ambiguous discriminatory event to race than were blacks for whom race was a less central component of their identity. Although there exist similarities in how both West Indians and blacks cope with racism, there are differences that are worth noting. One

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major difference is the way identity is constructed and expressed. For West Indians, the transnational dimensions of their identity (characterized by the belief that returning home is always an open and viable possibility) allow them to see their experience of discrimination as temporary and one from which they can always escape. Rogers (2001) describes this exit option available to West Indian immigrants: Afro-Caribbean immigrants have an exit option for responding to American racism. If the immigrants find their mobility blocked by insuperable racial barriers, they will likely maintain their transnational attachments and keep the “myth of return” alive. In such instances the myth of return becomes an option for escape or exit, which coincidentally may dampen the immigrants’ interest in political participation in general, or radical political action or systemic reform more specifically. Rather than make costly political demands for reform, the immigrants can simply exit the political system. (p. 183)

In the second instance, West Indians have the option of constructing their ethnic identity in a manner that emphasizes their unique West Indian cultural orientation, one that makes them visibly different from their black counterparts. In fact, those who construct their identity this way tend to distance themselves from blacks so as to avoid racial stigmatization (Reid, 1969; Bryce-Laporte, 1972; Waters, 1999). THE CONCEPT OF PROACTIVE COPING When applied to blacks in the Diaspora, the concept of coping may best be considered proactive in nature. That is, coping not only involves protecting oneself from the negative effects of perceived racism; but in a proactive sense also involves utilizing one’s creative and productive capacity to transcend oppressive circumstances and, in doing so, to realize one’s potential as a complete and whole human being. The African Diaspora model presented here assumes that the development of proactive coping competencies is based on the degree to which one’s self-orientation is grounded in and affirms an Africancentered cultural orientation. As Kambon (1998) describes it, “. . . for African people, our psychological-spiritual health, our energy and our strength comes from our cultural foundation; our customs and practices which symbolize and reaffirm our ancestral linkage . . . hence, African mental health depends on our closeness to or the continuity with what we Africans maintain to our cultural origins . . .” (p. 47).

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What this suggests, therefore, is that when we consider the adaptive and proactive behaviors used by blacks and West Indians in coping with racism and other negative life events, perhaps the best place to look is in the culture. Contained within culture are “cultural resources”: those resources that facilitate and contribute to the survival of the group. An important cultural resource for most cultural minorities, blacks and West Indians in particular, is their worldview—values and beliefs that, among other things, give meaning to and determine the manner in which they define themselves in relationship to their world. The adherence of black youth to a particular worldview or to certain cultural orientations may contribute to their level of vulnerability and/or resistance to race-related sources of stress, such as discrimination (Harrell, 2000). THE AFRICAN-CENTERED WORLDVIEW AS THE BASIS OF PROACTIVE COPING AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WEST INDIANS The major components of an African-centered worldview have been described by Myers (1987) as constituting the deeper dimensions of culture, the dimensions of which include the following: ontology, axiology, and epistemology. Ontology is concerned with the manner in which reality is constituted. Within African ontology, the self is conceived as a spiritual entity or essence. Parham (2002) articulates this point quite succinctly: “Self as essence refers to the ontological belief among African people that the fundamental basis of human beingness is spirit. What makes one a human being is the presence of a spirit-based essence. One form of this spirit essence, referred to as the soul, is thought to be the spark of the divine, God” (p. 79). Religion has historically played an important role in the lives of Africans (Taylor, Thornton, & Chatters, 1987; Browman, 1996). The baseline rates of religious involvement for blacks are generally higher than those of the general population. For example, blacks have been found to (a) report higher levels of attendance at religious services than whites, (b) read more religious materials and monitor religious broadcasts more than whites, and (c) seek spiritual comfort through religion more so than whites (Chatters, Taylor, & Lincoln, 1999). Moreover, because of its significance with the broader black culture, religion may serve as an effective coping mechanism, as some studies have shown (Christian & Barbarin, 2001).

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For instance, in an earlier study, Browman (1985) examined coping resources among black fathers and found that religious orientation had a much stronger positive effect on the level of life happiness among black fathers than did family cohesion or any other informal resource investigated. Some researchers have found that religious affiliation and frequency of spiritual practice positively affected black students’ adjustment to college; higher levels of adjustment then contributed to better academic success. For example, Neighbors, Jackson, Browman, and Gurin (1983) found prayer to be the most common coping response to worries or stressful episodes for blacks. In particular, black women have been found to use prayer in response to physical health as well as interpersonal, emotional, and death problems (Browman, 1996). A second dimension of worldview is axiology: those things that are most valued within a culture. Within an African-centered framework, what is most valued is the extended self or tribe that operates under rules geared toward collective survival. Family is thus conceptualized beyond the nuclear family and encompasses distant relatives and “fictive kin,” or members who are not blood relatives. Family values among blacks include a strong sense of responsibility for each other, respect for elders, sharing material needs, and caring for each other (Billingsley, 1992). These adaptive behaviors are learned within the context of the family. Family, in addition, has been found to be an effective means of coping with negative life events, such as domestic violence (Coley & Beckett, 1988). One of the adaptive behaviors that is learned within the family context and that serves as an important cultural resource in coping with racism is that of racial socialization: “What Black parents communicate to Black children about what it means to be a Black American, what they may expect from Black and white persons, how to cope with it [racism and discrimination], and whether or not the disparaging messages of the broader culture are true” (Green, 1990, p. 209). Racial socialization has been found to be an effective means by which blacks cope with acculturative stress (Thompson, Anderson, & Bakeman, 2000). Needed, however, are studies that examine the role that racial socialization plays in coping with perceived racism and discrimination. As with blacks, family for West Indians is also an important cultural resource used in coping with perceived discrimination. West Indian family has historically served as the primary social unit and central survival strategy for its members. Family survival depends on a social network that exists both in the United States as well as on the island of origin. Relatives help provide financial assistance that allows

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the individual to migrate as well as care for his or her children while they are away. Upon arrival, family members serve as an important mechanism in providing financial, emotional, and social support, thus easing the stress of migration (Basch, 2001). A third dimension of worldview is epistemology, the basis upon which knowledge is derived. Within an African-centered epistemology, emphasis is placed on self-knowledge as the primary means of knowing. It is assumed that the self is a microcosm of the external reality, and we thus come to know the world by first knowing the self. What this suggests is that one of the ways that blacks may cope with racism is by coming to know themselves and their culture. Knowledge of culture, furthermore, “grounds” the individual within the group and contributes to developing a positive group identity. This group-derived ego strength can then mediate against assaults on the self from the wider society. The tendency for blacks to be grounded in their culture and to affirm themselves may best be operationalized within the theoretical framework of “African self-consciousness” (Baldwin & Bell, 1985). African self-consciousness (ASC) is attitudes and behaviors that comprise four attitude-behavior dimensions: (a) awareness-recognition, which affirms black identity and African cultural heritage; (b) establishment of survival priorities, which recognizes survival of blacks as a priority and values the role institutions play in achieving that; (c) selfknowledge affirmation, which supports active participation in behaviors that promote the survival and liberation of black people and active defense of their dignity and integrity; and (d) resistance to oppression, which recognizes racial oppression as an obstacle to meeting the action goals described above. African self-consciousness, because of its potential for enhancing self-esteem, may serve as a valuable mechanism for coping with discrimination. The ASC is believed to be responsive to affirmative cultural experiences. That is, blacks from more African-affirming environments will have higher ASC scores. Correlational research shows a relationship between subjects’ ASC scores and their parents’ membership in black organizations (Baldwin, Brown, & Rackley, 1991), Afrocentric values in heterosexual relationships (Bell, Bouie, & Baldwin, 1990), and attendance at a historically black institution (Baldwin, Duncan, & Bell, 1987). CONCLUSION Racism will only be eliminated through the development and enactment of comprehensive policies that center around both attitudinal

Toolbox for Change For Individual

Images/perceptions Negative intragroup and intergroup racial and ethnic self-perceptions. Cultural encapsulation: the inability to see beyond the confines of one’s own culture.

Sociopolitical blindness: lack of awareness and understanding of the dynamics of prejudice and discrimination.

Conflicting, antagonistic, stereotypic, and ethnocentric attitudes and behaviors between West Indians and American blacks. Community

Negative racial and ethnic images projected by the media. Conflicting social relations between American blacks and West Indians.

Strategies for change Development of positive racial and ethnic identities through critical self-inquiry and cultural affirmation. Development of intercultural understanding, particularly those dimensions that are shared by American blacks and West Indians. Development of political awareness: understanding the dynamics of prejudice and discrimination and how one is affected by such forces. Diversity training that emphasizes the commonalities in the cultural and social experiences among American blacks and West Indians. Organized community campaigns aimed at ensuring media accountability. Community events, particularly of a cultural nature in which conflicting groups come together under conditions of (a) equal status, (b) superordinate goals, and (c) the sanction of authority.

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For Practitioners/ educators

Images/perceptions

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Strategies for change

Cultural incompetence: lack of knowledge of how culture shapes attitudes and behavior.

The development of cultural competence: an awareness, knowledge, and skill in integrating cultural factors into one’s practice. For instance, having knowledge of one’s own culture as well as the culture of another. In the case of American blacks and West Indians, it involves having knowledge of the shared cultural and historical experiences of both groups. Competence also includes both groups being aware of their own biases and prejudices in relation to the other. Finally, competence involves having the skill to participate effectively in productive intercultural relations.

Ineffective coping strategies

The development of proactive, culture-based coping strategies that include the use of spirituality, family, community, and knowledge of self and culture.

and structural changes. In the first instance, efforts should be made to change the racial attitudes of white Americans. This involves enhancing their levels of social awareness in a manner that facilitates growth and development of their racial and ethnic identities. Structural changes involve addressing the various sources of economic and cultural inequality in American life, particularly its urban

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centers, where a large number of American blacks and West Indian blacks reside. In discussing the nature of this inequality as it applies to West Indian immigrants, Waters (2001) contends, “The erosion of first generation optimism and ambition that occurs in the second generation could be stopped if job opportunities were more plentiful, inner city schools were nurturing and safer. Decent jobs, effective schools, and safe streets are not immigrant-oriented or race-based policies. They are universal policies that would benefit all urban residents. . . . Policies that benefit immigrants would be policies that benefit all Americans” (p. 209). Structural inequalities may also be addressed through policies that ensure that reparations be made for past and continuing injustices. In Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century, Munford (1996) describes his vision of reparation. He writes, “I envisage large scale reparations programs transferring the capital to fuel black corporate ownership, combined with comprehensive affirmative action, parity, minority set-asides, as well as race-conscious quotas” (p. 430). The responsibility for change also resides among blacks themselves. Black Americans and West Indians are confronted with the challenge of developing positive and constructive interethnic relations. This is only possible by each group coming to know the other and, in so doing, affirming those things that they share as Diaspora people while respecting those things that are sources of difference. Last, change also involves both groups developing positive racial identities characterized by an enduring sense of love and respect for self and each other. REFERENCES Baldwin, J. A., & Bell, Y. R. (1985). The African self-consciousness scale: An Africentric personality questionnaire. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 9, 61–68. Baldwin, J., Brown, R., & Rackley, R. (1991). Some socio-behavioral correlates of African self-consciousness in African-American college students. Journal of Black Psychology, 17, 1–17. Baldwin, J., Duncan, J., & Bell, R. (1987). Assessment of African selfconsciousness among students from two college environments. Journal of Black Psychology, 13, 27–41. Basch, L. (2001). Transnational social relations and the politics of national identity: An eastern Caribbean case study. In N. Foner (Ed.), Islands in the city: West Indian migration to New York. New York: University of California Press.

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Bashi Bobb, V., & Clarke, A. (2001). Experiencing success: Structuring the perception of opportunities for West Indians. In N. Foner (Ed.), Islands in the city: West Indian migration to New York. New York: University of California Press. Bell, Y. R., Bouie, C. L., & Baldwin, J. A. (1990). Africentric cultural consciousness and African-American male-female relationships. Journal of Black Studies, 21, 162–189. Billingsley, A. (1992). Climbing Jacob’s ladder: The enduring legacy of African American families. New York: Simon and Schuster. Bogardus, E. S. (1925). Measuring social distance. Journal of Applied Sociology, 9, 299–308. Browman, C. L. (1996). The health consequences of racial discrimination: A study of African Americans. Ethnicity and Disease, 6, 148–153. Browman, P. (1985). Black fathers and the provider role: Role strain, informal coping resources and life happiness. In A. W. Boykin (Ed.), Empirical research in black psychology (pp. 9–19). Washington, DC: National Institute for Mental Health. Bryce-Laporte, R. (1972). Black immigrants: The experience of invisibility and inequality. Journal of Black Studies, 3, 29–56. Chatters, L., Taylor, R., & Lincoln, K. (1999). African American religious participation: A multi-sample comparison. Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion, 38, 132–145. Christian, M. D., & Barbarin, O. A. (2001). Cultural resources and psychological adjustment of African American children: Effects of spirituality and racial attribution. Journal of Psychology, 27, 43–63. Clark, R., Anderson, N., Clark, V., & Williams, D. (1999). Racism as a stressor for African Americans. American Psychologist, 54, 805–816. Coley, S., & Beckett, J. (1988). Black battered women: Practice issues. Social Casework, 69, 483–490. Crocker, J., & Major, B. (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The protective function. Psychological Review, 96, 608–630. Cross, W. E., Parham, T. A., & Helms, J. E. (1998). Negrescence revisited: Theory and research. In R. Jones (Ed.), African American identity development. Berkeley, CA: Cobb & Henry Publishers. Crowder, K. (1999). Residential segregation of West Indians in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area: The roles of race and ethnicity. International Migration Review, 33, 79–113. Du Bois, W. E. B. (1969). The souls of black folk. New York: New American Library. (Original work published 1903) Feagin, J. R. (1991). The continuing significance of race: Anti-black discrimination in public places. American Sociological Review, 56, 101–116. Gopaul-McNicol, S.-A. (1993). Working with West Indian families. New York: The Guilford Press. Green, B. A. (1990). The role of African American mothers in the socialization of African American children. Women and Therapy, 10, 205–225.

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Harrell, S. P. (2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: Implications for the well-being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70(1), 42–57. Harris, J. (1993). Global dimensions of the African diaspora. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Harris, J. (1996). The dynamics of the global diaspora. In J. Alusine & S. Maizlish (Eds.), The African Diaspora. Texas A&M University Press. Herrnstein, R., & Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York: Free Press. Jackson, J. S., Brown, T. N., Williams, D. R., Torres, M., Sellers, S., & Brown, K. (1996). Racism and the physical and mental health status of African Americans: A thirteen year national panel study. Ethnicity and Disease, 6, 132–147. Jensen, A. (1969). How much can we boost IQ and achievement? Harvard Educational Review, 39, 1–123. Jones, A. (1991). Psychological functioning in African Americans: A conceptual guide for use in psychotherapy. In R. Jones (Ed.), Black psychology, 3rd ed. Berkeley, CA: Cobb and Henry. Jones, R., ed. (1998). African American mental health: Theory, research and intervention. Hampton, VA: Cobb and Henry Publishers. Kambon, K. (1998). An African-centered paradigm for understanding the mental health of Africans in America. In R. Jones (Ed.), African American mental health: Theory, research and intervention. Hampton, VA: Cobb and Henry Publishers. Kessler, R., Mickelson, K., & Williams, D. (1999). The prevalence, distribution, and mental health correlates of perceived discrimination in the United States. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 40, 208–230. Kovel, J. (1970). White racism: A psychohistory. New York: Random House. Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1996). African American acculturation: Deconstructing race and reviving culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Munford, C. J. (1996). Race and reparations: A Black perspective for the 21st century. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Murrag, C. B., Khatib, S., & Jackson, M. (1989). Social indices of the black elderly: A comparative life cycle approach to the study of double jeopardy. In R. L. Jones (Ed.), Black adult development and aging (pp. 167–187). Berkeley, CA: Cobbs and Henry. Myers, L. (1987, September). The deep structure of culture: Relevance of traditional African culture in contemporary life. Journal of Black Studies, 18(1), 72–85. Neighbors, H., Jackson, J., Browman, P., & Gurin, G. (1983). Stress, coping, and black mental health: Preliminary findings from a national study. Prevention in Human Services, 2, 1–25. Ogbu, J. (1990, Spring). Minority status and literacy in comparative perspective. Daedelus, 119(2), 141–168.

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Parham, T. (2002). Counseling persons of African descent: Raising the bar of practitioner competence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Pierce, C. M. (1995). Stress analogies of racism and sexism: Terrorism, torture, and disaster. In C. V. Willie, P. P. Reiker, B. M. Kramer, & B. S. Brown (Eds.), Mental health, racism and sexism (pp. 277–293). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. Plummer, D., & Slane, S. (1996). Patterns of coping racially stressful situations. The Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 302–315. Ramseur, H. (1998). Psychologically healthy African American adults. In R. Jones (Ed.), African American mental health: Theory, research and intervention. Hampton, VA: Cobb and Henry Publishers. Reid, I. (1969). The Negro immigrant: His background, characteristics, and social adjustments, 1899–1937. New York: Columbia University Press. (Original work published 1939) Rogers, R. (2001). “Black like who?” Afro-Caribbean immigrants, African Americans, and the politics of group identity. In N. Foner (Ed.), Islands in the city: West Indian migration to New York. London: University of California Press. Ruggiero, K. M., & Taylor, D. M. (1997). Why minority group members perceive or do not perceive the discrimination that confronts them: The role of self-esteem and perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 373–389. Salgado de Snyder, V. N. (1987). Factors associated with acculturative stress and depressive symptomatology among married Mexican immigrant women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11, 475–488. Shelton, J., & Sellers, R. (2003). The role of racial identity in perceived racial discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(5), 1079–1092. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1999). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons. Taylor, D. M., Wright, S. C., Moghaddam, F. M., & Lalonde, R. N. (1990). The personal/group discrimination discrepancy: Perceiving my group, but not myself, to be a target for discrimination. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 254–262. Taylor, R., Thornton, M., & Chatters, L. (1987). Black Americans’ perceptions of the socio-historical role of the church. Journal of Black Studies, 18, 123–138. Thompson, C., Anderson, L., & Bakeman, R. (2000). Effects of racial socialization and racial identity on acculturative stress in African American college students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 6, 196–210. United States Bureau of the Census. (1993). Statistical abstract of the United States: 1993. Washington, DC: The Reference Press, Inc. Vickerman, M. (1999). Crosscurrents: West Indian immigrants and race. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

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Waters, M. (1999). Black identities: West Indian immigrant dreams and American realities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Waters, M. (2001). Growing up West Indian and African American: Gender and class differences in the second generation. In N. Foner (Ed.), Islands in the city: West Indian migration to New York. Berkeley: University of California Press.

CHAPTER 6

The Aversive Form of Racism Gordon Hodson John F. Dovidio Samuel L. Gaertner

P

rejudice has traditionally been viewed largely as a psychopathology affecting particular individuals. Proposed solutions were historically aimed at identifying and treating individuals (such as high authoritarians) who are prone to express prejudice openly (Dovidio, 2001). Influenced by the cognitive revolution in social psychology, subsequent theorizing swung drastically in the opposite direction, arguing that basic and normal cognitive mechanisms were responsible for stereotyping and prejudice (Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Hamilton, 1981). From this more cognitive perspective, the fundamental manner in which humans perceive, think, and reason makes people prone to stereotype members of other groups and to display attitudes and behaviors that favor one’s own group (ingroup) over other groups (outgroups). Whereas these intrapersonal processes contribute to a general predisposition toward prejudice, social factors also play a role by shaping norms and influencing personal ideals. In particular, contemporary norms in North America and Western Europe strongly support egalitarian values (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; Schuman, Steeh, Bobo, & Krysan, 1997) and encourage personal ideals and motivations to be nonprejudiced (Plant & Devine, 1998). Thus, many individuals in contemporary society experience psychological ambivalence—a conflict between the almost unavoidable consequences of normal cognitive processing that facilitates prejudicial thinking on the one hand, and nonprejudiced values and self-images on the other. Because of this

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ambivalence, discrimination currently tends to be expressed in very subtle, and often rationalizable, ways. One form of contemporary bias is aversive racism (Kovel, 1970). AVERSIVE RACISM As a form of contemporary prejudice, aversive racism represents a subtle form of bias typically expressed by well-intentioned, liberal, welleducated individuals (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; Dovidio & Gaertner, in press; Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986), in contrast to other forms of modern prejudice, such as modern racism (McConahay, 1986) and symbolic racism (Sears, 1988), which focus more on political conservatives. From the aversive racism perspective, culturalization practices and normal cognitive biases form the basis of negative feelings that exist “under the surface” of consciousness and conflict with more deliberative and consciously held beliefs regarding the positive value of equality and justice among racial groups. The end result can be a rather subtle, albeit insidious, form of racism: the aversive racist discriminates primarily when features of the situation allow him or her to maintain a positive (that is, nonprejudiced) view of the self. In this chapter, we examine two basic propositions of the aversive racism perspective. One proposition is that aversive racists are most likely to express prejudice and discrimination under conditions of situational ambiguity, when the attitude or behavior that disadvantages blacks can be attributed to causes other than prejudice or can be justified along nonracial grounds. The other proposition is that, because it is less recognizable as prejudice against another group, bias may often be expressed more in terms of pro-ingroup bias (that is, favoring one’s own group) than anti-outgroup bias (that is, derogating the outgroup). Aversive Racism and Attributional Ambiguity Consistent with the notion that contemporary racial bias is more likely to be expressed under conditions of situational ambiguity—when identification of prejudice is rendered less obvious—Gaertner and Dovidio (1977) conducted a study examining helping behavior in an interracial setting. White participants were led to believe that an individual in another room was in need of emergency assistance. The researchers manipulated whether the person in need of help was portrayed as white or black. In addition, participants were led to believe

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that they were either the sole witnesses to the emergency situation (a clear-cut situation, in terms of providing help) or were in a situation where two other people were also present (a more ambiguous situation in terms of future action, as others could be expected to help). Consistent with the aversive racism framework, when they were placed into a clearly defined situation in which failure to help a black person could be easily construed as racist behavior (the “only witness” condition), white bystanders did not discriminate against blacks: whites were helped 83 percent of the time, whereas blacks were helped 95 percent of the time. However, when the situation was made more ambiguous, by the introduction of other white bystanders who could also potentially provide assistance (Darley & Latane´, 1968), white participants were less likely to help black (38 percent) than white (75 percent) victims. Bias against blacks therefore emerged not when the situation was unambiguous and could be directly attributed to the individual, but rather under conditions under which a failure to help could be attributed to factors other than prejudice (for example, the belief that someone else was helping the victim). In the larger society, this type of subtle bias influences the personal and economic welfare of blacks in fundamental and pervasive ways. In a study on hiring decisions (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000), white college student participants were asked to make decisions about prospective white and black job candidates with strong or weak credentials (unambiguous situation) or marginal credentials (ambiguous situation). Supportive of the aversive racism perspective, no discrimination against black applicants emerged when applicants presented clearly strong or weak credentials. Such bias would clearly indicate racism. That is, to deny a strong black candidate, or to accept a weak white candidate over a black candidate, would be a strong and obvious indication of overt prejudice. As illustrated in Table 6.1, discrimination against blacks emerged when applicants possessed marginal credentials and hiring decisions that could be attributed to nonracial factors, such as the potentially questionable credentials of the applicant. Whites with marginal credentials, however, were given the benefit of the doubt and were more likely to be hired than similarly qualified blacks. Furthermore, this pattern of results was found in both a 1989 sample and again in another 1999 sample. In contrast, white participants exhibited significantly lower levels of self-reported prejudice against blacks across this ten-year

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Table 6.1 Recommendations and attributions of personal characteristics and interpersonal orientation as a function of candidate qualifications and race (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000) Strength of recommendation* Condition

1988– 1989

Strong qualifications White 6.74 candidate (1.41) Black 7.32 candidate (1.67) Moderate qualifications White 6.05 candidate (1.73) Black 5.06 candidate (1.39) Weak qualifications White 3.05 candidate (1.65) Black 3.29 candidate (1.69)

1998– 1999

Both

6.21 (2.09) 7.00 (1.60)

Percent recommended 1988– 1989

1998– 1999

Both

6.52 (1.72) 7.18 (1.62)

89%

79%

85%

95%

87%

91%

5.69 (1.60) 4.53 (1.64)

5.91 (1.67) 4.82 (1.51)

75%

77%

76%

50%

40%

45%

2.42 (1.68) 3.77 (1.69)

2.81 (1.66) 3.50 (1.68)

5%

8%

6%

12%

15%

13%

*Means with standard deviation presented in parentheses.

period. Thus, with increasingly prevailing egalitarian norms in society, people may report lower levels of personal prejudice while continuing to exhibit subtle discrimination, primarily in normatively ambiguous situations or in situations in which behavior that disadvantages blacks may be attributable to nonracial factors. These effects have been found in samples of well-educated college students. In general, students tend to be less prejudiced than the general population (Schuman et al., 1997). For example, in a pilot study (Hodson, Dovidio, & Gaertner, 2002, p. 462), white college students in the United States were more favorable (M ⫽ 71) toward blacks on a feeling thermometer, ranging from 0 (extremely unfavorable) to 100 (extremely favorable), than was the general public (M ⫽ 63, p ⬍ .03). In another study, most college students (90 percent) believed themselves to be nonprejudiced in absolute terms (Hodson, Dovidio, & Gaertner, 2000); that is, they did not simply believe that they were less prejudiced than the general population, but they also felt that they

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were not prejudiced at all. Thus, the overwhelming majority of white college students in this sample, irrespective of their level of prejudice, perceived themselves as nonprejudiced. These findings are consistent with the possibility that aversive racism may characterize the racial attitudes of college students generally. With these findings in mind, we expanded upon the previous hiring decisions study (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000) in a recent university admissions study and considered the role of individual differences in self-reported prejudice. Hodson and colleagues (2002) asked white participants to evaluate white and black applicants with strong or weak credentials (that is, candidates with unambiguous qualifications) or mixed credentials (candidates with ambiguous qualifications). Those with mixed credentials were characterized by either strong high school achievement and weak standardized test scores or weak high school records and strong standardized test scores. Applicants were experimentally matched, such that white and black applicants with similar qualifications, differing only in terms of racial category, could be compared. Participants were asked to make recommendations on university admissions, with those recommendations being passed on to the admissions board to serve as student feedback to be considered for the following year’s admissions. No discrimination emerged for those scoring low in prejudice on the “Attitudes toward Blacks” scale (Brigham, 1993), regardless of applicants’ credentials. That is, individuals low in prejudice did not exhibit bias against blacks in any of the experimental conditions. High prejudice-scoring participants also expressed no racial discrimination in their recommendations for applicants with clearly strong or weak credentials, when the expression of bias would be overt and obvious. However, consistent with the findings of Dovidio and Gaertner (2000), relatively high prejudice-scoring students (who regard themselves as nonprejudiced) discriminated in favor of white applicants when a candidate’s credentials were ambiguous (mixed). Moreover, these participants who discriminated systematically against blacks engaged in differential weighting of the criteria that they claimed to use in making their decisions, rating the weaker aspect of the applicant’s credentials as more important for admissions decisions when the candidate was black than when the candidate was white. For instance, individuals high in prejudice weighed standardized test scores as low in importance when presented with black applicants with high standardized test scores but weak high school grades, yet they tended to rank high school grades lower in importance when presented with black

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applicants with strong high school records but weak standardized test scores. This represents systematic discrimination that is not very obvious and can be “justified” or rationalized along nonracial grounds (that is, “the individual did not have the necessary qualifications”). The impact of subtle racial discrimination also extends to legal decisions, which involve decisions about personal freedom (incarceration) and life and death (capital punishment). Compared to whites, blacks in the United States are more likely to be pronounced guilty of crimes (Fairchild & Cowan, 1997) and are issued longer prison sentences (Robinson & Darley, 1995). Although several factors can contribute to such findings, the subtle nature of prejudice is likely to blame for some of the discrepancy between the outcomes of white and black defendants. Exploring this possibility, Johnson, Whitestone, Jackson, and Gatto (1995) conducted a simulated jury experiment in which the researchers manipulated the race of the defendant (white versus black). In instances when all evidence heard was allowed to be used by the participant jurors, no bias against blacks emerged. Yet when information damaging to the defendant was presented and then retracted due to its supposedly unsuitable nature, this inadmissible information was actually used, resulting in decisions against black defendants significantly more often than against white defendants. Consistent with the aversive racism framework, participants were not aware of this bias. In fact, contrary to their action, they reported that the inadmissible information was less influential on their decisions when the defendant was black than white. In another study of juridic decisions, Dovidio, Smith, Donnella, and Gaertner (1997) found that aversive racists did not issue more death penalty verdicts for blacks than whites in general. However, the presentation of a single black juror voting for a black defendant’s death penalty introduced enough social ambiguity to increase the likelihood of blacks being found guilty of capital offences. Consistent with aversive racism, a guilty verdict presumably appears less racist in its origins when it is supported by an independent black individual and thus is more likely to be adopted under such conditions. Across a variety of studies, therefore, support has emerged for the notion that prejudice is more likely to emerge when the motivation for behavior that disadvantages blacks is not directly attributed to the individual’s racial biases, but rather can be attributed to or rationalized by nonracial factors (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; Dovidio & Gaertner, in press). This feature of contemporary racial bias makes it particularly subtle and less recognizable than the traditional, more overt form of prejudice.

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Aversive Racism and Ingroup Favoritism A second aspect of the aversive racism framework is that contemporary racial prejudice is more likely to be expressed in terms of thoughts and actions reflecting pro-ingroup biases than anti-outgroup sentiment (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000; Gaertner et al., 1997). It is well recognized that people prefer groups to which they belong (ingroups) over groups to which they do not belong (outgroups) (Brewer, 1979; Mullen, Brown, & Smith, 1992). For instance, Perdue, Dovidio, Gurtman, and Tyler (1990) tested preference for items associated with “we” versus “they” at a very basic and unconscious level in a series of experiments. In one experiment that demonstrated differential evaluations of ingroups and outgroups, nonsense words (for example, jof, giw) that were paired with ingroup pronouns (for example, we, us) were rated more positively than nonsense words paired with outgroup pronouns (such as they, them). In another experiment, subliminal primes of we resulted in more rapid response times to positive person descriptors (such as kind) than when these descriptors were paired with they or with a control prime such as xxx. This pattern of response times indicates that ingroup primes are more closely associated with positive than negative associations. The reverse, however, was not true; that is, presentation of the pronoun they did not lead to faster reaction times for negative-person descriptors. In these studies, then, we was associated with greater positivity, but they was not more closely linked to increased negativity, suggesting that pro-ingroup biases are generally more prominent than anti-outgroup biases. In resource allocation research, response asymmetries in behavior have also been noted. In particular, group members are more likely to give rewards to ingroup members than punishments to outgroup members (Hodson, Dovidio, & Esses, 2003; Mummendey & Otten, 1998). These pro-ingroup biases are a dominant feature in research examining aversive racism. For example, in the emergency helping study mentioned previously (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1977), consistently high levels of helping whites, regardless of the presence or absence of others, may speak more to participants’ positive attitudes toward whites than about their negativity toward blacks. In both the hiring (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000) and university admissions (Hodson et al., 2002) studies, discrimination “against” blacks was actually expressed as giving the “benefit of the doubt” to whites with equally moderate or mixed qualifications as blacks. Similarly, Gaertner and McLaughlin (1983) found that whites differed in their spontaneous associations with whites

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and blacks, exhibiting stronger association of positive characteristics with whites than with blacks, but not demonstrating stronger negative associations with blacks than with whites, reflecting pro-white rather than an antiblack bias. Thus, rather than acting against blacks in an open and overt manner, which would be a more obvious indication of racism, aversive racists act in favor of whites at the expense of blacks, leaving blacks at a serious disadvantage. Overall, then, contemporary racial bias such as aversive racism is often the result of pro-ingroup bias rather than anti-outgroup hatred. This pattern of findings is consistent with the assertion that “[t]he negative affect that aversive racists have for blacks is not hostility or hate. Instead, this negativity involves discomfort, uneasiness, disgust, and sometimes fear, which tend to motivate avoidance rather than intentionally destructive behaviors” ([italics added] Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986, p. 63). This element of aversive racism is key in distinguishing it from more traditional forms of racism, and makes it more difficult to recognize. Thus, while traditional racism is characterized by activities such as writing nasty racial epithets or openly refusing to hire blacks, aversive racism is characterized primarily by preferential treatment toward white over black individuals when such actions can be masked in situations where racist motivations are not directly apparent (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000; Hodson et al., 2002). Rather than characterizing aggression against blacks by those openly admitting hatred of blacks (for example, burning crosses and lynching), aversive racism involves a relatively well-meaning but prejudice-denying type of person who is likely to distance himself or herself from blacks (for example, hiring ambiguously qualified whites over similarly qualified blacks), either as a result of direct discomfort with blacks or from the motivation to remove oneself from situations in which personal behaviors could be construed as racist in origin. Combating Aversive Racism: Dilemmas and Recommendations Given the rather subtle nature of aversive racism, it typically goes unrecognized, even by those harboring the bias. This aspect of aversive racism poses a significant challenge to prejudice intervention programs. Because aversive racists do not readily acknowledge personal prejudice, they may not see the benefits of intervention. Even worse, aversive racists may resist participation in such programs because, consciously, they may not acknowledge the personal relevance of the intervention (“I’m not

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racist; therefore I don’t need this intervention”) or, unconsciously, may be motivated to avoid situations that can expose their biases. Further complicating the intervention issue, straightforward attempts to limit bias by asking people to suppress stereotypic thoughts can lead, at least temporarily, to an ironic, subsequent increase in the use of stereotypes. This “rebound effect” (Macrae, Bodenhausen, Milne, & Jetten, 1994) is particularly likely to occur among college students who are relatively high in prejudice (Hodson & Dovidio, 2001; Monteith, Spicer, & Tooman, 1998), those who are most likely to be aversive racists (Hodson et al., 2002). Thus, straightforward instructions to control or limit the expression of bias may result in temporary negative consequences for those prone to aversive racism. Alternatively, it may be possible to capitalize on the good intentions of aversive racists and harness these intentions to create and sustain longer-term reductions in bias. With repeated practice with counteracting their automatic associations underlying stereotypes, for example, people are able to reduce stereotyping over time, even at an unconscious level (Kawakami, Dovidio, Moll, Hermsen, & Russin, 2000). Rather than asking participants to suppress stereotypes without necessarily activating personal goals or incentives to control prejudice (Hodson & Dovidio, 2001; Macrae et al., 1994; Monteith et al., 1998), inducements to avoid prejudice through the activation of personal egalitarian standards and guilt can successfully reduce prejudice, at least in some circumstances for some people. For instance, Monteith (1993) led participants to believe that they had evaluated a person in a prejudiced manner (experiments 1 and 2), and then examined the consequences of this violation from personal, nonprejudiced standards. Monteith (1993) demonstrated that low-prejudice individuals, after believing that they had engaged in prejudicial behavior, experienced heightened levels of guilt and self-focus (experiment 1) and were less likely to engage in subsequent activities that could be construed as prejudicial, such as rating prejudicial jokes as funny (experiment 2). The successful inhibition of prejudice in these cases was possible for those low in prejudice (those with the motivation to be nonprejudiced). Given that aversive racists generally consider themselves low in prejudice, and are motivated to not be prejudiced, this research suggests that making the potential for prejudicial interpretations of behavior salient may encourage aversive racists to control or limit the expression of prejudice by working on internal guides and standards, consistent with the aversive racism framework. Nevertheless, we fear that aversive racists may steer clear of situations that encourage close examination

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of deviations from personal standards, so this strategy may still be met with some resistance. To test the efficacy of employing discrepancies from personal standards in prejudice reduction, Dovidio, Kawakami, and Gaertner (2000) recently adopted a strategy in which white participants worked on a task that made them aware of discrepancies between what they would do and should do in an interracial context (Devine & Monteith, 1993). As expected, “would-should” discrepancies resulted in increased interracial guilt, especially for those low in prejudice. After a three-week interval, participants were tested again, and expressions of bias decreased for both low- and high-prejudice individuals, especially for the former. Thus, attempts can be made to build on the good intentions of aversive racists to address unconscious negative feelings and beliefs and to develop enhanced sensitivity to the potential of their bias. Son Hing, Li, and Zanna (2002) directly tested the effectiveness of hypocrisy induction, via the supposed violation of personal prejudice standards, in an effort to reduce prejudice in aversive racists. In the first phase of the study, self-reported attitudes toward Asians were tapped. In the second phase, participants completed a series of measures, including an implicit (indirect) prejudice measure. In the third phase, participants wrote passages on the importance of treating minorities well on campus, which was allegedly to be forwarded to a public audience. After writing a pro-minority paper, participants in the hypocrisy condition (versus control) were asked to think of instances where they personally reacted negatively toward an Asian person. Finally, attitude and discrimination measures were collected. The results supported the prediction that inducing hypocrisy in aversive racists (here characterized as those disavowing prejudice on self-report scales but showing prejudice on the less-direct measures) would invoke more favorable attitudes toward the outgroup. In particular, aversive racists expressed high levels of guilt about their treatment of Asians and exhibited significantly higher levels of donations to an Asian group on campus. The authors conclude that “the hypocrisy induction procedure forced aversive racists to become aware of the negative aspects of their attitudes that they typically repress” (Son Hing et al., 2002, p. 77), and, presumably, bring these biases under control. The strategies outlined thus far essentially render ambiguous or potentially intervention-resistant situations less ambiguous in the interest of harnessing the good intentions of the individual in question. This is in keeping with our first proposition, that ambiguous situations and contexts that allow for nonracist interpretations of

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thoughts and behavior more readily facilitate the expression of racial bias. The interventions aim to limit access to the contextually ambiguous areas toward which aversive racists gravitate in order to maintain nonprejudiced self-images. Another approach is based on our second proposition, namely that aversive racism frequently involves pro-ingroup more than anti-outgroup bias. Thus, in conjunction with the strategies already suggested, interventions may also be aimed at capitalizing on ingroup-favoring tendencies, influencing who is considered part of the ingroup (“we”). According to the common ingroup identity model (Gaertner, Mann, Murrell, & Dovidio, 1989; Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000), inducing people to focus on common or shared social identities (for example, “university student”), often in conjunction with maintaining the original social identity (such as “psychology student,” “engineering student,” etc.), results in recategorization of social boundaries, such that individuals formerly categorized as outgroup members come to enjoy the benefits of being included in the ingroup. The benefits of common ingroup categorization have been demonstrated across a variety of situations, including laboratory settings and field settings (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000). A recent experiment examined the implications of shared common identities in a natural setting at a university football game (Nier et al., 2002, experiment 2). As white fans were about to enter the stadium before a highly competitive game, they were approached by either a white or black research assistant, who asked fans for a favor, namely to complete a short survey about food preferences. Key to the induction of a common ingroup identity, the experimenters manipulated whether the research assistants wore a hat identifying the assistants as supporters of either the University of Delaware or the West Chester State team. Because assistants only approached white fans wearing either Delaware or West Chester fan-based clothing, it was possible to examine the amount of helping that was offered to the black (versus white) research assistant as a function of whether or not the assistant was perceived as a member of the ingroup or outgroup in terms of fan support. It was predicted that prejudice against the black assistants would be reduced when the research assistants were supporters of the same (versus different) team as the respondent (that is, having a common identity). As expected, black interviewers were offered more help with their task when they were affiliated with the same team as the respondent (59 percent) versus when affiliated with a different team (36 percent). In contrast, the effect of same-team versus different-team support did not influence

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help offered to white assistants (44 percent versus 37 percent). This study clearly demonstrates the advantages of inducing a common group identity to promote interracial cooperation. Hodson (2003) recently examined the benefits of common ingroup recategorization between white and black inmates in a prison setting in Britain. In this investigation, white prisoners reported the amount and type of contact (for example, “all inmates are treated equally”) with black prisoners, cognitive intergroup representations (for example, “we are all part of one group,” “we are two separate groups”), intergroup anxiety, and attitudes toward blacks. As expected, consistent with the mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968), the amount of contact with black inmates was directly related to favorable attitudes toward black inmates. Key to this chapter, favorable intergroup contact conditions in prison predicted stronger common group representations (“we are all part of one group”), which in turn predicted lower levels of intergroup anxiety, which then predicted more positive attitudes toward black inmates. Thus, interventions to improve race relations in prison could focus on creating more frequent or more positive intergroup contact or encouraging inmates to focus directly on shared group categories in prison (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000). Changes in the way people categorize themselves and others can also occur as a result of national and international events. After the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, Americans, both blacks (Wade, 2002) and whites (Saad, 2002) experienced an increase in the salience of a shared American identity and an associated increase in negative attitudes toward a common outgroup: immigrants (Saad, 2002). Moreover, we (Dovidio et al., 2004) have found experimentally that increasing the salience of terrorist threats to Americans as a whole rather than specifically to white Americans led whites to see black persons more as members of their own group and less as a member of a different group, and produced more positive feelings and attitudes to blacks and other racial and ethnic minority groups (Latinos and Asian Americans). Thus, extending ingroup boundaries to make them increasingly more inclusive may represent a practical method, with potential widespread impact, of combating both subtle and blatant forms of racism. CONCLUSIONS The face of racism has transformed from a more direct, overt form of traditional prejudice to a more indirect, covert, and subtle form

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Toolbox for Change For

Perceptions and biases

Individuals

Basic cognitive processes Unacknowledged negative emotion Personal denial of prejudicial attitudes Behavioral “leaks” of prejudice in ambiguous situations Interracial avoidance strategies

Community

Strategies for change Emphasize personal relevance of intervention programs Disambiguate the situation Recategorization (induce common ingroup identification) Accentuate personal standards

Social norms Cultural practices

Recategorization (induce common ingroup identification) Historical injustices and Promote positive interracial inequality contact Interracial avoidance and Accentuate community segregation standards

Practitioners/ Aversive racism is subtle educators and difficult to recognize May exhibit and thereby teach subtle racism Fail to recognize personal relevance of reduction strategies

Recategorization (induce common ingroup identification) Improve interracial contact conditions Improve perceptions of interracial contact conditions Promote positive increased contact

characterized by ambivalence and pro-ingroup biases. However, this new form is no less dangerous or less detrimental than the traditional form to interracial relations and society as a whole. Rather, we argue that because it has become more subtle, it is all the more difficult to recognize and combat, and it may exert its negative influence with relative ease and impunity. After all, because aversive racism is not personally recognized by aversive racists, its negative consequences are typically manifested under conditions of ambiguity, when it is difficult to recognize and consequently difficult to remedy. Nonetheless, aversive racism among whites is very detrimental to blacks because it can result in decreased helping toward blacks in emergency situations (Gaertner &

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Dovidio, 1977), increased capital sentencing of blacks (Johnson et al., 1995), and in decisions that limit the educational and career opportunities of blacks (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000; Hodson et al., 2002). These biases perpetuate racial inequality for generations to come. Moreover, these aversive racism processes and biases are not limited to reactions toward blacks. Rather, we have witnessed aversive racism in attitudes toward Latinos (Dovidio, Gaertner, Anastasio, & Sanitioso, 1992) and women (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1983), as well. In the course of this chapter, we have reviewed some strategies to combat aversive racism (for a summary, see Toolbox for Change). Some of these intervention strategies are grounded in harnessing the good intentions of the aversive racist, others in automatizing more favorable mental associations, and others are grounded in capitalizing on the pro-ingroup biases such individuals express. We contend that a combination of these strategies will be most effective at combating contemporary prejudice. REFERENCES Brewer, M. B. (1979). Ingroup bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 307–324. Brigham, J. C. (1993). College students’ racial attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 1933–1967. Darley, J. M., & Latane´, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 377–383. Devine, P., & Monteith, M. (1993). The role of discrepancy-associated affect in prejudice reduction. In D. Mackie & D. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, cognition and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception (pp. 317–344). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Dovidio, J. F. (2001). On the nature of contemporary prejudice: The third wave. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 829–849. Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (1983). The effects of sex, status, and ability on helping behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 13, 191–205. Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (1998). On the nature of contemporary prejudice: The causes, consequences, and challenges of aversive racism. In J. Eberhardt & S. T. Fiske (Eds.), Confronting racism: The problem and the response (pp. 3–32). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2000). Aversive racism and selection decisions: 1989 and 1999. Psychological Science, 11, 319–323. Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (in press). Aversive racism. To appear in M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

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Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. L., Anastasio, P. A., & Sanitioso, R. (1992). Cognitive and motivational bases of bias: The implications of aversive racism for attitudes toward Hispanics. In S. Knouse, P. Rosenfeld, & A. Culbertson (Eds.), Hispanics in the workplace (pp. 75–106). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Dovidio, J. F., Kawakami, K., & Gaertner, S. L. (2000). Reducing contemporary prejudice: Combating explicit and implicit bias at the individual and intergroup level. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 137–163). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Dovidio, J. F., Smith, J. K., Donnella, A. G., & Gaertner, S. L. (1997). Racial attitudes and the death penalty. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 1468–1487. Dovidio, J. F., ten Vergert, M., Stewart, T. L., Gaertner, S. L., Johnson, J. D., Esses, V. M., et al. (2004). Perspective and prejudice: Antecedents and mediating mechanisms. Manuscript submitted for publication. Colgate University, Hamilton, New York. Fairchild, H. H., & Cowan, G. (1997). The O. J. Simpson trial: Challenges to science and society. Journal of Social Issues, 53, 583–591. Fiske, S., & Taylor, S. E. (1991). Social cognition (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (1977). The subtlety of white racism, arousal, and helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 691–707. Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 61–89). New York: Academic Press. Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (2000). Reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Gaertner, S. L., Dovidio, J. F., Banker, B., Rust, M., Nier, J., Mottola, G., et al. (1997). Does racism necessarily mean anti-blackness? Aversive racism and pro-whiteness. In M. Fine, L. Powell, L. Weis, & M. Wong (Eds.), Off white (pp. 167–178). London: Routledge. Gaertner, S. L., Mann, J., Murrell, A., & Dovidio, J. F. (1989). Reduction of intergroup bias: The benefits of recategorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 239–249. Gaertner, S. L., & McLaughlin, J. P. (1983). Racial stereotypes: Associations and ascriptions of positive and negative characteristics. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 23–30. Hamilton, D. L. (1981). Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Hodson, G. (2003, September). Interracial contact in prison: The pros for cons. Talk presented at University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. EAESP/ SPSSI Social Inclusion and Exclusion seminar series (Theme: The social psychological analysis of social inclusion and exclusion).

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Hodson, G., & Dovidio, J. F. (2001). Racial prejudice as a moderator of stereotype rebound: A conceptual replication. Representative Research in Social Psychology, 25, 1–8. Hodson, G., Dovidio, J. F., & Esses, V. M. (2003). Ingroup identification as a moderator of positive-negative asymmetry in social discrimination. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 215–233. Hodson, G., Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2000). Projected racism: Individual differences in perceptions of intergroup attitudes. Unpublished manuscript. Hodson, G., Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2002). Processes in racial discrimination: Differential weighting of conflicting information. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 460–471. Johnson, J. D., Whitestone, E., Jackson, L. A., & Gatto, L. (1995). Justice is still not colorblind: Differential racial effects of exposure to inadmissible evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 893–898. Kawakami, K., Dovidio, J. F., Moll, J., Hermsen, S., & Russin, A. (2000). Just say no (to stereotyping): Effects of training in the negation of stereotypic associations on stereotype activation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 871–888. Kovel, J. (1970). White racism: A psychohistory. New York: Pantheon. Macrae, C., Bodenhausen, G., Milne, A., & Jetten, J. (1994). Out of mind but back in sight: Stereotypes on the rebound. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 808–817. McConahay, J. B. (1986). Modern racism, ambivalence, and the modern racism scale. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 91–125). Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Monteith, M. (1993). Self-regulation of prejudiced responses: Implications for progress in prejudice-reduction efforts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 469–485. Monteith, M., Spicer, C., & Tooman, G. (1998). Consequences of stereotype suppression: Stereotypes on AND not on the rebound. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 355–377. Mullen, B., Brown, R., & Smith, C. (1992). Ingroup bias as a function of salience, relevance and status: An integration. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 103–122. Mummendey, A., & Otten, S. (1998). Positive-negative asymmetry in social discrimination. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 9, pp. 107–143). Chichester, UK: Wiley. Nier, J. A., Gaertner, S. L., Dovidio, J. F., Banker, B. S., Ward, C. M., & Rust, M. C. (2002). Changing interracial evaluations and behavior: The effects of a common group identity. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 4, 299–316.

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Perdue, C. W., Dovidio, J. F., Gurtman, M. B., & Tyler, R. B. (1990). “Us” and “them”: Social categorization and the process of intergroup bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 475–486. Plant, E. A., & Devine, P. G. (1998). Internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 811–832. Robinson, P. H., & Darley, J. M. (1995). Justice, liability, and blame. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Saad, L. (2002, September). Have Americans changed? Effects of September 11 have largely faded. Gallup Poll News Service. Retrieved September 11, 2002, from www.gallup.com/content/default.asp?ci⫽6790 Schuman, H., Steeh, C., Bobo, L., & Krysan, M. (1997). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Sears, D. O. (1988). Symbolic racism. In P. A. Katz & D. A. Taylor (Eds.), Eliminating racism: Profiles in controversy (pp. 53–84). New York: Plenum Press. Son Hing, L. S., Li, W., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Inducing hypocrisy to reduce prejudicial responses among aversive racists. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 71–78. Wade, B. H. (2002). How does racial identity affect historically black colleges and universities’ perceptions of September 11, 2001? Journal of Black Studies, 33, 25–43. Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9 [Monograph Suppl. No. 2, part 2].

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CHAPTER 7

“What’s Race Got to Do, Got to Do with It?” Denial of Racism on Predominantly White College Campuses Carole Baroody Corcoran Aisha Rene´e Thompson

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his chapter is cowritten by two (outwardly) very different women who met as student and teacher. Three years later in 2004, we continue to feel a similar sense of urgency and share crucial concerns regarding the enrollment status of blacks and (for those who are enrolled) the noxious racial climate and reality of their lived experiences at predominantly white institutions of higher education. The first author (CBC) is a Syrian-Irish American and tenured full professor with a PhD in psychology. Her formal academic journey began in a northern midwestern industrial city in 1958 when she attended kindergarten at the public school closest to the rental property where her family resided. Edison was a predominantly “Negro” grade school reflecting the neighborhood composition. At that time the term minority was not a descriptor applied to students. The second author (ART) is black, a student who just recently graduated from college with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. Her own path of formal education began in 1985, when she was enrolled in pre-kindergarten. Brown was an exclusive, predominantly white, private academy located about half an hour’s drive from her home in an affluent suburb of northern Virginia outside of Washington, DC. This chapter will explore how and why (1) the denial of racism, (2) the pressure to assimilate, and tokenism, and (3) placing the burden on people of color all serve to maintain and bolster the existing university power structure known as the status quo. These dynamics also

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support and contribute to a pattern of resistance that has substantially weakened or eliminated programs designed to create and foster an environment that encourages true diversity. A framework will be presented to illustrate the necessity of moving from an individually focused examination of the racial climate and curriculum to a sociocultural (macro-level) approach that includes an analysis of power at the institutional level. Most whites (faculty, administrators, and students) are taught to see racism as individual acts of meanness perpetrated by members of a group, and never as an invisible system that confers dominance and privilege to certain groups but not others (McIntosh, 1988). If we move from examining individual prejudice to challenging institutional power, the majority group faces an uncomfortable dilemma. That is, the dominant group must acknowledge its complicity in such an imbalanced system. Seeing oneself as the custodian and beneficiary of institutional racism conflicts with good intentions and a self-image as a just and thoughtful person. Accordingly, in order to provide tools for breaking through denial and discomfort, two concepts will be introduced and explored: unacknowledged white-skin privilege (McIntosh, 1988) and aversive racism (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986). Students’ voices and data on perceptions of the racial climate collected from one predominantly white campus in 1988, 1998, and 2003 are included and inform the positions espoused in this chapter. Specific examples and perceptions collected from the campus will serve as a case study to illustrate individual and institutional dynamics that generalize to other predominantly white institutions of higher education. There is a growing harmony between different racial groups, but the College focuses so much on diversity that it only increases racial tensions. (Asian American student)

Indeed, the changing nature of white racism has been reflected in a preference for avoiding dialogue for fear of creating “racial tensions.” Thus, whites (and perhaps even some blacks within the white academy) may increasingly prefer and adopt a “color-blind” racial perspective. Reactive and proactive recommendations will be provided to counter indifference, resistance, and backlash to continued attempts to change the curriculum and climate at predominantly white institutions of higher education. I never realized how racism is still a part of society until I came to college. I always thought that racism was something that didn’t exist

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anymore among our generation, something obsolete like the 8-track or acid wash jeans or something. I always associated racism with “old people.” It still blows my mind that young people of today could actually believe in such antiquated ideas . . . that they are superior to someone because of race. It has made me realize that there is still a lot for people to learn and that not everybody is as open minded . . . . (Black student)

Of course the notion of “diversity” encompasses much more than black/white race relations; and the ideas expressed in this chapter apply to the many other socially constructed categories (gender, sexual orientation, social class, and physical mobility) where “target” or lowstatus members suffer oppression, and “agent” or high-status members enjoy the benefits that accrue to the oppressors. For many reasons (acknowledged or not), the two “original sins” (genocide and slavery) at the root of the United States have received cursory, biased, or little attention in the still-predominantly white academy. Given our short history as a nation, for blacks, the legacy and impact of slavery and segregation remain fresh wounds still without remedy to date. Thus, black/white race relations persist as a painful yet critical indicator of any claims of progress with respect to “diversity.” WHITE FEMALE PROFESSOR, BLACK STUDENT, WHITE COLLEGE, 2003 . . . sometimes, I think, a great way to find out how things really are is to talk with white students on campus! I don’t know if you’re doing that already but if not, ask them and see what they say. I myself am intensely curious, and more than that, would really like to know what the racial climate here really is like. What I hear is from the brave and brazen—besides that, I can forget it. I’m black. Nobody’s going to come up to me and tell me what they really think. (Black student)

In 2003, the professor (CBC) posed this question to her then-student coauthor (ART) as well as her peers who were also enrolled in an advanced research lab and seminar course. From these examples of students’ written responses below, can the question be guessed? 1. Image: a bruised, beaten up bald eagle not all is well in USA 2. Like the black box they use in magic shows that appear to have nothing in them but there really is something hidden 3. Peanut butter and bananas I think they go well together but not everyone does

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4. Like a roller coaster 5. Oil and water in a bottle. Two liquids which are close to each other in proximity, might slightly mix but there is still separation. 6. Tight ropewalker 7. Venn diagram [The student also drew three overlapping circles, but with almost no intersection common to the three.]

The question was, What metaphor or image would you choose to represent current U.S. race relations? During that same course in 2003, the second author (ART) and her research partner conducted a seminar session devoted to their empirical research project. They had chosen to use the available research pool (white introductory psychology students) to examine implicit attitudes (prejudice) and automatic stereotyping of blacks (Wittenbrink, Judd, & Park, 2001). As a (presumably) lighter fun activity to end their seminar session, they decided to anonymously survey forty white students prior to class, in order to create a game for us to play that they dubbed Racial Feud. Based on the television game show Family Feud, seminar students were randomly assigned to two “families,” and these two student teams competed for points and prizes by trying to match the top five answers (most popular) given by the whites surveyed. Admittedly, the white students surveyed were a (nonrepresentative) convenience sample who were asked questions specifically aimed to elicit stereotypes of blacks. Still, student members on both competing “family” teams continued to “strike out” in their repeated attempts to match the top five survey responses given. Below are some of the questions and answers from the survey. Cover the answers before reading further if you want to test yourself and see how your “family” would do.

What is the number one widespread stereotype of black people? 1. Crime and violence 2. Rapper, gangster 3. Ignorant 4. Loud 5. Always late, cp (colored people) time

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Stereotypically, where is the number one place black people work? 1. Low income/blue collar 2. They don’t 3. Drug deals 4. Fast food 5. Housekeeping

What is the number one biggest advantage that black people have over white people? 1. Affirmative action 2. They can jump (athletics) 3. They can dance 4. None 5. Well endowed

Who is the most famous black person dead or alive? 1. Martin Luther King Jr. 2. Michael Jordan 3. Oprah Winfrey 4. Colin Powell 5. Rosa Parks/Malcolm X

What is the number one advantage whites have over blacks? (Only a few people answered this question, but they all had the same response.) 1. Because they’re white

Did you fare better than our class? I do not think any of us will forget that seminar class. After playing Racial Feud, we left class exhausted (we had laughed and screamed outrageous answers). But we were also stunned by the results of questions that are not typically asked of the dominant racial group. We were forced to confront existing negative perceptions of blacks. We realized that these pernicious

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stereotypes (easily avoided or ignored by whites) are a ubiquitous part of the subordinate groups’ campus racial climate. Socially, Blacks are pressed into being very passive and always grinning, otherwise they are immediately typecast as being hostile and aggressive. (Black student) I know quite a few people who have no problem telling racist jokes in all white company and who use the N word at will. (White student)

WHITE COCHAIR, CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION GRANT PROJECT, WHITE COLLEGE, 1988 In 1985, with two years of teaching and research experience and a PhD, I was hired by a predominantly white liberal arts college. I was young, untenured, and eager to tackle an outdated curriculum that lacked a single course in areas of my scholarly interest (for example, women’s studies and African American studies). With a colleague (hired the following year), we organized a substantial number of likeminded students and faculty and set to work. By 1988, he and I had cowritten an ambitious grant proposal for substantial external funding to incorporate race, class, and gender studies into existing courses. My collaborator, a white male (also young and untenured), was contacted by a top administrator, informed that our grant proposal had been funded, and invited to a luncheon to discuss plans for the awarded grant. When he called me and learned that I had not been notified, he insisted that I come along to the luncheon meeting. I was completely ignored at the event. My male coauthor of the grant went and pulled up a chair for me at a small table where I had no place setting. The men at the table were served and began eating. At that point, my male colleague protested on my behalf, and I was brought utensils and a plate of food. While I was feeling increasingly humiliated, my presence remained unacknowledged (not to mention my role as coauthor of the grant award being ignored). Despite the grant’s budget that included allocations for two coordinators, my male coauthor was informed that the college had decided that the grant project could be headed by only one person. There was no mention of me or why my white male junior colleague would be the one to receive course

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reductions and administer our interdisciplinary race, class, and gender diversity project. Breaking with tradition in the white male academy, I became cochair of our project only because my male co-author adamantly refused to have any role in it without me. Later upon hearing about my successfully funded grant, my department chair told me that if he had known I was writing the grant he would have told me not to do it (precisely the reason I had not informed him). A loophole needed to be closed, and it was. From that point on I had an additional layer of institutional barriers to surmount: namely, at every turn I would require my department chair’s signature of approval. Also, except for one colleague, my department was opposed to diversity initiatives or, at best, not supportive of race and gender scholarship. My personal feelings and academic interests were no longer just “individual” but had shifted to the realm of “institutional.” Our curriculum transformation project and the model we designed were a huge success, receiving national media attention and acclaim. We hosted major conferences on campus, and other institutions invited the coleaders to help them start similar programs. Noted scholars were brought to campus to speak and conduct faculty workshops. Each summer, intensive faculty institutes were held for faculty to read and discuss new race and gender scholarship across disciplines and incorporate race and gender scholarship into a new or existing course. A resource library of books and videotapes was started. A newsletter sent to students, faculty, and staff facilitated new lines of communication among these groups, which led to new friendships, alliances, and cosponsored activities. Roughly a third of our faculty chose to participate in transforming their courses; and as a team, we developed new courses, including interdisciplinary introductory courses in women’s studies and ethnic studies. With a supportive coalition of the faculty, we successfully passed an across-the-curriculum requirement that all students (before graduating) enroll in the “race and gender intensive” courses being created. We developed criteria, proposal procedures, and oversight methods for race- and gender-intensive courses. Our work then served as a template for the addition of “global awareness” and “environmental awareness” across the curriculum requirements. Although it was not a part of our grant project, amazingly, the faculty successfully voted to include sexual orientation as a category in the college’s discrimination policy and institute a parental-leave, infant-care policy. The

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institution (and not just the curriculum) was visibly changing, and the faculty felt empowered. Still, we would learn that not everyone was thrilled by our sweeping accomplishments. Soon we began to face individual and institutional resistance and backlash. No matter what the stated standards or criteria were, “race and gender” faculty and our initiatives began to face unprecedented outcomes: actions, inactions, or decisions that never applied to other colleagues or their projects. Internally, development grant awards that were recommended for funding by our standard faculty peer review committees were singled out only if they were “race and gender” projects and then inexplicably denied funding from the top administration. One egregious example of administrative fiat happened after a small group of us stayed over holiday break to cowrite a subsequent race and gender proposal at the behest of the dean of the faculty. We would later learn from outside sources that the college secretly turned down the substantial external grant awarded for proposal. These tactics prevented internal and external funding from supporting our successful initiatives and had a chilling effect on faculty, staff, and student morale as well as the campus racial climate. In 1992, I (CBC) wrote the following to express my mounting concerns and alarm over events I felt were clear evidence of the institution’s waning commitment to our various diversity initiatives: A model curriculum transformation program started in 1988 struggles for institutional funding at the end of its external grant period. A department’s candidate search is called off after the hiring pool fails to contain a single minority candidate. A special faculty meeting is held to deal with animosities aroused over the debate surrounding the political nature of a proposed new course in Ethnic Studies. Three African American students receive a racially motivated death threat. All of these events occurred during 1992 at a typical predominantly white college campus. Why have so many well-intentioned programs and individuals failed to radically improve enrollment, the curriculum and campus climate with respect to race?

Like other young activists in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I (CBC) understood that there was a profound connection between social change on an individual and an institutional level. Our slogan back then, “the personal is political,” was powerful, but so were its consequences, particularly when the dominant group recognized the potential for an actual power shift. Sentiments expressed by the student

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voice below became commonplace and increasingly represented administrative and faculty opinions as well: The only racism I’ve seen at this school is reverse racism. The students here are constantly bombarded with Multi Cultural Events. I am surprised that there are not more minorities here because recruitment is certainly heavy for minorities. I think [the college] should be concerned with a potential student’s academics and less with their ethnicity. Get rid of the boxes to check off gender and race, then maybe minorities with lower GPA’s won’t be getting in here, when I was stuck on the waiting list! Isn’t it true that admissions officers are almost always minority graduates? Hmm!? And why is it that prospective black high schoolers get their own special “recruitment weekend” here? And why when [the college] wants to promote campus unity, do they invite only new black students to school early for a special “bonding opportunity.” Don’t we all bond during orientation weekend? [The college] says they want unity, so why do they promote segregation? If there’s any animosity coming from White students it’s because they feel some of the black students got in because they are black, not because of their merits. If the “race box” was eliminated on the application, that would alleviate the problem. If you need it for data purposes, why not ask after a student is accepted? (White student)

In a sense, we became a victim of our own success. I felt that this growing “backlash” mentality was becoming a powerful rallying point for our ideological opponents and, increasingly, members of the dominant social group. In contrast to its old counterpart, “the personal is political,” the new slogan could be captured as “the political is personal.” It aptly described a dominant group phenomenon, namely, the realization that institutional change could affect one’s (previously unchallenged) individual sense of entitlement: There was a speaker on campus speaking about Affirmative Action and how it should be abolished. After the session White students began to say that it’s because of these Black students that I have all of this tuition to pay. The next morning there were KKK signs up on campus. (Black student)

BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER, MULTICULTURAL CENTER, WHITE COLLEGE, 2000 Would it be considered racism on the faculty/administration’s part to not recognize and honor minority faculty and professors more? For

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example, James Farmer is one of the greatest resources in the Civil Rights Movements. He is in a picture at the MLK Museum in Atlanta, yet when track books come out or admissions catalogs, he is downplayed or not even highlighted! Students hear about him through word of mouth (no thanks to the administration). I wonder what percentages are minority vs. White faculty and staff? (Black student)

Civil rights leader James L. Farmer Jr. (1920–1999) organized the nation’s first sit-in and founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942. Farmer organized the Freedom Rides in 1961 to desegregate interstate bus travel in the South and dedicated his life to human rights activism, for which he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton the year before he died. Farmer relocated to be with his family and became a visiting professor of history and American studies at our predominantly white college. In 1988, our multicultural center was renamed in honor of James Farmer and with the word out on our various diversity initiatives, we started to attract more interest from black students and faculty. However, both nationally and locally, the tide had seemed to shift. We realized that the obstacles and lack of support described above were not happening just to us. Rather, most institutions of higher education with diversity programs were experiencing increasing resistance and setbacks similar to those we faced. Gender- and raceconscious diversity programs came under attack along with their faculty and staff. We found ourselves being derided by conservatives who coopted the term politically correct and distorted it to take on new meaning. Just as the term liberation had been easier to ridicule when opponents shortened it to lib, the term PC became two letters used to characterize inclusiveness efforts in higher education as “reverse racism” and segregation against whites. The college spends too much time trying to be politically correct. Yes there is a definite problem with the number of minority students here; however [the college] should not sacrifice any of its academic reputation to attract any race or gender for diversification. Students do not need to be constantly reminded of their similarities and differences in order to maintain an open mind. (White student)

During this period, James Farmer’s health declined. Still, he continued to teach his course on civil rights, which became the most popular course on campus. Students as well as local residents read his stirring

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autobiography and fought to gain one of those coveted 200 seats to hear “that booming baritone” relay firsthand accounts of the civil rights movement and those leaders who were no longer alive to tell their own stories. Meanwhile, the faculty and staff were unhappy about the way the college treated our hero. Why had James Farmer not been named a distinguished professor with commensurate pay, health insurance, and better support? By the time James Farmer died on July 9, 1999, the administration had met most of these demands. The following summer, prior to the first anniversary of Farmer’s death, faculty from our embattled race, class, and gender project happened upon the minutes from a student affairs retreat held in May 2000 after school ended. Incredibly, these minutes outlined a series of proposed changes for the James Farmer Multicultural Center that would be in place upon our return to school in the fall. For example, the center was centrally located and occupied premium space (next to Admissions). The center was relocated to the second floor of a very small house located off the beaten path at the edge of campus (we dubbed it “the back of the bus”). The budget and staff were being significantly reduced as well. Further, the classification of the center’s administrator (who did not return) was changed, downgraded from vice president for multicultural affairs to dean to acting director. Protests ensued with our black students leading the fight to save the center as they knew it. These brave students graduated a year or two later, completely drained, disheartened, and bitter. For the most part, white students remained unaware or vaguely aware of what had happened. Many have come to believe (incorrectly) that the changes were overturned and that the center was returned to its former status. Those concerned whites (who at our urging) wrote letters to protest the changes were answered with a letter from the president and a memo from the vice president of student affairs and the dean of students. The letter informed them of “our goal to expand multicultural programming,” that “unfortunately, misinformation concerning the reorganization of the James Farmer Multicultural Center has been circulated,” and that “. . . there will be an increase in staff, physical space and financial resources” for Multicultural Affairs. Using the guise of restructuring, there were no increases or expansion; indeed, the opposite took place. In 2002, there was a controversy surrounding a hiring in Admissions and our public claims in support of affirmative action. I (CBC) wrote the following in an attempt to shift the debate and instigate a

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much-needed dialogue with respect to our level of commitment to diversity at the college: Along with many other faculty, staff and students, I have been involved in “diversity” efforts at the College since I arrived in 1985. I know I am not alone in my perception that we have “lost ground” particularly since our unsuccessful efforts to stop changes made by administrators in the year following James Farmer’s death. These included drastic cuts in the very Center bearing his name. Our coalition also (again unsuccessfully) strongly opposed the elimination of the cabinet level position (Vice President for Multicultural Affairs) that had been created specifically to address “diversity” concerns and support for our students of color. As I now routinely teach classes with no or perhaps one “minority” student, similar to classes before our collective “diversity” efforts over the years, I can’t help but wondering whether evidence of the fears we expressed in protest have come to pass. Alarmed at the composition of my classes I began requested statistics on African American students enrolled in Fall 2001, and was told that there were 197 African American students out of total enrollment of 4426 students, and 25 African American students in our first year class out of 851 students. . . . How are we doing with respect to student “diversity” since the contentious changes in the summer of 2000?

Dialogue did not take place; and the number of black students applying, accepted, and attending continued to fall. In the fall 2003 incoming class, twelve out of the 888 students identified as black, yet the institution claimed an overall minority percentage of 12 percent. In data provided for an article in our student newspaper, the decreasing numbers of black students were combined with the increasing number of Asian American students. Thus, the breakdown of the 12 percent total minority enrollment was 8 percent black and Asian American, 3 percent Hispanic, and 1 percent multiracial (Templeman, 2003). In contrast to concern and alarm, most of our diversity-related programs have been quietly eliminated, and the few that remain have been cut back significantly. In a recent department meeting, the department chair reported on the provost’s meeting with all the department heads. The discussion came after we had been named “the most homogeneous college in the U.S.” according to the Princeton Review’s 2003 edition of “The Best 345 Colleges.” The chair informed us that our rating was considered unfair and inaccurate because the administration had learned that other colleges also had equally dismal enrollments. Information brought not just a sense of relief but

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also a sense of vindication—as in being falsely accused of the problem. Instead of a catalyst for change or self-reflection, our top rating as “not diverse” received only one other mention. Here is a quote from our student newspaper, the Bullet, at the time: College officials said they feel the ranking [of] the Princeton Review is not important to the College’s overall ranking. “You have to remember that the Princeton Review is only one of many publications that ranks colleges and we are not recognized as the least diverse by the majority of them.” (Templeman, 2003)

A student had this to say: When [the college] sees minority problems as not existing they will never have satisfied minorities graduating from this school. It is [the college’s] problem to educate its community about race gender, diversity, etc. If change is to happen we must start from the top because the people at the top have the power. (Black student)

WHAT’S GOING ON? THE DENIAL OF RACISM: CUMULATIVE EFFECTS There was no question that Racial tension existed on this campus. You knew that you were the only minority in the class and you learned to accept this. People expected you to listen to a type of music, hangout with only minorities, and have limited academic success. They changed their speech when they talked to you as opposed to their white counterparts because in their mind consciously or not you didn’t grow in the same neighborhood but in actuality you lived on the same block. (Black student)

The legacy of racism remains alive and well on predominantly white college campuses across the country today. During the 1980s, a period of national political conservatism, there was an alarming rise in racial incidents on college campuses (Farrell & Jones, 1988). These disturbing patterns of events were the impetus for many of the diversity initiatives now being maligned. In assessing the racial climate of a mostly white campus in 1988, a consultant pinpointed the denial of racism as the primary problem: The most obvious problem on which many others suspend is that of denial. Denial alone is enough to support racism in a community, it offers no support to those who experience day to day inequities and

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empowers those who choose to disregard others rights and need for cultural identification. (Fries, 1988)

Almost two decades later, data from many institutions of higher education support the position that little has changed with respect to whites’ (faculty, administrators, and students) denial of the existence of racism on predominantly white campuses, and that this denial creates an uncomfortable and at times hostile environment for students, faculty, and staff of color (Feagin, Vera, & Imani, 1996). On one hand, whites’ denial of the problem maintains the status quo and supports the current university power structure and the racial imbalances already in place. On the other hand, the denial of racism contributes to a pattern of institutional resistance that successfully undermines programs and other efforts to create a campus environment that is inclusive of people of color, one that reflects and appreciates diversity. If top administrators and the majority of faculty and students fail to recognize or claim that racism exists on campus, initiatives aimed at improving the climate and curriculum will not be taken seriously or treated as a priority worthy of attention and adequate funding. Further, if a college or university refuses to acknowledge the existence of racism, its institutional norms will undoubtedly convey an implicit yet powerful message of intolerance. Such a permissive atmosphere makes it more likely that blatant racism will be expressed through overt incidents. In our ongoing assessment of the racial climate, both white and black students continued to report overt examples of racism, ranging from frequent references to blacks as “monkeys” and monkey noises being made, to examples of black male students (and a faculty member) receiving different treatment from police often because it was assumed they did not belong to the college. Dismissive comments like that of the student quoted below were frequently reported by white students when they were asked if they were aware of any racial incidents on campus: [Racist incidents] Frequent racial jokes, students sticking within their ethnic/cultural group. Although it seems fairly obvious that [the college] is predominantly White, I feel that there is little tension between students of divergent races and backgrounds. (White student)

What happens at our predominantly white institutions when the denial of racism is allowed to freely flourish and contribute to an

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atmosphere of white resistance and intolerance? Three specific types of problems that white campuses face from the denial of racism are discussed below. CONFUSING THE FAILURE TO NOTICE WITH THE FAILURE TO EXIST To ignore race and gender bolsters people’s sense of themselves as not thinking in a prejudiced manner. (Eberhardt & Fiske, 1994, p. 216)

Whites, having never experienced oppression by virtue of their race, see themselves as racially unmarked, indeed as not having any racial identity. Whites’ location at the top of the power structure allows them to experience themselves as racially neutral, that is, embodying the “norm” (Lorde, 1984). Because whites belong to the most powerful racial group and have access to and control over more resources, they have the privilege of not paying attention to race or to the perquisites that accompany their membership in an advantaged racial group. It is psychologically appealing for whites to adopt a “color-blind” stance, that is, claiming not to see race (and particularly their own racial superiority). Indeed, rather than being “color-blind,” whites can be more accurately described as being “color evasive” (Frankenberg, 1993) when it comes to race, racism, and particularly the benefits of white racial status. That is, despite claims to the contrary, whites do see color. However, many whites avoid the recognition that color matters and thereby refuse to see their advantaged racial position in terms of power relations. In contrast, people of color have rarely if ever had the luxury of being unaware of their racial identity or of their membership in an oppressed group with a long history of legal discrimination, exclusion, and racism. People of color are socialized from an early age to understand and be prepared for the ever-present possibility of becoming a target of white racism. Further, there is evidence that whites and blacks define racism differently. Whites tend to think of racism as isolated individual acts of blatant bigotry, things that are relatively rare and exceptional. On the other hand, blacks view racism as a pervasive condition, a set of institutional practices that result in racial oppression that must be negotiated daily (Blauner & Lichtenberg, 1992). Clearly, because whites have traditionally been the source of (or at least, the passive beneficiaries of) racism and not its target, their awareness of institutional racism tends to be negligible.

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[Racial incident] None really, just some segregation-eating wise. KKK signs being torn down, posters offending black students. Overall racial tension here is not bad. Everyone in my dorm is nice no matter their race or skin color or ethnicity. (White student)

It is not surprising then that at predominantly white institutions, the failure to notice racism is confused with its absence. That is, because whites fail to recognize the salience of their race and, more importantly, the practices of institutional racism, they mistakenly believe that racism does not exist. In fact, the failure to notice racism actually illustrates and substantiates the depth of white racism (Rothenberg, 1988). In addition, since definitions of “what’s real” are constructed by the dominant group, if whites are unaware, by default, the subordinate group’s experiences of racism will be denied. Anything that I have witnessed is light-hearted that did not seem significant of anything except lingering stereotypes. But all of the people that make jokes do not have anything against minorities, and in fact are friends with minorities. (White student)

How do “minority” versus “majority” students experience their campus environment? When black students’ responses to questions about the racial climate on a mostly white campus are contrasted with a comparable group of white students’ perceptions, it becomes clear that students encounter, and must negotiate, a radically different educational and social environment as a function of their race. This is true as well for other marginalized categories, such as gender, class, sexual orientation, age, and physical ability. Black students and a comparable sample of whites at a predominantly white college completed a survey to assess the racial climate on campus in 1988, 1998, and 2003. The difference in the percentages of black versus white students who answered affirmatively to the following selected questions clearly illustrates gaps in the perceptions and experiences of the two groups that are both wide and persistent despite changes in patterns over time. [Further, the responses reported here represent only part of a more extensive data set. The more comprehensive analyses raise some provocative questions and possibilities regarding student trends in perceptions over time. These and other findings are beyond the scope of this chapter.] In separate interviews conducted just prior to the 1988 survey, it was found that white students thought the racial climate was accepting of black students and that blacks got along well on campus. However, black students held a very different view of the climate on campus.

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Black students felt they were under suspicion for their behavior, isolated, verbally abused, and they reported experiencing a denial of their feelings by white students, faculty, and administration (Fries, 1988). (See Feagin et al., 1996 for further discussion and documentation

Table 7.1 Racial climate in 1988, 1998, and 2003 Percentage responding yes Racial climate results in 1988 I feel I am a part of the college. I feel that my ethnic/cultural heritage is adequately represented. There is evidence of racism at the college. I have been the only member of my race in a class. I feel comfortable raising questions when I don’t understand the material. I often feel socially isolated. I am seldom aware of my race on this campus. I find it easy to make friends here. I feel like dropping out or transferring. Overall, I’m happy at the college.

Blacks

Whites

41% 19%

78% 78%

70% 98%

41% 0%

39%

50%

43% 22%

0% 81%

54% 15% 50%

70% 17% 80%

Percentage responding yes Racial climate results in 1998 I feel I am a part of the college. I feel that my ethnic/cultural heritage is adequately represented. There is evidence of racism at the college. I have been the only member of my race in a class. I feel comfortable raising questions when I don’t understand the material. I often feel socially isolated. I am seldom aware of my race on this campus. I find it easy to make friends here. I feel like dropping out or transferring. Overall, I’m happy at the college.

Blacks

Whites

33% 8%

74% 83%

89% 83%

16% 2%

37%

69%

43% 22% 31% 37% 15%

0% 73% 61% 27% 73% continued

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Table 7.1 (continued) Percentage responding yes Racial climate results in 2003 I feel I am a part of the college. I feel that my ethnic/cultural heritage is adequately represented. There is evidence of racism at the college. I have been the only member of my race in a class. I feel comfortable raising questions when I don’t understand the material. I often feel socially isolated. I am seldom aware of my race on this campus. I find it easy to make friends here. I feel like dropping out or transferring. Overall, I’m happy at the college.

Blacks

Whites

67% 8%

67% 81%

50% 88%

24% 5%

50%

64%

63% 25% 50% 54% 50%

26% 40% 83% 28% 72%

of these disparate perceptions at predominantly white colleges and universities.) By 1998, the gap between whites’ and blacks’ perceptions of evidence of racism on campus increased dramatically (from a difference of 29 percentage points in 1988 to a difference of 73 percentage points in 1998). This huge chasm was primarily due to a dramatically much more positive view of the racial climate in white students’ perceptions reported ten years later (46 percent of whites reported evidence of campus racism in 1988 compared to only 16 percent of whites in 1998). In contrast, black student reports of campus racism increased from 70 percent to 89 percent of students during that same time period. Thus, while almost half of the white students surveyed in 1988 saw evidence of racism, ten years later the vast majority of whites surveyed reported a campus lacking racism. Further, the vast majority of black students reported evidence of racism in 1988, and an even higher majority concurred ten years later. Nationally, black enrollments reversed and declined during the 1980s. Interestingly, the number of black students on our campus hit a peak before the end of the 1980s, and the enrollments continued to decline from 1998 to the present. In 2003, the gap in whites’ and blacks’ perceptions of the racial climate narrowed substantially to a difference of only 24 percentage points. Here we see yet a different pattern of black versus white reports. With fewer black students on

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campus, only half of the blacks surveyed reported evidence of racism, while whites’ reports of racism increased from 16 percent to 26 percent. Clearly, these findings are open to numerous interpretations, and all should be made with caution. It is important to remember that many changes took place from 1988–2003; most notably, the college became much more selective. Accordingly, the economic background of students changed as well, with both black and white students coming from more privileged social class status and better (also more predominantly white) high schools. This socioeconomic class difference could make it easier for all students to adopt and maintain a more “colorblind” stance, a question that we are pursuing in the comprehensive data set. Overall, however, we did find qualitative and quantitative support for the notion that whites’ failure to notice race easily translated into a denial of the existence of racism, and created a pernicious environment for black students on campus. As a black woman attending a campus that was predominantly white was a familiar experience. After all it had been the story of my life. If you grow up in an environment where you expect to be the minority you begin to think that it just happens that way and think nothing of it. Having been taught not to notice race you simply blend in anyway you can. You dress like them, you talk similarly, you listen to similar music and you just try to fit in and have fun. You grow up thinking that’s the way it is and nobody tells you to question why you are always the minority you just are. They have brainwashed you not to see and to think of your circumstance as normal. But through it all no matter how well you assimilate you are always black you know it and they are not going to let you forget it. (Black student)

THE PRESSURE TO ASSIMILATE, AND TOKENISM Assimilation, in this paradigm, is assumed to be a one-way street along which new arrivals “give up” one identity and “take on” another one. Old identities are “melted down” into “new ones.” (Wellman, 1993, p. 37)

Today’s universities are often portrayed as having been taken over by leftists bent on enforcing political correctness and multiculturalism to the detriment of academic excellence. In reality, mostly white colleges and universities continue to be conservative institutions run almost solely by white, upper-class men. People of color and white women are brought into an institution governed by white male norms

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and are expected to “blend in” and, in short, to assimilate to the existing campus milieu. Students, faculty, and staff people of color are put under tremendous pressure to affirm and mirror the dominant group’s values and culture and deny their own. Assimilation is assumed to be a one-way process whereby “minorities” adapt to the prevailing white norms; while white students, faculty, and administrators carry on with “business as usual.” In fact, if whites do acknowledge any racial problem on campus, they claim that the problem is minority students’ tendency to “keep to themselves” and not to “mix in” with whites. However, whites fail to consider that extracurricular activities at substantially white campuses represent white interests, traditions, and values that may make students of color feel excluded or, at the very least, not included. When students of color socialize with each other and create their own programs and activities (like whites do), they are accused by whites of self-segregating. Think of the daily experience of the lone black student attending white classes. Not surprisingly, survey research indicates that students of color (must) cross ethnic and racial lines much more frequently than whites do and that it is white students who are more prone to segregate themselves (Feagin et al., 1996). Indeed, the suggestion that minority students needed to mingle more with white students was one of the justifications given by our dean of students for moving the James Farmer Multicultural Center from its central location to the second floor in an obscure small house where (white) student affairs staff were located. The following quotes suggest this: What’s up with those black girls, they are always sitting together in the cafeteria. They really shouldn’t ostracize themselves with their clubs and other activities. It’s so hard to get to know them because they already come in knowing each other and don’t want to make friends. (White female student) I hear the White students complain about the lack of diversity at [the college] but they are not willing to take a stand. Everything involving diversity of students for the most part is left up to the minority organizations. It is very upsetting that I can go to another organization that’s outside my comfort group but others cannot do the same. We have to leave our comfort groups and put ourselves in situations to associate with others, they don’t. (Black student)

Assimilation is a first requirement of those who are chosen as tokens in the workplace of the dominant culture: “He’s black but he’s just like us” (Pharr, 1988, p. 62).

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Tokenism and assimilation are ways of co-opting people of color. Tokenism often takes the form of hiring a few people of color to deflect concerns about diversity while leaving the existing power structure intact and unchanged. People hired as tokens tend to be those who appear to their employers as most likely to fit in with and not challenge the prevailing white male institutional norms and values. These tactics give the false impression that a person of color merely needs to work hard and that his or her efforts will be rewarded as meritorious in a color-blind, barrier-free environment. Tokenism and assimilation support the implication that if people of color fail to occupy positions of importance, it is because they lack the intelligence, motivation, or ability necessary to measure up to whites’ standards of excellence and not because of practices that reflect institutional racism. According to Pharr (1988), the tokenized person is in a classic “nowin” position. Typically such a person is given a highly visible, attractive position, yet often has little autonomy and real power. Tokens may find themselves under pressure to remain separate from other members of their racial group while simultaneously acting as representatives for their entire race. Since a token is expected to be a “team player,” identifying racism in the organization will be seen as disloyal and problematic. At the same time, tokens receive pressure from their racial group to make changes from within the system. However, this is untenable because tokens are isolated and lack the support system, power, and resources to enact such changes (Pharr, 1988). Even when tokens are intent on using their position to break down stereotypes of their racial group, stereotype disconfirmation often involves displaying an exaggerated version of the powerful in-group’s attributes and behaviors (Fiske & Ruscher, 1993). Thus, upon closer inspection, assimilation pressure and tokenism are hardly benign processes perpetrated by misguided but well-meaning individual whites who mistakenly view racial barriers in the academy as a problem of the past. Instead, these are institutional methods that function to keep people of color from organizing, forming coalitions, and gaining access to power and resources that could be used to disrupt the status quo and threaten the power structure of the white-dominated academy. Thus, assimilation and tokenism help to ensure that entrenched white male norms of self-interest maintain a stronghold on the academy and continue undisturbed. The school used their minority students as tokens in a very obvious way. They chose those who resembled their model minority student

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and “postered” them (literally) on any form of campus recruiting information. The token minority students appeared on the brochures to attract people to come to the school of the like minded. They used minorities to send a message that they valued diversity. However they forget to mention that they only create this diverse and culturally stimulating environment one weekend out of the year . . . the perfect opportunity to invite all of the potential minority Freshman to come and visit. They have an opportunity to stay with a student of color and enjoy a weekend surrounded in events that may appeal to them . . . once they get here they’ll simply learn to make do. (Black student)

PLACING THE BURDEN ON PEOPLE OF COLOR I heard about some students Fall Semester raising the Confederate Flag out of their window. I wouldn’t know, I am White! Everything is easygoing for us, except getting jobs. (White student’s reaction to being asked about the racial climate on campus)

The denial of racism is also costly to people of color on a very practical level. The academy is a microcosm of power relations in our culture. At white institutions, there are few people of color in tenured teaching or administrative leadership positions. Since whites tend to think of themselves as racially unmarked, white faculty and administrators assume that race issues or problems are the peculiar concerns of people of color and therefore do not affect them. Thus, blacks who are in lower-ranking positions or are untenured are often expected to take on the added burden of single-handedly changing the curriculum and racial climate, usually without compensation, adequate support, or resources. This is true for black students as well. If there are racial tensions or actual incidents on campus, white students may be sympathetic, but they too assume that it is a problem that does not directly pertain to them. In contrast, faculty and students of color are left feeling the brunt of the situation, and these feelings may contribute further to a sense of isolation and alienation on a predominantly white campus. I do know that one of my favorite professors decision to leave [the college] due to his treatment as the seen and not heard token black professor affected my judgment of [the college’s] regard for minority professors which I think are vital for a well balanced liberal arts education. Only so much can be done to recruit minority students or professors, but once they are here, they should receive the attention necessary of their isolated state as the nonwhite minority. (White student)

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In this case, whites’ denial of their racial privilege and of the existence of racism has a deleterious effect on people of color in the academy, and it saps energy that might otherwise be invested in more personally productive activities. For example, it is commonplace for students of color to be put into the position of being asked to “speak for their race” both inside and outside the classroom (Feagin et al., 1996). Being the recipient of such unexpected and unwanted attention is not only stressful, but it also serves as a reminder of whites’ lack of awareness and insensitivity. For example, the only black student in a history class reported that during a lecture on slavery, the professor stopped, singled her out, and asked how she felt about slavery. She responded by saying “I don’t know. I wasn’t around then,” and subsequently dropped the course. As Feagin and his colleagues (1996) point out, it is the cumulative effects of many such incidents that create a racialized social structure on campus that people of color have little power to define or significantly change. Why should students, faculty, and staff of color (who are already in a disadvantaged position) have the additional burden of educating whites and managing problems caused by white racism, while their white counterparts can proceed unencumbered to pursue their academic goals? It does make me feel out of place because in most of my classes I’m the only black person; and people feel that any statement I make, even if it’s only my personal opinion, is the basic view of blacks as a whole. (If they would just think about it they would realize how ignorant such a generalization is—just put the shoe on the other foot.) (Black student)

All people have a racial identity that determines their location in a racialized hierarchy of power relations. Thus, it is critical for whites to realize that the racial climate at white colleges and universities is the collective responsibility of all members of the academy. Without this recognition, the campus climate at these colleges and universities will remain a noxious one for people of color and particularly for blacks. MOVING FROM THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE INSTITUTIONAL: AN UNCOMFORTABLE DILEMMA They tell me not to segregate myself but little do they realize they have done that for me. They claim that they have tried to give me a support system so that I feel comfortable in this environment but what they

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have failed to do is create a system where I need no additional support. It is going to take a lot more than hiring one minority professor, creating a club for people of color and having one hip-hop dance party to make me feel comfortable in this environment. (Black student)

Neither whites nor people of color seem to understand that there is a clash here between a social group perspective, learned by people of color through the social experience of racism, and an individualized perspective, learned by whites through their racial socialization (Scheurich, 1993, p. 6). Just like other hierarchical institutions, the academy prefers to focus on individual strategies and solutions to racism. Such methods serve to deflect attention from larger institutional issues, such as scrutinizing who holds the power and how that power is used (McIntosh, 1988). For example, when racial incidents do occur on campuses, the most common response from top administrators is to label such events “isolated incidents.” Similarly, if institutions of higher education do take any action to combat racism on campus, they tend to hire consultants (often conservatives from the corporate world) to conduct onetime-only “sensitivity training” workshops. The underlying premise of these workshops is that if people would learn to be more aware and sensitive to each other, then racial problems would disappear. Again, this reflects the dominant group’s definition of racism. Ultimately though any change that is going to take place will have to be in the hearts and minds of anyone who is racist. (White student)

Although it is important for members of an academy to be sensitive and respectful of others, such a strategy does nothing to address institutional racism or remedy the current power imbalances in the structure of higher education. As Scheurich (1993) cogently points out, whites are heavily invested in the idea of individualism, whereas people of color (since they are constantly aware of their membership in an oppressed group) are much less likely to be seduced by the notion that success is purely the function of individualized choices and efforts. In describing the effects of the disproportionate distribution of resources to middle and upper-class whites and how their values become codified as standards of excellence, he states, One of the main ways this happens is that the ways of the dominant group become universalized as measures of merit, hiring criteria, grading

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standards, predictors of success, correct grammar, appropriate behavior, and so forth, all of which are said to be distributed as differences in individual effort, ability, or intelligence. Membership in a social group and the group-related inequitable distribution of resources and power thus disappear under the guise of individualism. (p. 7)

Similarly, Eberhardt and Fiske (1994) critique the myth that meritbased standards of selection operate in the absence of affirmative action. They note that merit is always mediated by power and that powerful groups are able to view their achievements as merit-based, while lesspowerful group members’ achievements are perceived as due to (often from whites’ perspective, unfairly applied) group-based benefits. Thus whites are unable to recognize their group-based advantages, yet at the same time they ascribe such motives to the successes or advancements of people of color. Interestingly, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, invoked the preeminence of individualism in his speech aimed at counteracting President Clinton’s call for a national dialogue on racism: We need to treat individuals as individuals, and we need to address discrete problems for the problems they are and not presume them to be part of an intractable racial issue. . . . We will not be successful in moving our society forward if we submerge individuals into groups. (Yang, 1997)

The fact remains, however, that once well-meaning whites realize that racism still exists (despite the fact that it may be unintentional) and that our institutions are rigged to ensure that the current power structure stays in place, they face an uncomfortable dilemma. This realization forces these whites to acknowledge their complicity in a system that is unbalanced and to understand that they themselves are beneficiaries of such a system. This knowledge is disquieting and conflicts with white people’s self-images as just and fair people. Such a shift in awareness from individual prejudice as problematic to the focusing on institutional racism allows whites to see how they have benefited from a system that oppresses others. This flies in the face of such whites’ strong convictions that their own rewards and stature are the result of a meritocracy, that is, a system that rewards all individuals equally and only based on the merits of their work. Once white people recognize whose interests are served by the denial of racism and indifference toward people of color, they also realize that whites must bear the responsibility for dismantling such an unfair system. No wonder denial

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is so comfortable for well-meaning whites! (Particularly since breaking through that denial will undoubtedly result in threatening cherished beliefs and questioning the dominant group’s as well as their own positive self-image.) TWO USEFUL CONCEPTS: UNACKNOWLEDGED WHITE-SKIN PRIVILEGE AND AVERSIVE RACISM In this section, we will explore two concepts that help illuminate the tendency for whites to deny racism; consequently, they are useful in breaking through that denial. White-Skin Privilege It seems being culturally aware is the new trend; that when it comes to appreciating other cultures on campus, many students in this predominantly white school don’t know how to act. In the classroom and out of the classroom are two different things. (White student) As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. (McIntosh, 1988, p. 71)

McIntosh describes unacknowledged white-skin privilege as an “invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions” that whites cash in daily, while remaining oblivious to their unearned advantages. She compiled a personal list of forty-six ways in which she regularly experienced white privileges that her black colleagues did not share. As she notes, some of these entitlements help her to feel welcome and comfortable, instead of feeling like an outsider, while others allow her to escape fear, hostility, danger, and violence. Still others allow her to ignore or disparage anything outside of the white dominant culture with impunity. Below are some examples from her own list: • I did not have to educate our children to be aware of systemic racism for their own physical protection. • If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race. • I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

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• I can be reasonably sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge,” I will be facing a person of my own race. • I can easily find academic courses and institutions that give attention only to people of my race. • I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin. • I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. • I can turn on the television or open the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely and positively represented. • I can remain oblivious to the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

Can you come up with some of your own examples? Several layers of denial protect and prevent an awareness of these privileges. McIntosh maintains that whites are explicitly taught not to recognize these racially marked benefits. Indeed, while whites may understand the concept of “minorities” as “disadvantaged”; as the majority group, whites have not been taught to think of themselves as over-advantaged. Because of the hierarchical nature of power, for a group to be disadvantaged, another group must be over-advantaged. Plus, whites are taught to see racism as individual acts of meanness directed at a group and not an invisible system that confers dominance and privilege to certain groups but not others (McIntosh, 1988). As long as whites remain unaware of white privilege, they are not forced to acknowledge whose interests are served by such a system, and this system of white privilege remains unchallenged and unchanged. Thus, whites experience a comfortable denial of the personal benefits they derive from their white-skin privilege, as well as the existence of an organized racial system that translates into unearned entitlements for whites and institutional racism for people of color. McIntosh discusses how the concept of unacknowledged white-skin privilege helped her to understand why whites were rightly seen as oppressive by people of color, even when whites did not view themselves that way. Becoming aware of the multifaceted nature of white privilege can serve as a real eye-opener for well-intentioned whites who are sympathetic to the plight of people color. The realization that doors open and opportunities are bestowed merely because of one’s white skin color is profound for many whites. Of course, other attributes such as gender, class, and sexual orientation may mitigate

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these advantages. Nevertheless, the notion of white-skin privilege seriously calls into question the belief in meritocracy, that is, the idea that rewards are distributed solely by merit and that other factors such as race are not influential. Further, as McIntosh points out, even if whites do not accept or agree with racism, they still stand to benefit from white privilege. Aversive Racism Prejudiced thinking and discrimination still exist, but the contemporary forms are subtler, more indirect, and less overtly negative than are more traditional forms. Furthermore, the contemporary form of prejudice is expressed in ways that protect and perpetuate a nonprejudiced, nondiscriminating self-image (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986, p. 279). We know how to sound aware and diverse, but not how to show it with our actions. (White student)

Although more blatant and overt forms of racism have declined nationally, social scientists have documented a rise in a newer, more subtle, and indirect type of racism. In social psychology, Gaertner and Dovidio (1986) use the term aversive racism to describe the subtle bias and discrimination expressed by whites who are sympathetic toward people of color and consider themselves nonprejudiced. They characterize aversive racism as the result of two conflicting influences. On one hand, aversive racists espouse strong egalitarian values and support democratic norms of fairness and equality. On the other hand, these whites have been socialized in a racist culture where it is impossible for even the most well-meaning whites to avoid developing negative beliefs about people of color. These negative messages are pervasive and operate on both an individual psychological level (for example, our cognitive predisposition toward stereotyping and categorizing into in-group versus out-group) and on a sociological level (such as negative media portrayals and social stratification systems). The existence of these inevitable racial biases along with deeply held democratic beliefs about justice and racial equality leads to feelings of conflict and ambivalence. According to Gaertner and Dovidio (1986), Because of the importance of the egalitarian value system to aversive racists’ self-concept, these negative feelings and associated beliefs are

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typically excluded from awareness. When a situation or event threatens to make the negative portion of their attitude salient, aversive racists are motivated to repudiate or dissociate these feelings from their selfimage, and they vigorously try to avoid acting wrongly on the basis of these feelings. In these situations, aversive racists may overreact and amplify their positive behavior in ways that would reaffirm their egalitarian convictions and their apparently nonracist attitudes. In other situations, however, the underlying negative portions of their attitudes are expressed in subtle rationalizable ways. (p. 271)

Therefore, rather than expressing hostility and hatred toward people of color, aversive racists experience feelings such as fear, discomfort, and anxiety. In keeping with whites’ denial of racism, these unpleasant emotions often result in them avoiding people of color. In addition, research shows that aversive racists will search for nonracial factors to justify their negative attitudes or behaviors toward people of color. For example, Gaertner and Dovidio (1986) note that, for years, children were bussed to schools for a variety of reasons without public outcry. However, it was only when bussing became a way to achieve desegregation that there was strong opposition, supposedly not to the mixing of the races but to bussing itself (a nonracial factor). Similarly, in the 1992 example incident described earlier, when a special faculty meeting was held to discuss the approval of an ethnic studies course, opponents of the course objected to it based on (so-called) nonracial factors, such as the qualifications of the instructor (even though the instructor was a person of color); of course, no other class or instructor had ever been scrutinized by the entire faculty in such a way. In this way, whites may display discriminatory behavior toward people of color but still maintain an image of themselves as nonracist. An incident of racial insensitivity or what made me realize other peoples view, was . . . when we all wrote essays about affirmative action and had to talk about our views briefly in class. Of course everybody who wasn’t of color was against it, and I’m not kidding. I’m personally divided on the subject, but when I heard why some people were against the practice, I realized how out for themselves many people are. The Whites in my class felt as if their positions in life were greatly threatened. One boy said how he was extremely upset that he didn’t get Duke [University] due to Affirmative Action, because colleges are very strange about how they admit people. (Black student)

Sam Gaertner and John Dovidio review research that demonstrates this type of discrimination by whites. Liberal whites’ objections to

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affirmative action policies ignore the subtext of threatening white privilege and instead focus on presumably nonracial factors such as perceived procedural unfairness (see Dovidio & Gaertner, 1996, for a comprehensive discussion of how unintentional racial biases impact affirmative action). Finally, research has demonstrated that although aversive racists are usually vigilant about avoiding behaviors that could be construed as anti-racist, their unintentional biases may instead be manifested in pro-white behaviors. In social psychology, this is known as showing favoritism toward the in-group as opposed to derogating the out-group (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1996). There are a few whites that try to be friendly to minorities but often they come across very fake and are never as friendly when they are surrounded by their peers. They’re friendlier alone when less whites are around to see them being nice. (Black student)

An understanding of aversive racism is useful in breaking through the majority group’s denial of white racism. In a way, it can let wellmeaning white people “off the hook,” since such an understanding acknowledges that it is virtually impossible to grow up white in a racist culture without internalizing some degree of racist ideology. Realizing this inevitability, then, does not preclude whites from being good and just people. After all, it is the tension between these two contradictory impulses that is the source of aversive racism. Gaertner and Dovidio correctly point out that traditional methods of changing blatant and overt forms of racism are ineffective for aversive racists because given their nonprejudiced self-view, aversive racists believe such messages are irrelevant to them. However, work by social psychologists indicates that an awareness of the discrepancy between automatically activated negative stereotypes and endorsed nonprejudiced beliefs can motivate well-intentioned whites to consciously overcome the effects of their prejudice on their behavior. After white students study the research on aversive racism in my (CBC) courses, most say that previously they refused to label themselves as racists but now can see that they are in fact aversive racists. Hopefully, learning to recognize the source of interracial discomfort and tension along with awareness itself can counteract aversive racism and shortcircuit the process that normally results in expressions of biased behavior toward blacks accompanied by whites’ lack of awareness. I don’t really pay attention to racial issues on campus. All I know is that the school is mainly White, which I find really eerie. I grew up

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in the military so I’m used to social isolation and diverse cultures. I’m used to being around different people and I consider myself pretty tolerant but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m not racist. I’m uncomfortable talking with black people but not with other groups and I don’t know why. But I am aware of this problem only I don’t know how to fix it. (White female student)

Like McIntosh’s concept of white privilege, aversive racism has implications that go beyond unintentional personal prejudice to institutional racism. One of the most important findings in the aversive racism research literature is that when normative standards are strong, discrimination is least likely to occur. In contrast, when normative guidelines are weak or absent, discrimination is more likely to occur. According to Gaertner and Dovidio (1986), In terms of interracial behavior, the presence or absence of norms governing appropriate behavior is a critical factor mediating the expression of prejudice. When norms are clear, bias is unlikely to occur; when norms are ambiguous or conflicting, discrimination is often exhibited. (p. 279)

Thus, the denial of white racism by individuals and institutions of higher education provides an environment where proper normative guidelines will be absent and discriminatory behavior toward people of color will continue to be expressed. Culturally different students get along better when they are not forced together by programs [at the college]. I find it disturbing that minority students are given so many special programs here. I believe this fosters a resentment within the student body and a reinforcement of stereotypes already prevalent in society. (White student)

COLOR VERSUS POWER, BLIND VERSUS EVASIVE, SHOULD NOT VERSUS DOES NOT I don’t know of anyone in a position of authority on this campus who is my own race. (Black student)

Based on more than two decades of research findings, the American Psychological Association (APA, 1997) developed a pamphlet to debunk the notion of color blindness. Presently, aspects of color-blind attitudes have become an empirical question of interest, and in our

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research we have used the recently developed Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (Neville, 2000). Neville provides a succinct summary of the crux of the problem with the color blindness concept when it is deconstructed: Simply, colorblind racial attitudes refers to the belief that race should not and does not matter. The first part of this concept seems admirable; a reasonable person probably would not publicly argue that social and economic resources should be disproportionately available to specific racial groups. However, scholars have argued that the latter half of this perspective is problematic, citing that the continuance of racism makes it impossible to ignore the importance of race in people’s experiences; thus race does matter. . . . (p. 4)

In short, perhaps we can all agree that (ideally) race should not matter. However, that race does not matter is an absurdity, a baldfaced lie with all evidence supporting the contrary (see, for example, Helms, 1992; and Jones, 1997; among many others). Color blindness is a white fantasy that only the dominant group can pretend to believe by the continual processes of denying racism and evading the reality of power. At our own institution, during what we now call “the good old days” of diversity, one department was able to hire two black faculty members consecutively. Both were rising scholars and very popular teachers. The first chose to leave because of the racial climate, and then the second one was hired and followed suit. Such departures are in large part due to the inability to thrive in an illusory color-blind white environment. After all, remember the Racial Feud responses? If our black faculty (or students) seek a reflection of themselves on a predominantly white campus, they will find others of their race plentiful in the predominantly black housekeeping, dining hall, or maintenance staff. Out of close to 200 full-time tenure-track faculty positions at our college, one can count all four blacks without using one full hand. If you are at a predominantly white campus, count and calculate percentages for how many blacks occupy your prime faculty positions. As is the case with our student homogeneity, we are the norm and not the exception. My (CBC) white students are always surprised by what they find after completing an assignment I give at the beginning of the semester. I simply ask students to take the institution’s organizational flowchart and code those positions by race and gender. Although the results are completely obvious, most white students are trained to see only individuals and thus express shock when they are required to look at race, gender, and power on an institutional level.

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From the framework presented in this chapter, the Clinton administration’s 1997 commission on race relations represented an anti– color-blind perspective. If nothing else, its existence acknowledged the effects of the denial of racism and stated the need for white awareness and engaging in what Johnnella Butler terms “difficult dialogues” (Butler, 1991). As coauthors who differ in race and hence white privilege, we ask, “difficult for whom?” At the time, George Curry, editor in chief of (the now-defunct) Emerge magazine, when asked his view of President Clinton’s new race relations commission and what issue it should address, said, The new presidential commission should focus on what Rev. Joseph Lowery of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference leadership Conference calls the 51st state—the state of denial. This country is in denial about both the history and the extent of racism in the United States. [The recent Gallup poll on race relations showed that whites “perceive that their neighbors are prejudiced, but that they personally are much less so.”] Until we can admit that racism has permeated every aspect of American life, from the writing of the Constitution to our perceptions of one another, we will not begin to make any real progress in this area. (“What Should,” 1997)

When the first author (CBC) was the age of the second author, another common slogan was some version of “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” In 2004, it is still true that until the dominant group recognizes and chooses to see their power, we will be perpetuating the status quo by taking no action at all. When well-meaning whites choose to do their own “race work” motivated by their own good and self-interest, the trends described in this chapter will not be reversed. I am White, but I am used to going to school with Blacks. At [the college] it seems everyone is White and at times it is unsettling. An all White America is a false America. It is sad, but most colleges are divided along racial lines. It’s not anyone’s fault really. That’s just the way it is. (White student)

As Peggy McIntosh (1988) pointed out, the dominant group needs to consider this question: having privilege, what (if anything) are we willing to do to lessen it? In order for white male and female educators to teach our students that for racism, the “personal” (individual)

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is indeed “political” (institutional), we must assume responsibility for the racial climate. Are we willing to move first from avoidance or denial to awareness? Will we take the next step, namely discomfort, and proceed further to decision? In this uncharted territory we must also be able to acknowledge that for racism, the political (institutional) indeed becomes personal (individual), and we must be willing to give up our own entitlement in order to redistribute power, thereby enacting real institutional change. Clearly, for any change to happen, racial tensions now festering barely below the surface must finally be confronted by the predominantly white male academy. There will be no overnight pill for the dominant group to merely swallow and wake up refreshed with racism magically banished from their system. Instead, the dominant group necessarily on their own must be willing to withstand and process our nation’s unpleasant and inevitably painful racism, past and present, before the healing can even begin. At that point, should we reach it, “difficult dialogues” will for whites have become “necessary dialogues.” Only then can the opportunity that can bring about a decrease in the manifestations of racism finally exist. CONCLUDING COLORS: BLACK, RED, WHITE, AND BLUE No one bothered to tell me that racism still existed. The same demon thoughts that raised their heads fifty years ago have not died but now wear a mask so that I can’t see them as easily. . . . But I have become unplugged from the lies that they beg me to believe. . . . They want nothing more than for you to think that racism does not exist. Everyday a little pain and heartache just to remind you that the things that they get without thinking twice you may never have. But this is done very subtly so that even a minority is unaware of the status quo. You mustn’t think that your Blackness plays a role in your disadvantage but rather a personal or individual flaw. So you assume the burden and responsibility. Any time that you dare state the obvious about the discrepancies in power you have just played the race card. (Black student)

As teacher and student, the two authors have come full circle. We have been able to shift and take on each other’s roles but not each other’s skin. In the end, we remain two (outwardly) very different women who share a common cause and strong concerns. Black and white, black and Syrian-Irish American, our very different paths did intersect at a point in higher education at a predominantly white institution. We like to think of it as a sort of confluence where there is much

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urgent work that needs to be done. Armed with our data sets and others, we have many critical questions that are imperative to ask and answer about blacks at all levels within the white academy. Of course, the majority of blacks remain excluded from the white academy in (growing) disproportionate numbers. Unlike those who can, by avoiding looking, claim not to see; once we look, we cannot avoid looking, and we claim to see disturbing evidence in our nation’s collective heap of denial and racism. Unfortunately, we feel that our president, George W. Bush, and his current administration are absolutely heading in the wrong direction with their hardly veiled anti-affirmative action stance. We view this as the culmination of the persistent denial of racism and its tangible results—namely, an effective dismantling of institutional programs aimed at social change that parallel and mirror the very process and consequences we have described in our analysis of predominantly white higher education. Thus, we see folly inherent in their position regarding the most recent legal challenges to affirmative action. The Bush administration adopts a strategy designed to masquerade as innocuously colorblind what is in fact color-evasive and deliberately power-blind. Instead of strong leadership and the clear normative standards that social psychology demonstrates are imperative on a national level to decrease subtle and overt racism, we are faced with more than a void. Rather, President Bush serves as a pied piper who (mis)leads the growing chorus of anti-diversity voices that we have examined on white campuses. It has not escaped our attention (or sense of irony) that this particular president embodies and represents many of the concepts discussed in this chapter. We pose a few questions: • Does George W. Bush exemplify the outcome of a fair selection system, a meritocracy where the best and brightest are the most deserving? • Did George W. Bush receive (color-blind) admission to Yale University on the basis of his academic record and the merits of his hard-earned achievements? • Could anyone (regardless of race and gender) with stronger credentials able to pull themselves up by their (cowboy) bootstraps take the seat awarded to George W. Bush at one of the most elite white universities in the land? • Or did the president benefit from a system that privileged his family’s tremendous wealth and accompanying sense of entitlement? • Did Yale University lower its standards to let George W. Bush in because of his race, class, or gender status to the detriment of a nonwhite

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poor male or female with higher scores, better grades, and more accomplishments?

From our own answers, we seem to have not reverse racism but, instead, an affirmative action program for rich white males already firmly in place. As a recent critique (Shaw, 2003) points out, The president’s opposition to the University of Michigan’s diversity efforts is woefully misguided. His mischaracterization of the selection process encourages white students who are not admitted to the school of their choice to blame affirmative action. Perhaps it is easier to attack the minuscule number of minority students accepted than to accept rejection. . . . (“Race Still Matters,” 2003)

We must bother to look and then carefully scrutinize the current numbers and actual enrollments of blacks at white colleges and universities without aggregating data for specific minority groups. Do these numbers tell a different story, of growing gaps among the percentages of Asian American, white, black, and Latino high school seniors who go on to attend four-year colleges, a story that suggests a reversal of the gains made by blacks in the decades prior to the 1980s? For example, with (again) aggregate data drawn from the 2000 Census, Greene and Forster (“College Diversity,” 2004) wrote an editorial arguing against affirmative action. Although we disagree with their position on affirmative action, we do find the numbers they present to be instructive. They state that of the 1.2 million black and Latino eighteen-year-olds in the United States, 631,000 graduate from high school with regular diplomas. Greene and Forster maintain that, of those graduates, only 287,000 take the courses necessary to enroll in a four-year college. After subtracting 69,000 unable to pass a twelfthgrade reading test, they arrive at two numbers: 218,000 for “collegeready minorities” and 244,000 “minorities” admitted to college that year. In closing, we would like to end with the words of Theodore M. Shaw, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who represented black and Latino student interveners in the University of Michigan affirmative action case involving undergraduate admissions. He is someone we suspect may have gained entrance to the academy at least in part because of the color of his skin. Our nation’s progress in reversing the effects of our long, dark night of slavery and legalized separation—begun merely a generation ago—did not emerge serendipitously. Deliberate efforts to redress racial inequality

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have netted tangible results. Despite progress, entrenched racial inequality from cradle to grave remains a feature of the American landscape. Colorblindness is not reality. Let us see race, and then act justly. (“Race Still Matters,” 2003)

Toolbox for Change Promoting social change: Everyone can do something to combat prejudice Actively contributing to oppression

• Verbally or physically harassing target group members • Telling oppressive or offensive jokes • Perpetuating stereotypes • Avoiding the target group • Considering discrimination to be a problem of the past

Inactively contributing to • Accepting the status quo oppression by denying • Believing we live in a color-blind society or ignoring • Refusing to acknowledge one’s own privilege • Ignoring acts of discrimination • Pitying the targets of oppression • Believing that you have experienced and fully understand the oppression of the target group Recognizing oppression

• Recognize one’s own privilege • Do not believe a problem does not exist simply because it is not blatantly visible. • Avoid blaming others or yourself for the social constructs of society. • Take ownership of your conscious or unconscious prejudices. • Know that the past is not your fault but the present and the future are your responsibility.

Educating self and others

• Interrupt jokes or stories that perpetuate prejudice. • Interact and learn from people of the target group. • Help others understand their own privileges. • Teach others to appreciate and value diversity. • Raise a child to be knowledgeable of oppression and how to be an ally. continued

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Toolbox for Change (continued) Supporting and encouraging

• Listen and validate the concerns and experiences of the target group. • Become active in your school or community to promote diversity. • Work to support other allies. • Elect politicians who actively support endeavors to increase social justice. • Do not expect external rewards but let the intrinsic motivation of doing the right thing be your encouragement.

Initiating and preventing

• Challenge the norm. • Start a program/organization that increases appreciation for diversity in your school or community. • Speak for change: let lawmakers, policymakers, and those with power know the importance of combating oppression. • Fight policies and laws that have the potential to support oppression. • Expose areas in your school, organization, job, or community that do not appreciate diversity (for example, if your school does not have minority faculty, complain to the administration). • Do not grow weary of doing well.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In addition to Aisha Rene´e Thompson, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of so many of my undergraduate students who have worked over the past fifteen years—discussing, collecting, and presenting data on the racial climate as student projects over the years in two of my research courses—particularly Kevin Paine, John Kelly, Colleen Inson, Marsie Turner, Tiffany Hanback, Stacie Evans, Trevor Bopp, and most recently, “Laura” and slacker Sean.—(CBC) REFERENCES Blauner, B. & Lichtenberg, J. (1992, June 8). Blacks and whites define word “racism” differently. The Washington Post.

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Butler, J. E. (1991). The difficult dialogue of curriculum transformation: Ethnic studies and women’s studies. In J. E. Butler & J. C. Walter (Eds.), Transforming the curriculum: Ethnic studies and women’s studies (pp. 1–19). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Curry, G. (1997, June 15). What should the president’s initiative focus on? Outlook. The Washington Post. Dovidio, J. F. & Gaertner, S. L. (1996). Affirmative action, unintentional racial biases, and intergroup relations. Journal of Social Issues, 52, 51–75. Eberhardt, J. L., & Fiske, S. T. (1994). Affirmative action in theory and practice: Issues of power, ambiguity, and gender versus race. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 15(1&2), 201–220. Farrell, W. C., & Jones, C. K. (1988) Recent racial incidents in higher education: A preliminary perspective. The Urban Review, 20, 211– 226. Feagin, J. R., Vera, H., & Imani, N. (1996). The agony of education: Black students at white colleges and universities. New York: Routlege. Fiske, S. T., & Ruscher, J. B. (1993). Negative independence and prejudice: Whence the affect? In D. M. Mackie & D. L. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, cognition and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception (pp. 239–268). San Diego, CA: Academic. Frankenberg. R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Fries, S. (1988). Racial assessment report of Mary Washington College. Unpublished manuscript, University of Maryland–College Park. Gaertner S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F. Dovidio and S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination and racism. Orlando, FL: Academic. Greene, J. P., & Forster, G. (2004, January 7). College diversity: Fix the pipeline first. The Washington Post. Helms, J. (1992). A race is a nice thing to have: A guide to being a white person or understanding the white person in your life. Topeka, KS: Content Communications. Jones, J. M. (1997). Prejudice and racism (2nd ed.), New York: McGrawHill. Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider. New York: Crossing Press. McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies. Working Paper #189. Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Neville, J. (2000). The COBRA Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47(1), 59–70. Pharr, S. (1988). Homophobia as a weapon of sexism. Little Rock, AR: Chardon.

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Rothenberg, P. (1988). Integrating the study of race, gender, and class: Some preliminary observations. Feminist Teacher, 3(3), 37–42. Scheurich, J. J. (1993). Toward a white discourse on racism. Educational Researcher, 22(8), 5–10. Shaw, T. (2003, March 1). Race still matters. The Washington Post. Templeman, C. (2003, January 23). MWC named most homogeneous college in U.S. The Bullet, 76(12). Retrieved from http://www.unh.edu/ residential-life/diversity/index.html Wellman, D. T. (1993). Portraits of racism (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wittenbrink, B., Judd, C. M., & Park, B. (2001). Spontaneous prejudice in context: Variability in automatically activated attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 815–827. Yang, J. (1997, June 19). Newt Gingrich: Reward individuals. The Washington Post.

CHAPTER 8

Combating Racism through the Kuumba Learning Model Technique: Elementary Students’ Perspectives Karen B. McLean Donaldson

Racism in United States Schools: Nightmares of Getting Shot One student exclaimed that, “In classroom 58, students and the teacher all got on the floor behind her desk to protect themselves from the stray bullets. The teacher called the principal, and the principal called the cops.” Another student chimed in with, “and, the cops blocked the whole area off with yellow tape, just like they always do when there is a murder.” All of the students said they have nightmares of getting shot, or of family members getting killed. The students commented that if it were a white school, the students would be better protected, especially after people were killed. A student stated that, “Some of the kids didn’t come to Kuumba today because they are too scared to be at the after school program without protection.” (Affinity Kuumba session, January 2004)

T

he three Kuumba (Swahili word meaning “creativity”) exploratory projects presented in this chapter will highlight varied forms of racism that impact our schools and the lives of the students who attend them. Elementary student voices from different backgrounds and geographical areas help to demonstrate early experiences of youth regarding racism, their social consciousness, and cries for help. Racial

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oppression and discrimination must begin to be acknowledged, understood, and addressed at elementary levels, because these levels are where it starts. This age group is most vulnerable to the cruel realities of racism that often psychologically damage them for life. Primary school anti-racist curricula can give strategies for survival, achievement, and social activism that can carry on throughout one’s educational experience and into adulthood. The introductory scenario began with the Kuumba leadership workshop held at an inner-city elementary afterschool program. The program was scheduled to have the long-awaited Africa-to-America cultural art workshop on this day. However, the fourth and fifth graders were too preoccupied and anxious, and asked to do an affinity session to talk about the traumatic event from the previous day. They opened by addressing their concerns using a racism analogy about white communities getting more services and attention than black communities. They began to ask questions about why they had to feel scared and hopeless while whites did not. One child remarked, “You always see blacks on television fighting, but whites don’t have to fight over the scraps, so they don’t kill each other. They have better houses, jobs, and schools. They get all the money and we can’t even feed our families.” These young students clearly had an opinion of race-based poverty and its correlation to the violence within their school community. Racism as trauma is evidenced here, as the students shared that they could not concentrate on school work because they were worried that someone in school or at home could be shot like the man and woman who were shot down in front of one of their classrooms the previous day. Without any prompting, the elementary students shared their sentiments, such as, “It probably was gang-bangers who killed those people yesterday. There is a lot of that going around here.” Another responded, “My cousin and I had to crawl under a car last week when gang-bangers were shooting on our block from their car.” In response to recalling incidents, another student said, “Not too long ago a boy from our school was pushed in front of a truck by two other boys. He was killed, and we saw the blood on the street where he was killed.” The students were asked what they would say to people who might say that these incidents could not possibly be true. One answered, “Come over here and see for yourself and you’ll see we’re not lying.” Another remarked, “You don’t have to believe me. Wait until you see it on the news.” One student responded, very irritated, “Why would I want to tell a fable like that to anyone?” Another student concluded,

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“Everybody is so busy hatin’ when we should be educatin’. All people should have equal chances; that would help stop the violence.” We followed by discussing safety, addressing their fears, and conceptualizing creative social action strategies that could help change the condition of their community. The students suggested having a neighborhood performance highlighting school concerns about violence and human rights. One boy said, “Black people need to come together to solve their own problems.” They thought that people would listen more to an antiviolence social justice production by children than by adults. Seeking to bring youth biases to the global forefront, students also wanted to get involved with similar international youth projects, such as a leadership afterschool program in South Africa that performed against AIDS, violence, and other youth injustices. Racism is “real-life” for many students; therefore their social awareness is often more developed than we realize. In addition, many students around the globe desire education that is cross-cultural and equitable. A growing body of literature, attendance of international education conferences, and direct experience with international cross-cultural projects indicates this youth international interest. This chapter features youth perspectives on combating racism using a creativity and anti-racist education method called the Kuumba learning model. It examines the relationship of cultural literacy to student success, and it gives recommendations for cross-cultural teaching and learning practices. Furthermore, it addresses racial prejudice and discrimination in P-12 school systems. RESEARCHERS REVEAL TARGETS OF RACISM A number of researchers and educators reveal that racism is a major problem within our nation’s schools (Pine & Hilliard, 1990; Murray & Clark, 1990; Sleeter, 1992; Donaldson, 2001; Nieto, 2003; Kailin, 2002). Through these researchers, we have learned that students of color are generally targets of racism. There are many ways in which racism is manifested in schools today. Some common factors include biased curricula, standardized testing, tracking, ability grouping, disproportionate detention and suspension rates, inequality in the amount of instruction time, lowered teacher expectations, and racial epithets or other forms of violence that are often minimized by teachers and administrators (Murray & Clark, 1990; Donaldson, 1996; Nieto, 2002). An anti-racist education school district study in the Northeast reported that 88 percent of 2,000

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secondary students of varied ethnic heritages directly or indirectly experienced racism in their schools. A follow-up anti-racist curriculum study in that school district documented three major ways in which racism affected students’ learning, attitudes, and behavior: (1) by belittling their self-esteem, causing diminished interest in school; (2) by heightening students’ perceived need to overachieve academically, causing undue stress and educational resentment; and (3) by making them feel guilty and embarrassed at seeing other students victimized (generally reported by white students) (Donaldson, 1996). It is difficult to accept that young children experience racism in school. However, they experience all of the common racist factors mentioned above, as well as blatant racist acts. For example, some nationally reported and consecutive racial violence incidents in elementary schools included the following: (1) A teacher in North Charleston, South Carolina, wrote with an indelible marker, “Where are my glasses?” on the face of a five-year-old girl. A similar case was being investigated in South Carolina’s Aiken County, where a teacher wrote on a boy’s face because he was late for class (South Carolina News Summary, 1997, October 23; Associated Press, 1997, January 8). (2) A teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, taped her third grade student’s mouth (Cambridge Chronicle, 1997, March 27; Boston Globe, 1997, March 20). (3) Another kindergartener was placed in the restroom as a “time-out” for his disruptive behavior and was made to eat his lunch there (The Des Moines Register, 1997, February 22). All of these children were children of color, who are generally the targets of such racist acts (Donaldson, 1996, 2001). In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas to outlaw school segregation. The ruling declared that segregated schools were “inherently unequal.” Yet in 2004, fifty years later, the growth of segregation and equitable access in our schools are issues facing communities across the country. Schools with a majority of students of color coupled with low socioeconomic status are generally less well funded than those with middleand upper-economic status. Demographics indicate that approximately 46 million students (89 percent of all United States students) attend public schools, and it is estimated that 39 percent of those are students of color. However, the U.S. Department of Education’s 1996 Condition of Education documents that 88 percent of U.S. teachers are white (Gordon, 1998). This imbalance often results in a clash of cultures in which middle-class white teachers have difficulty relating to students of different backgrounds and cultures (Cushner, McClelland, & Safford,

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1992). Many teachers leave college unprepared to effectively teach in diverse environments or to address the ills of racism that plague our educational institutions (Donaldson & Tartakov, 1997). Students have often commented that teachers are the greater threats of racism in schools because of their lack of multicultural perspective and teaching. Furthermore, teachers are seen as the adults who are around students most within the school environment and have the authority over them. A student once asked, “If a teacher is being racist or ignorant, who is going to believe a teacher over me?” Frequently students have stated that it is hard to give respect to a teacher who does not relate to the real world of students (Donaldson, 1996). In general, many educators lack awareness of prejudice and discrimination in schools and how racism negatively impacts student success (Donaldson, 2001). Students perceive racism in schools as all-inclusive. For instance, multicultural and anti-racist education generally does not permeate school curriculum. Students often remark that they do not see their cultures or other cultures in the curriculum. Furthermore, numerous students from the Kuumba exploratory projects have said that schoolmates, teachers, administrators and staff, counselors, parents, and communities knowingly or unknowingly participate in racist behavior. For example, one child came into the program asking to learn how to “help people understand that Chinese people could see just as normal as anyone else, and that he has a real family although he is Chinese and his parents are white” (KMES post prejudice on the playground performance discussion/observation notes, 1997). The Kuumba model teaches about stereotypes and works with the student to create positive avenues to address ignorance and bigotry. KUUMBA LEARNING MODEL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK Discovering the Creativity, Cross-Cultural, and Anti-Racist Methods of the Kuumba Model “I like the teacher that talked about where she came from, and how long she has been in the United States.” “I learned a lot about Cesar Chavez that I didn’t know.” One student said, “The whole school should have Kuumba in their classes” (Kuumba intern reflection notes, 2003). The Kuumba learning model curriculum, both written and unwritten—that is, materials, methods, policies and procedures, teachers,

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resource personnel, and the student body—reflects cross-cultural considerations and approaches (Donaldson & Tartakov, 1997). The Kuumba curriculum is shaped to accurately reflect the cultural diversity within the United States and to teach students that by responding to these realities within the nation and the world, students can develop decision-making and social action skills (Banks, 1997). The Kuumba curriculum was first developed and implemented by Drs. Karen B. McLean Donaldson and Carlie Collins Tartakov, combining over fifty years of teaching experience (including grade school and college) in combination with the principles of multicultural and global education. Included in that have been the input and involvement of the community, parents, and students. Some of the initial curriculum pillars that helped to construct the framework included the Integration, Interdisciplinary, and Effective Curriculum Models of James A. Banks (1997) and the Multicultural Characteristics Model of Sonia Nieto (1992). In addition, directors and staff used the Racial Identity Model of Beverly Tatum (1997), and the Affinity Group Model of Phyllis C. Brown (1995). The goal of the exploration projects was to study the impact of a multicultural curriculum on young children. In wanting to show some evidence of what the developers think to be true—that children do learn better and develop higher self-esteem when exposed to a multicultural educational setting—the attention is on the development of the curriculum. Before highlighting samples of infusing Kuumba concepts into basic subject areas and presenting the voices of students within each project, it is important to briefly define the three core pedagogical components of the Kuumba model. Creativity Creativity results from originality of thought or expression and is productive or generative. Kuumba is a philosophy of creative intelligence that is practiced within many cultures. Interdisciplinary creative and cultural arts are multisensory strategies that address the sundry learning styles and intelligences of all students (Gardner, 1983). Sternberg and Grigorenko state that creative ability is a part of successful multiple intelligence and is used when a person creates, invents, or discovers (2000). When students have the opportunity to learn through multiple intelligence, then cognitive, affective, and social enhancement will often appear (Campbell, Campbell, & Dickinson,

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1996). The arts are an integral aspect of multiple intelligence and learning styles. They are a way of life for many cultures, and they address a variety of issues in unique ways. Many students comment on how the creative arts media make learning any subject more interesting, fun, and open. The Cross-Cultural “Cross-cultural” involves the ability to use the standards of perceiving, evaluating, believing, and doing that are associated with one or more cultures beyond one’s native culture. It is the ability to interpret and evaluate intercultural encounters with a high degree of accuracy and to show cultural empathy (Bennett, 1997). In addition, a twenty-first-century paradigm shift of combining multicultural and global education disciplines has been on the horizon for various scholars, and the term cross-cultural has been proposed for this new transformative paradigm (Donaldson & Seepe, in press). Anti-Racist Education Anti-racist education is critical pedagogy that seeks to take a stand against racial injustice and oppression (Donaldson & Verma, 1997). It is recognized as a leading characteristic of multicultural education (Nieto, 2003). Anti-racist education at an elementary level often includes lessons in appreciating the contributions and experiences of all ethnic racial groups and in becoming aware of racial prejudice and discrimination (Donaldson & Verma, 1997). This foundational combination of creativity, cross-cultural, and antiracist education uniquely fills a void for students desiring to have “reallife” concepts within education. Students have made comments such as, “Kuumba activities have taught me to be less shy and more open”; “to become more worldly”; “to follow my dreams, and don’t let anyone limit me or my ideas”; “I am a creative genius, and I like that”; “It has helped us to examine how we think about ourselves, and other cultures that we live with here on this earth”; and “to not be afraid to take a stand against social injustice.” KUUMBA AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE The basic theories and practice are adaptable at all educational levels. Students learn about cross-cultures, social justice, peace and global

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education, cultural identity development and socialization, oppression, and democratic citizenship. They learn these concepts through an array of creative strategies and multiple intelligences that often include the arts as an integral medium for learning. The overarching concept encompasses an interdisciplinary and holistic academic approach that fuses anti-racist, cross-cultural, and creativity components into one technique. The Kuumba model is transformative knowledge that is integrated into all subject areas and/or is taught as a cross-cultural studies discipline. Students bring in homework from multiple disciplines and, with the academic mentors (cross-discipline college students), complete home assignments with multicultural concepts of understanding integrated into the learning process. Some examples of Kuumba inclusion in basic subjects are as follows. Motivating Science and Technology Inquiry Research suggests that many students in our nation’s elementary schools have an inadequate grounding in science and technology and are therefore unable to use the necessary skills and understanding they will need in the next century (Tartakov, 1995). In spite of recent improvements and achievements, scores are low in science and technology compared to many global nations. In addition, white females, children of color, and people who are physically challenged fall below other groups (Tartakov, 1995). With this in mind, the model attempts to address factors that enhance learning in science and technology. Such factors include teaching and learning styles, stereotyping, the self-fulfilling prophecy, and ethnicity and learning. This unit is geared toward motivating scientific inquiry through exploring our environment through culture: recognizing differences and likenesses through observations and recording skills, understanding how science and technology fit into our lives, and becoming aware of contributions that diverse cultures have made to science and technology. The rationale for stressing science and technology is that they are on the cutting edge of productivity in the new millennium, and many do not believe or understand that anti-racist multicultural education concepts can be infused into these subject areas. For example, one of the first lessons emphasized the science of skin color by having students mix color paints to match their complexions. Race has a function, and though we may look different on the outside

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(our genetic inheritance), for good reasons we are more alike in significant ways. Issues of adaptation are discussed. Student Empowerment through Affinity Exchange All the Kuumba learning model exploratory projects have been multiaged and grade-level cohort groups; students learn to explore relevant issues and to be architects in their own learning. This group activity is based on “multicultural affinity”(blended) exchanges, which were the final stage of the cultural affinity group model cofounded by Phyllis Brown, the Fort River Elementary School, and the University of Massachusetts (1994–1995). Traditionally, from Brown’s paradigm, students are placed into same-race support groups and eventually moved into “blended” group discussions. As our students make up small multicultural sample groups, the approach is to have blended group class discussions from the beginning to the end of the projecta micro (pluralistic) society working out issues of prejudice and awareness collectively. The students set goals and programs that help them take control of their own lives. For instance, if they identified for themselves a social need, they could consider getting involved in some kind of social action project, such as raising money or providing some other needed resource, such as letters to senators. This part of the curriculum is meant to assist in developing citizen action skills. Citizen and social action skills are often featured in the multicultural education integration work of James A. Banks. Kuumba affinity curriculum often includes entrepreneurial rites of passage and leadership studies, as well as community professional lectures and activities series. These combinations encourage reinforcement in basic subject areas, collective work and responsibility, and social action efforts. The students often conduct fund raising, such as bake sales, for cross-cultural education (hands-on) field trips. Thus, the decision to adopt a Kuumba learning model was related in part to the awareness that children are more successful when they are able to identify and embrace who they are and where they come from, across a wide spectrum of specific cultural characteristics. Additionally, bridging the awareness that children live in a diverse society with multiple cultures could only enhance their appreciation and understanding of the world they live in. The Kuumba model allows and provides for live experiences of interactions and communications; thereby solidifying children’s sense of self-confidence in their place in society.

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PROJECT ONE: KMES (KUUMBA MULTICULTURAL EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOL) The First Kuumba Exploratory Project: Curriculum and Student Response in a Rural Suburban Social Context The Kuumba Multicultural Experimental School (KMES) Research Project began as an official pilot study in August 1997. The study took place in a small midwestern city, where the population as of 1995 was 48,691. KMES was established on a large state university (Iowa State University) campus with an enrollment of 25,000 undergraduate and 8,000 graduate students. It was housed on campus at a cultural center for blacks. The structure itself was a house that provided a homey and relaxed environment for the program. The participants had access to computer laboratories, gymnasiums, and large meeting rooms in the residence halls, the College of Education, the kitchen, and the basement. On Wednesdays, an early release day for the schools, twenty program participants were released fifteen minutes earlier than their classmates to attend KMES classes from two until five o’clock in the afternoon. The program followed the K–12 academic calendar. In the ethnic makeup of the Ames community, except for schools in and around the state university campus, students of color were so few that their presence or impact on the school sites was miniscule. During the 1997–1998 academic year, there were no teachers of color at the elementary level. Although the participants came from various schools throughout the city, seven out of the twenty came from one school. They ranged in ages from five to twelve years old and were enrolled in kindergarten through the sixth grade. The students’ cultural and ethnic backgrounds included black, Asian, Latino, and white groups. Many of the families described themselves as of mixed heritage, such as Africanblack American, black-Cape Verdean–Native American, and Mexicanwhite American. Religious backgrounds included Muslim, Jewish, and Christian. The theme of the pilot study was that all inhabitants of the world were part of the human family. This acknowledgment lends itself to the development of strong intercultural relationships. The KMES research project sought to create an anti-racist education curriculum and implementation prototype and add to the research of the local school district, state, and beyond.

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The notion of the Kuumba multicultural school stemmed from the need to create an educational alternative for the multicultural community in a small midwestern town by fostering the concept of diversity through the arts. One of the youngest, a five-year-old boy, helped to raise questions of what kinds of content students are truly capable of processing, and whether the notion of the multiculturalism experiences as defined above is applicable for elementary students. In the lesson plan “Africa to America,” students participated in a re-creation of Africans being forced to come to America. Students were asked to hold hands and form a line, linking them together, recreating the experiences of being chained. One of the researchers became aware that a five-year-old white boy was not holding hands and instead was obviously apart from the link. The researcher’s initial perceptions ranged from thinking that the process was overwhelming for him to thinking that he was being uncooperative. However, when she asked him why he was not part of the link, he whispered “. . . I am stopping what is happening.” He shared with his teacher/researcher that he would not allow the Africans to be forced. By breaking the link/chain, this five-year-old was attempting to re-create history and take responsibility for his legacy as a white student. The perceptions that students would be responsive, could process, and could feel the experiences of others was impressive regarding recognition of how powerful the experience of teaching multiculturalism was. How best to balance the different developmental needs of children? Students quickly grasped being a welcome part of the process. While students initially struggled with integrating multicultural concepts into everyday realities—for example, kids did not want to naturally share and more naturally wanted to exclude differences—day by day, participant interactions improved. They seemed to naturally “get” that they had unique identities, that they were capable and were behaviorally problem-solvers. They understood the social issues and the parameters around becoming change agents. They made up their own rules in terms of discipline and were aware and considerate of each others’ needs. Perhaps the children were not consciously aware of the shift, but they began to treat each other more justly than when they first came into the project. Findings from Project One The KMES research (pilot) project explored the impact of an antiracist–multicultural curriculum on the learning and development of

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elementary school-aged children. It examined the relationship of cultural literacy to student success, gave implications for curriculum practice, and added to the needed literature on the effectiveness of multicultural teaching. The hope here was to demonstrate to regular classroom teachers that anti-racist multicultural teaching does make a difference for all students. Working constructs guided project inquiry, such as what the students were saying about the curriculum, growth in understanding anti-racist multiculturalism, student reaction to curriculum implementation, student learning and behavioral development, student sensitivity toward peers and others, and students’ ability to understand class assignments. Some of the major findings were as follows: 1. Students were able to grasp the contents of the anti-racist multicultural curricula within the context of the various subject areas. 2. Students enhanced their respect for other cultures and learned to better appreciate differences (both domestic and global). 3. Students were better able to contextualize the lessons when they included hands-on empathy and/or experiential lessons; experienced the lessons more holistically (global village concept; parents, teachers, friends, community; the whole village to raise and teach the child); and when other teaching techniques included cooperative learning and discovery, studentcentered assignments, student process folio assessment, and multicultural concepts that included examining social justice issues. 4. Students became more equipped to handle biased or prejudice situations at their (public) regular schools, and were quicker to step in to articulate the importance of sensitivity to others. Coming into the project, many students were quite reserved. They said they did not or were too afraid to meet new people. They often exhibited selfish behavior and fought over seating or made negative comments about other children in class. Yet, by the end of the school year, these same students were reminding each other to “treat your neighbor as you want to be treated” and/or “don’t be prejudiced,” and so on.

Assessment tools were used to determine the learning styles and multicultural awareness of K-6 students and to apply those discoveries to revising culturally biased standardized tests and curricula. Once those assessments were culturally adapted, they were retested to examine whether students had more success with the cultural inclusive versions, and to see how the KMES students (with cultural intervention) fared on the adapted tests. For example, the Iowa Test Basic Skills was modified for use in the KMES research project. By tailoring the test

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to the specific needs and learning styles of the students, we hoped to eliminate much of the variance in test scores attributable to systematic error (bias). Likewise, a battery of tests and research procedures were adopted to determine the learning styles, aptitudes, and progress of each KMES student. The test battery for the first-year pilot study consisted of the following: 1. Student Attitude Assessment (SAA)/Project Multicultural Education (MCE): Assessing Children’s Awareness About Diversity (designed by Clark County School District Compensatory Education Division, Las Vegas, NV) 2. Multiethnic Identity Measure 3. TIMI (Teele Inventory for Multiple Intelligence)

A yearly progress research report was started and used as a guide to continue ongoing data collection and analyses. The evaluation summaries included common themes and concerns “falling out” from the data. Recommendations were made from these common responses. In addition, external evaluators were called in on an ongoing basis to critique the design and success of the project. Furthermore, some of the (public school) teachers of the KMES participants relayed to the project that they observed changes in the participating students, and that the program had a positive impact on their learning. Increased self-esteem, problem-solving, and other academic enhancement were noted by some of the students’ regular (public school) teachers and by parents. The KMES research project was an exciting project during its infant stages; growth of the students was visible. Furthermore, coping skills to address racism and prejudice (especially for the students of color while in mainstream classrooms) became evident through the affinity class discussions. The project directly reached hundreds of people, such as KMES students, teachers, academic mentors, parents, researchers, planners, and college classrooms. A variety of articles were written on the project, and the state board of education awarded the project the Educational Equity Recognition Award in October 1999. PROJECT TWO: KLC (KUUMBA LEARNING CENTER) EXTENDED DAY PROGRAM After taking a new faculty/administrator appointment in the Graduate School of Education (GSOE) at Alliant International University

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in California, Donaldson continued the educational explorations of the Kuumba learning model. The GSOE Partners for Success Program was able to contract the Kuumba center to administer a pilot extended day program for grades 5–9. GSOE faculty, graduate students, guest professionals, and the GSOE Cross Cultural Studies Institute administered the project. The findings from this small sample pilot were similar to those of the Iowa State University pilot study: students gained cultural openness, greater enthusiasm about education, empathy for social injustice, and confidence in using creative styles of learning. This second pilot allowed the Kuumba learning model to advance its theory and practice and to sophisticate its research agenda. During the eight-week period, April 9 through June 6, 2002; the Kuumba Learning Center Extended Day Program was piloted at Alliant International University, at the San Francisco Bay area campus, under the direction of Dr. Karen B. McLean Donaldson, systemwide director of the Cross Cultural Studies Institute and professor in the Graduate School of Education. This Alliant program was based in large part on the original Kuumba Multicultural Experimental School Research Project, implemented in 1997 by Drs. Donaldson and Tartakov. Center facilitators (instructors and assistants) included faculty members, graduate students, and local school district teachers who were also graduate students. The professional principles guiding all graduate work at the GSOE also shaped practice carried out through the Kuumba center. However, a special emphasis was placed on the principle that all graduates would demonstrate and apply cross-cultural competencies. In fact, several of the Kuumba center key learning experiences resulted from work in the graduate course Cross Cultural Curriculum Theory and Development, offered during the spring term. Community mentors included parents, and also professionals in medicine, social services, community organizing, and the airline industry, who served as presenters and role models for the students. In contrast to the midwestern setting, the San Francisco Bay area is made of large, multicultural, multilingual urban cities and towns. The majority of public school students are enrolled in schools where the student body represents anywhere between four and forty-four different cultural and/or language groups. In 1999–2000 (most current data available), district enrollment for the Alameda Unified School District was 10,802. The largest ethnic group in the Alameda schools is white American; in the Oakland schools, the largest group is black. The twenty-three

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students enrolled in the Kuumba center included eleven blacks, one Latino, one Asian American, five Arab Americans, five mixedheritage students, and no Native Americans. There were eight elementary students, nine middle school students, and six high school students. TAILORING THE PROGRAM: RESHAPING CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION Much like the original KMES research project, the Kuumba Learning Center sought to enhance student learning and achievement through the use of various cross-cultural teaching and learning styles, educational testing techniques and measurements, and by offering tutorial assistance in basic subject areas. The program focus expanded beyond cultural awareness to include practices and behaviors that taught democracy through programs that affirmed the rich knowledge and cultural bases that diverse students and their families brought to schools and communities. Facilitators combined multicultural and global education practices to create a diversity paradigm that promoted world citizenship. Because students came from elementary, middle, and high school settings, the instruction and pedagogy were adjusted to accommodate this large range of developmental levels. The overarching themes reflected in each segment of the curriculum were social justice and universal membership in the human family. Although the material conditions and demographics in the San Francisco Bay area setting are distinctly different from those of the midwestern city where the KMES project first started, the need for the program in the Bay area was as great if not greater. Moreover, a rich multicultural, multilingual setting like the Bay area is ideal for programs aimed at developing strong intercultural relationships by fostering diversity through the arts. APPLYING THE KUUMBA LEARNING MODEL WITHIN URBAN AND MULTICULTURAL DEMOGRAPHICS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA KLC Curriculum Strands and Program Segments One of the main goals for the Kuumba Learning Center curriculum is the development of cross-cultural competence. For many students,

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the sessions are the first periods of formal instruction on these concepts. A cross-cultural education model was adopted for the program, in part because of our awareness that children are more successful when they are able to identify and describe themselves across a wide spectrum of cultural characteristics and to embrace the complexity of that reality. It was also adopted because expanding student awareness of the multiple cultures that exist in our diverse society enhances their appreciation and understanding of the world. This education model provides multicultural interactions and communication that can build the self-confidence students need to develop cross-cultural competence. Homework and Grade-Level Activities Strengthened This segment included small group sessions organized by grade levels. These sessions highlighted the affinity rites of passage that most of the students were experiencing at this point in their development. The participants were especially interested in discussing their issues, problems, and ideas for resolving them. As the students shared concerns and insights, it became clear that peer sharing at these age levels was a powerful instructional tool. As the program progressed, some of the older students expressed the need for more time to work on homework assignments. Consequently, students could elect to spend as much as two hours working on homework assignments at each session. During these sessions, tutorial assistance was available in the basic subject areas as needed. Turning on Learning: Language and Mathematics The third segment included core courses in mathematics and language issues, and entrepreneurial explorations. These sessions featured student-centered activities that emphasized cross-cultural teaching and learning styles and focused on mathematics or language and sometimes the interconnections between these areas. The curriculum and instruction for the experiences in language included the development of a knowledge base about the critical importance and roles that language plays in culture and, consequently, in cross-cultural studies. Language allows us to express and communicate our needs, emotions, values, ideas, and so on. Language, along with the arts, both performing and visual, is the most-often used/recognized representation of culture.

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The students spent time exploring their own linguistic repertoire and added to it through introductory lessons in American Sign Language. Discussions on rites of passage and their own adolescent experiences led to an art activity during which the students made a mask of life, with plaster bandages that were fitted to their faces, removed, allowed to dry, and then painted to represent who they were at this point in their development. Students selected empowerment descriptors such as strong, brilliant, intelligent, and warrior to describe their masks. These words were expressed in a sign language interpretive dance that the students performed for family and friends. The masks were worn in the beginning of the dance and removed with pride to show their true faces. The students used poetry to describe the symbolism of hiding behind a false face. One student said, “it is like hiding the fact that you like learning, so your friends won’t think you’re some kind of nerd. We wear masks a lot to pretend that we are so cool.” Role-playing and other dramatic exercises were incorporated into many aspects of instruction to help make literacy development active and student-centered. Students from the elementary school contingent produced and presented “Three Mexican Folktales” as part of the Kuumba Learning Center closing celebration. All grade level students engaged in social justice theater and dance exercises stemming from the work of Augusto Boal (1985), and the students used multimedia that included video production, photography, and newsletter/communication in-house publication. In the mathematics strand, mathematics was introduced as the language of analysis. It was discussed as a tool for understanding the world and things around us. Lessons focused on learning how to state predictions and estimations, and understanding a census and tabulations. Students explored the idea that data could be disputed. There were other activities not done due to time constraints, but in a longer session, recommendations for the program included exploring composition through still photography and the creation of photo essays, and providing opportunities for the participants and staff to explore the complexities and evolution of cross-cultural development in the cultural groups that make up the United States and some parts of the world. For example, learning about the African influences in Latin America could help the participants to create respectful and effective alliances with their peers both in the program and in their school settings.

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The success of the Kuumba Learning Center is especially impressive because the changes needed on three dimensions of the program were especially challenging. First, the program was expanded to include a greater range of developmental levels among the students, elementary to high school age; second, the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of the San Francisco Bay area setting is inherently more complex and personal for most, if not all, of the participants; and third, the time frame was reduced to eight short weeks, and the physical space available was limited to three classrooms at the university. PROJECT TWO: FINDINGS SIMILAR TO THE KMES PROJECT Several instruments were developed to evaluate the Kuumba Learning Center (KLC) program and its impact on student participants. Those instruments included a post-student evaluation survey; parent open-ended two-narrative questions; and focus group interviews with students, parents, faculty, and internship graduate students. In addition, grade school and graduate students kept program journal notebooks for reflection, observation, and class notes. Overall sentiments revealed that students enhanced their self-confidence, motivation for learning, math and creative skills, homework and testing assignments, social consciousness, and respect for others. Some examples from exit focus group interviews with student participants included, “KLC helped me to understand algebra and get a better perspective on it,” “It taught me so many more things about education, and how to understand my regular classroom teachers better,” “I made new friendships from different cultures other than my own,” “It taught me about being an entrepreneur and managing a budget, and setting goals for establishing a youth business,” and “It taught me about real injustices such as the gentrification policies that evict Oakland residents from their houses for no just cause.” These findings were similar to the Iowa KMES findings in 1997, such as bridging cultural and social injustice awareness, academic achievement, and creative social action strategies. Measurement instruments and techniques will continue to be piloted among culturally diverse students enrolled in extended-day programs similar to the Kuumba Learning Center experience. The knowledge gained will be used to continue work on instruments and techniques that reflect the validity and reliability standards required by communities of color most affected by the use of such measures, educators, and psychometricians.

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PROJECT THREE: FOX (PSEUDONYM) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND THE KUUMBA LEARNING MODEL PILOT RESEARCH PROJECT An Inner-City School Project Enrollment for Oakland Unified School District during 1999–2000 was 55,051. As is evident from the two tables, the larger school district, Oakland Unified, is approximately five times the size of Alameda Unified. During the academic year 2002–2003, the Graduate School of Education (GSOE) Cross Cultural Studies Institute agreed to test the Kuumba learning model in one of the GSOE Partnership Schools. The Fox Elementary School located in Oakland, California, became the KLM pilot school. The kindergarten–grade 5 inner city school has an enrollment of over 1,000 students and has been listed as one of the lowest-performance schools within the Oakland Unified School District. The KLM/Fox Research Pilot Project (2002–2003) focused on fourth and fifth grade students (360 students divided into six fourthgrade and six fifth-grade classrooms for a total of twelve classrooms). Three fourth- and three fifth-grade treatment classrooms were selected by the school principal based upon teachers expressing an interest in the program, and/or behavior and academic performance being lacking. The other six classrooms served as the control group for the pilot. The pilot sought to test (using quantitative and qualitative methods) the academic and cultural effectiveness of the Kuumba learning model: to enhance student cultural appreciation and academic performance and to measure the outcome of the learning model’s curriculum integration and intervention. The education intervention consisted of eight weeks of specialized instruction given to students regarding reading, mathematics, and cross-cultural studies. Each week, each treatment classroom received one hour of KLM instruction. The Kuumba “human family unit” was infused into regular classroom reading and mathematics curriculum. At the end of the pilot study, the Fox Kuumba students were asked to write on a poster board the things that they had learned in Kuumba as it related to combating prejudice and discrimination. Some of those responses were as follows: Helping others; learning and teaching together; we are one. Being a good team.

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Sometimes we learn things new. It takes teamwork to do something. Looking at your future, working as a team, do your work, and hanging on! War is not the solution. Don’t be prejudiced. Please do not start wars. Don’t judge. It is not prejudice, it is life. Why war when it brings worse results? Why hurt when you can help? Why be alone when we can be a team. Help the community like us. Education is important for many things in life. You can be everything if you believe. Why can’t we just get together and be blood brothers and sisters? Stand together. Feed the hungry. Don’t kill. Education is the key to ending prejudice.

The design of the KLM/Fox pilot study was typical of the KLM conceptual framework. In addition, the GSOE Cross Cultural Studies Institute faculty and graduate students participated in both KLM instruction and research. Furthermore, the PACE (Psychology of Ability, Competency, and Expertise) at Yale University became the external evaluators for the pilot project. The treatment (Fox) teachers observed and participated in KLM sessions, teacher meetings, and interviews. KLM/Fox proposed a full-scale study to begin in 2003–2004, in which Fox teachers would receive professional development and guidance to teach and integrate the KLM curriculum. Experimental Design Data were obtained from more than 400 students. However, due to missing information (lack of names on forms, and lack of completing all tests, etc.) at this time, complete pretest and posttest information is available for only 302 children. This number can be improved when more work on the identification of nonmatched test forms occurs. Treatment Group There were seventy-eight girls and sixty-nine boys in the treatment group (n ⫽ 147). Their mean age was 9.99 years, SD ⫽ .74; and 74

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percent (108) self-identified as black and 16 percent (23) as Latino. The remaining thirteen children included five multiracial, two Asian, two white, and four Pacific Island students. Nearly half (43 percent) of the sample were Protestant, 16 percent were Catholic, and 31 percent did not indicate a religious preference. Most of the children lived with both parents (44 percent, n ⫽ 65) or their mother (38 percent, n ⫽ 55). The living situations for the rest were equally divided between fathers and grandparents. Only 11 percent of the sample were receiving special education services, and 73 percent participated in the school’s free lunch program. Regular church attendance was high with 50 percent of the sample indicating weekly participation in religious services, and family size was large (average of three brothers and/or sisters). Control Group There were seventy-two girls and eighty-three boys in the control group (n ⫽ 155). Their mean age was 10.06 years, SD ⫽ .83. In contrast to the treatment sample, only 14 percent (or twenty-three) self-identified as black and 57 percent (eighty-nine) as Latino. The remaining fourteen children included four multiracial, four Asian, four white, and two Pacific Islander students. The majority of these children were Catholic (53 percent), 16 percent were Protestant, and 22 percent did not indicate a religious preference. Nearly all of these participants lived with both parents (81 percent, n ⫽ 126) or their mother (17 percent, n ⫽ 26). The living situations for the rest were equally divided between fathers and grandparents. Nearly 30 percent of the sample were receiving special education services, and 80 percent participated in the school’s free lunch program. Regular church attendance was also high, with 50 percent of the sample indicating weekly participation in worship, and family size was large (average of three brothers and/or sisters). Between-Group Differences on Demographic Variables A significant difference between the treatment and control groups was found on the ethnicity variable, c2(3, 301) ⫽ 109, p ⬍ .00001. This was also the case with respect to religious preference, c2(2, 302) ⫽ 86, p ⬍ .00001, and the person(s) with whom the child lived, c2(3, 300) ⫽ 62, p ⬍ .001. Since these factors are highly correlated (that

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is, Latinos were usually Catholic and lived with both parents), only ethnicity needed to be used as an independent variable (or as a covariate) in future analyses. This difference can be explained by the recruitment process: the control group comprised three bilingual classrooms, whereas the treatment group contained none. New Instruments Used in Project Three—Pretest Measures Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) Based on the seminal work of Robert Sternberg, the STAT was developed to assess three areas of cognitive functioning: analytical, practical, and creative. An abbreviated form of the instrument was used in the present study, with eight items on each scale. A total score (twenty-four items) was also obtained. This instrument has been used in a number of cross-cultural situations (Sternberg, Castejon, Prieto, Hautamaeki, & Grigorenko, 2001) with promising results. The test is not, however, without its critics (Brody, 2003). Cross Cultural Studies Institute (CCSI) Cultural Openness Scale A major goal of the Kuumba learning model is to increase the interest and receptivity of children to cross-cultural issues. Because assessment instruments suitable for use with inner-city elementary school children are lacking, GSOE CCSI faculty and graduate students developed a questionnaire to assess this construct. Following a literature review, fifteen items were generated with face validity (for example, “I like to try new things,” “I enjoy meeting all kinds of people”) answered using a five-point Likert scale. In many respects, the trait being assessed was similar to the openness factor of the Big Five model of personality that has been widely used in cross-cultural research (McCrae & John, 1992). CCSI Self-Concept Scale It was hoped that participation in the Kuumba Learning Project model would increase the self-efficacy of children. As before, the GSOE CCSI faculty and graduate students developed a questionnaire tailoring questions to be culturally appropriate for majority children of color living in an urban setting.

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CCSI School Involvement Scale The original twenty-five-item scale included questions about participation in and liking school activities (such as, “I am involved in school activities,” “I show good school spirit”). Reliability for the twentyfive-item scale was a ⫽.55, and after revising the scale and removing one item, a twenty-four-item version was created that showed impressive reliability, a ⫽ .83, and was used as a posttest outcome measure. On the final scale, one item was revised from a Likert-scale answering modality to a yes/no answer.

POSTTEST ANALYSES REVEAL COMMON FINDINGS Overall Liking Ratings of the Kuumba Learning Model Project by Fox Students This survey was administered only to students in the control group. The ratings of the fifty-two Cox elementary school students completing the Liking Questionnaire were very high, M ⫽ 4.34, SD ⫽ .52 (fivepoint scale). In general, the Kuumba project interventions were seen as interesting and informative. This is an important result, for it establishes an essential condition for effective learning (Durlak, 1998). Only fifty-two students completed the questionnaire because it was administered at a time when many classes were on field trips. The survey data are, however, consistent with qualitative data from student focus groups. In conclusion, the model shows promise, is well liked by students, and recommends that it be implemented over a longer period of time (preferably the entire school year), and from the start of the academic term. The researchers also recommend that additional performance measures be added to complement those scales and assessments used during the 2002–2003 intervention.

SUMMARY OF THE KUUMBA EXPLORATORY PROJECTS AND WHAT YOUTH ARE SAYING The purpose of this chapter was to exhibit evidence that education that is cross-cultural makes observable differences for elementary school children’s attitudes and behavior. If teachers, other school personnel, and all stakeholders understand these positive changes and their

Toolbox for Change For Individuals

Images/perceptions “Racism is not as bad as itused to be.”

“I’m not a racist.”

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“One person cannot make a difference.”

“Racism will always exist.”

Strategies for change Social action can help keep anti-bias legislation intact and progressing, that is, it can examine the current state of affairs regarding disappearing national and local policies that protect underrepresented groups as it relates to prejudice and discrimination. Vote for and support anti-bias policies. Become aware, understanding how groups suffer and are oppressed. Self-examination of racial prejudice and discrimination through diversity outreach and reading exploration. Adopt the view that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Seek to understand what racism is, what its ill effects are, and stages of cultural identity development. Each one teach at least ten others. Take a stand against racial injustice. Identify allies. Speak out against prejudice and discrimination, such as racist jokes and other racist behavior that are often ignored. Only if we let it. Be optimistic, start with racism and prejudice-reduction within families, communities, and other affiliations.

Community “Economic issues are more important than paying attention to prejudice and discrimination in schools.”

“We pay our taxes. Let the schools take the responsibility to address prejudice and discrimination.”

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Understand that racism is a system of power and privilege based on one’s race. Racism economically oppresses and penalizes some groups and gives privilege to others based upon race. Therefore, racism is a leading characteristic of socioeconomic oppression. It is the responsibility of the community: it takes a whole village to raise a child. Community leaders and organizations must put pressure on local and national governments to enforce equity throughout all public schools within their towns, cities, and states. Organize community education summits to address prejudice and discrimination. Support anti-racist education seminars, etc. Establish community volunteer programs within public schools. Role-model diversities.

Practitioners “Racism no longer exists and endedwith Create racism-free environments. the civil rightsmovement of the Re-education Racism in schools and efforts to reduce it should 1960s.” concern the total schools’environments. “Students embellish on racist experiences.” Do not dismiss student concerns regarding racist acts. Fully investigate situations and be proactive. “Race issues should be taught at home.” Students are most affected by racism in schools. It is recommended that students have a major role in helping to develop anti-racist curricula, and that educators understand the adverse effects of racism in schools on their students. continued

Toolbox for Change (continued ) For

Images/perceptions “Preparation is provided minimally in these areas.”

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For the most part, there is no national consensus on the importance and implementation of anti-racist creativity curricula offered in schools. Teachers and administrators can help in numerous ways: Follow up on students’ concerns in the classroom and general setting; Provide anti-racist creativity professional development for educators, school counselors, and administrators; Design racism and prejudice units at all grade levels; Encourage student-peer teaching; Create multimedia curricula on anti-racist student performance, process, and discourse; Enhance school policy directly to address racism in schools; Encourage administration leadership to support anti-racist policies; Put administration at the forefront of the movement; Actively support anti-bias efforts; Colleges, that is, education and psychology programs, must bolster recruitment strategies for students of color.

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implications, perhaps they will become greater supporters. This chapter also adds to anti-racist multicultural education research. Frequently, multicultural education scholarship is accused of not being grounded in empirical research. Opponents of multicultural education scholarship view the discipline as unable to prove that transforming the curriculum to become multicultural has a positive effect on student achievement. The ongoing efforts of the Kuumba learning model strive to add significantly to this growing body of research, and we encourage more implementation projects of this nature to get underway. The more research available, the better we are able to make our case to move beyond a reform movement into the worldwide practice of education that is cross-cultural, anti-racist, and creative. Students have wide variations in how they assess Kuumba’s ability to enhance their learning. Some comments include the following: Finding friends to work with. Helping to get a better understanding of my subjects. Understanding regular schoolteachers better. Increases my self-confidence. I can be better than I think I am. Education can be fun. We can make a better world. There are all different kinds of cultures. The arts make it easy to communicate tough issues. We are all very special. How to be brave in a mean world. I learn that I can reach my goal. Even when we are different, we should love each other. We must protect our world and nature. You can be different and still fit in. Never act like you can’t help anyone. Even if we’re different, we can love each other. I am in a room of other color people and I don’t mind at all. Get an education and you will get respect as you get it. Never do drugs or fight. Learning and teaching together. We are one. Enjoy what you are. War is not the solution.

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Prejudice is wrong. You can be a hero.

The youth who participated in these projects mostly concur that this style of education helps to address real-life situations and makes education enjoyable. It gives them tools to combat prejudice and discrimination. The students expressed the need for everyone to join in to make education successful, and they want adults to know that they as young people have a lot of ideas to offer in making the world racism-free. REFERENCES Banks, J. (1997). Teaching strategies for ethnic studies. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Bennett, C. L. (1997). Comprehensive multicultural education: Theory and practice (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Boal, A. (1985). Theatre of the oppressed. New York: Theatre Communication Group. Brody, N. (2003). What Sternberg should have concluded. Intelligence, 31, 339–342. Brown, P. (1995). Cultural identity groups overview and framework. Unpublished document, Fort River School, Amherst, MA. Campbell, L., Campbell, B., & Dickinson, D. (1996). Teaching and learning through multiple intelligences. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Cushner, K., McClelland, A., & Safford, P. (1992). Human diversity in education: An integrative approach. New York: McGraw-Hill. Donaldson, K. (1996). Through students’ eyes: Combating racism in United States schools. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Donaldson, K. (2001). Shattering the denial: Protocols for the classroom and beyond. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Donaldson, K., & Seepe, S. P. (In press). And the walls came tumblin’ down: Cross cultural transformation. Journal for Cross Cultural Transformation in Education, 1. Donaldson, K., & Tartakov, C. (1997). Multicultural education: An answer to racism. The Des Moines Register. Donaldson, K., & Verma, G. (1997). Antiracist education definition. In C. Grant & G. Ladson-Billings (Eds.), Dictionary of multicultural education. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press. Durlak, J. A. (1998). Why program implementation is important. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 17, 5–18. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books. Gordon, R. [principal researcher] (1998). Education and race: A journalist’s handbook. Oakland, CA: Applied Research Center.

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Kailin, J. (2002). Antiracist education: From theory to practice. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60, 175–215. Murray, C. B. C., & Clark, R. M. (1990). Targets of racism. American School Board Journal, 17(6), 22–24. Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (2nd ed.). New York: Longman Publishers. Nieto, S. (2002). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (4th ed.). New York: Longman Publishers. Nieto, S. (2003). What keeps teachers going? New York: Teachers College Press. Pine, G. J., & Hilliard, A. G. (1990, April). Rx for racism: Imperatives for America’s schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 593–600. Sleeter, C. E. (1992). Keepers of the American dream: Multicultural and staff development. Philadelphia: Farmer Press. Sternberg, R., Castejon, J. L., Prieto, M. D., Hautamaeki, J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2001). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Sternberg triarchic abilities test in three international samples: An empirical test of the triarchic theory of intelligence. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 17, 1–16. Sternberg, R., & Grigorenko, E. (2000). Teaching for successful intelligence: To increase student learning and achievement. Essex, England: Pearson Education Publishers. Tartakov, C. (1995). Ethnicity awareness intervention: Effects on attitudes and behaviors of science educators. Ames: Iowa State University. Tatum, B. (1997). “Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” and other conversations about race. New York: Basic Books.

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CHAPTER 9

Coping with Racism: A Spirit-Based Psychological Perspective Carla D. Hunter Ma’at E. Lewis-Coles

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umerous theories such as negrescence, racial identity, internalized racism, and stereotype threat, to name a few, attempt to capture the impact of racism on black consciousness, identity, feelings, and behaviors, and the stress that results from being reminded of one’s disempowered status in an oppressive society. Some of these theories also highlight how blacks can negotiate and develop a positive identity despite the multiple manifestations of racism that are encountered. In addition, blacks’ coping styles, such as the use of prayer, talking to friends, and/or keeping problems to themselves (Chiang, Hunter, & Yeh, in press) may also serve to buffer daily acts of discrimination and the experience of racism. Despite this, racism and the stress associated with racism continually affect blacks’ self-esteem, emotional and physical well-being (Anderson, 1989; Fernando, 1984; Jones, Harrell, Morris-Prather, Thomas, & Omowale, 1996), and mental health (Klonoff, Landrine, & Ullman, 1999; Lewis, 2003). Many in the field of African psychology (Kambon, 1992; Myers, 1993; Nobles, 1986; Utsey, Bolden, & Brown, 2001) believe that what is needed is a psychology of liberation for people of African descent. A psychology of liberation stresses the development of an African worldview, offers beliefs that empower descendants to reconnect with their heritage, and ultimately reengages their spirits in order to achieve adaptive mental health (Obasi, 2002; Parham & Parham,

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2002). Historically, blacks are known to be religiously and spiritually involved people (Taylor, Chatters, Jayakody, & Levin, 1996). Religion and spirituality are common among blacks and known to be important components of psychological health for some (Constantine, Lewis, Conner, & Sanchez, 2000; Ellison, 1993; Lukoff, Turner, & Lu, 1992; Mattis, 2000). Newlin, Knafl, and Melkus (2002) provide a description of spirituality for people of African descent based on current research. The researchers surveyed the literature and developed an analysis of the concept of “African American spirituality” that suggests cultural attributes specific to blacks including guidance, coping, and peace; and for blacks and whites involving global attributes such as transcendence, hope, strength, purpose in life, and interconnectedness with others or God/higher power. Moreover, for some blacks a particular religion may represent the practical expression of their spirituality (such as religious beliefs, thoughts, sentiments, and rituals [Jagers & Smith, 1996]). Despite the importance of black spirituality, very little of the psychological literature has explored the impact of racism on the spirit of blacks. Rather, the impact of racism has been deduced from the physical and emotional ailments seen in blacks, without integrating the concept of spirit. We believe that a discussion of racism and the spirit is needed in the psychology field. Furthermore, we also support using one’s spirit to cope with racism. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to (a) describe the impact of racism, (b) discuss the manifestation of racism on the spirit of persons of African descent, (c) describe a method for how to engage the spirit, and (d) provide an example of the practical application for dealing with racism. BEARING THE BRUNT OF RACISM Racism is an ideology or worldview in which individuals are categorized into racial groups according to observable physical traits. Harrell (2000) provides a comprehensive definition of racism that includes four central points: (a) a “system of dominance, power, and privilege that is based on racial group designations”; (b) “historical oppression based upon the dominant group’s perception that other racial groups are inferior, deviant, or undesirable”; (c) “members of the dominant group create or accept their societal privilege by maintaining structures, ideology, values, and behavior”; and (d) exclusion of minority group members from “power, esteem, status and/or equal access to societal resources” (p. 43). As such, systematic racial inequalities and unfair

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practices based on skin color leave many blacks feeling powerless, helpless, and devalued. Jones (1997) further discussed the multiple manifestations of racial beliefs in his description of a three-part organizational system of racism. Jones states that racism can be manifested in at least three ways: (a) individual racism, (b) institutional racism, and (c) cultural racism. Jones’s model helps us understand that racism can be experienced at the individual level. Individual forms of racism are behaviors and negative communications about an individual based upon his or her race. Thus, individual racism occurs at the personal level. Institutional racism is reflected in the institutional and systematic policies and practices that impact blacks and maintain powerlessness and inadequate access to needed resources. Cultural racism forms out of the belief that the dominant group’s cultural heritage, beliefs, and practices are superior. Cultural racism results in the devaluing of black cultural values. Essed (1990) provides an additional dimension—collective racism—to describe the concept of everyday racism, which is considered cumulative and endured by blacks throughout the day in work settings, public places, en route to and from home, on television, and in other popular media outlets. If racism is a worldview, then discrimination is the collection of behaviors and attitudes that are consistent with a racist worldview. Discrimination is behavior perpetrated against individuals in the “inferior” group by those who belong to the majority group. For example, if in your worldview you believe black men to be violent and intellectually inferior, you may commit discriminatory acts that include turning black men down for loans, ignoring black male consumers (Sue, 2003), and at the extreme, commit acts of police brutality. In fact, racism and the resulting discrimination have been associated with poor physical and psychological health among blacks. Chronic encounters with racism and/or perceiving acts of discrimination lead some blacks to have a number of different responses that can tax the body’s physical defenses. Similarly, the stress of racism affects some blacks’ emotions, thoughts, and behaviors and results in symptoms of psychological distress (for example, anxiety, sadness, somatization, depression, negative self-cognitions, and interpersonal sensitivity) (Lewis, 2003). Studies have shown that racism and discrimination affect blacks’ physical and emotional well-being (Anderson, 1989; Fernando, 1984; Jones et al., 1996). Furthermore, racism and discrimination have been correlated with hypertension, cigarette smoking (Anderson, 1989; Jones et al., 1996; Krieger, 1990; Landrine &

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Klonoff, 1996), substance abuse, eating problems, psychosomatization, and depression (Comas-Diaz & Greene, 1994; Fernando, 1984; Neuspiel, 1996; Thompson, 1992). At times, blacks experience what Utsey, Ponterotto, Reynolds, and Cancelli (2000) termed racismrelated stress, which is one of six racism-related reactions. Additional racism-related reactions described by Utsey and colleagues (2001) include race-related trauma, race-related fatigue, anticipatory racism reaction, race-related frustration, and race-related confusion. What is lacking in our understanding of the impact of racism is a discussion of the relationship between racism and spirit. As stated previously, an important component of black mental health and culture is spirit, and as such we cannot continue to understand adaptive black mental health without integrating the role of spirit. DRAWING UPON THE BLACK SPIRIT In discussing the relationship between racism and the spirit, it is helpful to further articulate what is meant by “spirit” and explain its key concepts as defined by leading scholars of African philosophy and African psychology (Ashby, 2002b; Grills, 2002; Kambon, 1992; Myers, 1993; Parham, White, & Adjamu, 1999). In particular, the essential features of spirit have been described by Myers (1993) as “that permeating essence we come to know in an extrasensory fashion (that is, via energy/conscious/God)” and the essence of the self that is “consciously infused with Creative Life Force or Higher Power”; and by Grills (2002) as “that incorporeal, animating principle and energy that reflects the essence and sustenance of all matter.” Ashby (2002a) states that spirit is all-pervasive and transcendental, beyond time and space, encompassing our soul, mind, and body. Considering these definitions, we define spirit as the unseen divine energy that functions interchangeably with an individual’s soul, mind, and physical body. Spirit functions such that first it gives rise to the individual soul. The soul is otherwise considered the unconscious mind (the part of the mind outside a person’s awareness). The soul or unconscious mind then gives rise to the conscious mind (senses, thoughts, and feelings). The mind in turn sustains the functions of the physical body, such as the nervous system, brain, and ultimately behaviors. Thus, spirit, known by many names, is the energy force behind the functions of the soul, mind, and body. The energy from spirit, also known as life force energy or sekhem in ancient Egyptian culture, comes into the

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body by means of the breath and subtle energy channels (Ashby, 2000). According to ancient Egyptian philosophy, the breath is transferred to seven main centers that correspond to the central nervous system. From the nervous system, the energy is distributed to the endocrine system (the system that regulates all body functions) and then various organs, muscles, and tissues. From this description, we can see the holistic interconnection of the body, mind, soul, and spirit. When the flow of energy in the body is able to move through the individual freely, one is able to experience guidance, coping, and peace. In essence, one is connected to his or her spirit. When the flowing of energy in the body among the soul, mind, and ultimately the physical body becomes disrupted, one is unable to access guidance, coping, and peace from one’s spirit. The experience of racism directly disrupts African descendants’ spirits and manifests in their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Depletion of energy from one’s spirit may occur when mental attention is drawn to perceiving or experiencing racism. The disruption to one’s energy flow leads to confusion, poor coping, and agitated or dull states of mind. For example, a black woman working as a waitress at a fast food restaurant chain receives insults daily from coworkers who question her about wearing her hair in natural kinky styles. She frequently overhears white co-workers commenting that her hair is so curly, and black coworkers suggesting she “straighten her hair” with a chemical process. The woman may begin to unconsciously internalize some of these culturally racist remarks, which confuse her and distract her awareness of her spiritual essence. She may begin to think self-doubting thoughts about her appearance (such as “my hair is too kinky”). Once this occurs, she may begin to emotionally respond with feelings of embarrassment or anger. Behaviorally, the woman may experience labored breathing from the angry feelings, or she may verbally lash out at her coworkers and engage in passive-aggressive responses. These responses further deplete her energy. By the end of the day, she is tired and mired down in others’ perceptions of her. Her conscious experience is overstimulated and becomes disconnected from her spirit. Over time, recurrent experiences of this nature disconnect the intimate connection between the mind and spirit and therefore spirit and the physical body. The mind and the physical body begin to function without the validating nature of the spirit. For blacks, a disconnection from spirit is particularly damaging because connection to spirit is part of African culture and enables blacks to foster adaptive mental health. What we advocate are

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practices for reengaging the spirit in the context of living in a racist and oppressive society. In the next section, we will turn to discuss a method rooted in an African worldview that empowers blacks to reconnect with their heritage and adaptively deal with racism. BREATHING THROUGH EXPERIENCES OF RACISM We put forth a description of a breath control or a proper breathing method to explain how to engage the spirit as a source of guidance, coping, and peace. Although widely accepted and adapted in mainstream culture, the proper breathing technique is also rooted in the spiritual practices of ancient Egyptian culture (Ashby, 2002b). Ashby (2002a) explains that the ability to control one’s breath allows a person to control energy from his or her spirit. Controlling the spirit’s energy flow into the body provides the ability to control the mind and senses. Therefore, proper breathing can be an effective way to restore and accumulate the energy from the spirit in the body when it is disrupted by experiences of racism. According to Ashby (2002b), many people in the modern world do not know how to breathe properly. They have learned to breathe by pushing out the chest in a “macho” fashion. This form of breathing does not allow for a significant amount of oxygen to be taken in, and vital energy is reduced and becomes stagnant in the subtle energy channels of the body, resulting in dullness and agitation or physical problems. “The stagnation of the flow of energy through the body has the effect of grounding one’s consciousness to the physical realities rather than allowing the mind and body to operate with lightness and subtlety” (Ashby, 2002b, p. 195). Belly breathing or abdominal breathing is used to perform proper breathing. It is the natural breathing pattern when one lies on one’s back. The steps are to breathe in through the nose and push the stomach out; breathe out through the nose or mouth and pull the stomach in. This form of breathing can be practiced at all times, not just in the context of perceiving racism. In fact, we recommend that proper breathing be practiced throughout the day and not only when experiencing racism. It allows the energy of the spirit in the air to be rhythmically supplied to the body and the nervous system. Here is a technique that can be done any time during the day for five minutes or at a moment when there is the need to gain clarity on how to effectively cope with racism and restore a sense of peace: close

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your eyes and allow your abdomen to expand as you breathe in through your nose. Visualize that you are taking in life force energy along with the air in each breath. See the energy remaining in your body as you expel the air slowly out of your nose or mouth. Visualize that all the nutrients of the air are being used in the body and that impurities are being carried away as you breathe out. You can just simply focus on the rising and falling of the abdomen with the breath. If your mind begins to get distracted, just return your attention to the rhythm of your breathing. To illustrate the breathing method, consider that a black male who has learned the proper breathing technique and practices breathing daily will cope in an adaptive way with experiences of racism. For example, suppose he is racially profiled and subsequently stopped by police as he is driving home from work. He may evaluate the situation as a disruption to his peace of mind. This evaluation may be lead to confused thinking, for example, “Did I do something wrong?” and will cause him to feel angry and possibly behave in a confrontational manner toward the officer. While these feelings are a natural stress response to an experience with racism, the black male may also use the breathing techniques discussed here to adaptively cope and offset further psychological distress. Alternatively, he can achieve psychological resolution from the experience faster than someone who may not be equipped with the technique. If he has been practicing proper breathing, he might implement a proper breathing technique to manage his anxiety, fear, and anger. In allowing himself to breathe in, he will take in the life-force energy and will use his spirit to receive guidance on how to cope with the incidence of racial profiling and restore peace of mind. He will also slow down the anxiety and any other arousal that is occurring. In addition, he will minimize negative thoughts, harmful emotions, and potentially destructive behaviors. He may even go further and recognize that he is not at fault and that it is in fact the system that is oppressive and racist. USING THE SPIRIT The following case is an example of a recent consulting case of one of the authors who worked with an individual. The case material illustrates how the experience of racism can disrupt a client’s ability to obtain guidance from her spirit, interfere with coping, and lead to disrupted peace of mind, such as in feelings of negative selfworth.

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Nya’s Experience: Race-Based Housing Discrimination Nya (pseudonym used to protect the anonymity of the individual) is a thirty-four-year old middle-income, Baptist, single, black woman who currently works as a project director for a large research institution in a moderately sized city in the northeast United States. Nya has no significant psychiatric history. She was referred by her lawyer for a psychological interview to determine the impact of learning that she had been a victim of race-based stereotyping and discrimination. At the time of the referral, Nya was in the midst of preparing for a settlement hearing over a housing discrimination case. Her attorney, a white female, hoped to develop a greater understanding of the psychological impact of the racial discrimination incident on the client in order to substantiate claims for psychological damages in the settlement. The psychological consultant conducted a clinical interview with Nya via the telephone, and verbally administered a racism-related stress inventory, a culture-specific coping scale, and a symptoms checklist. The client requested to talk with the consultant on two additional occasions within the next two weeks to obtain guidance before the settlement hearing. According to Nya, she was promoted to a supervisory position, approximately two years ago, which required her to relocate. She was excited about starting this new chapter in her life even though it required a move to the company’s headquarters, which was approximately a one-hour drive from her home. Nya, described by her friends as a “go getter,” decided that she would find an apartment closer to her new office. As she perused her local newspaper she came across an advertisement for a “beautiful, spacious, one-bedroom in a quaint family-oriented community.” The address of the town house was close to her new office, and she decided to call the phone number provided in the ad. She contacted the landlords by phone to inquire about the advertised vacancy. She was provided with the address of the housing complex, told that the apartment was available, and an appointment was scheduled to view the apartment. Nya reported that she had a “good feeling” because an opportunity to live in the complex would shorten her commute to work from one hour to fifteen minutes. Nya reported that when she arrived at the apartment complex for her scheduled appointment, the owner seemed surprised by her appearance and did not introduce herself to Nya. Rather, she asked the then-tenant to show Nya the apartment. After viewing the apartment, Nya expressed an interest in renting and asked about the next

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step that she should follow. The owner of the housing complex informed Nya that she (the owner) would have to consult with her co-owner and would contact her. Nya did not hear from the owner for several days. Not easily discouraged, she then telephoned the owners of the apartment complex to again express her interest in the apartment. The co-owner told her that they were taking applications, they required three written references, and all applicants were being screened. Nya provided her name and address to the co-owner in order to receive an application by mail, but a couple days later she still had not received an application packet. Approximately one week later, Nya stopped by the apartment complex and spoke with the then-tenant, who confided that she showed the apartment that Nya was interested in to a Caucasian couple one day after Nya initially viewed the apartment. When Nya mentioned that she was being asked to provide an application and letters of reference, the then-tenant seemed surprised. The then-tenant, who was also white, told Nya that she (the tenant) did not have to submit written references and that the couple to whom the apartment was rented were not asked to submit an application or provide written letters of reference. Through tears, Nya shared with the psychological consultant that the then-tenant informed her that when Nya had walked away on the day she viewed the apartment, the owner commented, “We need to screen potential tenants more carefully. We have rented to them [blacks] before and it has always been a disaster.” Later that day, one of the owners of the complex left Nya a message advising her that the apartment was rented, but if another vacancy became available he would call her. Immediately after this incident, Nya sought the support of her friends and family. She was advised by family and friends to seek legal counsel for housing discrimination and obtained the services of a local agency that provided legal support services to victims of discrimination. Nya’s Reaction to the Incident During the initial consultation interview, Nya stated that upon learning of the racially stereotypical sentiments made by the owner, she felt “angry.” In addition, learning of the race-based discrimination was devastating because the owner had not inquired any information about her except that her job location was near the apartment. Therefore, Nya was angry about how negative and unfavorable conclusions about renting to her could be drawn. She also stated that for several months

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following the incident, she suffered restless sleep patterns, difficulty concentrating on tasks, fatigue, reduced self-esteem, feelings of general mistrust, depressive symptoms, anger, worry, and withdrawal from her usual social activities. She sought out social support from family members whom she indicated were angered by news of the incident. She also had to inform her boss and coworkers of the situation because it was impacting her ability to concentrate and perform tasks effectively. Nya states that her self-esteem was particularly affected because prior to the incident she was not regularly concerned that such an event could happen to her. She reports repeatedly asking herself, “Why me? How could this happen to me?” She said that the incident “has changed my perspective of the world. . . . I feel like I had elevated myself beyond this. My parents raised us to believe we could do anything, go anywhere, live anywhere. I never saw anything as blatant racism before.” As court proceedings and litigation for the discrimination case filed by Nya have continued for over two years, she continues to suffer psychological distress. At the time of our interviews, she reported suffering restless sleep, lack of concentration at work, improved although still-reduced self-esteem, decreased trust of others in general, anger, and worry. She states that every time she has to relive or rehash the incident she gets angry. Now she questions whether other persons are judging her. She acknowledges, “I’ve moved forward, but it was always in my mind.” During my second meeting with Nya, I inquired about how the discrimination and the case were taking a toll on her feelings about herself, her outlook, her thoughts, and her behaviors. She explained feeling confused about whether or not there was a reason for this to happen to her. The consultant provided reinforcement that she might be striving to find spiritual meaning in her experience. She went on to reflect that she believed the whole ordeal in some way was “bigger” than her. She pondered that there must be a spiritual purpose to everything happening to her, but that she was not ready to figure out the lesson because she was just too confused and angry. In the final conversation, Nya did not want to return to discussing the spiritual significance of her experience because she could not make sense of it. Rather, she chose to focus on her mixed feelings about more concrete issues of the settlement, like the amount of a settlement, whether or not to go to trial, and whether she should seek an apology from the defendant. Shortly after the monetary settlement of the case, Nya sent the consultant a message of thanks. The consultant replied, informing the client of the opportunity

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to share her story in this case study. Nya replied with the following sentiments: Wow! That sounds exciting. . . . Personally, I would be very interested in being part of the case study section knowing that what I went through could help others or at least put it into perspective for them . . . remember when we spoke, I felt like this whole ordeal was in some part “bigger” than me. Like there was more that I needed to do about this and maybe this is the answer. Maybe this opportunity is what was being given to me but at the time I didn’t understand it. I kept thinking part of it was not to settle, but instead take the case to court, but for some reason that still didn’t feel like the “thing to do.” It kept nagging at me and I couldn’t make sense of it. So, maybe this is the “thing” I was trying to figure out, the “something” that was bigger than me in a sense. It wasn’t simply just knowing they discriminated against me but understanding there was more to it and there was a message I needed to give on a bigger platform than just the “courtroom.”

REFLECTIONS ON USING THE SPIRIT Nya’s experiences suggest several ways that psychologists and counselors may intervene to address disruption to one’s spirit. During the initial psychological consultation with Nya, she was made aware of the lasting impact that racism-related stress might have on the client’s presenting symptoms, specifically her interpersonal sensitivity, depressive symptoms, and changing affective states. To assist the legal team and to help Nya cope with the racial incident, the consultant assessed her level of stress, behavioral and affective symptoms, and style of coping with the aid of clinical assessment tools. Consistent with the client’s self report, the results suggested that she had not perceived substantial racism-related stress over her lifetime. The results supported her report of employing collective and spirit-centered forms of coping and experience of substantial psychological distress immediately following the event and to a lesser extent two years later. During the second meeting with Nya, the consultant used the assessment conclusions to explore how Nya’s current and previous experiences with racism have taken a toll on her feelings about herself, her outlook, her thoughts, and her behaviors. The client introduced the possibility of a spiritual purpose to the event. When the consultant directly explored spirit, the client said that she did attend church and at times she felt good when she thought about her relationship to God. Relying on an understanding of spirit,

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the consultant validated this experience and also emphasized to Nya that according to some psychological perspectives, spirit also represented her interconnection to something greater than herself and that engaging her spirit might aid in her ability to cope with the discriminatory event. If Nya were open to exploring the spirit-based aspect of her experience further, the consultant could share that from an African-centered perspective, racism-related stress creates blockages in the flow of energy and, as a result, this blockage disrupts the soulmind-body-spirit connection. A disruption of the spirit leads her to experience confusion that impacts her ability to cope, her behaviors (lack of motivation toward normal activities), and thoughts (internalizing stereotypical perceptions). Nya could learn to use breathing as an important part of coping because breathing allows the energy to flow once again and facilitates the connective relationship to her spirit. This appears to be a plausible approach for Nya, as she is motivated to use spirituality to cope with her experience. For example, she may spend each morning engaging in breathing exercises that help reconnect her to her spirit. She can also participate in events at the community level that remind her that she is not alone in her experiences. Nonetheless, it is evident in the sentiments of her above message to the consultant that through the clinical interview, Nya was able to understand her experience in the context of learning about her spirit. The toolbox at the end of the chapter provides a synopsis of suggestions for combating prejudice and discrimination based on engaging the spirit. These suggestions can be used by individuals, communities, practitioners, and educators. CONCLUSION Racism and discrimination affect the lives of blacks daily and are experienced in the individual, cultural, institutional, and collective realms. The impact of racism on blacks’ physical and psychological health is well documented in the field of psychology. Racism-related stress has been correlated with depression, hypertension, negative selfcognitions, and internalized negative racial beliefs that may cause violence against self and others. Yet, as much as we know about the impact of racism on the mental health of blacks, we know very little about how racism impacts the spirit. This is ironic, given the importance and centrality of spirituality. In this chapter, we attempt to bridge this gap by offering a conceptualization of the impact of racism on blacks’ spirit and its resulting psychological manifestations. We hope to alert readers,

Toolbox for Change For

Perceptions based on racism

Strategies for change

Individuals

Individual racism Use breath control exercises Negative thoughts and daily to foster engagement feelings based upon race. of spiritual guidance. Personal insults directed Employ breath control at self and others techniques during specific due to prejudice, incidents of discrimination, stereotypes, and stereotypical treatment, or discrimination. prejudice. Everyday racism Practice breath control Daily experiences or racism throughout the day to throughout the day, at help maintain peace of work, in public places, mind in the midst of en route to and from everyday racist home, on television, occurrences. and in other media outlets.

Community

Cultural racism Beliefs that the dominant group’s cultural heritage and practices are superior.

Practitioners/ Institutional racism educators Systematic policies and practices that promote inadequate access to resources. Policies and programs that restrict choices, rights, mobility, and access for the nondominant racial groups.

Develop community rituals that affirm cultural heritage, beliefs, and practices, such as breath control based on African culture. Institute psychoeducational programs outside traditional psychology that empower blacks to reconnect with the spirit-based practices of their heritage. Develop training programs about black spirituality and the African origins of spiritual practices such as breath control. Teach awareness of one’s assumptions and biases regarding the role of spirit.

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whether they are practitioners, individuals, or members of the community, to the role of spirit in their lives and in their work with blacks. We also offer practical suggestions for coping with racism that will enable the reader to reconnect with the spirit. In this way, recognizing the role of spirit in one’s life may serve as a resource to deal with experiences of racism and discrimination. As a final note, we agree with leaders in the field who support using culturally congruent frameworks when working with people of African descent. As such, it is no longer appropriate when working with blacks to utilize theories that do not validate all facets of African cultural values. We hope that the ideas presented in this chapter continue the tradition of a psychology of liberation toward healing and optimizing the functioning of persons of African descent.

REFERENCES Anderson, N. B. (1989). Racial differences in stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity and hypertension: Current status and substantive issues. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 89–105. Ashby, M. (2000). The Egyptian book of the dead: The book of coming forth by day. Miami, FL: Sema Institute of Yoga. Ashby, M. (2002a). Kemetic diet: Ancient African wisdom for health of mind, body and spirit. Miami, FL: Sema Institute of Yoga. Ashby, M. (2002b). The African origins of civilization, religion, yoga mysticism and ethics philosophy. Miami, FL: Sema Institute of Yoga. Chiang, L., Hunter, C. D., & Yeh, C. J. (in press). Coping attitudes, sources, and practices among black and Latino college students. Adolescence. Comas-Diaz, L, & Greene, B. (1994). Women of color: Integrating ethnic and gender identities in psychotherapy. New York: The Guilford Press. Constantine, M. G., Lewis, E. L., Conner, L. C., & Sanchez, D. (2000). Addressing spiritual and religious issues in counseling African Americans: Implications for counselor training and practice. Counseling and Values, 45, 28–39. Ellison, C. G. (1993). Religious involvement and self-perception among black Americans. Social Forces, 71, 1027–1055. Essed, P. (1990). Everyday racism: Reports from women of two cultures. Claremont, CA: Hunter House. Fernando, S. (1984). Racism as a cause of depression. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 30, 41–49. Grills, C. (2002). African-centered psychology: Basic principles. In P. Pedersen (Series ed.) & T. A. Parham (Vol. ed.), Multicultural aspects of counseling series: Vol. 18. Counseling persons of African descent:

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Raising the bar of practitioner competence (pp. 25–37). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Harrell, S. P. (2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: Implications for the well-being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70, 42–57. Jagers, R. J., & Smith, P. (1996). Further examination of the Spirituality Scale. Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 429–442. Jones, D. R., Harrell, J. P., Morris-Prather, C. E., Thomas, J., & Omowale, N. (1996). Affective and physiological responses to racism: The roles of Afrocentrism and mode of presentation. Ethnicity and Disease, 6, 109–122. Jones, J. M. (1997). Prejudice and racism (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kambon, K. K. K. (1992). The African personality in America: An Africancentered framework. Tallahassee, FL: Nubian Nation Publications. Klonoff, E. A., Landrine, H., & Ullman, J. B. (1999). Racial discrimination and psychiatric symptoms among blacks. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 5, 329–339. Krieger, N. (1990). Racial and gender discrimination: Risk factors for high blood pressure. Social Science and Medicine, 30, 1273–1281. Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1996). The schedule of racist events: A measure of racial discrimination and a study of its negative physical and mental consequences. Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 144–168. Lewis, M. E. L. (2003). Perceptions of racism-related stress, culture specific coping and psychological distress among African Americans. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Lukoff, D., Turner, R., & Lu, F. (1992). Transpersonal psychology research review: Psychoreligious dimensions of healing. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 24, 41–60. Mattis, J. (2000). African American women’s definitions of spirituality and religiosity. Journal of Black Psychology, 26, 101–122. Myers, J. L. (1993). Understanding an Afrocentric world view: Introduction to an optimal psychology (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Neuspiel, D. R. (1996). Racism and perinatal addiction. Ethnicity and Disease, 6, 47–55. Newlin, K., Knafl, K., & Melkus, G. D. (2002). African American spirituality: A concept analysis. Advances in Nursing Science, 25, 57–70. Nobles, W. W. (1986). African psychology: Towards its reclamation, reascension and revitalization. Oakland, CA: Black Family Institute. Obasi, E. M. (2002). Reconceptualizing the notion of self from the African deep structure. In P. Pedersen (Series ed.) & T. A. Parham (Vol. ed.), Multicultural aspects of counseling series: Vol. 18. Counseling persons

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of African descent: Raising the bar of practitioner competence (pp. 52– 74). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Parham, T. A., & Parham, W. D. (2002). Understanding African American mental health: The necessity of new conceptual paradigms. In P. Pedersen (Series ed.) & T. A. Parham (Vol. ed.), Multicultural aspects of counseling series: Vol. 18. Counseling persons of African descent: Raising the bar of practitioner competence (pp. 25–37). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Parham, T. A., White, J. L., & Ajamu, A. (1999). The psychology of blacks: An African-centered perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Sue, D. W. (2003). Overcoming our racism: The journey to liberation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Taylor, R. J., Chatters, L. M., Jayakody, R., & Levin, J. S. (1996). Black and white differences in religious participation: A multisample comparison. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 403–410. Thompson, B. W. (1992). A way outa no way: Eating problems among African American, Latina, and white women. Gender and Society, 6, 546–561. Utsey, S. O., Bolden, M. A., & Brown, A. L. (2001). Visions of revolution from the spirit of Frantz Fanon: A psychology of liberation for counseling African Americans confronting societal racism and oppression. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of Multicultural Counseling (2nd ed., pp. 311–336). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Utsey, S. O., Ponterotto, J. G., Reynolds, A. L., & Cancelli, A. A. (2000). Racial discrimination, coping, life satisfaction, and self-esteem among African Americans. Journal of Counseling and Development, 78, 72–80.

CHAPTER 10

Combating Racism: The Role of Psychologists and the United Nations Thema Bryant-Davis Corann Okorodudu Bertha Garrett Holliday

COMBATING RACISM: THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION AND THE UNITED NATIONS

M

ost societal traumas are traumas that may arise from racism, sexism, and classism, or the profound influence of social, economic, and political oppression. Racism is a potentially traumatizing and terrorizing form of victimization that affects ethnic minority children and adults. As sources of trauma, racist incidents may result in long-term continuous psychological effects such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Additionally, racist incidents are also constant sources of stress in the everyday lives of ethnic minorities in the United States as well as targeted group members internationally. Racism has negative legal, social, economic, political, and educational consequences; and to eradicate racism, an interdisciplinary approach is needed. Not only do policymakers, economists, and educators play a role in addressing racism, but psychologists are also key contributors to eradicating racism. This chapter will first define racism, then explore the ways psychologists of the American Psychological Association (APA) have worked to address it through APA policies and through interventions at the United Nations. Along with economic, social, and political consequences, racism has been found to have psychological consequences, including increased

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psychiatric and physiological symptomatology. For example, some critical characteristics of traumatic events are that they are threatening to life or life quality, cause severe harm or injury, and are marked by intense fear, helplessness, or horror. While it is obvious that racially motivated physical assaults threaten the lives of target group members, nonphysical forms of racism impair the quality of life of target group members through housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and unequal education. Within the United States, targets of racism include members of ethnic minority groups such as blacks, Asians, Latinos, and Native Americans. Globally, targets of racism include people of African descent, Asian descent, Arab descent, the Dalits of India, Roma gypsies, and other indigenous peoples. Definition of Racism Racism is defined as beliefs, attitudes, institutional arrangements, and behaviors that tend to denigrate individuals or groups because of these persons’ phenotypic characteristics or ethnic group affiliations. Racism assumes many forms. Individual racism is closest to race prejudice and occurs when a negative action, such as verbal abuse, physical assault, or discrimination, is taken against a target group member or members by an individual aligned with the dominant and more powerful and privileged group. Institutional racism manifests when doctrines of racial superiority pervade the political, economic, educational, criminal justice, media, and health care systems of a nation or state. Cultural racism involves doctrines of racial superiority related to values, beliefs, and cultural forms. The promulgation of institutional and cultural racism may be covert or overt and may be directed at an individual or a group of people. Additionally, individuals or institutions may perpetrate these forms of racism. THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION’S RESOLUTION AGAINST RACISM In 2001, the American Psychological Association prepared to send a delegation to the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WCAR). As part of these preparations, the American Psychological Association approved its first resolution against racism. While the Association has prior resolutions against discrimination and poverty, this is the first resolution against racism. Resolutions serve to summarize existing

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psychological literature in a particular area and to advocate specific policy and procedural recommendations based on the literature. During the previous twenty-five years, the American Psychological Association showed its support for the fight against racism within the discipline of psychology and the Association by establishing the APA Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, the APA Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (APA’s Division 45), supporting the biannual National Multicultural Conference and Summit (which is organized collaboratively by several APA divisions) that addresses racism and intolerance, adopting UN human rights instruments, supporting efforts by the United Nations to defend human rights, adopting resolutions against discrimination and in favor of increased resource access for ethnic minorities, and dedication of the 1999 Annual Convention to Racial and Other Diversity Issues in Psychology. An initial draft of the APA resolution against racism was prepared by two of the American Psychological Association (APA) representatives to the United Nations: Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis and Dr. Corann Okorodudu, who serve as the APA’s main representative to the United Nations. The APA Committee on International Relations (CIRP), in consultation with the APA Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), modified the resolution’s text, and an ad hoc group of representatives from the APA UN delegation, CIRP, and CEMA drafted a justification statement that cited the psychological literature in support of the resolution’s claims. The revised resolution and its accompanying justification statement were forwarded to the APA Board of Directors, who approved the resolution as an emergency action on June 10, 2001. The following are key components of the resolution, including its articulation of racism’s negative consequences and the ways that the American Psychological Association can actively work to eradicate it. The statements to follow are based on psychological research findings, which are cited in the bibliography at the end of the chapter instead of within the body of the text itself. Overview Through empirical research, psychologists have determined that racism continues to be a pervasive problem in the United States and internationally. Racism creates barriers to survival, security, development, and social participation. These barriers are manifested in such forms as police brutality, institutional blocks to employment, poverty, and political marginalization.

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Effects of Racism on Targeted Groups Perceived racist incidents may result in negative psychological, social, and physiological effects on targeted groups. Racism is a chronic stressor that often contributes to psycho-physiological diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. It also can contribute to depression, alcohol consumption, low self-esteem, internalized racism, chronic health problems, and psychological distress. The effects of racist incidents may also strengthen connectedness among members of targeted groups, reinforce spirituality and personal strengths, and build resilience. In addition, psychologists have determined that racism has negative cognitive, behavioral, affective, and relational effects on children and adults. Possible cognitive responses include intrusive thoughts about racial incidents, and self-defeating thoughts. Behavioral effects may include increased conduct disorders, avoidance behaviors, high-risk behaviors, and substance dependence. Affective responses include depression and anxiety, and relational effects include isolation and distrust of others. The impact of racism begins as early as preschool and continues throughout life. It creates barriers to healthy development for those who are targeted by it. Racism and Children Racism negatively affects ethnic minority children academically and socially. It also has negative effects on their self-esteem and self-efficacy (their belief in their capabilities). This is a result of the racist incidents that they experience, witness, and hear about within their communities. It also is the result of media portrayals of ethnic minorities in film, television, and print. Ethnic minority children are stigmatized as being less intelligent and less capable, and these stigmatizing messages are sometimes internalized. Gender and Racism There are unique ways that racism interacts with gender and sexism, therefore creating some differing experiences for ethnic minority girls and boys and women and men. Girls and women are more likely to be brutalized by sexual violence and trafficking than their male counterparts are, and the associated legal cases of ethnic minority females are taken less seriously by criminal justice systems than the

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cases of their white female counterparts. In some countries, ethnic minority girls and women have fewer political, social, and legal rights than ethnic minority males. In terms of ethnic minority boys and men, they are more likely to be viewed as threats and therefore responded to with physical violence than are ethnic minority females. Throughout history, racist systems such as slavery and colonialism have aimed at the destruction of ethnic minority male-female relationships and to a larger degree the destruction of ethnic minority families. The consequences of these actions can still be seen today. Racism and Poverty Racism creates and maintains poverty for ethnic minorities. One of the core issues of racism is the denial of resources. Whether ethnic minorities are labeled lazy, savage, ignorant, or immoral, the existence of poverty is rationalized as being the fault of target group members. This allows for the economic, political, legal, and educational resources to stay in the hands of a few, while denying the rights to resource access of many. When people are denied jobs and housing and even the right to vote, they are pushed further into the depths of lack. Economic lack and racism are linked; together and separately they create psychological distress and physical health consequences. For those ethnic minorities who seek help, they sometimes discover institutionalized racism within physical and mental health care agencies, creating more distress and distrust. Roots of Racism Racial discrimination is the result of learned attitudes and behaviors. Children learn racist ideas from parents, religious institutions, governments, schools, and the media. People are taught stereotypes and stigmatized views of members of other races. These messages may be subtle or overt. A subtle example is a child noticing that whenever an ethnic minority man walks past, her mother grabs her hand and pulls her closer but never does this when a white man walks past. An overt example may be when a boy hears his father and uncles telling racist jokes about a particular group of people. Other messages may include ministers who preach against interracial marriage, schools that leave out the contribution of ethnic minorities in the history books, and media images of ethnic minorities as criminals or clowns. All of these messages serve to teach one group that they are intellectually,

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socially, and morally superior to other races. These attitudes and behaviors continue to be taught and reinforced throughout the lives of dominant group members. Effects of Racism on Dominant Group Members Although racism may benefit some dominant group members economically and politically, it has negative consequences for cognitive and affective development. In terms of cognitions or thoughts, dominant group members may build their lives on distorted thoughts and ideas about themselves and others. This creates a very fragile sense of self. For example, they may truly believe that there is no injustice and that people who work hard benefit and those who do not, suffer. If people hold this belief for most of their lives and then discover that injustice does exist, or if they have the experience of working hard and yet not getting ahead, they will experience distress, confusion, and anxiety. At this point, they will have to expand their worldviews to understand that injustice, including racism, does exist; or they will simply reason that they are not advancing because of reverse discrimination. Whatever the conclusion, distress will be involved. Along with distress, racist beliefs create fear in dominant group members. For example, when they are in the presence of ethnic minorities or anticipating the presence of ethnic minorities, they experience anxiety and fear, especially when there are large numbers of ethnic minorities. The fear sometimes manifests itself in aggression and hostility, which are also negative consequences for the ethnic minority person as well as the dominant group member. Recently psychologists even found that a dominant group member who holds racist beliefs can suffer from poor concentration or academic performance when sharing the room with an ethnic minority person. With the growing number of ethnic minorities, there is sure to be an increase in distress, fear, aggression, and irrational thinking among dominant group members who hold racist ideas. Call to Action In recognition of all of the above, the American Psychological Association resolves to struggle against racism. Because it is important to heal oneself before trying to heal others, the APA resolution calls for the eradication of all forms of racism within the field of psychology, including in scientific research and clinical practice. The American

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Psychological Association denounces racism in all its forms and recognizes its negative psychological, social, education, and economic effects on children and adults. This includes covert and overt racism and individual acts of racial discrimination, as well as institutionalized racism. Psychologists are challenged to recognize their role in promoting social justice and human welfare nationally and internationally. The American Psychological Association agreed to send a delegation to the United Nations’ World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. The APA also agreed to seek out diverse racial representation at all levels of its governance. All psychologists are called upon to discontinue all practices in research, practice, training, and education that promote or are based on racist ideology. Psychology researchers are especially challenged to conduct studies on effective tools for the alleviation of racial and ethnic injustice. Psychologists are encouraged to speak out against racism and to take steps to stop racist activities. Psychologists are in a unique position to intervene in the perpetuation of racist attitudes and behaviors in counseling centers, schools, corporations, research institutes, and government agencies. Consistent with the mandates of the APA resolution, a delegation of six psychologists from the American Psychological Association went to Durban, South Africa, to attend the WCAR in the summer of 2001 to offer a psychological perspective of the causes, consequences, and solutions to racism and racist attitudes and behaviors. WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA, AND RELATED INTOLERANCE The American Psychological Association included two of the APA’s representatives to the United Nations: Dr. Corann Okorodudu, the main representative to the United Nations, and Dr. Thema BryantDavis. In addition, the delegation included Dr. James Jackson from the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology; Dr. Bertha G. Holliday, director of the APA Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs; Dr. Anderson J. Franklin from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues; and Dr. William Parham from the APA Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs. To prepare for the WCAR in South Africa, pre-conference meetings were held in Geneva, Switzerland, and Washington, DC, which were attended by members of the APA WCAR delegation. At these

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conferences, the APA delegates distributed an advocacy statement that they created in consultation with the Health/Mental Health NGO caucus of the WCAR, which provided suggested language consistent with the major tenets of the APA resolution. The delegation also developed an APA declaration for the WCAR, whose content elaborated upon that of the APA resolution and whose structure mirrored that of the draft WCAR declaration, which was the centerpiece of WCAR deliberations. The APA lobbying statement and declaration noted the prevalence of racism and its mental health effects, among other effects. It also recognized the importance of interdisciplinary research to understand varied historic and contemporary forms of racism. Specific victims of racism were acknowledged in the APA declaration, including victims of trafficking, women and girls, migrants and refugees, racial minorities in multiethnic states, indigenous peoples, Africans and African descendants, racism victims with physical and mental disabilities, and persons who are victims of both racism and homophobia. The APA declaration acknowledged the need for an improved quality of life for all of these persons. In terms of remedies, the APA declaration called for institutions, governments, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and physical and mental health care agencies to take active steps to eliminate racist practices and policies. The APA declaration also called for the development of prevention strategies, an international monitoring body to report on international actions taken against racism, and an institute to conduct international research and policy promotion aimed at the eradication of racism. Prior to the WCAR, the APA declaration was forwarded to every APA division and state psychological association, and to organized psychological association in other nations. In Durban, South Africa, the delegation advocated for a psychological perspective of racism at both the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) conference and the United Nations’ (governmental) WCAR conference. Over one hundred countries were represented, and the APA delegates were able to promote their perspectives and positions through dissemination of the APA resolution and declaration, interpersonal contacts, a two-hour panel discussion for NGO delegates, and an “intervention” (a position paper) that was read at a WCAR plenary session. Outcomes United Nations conferences outcomes are based on consensus. At the WCAR, all of the countries’ participating nations and their

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government representatives worked to create a document on which all could agree. If a section did not have consensus, it was deleted. Nongovernmental organizations, such as the American Psychological Association, advocate for the inclusion of their particular concerns. As a result of the advocacy of the American Psychological Association delegation, mental health was acknowledged in three separate sections of the outcome document from the World Conference. First, the various nations recognized that research studies and data collection on the impact and consequences of racism must include an analysis of mental and physical health care. It is important that along with education, employment, housing, and landownership, the significance of mental health be acknowledged. Second, the conference’s outcome document urged all states (nations) to recognize the right of every person to attain the highest standard of mental and physical health. This is a huge step. Mental health is recognized as an important human right. Beyond written laws and policies, each person has a right to attain the highest level of mental health. Since racial discrimination negatively affects mental health, it is clear that to protect the mental health of its citizens, a state has to work to eliminate racism. Finally, the World Health Organization and other international agencies are called upon to recognize the impact of racism on mental health and to produce projects, research and otherwise, to ensure equitable health care for victims of racism. Given the number of persons who have been negatively affected mentally and physically by inequitable health care, this statement is incredibly important. PSYCHOLOGISTS’ ACTIVITY AFTER THE WORLD CONFERENCE After the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, the APA delegation began educating other psychologists about the WCAR, its consensual processes, and related actions of the United Nations and others. Dissemination of such information occurred through briefings and reports to APA governance groups, articles in various psychology magazines and newsletters, presentations at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association and the Multicultural Summit and Conference (which is organized by several APA divisions), and at other organizational and university conferences and events. The delegation also sought to continue to educate nongovernmental agencies as

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well as governmental representatives about the psychological consequences of and remedies for racism by disseminating the APA resolution and declaration at meetings within the United Nations and to other nongovernmental agencies committed to working against racism. In addition, the two delegates who are representatives to the United Nations have advocated psychological perspectives and interventions related for UN programs centered on racism and indigenous peoples’ issues. APA UN representatives are members of the Non-Governmental Agency Committee for Human Rights Subcommittee for the Elimination of Racism. As a part of this group, they planned and implemented the 2003 International Day for the Elimination of Racism program at the United Nations. This program included morning and afternoon components and provided education to governmental and nongovernmental representatives about anti-racist actions. In addition, one of the APA UN representatives, Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis, spoke at the 2003 Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues on indigenous children and the mental health consequences of racism and discrimination. Attempts to educate the general public about the role of psychology in addressing the consequences and causes of racism include the publishing of this chapter. Future Directions Psychologists will continue to play an important role in combating racism through their research, practice, training, education, and public service. By sharing important research on the causes and consequences of racism, as well as the effectiveness of various remedies, psychologists can help reduce the prevalence of racism around the globe. Psychologists have to continue to advocate for the mental health of those targeted by racism. This advocacy must be within the mental health arena, on the local government level, and at the United Nations. Psychologists recognize the need to combat racist attitudes and practices, as well as internalized racism within themselves and within others. Those of us who work in industries and organizations have to work and speak against racism in hiring and promotion. We also have to continue to speak against racism in the criminal justice system, education system, and political system. Only by continuing to speak and work to combat racism within the field of psychology, in our local communities, throughout our nation, and internationally, can we hope to make a difference.

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SUGGESTED READINGS American Psychological Association. (2001). Declaration for the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. www.apa.org/pi/oema/racismdeclaration.pdf American Psychological Association. (2001). Intervention of the American Psychological Association Delegation to the World Conference against Racism (WCAR). www.apa.org/pi/oema/wcarplenary.html American Psychological Association, Public Interest Directorate, Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs. (1999). Racism and psychology: Why we dislike, stereotype and hate other groups and what to do about it. Washington, DC: Author. Anderson, N. (1989). Racial differences in stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity and hypertension: Current status and substantive issues. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 89–105. Armstead, C., Lawler, K., Gorden, G., Cross, J., & Gibbons, J. (1989). Relationship of racial stressors to blood pressure responses and anger expression in black college students. Health Psychology, 8, 541–556. Bentancourt, H., & Lopez, S. R. (1993). The study of culture, ethnicity, and race in American psychology. American Psychology, 48, 629–637. Bernard, N., Holliday, B. G., Crump, S. L., & Sanchez, N. (1998). Psychology and racism: Annotated bibliography. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs. Carter, J. (1994). Racism’s impact on mental health. Journal of the National Medical Association, 86, 543–547. Carter, R., & Helms, J. (2002, September 28). Racial discrimination and harassment: Race-based traumatic stress. Paper presented at the American College of Forensic Examiners Conference, Orlando, FL. Clark, R., Anderson, N., Clark, V., & Williams, D. (1999). Racism as a stressor for African Americans: A biopsychosocial model. American Psychologist, 54, 805–816. Comas-Diaz, L. (2000). An ethnopolitical approach to working with people of color. American Psychologist, 55, 1319–1325. Corner, J. P. (1991) White racism: Its root, form, and function. In R. L. Jones (Ed.), Black psychology (pp. 591–596). Berkeley, CA: Cobb & Henry. Cross, W. E., Jr. (1990). Shades of black. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Daniel, J. H. (2000). The courage to hear: African American women’s memories of racial trauma. In L. Jackson & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspective and practice (pp. 126–144). New York: Guilford Press. Gaines, S. O., & Reed, E. S. (1995). Prejudice: From Allport to DuBois. American Psychologist, 50, 96–103. Galster, G. (1990). Racial steering in urban housing markets: A review of the audit evidence. Social Science Research, 18, 105–129.

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Ginorio, A., Guitierrez, L., Cauce, A. M., & Acosta, M. (1995). Psychological issues for Latinas. In H. Ladrine (Ed.), Bringing cultural diversity to feminist psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Harrell, J. P., Hall, S., & Tagliaferro, J. (2003). Physiological responses to racism and discrimination: An assessment of the evidence. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 243–247. Helms, J., & Cook, D. (1999). Using race and culture in counseling and psychotherapy: Theory and process. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Henderson, K., & Sloan, L. (2003). Helping psychologists help victims of racist hate crime. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(4), 481–490. Jackson, J. S., Brown, K. T., & Kirby, D. C. (1998). International perspectives on prejudice and racism. In J. L. Eberhardt & S. T. Fiske (Eds.), Confronting racism: The problem & the response. Thousand Oaks, CA: Abbreviated. Jones, J. M. (1997). Prejudice and racism (2nd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill. Kessler, R. C., Michelson, K. D., & Williams, D. R. (1999). The prevalence, distribution, and mental health correlates of perceived discrimination in the United States. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 40, 208–230. Klonoff, E. A., & Landrine, H. (1999). Cross-validation of the schedule of racist events. Journal of Black Psychology, 25, 231–255. Krieger, N., & Sidney, S. (1996). Racial discrimination and blood pressure: The CARDIA study of young black and white adults. American Journal of Public Health, 86, 1370–1378. Ladrine, H., & Klonoff, E. (1996). The schedule of racist events: A measure of racial discrimination and a study of its negative physical and mental health consequences. Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 144–168. LaFromboise, T., Choney, S. B., James, A., & Running Wolf, P. R. (1995). American Indian women and psychology. In H. Ladrine (Ed.), Bringing cultural diversity to feminist psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Lawrence, K. (2001). Racism, oppression, and childhood trauma. In B. Everett & R. Gallop, (Eds.), The link between childhood trauma and mental illness: Effective interventions for mental health professionals (pp. 271–291). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Loo, C. M., Fairbank, J. A., Scurfield, R. M., Ruch, L. O., King, D. W., Adams, L. J., et al. (2001). Measuring exposure to racism: Development and validation of a race-related stressor scale (RRSS) for Asian American Vietnam veterans. Psychological Assessment, 13, 503–520. McNeilly, M., Anderson, N., Robinson, E., McManus, C., Armstead, C., Clark, R., et al. (1996). The convergent, discriminant validity of

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the perceived racism scale: A multidimensional assessment of white racism among African Americans. In R. Jones (Ed.), Handbook on tests and measurements for black populations. Richmond, CA: Cobb and Henry Publishers. Murray, B. (2002). Psychology bolsters the world’s fight against racism. Monitor on Psychology, 33(1). Nagata, D., & Cheng, W. (2003). Intergenerational communication of racerelated trauma by Japanese American former internees. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 73, 266–278. Root, M. P. P. (1995). The psychology of Asian American women. In H. Ladrine (Ed.), Bringing cultural diversity to feminist psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Sanchez-Hucles, J. (1998). Racism: emotional abusiveness and psychological trauma for ethnic minorities. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 1, 69–87. Scurfield, R., & Mackey, D. (2001). Racism, trauma, and positive aspects of exposure to race-related experiences: Assessment and treatment implications. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 10, 23–47. Sellers, R. M., & Shelton, J. M. (2003). The role of racial identity in perceived racial discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1079–1092. Sue, S. (1999). Science, ethnicity, and bias: Where have we gone wrong? American Psychologist, 54, 1070–1077. Tatum, B. (1997). “Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” and other conversations about race. New York: Basic Books. Thompson, C., & Neville, H. (1999). Racism, mental health, and mental health practice. Counseling Psychology, 27, 155–223. Thompson, V. (1996). Perceived racism as stressful life events. Community Mental Health Journal, 32, 223–233. Utsey, S. O., & Ponterotto, J. G. (1996). Development and validation of the Index of Race-Related Stress (IRRS). Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43, 490–501. Williams, D. (1999). Race, socioeconomic status, and health: The added effects of racism and discrimination. In N. Adler & M. Marmot (Eds.), Socioeconomic status and health in industrial nations: Social, psychological, and biological pathways. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896, 173–188. Williams, D. & Rucker, T. (1996). Socioeconomic status and the health of racial minority populations. In P. Kato & T. Mann (Eds.), Handbook of diversity issues in health psychology. The Plenum series in culture and health (pp. 407–423). New York: Plenum. Worchel, S. (1999). Written in blood: Ethnic identity and the struggle for human harmony. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Yee, A. H., Fairchild, H. H., Wizmann, E., & Wyatt, G. E. (1993). Addressing psychology’s problem with race. American Psychologist, 48, 1132– 1140.

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Index

Abdominal breathing, 212 Affirmative action, 161, 171–172 African American spirituality, 208 African-centered worldview: axiology, 110–111; epistemology, 111; family importance in, 110; ontology, 109–110; proactive coping based on, 109–111 African Diaspora: definition of, 96; history of, 96–97; proactive coping, 108–109 African self-consciousness, 111 Alcohol consumption, 12 Allport, Gordon, 40, 42 Ally, 173 Ambiguity: attributional, 120–124; situational, 120–124 American Psychological Association, 224–225, 228–229 Anti-racist teaching, 48, 50, 172, 179–180, 183 Applied behavior analysis, 3–4 Arab Americans, 69, 77–78 Asians: citizenship difficulties for, 68; discrimination against, 67; immigrants 67; stereotypes of, 2

Assertion, 106 Assimilation, 155–158 Attributional ambiguity, 120–124 Authoritarian personality, 39–40 Aversive racism: attributional ambiguity and, 120–124; characteristics of, 127, 164; combating of, 126–132; conflict associated with, 164–165; definition of, 164; description of, 120; egalitarian values associated with, 164; feelings associated with, 165; hypocrisy induction for, 128; ingroup favoritism and, 125–126, 129; institutional racism and, 167; pro-ingroup bias and, 125–126, 129; subtle nature of, 131; summary of, 130–131; suppression of stereotypes, 127; traditional racism versus, 126; unrecognizability of, 126; by whites, 131–132; by white students on white college campuses, 164–167 Axiology, 110–111

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Ballenger, Cass, 77 Behavior: definition of, 3; observational learning as source of, 9; operant, 7; racial prejudice as, 2–3; reinforcers of, 14 Behavior analysis: applied, 3–4; interventions derived from, 11–13; principles of, 4 Behavior-analytic perspective, 2–4, 16–17 Belly breathing, 212 Bias: pro-ingroup, 125; subtle, 121 Black(s): African self-consciousness by, 111; aversive racism against, 131–132; coping with racism by, 106–108; cultural inequality for, 114; economic inequality for, 114; high school graduation rate for, 172; incarceration of, 124; intra-ethnic variations, 96–98; in Latin America, 97; racial identity of, 103–106; racism against, 2, 207, 218; religion among, 208; spirituality of, 208; stereotypes of, 64–65; tokenism, 155–158; voting by, 80–82; West Indian blacks versus (see West Indians) Black college students on white college campuses: assimilation of, 155–158; burden on, 158–159; enrollment declines, 154; inter-racial socialization by, 156; racial climate described by, 152, 154; racial identity of, 159; statistics regarding, 172; survey of, 153–154; tokenism, 155–158 Breathing: abdominal, 212; belly, 212; control techniques for, 212; in Egyptian philosophy, 211 Brown v. Board of Education, 64–65, 180 Bush, George, 72–73 Bush, George W., 171

Index

Chambliss, C. Saxby, 77 Children: cognitive skills of, 43, 51; cross-race friendships among, 48; interventions for, 13–14; lay theories by, 44, 52; observational learning by, 10; peer influences on, 10, 16; prejudice among, 37–56; racism experienced by, 37, 180, 226 Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), 68 Classical conditioning: attitudes affected by, 5; description of, 4–5; of emotional reactions, 6 Clinton, Bill, 169 Coble, Howard, 77 Cognitive-developmental theory: of prejudice among children, 42–44, 50–51; principles of, 42–43; social learning theory and, 44 Collective racism, 209 College students: black (see Black college students); prejudice by, 122; white (see White college students) Color-blind approach: description of, 44; racial prejudice reduced using, 52 Color-blindness, 167–168, 171 Color-evasive, 151, 165, 171 Community, 55 Community mental health workers, 35 Conditioned responses, 4–6 Conditioned stimuli, 4–5 Congressional redistricting, 74–75 Congress of Racial Equality, 146 Cooksey, John, 76–77 Cooperative learning, 48 Coping: breathing techniques for, 212–213; methods of, 207; prayer for, 110; proactive, 108–111; with racism, 106–108 Crime, 12 Crisis intervention, 35

Index

Cross-cultural perspectives, of Kuumba learning model, 182–183 Cross Cultural Studies Institute: Cultural Openness Scale, 198; School Involvement Scale, 199; Self-Concept Scale, 198 Cross-race friendships, 48 Cultural competence: education with, 34; focus groups, 34–35; frameworks involving, 220; psycho-education groups, 35 Cultural racism, 100–101, 209, 219 Differential reinforcement of other behaviors, 14–16 Dinkins, David, 85 Discrimination: classroom modeling of, 51; definition of, 209; foundations of, 227; health effects of, 209–210; history of, xiii; minimizing the experience of, 107; perceptions of, 107; recent examples of, 37; subtle, 124; against West Indians, 105 Diversity, 34–35 Dred Scott v. Sandford, 68 Du Bois, W. E. B., 95–96 Duke, David, 73 Education: anti-racist, 50, 172, 179–180, 183; culturally competent, 35; multicultural, 35, 48–49, 203 Elected officials’ statements: prejudice in, 76–79; stereotyping in, 76–79 Elementary schools: racial oppression in, 177–178; racism in, 179–180; statistics regarding, 180; teachers in, 180–181 Emotional reactions, 6 Empathy training, 50–51

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Energy: life force, 210–211; racism effects on, 211 Epistemology, 111 Everyday racism, 219 Evolutionary theory, of prejudice, 45–46 Family: in African-centered worldview, 110; West Indians’ view of, 110 Farmer, James L. Jr., 146 Favoritism: definition of, 166; ingroup, 125–126, 129, 166 Gantt, Harvey, 72, 84 Gender, 226–227 Helms, Jesse, 72, 84 Horton, Willie, 72–73 Hypocrisy induction, for aversive racism, 128 Immigration: by Mexicans, 71; Proposition 187 effects on, 69–72; racism and racial prejudice effects on, 67–72; U.S. policies of, 68 Individualism, 160 Individual racism, 98–99, 209, 219 Inequalities: cultural, 114; economic, 114; ignoring of, 173 Ingroup favoritism, 125–126, 129, 166 Institutional racism, 99–100, 151–152, 167, 209, 219 Intergroup contact theory, 42, 47–48 Intergroup friendships, 48 Intergroup harmony: cooperative learning strategies for enhancing, 48; increases in, 42; promotion of, 47–48 Interventions: anti-racist teaching, 48, 50; behavior analysis-related,

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11–13; for children, 13–14, 46–54; color-blind theory, 52; differential reinforcement of other behaviors, 14–16; empathy training, 50–51; learning theory as basis of, 14; multicultural education, 48–49; noncontingent reinforcement, 14; types of, 13; using modeling, 13 Involuntary minorities, 103 Jigsaw classroom, 47–48 Kuumba learning model: anti-racist education, 183; as academic discipline, 183–185; creativity from, 182–183; cross-cultural perspectives of, 182–183; curriculum, 181–183; development of, 182; extended day program application of, 189–194; goal of, 182; inner-city school application of, 195–199; overview of, 177–181; principles of, 178; in rural suburban social context, 186–189; science and technology inquiry motivated using, 184–185; student empowerment through affinity exchange, 185; student’s responses regarding, 203–204; summary of, 199, 203–204 Kuumba Multicultural Experimental School Research Project, 186–189 Latinos: high school graduation rate for, 172; stereotypes of, 2 Lay theories: altering of, 52; description of, 44 Learning: observational, 9–10; operant, 7–9; respondent (see Respondent learning)

Index

Learning theory: interventions based on, 14; racial prejudice and, 3 Life force energy, 210–211 Lott, Trent, 76–77, 79 Media: interventions created by, 13; stereotypes portrayed on, 10 Meritocracy, 161 Mexicans, 71 Micro-aggressions, 98 Minorities: assimilation of, 156; children, 226; involuntary, 103; public offices held by, 76; stereotypes of, 10; television representation of, 10; voluntary, 102–103 Modeling: in classroom, 51; interventions using, 13 Multicultural education, 48–49 Multiracialism, 102 Myrick, Sue, 77–78 NAACP, 81 Negative punishment, 7 Negative reinforcement, 7 Negative stereotypes: of blacks, 64; in congressional redistricting, 74–75; description of, 62; in political campaign rhetoric, 72–76; politics affected by, 69; racial appeals and, 86 Negrescence model, of racial identity, 103–106 Neutral stimuli, 4 Noncontingent reinforcement, 14 Observational learning, 9–10 Ontology, 109–110 Operant behavior, 7 Operant learning, 7–9 Oppositional identities, 103 Ozawa v. United States, 68

Index

Parents, children’s racial attitudes and, 40–41 Peers, 10, 16, 48 Political campaign rhetoric: negative stereotypes in, 72–76; prejudice in, 72–76; racial appeals in, 75–76 Politics: anti-immigrant appeals, 67–72; elected officials, 76–79; minority representation in, 76; negative stereotyping effects on, 69; pre–Civil Rights south, 63–66; racial appeals in, 86; racism and racial prejudice effects on, 61–72; social conflict effects on, 85–86; voting (see Voting) Positive punishment, 7 Positive reinforcement, 7 Poverty, 227 Pragmatism, 106–107 Prayer, 110 Prejudice: alcohol consumption and, 12; behavior-analytic perspective of, 2–4, 16–17; by children, 1, 37–56; as crime, 12; definition of, 3, 38, 62; description of, 119; evolutionary theory of, 45–46; history of, xiii; interventions for, 11–13; learning theory effects on, 3; observational learning and, 10; in political campaign rhetoric, 72–76; prevalence of, 1–2; psychological impact of, 28–29; respondent learning applied to, 5–7; social factors associated with, 119; surveys regarding, 1–2; in voting, 79–85 Proactive coping: African-centered worldview as basis of, 109–111; description of, 108–109 Proposition 187, 69–72 Psychological ambivalence, 119–120

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Psychologists: American Psychological Association’s resolution against racism, 224–229; World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance effects, 231–232 Psychology of liberation, 207–208 Punishment: negative, 7; in operant learning, 7–8; positive, 7 Race consciousness, 106 Racial discrimination. See Discrimination Racial identity, 103–106, 151, 159 Racial oppression: description of, 173; in elementary schools, 177–178; recognition of, 172 Racial prejudice. See Prejudice Racial profiling, 77 Racial slurs: by children, 40; classical learning principles, 5; reinforcement of, 8 Racial socialization, 110 Racial tolerance, 55–56 Racism: American Psychological Association’s resolution against, 224–229; anti-racist teaching, 48, 50; aversive (see Aversive racism); against blacks, 2, 207, 218; in children, 37, 180, 226; cognitive effects on dominant group members, 228; collective, 209; combating of, 223–224; coping with, 106–108, 212–213; cultural, 100–101, 209, 219; definition of, 3, 151, 208, 224; denial of, 149–151, 158–159, 162–167, 169; in elementary schools, 179–180; elements of, 208–209; everyday, 219; fear caused by, 228; gender and,

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226–227; health effects of, 209–210, 226; individual, 98–99, 209, 219; institutional, 99–100, 151–152, 167, 209, 219; intra-ethnic variations in experience of, 96–98; manifestation of, 209; origins of, 227–228; poverty and, 227; psychological consequences of, 218, 223–224, 226; reparations for, 114; roots of, 227–228; in schools, 179–180; spirit effects of, 211; strategies for eliminating, 111–113; stress associated with, 209–210; structural changes for combating, 114; trauma caused by, 35, 223; typology of, 98–101, 209; on white college campuses (see White college campuses) Religion, 208 Reparations, 114 Resignation, 106 Respondent generalization, 6 Respondent learning: applications of, 5–6; emotional reactions affected by, 6; example of, 4–5; interventions based on, 12–13; significance of, 5 Schools: racial tolerance in, 55–56; statistics regarding, 180; teachers in, 180–181 Self-classification, 130 Self-education, 172 September 11, 2001, 69, 130 Shaping, 8 Situational ambiguity, 120–124 Skinner, B. F., 3 Social exclusion, 11 Social learning theory: cognitive development theory and, 44; interventions based on, 11;

Index

prejudice among children and, 40–42, 47–48 Southern states: blacks in, 64–65; criminal justice system in, 65–66; politics in, 63–66; racism and racial prejudice in, 63–66 Spirit: breath and, 212; case study use of, 213–218; controlling of, 212; definition of, 210; disconnection from, 211–212; energy from, 210–211; example of, 213–218; functions of, 210; racism effects on, 211; re-engaging of, 212–213 Spirituality, African American, 208 Stereotypes: of Asians, 2; of blacks, 64; definition of, 62; examples of, 62–63; of Latinos, 2; media portrayal of, 10; “rebound effect,” 127; suppression of, 127; teaching of, 227; by whites, 73–74 Stereotyping: in elected officials’ statements, 76–79; negative (see Negative stereotypes); in voting, 79–85 Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test, 198 Stress, racism-related, 209–210 Students. See College students Subtle bias, 121 Subtle racial discrimination, 124 tabula rasa, 1 Thurmond, Strom, 76 Tokenism, 155–158 Training: crisis intervention, 35; culturally competent, 35 Tulsa Race Riot Commission, 27–28, 33 Tulsa Race Riot of 1921: aftermath of, 26–27; background of, 24–26; breaking the silence about,

Index

30–32; commemoration of, 31–32; damage caused by, 26–27; deaths caused by, 26–27; description of, 21–22; gravesites of, 27–28; Greenwood community rebuilding after, 29–30; psychological impact of, 28–29; recovery from, 33–35; reparations for, 32–33; riot, 26–27 Unacknowledged white-skin privilege, 163–164 Unconditioned responses, 4 Unconditioned stimuli, 4 United States immigration policies, 68 United States v. Thind, 68–69 Voluntary minorities, 102–103 Voter suppression, 80–82 Voting: by blacks, 80–81; choices in, 82–86; prejudice and stereotyping effects on, 79–87; racially polarized, 83; requirements for, 79–80 Voting Rights Act, 80 Welfare, 73–74 West Indians: coping with racism by, 106–108; cultural racism against, 100–101; de-emphasis of race, 101–103; demographics of, 101; discrimination against, 105; family importance to, 110;

243

heterogeneity of, 101; individual racism against, 99; institutional racism against, 99–100; racial identity of, 103–106 West Indies: de-emphasis of race in, 101–103; multiracialism in, 102 White college campuses: black students on (see Black college students); curriculum transformation grant project, 143–145; description of, 137–139; racial climate on, 152–154; racism on, 138, 149–167, 173–175; research projects on, 139–149; status quo on, 137–138, 150; stereotypes on, 141–142 White college students: aversive racism by, 164–167; color evasive nature of, 151, 165; denial of racism by, 149–151, 158–159, 162–167; failure to notice racism by, 152; racial climate described by, 153–154; racism as viewed by, 151, 163; white-skin privilege of, 162–164 White-skin privilege, 162–164 Whitman, Christine Todd, 81–82 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance: description of, 229–230; outcomes, 230–231; psychologists’ activity after, 231–232

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About the Series and the Series Editors

I

t is expected that nearly half of the entire U.S. population will be of nonwhite ethnic and racial minorities by the year 2050. With this growing diversity, clinicians, researchers, and, indeed, all Americans need to understand that the Eurocentric psychological views particular to Caucasians may or may not be relevant or adequate to address mental health issues in racial and ethnic minorities. This series addresses those issues, aiming to better understand how these factors affect mental health, and what needs to be done, or done differently, to heal disorders that may arise. JEAN LAU CHIN is a licensed psychologist and systemwide dean of the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. She is also president of CEO Services, which offers clinical, educational, and organizational development services emphasizing cultural competence and integrated systems of care. She holds a doctorate from Teacher’s College of Columbia University. Dr. Chin’s past positions include associate professor of psychiatry at the Center for Minority Training Program, Boston University School of Medicine; regional director of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership; executive director of the South Cove Community Health Center; and codirector of the Thom Child Guidance Clinic. She has authored, coauthored, or edited books including Relationships among Asian American Women (2000), Community Health Psychology

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(1998), and Diversity in Psychotherapy: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity and Gender (1993). VICTOR DE LA CANCELA is associate clinical professor of medical psychology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He is also deputy executive director of Tremont-Crotona Child Development Center, and a clinical psychologist serving with the United States Army Reserve. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at the College of Medicine and Hospital at Howard University. He is a fellow of Divisions 1, 12, 38, 44, 45, 49, 51, and 52 of the American Psychological Association. In 1998, he received a letter of commendation from the president of the United States for teaching excellence. Robinson is a distinguished visiting professor at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at the Tripler Army Medical Center. He earned his EdD in counseling psychology at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, completed a clinical psychology residency at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and earned an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health. Robinson worked earlier as chief of interdepartmental programs in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at Howard University, and has also served as dean of the Division of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of the District of Columbia, clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and clinical attending faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University School of Medicine at the Cambridge Hospital.

About the Advisers

JESSICA HENDERSON DANIEL is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and both director of training in psychology and associate director of the LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) Training Program in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Boston. She is also an adjunct associate professor of psychology in the clinical psychology program at Boston University. Daniel is the past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35, APA; and is coeditor of The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women (2003). Her awards include the 1998 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School; the 2001 Education Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois; the 2002 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award from APA; and the 2003 Professional Award from the Boston & Vicinity Club, Inc., National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. JEFFERY SCOTT MIO is a professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at California State Polytechnic University–Pomona, where he also serves as the director of the master of science in psychology program. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois–Chicago in 1984. He taught at California State University–Fullerton in the counseling department from 1984–1986, then taught at Washington State University in the Department of Psychology from 1986 to 1994 before accepting his current position at CSPU–Pomona. His interests

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About the Advisers

are in the teaching of multicultural issues, the development of allies, and how metaphors are used in political persuasion. NATALIE PORTER is vice provost for academic affairs systemwide at Alliant International University. She is also an associate professor of psychology. She received her PhD from the University of Delaware. Porter’s research interests include feminist and anti-racist models of clinical training and supervision, cognitive and emotional developmental changes in individuals abused or traumatized as children, and feminist therapy supervision and ethics. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a coeditor of Race and Ethnicity in Psychology, a Praeger series. JOSEPH EVERETT TRIMBLE is a professor of psychology at the Center for Cross-Cultural Research at Western Washington University. Trimble was a fellow in the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2000 and 2001. He is a research associate for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in the Department of Psychiatry, National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research. He is also a scholar and adjunct professor of psychology for the Colorado State University Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research. In 1994, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, Division 45, American Psychological Association. In 2002, he was honored with the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the Washington State Psychological Association. He has authored eightytwo journal articles, chapters, and monographs, as well as authored or edited thirteen books, including the Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2002). MELBA J. T. VASQUEZ is in full-time independent practice in Austin, Texas. A past president of APA Divisions 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) and 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology), she has served in various other leadership positions. She is a fellow of the APA and a diplomate of the ABPP. She publishes in the areas of professional ethics, psychology of women, ethnic minority psychology, and training and supervision. She is coauthor, with Ken Pope, of Ethics in Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Practical Guide (1998, 2nd ed.). She is the recipient of several awards including Psychologist of the Year, Texas Psychological Association, 2003; Senior Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, APA, 2002; Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship,

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Columbia University, 2002; John Black Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Practice of Counseling Psychology, Division 17, APA, 2000; and the Distinguished Leader for Women in Psychology Award, Committee of Women Psychology, APA, 2000. HERBERT Z. WONG has provided management consulting, diversity training, and organizational assessments to over 300 government agencies, businesses, and other organizations. He was the cofounder and president of the National Diversity Conference, Inc., which presented contemporary issues and future directions of workforce diversity. He was a consultant to the President’s Commission on Mental Health (1977), the White House Conference for a Drug Free America (1989), and the President’s Initiative on Race–White House Office of Science and Technology (2000). In the past twenty-five years, Wong has written extensively on multicultural leadership, cross-cultural communication, and diversity issues. Wong received his PhD in clinical and organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.

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About the Contributors

AFUA ARHIN is a nursing instructor at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and a PhD student in nursing at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Her research interests include race relations, adolescent pregnancy, and learning styles of black students. She is married with two children. THEMA BRYANT-DAVIS is an American Psychological Association representative to the United Nations. At the UN, she is cochair of the NGO Human Rights Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism. Bryant-Davis is the global and international issues chair for Division 35 of the Society for the Psychology of Women. She is coordinator of the Princeton University SHARE Program, which focuses on issues of sexual violence, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and harassment based on sexual orientation. She received her doctorate from Duke University and completed her postdoctoral training at the Harvard Medical Center’s Victims of Violence Program. CAROLE BAROODY CORCORAN earned her PhD and her MA in social psychology from Miami University, after having received her BA summa cum laude in psychology from Wittenberg University. In 1991 Dr. Corcoran was appointed to the Lt. Governor’s Task Force on the Prevention and Early Intervention to Reduce the Incidence of Sexual Assault, and in 2002 she was named to the Virginia Attorney General’s Advisory Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She is a co-founder of the Rappahannock Council Against Sexual

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About the Contributors

Assault, as well as co-chair of a National Task Force on Feminist Psychology for Division 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Corcoran has researched how to integrate race and gender into the curriculum and has helped coordinate several grants from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia for developing programs in that area. She also co-founded the Race, Class, Gender Awareness Project and won Mortar Board’s Outstanding Faculty Member Award. Nominated by Mary Washington College for the State Council of Higher Education’s Faculty Awards Program in 1995 and 1996, Carole Baroody Corcoran was promoted to full professor of the psychology faculty in 1998. Dr. Corcoran was co-investigator on a $1 million grant awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate the outcomes of different types of traumatic life experiences in college women. She serves as an organizational development, training, and assessment consultant for creativity, leadership, and diversity. Dr. Corcoran is also involved in coordinating a pilot project using theater, dance, and spoken word with at risk adolescents. Presently, she is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Virginia Women’s Center. KAREN B. MCLEAN DONALDSON is a professor and researcher in cultural diversity and curriculum reform. She has taught over thirty years at all educational levels local and abroad and has received numerous awards and recognition for her teaching, research, and outreach excellence. She is currently the systemwide executive director for CARE (Consortia for Applied Research in Education) and founder/director of the Cross-Cultural Studies Institute in the Graduate School of Education at Alliant International University. Donaldson is the author of two books, Through Students’ Eyes: Combating Racism in United States Schools (1996) and Shattering the Denial: Protocols for Classroom and Beyond (2001). JOHN F. DOVIDIO is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology, and an adjunct professor of graduate studies in psychology at Colgate University. He received the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize in 1999 and 2000, awarded by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Division 9 of the American Psychological Association. In 2000–2001, he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Dovidio has authored or coauthored three books and eighty-seven journal

About the Contributors

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articles, and edited or coedited four contributed volumes. He is editorelect of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology–Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes, editor of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, associate editor of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, consulting editor for the British Journal of Social Psychology, and consulting editor for the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. His research interests are in stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, social power, nonverbal communication, altruism, and helping. SAMUEL L. GAERTNER is a professor of psychology at the University of Delaware. An editorial board member for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, he has conducted research, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, for Reducing Intergroup Bias: The Common Ingroup Identity Model. He shared the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize with John Dovidio in 1985 and again in 1998 with John Dovidio and other former PhD students. Gaertner has authored or coauthored eighty-six articles and book chapters. He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and Group Processes, and Intergroup Relations. His PhD is from the City University of New York Graduate Center. His research interests include intergroup relations, prejudice reduction, discrimination, and racism. GORDON HODSON is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wales–Swansea, United Kingdom. He coauthored the paper “Why Can’t We Just Get Along? Interpersonal Biases and Interracial Distrust,” which was a finalist for the 2003 Otto Klineberg Award. He also coauthored chapters in Social Psychology of Inclusion and Exclusion (in press), The Social Psychology of Prejudice: Historical Perspectives (in press), and The Social Psychology of Good and Evil (in press). He has served as a reviewer for a number of journals, including the British Journal of Social Psychology and the International Journal of Psychology. He earned his PhD at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. His research interests include stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, social identity, and perceived threat. BERTHA GARRETT HOLLIDAY is the director of the American Psychological Association’s Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, where she supports APA’s involvement in a variety of initiatives related to increasing the participation of ethnic minorities in psychology, and public policy issues affecting the well-being of communities of color throughout the world. Holliday is a community psychologist with

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About the Contributors

expertise in black child and family socialization, program planning and evaluation, community mental health and public policy, and the history of ethnic minority psychology. She has authored and published more than sixty related technical reports, journal articles, and book chapters. She has held a variety of professional roles including researcher, professor, program evaluator, program administrator, and congressional fellow. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and the University of Texas–Austin, and did postdoctoral study at Cornell University. CARLA D. HUNTER is a doctoral candidate at Teachers College of Columbia University’s Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology. She is also a research assistant at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. She earned her MA in human development at Columbia, and her BA in psychology at Hamilton College. YVONNE M. JENKINS is a staff psychologist at Boston College University Counseling Services. She is also on the faculty of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at Wellesley College and is in private practice in Brookline, Massachusetts. For several years, she was on the staff of Harvard University Health Services. A prolific author, Dr. Jenkins coauthored Diversity in Psychotherapy: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (1993) and Community Health Psychology: Empowerment for Diverse Communities (1998), edited Diversity in College Settings (1999), and has written several book chapters. Dr. Jenkins is particularly interested in college mental health issues and in the impacts of race, culture, and other social factors on mental and social health. YUEH-TING LEE is professor and chairperson in the Department of Ethnic Studies at Minnesota State University–Mankato. He holds a PhD in social psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A cross-cultural psychologist by training, Lee has authored or edited six books and has published over sixty refereed journal articles on racial stereotyping, intergroup conflict, immigration, and related topics. SHERI R. LEVY is an assistant professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She earned her BA in psychology from the University of Michigan and a PhD in psychology from Columbia University in 1998, for which she received the 1999 Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Dissertation Award and an American Psychological Association dissertation research grant. Her research interests include understanding processes that lead to reduced

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255

prejudice and the role of people’s ideologies in prejudice and intergroup volunteerism. She has conducted research and has published numerous papers on children and prejudice. In 1999, with Dr. Frances Aboud, she coedited the issue “Reducing Racial Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotyping: Translating Research into Programs” for the Journal of Social Issues. MA’AT E. LEWIS-COLES earned her PhD in counseling psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. Lewis-Coles has held positions as psychology intern at the New York Veterans Administration Medical Center and as psychology extern at Barnard College Counseling Services, Columbia University; and Harlem Hospital Center Department of Psychiatry. CORANN OKORODUDU is a full professor of psychology and coordinator for African/African-American studies at Rowan University, where she has served as associate vice president for academic affairs and coordinated programs on women’s studies and multicultural curriculum transformation. Over the years, both in Liberia (her birth home) and the United States, she has focused her agenda within psychology, higher education, and various communities of practice on the national and global levels, and on promoting human rights and inclusive institutional policies and practices. Okorodudu is past president of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence, APA’s Division of Peace Psychology. She currently serves as main representative for the American Psychological Association (APA). It is in this capacity that she led APA’s delegation to the 2001 United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. JOHN E. PACHANKIS is a clinical psychology doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He earned his BA from Loyola University. His research interests include identity development of stigmatized group members and the development of anxiety disorders as a result of stigmatization. He is currently involved in clinical and research issues associated with gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. LUISA F. RAMIREZ is a doctoral student in the political science department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship. She earned her BA in psychology from Universidad de Los Andes (University of Los Andes) in Colombia in 1994 and her MA in political science, majoring in

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About the Contributors

political psychology, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2003. She also received a master’s degree in political science from the Universidad de Los Andes in 2001. Her research interests include understanding the processes of prejudice and the formation of collective identities in ethnic minority groups. FREDERICK SLOCUM is associate professor of political science at Minnesota State University. He earned his BA in political science at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, and his MA and PhD at the University of Iowa. His research interests include investigation of the sources, structure, and political consequences of white Americans’ racial attitudes toward blacks, including “symbolic racism” and other explanations of whites’ attitudes. EDWARD STEPHENSON received his PhD in social/personality psychology from the University of California–Santa Cruz in 1987. He has since taught at a variety of institutions including Nova University, where he was assistant professor of psychology for two years. He then served as an adjunct professor at several colleges and universities in the South Florida area, including Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, St. Thomas University, and Carlos Albizu University. Stephenson is presently associate professor of psychology at Florida Memorial College. His special areas of interest include the psychology of culture, minority mental health and counseling, the psychology of the African Diaspora, and the psychology of prejudice and discrimination. In regard to the latter, Stephenson is specifically concerned with the manner in which Caribbean blacks who live in the United States are affected by and cope with various forms of discrimination. AISHA RENE´E THOMPSON is a research assistant at the American Institutes for Research. A graduate of Mary Washington College with a BS in psychology, she studied and researched under the instruction of Carole Corcoran. Thompson now provides support to the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention. BRUCE A. THYER is dean and professor at the School of Social Work at Florida State University–Tallahassee. He is also a visiting professor in the School of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, England, and visiting professor in the School of Social Work at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He holds a PhD in social work and psychology from the University of Michigan, and an MSW in social work from the University of Georgia. His past roles include Distinguished Research Professor of Social Work at

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University of Georgia, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia, senior clinical social worker in the Anxiety Disorders Program at the University of Michigan Hospitals, and neuropsychiatric procedures specialist for the U.S. Army. In the latter role, he earned a National Defense Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal. He is the founding editor of Research on Social Work Practice, consulting editor for Children in Schools, international advisory editor for British Journal of Social Work, and a member of the editorial boards for Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, Behavior and Social Issues, and Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. He is author or coauthor of 214 journal articles; and author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of twenty-two books, including Cultural Diversity and Social Work Practice (1996) and the Handbook of Social Work Research Methods (2001). He has also contributed to sixty-two other book chapters. TARA L. WEST completed her doctoral degree in social and health psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2003. She earned her BA in psychology at Indiana University– Bloomington. Her research interests include increasing pro-social attitudes and behaviors, and understanding and reducing prejudice.

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The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Recent titles in Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Sources of Stress and Relief for African American Women Catherine Fisher Collins Playing with Anger: Teaching Coping Skills to African American Boys through Athletics and Culture Howard C. Stevenson Jr., editor

The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination VOLUME 2 ETHNICITY AND MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY

Edited by Jean Lau Chin Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

PRAEGER PERSPECTIVES Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Jean Lau Chin, John D. Robinson, and Victor De La Cancela Series Editors

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The psychology of prejudice and discrimination / edited by Jean Lau Chin ; foreword by Joseph E. Trimble. p. cm.—(Race and ethnicity in psychology, ISSN 1543-2203) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-98234-3 (set : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98235-1 (v. 1 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98236-X (v. 2 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98237-8 (v. 3 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98238-6 (v. 4 : alk. paper) 1. Prejudices—United States. I. Chin, Jean Lau. II. Series. BF575.P9P79 2004 303.3'85'0973—dc22 2004042289 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright 쑕 2004 by Jean Lau Chin All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004042289 ISBN: 0-275-98234-3 (set) 0-275-98235-1 (Vol. 1) 0-275-98236-X (Vol. 2) 0-275-98237-8 (Vol. 3) 0-275-98238-6 (Vol. 4) ISSN: 1543-2203 First published in 2004 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

vii

Introduction by Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

Light, Bright, Damned Near White: Multiracial Identity Stephanie Rose Bird

1

CHAPTER 2

Asian Americans in the Workplace: Facing Prejudice and Discrimination in Multiple Contexts Debra M. Kawahara and Jaye Jang Van Kirk

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CHAPTER 3

Colonialism Revisited: The Hawaiian Experience Ann S. Yabusaki and Kenichi K. Yabusaki

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CHAPTER 4

Sociohistorical Constructions of Race and Language: Impacting Biracial Identity Matthew J. Taylor

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CHAPTER 5

Bias in Counseling Hmong Clients with Limited English Proficiency Michael Goh, Timothy Dunnigan, and Kathryn McGraw Schuchman

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CHAPTER 6

A Quest for Identity: Racism and Acculturation among Immigrant Families Sandra Mattar

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Contents

CHAPTER 7

Coping with Immigration: New Challenges for the Mental Health Profession Linna Wang and Darryl Freeland

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CHAPTER 8

Multiple Minority Individuals: Multiplying the Risk of Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Nicole L. Nelson and Tahira M. Probst

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Index

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About the Series and the Series Editors

227

About the Advisers

229

About the Contributors

233

Foreword

Civilized men have gained notable mastery over energy, matter, and inanimate nature generally and are rapidly learning to control physical suffering and premature death. But, by contrast, we appear to be living in the Stone Age so far as our handling of human relations is concerned. (Gordon W. Allport, 1954, p. ix)

A

lthough written over fifty years ago, the haunting words of the eminent social psychologist Gordon W. Allport may ring true today. His intent then was to clarify the various elements of the enormously complex topic of prejudice. Since the writing of his now well-cited and highly regarded text on prejudice, social and behavioral scientists have made great strides in furthering our knowledge of the field. Since 1950, for example, thousands of books, journal articles, and book chapters have been devoted to studying prejudice and discrimination. Professor Allport would be somewhat pleased with the numbers because that was partly his expectation when he said, “So great is the ferment of investigation and theory in this area that in one sense our account will soon be dated. New experiments will supersede old, and formulations of various theories will be improved” (1954, p. xiii). But has there been that much improvement that we have moved away from a Stone Age understanding of human relations to a higher level of sophistication? The question begs for an answer, but that can wait until later.

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Let me back up for a moment to explore another line of thought and inquiry that bears directly on the significance and importance of this wonderful set of books on the psychology of prejudice and discrimination. For as long as I can remember, I have been deeply interested in the origins of, motives in, and attitudes about genocide and ethnocide; as a young child I did not use those horrific terms, as I did not know them then. But I did know about their implied destructive implications from stories passed along by sensitive teachers, ancestors, and elders. The deep social psychological meaning of the constructs later became an intense interest of mine as a graduate student in the turbulent 1960s, an era filled with challenges and protestations of anything regarding civil rights, discrimination, racism, sexism, and prejudice. During that era I threw my mind and spirit into the study of Allport’s writings on prejudice—not merely to study them, but to explore every nuance of his scholarly works to expand the depth of my understanding and expecting to come away with fewer questions and more answers. I was not disappointed in my exploration. I was baffled, though, because I recognized more so just how complicated it was to prevent and eradicate prejudice and discrimination. As I write these thoughts, I am reminded of a sign that was once posted over the porch roof of an old restaurant and tavern in a rural South Dakota community adjacent to an American Indian reservation. The sign was hand-painted in white letters on a long slat of weathered wood; it was written in the Lakota language, and the English translation read, “No dogs or Indians allowed.” The store was and is still owned by non-Indians. The offensive, derogatory sign is no longer there— likely torn down years ago by angry protestors from the nearby reservation. While the sign is gone, the attitude and intent of the message still linger in and around the rustic building, except that it is more insidious, pernicious, and guileful now. The prevailing prejudicial and loathsome attitude is a reflection of many of the residents of the small town. Many of the town’s residents tolerate Native Americans because they dependent on them economically, but their bigoted and closed-minded convictions are unwilling to accept Native Americans as equals and provide them with freedom of movement and expression. The wretched, mean-spirited, pernicious attitudes present in that rural South Dakota town symbolize the prevailing changes in attitudes and behavior across North America—the blatant signs are gone, but in many places and for many individuals the prejudicial attitudes persist, sometimes in sly and subtle forms. On other occasions they are overt and repulsive. Chapters in these volumes summarize and

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explore the social and psychological motives and reasoning behind the persistence of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory practices. They go beyond the conclusions drawn by Professor Allport and other early writers on the topic and take us into domains represented by those who have experienced prejudice and discrimination firsthand, as did their ancestors. Indeed, a voice not included in early studies on prejudice and discrimination is intensified and deepened as more and more ethnic groups and women are represented in the social and behavioral sciences than in years gone by. Stories and anecdotes, too, recounted by the rising groups of diverse scholars and researchers, lend a new authenticity to the literature. Some of the accounts provide a different perspective on historical events involving racial hatred that provide more thorough descriptions of the details and perspectives. Revisionist historical approaches have a place in the study of prejudice and discrimination because for so long the authentic voices of the victims were muffled and muted. For example, as a consequence of European contact, many Native American communities continue to experience individual and community trauma, a “wound to the soul of Native American people that is felt in agonizing proportions to this day” (Duran & Duran, 1995, p. 27). The cumulative trauma has been fueled by centuries of incurable diseases, massacres, forced relocation, unemployment, economic despair, poverty, forced removal of children to boarding schools, abuse, racism, loss of traditional lands, unscrupulous land mongering, betrayal, broken treaties—the list goes on. Brave Heart and DeBruyn (1998) and Duran and Duran (1995) maintain that postcolonial “historical and intergenerational trauma” has left a long trail of unresolved grief and a “soul wound” in Native American communities that contribute to high levels of social and individual problems such as alcoholism, suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, and negative career ideation. The presence of Native American scholars contributed a voice that was suppressed for decades because some feared the consequences if these scholars told their stories. The stories and accounts of past racial events and their corresponding trauma also were not told because there were few visible ethnic scholars available. Decades ago the topics of prejudice and discrimination largely emphasized race and, more specifically, the racial experiences of black Americans. Over the years the topic has expanded to include the experiences of other ethnic groups, women, the elderly, those with disabilities, those with nonheterosexual orientations, and those with mixed ethnic heritages. The volumes edited by Jean Lau Chin expand

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Foreword

the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism to add a broader, more inclusive dimension to the understanding of prejudice and discrimination. The addition of new voices to the field elevates public awareness to the sweeping effects of prejudice and discrimination and how they are deeply saturated throughout societies. The amount of scholarly attention devoted to the study of prejudice and discrimination closely parallels the growth of ethnic diversity interests in psychology. Until about thirty years ago, psychology’s mission appeared to be restricted to a limited population as references to blacks, Asian Americans, Native American and Alaska natives, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Ricans were almost absent from the psychological literature; in fact, the words culture and ethnic were rarely used in psychological textbooks. The long absence of culture in the web of psychological inquiry did not go unnoticed. About three decades ago, ethnic minority and international psychologists began questioning what the American Psychological Association meant by its use of human and to whom the vast body of psychological knowledge applied. America’s ethnic psychologists and those from other countries, as well as a small handful of North American psychologists, argued that American psychology did not include what constituted the world’s population. They claimed that findings were biased, limited to studies involving college and university students and laboratory animals, and therefore not generalizable to all humans. Comprehensive literature reviews reinforced their accusations and observations. Accusations of imperialism, cultural encapsulation, ethnocentrism, parochialism, and, in some circles of dissent, of “scientifically racist” studies, run the gamut of criticisms hurled at the field of psychology during that period. Robert Guthrie (1976), for example, writing in his strongly worded critique of psychology, Even the Rat Was White, argues that culture and context were not taken seriously in the history of psychological research. Given these conditions and the myopia of the profession, it is no small wonder that prejudice and discrimination were not given more widespread attention. The topic was not perceived as salient and important enough for extensive consideration. The four volumes in this set are a testament to the amount of change and emphasis that are focused on ethnicity, culture, and the topics of prejudice and discrimination. The changing demographics in the United States call into question the relevance of a psychology that historically has not included ethnic and racial groups and that fostered a research agenda that was ethnocentric and bound by time and place. This can no longer be tolerated,

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as the rapid growth of ethnic minority groups in the United States amplifies the need for more attentiveness on the part of the social and behavioral sciences. Consider the population projections offered by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. By 2050, the U.S. population will reach over 400 million, about 47 percent larger than in 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). The primary ethnic minority groups— specifically, Hispanics, blacks, Asian Americans, and Native American and Alaska Natives—will constitute almost 50 percent of the population in 2050. About 57 percent of the population under the age of eighteen, and 34 percent over the age of 65, will be ethnic minorities. America never was and likely will not be a melting pot of different nationalities and ethnic groups for another century or two. As the mixture and size of ethnic groups increase, we are faced with the disturbing possibility that an increase in prejudice and discrimination will occur accordingly. Given this possibility, the topics covered in these volumes become even more worthy of serious consideration, especially the ones that emphasize prevention. Given the demographic changes and the topical changes that have occurred in the social and behavioral sciences, the extensive contents of these four volumes are a welcome addition to the field. Editor Jean Lau Chin and her long list of chapter authors are to be congratulated for their monumental effort. The volumes are packed with useful and wonderfully written material. Some is based on empirical findings, some on firsthand experiences. The blend of various writing styles and voice adds to the breadth of coverage of the topic. The many points of view provided by the contributors will help shape the direction of research and scholarly expression on a topic that has been around since the origins of humankind. We can hope that the contributions of these four volumes will move the field of human relations from a perceived Stone Age level of understanding to one where we believe we are moving closer to eliminating prejudice, discrimination, and the vile hatred they engender. Joseph E. Trimble Professor of Psychology Western Washington University Bellingham, WA March 21, 2004

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REFERENCES Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. (1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 56–78. Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American postcolonial psychology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Guthrie, R. (1976). Even the rat was white: A historical view of psychology. New York: Harper & Row. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). Census of the population: General population characteristics, 2000. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Introduction

P

rejudice and discrimination are not new. The legacy of the Pilgrims and early pioneers suggested a homogenous, mainstream America. Our early emphasis on patriotism in the United States resulted in a false idealization of the melting pot myth. Prejudice and discrimination in American society were overt and permeated all levels of society, that is, legislation, government, education, and neighborhoods. In the 1960s, attempts to eradicate prejudice, discrimination, and racism were explicit—with an appeal to honor and value the diversity within different racial and ethnic groups. This soon extended to other dimensions of diversity, including gender, disability, and spirituality. However, long after the war to end slavery, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, desegregation in the schools, and the abolition of antiAsian legislation—indeed, in the midst of growing public debate today regarding gay marriage—we still see the pernicious effects of prejudice and discrimination in U.S. society. Prejudice and discrimination toward differences in race, ethnicity, gender, spirituality, and disability have had negative psychological consequences, and they continue in primarily covert forms. Bias and disparities still exist and result in inequity of services, opportunities, and practices in American society. Combating prejudice and discrimination in today’s environment warrants some different strategies. We live in an environment of heightened anxiety due to war and terrorism. Thanks to technological advances in communication, travel, and the

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Internet, news and information from all parts of the world are almost instantaneously brought to us. We live in a global economy with a narrowing of borders between countries and groups. Generations of immigrants have resulted in the U.S. population becoming so diverse that there may soon be no single majority group within most major cities. Technological advances have eliminated the biological advantage of males in strength and the biological “limitations” of women of childbearing age in the work environment. Yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Irrational and unjust perceptions of other people remain—more subtle, perhaps, but they remain. This four-volume set, The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination, takes a fresh look at that issue that is embedded in today’s global environment. Images, attitudes and perceptions that sustain prejudice and discrimination are more covert, but no less pernicious. What people say, believe, and do all reflect underlying bias. We do not claim here to address every existing form of prejudice or discrimination, nor do we cite every possible group targeted today. What we offer are insights into a range from the most to least recognized, or openly discussed, forms of this injustice. Each chapter offers new perspectives on standing issues, with practical information about how to cope with prejudice and discrimination. The “toolbox” at the end of each chapter suggests steps to be taken at different levels to combat prejudice and discrimination and to achieve change. At the individual level, self-reflection needs to occur by both the victims and perpetrators of discrimination. Practitioners, educators, and all who deliver services potentially impart a bias perpetuating prejudice and discrimination. At the systems level, communities and policymakers must join together and have the will to combat discrimination. How does one remain “whole” or validate one’s identity despite persistent assaults to self-esteem from prejudice and discrimination? How does one raise children or teach amid societal institutions that perpetuate bias? Culturally competent principles and practices are needed to provide a framework for managing diversity and valuing differences. Volume 1, Racism in America, looks at stereotypes, racial bias, and race relations. How do we avoid internalizing racism or accepting negative messages about a group’s ability and intrinsic worth? How do we address institutionalized racism that results in differential access to goods, service, and opportunities of society? Volume 2, Ethnicity and Multiracial Identity, looks at discrimination toward differences due to immigration, language, culture, and mixed race. Volume 3,

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Bias Based on Gender and Sexual Orientation, looks at gender bias, women’s issues, homophobia, and oppression of gay/lesbian lifestyles. Volume 4, Disability, Religion, Physique, and Other Traits, strives to examine less-spotlighted bias against other forms of difference, and begins the difficult dialogue that must take place if we are to eradicate prejudice and discrimination. Written for today’s people and environment, these volumes are rich with anecdotes, stories, examples, and research. These stories illustrate the emotional impact of prejudice and discrimination throughout history and as it still strikes people’s lives today. While the chapters spotlight psychology, they interweave history, politics, legislation, social change, education, and more. These interdisciplinary views reflect the broad contexts of prejudice and discrimination that ultimately affect identity, life adjustment, and well-being for every one of us. Please take with you the strategies for change offered in the toolbox at the end of each chapter. Change needs to occur at all levels: individual, practitioner/educator, and community. The intent of the toolboxes is to move us from the emotional to the scholarly to action and empowerment. They are intended to encourage and compel readers to begin individual change that will spur community and social action. With each person who reads these volumes, gains understanding, and finds the motivation or method to help make his or her small part of the world a more just and open-minded place, we have moved closer to making our goal a reality. Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

Light, Bright, Damned Near White: Multiracial Identity Stephanie Rose Bird

I

n a country whose cultural orientation is built around sharp divisions marked by the polar opposite colors black and white, people who combine these two groups have struggled to assert their identities. Black and white people are pitted against one another, portrayed as being in opposition visually and culturally. While the group generally called biracial is a complex territory to explore both psychologically and culturally, there are also long-standing groups, referred to historically as triracial isolates, whose heritage blends the two groups with the addition of various Native American nations. This chapter explores the historic and contemporary issues involved with triracial and biracial American ancestry. It will also examine such occurrences abroad, pointing to the “Stolen Generation” of Australia and the noble families of Europe. Finally, this chapter will assist readers in their search for ancestry. Woven throughout are the psychological issues raised by the assertion of biracial or triracial identity, as opposed to homogenous cultural identification as black, white, or Native American. The prejudice from dominant racial groups because of homogenous identifications is discussed along with suggestions for healing and moving forward while keeping multiracial identity intact.

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Ethnicity and Multiracial Identity

WHERE DOES TAN FIT IN THE AMERICAN RACIAL RAINBOW? When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, it was common to hear the chant “Light, Bright, Damned Near White” directed at people who were obviously of mixed heritage. The blunt ethnic-cultural description “black” did a fine job of eradicating use of the terms quadroon, octoroon, and mulatto, which had become divisive, yet such blanket terms could never erase the complexity of mixed heritage. In South America, mestees and mestizos are a blended racial group with a distinctive identity shaped by a confluence of cultural influences. Apart from anthropologists and other scholars, few Americans readily use the terms when discussing multiracial or multicultural groups. In the second half of the twentieth century, a concerted effort was made in North America to characterize mixed-heritage people as simply white or black. Some individuals of mixed heritage readily adopt the crisp white or black racial tags. However, a new generation of “tan” people seeks accurate definitions of their complex identity. For these people, checking the “other” box on an application or census is not an option, as it excludes segments of their ancestral heritage—often a parent or grandparents. Personal Insights Like many other Americans, I always knew that I was African, Native American, and European by blood but knew I was black in the eyes of America. As an artist and writer, I have been candid and dogged in my exploration of race. I know that I am a me´lange of many cultures, though I identify culturally and racially with being black while recognizing strong Native American and European influences. When I began to write my memoir A Walkabout Home, I wanted to be quite candid about my ethnicity; after all, my entire memoir is an exploration of identity. My memoir explores my physical, spiritual, and metaphysical being. Through my grandmother and her sisters, I heard strange names like Red Bone, Guinea, and Moor—silently, I wondered if they were talking about themselves. Then too, Grandma frequently mentioned that when she was in New England, people thought she was of Portuguese descent. Quite naturally, I wanted to know whether I was indeed a “red bone,” a cultural group name black people felt comfortable assigning based on appearance, or whether my family were descendants of the “Guineas.” Looking through my family photographs, I noticed an array of skin colors from black to white, with many tan families in between. According to family legend,

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several groups opted out of black society entirely, creating for themselves a mythic ancestry as white “ethnics” instead. TOO LIGHT TO BE BLACK, TOO DARK TO BE WHITE: THE WAY OF MY PEOPLE Pop, Ma’s dad, had an interesting story and a peculiar way about him. He was born in 1890 on a plantation, the son of the EnglishIrish master and a former African slave mother. While this is common family knowledge, it should be noted that such offspring raised as free children are an anomaly. I say he was peculiar because he was a true reflection of his father, who was white, more so than his Africandescended mother. He never really saw himself as black; nevertheless, he knew he wasn’t white, either. A proud colored Negro—still, though most of us had embraced the concept of blackness long ago. His manners had strong affinities toward the British Isles rather than sharing the casual impromptu nature of either white or black American culture. Intercultural as well as interracial, he was proper to a fault: a real oldfashioned gentleman and philosophical to boot. He had a never-ending stockpile of proverbs, and this was one of his distinctive Africanisms. Then there was Dad’s part of the family. As if we were counting down to the new year, lil’ brother and I were spellbound by an excruciating anticipation when we visited Dad’s family, as we would mark off the seventeen or so exits of the New Jersey turnpike and parkway that drew the line between north and south New Jersey. We headed to north Jersey or, more specifically, to East Orange. It wasn’t the city itself that moved us. East Orange was experiencing the steep decline that has blighted many a black neighborhood. There was a dwindling police presence, with an increase in drug dealing, number running (street lottery), violent crime, and funeral homes. Still, we loved the place, not for what it was, but because it was our ancestral home. Almost all of our people on Dad’s side of the family lived within a few miles of East Orange—Mom’s as well. My great-grandmother was a laundress. To some folks’ ears, that may sound humble, almost shameful; but it was a decent, well-paying job for a woman of color during her times. It was not without its challenges, either, as the clientele tended to be upper-class white people from suburban West Orange, Short Hills, and Upper Montclair in north Jersey. Ironing and mending were her specialties. She was a brown-skinned woman with cottony soft hair and high cheekbones; her mother was part Native American. My father would recount

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memories of her strength, clarity, and wisdom; what a great cook she was and how very tough she was; but for us she was a warm, wise elder. When we would arrive at Grandma’s building, as soon as she’d buzz us in, the blend of aromas told us that she’d been much too busy glazing the clove-and-maraschino cherry-covered ham, watching over the bubbling macaroni and cheese casserole; chopping and then soaking the gritty collard, turnip, and mustard greens (she loved mixed greens); and buttering up the buttermilk rolls for church. Come to think of it, Great-Grandma brought the church right over to her daughter’s place with her, being that her religious work was never quite finished. The incongruity wasn’t limited to mother (Great-Grandma) and daughter (Grandma). The first was holy, and the latter more interested in partying and fun after her hard days bustin’ up the kids who taunted her and her fair-skinned, long-haired sisters, who were too light-skinned to even be called “yella”: instead it was “whitey girls,” “crackers,” and “paddies.” This was the daily chant, on their way to school, from people of their own race. Her rite of passage into adulthood led to days of washin’ up after rich white folk as a live-in, not far off from the drudgery of slave days. Still, in the eyes of most, she was fortunate enough to have “good” steady work just like her mother. It was on a comfortable estate, so she didn’t complain. Come to think of it, she never complained. Clearly, she had no time for the notion of the tragic mulatto. Her ease with herself set the tone for all of our get-togethers. Her laughter was genuine—drawn from the soul. If I had to break Grandma down into bloodline fractions so popular during the days of old (octoroon, quadroon, mulatto), I’d say she was one quarter Bette Davis, one quarter Billy Holiday, one quarter Joan Crawford, one quarter Alberta Hunter, and 100 percent Oya of Wind and Rain. As a child, I was never as at peace as when I was snuggled up to Grandma under her overstuffed down comforter. Her room smelled of a mixture of lilacs and cedarwood. Tough and witty, she had long, silky, henna-red hair, with numerous shades of glorious red fingernail polish and lipstick to match. She embodied the wise woman: smart, seasoned, courageous, and sweet. A woman whose life came to a sharp edge—an edge she was very happy to bring you to the brink of, if you cared to listen. My great-grandmother’s brother was also an eccentric, high-end domestic. He had taken to Irish and Scottish garb, and the last time I saw him he was in a wheelchair wearing tartan plaid and a fishermen’s sweater. In his younger years, he had been a butler, with all the attending airs to match.

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When I was growing up, it was a rude awakening to move from north to south New Jersey. You would think an interstate move down the turnpike would require only a minor adjustment. However, we moved from an almost entirely black neighborhood to a historically white, segregated society. This was in the late 1960s. I had not heard nigger uttered; but in south Jersey, it was a tag line readily assigned on playgrounds, in the classroom, and occasionally on the street. Among my own people, I remember at a very early age being called yellow, the color of piss, ’Rican, and red bone. Some of the girls said I had hair like a baby doll’s, and I rather liked that, as it didn’t sound malicious. As they were also black, it did highlight me as somehow being “other.” In short, I guess I am the descendant of “house niggers” granted a position because of their mixed heritage. I see no need to compensate or feel shameful. That is just how things were, and I cannot and will not turn my back on my ancestors or the opportunities I enjoy that result from the sweat of their labor or their cultural identity. I remain curious about the rainbow, particularly the history of tan America, which remains something of a mystery. I also seek out role models who can remain tough, united, and inspirational in the face of both racism and colorism (which is typically prejudice afflicted from within one’s ethnicity). My search for identity led me on a meandering trail of research. I learned how to trace race online. I felt that this offered some objectivity that my relatives might lack. I was able to identify my relationship to the triracial isolate groups, with certainty based on my ancestor’s homeland, customs, and surnames. I did the same with my Native American heritage and am working now on the European extractions. Indeed, as we shall see later, the Internet is a powerful research tool for anyone embarking on such a quest. Separating fact from fiction can be tricky. Today, we can look at historical precedence, folklore, and geography to paint a fuller picture. Moreover, as we shall see in the conclusion, a plethora of genetic tests and innovative genealogical tools provide definitive answers when once ambiguity flourished. Old World in the New World: Fact, Fiction, and Fantasy Getting back to my grandmother and the Portuguese question touches on many fascinating elements of our history as Americans. Throughout early American history, the notion of being of Portuguese heritage was a rather common designation assigned to mixed-race

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people, as was the idea of having a Moorish or Turkish background. In many ways, identification with a foreign other masked the possibility of domestic admixtures with exoticism, giving such individuals some immunity from segregation, humiliating laws, and social exclusion. No genetic connection between the Portuguese and my family exists as far as can be discerned. For others, a connection to the Portuguese, Turkish, or Moors, whether factual or mythic, afforded opportunities that would have been denied to triracial or biracial families with black, white, and Native American heritage. Obviously, numerous Americans descend from the Portuguese, Turks, and Moors. For some mixed-race people, though, the shroud afforded by a mythic ethnic identity enabled them to survive and prosper in early American society. It’s no wonder my grandmother found the ethnicities assigned to her amusing, and yet in certain circumstances she was unwilling to deny such ancestry. This is the tightrope for social survival that many people walked. Depending on the environment, the assumption of an Old World heritage proved useful to biracial and triracial Americans, as illuminated by court cases tried over 100 years ago. Here are a few historical notes from a famous court case regarding “Portuguese” (biracial) ambiguity as seen through the eyes of early Americans. The case was tried in Johnson County, Tennessee, in 1858. The documentation provides a glimpse into the way residents of the community readily embraced mixed families of purportedly foreign (Old World) origins, like the Perkins. Joshua Perkins, born circa 1732 in Accomack County, Virginia, was the “mulatto” son of a white woman (Orders, 1731–1736). He owned land in Robeson County, North Carolina, in 1761; moved to Liberty County, South Carolina; and in 1785 moved to what later became Washington County, Tennessee (Philbeck). Succeeding generations of Perkins continued to marry either light-skinned blacks or whites of European descent, fading their African features. They were a prosperous family, owning a ferry, racehorses, and an iron ore mine. Members of this family ran the local schoolhouse and held official offices. Undercover, as an olive-skinned people with ties to Old World southern Europe, they reaped the benefits of societal acceptance. As the political winds changed abruptly, right before the Civil War in 1858 one of the Perkins was “accused” of being a Negro. He brought an unsuccessful lawsuit, accusing the defendant of slander. Jacob F. Perkins, great-grandson of Joshua Perkins, brought an unsuccessful suit against one of his neighbors in the Circuit Court of Johnson County for slander because the neighbor called him a “free Negro” (Perkins File).

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At least fifty people gave depositions or testified during his trial. Many of the deponents came from well-established families who had lived in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee for more than three generations. Only sixteen of the elder witnesses testified that he was a “Negro,” describing him as follows: dark skinned man with sheep’s wool and flat nose. (Deposition of Nancy Lipps) black man, hair nappy. . . . Some called Jacob (his son) a Portuguese and some a negro. (Deposition of John Nave) Knew old Jock (Joshua) in North Carolina on Peedee . . . right black or nearly so. Hair kinky . . . like a common negro. (Deposition of Abner Duncan)

However, several witnesses for Perkins testified that Joshua Perkins was something other than “Negro,” and possibly Portuguese or Native American. They said little about his physical characteristics and those of his descendants. Instead, they argued that he could not have been a “Negro” because he was admired and trusted by the community. This raises an important issue that will be explored later, that “black” is not only a racial trait but also comes to describe the character of an individual: dark skinned man . . . resembled an Indian more than a negro. He was generally called a Portuguese. Living well. . . . Kept company with everybody. Kept race horses and John Watson rode them. (Deposition of Thomas Cook) mixed blooded and not white. His wife fair skinned. . . . They had the same privileges. (Deposition of Catherine Roller) Hair bushy & long—not kinky. Associated with white people . . . Associated with . . . the most respectable persons. Some would call them negroes and some Portuguese. (Deposition of John J. Wilson) He was known of the Portuguese race. . . . Four of his sons served in the Revolution. . . . Jacob and George drafted against Indians . . . they came from and kept a ferry in South Carolina. (Deposition of Anna Graves) They kept company with decent white people and had many visitors. (Deposition of Elizabeth Cook) I taught school at Perkins school house . . . they were Portuguese . . . associated with white peoples, clerked at elections and voted and had all privileges. (Deposition of David R. Kinnick) [Underlining added for emphasis]

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The Perkins family lived in the hazy tan area of the rainbow. There was a societal agreement about their identity that approached legendary status. Many of those who testified had never even met the family but still felt certain of their identity. Rather than suspending racism and racial stereotype, the community adopted a myth of the Perkins’s identity, allowing the status quo to be perpetuated. This was done by admitting mixed-race people into their society as variants of their own European heritage. I was well acquainted with Jacob Perkins (a second generation Perkins). A yellow man—said to be Portuguese. They do not look like negroes. I have been about his house a great deal and nursed for his wife. She was a little yellow and called the same race. Had blue eyes and black hair. Was visited by white folks. (Deposition of Mary Wilson)

Seventy-seven-year-old Daniel Stout asserted, “[n]ever heard him called a negro. People in those days said nothing about such things” (Deposition of Daniel Stout). The Melungeon, Black Dutch, and “Gypsy” I am not trying to suggest that white early Americans were generally an open-minded people to anyone who seemed of European descent. There is plenty of scholarly and genetic debate regarding the absorption of “undesirable” European cultures into various southern cultures in the United States. This adds further color to our discussion. In “Wayfaring stranger: The Black Dutch, German Gypsies or Chicanere and Their Relation to the Melungeon” (2000), Linda Griggs describes the Melungeon as an olive-complected, dark-eyed, dark-skinned people living in Appalachia. While some Melungeon claim Portuguese heritage, this ancestry is largely unsubstantiated. Melungeons are generally thought of as American admixtures of black, white, with some Native American referred to in anthropological terms as triracial isolates. This group is one of the largest and most active communities of contemporary triracial Americans. Melungeons are not quaint asides from early history; they are a lively culture online and off—as book authors, organizers, and educators. They are one of the fairest groups of triracial people, questioning the notion of whiteness in terms of race. The questions raised by Melungeon heritage delight, as a blessing, those who are open-minded, as they give entree to diverse American cultures. Melungeon background offends those who are comforted by an assumption of whiteness and the power it often affords.

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Many Americans presumably of European ancestry suspect that they have ties to the Romany, Middle Eastern, or African-descended people. This idea arises from interpretation of family stories, physical features, inclinations, heirlooms, or photographs. With the renaissance of Melungeon culture, old theories of their origins are revisited. One such theory asserted by Dr. Swan Burnett in American Anthropologist (1889) is that they are part Roma, commonly referred to as Gypsy. Black anthropologist Henry Burke recently reconsidered the Gypsies to be contributors to Melungeon ancestry. Another scholar, Myra Vanderpool Gormley, investigates the relationship of the so-called black Dutch to the Melungeon in the paper “In Search of the Black Dutch.” Black Dutch is a term used by German Gypsies to describe themselves, as is the term Chicanere (Gormley, 1997). These people were absorbed into the Pennsylvania Dutch culture after being persecuted in Philadelphia during initial immigrations. Eminent historian Henry W. Shoemaker, whose work came to prominence in the early twentieth century, is considered an authority on “black Dutch” culture. Shoemaker describes the black Dutch, or Dark Pennsylvania Mountain people, as of Near Eastern or aboriginal stock (“aboriginal” describes the original people of an area, and in this case they would be Native Americans; however, people commonly link the term aboriginal with the natives of Australia). In a lecture from 1924, he stated, “At least until the 1850s the men were of medium size, very slim and erect, with good features and large dark eyes. They wore their hair long; very little hair grew on their faces, but they tried to cultivate small side-burns.” In a March 31, 1930, Altoona Tribune article he described “diverse Shekener girls and women . . . of astounding loveliness and their kinship to the socalled Pennsylvania German people, where strange, dark types predominate, was apparent. In fact the Pennsylvania German is but a more cosmopolitan scion of the She-kener . . . and all spring from the same Central and near Eastern polyglot that swarmed into Pennsylvania in the Eighteenth century of diverse origins” (1930). The Chicanere ranks decimated whenever a chance to settle down came into view; by these judicious marriages, their blood was in the veins of almost every “Pennsylvania Dutchman.” According to Shoemaker, “the Pennsylvania Dutch boys and girls with their glorious dark eyes, waxlike complexions, wavy dark hair, and features of Araby, show the undying presence of forgotten Romany (Gypsy) forebears” (1930). Shoemaker reports on the results of intermarriage between the Pennsylvania Dutch and people of Romany heritage, “giving an added

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dark strain to the already swarthy Pennsylvania German type, fused as it has been from South German, Huguenot, Esopus Spaniard, Hebrew, Swiss, Waldensian, Greek and Indian, the type of the true Pennsylvanian, Tauranian. . .” (1300 Words, 1930). For those who are beginning to trace black Dutch ancestry, Griggs provides a list of established characteristics in her article “Wayfaring Stranger”: An Anatolian bump, a donut shaped protuberance on the back of the skull Shovel teeth, which are curved across the back rather than straight and end in a ridge at the gum line (commonly found in Native Americans as well) History of Familial Mediterranean Fever, an inherited rheumatic disease ethnically restricted to non-Ashkenazi Jews, Armenians, Arabs and Turks. Ritualized cleanliness regulations

Common Names of the black Dutch: Smith, Mullinses, Mullens, Mullen, Schwartz, Boswell, and Kaiser (2000). The Turks and the Moors According to journalists Khalid Duran and Daniel Piper in “Faces of American Islam” (2002), Muslim immigrants came to North America as early as 1501, as slaves from Africa. How many Muslim slaves came in total is up for debate, but scholar Allan D. Austin (2002) estimates that there were about 40,000 brought to what is now the United States. Sylviane Diouf (2002), another expert in this area, puts the numbers higher, estimating between 2.25 million and 3 million in North and South America. While the Muslims from diverse countries were liked by the slave owners, those owners did not support Islamic beliefs. By the 1860s, importation of Muslim slaves ended. The slaves who were brought over were concentrated along the southeastern United States, particularly North Carolina—a fate they shared with non-Muslim slaves from Africa. The Melungeons of Appalachia and the Cumberland Plateau who live in remote areas from Virginia to Kentucky may well have Muslim, Middle Eastern ancestry. Two groups of triracial isolates—the Moors and the Turks of Sumter County, South Carolina—are believed to be related to Middle Eastern Islamic slaves. In fact, although the American South is thought of in terms of “white” and “black,” South Carolina was a multiethnic, multicultural society, all the way back to the colonial era. The “Free Moors” are believed to be the descendants of Muslims sold into slavery in the Middle East. The “Turks” of Sumter County are

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reputedly the descendants of pirates, or escapees from pirates, according to General Thomas Sumter, who settled in the area. These families also are often reluctant to discuss what they know of their heritage, fearing the stigma attached to an Islamic background in the Bible Belt or an association with slavery and pirates. Nevertheless, the groups remain cohesive and an essential part of the fabric of the Carolinian culture. Just as with the Perkins family previously described, racial tensions that arose prior to the Civil War brought suffering and humiliation to the Melungeon people, the Turks, and the Moors. Today, all of these groups are coming out of the dusty annals of American history, demonstrating the vitality and unique contributions of their cultures. THE BLACKFOOT QUESTION My grandmother would also get a big kick out of saying we were Blackfoot because of our “nigger toes,” but would never go into any real details. Many blacks who have family stories that include a Native American ancestor will point to the Blackfoot as the possible tribal identification. My research has confirmed that it would be rare but not impossible for blacks to be related to the Blackfoot. The Blackfoot were referred to as such because of their distinctive black moccasins, not because they were darker-skinned. The Blackfoot people are thought to have been always concentrated in the Dakotas, whereas the majority of black Americans were found in the southern states, but there are no hard and fast rules for either group. Still, some freed black slaves did resettle in the West, and a few may have mixed with the Blackfoot. While it is little noted, numerous biracials (black/ Native Americans) were forced to resettle in the West along with fullblooded Native Americans on the Trail of Tears. There is a possibility of some cultural blending occurring from the Trail of Tears migration. Support is thin in this area; however, there are numerous black Native American groups who could assist one doing such a search. One of the most prominent black Native American organizations is the Black Indians Intertribal Native American Association (BIINAA), led by Chief Jerry Monroe Eagle Feather. “BLACK, WHITE, AND RED ALL OVER”: AMERICAN HISTORY While the term Five Civilized Tribes casts aspersion on tribes outside this group, the term is widely used, so I will employ it here though

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I don’t agree with it. Genealogical documentation connects blacks definitively to the so-called five civilized tribal groups: Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. Historically there have been additional admixtures, with the most prominent being the Chickahominy, Gingaskin, Mattapony, Nansemond, Nanticoke, Nottaway, Pamunkey Rappahannocks, Saponi, Weanock, and Werowocomo people. The Nanticoke, who still live in Canada, are a dark-skinned tribe of African and Native American descent. In the Ebony magazine article “Black Indians Hit Jackpot in Casino Bonanza” (June 1995), author Kevin Chappell reports on a similar tribe of black Native Americans in America. According to Chappell (1995), the Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut owns the most profitable casino in the world. In 2003, they took in $800 million. It is this fact that has brought them international public attention. Confusion arises for the public, who harbor preconceptions of what “Native American” means and what it looks like. The Mashantucket have about 318 members, half of whom could pass for black. Their Foxwood Resort Casino is located in a sedate community in southeastern Connecticut called Ledyard. Remote location aside, they have raised the eyebrows of Donald Trump, who calls them “Michael Jordan Indians” because they seem to him to be blacks and not Native Americans. While the tribe’s members enjoy relative comfort because of their successful business venture today, they were nearly annihilated 350 years ago. The Pequots were massacred 300 years ago and enslaved along with Africans with whom they had intermarried. By the 1970s, this group was a shadow of its former self, with only two half-sister members to represent the tribe. Two is indeed a small number for a nation; the sisters were feisty and held fast to the 216 acres of Pequot land. Gradually, descendants returned to the reservation and the numbers were replenished. Currently, the Pequot are not only successful as a sound culture with a solid economic standing, but they are also a model for diversity in a pluralistic America. Dark-skinned and light-skinned members may suggest an African or European heritage, but the tribe is united as Pequot people, a rainbow tribe. This group with lengthy American roots and a venerable history teaches important lessons to contemporary Americans. The resilience of the Pequot proves that connection to a place and a common history creates a bond more important than physical characteristics.

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THE RACIAL TRIANGLE As far back as the 1600s, people of African origin were marrying into the Native American community. Virginia DeMarce (1992), an expert on the topic, points out that the east coast ’Gingaskins were intermarrying into both the black and white communities. Both whites and blacks are known to have married the Nottoway, according to the census of 1808, taken by tribal leaders. Among some of the larger groups that have arisen among the triracial isolates come those from clearly defined geographical locations, often within particular counties, as illustrated here: Brass Ankles, Red Legs, Marlboro, Turks, Blues of South Carolina. Cecil Indians, Guineas, Guinea Niggers, West Hill Indians of Maryland and West Virginia. Haliwas of Halifax and Warren counties in North Carolina. Issues of Amherst and Rockingham County, Virginia. Jackson Whites of New York and New Jersey. Lumbees, formerly called Croatans, of Robeson County, Virginia; North Carolina, and upper South Carolina. Melungeons of Tennessee, and Kentucky (southern Appalachia). Ramapo Mountain People, formerly the Jackson Whites. Red Bones of South Carolina and Louisiana. (Walton-Raji, 1993)

Members of some of the larger established Native American tribes married into the black and white races, but groups such as the Catawbas are not considered to be triracial; rather, they are a single tribe. The Brass Ankles of South Carolina are a well-known large group of triracials. They are thought to have developed from the offspring of enslaved Native Americans and Africans—as each group was held in slavery around the same time, with an additional infusion of blood from Irish servants of southern plantations. The derogatory name Brass Ankles is derived from the fact that the people were either slaves or servants. Brass Ankles are believed to have small amounts of Native American and African ancestry and to be primarily of Irish descent. The term Cajan may throw some people who could take it for an alternative spelling of Cajun (of Louisiana). The Cajan group was founded when a Jamaican man married a biracial (black/white) woman.

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The Cajans married in with the Red Bones and “colored” Creoles, expanding their numbers and genetic pool. Some specific surname patterns appear in the triracial communities. DeMarce (1992) cautions researchers not to hastily conclude that, just because the name is the same, that a relationship exists. Yet on the other hand, she acknowledges that a specific pattern of name dispersal in a limited population may truly indicate which groups are affiliated with others, indicating a connection to the triracial isolates for those searching for such a connection. What’s in a Name There are niggers who are as white as I am, but the taint of blood is there and we always exclude it. “How do you know it is there?” asked Dr. Gresham. “Oh, there are tricks of blood which always betray them. My eyes are more practiced than yours. I can always tell them.” (Harper)

Apart from geography, surnames are among the most important indicators of triracial identity. Some of the naming patterns within each group are as follows: Brass Ankles: Shavers, Chavers, Chavis Cajan/Alabama Creole: Chastang Lumbee: Locklear, Oxendine Melungeon/Florida Dead Lake People: Mullins, Goins, Collins, Sexton, Gipson, Gibson, Hatfield Turk: Oxendine, Benenhaley (Nassau, 1993)

Now, I’m sure that those of you who watch television are familiar with Heather Locklear, who began her rise in the 1980s with a starring role in the popular television show Dynasty. She has gone on to be highly visible in Melrose Place and Spin City. She seems to be the quintessential Caucasian with blond hair (perhaps from the bottle she touts on television commercials) and hazel eyes. A more complex picture arises as the result of her name, Locklear. Locklear is a Tuscarora name that means “hold fast.” Locklear’s paternal line descends from the triracial isolate groups. This may not be as clear as the nose on her European-appearing face but proven by her traditional Tuscarora name and her family’s geographic origin—the lands of the Lumbee (Nassau, 1993). Another name that may stand out of the groups listed above who are fans of American legend is the name Hatfield. Indeed, the

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Hatfields are the long-feuding half of the Hatfields and McCoys. They are also a triracial isolate family linked to the Melungeon people (Nassau, 1993). Surnames apart, you may wonder why the groups are called triracial isolates. Generally, it is thought that the name arises from the fact that the groups intermarried, isolating their ancestry from that of others. Indeed, having grown up among several of these groups in Southern New Jersey, I observed firsthand the fact that while they might socialize with people who identified with other racial groups, marriage outside the group was strongly discouraged. My aunt married into a triracial family. Some of the members of the group identified strongly as Native American and some even lived on reservations. There was outrage at the fact that one of their members would marry my relative, even though both were well into middle age. Eventually, a few of the family members acquiesced, accepting my aunt as their own, but many remained distanced and some no longer considered my uncle to be a member of their own family. Geography also plays a role. Many of the groups were established in remote regions of the country with difficult terrains. Some areas where the groups settled, as noted by the information above, include mountainous areas, lowlands, and swamps as well as rural areas well away from industrialized cities. Sidebar: Biracial Royals Challenge Common Conceptions The idea of a strong history of biracial and triracial Americans is well established. When we want to make a racial distinction between white and black, we typically point to Europe when speaking of the white race. Examination of the royal court of sixteenth-century Italy challenges this commonly held notion, for it is there that the first biracial head of state was born. Allesandro de Medici was a powerful figure during the early Italian Renaissance. His father was Cardinal Giulio de Medici, who later became Pope Clement VII, also nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent. While Allesandro was born the child of a black serving woman, since his father was a member of the elder line of the Medicis, he rose to power though technically a bastard. His children Giulio and Giulia took great pride in their Medici ancestry. The two were not only welcomed into Italian society, but also married titled individuals.

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Today, many noble families of Europe can trace their ancestry back to Alessandro de Medici, the biracial duke of Florence. Scholar Mario de Valdes y Cocom illustrates that these royal families with African descendants are not only living in Italy but are in several other countries as well. The PBS special Blurring Racial Boundaries also highlights England’s Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, as someone who descended from the black Portuguese royal family of Margarita de Castro y Sousa. Here, bloodline is found in six different lines of European royals. While some people labor under the impression that to be biracial is not to have a history, the lessons of Alessandro de Medici and Queen Charlotte suggest otherwise. The history of the two and all of their descendents demonstrates that not only do biracial people have a history but an illustrious and influential one at that (de Valdes y Cocom, 1998). The Lumbee Census readings from later years indicate that other groups, such as those with Lumbee surnames and those of other triracial groups, were listed simply as free people of color. Biracial and triracial people were included among these groups. As far back as the 1750s, a reference was made to a small group of Lumbees, about fifty families at that time, who were known to have members of mixed blood. Today the Lumbee are a large and vibrant group of over 40,000, still centered in Robeson County, North Carolina. They are the largest triracial group in the United States and are vigorously fighting legislation and bureaucracy, both mainstream American and Native American, to be considered a 100 percent Native American group. The Lumbee have a venerable history. They cite acculturation and assimilation as contributing factors to lost languages and lost traditions. Here is a brief timeline: 12,000 B.C.: Native Americans settled areas of southeast North Carolina occupied today by the Lumbee. 1714: “Lost Colony” theory first asserted. Sir Walter Raleigh left colonists in what was then Roanoke, Virginia to get supplies from England. When he returned, the colonists were gone. Purportedly only an inscription in a tree remained. It was suggested that the English had gone to Croatan Island and integrated with the Manteo, an indigenous group. 1885: Group first called Croatan Indians.

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1887: Funding was given to Croatan school. 1891: Stephen B. Week wrote an article in Papers of the American Historical Association with documentation, maps, and historical accounts of the Croatan or Lumbee people, descended from the colonists at Roanoke. 1911: Croatan name changed to Indians of Robeson County. 1913: Name changed again to Cherokee of Robeson County. 1953: Name changed to Lumbee Indians, as many lived near Lumbee River. 1956: Federal law recognized tribe as Lumbee.

It should also be noted that the Lumbee integrated with the Tuscarora people, a smaller group in the county. There are in fact eighteen counties and adjoining areas where the Lumbee live. These include Pembroke, Red Banks, Maxton, Moss Neck, Wakulla, and Rennert. The Lumbee defy categorization, and they don’t have a specific look, so they cannot be stereotyped. A Lumbee can be as fair as Heather Locklear or appear to be solely of African descent. Genetically, they are considered the most “Indian” (or Native American) of all triracial American groups. They not only blended with the Tascarora people but also the Halteras tribe of Algonguin, Cheraw, and other Siouan people, runaway slaves, free people of color (biracials), and renegade or outlaw whites. There are prominent figures who are Lumbee, including professors, museum curators, administrators, executives, physicians, ministers, and artists. Lumbee people founded the first “Indian”-owned bank. They also have their own newspaper, called Carolina Indian Voice. The Lumbee are very active in the arts. A curious characteristic that the Lumbee profess of themselves is “meanness.” Meanness refers to their fierce pride in being Native American. Lumbee sensitivity to insult and a readiness to react to it, sometimes violently defending themselves, leads to the connection with the term meanness as well. They are a very cohesive unit, unwilling to bow down to stereotype or categorization dispensed by American legislative acts or even the Bureau of Indian affairs. The Lumbee are known to have very large families, which contribute to their large numbers. If they were to be considered officially a tribe, they would be the ninth largest.

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THE LOST GENERATION—UNDERSTANDING THE PAST TO LEARN TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT The social construction of race and racism is dependent on the general acceptance of rigid racial boundaries and racial classification systems. Proponents of racial segregation have always understood that interracial relationships and the children they produce eventually undermine racism by challenging the assumption of monolithic, fixed, and inherently incompatible races. The clear demarcation of races, which is an essential cornerstone of the social construction of race, is weakened by the existence and recognition of widespread racial mixing. Consequently, those who favor racial separatism and believe in the concept of race are most likely to strongly oppose interracial relationships. (Payne, 1998, p. 153)

From afar, it is reasonable to presume that mixed-race people historically had advantages over monoracial people, particularly those of Native American or black heritage, who could then escape the stigma of belonging entirely to either group. Though the heritage may have been mixed, society worked rather vigorously to assign people to groups to fit their own desires. In early America, many mixed-race people were deemed “free people of color,” and there were “freed men” as well who were descended from Africa. There were countless intercultural stresses and disputes resulting from the nebulous boundaries caused by such terminology, law or not. Free blacks were also in danger of having their children stolen and sold into slavery. In his Revolutionary War pension application on March 7, 1834, Drury Tann declared in Southampton County, Virginia, Court: [H]e was stolen from his parents as a boy by strangers, who were carrying him to sell him into Slavery, and had gotten with him and other stolen property as far as the Mountains on their way, that his parents made complaint to a Mr. Tanner Alford who was Then a magistrate in the county of Wake State of North Carolina to get me back from Those who had stolen me and he did pursue the Rogues & overtook Them at the mountains and took me from Them. (“Revolutionary War,” 1834)

An advertisement in the April 10, 1770, issue of the North Carolina Gazette of New Bern describes how the Driggers family was victimized in Craven County, North Carolina: [B]roke into the house . . . under the care of Ann Driggus, a free negro woman, two men in disguise, with marks on their faces, and clubs in their hands, beat and wounded her terribly and carried away four of her children. (Fouts, 1770, pp. 65–66)

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John Scott, “freeborn Negro,” testified in Berkeley County, South Carolina, on January 17, 1754 that three men, Joseph Deevit, William Deevit, and Zachariah Martin entered by force, the house of his daughter, Amy Hawley, and carried her off, with her six children, and he thinks they are taking them north to sell as slaves. (Scott, 1754)

One of the children was recovered in Orange County, North Carolina, where the county court appointed Thomas Chavis to return the child to South Carolina on March 12, 1754 (Haun). Stealing free blacks and selling them into slavery in another state was legal in North Carolina until 1779. The law did give a thin veil of protection to blacks and “coloreds.” In 1793, the murderer of John James of Northampton County was committed to jail, according to the March 20, 1793 issue of the North Carolina Journal: Last night Harris Allen, who was committed for the murder of John James, a free mulatto, of Northampton County, made his escape from the gaol of this town. He is a remarkable tall man, and had on a short round jacket. (Fouts, 1793)

When families are broken, the damage that occurs to them and to their communities is hard to estimate. One of the most egregious infractions on the rights of biracial children ended in the late twentieth century in Australia. Geographically far away from the rest of this discussion, the story of the “Stolen Generation” of Australia is nevertheless instructive. For 100 years, from 1870 to 1970, mixed-race Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia were confiscated like illegal contraband, then placed into group homes similar in spirit to internment camps. Many of these centers were religious outposts operated by Catholic nuns. The government of Australia oversaw the program and planned to selectively breed mixed-race children so that their offspring would become increasingly white. There were “training programs” to civilize the natives and those of mixed race; training prepared the mixed-race children to work as housekeepers, maids, and other service jobs for white Australians. The avid collection of biracial children broke many Australian Aboriginal homes, upsetting the unity of entire communities. Desperate to keep the children in their rightful homes, mothers and grandmothers sometimes placed the children over open fires to darken their skin or rubbed charcoal over their bodies. Some lived in exile in the roughest parts of the outback to keep others from noticing their biracial appearance.

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Today, survivors and their families seek official apologies from the government, and some are seeking reparations. While many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders now have their own land or countries, those taken from their homes still suffer disproportionately. For example, high percentages of the Stolen Generation suffer from depression. Some resort to lives of crime: 90 percent of incarcerated Aborigines in Victoria are members of the Stolen Generation. Poverty is pervasive in these populations, as are lack of higher education and the opportunity it affords. Poor role models and lack of contact with real family make it more difficult for the Stolen Generation to raise their own families. Lack of self-esteem, feelings of unworthiness, suicidal tendencies, violence, juvenile delinquency, alcohol and drug abuse, and personality disorders have high incidence in this group (Bringing them home report). There are important lessons to be learned from the Stolen Generation: • A child, no matter how diverse her background may be, still identifies most strongly with her parents and the community in which she grows up. • People of mixed heritage cannot be forced to become fully one race or another if they are of mixed heritage. • Racial identification is best decided by the individual and the parents. • When a society, government, or agency assigns race or cultural orientation to mixed-race children, there are numerous negative psychological and sociological implications that afflict individuals and the community at large.

As part of a recovery program, concerted efforts are being made to offer therapy, some of it including Aboriginal ritual and ceremony, to help the Stolen Generation heal. Government agencies are attempting to help these mixed-race descendents of Australian Aborigines trace their genealogy and reunite with their traditional family communities in Aboriginal country (Bringing them home report). Contemporary Biracial and Triracial Identity The upbeat conclusion to this chapter would be to summarize the events of the past and then highlight the positive changes observed in contemporary culture. As you read, I’m sure that whatever cultural or ethnic heritage you embody, you can recall misconceptions that arose because of stereotypes. To explore contemporary biracial and triracial identity, I will turn the floor to the arts, because artists in their

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myriad disciplines are well suited to reflecting our societal mores while also helping us glimpse the future. Many people become exclusive themselves, isolating the other parts of their known ethnic identity so that they can belong to a group. For some, this is a political act. In the anthology Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural, a variety of writers share personal reflections on nearly every conceivable type of ethnic or cultural mix. In the autobiographical article “The Mulatto Millennium,” Danzy Senna laments what she calls “mulatto fever”: But, with all due respect to the multicultural movement, I cannot tell a lie. I was a black girl. Not your ordinary black girl, if such a thing exists, but rather, born to a black-Mexican father, and a face that harkens to Andalusia, not Africa. I was born in 1970, when “black” described a people bonded not by shared complexion or hair texture but by a shared history. (Senna, 1998, p. 15)

Senna points to the one-drop rule, which suggested that any portion of African heritage made one “black” and retorts, “You told us all along that we had to call ourselves black because of this so-called one drop. Now, that we don’t have to anymore, we choose to. Because black is beautiful. Because black is not a burden, but a privilege” (1998, p. 15). Senna, who is herself biracial and bicultural, expresses disdain for those who identify as mulatto. She cites the book title by populist Jim Hightowers, There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos, as a metaphor for the “mulatto” mentality (1998). Conceptual artist, philosopher, and writer Adrian Piper has a longstanding interest in identity. Piper, who went to prep school and Ivy League colleges, uses her formidable wit and analytic skills to bring racial stereotyping to the attention of Americans. Piper is black, yet her skin is so fair and her physical features so classically European that she is frequently challenged by both black and white cultures concerning her identity. Many people seem to challenge her assertion of blackness, digging for an ulterior motive. Piper is proud to be black. While some of her ancestors have long since melted into white society, her branch of the family is proud to be black Americans. In many ways, Piper is a role model for biracial, triracial, and lightskinned blacks. She is unflinching in her examination of her family, her self, and the reactions to both in our society. Influenced by conceptual artists, minimalism, performance, the “art as life” movement, and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Piper encourages viewers to transcend

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subconscious assessments of racial identity and urges them, sometimes through embarrassing confrontations, to change racist attitudes. In the article “Passing for White, Passing for Black,” Piper recounts the pain incurred when a distinguished professor said, “Ms. Piper, you’re about as black as I am.” She calls the accusation typical but admits that more often it comes from blacks. Her family was one of the remaining middle-class, light-skinned black families left in Harlem when she was growing up, as the others had moved to the suburbs. The remaining people were working-class, according to Piper. They called her “pale-face” or “Clorox baby” quite regularly. She recounts many painful memories incurred at the hands of her people and reports how demoralizing and alienating the exchanges made her feel. She uses words like humiliation, betrayal, identity tests, and anger frequently, in describing how her neighbors in Harlem treated her and how the antagonistic relationships made her feel. At times, Piper seems to feel guilty that she is not darker-skinned, but as an intellectual, she realizes this is a futile and demoralizing emotion. She reports the desire to become more detached, to forgive, and to feel helpless; and that exaggerated fantasies of aggressors (white or black) diminish their own responsibility to be humane toward others. Rejection seems to have toughened her attitude toward upperclass whites and working-class blacks. While she realizes that historically light-skinned blacks have received preferential treatment, better jobs, and a higher education, she is firmly grounded in the here and now. Indeed, Ms. Piper has found that she thrives in the tan area, where character, personality, and deeds outweigh appearance and geographic origin. Her armor of self-worth is strengthened by calmly challenging the conventional thoughts of others; this is reinforced by her commitment to family and personal history. In his paper “Getting beyond race: The changing American culture,” Richard Payne eloquently describes the changing demographic of race: At the end of the twentieth century, major changes that have recently occurred in American society offer hope for the realization of better race relations in the twenty-first century. These include the dynamic force of generational replacement, the shifting of the demographic landscape, the growth of a strong black middle class, the enlistment of large numbers of racial minorities in the U.S. military, and the gradual erosion of racial boundaries resulting from increasing rates of interracial marriages and transracial adoptions. These changes make it difficult to maintain the status quo in relation to race.

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Generational replacement and demographic changes weaken the foundations on which race is socially constructed, each successive generation of Americans becomes more tolerant and supportive of racial integration and equality. Greater access to education, increased interaction among individuals from different racial backgrounds, and society’s growing intolerance of racist attitudes and behaviors consolidate this trend. The influx of immigrants also helps weaken racial boundaries by complicating the concept of race and racial categorization. (1998)

There is so much ignorance, stereotyping, and shame preventing us from understanding who we really are and how we are related to various groups. The Human Genome Project has beautifully documented the genetic commonalities that exist in all humans, yet many lay people have not yet integrated this information into their consciousness. It is my hope as a healer that this chapter will be a gift designed to demonstrate clearly and concisely the venerable history of triracial and biracial mixes in the United States from the seventeenth century to the present. This chapter concludes with a practical application. Readers are equipped with the necessary tools to track their personal relationships to biracial and triracial cultures of North America. Organizations listed offer community, support, sharing, and information. This is my gift to readers and to my immediate family—I am married to an Englishman, and our children are as mixed as I am. Mixed-race children feel especially burdened, since their ultimate goal as they move toward adulthood is to define their sense of “self” in relation to others. The challenge is to accept a multicultural background as a blessing, recognizing that it is a reality for many people, not a social construct like race. Understanding the history of racial mixing and blended cultures allows this identity to be contextualized along with other cultural backgrounds. Ultimately, hybrid ethnicity is normal—especially with its lengthy history and the large numbers of members— not an oddity, shameful secret, or curse. Race has caused an enormous rift in our society. Enjoying the connections implicit in being human is assisted by understanding the complexity of our multiracial heritage. By understanding our connections, perhaps the mistrust and dislike of “other” can evolve into better understanding, trust, acceptance, and as a nation, we can be healed. “Light, Bright, Damned Near White” is for America, for the triracial and biracial community; and most of all, it is written for the mental health and well-being of our children. This is a tool for parents, families,

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Biracial Triracial Cross-cultural Intercultural Multicultural Interracial Transracial adoptees Cross-cultural adoptees Adoptees Curious

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I am alone. I do not belong to any group. Isolation is the natural outcome for mixed children. There is no way to figure out what groups you belong to. No group would find me as a member. My background is too complicated. My origins are obscured by the past; I can never change this fact.

Discover: Ancestry and genealogy There are numerous resources for tracing genealogy; it has become a contemporary passion. Online, there are many quick and relatively easy ways to get started with understanding your background and ancestors, including www.ancestry.com and www.genealogy.com These sites contain resources that help you trace relatives, living and deceased, through surnames. There are also a wide variety of surname collectives and e-groups. Test: DNA Testing DNA has allowed understanding seldom available before, particularly for those who have been adopted or who have scarce genealogical records. The tests have limitations, as the types of readings provided reflect genes adopted, though there are probably others that were not passed down. The other problem with the tests is that they give a picture based on all males or all females, but not both; for example, if you are female you can trace your matrilineal line. The reason is that the Y chromosome is passed from father to son, virtually unchanged. In the female reading, the mitochondrial DNA

used reflects the maternal line. The tests are still valuable and a great starting point if there is no other adequate resource available. These genealogically driven tests include the following: Family Tree DNA Oxford Ancestors Relative Genetics Genetree DNA print genomics—This uses autosomal genetic markers called SNPS (like DNA) and produces a racial profile rather than information about ancestry. 25

Person with Native American along with other ancestry.

As a mixed-blood, halfbreed, or whatever other derogatory term people attribute to my heritage, I could never belong to any solid group of Native American people, officially or even informally. People would laugh at me if I went to a pow wow or other tribal event.

Information is a powerful tool: Native American and black Indian groups The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) still adheres to blood quantum as a way to gain membership and affiliation with certain Native nations. A card called Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) is required for entrance to most tribes. Black Indians and Intertribal Association (BIINAA), associated with the website www.blackIndians.com, exists as a less formal collective of people with biracial and triracial ancestry. continued

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Images/perceptions I know I am part Native American but I cannot prove it. Native Americans are isolationists and cultural elitists. They do not embrace outsiders.

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BIINAA does not have the strict adherence to blood quantum or paperwork required by the above-mentioned associations. Full-blood, half-blood, and mixed Native Americans’ names are listed on a wide array of documents called rolls. These rolls were utilized for official reorganization, allotment of land, and certain privileges in the late 1800s through the 1900s. Though not definitive, the rolls are an excellent preliminary way to establish a relationship to specific American Nations. Some of these lists are accessible free of charge from the Internet, while others require registration and payment of a fee. Here is a listing of a few: 1817: Reservation Roll—Applicants for tract of land in the East, searchable by surname. 1871–1835 Emigration Roll—Permitted emigration to Arkansas by the Cherokee. 1830: Armstrong Roll—Records the Dancing Rabbit Creek treaty with the Choctaw. 1889: McKennon Roll—Records Choctaw of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. 1890: Wallace Roll—Lists Cherokee freedmen. 1889–1914: Index to Final Roll—Also called the Dawes Roll, permits tracing of Native American ancestry by surname.

1909: Guion Miller Roll—Records Eastern Cherokee. 1954: Ute Roll—Records full-blood Ute tribe of Utah. My parents feel a part of a single racial group, but I feel pulled in numerous directions culturally.

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I guess I feel all of the elements of my ancestry. I want to meet others like me, explore, communicate, question and share.

I do not look white, black, Indian, Asian, or Latino. There are not any people for me to relate to or fit in with. I need to get used to living in cultural isolation, but it is depressing. I do not want to be alone. I wonder where I can go for help. Maybe I should adopt a false persona— pretend to belong to an exotic culture I do not really belong to just to fit in. I’m tired of feeling alone, yet I fear rejection. I have so many thoughts in my head, I feel like

Proactive organizations, associations, and conferences, as well as magazines, now exist to enrich the multiracial, triracial, biracial, and transracial adopted communities.

Virtual community: Building community online Blogs: Passive and active participation. Blogs are unique contemporary forms of Internet communication based on the concept of the daily journal. Blogs permit passive participation as a reader, while many encourage active participation by permitting written comments. To build community that caters to your specific concerns, you should consider starting your own blog. Some active Internet blogs to use as a model or read include the following: A mixed blog www.multiracial.com/blog

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I am from a mixed I am going to explode if background. I would I do not talk with explore the complexity of someone, but there is not my culture but only in a anyone around here who safe space. would understand. I have been adopted into a No one talks about this white family but I am kind of stuff around here. biracial. It is best to keep these I live in a very rural area. feelings inside. I live in conservative suburbs. I am seeking spiritual guidance. I want to make connections with others like me through organized religion.

I wonder if there are Turn it over to a higher power: Interfaith and multiracial unique churches or faiths spirituality that support my Church and temples afford a wonderful opportunity for multiracial, multicultural, building community and support. The following intercultural, or biracial denominations were either founded on interfaith, identity. intercultural, and multicultural perspectives, or support or encourage them:

Baha´’ı´—One of the world’s youngest and one of its steadily growing religions. The message of the founder, Baha´ u’lla´h, is that divisions of race, class, creed, and nation need to be broken down and done away with. The Baha´’ı´ believe that humanity is one single race. There are five million adherents across the globe, including 2,100 ethnic, racial, and tribal groups. Unitarianism—A noncreed faith inspired by JudeoChristianity. Open to all.

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Buddhism—Many westerners are finding answers to combat racism through Buddhism because it emphasizes the interior (spiritual side) rather than outside appearances and material positions. Someone who likes helping others: Advocate Organizer Leader Mentor Motivator

I have talked things out, read a lot, and even attended conferences. Now I’m ready to act as a mentor and advocate for those from my background.

Get involved: Join and participate in multiethnic organizations. Association of Multiethnic Americans PO Box 341304, Los Angeles, CA 90034-1304. According to their web site (www.ameasite.org), AMEA seeks to educate and advocate on behalf of multiethnic individuals and families while helping to eradicate discrimination against them. continued

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AMEA provides valuable health information through its bone marrow database resources. MAVIN Foundation 600 First Ave., Suite 600, Seattle, WA 98104. MAVIN has a magazine and a local support group, hosts national conferences on the mixed race experience, and provides information on bone marrow transfer sources for mixed-race people. It is beginning a scholarship, internship, and international training program. Melungeon Heritage Association Reading list for educators, parents, and practitioners available on this triracial culture. P.O. Box 4020, Wise, VA 24293. American Society of Folklore—Learn about the diverse populations in the United States and the world so that your vision will not be limited to black and white. This group encourages participation, has an annual conference, and produces an academic quarterly, Journal of American Folklore. Contact AFS Executive Director: Timothy Lloyd, Mershon Center, Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Ave. Columbus, OH 43201-2602. Email Lloyd.100얀osu.edu

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A non-Australian, non-aboriginal person: Healer Attorney Civil rights activist

It is sad about what Journey of Healing project: Council for Aboriginal happened to the Reconciliation Australian Aborigines and www.reconciliation.org.au Torres Strait Islanders. Forgotten History Foundation But I live too far away to www.forgottenhistory.org do anything to help. “Australia’s stolen generation: Genocide a forced assimilation of the aboriginal peoples.” (article) Case studies (statistics and results of what happened) Case studies and statistics Bringing them home: The report, from the Reconciliation and Social Justice Library, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation

Practitioners/ Educators: Psychologist Counselor Religious leader Teacher Professor Therapist Social Worker Physician Librarian Writer Public speaker

This biracial, triracial, multiracial, transadoptee stuff is too complex. I do not know enough to advise or offer an opinion, even though my client/student/confidant desires help. I should just stick to the areas of my expertise and ignore the obviously troubling issues I see.

Read, learn, write: Publications These are excellent resources: provocative and open to your articles and papers as well. AMEA Networking News c/o Connie Hannah, 833 Mt. Pleasant RD, Chesapeake, VA 23320. AMEA published a comprehensive multiracial child resource book. Root, M. P. P., & Kelley, M. (Ed.). Identity and development: Multiracial heritages. Bible, J. (1994). Melungeon: Yesterday and today. Selfpublished.

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Interviewer Researcher Healer I date someone from a different culture; I want to learn what I can now about blended families and communities. I want to date and meet more people of different backgrounds. I am white. I am black. I am Native American. I am Latino. I am Asian. I am a Pacific Islander. I am a little of everything. I grew up in a racist family or community.

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Based on what I know, I will just assign this obviously mixed-race person to the group she bears the most resemblance to. It is best to stick to your own kind. No one from a different culture would ever be romantically interested in me. I want to reach out to people from other cultures romantically, but I am afraid that maybe some kind of racism or stereotyping exists in my subconscious. People from a different culture will automatically assume I am the enemy.

DeMarce, V. E. (1992). Verry slitly mixt: tri-racial isolates families of the upper south, a genealogical study. National Genealogical Society, 80(1). Call in or subscribe, get some advice, stay up-to-date, or reach out. Interracial/Intercultural Pride 2625 Alcatraz, Suite 369, Berkeley, CA 94705-2702. Phone: 510-923-9513. Interrace: The Source for Interracial Living P.O. Box 15566, Beverly Hills, CA 90209. Interracial Voice (No longer published, but back issues of this lively magazine are still available.) MAVIN Magazine (see organizations) New People: The Journal for the Human Race P.O. Box 47490, Oak Park, MI 48237. Society for Interracial Families Newsletter 23399 Evergreen, Suite 2222, Southfield, MI 48075. Standards—The International Journal of Multicultural Studies Email standards얀colorado.edu for more information on this e-journal.

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I am open-minded and ready to get over racial division and cultural animosity.

Race is too big a topic to Adrian Piper/The Arts overcome or even to Exhibition Catalog, Adrian Piper, Fine Art Gallery, University discuss with people from of Maryland, Baltimore County. different types of ancestry. Heartney, E. (2001). Blacks, whites and other mythic beings People will be suspicious of [on Adrian Piper’s work]. Art in America. me, and I don’t want to have to prove myself. I’ll be viewed as a phony or a fake.

I am ready to make a difference. I want to learn through doing. I thirst for knowledge.

I have worked on myself and my personal situation long enough. Now it is time to reach out to others. There probably isn’t really anything out there specifically geared toward my needs and interests. We don’t really have a past as mixed people, do we?

The Power to Change Permits Evolution It is hard work to change ingrained patterns of recognition that lead to stereotyping, yet change is vital to healing and evolution. Following are listings of various ways that you can enhance the capacity to understand the complexity of multiracial, biracial, and multiethnic identity through research, study, and direct engagement. Badejo, D. L., & Christian, M. Understand history: For scholars, students and the general public. Christian, M. (2000). Multiracial identity: An international perspective. New York: Macmillan. Byrd, C. M. (2002). Beyond race: The Bhagavad-Gita in black and white. XLIBRIS [ebook]. continued

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ISBN: 1-4010-4390-9 (Trade Paperback) ISBN: 1-4010-4391-7 (Hardback) Cose, E. (1997). Color blind: seeing beyond race in a race obsessed world. New York: Harper Collins. Hunter, K. (1969). Walk towards the sunset [play]. First staged in Sneedville, TN. Kennedy, B. (1997). The Melungeons: The resurrection of a proud people (Rev. ed.). Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. McBride, J. (1997). The color of water: a black man’s tribute to his white mother. New York: Riverhead Publisher. Page, C. (1997). Showing my color: Impolite essays on race and identity. New York: Perennial. Pollitzer, W. (1972). The physical and genetics of marginal people of the south eastern United States. American Anthropologist, 74, 719–734. Root, M. P. P. (1995). The multiracial experience. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Simon, R. (2000). Adoption across borders: Serving the children of transracial and intercountry adoptions. Langam, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Spickard, P. (1989). Mixed blood: Intermarriage and ethnic identity in 20th century America. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

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Thernstrom, S. (Ed.). (1980). Harvard encyclopedia of American ethnic groups. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press. Gain a Historical Perspective: Research Papers DeMarce, V. (1992). Verry slitly mixt: Tri-racial isolate families of the upper South. National Genealogical Society Quarterly 80(1). Dromgoole, W. A. (1890). Land of the Melungeons. Nashville Sunday American, 10. Learn: For Educators and Parents (Books and Videos) Root, M. P. P., & Kelley, M. (Eds.). Multiracial child resource book. Wardle, F. “Tomorrow’s Children.” A column in New People. By the Center for the Study of Biracial Children (CSBC), 2300 South Krameria St., Denver, Colorado. Interracial/Intercultural Pride offers the video Serving biracial and multiethnic children and their families. Center for the Study of Biracial Children (research facility). See www.csbc.com/ MAVIN Foundation and Association of Multiethnic Americans (www.ameasite.org/) continued

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Strategies for change Provides comprehensive reading list for educators, parents (all ages), and practitioners. (See organizations for contact information.)

I am ready to become more fully engaged. I have read, discussed the issues, and belong to a powerful organization. 36

I don’t want to put my foot into my mouth by insulting anyone. Maybe I’m not all the way prepared, but how does one know when is the right time to act?

Study: College Level Courses on Multiracial Identity People of Mixed Racial Descent Annual undergraduate level course, University of California– Berkeley. Prof. Robert Allen. Multiracial, Multiethnic People: The Law and Society Law course, Golden Gate University’s School of Law in San Francisco. Prof. Carlos A. Fernandez-Gray. Multi-Ethnic Identity and Communities University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. Instructor Karen Downing. Other Than Other: The Legitimacy of a Multiracial, Multiethnic Identity By Prof. Carlos A. Fernandez-Gray, guest lecturer at various universities. Listen, Observe, Accept The key to accepting the intricacy of multiracial and multiethnic identity is to listen and accept rather than thrust onto others opinions based on stereotypes.

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friends, and the large body of professionals involved with shaping the outlook of the upcoming generations to move forward.

REFERENCES Austin, A. D. (2002). Faces of American Islam. Policy Review. Heritage Foundation. Bringing them home: The report. Reconciliation and Social Justice Library, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Forgotten History Foundation. Available from: www.forgottenhistory.org Burnett, S. (1889). American Anthropologist. Chappell, K. (1995, June). Black Indians hit jackpot in casino bonanza. Ebony, 46. DeMarce, V. E. (1992, March). Verry slitly mixt: Tri-racial isolates families of the upper South, a genealogical study. National Genealogical Society, 80(1). Deposition of Abner Duncan, 86 years old. The Perkins File. Deposition of Anna Graves, 77 years old. The Perkins File. Deposition of Catherine Roller, 80 years old. The Perkins File. Deposition of Daniel Stout. Deposition of David R. Kinnick, aged 77. The Perkins File. Deposition of Elizabeth Cook, about 71. The Perkins File. Deposition of John J. Wilson, about 70 years old. The Perkins File. Deposition of John Nave, 88 years old. The Perkins File. Deposition of Mary Wilson. The Perkins File. Deposition of Nancy Lipps. The Perkins File. Deposition of Thomas Cook, 75 years old. The Perkins File. Diouf, S. (2002). Faces of American Islam. Policy Review. Heritage Foundation. Duran, K., & Piper, D. (2002). Faces of American Islam. Policy Review. Heritage Foundation. Fouts. (1793). North Carolina Journal, 1, 205. Fouts. (1770). North Carolina Gazette, 1, 65–66. Gormley, M. V. (1997). In search of the black Dutch. American Genealogy Magazine, 12(1). Griggs, L. (2000). Wayfaring stranger: Black Dutch, German Gypsies or Chicanere and their relation to the Melungeon. (Author). Harper, E. W. Excerpt from Iola Leroy or Shadows Lifted. Haun. Orange County Court minutes. Vol. 1, pp. 70–71. Nassau, M. E. (1993). Melungeons and other Mestee groups. Wise, VA: Author. Orders, 1731–1736, 133. Payne, R. J. (1998). Getting beyond race: The changing American culture. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

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Perkins File in the T. A. R. Nelson Papers in the Calvin M. McClung Collection at the East Tennessee Historical Center. Philbeck. Bladen County Land Entries, no. 1210. Piper, A. Passing for white, passing for black. Transition, Issue 58. Revolutionary War pension application on March 7, 1834, by Drury Tann. Senna, D. (1998). The mulatto millennium. In C. C. O’Hern (Eds.), Half and half: Writers on growing up biracial and bicultural. New York: Pantheon Books. Shoemaker, H. W. (1930). 1300 Words. cPA Mts. Shoemaker, H. W. (1930, March 31). Altoona Tribune. Testimony of John Scott, “freeborn Negro,” in Berkeley County, South Carolina, on January 17, 1754. Valdes y Cocom, M. de (1998). Blurring racial boundaries [Television broadcast]. PBS. Walton-Raji, A. (1993). Black Indian genealogy research. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books.

CHAPTER 2

Asian Americans in the Workplace: Facing Prejudice and Discrimination in Multiple Contexts Debra M. Kawahara Jaye Jang Van Kirk

S

ue is a thirty-year-old, second-generation Korean American woman who currently works for a large aerospace corporation in California. She earned a bachelor of science degree with honors in electrical engineering from the University of California–Los Angeles and has been working as an engineer for this company since graduating seven years ago. Prior to this position, she worked part-time writing computer programs for the U.S. Navy for approximately one year. Sue prides herself on being a hardworking, diligent, conscientious worker and will go the extra mile to get the job done, even if that means staying all night to complete projects for a deadline. Her current boss commented that he can always count on her to get the work done and that he can basically delegate work to her without needing to supervise it. However, Sue has become increasingly aware that other coworkers do not always do their fair share. Yet, they tend to be given more credit and sometimes promoted to project leader, even though Sue believes that her contributions are more significant. After a recent incident when she felt that she was overlooked once again for project leader, Sue made an active attempt to figure out whether there was something she was doing that prevented her advancement in the department or whether there was something else happening. She approached her boss to get feedback about her work. Her boss stated that he was very satisfied with her work and that she

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was a fine employee. She then asked what she could do to be promoted to the next level. He answered with a rather general statement about continuing her high quality of work and that it would eventually lead to a project leader position. He encouraged her to speak with those who had been recently promoted to find out what their strategies for promotion were, and he thanked her for informing him of her career goals. Given her boss’s advice, Sue talked to other co-workers who had been promoted. She found that the information was very general, like the information her boss had given her, except for one thing. One of her female co-workers shared her opinion of how Sue was viewed by others. In the department, Sue was known to have the technical qualifications and expertise needed to be a project leader, but did not share her thoughts or ideas during project meetings. Sue reflected back to her co-worker that her attempts to vocalize her thoughts were often ignored, forgotten, dismissed, or that others took credit for them. The co-worker further pointed out that her relationships with others in the department were more formal, cordial, and civil; but lacked closeness or friendliness. Sue recognized that she rarely spent time outside of work with her co-workers informally and that there was a clear separation between her work life and her home life. Much of her personal time was spent with her family and activities in the Korean American community. While many people assume that one’s background, efforts, and dedication are the primary factors used for evaluation, personal and social interactions also play a role in one’s likelihood of success. Being comfortable participating in social activities and developing social networks are not only critical to one’s success, but can also influence one’s satisfaction with work. MAKING LIFE DECISIONS: CULTURE, FAMILY, OR THE SELF A twenty-year-old Asian American female, Chloe desires to attend medical school. Her enthusiasm in pursuing her goals is tempered by the fact that her parents have clearly expressed their desire for her to go into another profession like pharmacy, because it can be quickly achieved, enable her to have a family, and is a profession that is valued and respected within the Asian community. While she is making her way through school as an undergraduate, she is feeling torn about what career path to follow. The weight of her family’s preference is

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strong on her decision. Should she obtain her degree in pharmacy, a field that does not fuel her passion, or should she pursue medicine at the risk of her parents’ disapproval? Such a dilemma in a young woman’s dreams—to be supported by our cultural expectations that we all can fulfill the “American Dream” to become anything that we want with hard work; or to comply, as the Asian culture expects, to a parent’s wishes—can be difficult to negotiate. The ultimate decision will clearly never be Chloe’s own because she understands her role in the context of her family. So for Asians and Asian Americans, full autonomy and independence from parental influence may not be options because they are not parts of the context of their cultural values. The strength of the connection to one’s cultural values and one’s family shapes many decisions. While obtaining their college educations, Asian Americans may confront difficult decisions that could ultimately affect their career paths. Should they complete a degree to satisfy their parents, by going into a profession that is valued for its status and prestige (for example, medicine or engineering), or pursue their passion in an unrelated area? Not only is obtaining an education mandatory, the strong push to complete the degree in a respectable time interval in a particular subject area is also well understood by Asian Americans. Bicultural Efficacy: Managing Two Cultures Both Sue and Chloe are being pulled by belief systems and cultural expectations away from their Asian family cultures and western social culture concurrently. The manner in which each woman handles her situation will depend on how she is able to negotiate her two cultural worlds successfully. The presence of two such worlds is often referred to as biculturalism, meaning that both women have two internalized cultures that guide their thoughts, perceptions, and feelings (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993; Phinney & Devich-Navarro, 1997). Whether these women are able to do this effectively will depend on their bicultural efficacy. Bicultural efficacy is defined as the ability to develop and maintain interpersonal relations within two groups without relinquishing one’s cultural identity (LaFromboise et al., 1993). In such situations, it is believed that the person’s bicultural competence will assist her or him in building and maintaining support networks in the different contexts while also providing support when either group rejects the person or when the person is developing competence in one group.

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In these two examples, the women are faced with the task of developing competency in a majority cultural setting while maintaining their cultural connections. Ideally, the bicultural individual develops the skills and abilities to be competent in a second culture without losing that same competence in the culture of origin. Ultimately, successful bicultural individuals have a sense of psychological well-being as well as mastery in their social, work, and family environments. All of us hope that we can make positive contributions to the world and that we can have the freedom and opportunity to explore how those goals can be achieved. The reality of the professional and social worlds, however, often sets limits on a person’s opportunities. While significant strides have been made in providing individuals from underrepresented groups more opportunities to advance professionally and socially, there still remain many challenges that prohibit individuals from taking part fully in some opportunities in society (Hwang, Francesco, & Kessler, 2003; Kunkel & Burleson, 1998; Stewart, Germain, & Jackson, 1992). More people have gained appreciation of the importance of sensitivity to diversity issues. However, translating verbal support into action requires additional amounts of commitment and understanding. The focus of this chapter is to identify some of the limitations that affect one’s ability to make the kind of contributions desired. Some may be related to ethnic/cultural factors, and others may reflect the sociocultural context of the environment. Part of success is an awareness of what one brings to a situation (beliefs, values, ethnicity, gender, etc.) as well as ability to assess the expectations of the situation. It is hoped that with an increased awareness of the factors that may limit one’s opportunities, the individual will be able to more consciously employ strategies that bring the positive contributions desired. Another intent of this chapter is to provide information about what to anticipate based on the specific circumstance and how the person may handle any challenges that arise from ethnic/cultural differences. Attention to one’s preferred style of interaction among the expectations and demands of the setting or context is often key to developing appropriate coping strategies. In addition, the chapter will also address the importance of providing opportunities that enable people to collaborate with one another as equals so that they can see how their combined talents can effectively achieve mutually shared goals and interests.

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WHY KNOWING WHERE YOU ARE MATTERS IN HOW TO ACT: BEING CULTURALLY AWARE In addition to ethnic heritage ties, there are experiential contexts that have shaped one’s impressions and perceptions of what life is and what it can be. Asian Americans whose life experiences have been in the context of a large Asian community may have little appreciation for the differences that they encounter when their lives transplant them into environments where the social, cultural, and ethnic demographics are significantly different. Their preferred and automatic assumptions and modes of functioning used to operate in everyday life will now be tested in different contexts. When moving to a new environment where the demographics change from being racially/ethnically homogeneous to racially/ethnically diverse, these Asian Americans are often unaware of a shift in the context of their status and the resultant impact of how they are now perceived by others. They also may not be cognizant of the importance of being more sensitive to how different social contexts influence how they are perceived. Understanding how their status can shift from one circumstance to another will be beneficial in guiding their actions so that they are suitable for each situation. Within the context of a new environment, they are now encountering demands from new circumstances that may be affecting their comfort and success in this new environment. It is their degree of assimilation that will be an important part of their ability to gain acceptance and success. The task then for the newly transplanted bicultural individual is to become aware of the shifting demands of the various sociocultural environments of which they are a part. Many bicultural individuals already have some awareness of how their behaviors and demeanors shift between their home lives and their professional or social lives. Successful navigation between two cultures may require one to know when to express more selfassertion, verbal expression, and social engagement with others. Importantly, it is not only the awareness of when to shift, but also what behavioral shifts are most appropriate for particular circumstances that help the individual avoid inappropriate “cultural carryover.”

BEING ASIAN: THE VIEW FROM THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE: APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING Another aspect of this stage of development is the emerging awareness of the differences between Asians and Asian Americans. At an

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individual level, young adults may begin realizing that how others perceive them differs from how they perceive themselves. An external attribution that Asian Americans may encounter based on physical appearance is that of “immigrant.” While the generic term “Asian” may be used to classify all Asians, the Asian American often self-identifies as an American with an Asian ethnic background. Additionally, persistent comments that often cue Asian Americans that others perceive them differently include comments such as, “Where were you born?” “You speak English well,” “How long have you lived here?” or “No, really, where are you from?” There are then some aspects of each culture that clearly make Asians and Asian Americans different from one another while other aspects of an Asian heritage serve as a common basis of both cultures. Therein lie some of the difficulties that bicultural Asian Americans face in being able to clearly understand what is expected of them in particular circumstances. Additionally, the more subtle cultural differences that exist between Asian immigrants and Asian Americans may not be immediately apparent to them, and it also may not be clear why these differences may be relevant to the challenges that they are experiencing in their own lives. So, when others group Asians together without understanding differences in values, customs, language, and level of assimilation, Asian Americans may be exasperated to find a lack of sensitivity to what they perceive as distinct differences among the various Asian ethnic groups. These examples and other occurrences are reminders of how Asian Americans straddle two cultural worlds.

LANGUAGE CONNECTIONS TO CULTURE For second- and third-generation Asian Americans, the inability to speak their ancestors’ language can be yet another point of separation between their ethnic background and belonging to American culture. Proficiency in the language of one’s own ethnic heritage is often noted by family members, while comments about one’s English fluency is a constant reminder of how one is perceived differently by the outside world. Such stereotypical expectations and comments about one’s command of English often are incongruent with the Asian American’s selfperception, because in the minds of Asian Americans, he or she is American. When such instances are repeated over and over again, they also remind Asian Americans of how they are perceived differently in different cultural contexts.

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These two examples illustrate some of the issues that Asian Americans encounter daily. Often, diligence, dependability, and conscientiousness are desirable traits that are often associated with admirable work ethics. Being subdued and formal with strong family connections and cohesiveness is also associated with being Asian. What many people may be less aware of that is particularly relevant to this topic is how living in a bicultural world affects one’s daily interactions. In work and social settings, being viewed worthy of higher-status positions and having respect and credibility can be hard-fought achievements. Thus, understanding the interaction between one’s behaviors and another person’s perceptions is critical to seeing a person’s talents and abilities and providing that individual with opportunities to demonstrate his or her potential.

The Importance of Being Aware of Stereotyping Cultural Values and Preferred Styles of Interacting Asian identity is framed within a set of sociocultural influences that are expressed in subtle and overt ways in everyday interactions. The physical manifestations of being Asian often result in other people responding to society’s perceptions of the stereotypical Asian. Descriptions such as “quiet,” “model minority,” “exceptional,” “passive,” and “deferent” can perpetuate limited images of Asians’ abilities that do not adequately reflect the breadth of Asian cultures. Common assumptions also include the belief that anyone with Asian physical characteristics is foreign-born. Each of these examples represents a constant reminder for Asian Americans that they are perceived differently by society. Awareness of noticeable differences in people’s reactions based on these stereotypes often convey the challenges of knowing how to express the appropriate behaviors for particular social circumstances (home, school, work, etc.). For Asian Americans, awareness of the different demands of white and Asian cultures can prelude the development of a bicultural identity. For Asian Americans, the fluid expression of identity is tied to what situational circumstances they are currently in. For some, the contrast of social demands is quite apparent. In the context of culture and family, Asians and women can behave in ways often described as collective, where interdependency, cooperation, and a sense of obligation to one’s community are emphasized (Kunkel & Burleson, 1998; Sue & Sue, 2003; Uba, 1994). There is little expression of the self in the context of one’s

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Figure 2.1. Bipolar continuum for group/individual values: Asian Americans (AA) and European Americans (EA) Source: From Kawahara (2003).

family or community. Moreover, there is a tendency to behave in ways that show respect for elders or other authority figures that is expressed by passivity and deference (Atkinson, Whiteley, & Gim, 1990; Wong & Ujimoto, 1998). While achieving autonomy may be critical in developing the kind of self-assertion skills that are often highly valued in work or academic settings, the benefits of having strong connections to family and culture are important buffers to stressors encountered in life (Lee, 1997; Mallinckrodt & Leong, 1992). Moving beyond the Asian community and family then requires a shift in behavior to assertiveness and independence. Cultural sensitivity is necessary for both Asian Americans and for individuals working with individuals from an Asian background. Understanding an individual’s values and responses to circumstances often requires thoughtful consideration. Accurate interpretation of an individual’s preferred style of social interaction may be context-dependent, according to researcher Yoshito Kawahara (2003). Kawahara’s research very revealingly demonstrates that Asian Americans and whites are not that different in orientation in the “group versus individual” continuum. The commonly held belief is that Asians tend to be grouporiented while whites are individualistic. Kawahara contended that, for both groups, cultural values possessed a situational component that was expressed in work and social settings. Moreover, his research found that whites were also group-oriented and that the difference between the two populations was that Asian Americans tended to express these values to a greater degree, as shown in Figure 2.1. Careful attention to the context of a person’s behaviors is important in understanding what they are trying to express. It should be emphasized that attending to expressions and behaviors in a given context is important, since careful attention to cues from the sociocultural environment can be useful in knowing how to respond most appropriately. Attention to the context is essential because it also pertains to cultural sensitivity for individual expression. In addition,

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it is important that people be aware of unintentionally judging someone else’s actions using their own value standards. Cultural sensitivity should be viewed as a dynamic process that is especially of great consequence for bicultural individuals. THE CONTEXT OF YOUR BEHAVIORS MATTERS TO YOUR SUCCESS Awareness of one’s own cultural values can be important in understanding one’s expectations of how individuals will interact and be treated in a work or social setting. Similarly, awareness of another person’s cultural values can help in anticipating how the other person will view, interpret, and interact behaviors. For example, Asian Americans may express their respect for authority in work or social settings by expressing a passive and deferent demeanor. How might these behaviors be interpreted? These behaviors are not necessarily universally translatable across situations, especially in different cultural contexts, so the behaviors may not be interpreted as a sign of respect. If one is not aware that deference and passivity express respect rather than lack of initiative or understanding, he or she could easily misinterpret the meaning of the behaviors (in white circumstances). Therefore, cultural sensitivity to accurate interpretation and avoidance of cultural biases should be maintained. Regarding the expression of one’s preferred style of social interaction, the tendencies toward deference and passivity can make it significantly more difficult for an Asian American to engage in social interactions requiring oral communication and assertiveness, especially with authority figures, because such overt expressions have not been a part of the cultural messages and expectations that the person is familiar with. In Table 2.1, Kawahara (2003) summarizes cultural values differences between Asian Americans and whites that are often expressed in social and work settings. Awareness of how these values are expressed can be key in providing people with opportunities to contribute their individual talents in ways that they feel most comfortable. In group versus person-oriented values, the emphasis is on collaborative functioning versus the influence of the individual. For collectivist versus individualist values, a person’s focus includes consideration of others rather than for self. Interdependence emphasizes mutual support, whereas independence focuses on what can be achieved through individual efforts. These first three values show significant changes according to the situation. Cooperation emphasizes a common goal and

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Table 2.1 Opposing values of Asian Americans and European Americans in work/social settings Asian American

European American

Group oriented Collectivist Interdependent

Person oriented Individualist Independent

Cooperative Harmony

Competitive Mastery

Duty and obligation Formal Self-discipline

Free will/Personal rights Informal Spontaneous

Pessimism

Optimism

Situation-centered

Person-centered

Indirect/Nonassertive

Directive and assertive

Source: Kawahara, 2003.

unity of efforts, while competitiveness emphasizes achievement through opposition and antagonism. Harmony expresses acting in synchrony and within the context of the circumstance, while mastery seeks direction and power over circumstances. Duty and obligation refer to actions based on responsibility and accountability to others, and free will/ personal rights refer to actions based on individual desires. Formal approaches emphasize prescribed protocol, while informal approaches emphasize familiar and more casual strategies. Self-discipline approaches tasks through restraint, effort, planning, and organization; while spontaneous approaches take advantage of the immediate and unstructured nature of some circumstances. Pessimism expresses doubt, concern, and negativity; and optimism emphasizes confidence and hopefulness in what can be. Individuals who are situation-centered are responsive to the individuals and circumstances that guide their choice of responses, while person-centered options focus more on the perceptions and impacts on the individuals. Those who have an indirect/nonassertive approach to communication tend to address issues in a nonconfrontational, passive demeanor; while those who are directive and assertive are more likely to speak openly, freely, and specifically to issues. These values point to differences. However, they should not be viewed as definitive characterizations of Asian Americans and whites

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because “stereotypes diminish and divide” (Kawahara, 2003). What can happen is that dominant groups may use stereotypes to discount and dehumanize others where those others’ differences are viewed as deficits rather than alternative yet viable perspectives or approaches. One must be cautioned about how values can act in “subtle, insidious and nonverbal ways” to discount the abilities and contribution of others (Kawahara, 2003). The advantage of being bicultural is having the flexibility of utilizing one’s talents and abilities according to the needs of the situation. One’s insights and contributions enhance the likelihood that more people will understand a message because of the common perspective that one shares. The ability to bridge cultures is a valuable tool in this increasingly globalized society. Learning to navigate both worlds effectively by incorporating regular use of strategy shifting may enhance one’s ability to accomplish one’s goals. The information in this chapter is intended to provide insights about the internal and external factors that may influence one’s ability to fulfill set goals. The previous recommendations were intended to assist in gaining increased awareness to the “internal” aspect of what can influence the dynamics of a situation (for example, individual style and cultural history). Expressing oneself in ways that are harmonious with the environment is an attainable skill. There may be, however, circumstances that are external to the person and beyond one’s control (such as intolerant colleagues, and unwelcoming work and social environment). Changing one’s self to the extent that one no longer feels comfortable can create psychological and emotional stress as much as being in a hostile environment can. Maintaining a sense of well-being and preserving one’s integrity, self-worth, and self-confidence are essential, as are recognizing when a situation is actually harmful and damaging to one’s physical and mental health. The next section addresses situations that Asian Americans may face due to prejudice and discrimination from others, and addresses possible, proactive steps that a person can take to deal with such situations.

ELIMINATING POSSIBLE MANIFESTATIONS AS A PROACTIVE POSITION: IDENTIFYING PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION There are various forms of prejudice and discrimination that occur. Some are blatant and can be identified readily. Others are more

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invisible, insidious, and subtle; and it is harder for the person to pinpoint what exactly is happening. The subtle forms are more difficult to detect, yet they can be the most discriminatory in practice. The following section describes some forms of prejudice and discrimination to hopefully help the reader identify if and when a situation arises. Racial Slurs These include name-calling, derogatory racial terms or epithets, stereotyped imitations with accompanying accents and facial expressions, jokes, and/or cartoons. For example, a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported a Japanese American employee of a freeway service patrol company being called “Nazi Jap,” “retarded Jap,” “chink,” and “gook” by the company owner and other employees. Blatant Stereotyping Stereotyping is another form of prejudice and discrimination. The stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans are imposed on the Asian American individual, even when the individual may not even embody those stereotypic characteristics. This can become even more prominent if the person is the only Asian American in the organization, because the variability among different people is not available to disaffirm the stereotypes. The other result is that people who are using the stereotypes will look for more evidence to confirm the stereotypes and ignore evidence that counters them. Thus, the stereotypes become even more strongly believed and perceived. Unfavorable Educational Returns and Lower Wages Although Asian Americans are often seen as the model for success and referred to by the stereotype of the “model minority,” statistics have found that there are strong inequities in educational attainment and occupational status. According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission Report in 1999, different studies have found over and over again that Asian Americans are not only overrepresented in science and technical fields and underrepresented as managers, but that the payoff for educational attainment is less than it is for whites (Woo, 2000). For example, Asian males in the West with four or more years of education earned less than their white male counterparts.

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Not Getting Promoted Asian Americans often feel barriers to advancement, such as promotion from a professional and/or technical position to a higher-level administrative position. Basically, promotions are blocked. This all-toofamiliar scenario can be seen in the example of Sue at the beginning of the chapter. Many whites expect that Asian Americans will quietly accept these decisions and continue to work hard for the company. However, most people want the same work incentives that other workers have, and Asian Americans are no different. When promotions are seen as being unfairly given to those who are less qualified or that there is differential treatment based on race and/or gender, a worker may become dissatisfied and disillusioned about work, thereby impacting his or her productivity and performance. Tracking Another form of discrimination is to give or place Asian Americans into less-desirable, less-career-advancing work assignments or opportunities. This would be similar to segregating or channeling Asian Americans into certain career positions or paths by virtue of the work experience that is allowed or available to them. Differential Treatment Related to tracking is differential treatment based on race. This is often more noticeable when the person is the only employee from the racial group, and the differential treatment can be blatant and direct or subtle and indirect. A direct example would be the avoidance of social contact with the employee, while a subtle one would be the lack of inclusion in informal outings such as lunch or gatherings held outside of the office. Different Standards of Evaluation These can happen when the standards for evaluation are rather general and not specifically detailed out for all to understand. Insidious forms of institutional prejudice and discrimination can be implemented by making the standards elusive and changeable. For example, suppose the qualifications for a management position are outlined in the job description and include technical expertise and years of experience. Yet,

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other qualities such as interpersonal skills and business connections are also considered for the position, but not listed on the job posting. The result is that the unlisted qualities eliminate certain candidates from the pool based on perceptions of the hiring committee and/or lack of opportunity or training. Unrealistic and Unreasonable Expectations These can come in the form of being given an overabundance of work that is unreasonable for one person to complete or is beyond the person’s position and expertise. By doing this, the person is set up to fail and thereby represent the incompetence and inadequacies of that group. This can be related to stereotypes and serve to further confirm them. Doing a Job Too Well On the other extreme, Asian Americans can be mistreated when they excel at work. Mistreatment can include a resistance to their expertise, penalization for excelling in their work or working diligently, and interference with their performance. This can become an issue when another becomes jealous or may not want to see an Asian American succeed. For example, a successful Asian American female found herself being harassed by her newly appointed white male boss when he recognized that she had much power and influence on the staff. He slowly began to restrict her work and isolate her from the other staff persons. As the situation escalated, he began leaving her out of important meetings and communications and then writing her up for insubordination. Intimidation, Threats, and Actions Intimidation, threats, and actual actions are the most extreme and obvious forms of prejudice and discrimination. These can include threats of physical harm to the person or someone the person knows, property damage, continued harassment and emotional abuse, stalking and/or spying, tampering with or destroying the person’s work, intimidation through public humiliation, and the presence/use of weapons. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES TO PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION Experiencing severe and stressful discrimination can lead to both physical and psychological consequences. The toll on the person’s

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functioning can be overwhelming and devastating, affecting the person’s whole life. This is because the prejudicial and/or discriminatory events are often perceived as unfairly attacking the very core of what these people believe or embody. These incidences, when combined with the perceptions of being under attack, can be compared to living in a war zone, and symptoms similar to being in combat or held hostage can manifest. In work situations, it is often reported that the employee initially believes that the organization will adhere to the policies of harassment and/or discrimination, so the employee still believes that the right thing will be done and justice will prevail. However, this assumption is often shattered when the policies and rules are not upheld or it is perceived that the organization is protecting the harasser/discriminator to avoid a problem, conflict, and/or litigation. A minimization or dismissal of the complaint only increases the employee’s sense of isolation, violation, and wrongdoing. As the employee continues to endure the situation, a heightened sense of vulnerability and fear is elicited in the employee. The knowledge of not having the organization’s support to intervene, along with the daily encounters with the perpetrator, only increase the employee’s need to protect himself or herself from any further harassment or abuse. This vulnerability and fear can generalize so that the employee can look and be paranoid and suspicious of everyone and everything. This heightened awareness can be physically and emotionally draining and even impact the employee’s performance and personal life. Another aspect that is brought into question is one’s work identity. Often the employee’s competencies, abilities, and/or work ethic are personally challenged. As the incidences increase in conflict and hostility, the employee’s self-confidence often is shaken and he/she will question whether it is worth staying in the field. However, this employee is caught in a difficult situation. Staying in the position means enduring more physiological and psychological stress and its consequential effects. Leaving the position or completely shifting into another field means a personal, professional, and financial loss. It can cause feelings of hopelessness and anger for having to be put into this position or having to make this decision. Maria Root, an expert psychologist on racial and ethnic harassment in the workplace, has compiled a list of ten common symptoms suffered by individuals who have sought therapy or been evaluated as a result of racial and ethnic harassment in the workplace (Root, 2001, 2004).

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Anxiety This may include excess worrying over the situation, restlessness, tension, a feeling of edginess, irritability, muscle tension, having difficulty concentrating or focusing, and somatic/physical complaints. Anxiety can be heightened if the person anticipates a meeting or interaction with the perpetrator. Paranoia Paranoia is persistent suspicion not just about the motives of the perpetrator(s); it generalizes to the motives of others as well. This is further compounded by worrying about what others think about one in terms of his/her integrity, work, and handling of the situation and how one is being portrayed by others’ incorrect or inaccurate information. As a result, the employee may isolate from or avoid contact with others for fear that such contact may cause more damage to his reputation or that the interactions will be used against him as evidence for the perpetrator. Depression Some common features of depression include, but are not limited to, sadness or feeling down and blue; crying or tearfulness; increased irritability; decrease in tolerance for stress and discomfort; loss of pleasure or interest in activities; functioning less efficiently than usual at work and home; difficulty concentrating or thinking clearly and making decisions; thinking negatively about oneself and one’s future; and feeling unmotivated and responsive to rewards and praise. In general, there is a sense of going through the motions, with a lack of fulfillment or satisfaction in one’s life that was there before the whole situation occurred. Sleep Disturbance Root (2001, 2004) separates this symptom from depression because it is often one of the initial symptoms seen. Sleep difficulties can be found in falling asleep, staying asleep, and in the amount of sleep. Because of the anxiety and restlessness, the person may wake up several times a night or sleep only two or three hours a night. On the other extreme, the person may sleep an excessive amount (such as nine to eleven hours a day) because of the extra energy needed to deal with the situation or to escape thinking about the situation.

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Loss of Confidence A lack of confidence in being able to evaluate and trust people makes it difficult to interact with others. In most situations, interacting with others, whether they are co-workers or actual consumers, is often compromised because the employee tends to be distant and guarded, resulting in others becoming more distant and guarded in their interactions. Furthermore, as the employee’s relationships become less connected, the employee may lose confidence in being able to establish and maintain close relationships with others. Feelings of Worthlessness The feelings of worthlessness involve the devaluing of one’s abilities, competencies, or value in the work environment. These are especially difficult if one derived much esteem and pride from one’s work, profession, and career prior to the harassment experience. One outcome may be that the person really questions whether she had and still has anything to offer, or whether all she worked hard for was for nothing. Intrusive Cognitions Like others who have experienced traumatic events, the person could have involuntary or recurrent thoughts, images, and/or replays regarding the harasser or the work situation. These thoughts or replays can interfere with the employee’s ability to work or perform and can engender significant distress and anxiety. Even when sleeping, the thoughts or images can appear, and suddenly the person is experiencing the same fear, distress, and arousal that were present in real-life. The energy expended on the thoughts, images, and/or replays as well as the emotions associated with them often exhausts the person, further hampering the person’s ability to work and manage the situation. Helplessness Often when the situation initially occurs, the employee takes steps to change the situation. When the employee’s actions make no impact or even cause more duress, he can feel helpless. This only confirms that nothing that the employee does will change the situation. If he has to remain in this position for a prolonged time, he can feel trapped, further exacerbating the anxiety, depression, and feelings of worthlessness. In addition, the employee can feel helpless in protecting or

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salvaging his reputation, especially if the harasser/persecutor holds a more powerful or influential position in the organization. Loss of Drive With all of the events happening, it is not surprising that the person loses a sense of purpose and motivation to continue to work. This can even continue after leaving the situation or after the situation is resolved. The person may feel exhausted from the experience for perhaps months or years, and it takes some time to recover and heal physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A once-ambitious and driven person can find that the goals once desired are set lower or even abandoned. A change in the line of work can even occur because of how disheartening and disillusioning the experience has been. Questions like “What for?” or “Why work so hard when in the end no one really cares how hard you work?” can also surface. False Positives This is the process where the traits and characteristics of the harasser/ persecutor become generalized to others who have similar traits and characteristics, so that reactions similar to those felt against the harasser/persecutor are triggered. These reactions are a natural coping mechanism that helps the person protect herself from further harm. For example, the victim may become anxious or mistrust someone who is of the same race as the original harasser/persecutor. Because the incident has become so ingrained as life-threatening, it elevates the person to a fight or flight response. Root (2001) found that the response is more severe for those who have not experienced significant racial or ethnic discrimination than for persons who have dealt with severe racism and/or discrimination. TIPS AND STRATEGIES TO COMBAT PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION Cultural Awareness and Knowledge of Self One main point of this chapter is to highlight the need for persons, especially those from diverse backgrounds, to have awareness of their own cultural values and belief systems as well as an ability to identify others’ values and belief systems. By identifying and assess-

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ing when these values and beliefs are compatible or incompatible with the situation, the person will be better able to adjust or shift his thoughts and behaviors to be effective in a specific circumstance. This is particularly important when the individual moves into an environment that is significantly different from his own worldview or perspective. Ideally, this bicultural individual has the adeptness and skills to move between situations smoothly without relinquishing his cultural identity, thereby becoming culturally competent in various settings and situations. Mentoring Isolation can result from being the only or one of the few Asian Americans in a situation, whether that is at work, school, or in a social group. Finding a means to remain connected to people who can support, sustain, and encourage one’s efforts becomes critical. Much has been written on how success is achieved. One of the most influential factors is having a mentor. Mentors can serve several purposes. Support and Guidance They can be important in providing a supportive and guiding influence in another person’s development. Oftentimes when she is going through something, having someone who has “been through it” can provide important clues to surviving the “process.” Resources They can direct you to resources that can be of assistance and ease the path. Such support can make an important difference in how easy or difficult an experience can be for an individual. Role Modeling Identifying mentors who have similar interests and/or are of the same gender or ethnicity can be helpful because they can serve as role models of success. They understand the challenges and stressors of the situation and what needs to be done, and they can validate the experience of being alone and isolated. Someone to Confide In Mentors are people who can be trusted and confided in. All of us have gone through difficult times in our lives, and a mentor who

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is willing to hear concerns, anxieties, and fears without harsh criticism or judgment can help one become more confident in one’s decisions. A mentor can serve as a sounding board for decisions and can offer advice while also allowing one to test the boundaries. A good mentor will trust the mentee’s judgment and allow the mentee to make his own decisions. Opportunities Mentors can also provide mentees with links to opportunities. Their networks of people and resources can be important in opening more doors and providing important sources of information. Have Multiple Mentors Many people are under the assumption that they should have a single mentor. However, it is more beneficial to have several mentors. It is important to develop relationships with several people who can serve as mentors for different needs. Each person has unique strengths that can be important in different aspects of one’s development. Participating in Various Organizations Making efforts to participate in organizations that serve your interests (gender, ethnic/cultural, professional, religious) can be an important part of successful survival in an environment that is not optimal. Both professional and specific interest groups should be sought. Each can provide different networks, opportunities, experiences, and forms of support for success. Professional and academic programs often have advocate groups that can serve as important springboards for information and resources. Many have specific groups who understand and help with experiences and can provide additional resources or contact persons so that one can begin building a network of support to assist in one’s academic and professional development. The individuals within each of these organizations understand many of the issues faced because they too have faced similar challenges. Many people within these organizations are very willing to speak about their experience, can answer questions and concerns, or can direct you to additional resources. In becoming an active part of these organizations, one can find important connections to people who can help through various challenges. Importantly, their shared knowledge and experiences can help others achieve their goals while helping them avoid learned mistakes.

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Setting Boundaries and Limits There are inherent challenges associated with being the only “fill in the blank” at work, school, or a social setting. Being the sole representative of one’s ethnic/cultural group can place many demands and expectations on this individual. A major expectation and/or responsibility may be to assist others who are following in the same path. In addition, this person is often asked to participate in task forces and committees addressing racial and diversity issues. These requests are often in addition to the normal and required activities assigned to the person. When this occurs, one must carefully weigh where one’s energy and political/social influence are devoted. The person may feel determined to become involved in programs to enhance the diversity of representation as oneofthe mostsalientaspects of his or her contribution to social change. However, with this decision, the person is making a choice to expend some of his or her talents and energy on social and political issues at the expense of academic or professional development. This decision is critical not only for one’s future, but for others who follow. Some people choose to accomplish the tasks simultaneously while others approach the tasks by achieving one goal first and then devoting their energy to fulfilling the second goal. It is important to prioritize the demands and expectations of the situation as well as the kinds of contributions that one can make without jeopardizing one’s position. Then the individual should set realistic goals and achieve them by considering how the community can best be served without compromising his or her own goals. Some Recommendations When the Situation Is More Severe Asking for Help and Guidance Some Asians and Asian Americans believe that asking for help will be seen as a weakness or that imposing on those who are higher in the system is unacceptable. However, receiving aid, guidance, or mentoring is a critical tool for anyone. It is especially crucial when someone is in a racist and/or sexist environment and prejudice and discrimination are occurring. These connections can provide information and support for dealing with both individual and organizational issues. In addition, both internal as well as external support should be sought. The internal support network will be helpful in advising how to delicately negotiate the organizational dynamics and politics

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as well as rally support for you within the organization. Externally, people can give you emotional support and advice without being constrained by their organizational positions. This allows them to be open and free to speak about the individual(s) involved without jeopardizing their reputation. Document, Document, Document As soon as you suspect something is happening, start documenting everything, including previous incidences and any events leading up and contributing to the negative work environment. This should include any incident that occurs, with the time, date, and persons involved; any conversations, meetings, or consultations that you have regarding an event, situation, person, or organization; and any feelings or outcomes resulting from the situation, such as illnesses, treatment, and therapy. You can send documentations to your e-mail address so that the date and time of the documentation are recorded. Further, keep all written correspondences as further evidence. Consider Another Position and Organization Although society discourages “giving up” and looks down upon not being able to resolve one’s problems head on, the toll of choosing to stay in a work environment that is discriminatory, hostile, and/or degrading cannot be minimized. Working in such an environment can negatively impact one’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being. The impact can also have far-reaching consequences in terms of one’s personal life and relationships. For most people, work is a means to being able to live one’s life. If the quality of a person’s life is impaired by a disruptive and harmful work environment, then the person needs to question whether it is worth staying in the position. At that point, the person has three choices: (1) stay and cope with the discrimination; (2) seek another company that treats her better; and (3) consider options outside the company, such as filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or pursuing a lawsuit. When confronted with discrimination, many employees choose to find a new position. It has to be remembered that a work environment that is nurturing, supportive, and fair will probably be more conducive toward your career advancement as well as your own sanity, further increasing your level of satisfaction and fulfillment at work.

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Toolbox for Change Strategies for combating prejudice and discrimination Gain cultural awareness of self and others. Gain the ability to identify and assess values and belief systems. Find multiple mentors. Participate in both professional and cultural organizations. Set boundaries and limits on one’s time and activities. When the situation is severe: 1. Ask for help and advice. 2. Document all incidents and communications. 3. Consider another position and organization. 4. Know your rights and the laws that are on your side.

Know Your Rights and the Laws on Your Side People often feel helpless and overwhelmed when racism is occurring in the workplace. It is at these times that people need to be aware of the federal employment laws that do not tolerate prejudice and that penalize companies for discrimination. The most significant antidiscrimination law covering the workplace is Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under this law, workplace discrimination based on race, skin color, religious orientation, or national origin is illegal and subject to punishment. The EEOC bears the responsibility of administering and enforcing this law. In cases where discrimination is found, the EEOC can provide remedies under Title VII such as reinstatement and promotion, recovery of wages and losses, money damages, and payment of attorney’s fees. However, although the EEOC’s caseload increased by nearly 40 percent from 1990 to 1998, it is believed that Asian Americans still underreport prejudicial and discriminatory cases even though they experience it as much as other minorities do (Repa, 2002; www. catalystwomen.org). Filing a report may cause conflict and dissonance for some Asian Americans. The notion of harmony and avoiding conflict could possibly influence some to not file a complaint. Again, this is a personal decision that must be made by the person. Another alternative to filing a complaint or lawsuit is mediation. This is less expensive, quicker, and generally more satisfying to the parties. Those who want or need to fix a workplace relationship generally use mediation more than those who have filed a complaint or have been fired. In mediation, the conflicting parties hire a third party who

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is objective. The mediator’s job is to listen to all sides of the dispute and then help the parties come to a mutually acceptable working arrangement. If you are interested in mediation, you should check with your human resources department to see whether these services are acceptable. REFERENCES Advancing Asian women in the workplace: What managers need to know. Retrieved October 15, 2003, from www.catalyst.women.org/ research/work.htm Atkinson, D. R., Whiteley, S., & Gim, R. H. (1990). Asian-American acculturation and preferences for help providers. Journal of College Student Development, 31, 31–161. Federal Glass Ceiling Commission. (1999). Good for business: Making full use of the nation’s human capital. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Hwang, A., Francesco, A. M., & Kessler, E. (2003). The relationship between individualism-collectivism, face, and feedback and learning processes in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. Journal of CrossCultural Psychology, 34(1), 72–91. Kawahara, Y. (2003, April). Culture-based values of European Americans and Asian Americans. Paper presented at the Crossing Boundaries: Coalition Building, Community Formation, and Activism at the West and the Pacific Regional Association for Asian American Studies Conference, Pomona, CA. Kunkel, A. W., & Burleson, B. R. (1998). Social support and the emotional lives of men and women: An assessment of the different cultures perspective. In D. J. Canary & K. Dindra (Eds.), Sex differences and similarities in communication: Critical essays and empirical investigations of sex and gender in interaction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. LaFromboise, T., Coleman, H., & Gerton, J. (1993). Psychological impact of biculturalism: Evidence and theory. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 395–412. Lee, E. (1997). Overview: The assessment and treatment of Asian American families. In E. Lee (Ed.), Working with Asian Americans: A guide for clinicians. New York: Guilford Press. Mallinckrodt, B., & Leong, F. T. (1992). International graduate students, stress, and social support. Journal of College Student Development, 33, 71–78. Phinney, J., & Devich-Navarro, M. (1997). Variations in bicultural identification among African American and Mexican American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 7, 918–927.

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Repa, B. K. (2002). Your rights in the workplace. Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press. Root, M. P. P. (2001). Racial and ethnic origins harassment in the workplace: Evaluation issues and symptomatology. In D. B. Pope-Davis, H. L. K. Coleman, W. M. Liu, & R. L. Toporek (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural competencies in counseling psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Root, M. P. P. (2004). The consequences of racial and ethnic origins harassment in the workplace: Conceptualization and assessment. In K. Barrett, & W. H. George (Eds.), Race, culture, psychology, and law. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Stewart, R. J., Germain, S., & Jackson, J. D. (1992). Alienation and interactional style: A style of successful Anglo, Asian, and Hispanic university students. Journal of College Student Development, 33, 149–156. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Uba, L. (1994). Asian Americans: Personality patterns, identity, and mental health. New York: Guilford Press. Wong, P. T. P., & Ujimoto, K. V. (1998). The elderly: Their stress, coping, and mental health. In L. Lee, & N. W. S. Zane (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Woo, D. (2000). Glass ceilings and Asian Americans: The new face of workplace barriers. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.

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CHAPTER 3

Colonialism Revisited: The Hawaiian Experience Ann S. Yabusaki Kenichi K. Yabusaki

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istory can be thought of as a collection of stories. It can be a story of a people, event, experience, or observation; written from the eyes of the beholder, it is always subjective. It is in this spirit that we share the story of colonialism in Hawai’i. In telling our story, we mean no disrespect to the Hawaiian or any other culture. For us, the story of colonialism in Hawai’i is ongoing and more than a clash of cultures; it is a story of a nation fighting for its soul, reclaiming the freedom to be: to live, govern, and define itself. Oppression manifests itself in many forms. On the continental United States, people tend to focus on the destructive forces of racism, sexism, homophobia, separation of abilities and disabilities, ageism, and many other “isms.” In Hawai’i, the focus tends to be on the oppressions of colonialism. Military intimidation and racism, tools of the colonizer, are used to dispossess a people of their land, psyche, and souls. Comas-Diaz, Lykes, and Alarcon (1998) describe similar practices in Guatemala, Peru, and Puerto Rico. Colonization is a violent process, and decolonization sometimes can be equally violent. As we observe and participate in protests against the military in Hawai’i, we are swept in a sea of emotion: a deep love of the spirit of the aina, or land, the ocean, and the sky. As the stewards of the land, entrusted by their gods, sages, and ancestors, the Hawaiian people protest the desecration of their land. As participant-observers

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of this energy, we ask, “How does a nation with over 2,000 years of history heal from colonization? How does a nation reclaim its soul?” ALONG CAME A COLONIALIST: DEFINING COLONIALISM Colonialism is defined by Random House Webster’s Dictionary (2001, p. 263) as “the system or policy by which a nation seeks to extend or retain its authority over other peoples or territories.” Others describe colonialism as “the specific form of cultural exploitation that developed with the expansion of Europe over the last 400 years” (Ashcroft, Griffith, & Tiffin, 2000, p. 45). Underlying the practice of colonialism is the ideology of imperialism or the idea of conquest and expansion. In later years, colonialism became coterminous with industrialization or the development of a modern capitalist system of economic exchange. Colonies were established to provide raw materials and labor for the “. . . economies of the colonial powers. It also meant that the relation between the colonizer and colonized was locked into a rigid hierarchy of difference deeply resistant to fair and equitable exchanges, whether economic, cultural or social” (Ashcroft et al., 2000, p. 46). Speaking of race relations in colonized countries, Ashcroft et al. note, “In the colonies where the subject people were of a different race, or where minority indigenous peoples existed, the ideology of race was also a crucial part of the construction and naturalization of an unequal form of intercultural relations . . . the idea of the colonial world became one of a people intrinsically inferior, not just outside history and civilization, but genetically predetermined to inferiority” (2000, pp. 46–47). Hence, racism is intricately woven into the practice of colonization. Another way of defining colonialism is through the eyes of the colonized. A good friend, Poka, told us the following story involving the Kanaks, who are considered the pagan people of what is today known as New Caledonia, now colonized by the French. One day a Kanak was sitting on his porch when he saw a Frenchman walking on the path toward him. As the Frenchman approached, the Kanak greeted him, and on this hot day, invited him into his home to relax and have some refreshment. The Frenchman obliged and after relaxing and enjoying the food and drink, asked, “How much do I owe you for your wonderful hospitality?” The Kanak found this question strange and replied, “You don’t owe me anything. It is our custom to share what we have.”

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The Frenchman was puzzled but delighted with the idea of sharing. The next day, he brought two friends to the Kanak’s home to show them the wonderful custom of these people. When they arrived, no one was home. Recalling what the Kanak had said, the Frenchman invited his friends into the home and helped themselves to food and drink. The Kanak returned shortly and, to his surprise, found the Frenchmen helping themselves to food and drink in his kitchen. The Kanak was puzzled and thought, “What a strange custom to enter uninvited into someone’s home and eat their food.” The Frenchmen greeted the Kanak as if he were an old friend and invited him to drink and eat with them. They then asked if they could see where he and his wife slept. Again the Kanak was puzzled, and now concerned. “What a strange custom to make such an intrusive request,” he thought. Not knowing how to decline gracefully, he reluctantly showed them the rest of his home and led them to the sleeping quarters. One of the Frenchmen then said, “We really like this place; you’ve made it so comfortable! We’d like to move in and sleep here.” The Kanak, now highly agitated, asked the Frenchmen, “If you move into our home, where will my wife and I sleep?” “Oh, you can sleep in the kitchen, or better yet, on the porch.” The Kanak had had enough. Raising his fists he yelled, “Get out of my house!” The Frenchman, trying to placate his new friend, said, “Now, now. . . . You don’t have to resort to violence. Let’s be civilized about this matter. In fact, let’s take a vote.” A BRIEF HISTORY The following story of the history of Hawai’i is taken primarily from A Native Daughter by Haunani-Kay Trask (1993), a Native Hawaiian1 and scholar of Hawaiian studies. Born of Papahanaumoku (earth mother) and Wakea (father sky), the islands or moku came to be. Out of the beloved islands came taro, child of Papa and Wakea; and from taro came the chiefs and people of Hawai’i. The genealogy of the Hawaiian people comes from the earth, sky, and cosmos. Malama ‘aina means to care for the land and implies a reciprocal interdependence. For example, older siblings are expected to tend to the younger ones; they in turn love and honor older siblings. As stewards of the land, the people are responsible for earth, their mother. Mother earth nurtures and cares for the people and they, in turn, must protect and ensure her life.

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In 1778, Captain James Cook stumbled onto the shores of Hawai’i. Here he met a culture and society that had established itself over 2,000 years before with a sophisticated and highly sensitive attunement to the spirit of all things and love for the world they had inhabited. He brought capitalism, western individualism, Christianity, and a worldview that, to many Hawaiians, was antithetical to theirs. My people had been dispossessed of our religion, our moral order, our form of chiefly government, many of our cultural practices, and our lands and waters. Introduced diseases, from syphilis and gonorrhea to tuberculosis, small pox, measles, leprosy and typhoid fever killed Hawaiians by the hundred of thousands, reducing our Native population (from an estimated one million at contact) to less than 40,000 by 1890. (Trask, 1993, p. 7)

Americans arrived after the British and dominated the sandalwood trade by 1820. In a scourging critique of American imperialism, Trask (1993) suggests that Calvinist missionaries arrived shortly and introduced religious doctrines that were as destructive as their diseases. The collapsing Hawaiian population proved to be fertile ground for the missionaries as they preached the demise of the Hawaiians as the “will of a Christian God” (Trask, 1993, p. 7). Many native people converted, believing in the Christian promise of life everlasting. Religious and economic forces pressured the chiefs and king for land. In 1842, at the height of the whaling industry, President John Tyler declared in the Tyler doctrine that Hawai’i was in the “U.S. sphere of influence” and off-limits to European powers. The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs replied to the Tyler doctrine with a statement suggesting that “Americans should acknowledge their own interests” (in Hawai’i) as a “virtual right of conquest” (Trask, 1993, p. 8). By the middle of the nineteenth century, Hawaiian chiefs could no longer stop private ownership of land by the foreigners. In 1843, King Kamehameha III, under pressure from his haole (white foreigner) advisors, allowed for the division and private ownership of land. “Traditional lands were quickly transferred to foreign ownership and burgeoning sugar plantations. By 1888, three-quarters of all arable land was controlled by the haole” (Trask, 1993, p. 8). The 1850s were a struggle between plantation owners vying for U.S. annexation of Hawai’i to avoid U.S. sugar tariffs and using military intimidation, and a monarchy attempting to maintain its sovereignty. King Kamehameha III opposed annexation and refused to

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sign treaties of annexation. Prince Alexander Liholiho, who succeeded Kamehameha III in 1854, proposed a policy of sovereignty with reciprocity. He hoped to decrease the high sugar tariffs paid to the United States, make Hawaiian sugar competitive with that of the Philippines and other foreign markets, and recognize Hawaiian sovereignty. The reciprocity treaty died in the U.S. Senate. Liholiho was succeeded by his brother, Prince Lot as Kamehameha V, in 1863. Kamehameha V continued to pursue a reciprocity treaty to protect Hawaiian independence. Meanwhile, the American minister to Hawai’i, James McBride, wanted a U.S. warship permanently stationed in the Honolulu harbor to protect American interests. He suggested that a port at Honolulu be ceded to the United States as a condition of the reciprocity treaty. In 1866, the U.S.S. Lackawanna was assigned to the islands for an indefinite period. Shortly afterward, newspapers such as the New York Times wrote (1868), “There is no question we are bound within a short time to become the great commercial, and controlling, and civilizing power of the Pacific” (in Trask, 1993, p. 10). The concept of Manifest Destiny was clearly entrenched within the American psyche. The biggest push toward annexation of Hawai’i came from sugar planters in Hawai’i. Heated debates erupted about reciprocity, annexation, and the Hawaiian right to self-govern. In 1869, Henry Pierce, minister to Hawai’i, urged the cessation of Pearl River Lagoon (now called Pearl Harbor) as a naval station in exchange for a reciprocity treaty. Reciprocity, he reasoned, would be a step toward annexation. In 1872, Kamehameha V died and William Lunalilo, greatly loved by his people, succeeded to the thrown. Lunalilo reluctantly negotiated a reciprocity treaty and allowed the Pearl River Lagoon to be ceded to the United States. U.S. General John McAllister Schofield, a major figure in Hawaiian military history, testified in Congress: “The Hawaiian Islands constitute the only natural outpost to defenses of the Pacific coast. . . . The time has come when we must secure forever the desired control over those islands or let them pass into other hands” (Trask, 1993, p. 11). Lunalilo reversed his decision when the native public loudly protested the cession of Hawaiian land. Hawaiians knew that they, like the American Indians, would be treated with racism and little respect because of their skin color. They had witnessed their kings, Liholiho and Prince Lot, ejected from trains during a visit to the United States because of their skin color. Newspapers argued that Hawaiians would be slaves under annexation (Trask, 1993).

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Fewer than thirteen months after assuming the throne, Lunalilo died of tuberculosis. Debates continued to rage in the Hawaiian nation about annexation and the presence and interference of the U.S. military. Protests increased in the towns of Honolulu and Lahaina, Maui, along with concerns about alcohol and prostitution. Peacekeeping, however, masked the true reason for a military presence. The military presence was there to protect American economic interests, and when disturbances threatened the sugar industry, the military intervened. The U.S. military intervened in the election for the throne between the pro-American King Kalakaua and the pro-British Queen Emma. After a brief skirmish, King Kalakaua prevailed, assumed the throne, and, in 1875, signed a reciprocity treaty with the United States. Sugar exports jumped from an unprecedented 17 million pounds in 1875 to 115 million pounds in 1883. Americans now owned twenty-five of the thirty-two sugar plantations that dominated the Hawaiian economy. An economic crisis in the 1880s left Kalakaua’s government in debt. People called for a solution to the budget. In 1887, Kalakaua was forced to cede Pearl River Lagoon to the United States and adopt a new constitution in exchange for duty-free sugar. The new constitution essentially gave the power of the legislature to the missionary descendants and gave the right to vote to foreigners willing to swear allegiance to the new government. Between 1877 and 1890, 55,000 new immigrants, mostly Asians, entered Hawai’i. At the same time, the native population was halved and the haole population soared. By 1890, the Hawaiians were 45 percent and haole and Asians were 55 percent of the population. These numbers alarmed the native people, as they foresaw and feared the loss of their nation. Queen Lili’uokalani succeeded her brother, King Kalakaua, in 1891. Determined to return Hawai’i to her people, she designed a more democratic constitution, one that removed the property ownership requirement for voters (many Hawaiians did not own land) and conferred the privilege to vote only to subjects of the kingdom. Foreigners would not be allowed to vote. Alarmed, businessmen and foreign supporters immediately organized, formed a “Committee of Safety,” and enlisted the help of U.S. Minister John L. Stevens to block this move toward sovereignty. Minister Stevens agreed to land the U.S. Marines and recognize the “Provisional Government” (the Committee of Safety) as representing the people of Hawai’i.

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Faced with military force and perhaps the loss of life, Lili’uokalani ceded her authority not to the provisional government but to the United States on January 17, 1893. She wrote to Sanford B. Dole, descendant of missionaries and newly chosen head of the provisional government: I yield to the superior force of the United States of America, whose minister . . . has caused United States troops to be landed at Honolulu. . . . Now to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do under this protest, and impelled by said force, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands. (Trask, 1993, p. 17)

On February 1, 1893, Minister Stevens raised the American flag over Hawai’i. President Grover Cleveland, deeply concerned over the events in Hawai’i, withdrew legislation for annexation of Hawai’i from the U.S. Senate on March 4. On March 29, James Blount, commissioned by Cleveland to investigate the overthrow of the Hawaiian government, ordered the troops back to their ships and lowered the American flag. After four months of research, Blount submitted a scathing report of the conspiracy of the provisional government and Minister Stevens to illegally overthrow the Hawaiian government. Cleveland carefully reviewed the document, and in a lengthy explanation to Congress, explained why he would never submit an annexation treaty to them. Thus, the issue of harm and need for reparation was brought to the American government. Unfortunately, Cleveland was not reelected president, and Queen Lili’uokalani was never restored to the thrown. In 1894, Hawai’i became the Republic of Hawai’i, and it was annexed in 1898. In 1959, it became a state of the Union. Most Native Hawaiians stayed away from the polls in protest of the illegal overthrow of their government. Another view of the above history comes from the Native Hawaiian Study Commission (1983). This report was commissioned by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to explore the history of the United States in Hawai’i: Vol. 1 of the Report was written by the non-Native members . . . and predictably denies complicity of the United States in the overthrow of the Hawaiian government in 1893, and the forced annexation of Hawai’i in 1898. Vol. 2 of the Report was written by the Native Hawaiian

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members of the Commission and argues for both restitution and selfgovernment for Native Hawaiians based upon the U.S. role in overthrowing the Hawaiian government and forcibly incorporating Hawai’i into the United States in 1959. (Trask, 1993, p. 72)

Clearly, history depends on who writes it. History presented from the inside out is often suppressed by the victors. It takes time to uncover and distill the stories of the oppressed; but it is the voice of the oppressed that makes the ordinary extraordinary and behavior understandable. To understand the psychology of a people, we must hear and receive their stories through their ears, eyes, feelings, beliefs, values, and meaning. It is through their voices and hearts that we begin to understand and appreciate more deeply the people and events in Hawai’i. IS “DAMN HAOLE” A RACIST REMARK? In 1998, we attended a forum sponsored by a local church in Honolulu entitled “Racism—is there a problem in Hawai’i?” The forum was organized by a haole pastor. The pastor opened the forum by sharing his experience of walking out of a store in the small town of Wai’manalo on O’ahu and being called “damn haole” by a local, longtime resident of Hawai’i. The pastor was offended and felt that this was a racist remark. He convened this forum to discuss how white people were perceived in Hawai’i. During the discussion, the pastor’s wife, a white woman and high school teacher, commented, “If your children would come to class on time and take school seriously, they would be successful (in this culture).” This remark sparked a heated discussion with representatives from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, representatives of other Hawaiian groups, and local white community members. By the end of the forum, the whites were describing Hawaiian and Samoan children as lazy, and the Hawaiians and locals were accusing the whites of colonialism. The issue of racism was never addressed or resolved. Haunani-Kay Trask, a Native Hawaiian professor and director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai’i, has spoken extensively about the genocide of her people. The colonization and illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian nation by the United States does not endear the haole to the Hawaiians. The consciousness of dominance is so keen and sensitive that many haoles are bewildered by what they would call racism. They do not realize that it is a privilege to experience the subtle and not-so-subtle anger of those whose

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cultures were—and continue to be—oppressed, exploited, and denigrated. Courage and trust are required by the oppressor in order to participate in a deeply passionate and often angry discussion on colonialism. We left the forum with deep sadness. We had witnessed a continuation of colonialism by people like the pastor’s wife who, with the best intentions, judged and denigrated the worldview of another. Is racism a problem in Hawai’i. Why was it only now, in 1998, being addressed? Racism is inherent to colonialism: it is used to justify behavior. The issue in Hawai’i focuses on the broader issue of colonialism, and racism per se is rarely addressed. Although the Hawaiian people were raped by the motives of colonialism, they have not forgotten their identity as a people and nation. Reminders of colonialism run deep in the minds and hearts of the Hawaiian people, and “damn haole” is not necessarily a personal attack, but an attack against colonialism. WHO IS HAWAIIAN, ANYWAY? THE HAWAIIAN RECOGNITION BILL One of the most hotly debated issues facing Native Hawaiian people today is the Hawaiian Recognition Bill (HRB), better known as the Akaka Bill after one of its senior authors, Hawai’i’s U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka. The HRB authorizes Congress to provide federal recognition of political status for Native Hawaiians, comparable to the status of Native American Indians. Native Hawaiian people would be recognized as an indigenous people with a special trust relationship with the United States and be entitled to self-determination as a sovereign political entity. Without delving into the lengthy and officious wording of the HRB, conflict seems to arise from at least three issues. The first concerns the definition of “Native Hawaiian.” The second concerns who determines what is Native Hawaiian. The third concerns the betrayal of a sacred trust between Hawai’i and the United States that was conferred by the United Nations. According to the HRB, “Native Hawaiian” means the following: [A]n individual who is a member of the indigenous, native people of Hawaii who are the direct lineal descendants of the aboriginal, indigenous, native people who resided on or before January 1, 1893, in the islands that now comprise the State of Hawaii, and occupied and exercised sovereignty in the Hawaiian archipelago, including the area that now constitutes the State of Hawaii; and an individual who was a

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Native Hawaiian eligible during 1921 for the programs authorized by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (42 Stat. 108, chapter 42) (including lineal descendants of that individual). (Senate Report 108-085, 2003)

There are approximately 400,000 Native Hawaiians in the United States, of whom 240,000 reside in Hawai’i. If one defines “Native Hawaiian” by the criteria proposed by the HRB, only about 20 percent of the total Native Hawaiian population will benefit. What happens to Native Hawaiians with blood lineage who do not fit within the guidelines of the HRB? How do we recognize—or do we recognize— those with no Hawaiian blood lineage but who were born and raised and are the fifth generation living in Hawai’i? Because there is no absolute way to define who is “Hawaiian,” one solution may be for people to declare themselves Hawaiian by citizenship and relinquish any other citizenship (Laenui, 1997). Many Native Hawaiian people object to the U.S. Congress defining who or what is a “Native Hawaiian.” They ask, “Why can’t we define who we are?” But the question then becomes, who are the “we” who define who we are? The discussion continues and rhetoric flies, but the passion for self-governance in some form lives on in spite of the differences among the people. Finally, Title 25 of the U.S. Constitution, Section 71, states, “No Indian Nation or tribe within the territory of the Untied States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation.” Proponents for the HRB who claim that passage of the Akaka bill would be a stepping stone to independence may be mistaken, because there is no legal or political precedent for independent nationhood. The United States is a federation of states that form a union. By definition, no state that is part of this federation (Hawai’i is currently part of this federation) may withdraw from the Union. If an independent Hawai’i were to become a nation-within-a-nation, Hawai’i might later have no right to withdraw and pursue its independence. Therefore, by supporting the HRB, those supporting the Hawaiian sovereignty movement may, in fact, be cutting their own throats (Agard, 2003). MODELS OF HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY If Hawaiian sovereignty becomes a reality, then what model should be taken? Alternatives in the HRB include amending the existing

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federal law to call for the U.S. government to reconcile with Native Hawaiians by defining “reconciliation” as the government granting immediate federal recognition upon passage of the HRB, but not to label Hawai’i as a “domestic dependent nation.” The relationship between Hawai’i and the United States must be carefully defined so as to keep the doors for independence open. Alternatives also call for an immediate vote to posthumously reinstate Queen Lili’uokalani and the lawful Hawaiian government as it existed before its illegal takeover by the United States in 1893. Concomitant with this reinstatement would be an election of delegates to a constitutional convention to revise and update the Queen’s constitution and all other constitutions functioning under one umbrella (Agard, 2003). In summary, one model suggests a nation-within-a-nation or an integration model similar to that of the Native American Indians. Another urges complete independence from the United States, restoring Hawaiian independence to preinvasion times. Finally, a third suggests an association that allows gradual transition away from the United States and ending with full independence. The issues surrounding Hawaiian independence are a complex web of politics, deceit, double standards, motives, and interpretations of laws. We may have oversimplified the core issues and controversies surrounding Hawaiian sovereignty, but we also recognize that Hawaiian sovereignty might not be an issue if the Kingdom of Hawai’i had not been colonized in the first place. The deep emotional struggle for independence by Native Hawaiians is like a spirit on fire, with living examples in the eruptions and flows of lava on the Big Island of Hawai’i. SHOULD THE PERPETRATOR BE THE JUDGE? On November 23, 1993, the U.S. government, under international law, confessed to illegally gaining possession of Hawai’i by its actions in 1893 (the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai’i), 1898 (the illegal and forced annexation of Hawai’i), and 1959 (the illegal statehood without the Native Hawaiian vote) (Laenui, 1997). When the United Nations (UN) was formed in 1945, leaders of nations gathered to sign a UN charter calling for self-governance of territories under colonial-style conditions. In 1946, the General Assembly placed the United States under a sacred trust “to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political

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institutions . . . with due respect for the cultures of the peoples concerned” (“Is Hawaii a State?” 2003). The United Nations assigned the United States to assist the territories of Alaska, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, and Hawai’i in gaining self-governance. Over the years, the United Nations clarified the process of selfgovernance. Nations in sacred trust were to let the people of the territories choose how they would relate to the United Nations: integration as part of a larger nation, free association, or independence. This self-governance process was meant to break the chains of colonization between territories of colonizing nations. As a result, many African, Pacific, and Asian nations emerged from colonization (Laenui, 1997). In Hawai’i, rather than permitting three choices, the United States permitted the populace to vote on only one: integration. In 1959, the people were asked to vote on the following: “Shall Hawai’i immediately be admitted into the Union as a State?” A yes vote placed Hawai’i as a state within the Union. A no vote resulted in continuing status of Hawai’i as a territory of the United States. The choices of free association and independence were never placed before the people. The people were never educated, and no one spoke about the right to these choices. The United States reported to the United Nations in 1959 that Hawai’i had exercised its right to self-governance, and in doing so, elected to become a state. In turn, the United Nations removed Hawai’i from its list of territories subject to self-governance. “An intentional perversion of the truth was thus committed to induce the UN to deny Hawaii [the] fundamental right to self-determination” (Laenui, 1997, p. 2). In a 2003 letter to the editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, Steve Tayama, a resident of Wai’manalo, asked whether the legal process to seek justice for a crime was to ask the accused to be the judge. Should the United States be “. . . the one to tell us if the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii—annexation without a treaty or statehood evolving from the illegal overthrow—is legal or not? Let us bring this issue to a neutral court. This is the recognized process to solve this kind of problem. This is why international organizations were formed” (Tayama, 2003). Tayama’s point is well taken. The United States has confessed to violations of international laws. Should the appeal for retribution and justice be directed to the U.S. Congress, an arm of the accused and perpetrator? Is this not a conflict of interest? A United Nations– appointed judiciary committee, excluding U.S. representation, may be a fairer solution to determine restitution and justice for Hawai’i.

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CONTINUING FORMS OF COLONIALISM The colonizer understands the importance of language. After nearly 2,000 years of being spoken, why would the Hawaiian language be banned in 1896 by the American-imposed government? In 1900, upon becoming a territory of the United States, “all schools, government operations and official transactions were thereafter conducted in English, despite the fact that most people, including non-Natives, still spoke Hawaiian at the turn of the century” (Trask, 1993, p. 188). The colonizer understands that language perpetuates a way of being, a way of life, a culture, and a worldview; and that a powerful way to suppress a people and their culture is to ban the use of their language. Desecration of language is part of hegemony or total domination by one nation over others (Random House Webster’s Dictionary, 2001). Language, then, is a key factor in decolonization. With the revitalization of the Hawaiian language, values, and ways of life, Hawaiians are moving toward decolonization. Speaking Hawaiian forces one to think in Hawaiian; and thinking in Hawaiian forces one to think about things Hawaiian and reclaim what it means to be Hawaiian.

Using Hapa In 1995, a conference on biracial identity was held in northern California. Two individuals who were part of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement objected to the use of the Hawaiian word hapa as part of the name of an organization. The organization was accused of “. . . appropriating the word hapa from Native Hawaiians. [In using the term] . . . without any knowledge of the meaning of the word [and] . . . without permission [from Native Hawaiians] . . . it was claimed the organization . . . contributes to and furthers the oppression of native Hawaiian peoples” (Ropp, 1995, p. 7). Hapa is a transliteration of the English half. In Hawai’i, if one were to call an individual hapa, most people would understand that the person was of mixed race; however, from the standpoint of the Hawaiian language, it is improper use. Proper use is to place a noun after the term hapa, as in hapa haole, hapa Japanese, etc. Misusing words or using words for one’s convenience is disrespectful to the Hawaiian language and culture. People within the organization replied, “This is not a new criticism. At many of the forums, people, especially Hawaiian nationalists, object to our use of the word hapa. We are highly conscious of the origins

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of the term, hapa, especially in its Hawaiian context. But on the Mainland, the word took on a different context from Hawaii and is more broadly applied to mean a person of mixed, especially mixed Asian race” (Ropp, 1995, p. 7). Unfortunately, the organization continues to misuse the term hapa. Appropriating words, phrases, or gestures from a culture; changing meanings to suit themselves; and ignoring the deeper meanings, contexts, and significance of these words as ways of being, perpetuate the practice of colonialism. This practice will trigger reactions, and these reactions can best be understood in the contexts of colonization and decolonization. What Does HOV Mean? Recently, while driving on a freeway on O’ahu, we saw a sign that read HOV Lane. One of us, having been in the military, immediately translated HOV as “high-occupancy vehicle.” For civilians, the HOV lane is equivalent to a carpool lane. The presence of these signs suggests a very subtle, but very distinct, presence of the military, and one can feel as though Hawai’i were under military rule. The military has a strong presence in Hawaii. Today, there are more than forty U.S. military installations occupying more than 200,000 acres of land in Hawai’i. On O’ahu alone, approximately 25 percent of the island is occupied by the military. The Hawaiian Islands are strategically located for housing, training, and quick deployment of troops to almost anywhere in the world; however, emotions are mixed about their presence in Hawai’i. Some people support the military in Hawai’i and feel protected from foreign enemies. Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, patriotism has run high. Some people argue that the military helps the economy because it creates jobs and income for the state. Those who oppose the military’s presence and expansion argue that they have experienced great losses to their land and environment (including watersheds), culture, sacred archaeological sites, and much more. Overcrowding and land used for military training easily upset the fragile ecological balance of an island. They point out that the military has a poor history of restoring land to its pre-use condition. For example, the island of Kaho’olawe was used as a training and bombing site for the U.S. military beginning in World War II. On November 12, 2003, the island was officially returned to the state, giving people access to the land. Only 9 percent of the land, however, has been

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cleared of sub-subsurface ordnance, and 70 percent has been cleared of surface exploded and unexploded ordnance. The military declares that after spending 300 million dollars cleaning Kaho’olawe, it has no more funds and is withdrawing. Overjoyed, thousands of people attended the ceremonies at Iolani Palace on O’ahu to receive Kaho’olawe. Prayers, chants, songs and dance, and stones from all over Kaho’olawe were brought to the palace to be blessed and begin the healing. Other lands occupied by the military have never been recovered or healed by the people of this state. Punalu’u and Waikane Valleys on O’ahu are examples of lands destroyed by the military. Training on the island of Hawai’i is destroying the mana or life force of the extinct sacred volcano Mauna Kea. In October 2003, the U.S. Army presented a three-volume Stryker Brigade environmental impact statement for acquisition of more than 24,000 acres (23,000 acres on the island of Hawai’i and 1,400 additional acres at Schofield Barracks on O’ahu) to expand and accommodate approximately 310 new eight-wheeled, nineteen-ton Stryker combat vehicles. Public hearings were conducted throughout the state. Dozens of protestors were barred, and people wielding signs were arrested. Authorities feared that the sticks on which the signs were mounted would be used as clubs if violence erupted, but the signs were not mounted on sticks. Protestors said the arrests and banning of signs violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Once inside the meeting hall at Turtle Bay Resort on O’ahu, many residents testified, “The land belongs to Ke Akua and we are the keepers, stewards and receivers of its bounty. If you malama [or take care of] the aina [or land], the aina will take care of you. Such a simple concept but one that the U.S. Army has not accepted and will probably ignore even if we ask you to embrace it” (Mattoon, 2003, p. 1). People worried whether the hearings were nothing more than formalities and that, eventually, the military would prevail. What is the price, if any, of downsizing or eliminating the military from Hawai’i? Are an island nation, a culture, and fragile ecosystem expendable in the name of defending freedom? The mountains, ocean, and land answer through the hearts of the Hawaiian people. A NATION RECLAIMING ITSELF People heal themselves from the traumas of colonialism and hegemony in different ways. In spite of the dominance of colonialism and western politics, programs that teach and practice the traditions of the

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Poe Hawai’i (ancient Hawaiians) continue to grow. Cultural immersion programs are slowly and tenuously growing: public schools teach in the Hawaiian language (Gavelek, 2003). Primary health, mental health, and substance abuse programs incorporate Hawaiian values and practices. Programs for youth increasingly use traditional rites of passage. Canoe trips and competition, working in the kalo loi (taro fields), pounding taro, restoring ancient fish ponds, and researching the ahupua’a (land divisions) are increasingly popular in school and after-school programs. Parenting programs incorporate the values of the Hawaiian people as a basis for practice. A Hawaiian studies program exists at the University of Hawai’i. For many, the experience and meaning of the Poe Hawai’i practices begin the healing process. The programs below illustrate some of these programs. Ka’ala Farm Under a dense growth of Kiawe trees and other vegetation near Wai’anae on the Leeward Coast of O’ahu, a hidden treasure was unearthed: a sophisticated irrigation system constructed by the ancient Hawaiians (Poe Hawai’i) that led to sunken kalo (taro) loi (fields). These loi were part of a large ahupua’a that extended from Mount Ka’ala to the sea. The area was named Ka’ala Farm. The ahupua’a was a system of wedge-shaped land divisions stretching from the mountains to the ocean. Each had a free-flowing stream, and the various environments sustained plant, animal, or sea life that provided food, water, and materials for shelter. These resources were shared among the people of the ahupua’a. The ahupua’a was a sophisticated and sacred ecological system created by the Poe Hawai’i; it embodied the values of reciprocity and interdependence between people and between the people and land. Trask notes, “. . . there was no money, no idea or practice of surplus appropriation, value storing or payment deferral because there was no idea of financial profit from exchange” (1993, p. 5). Children and adults come to Ka’ala Farm to learn the history and traditional practices of Hawai’i and to experience the meaning of the ahupua’a. Kalo is cultivated in ways taught by the elders, who, in turn, were taught by their ancestors. Because Native Hawaiians descended from the kalo, there is deep meaning and reverence to what is practiced and taught at Ka’ala Farm. Land development for homes, shopping centers, businesses, and golf courses on the Leeward side of O’ahu has destroyed the natural

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flow of water from Mount Ka’ala. Water has been diverted from natural streams to these growing communities, and kalo loi no longer flourish in the area. In similar fashion, water on the Windward side of O’ahu is diverted for development, and kalo loi are quickly disappearing from the areas of Kahalu’u and Wai’ahole. Diverting the water endangers the streams and the surrounding ecosystems. The damage is irreparable, and the entire state of Hawai’i experiences a taro shortage. The very plant from which the Hawaiians are descended has succumbed to industrialization, whose roots are embedded in colonialism. Our guides at Ka’ala Farm tell us that the effects of colonialism and westernization will eventually destroy western man’s ability to be selfsufficient. They stress the self-sufficiency of the Poe Hawai’i to grow taro and other plants and harvest sea life just as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. We were invited to experience the loi. As we sank our bare feet into its muddy water, we felt a deep love and connection to the aina. Malama aina (caring for the land) cannot be explained; it has to be experienced. The Opelu Project Similar to the Native American Indians on the continental United States, Native Hawaiians experience some of the highest rates of poverty, ill health, birth deaths, and rates of incarceration. Ancient fish ponds of the Poe Hawai’i have been destroyed by commercial developments, such as resort hotels and golf courses. The Opelu Project, a family aquaculture program in Wai’anae, O’ahu, combines modern technology with traditional Hawaiian values and practices to empower families and the chronically mentally disabled. Pua’nani Burgess, who directed the Opelu Project for more than eighteen years, gave us a tour of the project and mediated the process. She explained to us that the Poe Hawai’i once harvested opelu, the mackerel scad, in their fish ponds. Mashed taro and sweet potato were used as chum to attract the schools of fish. The Poe Hawai’i were ingenious fishermen who could spot the dominant male fish, lure it into their fish ponds, and thus attract the rest of the opelu school. The Poe Hawai’i also practiced conservation. To ensure the return of fish schools, fishing for opelu was banned at certain times of the year. The Opelu Project uses large plastic tanks to grow tilapia, a fastgrowing warm-water fish of the cichlid family. Each tank is a selfsufficient system that supports photosynthetic microorganisms to oxygenate the water, which goes to an adjacent clarification tank that

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collects solid waste onto filters. The water is recirculated back to the main tank. Solid waste is removed from the filters, composted, and used as fertilizer. Each tank can yield up to 600 pounds of tilapia every six months. Fish are sold to the local community or fish markets to supplement a family’s income. A certain percentage of the profits are used for repair and maintenance and to purchase more systems for other families. More recently, the chronically mentally disabled are being trained to maintain these aquaculture systems, embracing the philosophy that “work is medicine.” Overall, families and individuals learn to work together and acquire skills using modern technology, while preserving the traditional values and practices of the past. Alternative Healing Methods Many programs addressing the health and mental health of the people include Hawaiian healing methods. Chants, legends, songs, and dance that tell the story of the Hawaiian nation and its people are heartfelt and healing for many. Several substance abuse prevention and treatment agencies incorporate the values of the Hawaiians as part of their curricula. Kupuna, or the elderly and wise people, are consulted and often participate in these programs. Meetings are opened with pule or prayers, new programs and buildings are opened with native blessings, and people gather to discuss ways of healing in a western world. Many culture-sensitive programs and services are considered unconventional, unproven, and therefore do not qualify for reimbursement by insurance companies. Hence the struggle to reclaim health—both mental and physical—is also a struggle for decolonization. CONCLUSION The relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is sometimes like being in the forest and not seeing the trees; that is, we are so entrenched in the mind-set of the colonizer or dominant culture that we fail to see its influences on our lives. We have attempted to convey this message using Hawai’i as an example of a nation and people colonized by the haole. In today’s world as in the past, no human group or territory is immune to colonialism. Colonization and its ramifications go far beyond the Hawaiian experience. Whether intentional or not, it is incumbent that one understand the cultural basis of all religious, political, and/or economic motives that lead to the decimation of another culture. Throughout our chapter

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we have implied that physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being are intimately tied to the cultural, social, and political contexts of life. The meaning of colonialism is not absolute, as meanings are constructed by the interaction of the individual with the social and political orders. For some, in the name of industrialization or progress, colonialism might be considered a virtue. However, no virtue can be separated from its defects. We have seen the destructive forces of colonialism in Hawai’i brought by religious indoctrination, racism, political and economic motives, and military force working in concert. We must ask, “How do we define progress?” and “Is a nation that has existed for centuries not progressive?” Malcolm X once stated, “A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself” (Gavelek, 2003, p. 20). These words echo through the hearts of many people living in Hawai’i. The resiliency and spirit of Hawai’i’s people are reflected by those who struggle for sovereignty and independence, those who fight for their beloved aina, and those who fight to preserve the wisdom, customs, values, and traditions of their ancestors. Other nations and people who have been colonized share similar struggles and feelings. As in psychotherapy, the client determines the agenda and solution; the therapist attempts to create a safe context for and bears witness to the story. Analogously, we must understand the context and meaning of the colonized or oppressed; and as colonizers, we must own our responsibilities and be mindful and sensitive to the process of decolonization. Many Americans have not experienced the decimation by colonialism and hegemony of something that is equivalent to life itself. The vast diffusion and integration of western ideals have protected us from considering seriously the cultures of other peoples. The challenges of living in an interdependent world while embracing those who seek independence may seem paradoxical. The solutions will not be easy, Toolbox for Change 1. 2. 3. 4.

We are guests in foreign lands. As guests, we must be sensitive to our hosts. As guests, we must be mindful of our intentions. As guests, we must prevent iatrogenic practices.

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and compromises will be inevitable. We cannot change the past; however, we can change ourselves. NOTE 1. The term Native Hawaiian refers to people with Hawaiian blood or ancestry. Hawaiian sometimes refers to people who were born and raised in Hawai’i, but who have no indigenous blood or ancestry. In this chapter, Native Hawaiian is used to describe people who possess blood lineage to the indigenous people of Hawai’i.

REFERENCES Agard, K. K. (2003). Implications of federal recognition via the Akaka bill. Retrieved November 2, 2003, from www.stopakaka.com/2003/ implication.html Ashcroft, B., Griffith, G., & Tiffin, H. (2000). Post-colonial studies. The key concepts. London and New York: Routledge. Comas-Diaz, L., Lykes, M. B., & Alarcon, R. D. (1998). Ethnic conflict and the psychology of liberation in Guatemala, Peru, and Puerto Rico. American Psychologist, 53(7), 778–792. Gavelek, F. (2003, Fall/Winter). 1 Mua! Use of Hawaiian is growing. Pleasant Hawaii: The magazine of pleasant Hawaiian holidays. Honolulu, HI: This Week Magazines. Is Hawaii really a state of the union? (2003). Retrieved November 2, 2003, from www.hawaii-nation.org/statehood.html Laenui, P. (1997). Hawaiian statehood revisited. The Honolulu Weekly [Electronic version]. Retrieved November 2, 2003, from www.opihi.com/ sovereignty/statehood_revisited.htm Mattoon, C. P. O. (2003, November 4). Testimony on the SBCT Draft Environmental Impact Statement at Turtle Bay Resort, Kahuku, Oahu, Hawaii. Native Hawaiian Study Commission. (1983). Report on the culture, needs, and concerns of native Hawaiians (Vols. 1 and 2). Washington, DC: U.S. Government. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. (2001). (2nd rev. ed.). New York: Random House. Ropp, S. M. (1995). Editorial comment: HIF under attack, in What’s Hapa’ning. Newsletter of the Hapa Issues Forum, p. 7. Senate Report 108-085 (2003, June 27). S.344 Native Hawaiian recognition bill as revised in markup by the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, May 14, 2003, and reported to the Senate on June 27, 2003. Retrieved on November 5, 2003, from www.angelfire.com/hi2/ hawaiiansovereignty/AkakaS344Mark

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Tayama, S. (2003, October 18). Commentary: International venues should settle the issue. The Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved November 2, 2003, from the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Oct/18/op/ op08aletter Trask, H.-K. (1993). From a native daughter. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.

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CHAPTER 4

Sociohistorical Constructions of Race and Language: Impacting Biracial Identity Matthew J. Taylor

Very often history is a means of denying the past. Denying the past is to refuse to recognize its integrity. To fit it, force it [italics added], function it, to suck out the spirit until it looks the way you think it should [Welcome to the world of being biracial].1 (Winterson, as cited in Root, 1992, p. 7)

H

istorically, race has been constructed within the American psyche as a dichotomous variable—an either-or proposition. Moreover, our construction and use of language have developed to mirror this reality, which ultimately aids in its perpetuation. Has this divergent approach to race outlived its usefulness and applicability? Is it realistic, given the face of today’s changing demographic landscape? At present, there remain cultural and linguistic disconnects between the phenomenological experience of the biracial individual and the expectations of the dualistic society within which they reside. On the individual level, there are implications for psychosocial development (Hall, 2001; Root, 1995). More broadly speaking, what will develop from the resolution of this dilemma is a new paradigm impacting how the citizens of this country view race and racial identity. This paper explores the impact that the sociohistorical constructions of race and language have on the lives of biracial individuals. To this end, the author, who is biracial, will blend sociohistorical conceptions of race and linguistic philosophy

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with personal narrative components and conclude with implications for multiracial identity development. WHO “WE” ARE The most recent census data suggest rapidly increasing numbers of individuals identifying as multiracial. Census 2000 represented the first census in which respondents could mark two or more races. Almost 3 percent of the United States population, 6.8 million people, reported two or more races. New York City and Los Angeles, respectively, were identified as locales in which the largest numbers of multiracial individuals resided. Of particular note are the data that reveal that 40 percent of those with multiracial lineages are younger than eighteen years old (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). It is these latter numbers that particularly provide evidence that there is a growing amount of diversity within our communities and our nation. The Awakening: Introducing Myself I am biracial. I am the product of the union of a man of black descent and a woman of German-American heritage. My skin is a composite of light brown and tan; or if you prefer, other descriptive color schemes are bisque, peru, wheat, pale goldenrod, and moccasin. Yes, my skin does visibly burn with extreme exposure to the sun. My hair is a perfectly proportioned blend of curls and straight components. My eyes are brown. My speech pattern is relatively nondescript, with a hint of an East Coast upbringing. Some are surprised to learn that I am biracial; others seem to have known all along. SOCIOHISTORICAL CONCEPTIONS OF RACE: YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE While the race-based social hierarchy in the United States can be traced back as far as colonization and the arrival of the Europeans to the shores of the Americas, the roots of this movement appear early in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the works of Carolus Linnaeus and Charles Darwin. In his 1735 work Systema Naturae, Linnaeus presented his classification system for plants, animals, and minerals; while in 1859, Darwin offered The Origin of Species, which set forth his theory of natural selection (“survival of the fittest”). These biologically based scientific philosophies would soon find themselves

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coupled with the geopolitical conflicts that accompanied European colonization and the subsequent conquering of native peoples around the globe; and would be utilized to justify and explain these social, cultural, and military occurrences. Predicated upon notions of the “culturally superior” European colonizers and “savage and inferior” natives who were colonized, a Linnaean-type social classification developed for humans. This newly created social hierarchy relied heavily upon physical appearance (phenotype), something that undoubtedly separated the Europeans from many of the indigenous/colonized populations. Not only did racial appearance become an “outward mark of innate and permanent inferiority” (Snyder, 2001, p. 92), but it also symbolized the “death” experienced by many indigenous cultures, which were dubbed as inferior, and in the spirit of social Darwinism, subsequently replaced by a superior entity. So began a recurring pattern of control and oppression based upon phenotype that would later come to be the sociological and psychological foundations of intergroup relations in the United States. Whether it was found in the extermination practices impacting Native Americans, the race-based sight system underlying the enslavement of blacks, the seizing of Spanish/Mexican land in what would later become the southwestern United States, or the legislated Chinese exclusion and forced internment of Japanese Americans, there was a “system of appearance” implemented that led to discrimination that benefited whites and maintained the social hierarchy (Omi & Winant, 1986; Root, 1992). From the early pseudobiological scientific construction of race, rooted in Linnaean and Darwinian thought, sprang a culturally driven hierarchical conception of race more rooted in social, economic, and political forces. As the social hierarchy continued to develop, race and its perceived overt appearance were not only used to distinguish the Europeans, with all of their “positive” traits and qualities, from all others; they also came to be the “markers” from which we could infer a host of innate characteristics, such as sexual behaviors and intelligence to one’s proclivity to commit crimes. This social order, based on (Euro) cultural definitions of race, further revealed itself via individual expression in the form of interpersonal interactions and associated stereotypes. The elusive nature of this concept is the very human quality of relying upon the appearance of “the other” as an evolutionary tool to determine friend from foe, as well as a host of other characteristics. As noted before, sociohistorical conceptions of race are more rooted in social, economic, and political forces, yet on the day-to-day basis a simplified “sight system” is used to provide clues about others. The

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rigidity with which these socially defined notions of race were applied and stamped into the collective unconscious of society and firmly entrenched in its institutions is revealed by Allen (2001), who paraphrases Supreme Court comments from Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) that state, “[A]ny white man, no matter how degraded, is socially superior to any African American, no matter how cultured and independent in means” (p. 361). The stage was thus set. The racial ideology of America is rooted in what Omi and Winant (1986) term “racial etiquette,” which is a set of interpretive codes: codes of behavior, attitudes, values, and beliefs. These culturally defined codes offer meaning to physical characteristics, such that “black” in Philadelphia means something very different from “black” in Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil. Yet, it is this overreliance on selected anatomical features as the basis of race that makes racial categories prone to error (Webster, as cited in Ferber, 1995). The arbitrary and ambiguous nature of the dualistic race-based dichotomy that developed within the United States was flawed from its onset, and this is no more apparent than when applied to biracial individuals. Beginning in the seventeenth century, miscegenation (race-mixing) had been a constant in the United States, yet the social standing of the children resulting from these unions had been anything but constant. As the American slave system was formed, built almost exclusively upon physical appearance, and later expanded in its breadth, there came the need to prohibit interactions between the races, which further served to maintain white supremacy and social standing (Daniel, 1996). The result yielded legislation and social norms that ostensibly prohibited miscegenation, especially in the South, and considered biracial children to be black by the law of hypodescent, or the “one-drop” rule. Not only did this increase the number of slaves, especially as it was considered the master’s “right” to use his female slaves sexually as a form of concubinage, but it also reinforced white privilege and protected white racial and cultural purity (Daniel, 1996). However, it must be noted that the social position of mixed-race individuals varied geographically as well as chronologically. Rockquemore and Brunsma (2002a) offer an excellent historical outline that details the alliance between biracial individuals and white society in some states, which shifted to white hostility and a subsequent alliance of biracial individuals with black society as the Civil War loomed and following its conclusion. Currently, the landscape within which racial/ethnic reference group biracial children fall is unclear. While the laws prohibiting interracial unions have all been declared unconstitutional

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(Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002a), in a de facto sense hypodescent still exists, as minority group societies continue to be more willing than the dominant culture to accept biracial individuals into their ranks. The Awakening: What Are You? For biracial individuals, the questions begin early. Earlier than we have the ability to truly understand their meaning. Earlier than we have the language required to supply adequate answers. I was four years old when an elderly woman called me a nigger as I played in front of my apartment building. From my teary-eyed mother, who realized that the blissful ignorance of my childhood was beginning to fade, I learned that this was a “not so nice word for black people.” But my mother was white. Did that mean I was black? I did not understand. Pandora’s Box of Racialization (American-style) had been opened for me. THE SOCIOHISTORICAL CONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE AND HOW IT IMPACTS OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD AND THOSE IN IT: WHERE DOES BIRACIAL STATUS FIT? As human societies create themselves and their world, language is culturally constructed and used to reflect the existence that is being played out (Vico, 1744). Language comprises structure and symbols that represent reality as it conveys cultural meaning, myths, and codes. As a system built upon inherited cultural values and bipolar positionals, language gives shape and meaning to experience and ultimately serves to remove any ambiguity from that experience. De Saussure believed that, similar to other socially learned constructs, “there were no pre-existing ideas and that nothing was distinct before the appearance of language” (1959, p. 112). This has direct implications for our current discussion, given the socially constructed and communicated notions of race that we are prone to absorb in childhood. Linguistic systems are created via arbitrary yet socially agreed-upon designations embedded within bidirectional relationships, as humans construct language; but they themselves are simultaneously constructed by it. In essence, language thinks us, as it guides our valued-laden cognitive processes; orients us with a cultural structure and framework; and directs us to develop culturally appropriate values, attitudes, belief, and behaviors (J. Parker, personal communication, September 22, 2003).

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Language is related to the collection of race-based dichotomies that have developed from phenotypes (such as colonizer-savage; ownerslave; victim-criminal/potential criminal), and how we decipher their meanings. As a system of interdependent and related terms, the components of language find much of their value in the “simultaneous presence of the others [their antagonistic opposites]” (De Saussure, 1959, p. 114). Within this antithetical relationship, one entity cannot exist without the other, but particularly without the other being devalued; for instance, without evil, good ceases to have meaning; and without black, white takes on a different meaning. To the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1997), it is the social and value-based constructions of language that result in artificially/culturally produced and defined dichotomies. He goes so far as to consider a rather contradictory relationship with the “other,” such that on the one hand a person can only address and relate to the “other” to the extent that differences are highlighted; yet at the same time, the “different” are frequently excluded and prevented from “crossing over to ‘our’ border” (p. 106). This approach to linguistic production of “other as different” unconsciously requires the perception that they are lesser and inferior. These notions of language and how they may relate to biracial identity find substance in the fact that the law of hypodescent fiercely prevented individuals with “one drop” of racial “minority” blood from entering into the elite hierarchy of white society. The result was, and is, a cultural and linguistic disconnect between the phenomenological experience of the biracial individual and the expectations of society. Thus, it is through the combination of societal proscription, behavioral manifestations, and linguistic constructions that biracial individuals find themselves marginalized. The Awakening: On the Complexities of Gumbo—I’m a Little of This and a Little of That Can I define myself using terms that do not result in a comparative treatise of black and white culture? I would very much prefer to define myself in a way that does not concede to the national rhetoric of hypodescent, yet simultaneously accounts for the exclusionary reality of a life between black and white societies. More importantly, how do I relate myself to others using language that is devoid of culturally rooted values and stereotypes? For as soon as I begin this task, do people then not presume to have me figured out? I know my choice of words carries meaning, but is it what I want others to focus on?

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I am complex; do others see that? Do they see beyond the implicit cultural meaning (and stereotypes) of my descriptors? Dare I feed stereotypes and say that I enjoy playing basketball, dancing, eating fried chicken and watermelon, drinking malt liquor, and dating white women? Yet, this is the reality of what it means to be me and my experiences; is that not enough? I never truly know what to do. When I tell people I am biracial, I am regularly responded to with a befuddled look. The sum of my being is much more (complex) than its parts; more than the multiracial union that brought me forth. While I am simply “me,” this is a rather complex collection of two worlds, two realities. To present this to others is quite a challenge. I usually end up feeling misunderstood. Societal Influences on Biracial Identity Development: Where Race and Language Meet The general concept of identity development finds its roots in the search for the answer to a very basic question: “Who am I?” The search for self and identity is a critical facet of the human experience. It goes without saying that this is a lifelong endeavor, replete with twists, turns, and cumulative and cyclical features; and relies upon our interactions with others and society. Not only are we trying to “figure ourselves out,” but we are trying to do so within a larger collective. Who I aspire to be, or who I see myself becoming, is inexorably related to the internalized notions of who I “may be” as communicated by family, peers, community, and society. Ultimately, the search for self represents “the negotiation between self-identity and world perception” (Hershel, 1995, p. 173). Identification and connection with others and a reference group are not only an integral component of identity formation, but a component within the hierarchy of human needs (Maslow, 1970). We seek to belong (to a group), as this provides some meaning to life as well as a psychological and behavior anchor. From our interactions with others in our family and community, we learn what it means to be “us.” Moreover, we are (in the best of scenarios) able to learn these lessons in an atmosphere that provides us with a safe space and social support. Yet when belonging is not communicated, and individuals are not readily accepted into “the group,” there is potential for problems. Without one’s reference point, who does one then look to as a guide toward identity formation? So begins the dilemma of biracial identity development. Its inception is located in the drive to simply develop into oneself within the

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harmonious family environment, where race and phenotype may be less of an issue. Many biracial individuals may readily embrace both racial heritages provided by their parents (Cooke, 1998). Intuitively, it seems that the result of this scenario would be a synthesis or the development of what Rockquemore and Brunsma (2002a) call a transcendent identity, and what Daniel (1996) calls a pluralistic identity. Both of these identity formations are characterized by the fact that they are relatively nonracial in their framework and represent a true multiracial existence. They are born from the blending and merging of multiple cultural traditions and are subsequently revealed in the embodiment of individual identity. However, as the broader influence of society comes to bear, with its implicit race-based categorization scheme, this specific developmental pathway is impacted, or interrupted (if you will), and it degrades into a framework that mirrors society’s rigid rules. It is this socially rooted dichotomy of race that underlies the cultural umbrella under which biracial individuals find themselves: a system that requires them to be repressively categorized. There are discrete, mutually exclusive categories within which they are to place themselves: their identities and their being in the world.

The Awakening: Home as a Safe Place My house was a safe place. I was just Matt. Not black, not white, not mixed—just me. I recall being identified more by roles and status (son, grandson, only child). Race was never a family issue, as my familial messages were clear: play with whomever you want, date whom you want, listen to whatever music you wish, to name a few. Ultimately the internalization of these messages was, “Be who you want to be; develop into you.” Yet, existence eventually extends beyond the family boundaries and ultimately moves into the broader sociocultural context. The once-faded memories of my experience as a four-year-old would return as I expanded my horizons beyond the borders of my household. Within my family, I was never colored white or black with social crayons, but the world did not operate by the same rules that my house did. This would take some getting used to.

There is inadequate language and cultural reality to truly capture the biracial experience, as society constructs and relates a series of conflicting messages. As previously noted, both language and the American social structure take an “either-or” and rather rigid approach to racial categories, with a great deal of emphasis placed on excluding

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biracial individuals from the ranks of white society. Weisman (1996) notes that hypodescent assigns group membership to biracial individuals via appearance regardless of individual notions of identity and relationships to group(s); as society declares, “You look like them, so there you go.” Thus the development of the pluralistic and transcendent identities is jeopardized and ultimately shattered, for they have no place in the current American cultural context. What results is a push/shove toward a singular identity (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002a), though more with the group of the minority parent. That places pressure upon individuals to accept a distinct identity that may contradict their notions of self, which initially comprised identification with both racial heritages. This forced monocultural identity is socially reinforced in time, as the demands and influences of society replace those found within the safe spaces of family. Regardless of the specific identity outcomes, given the phenotypic sight system, many biracial individuals may find themselves more likely to identify with the (dayto-day) experiences of the minority parent (Cooke, 1998). Biracial individuals are more often than not defined as nonwhite using sociocultural definitions. Self-generated characterizations may also lead to this conclusion, especially given the fact that in many instances, minority communities are more likely to accept these individuals. However, this does not guarantee a successful identity or cultural “fit” for these individuals, for within these minority communities there may also exist the same “either-or” dichotomy leading to a less-thansteadfast acceptance of biracial individuals. Herein lies the contradiction; on the individual level, I may feel some connection to both reference groups and readily embrace my various racial heritages; yet at the societal level, both reference groups may be less than willing to view me as a full-fledged member. From an identity standpoint, individuals may develop a border identity (Anzaldua as cited in Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002a), that is, an identity that stands apart from and is suspended between both reference groups. However, there is a danger inherent in this “middle” existence, for it may be accompanied by the psychological experience of marginalization, which is characterized by an exclusionary relationship with both reference groups (the dominant group [white] and other [nonwhite]) (Segall, Dasen, Berry, & Poortinga, 1999). Rockquemore and Brunsma (2002b) describe the negative treatment that many biracial individuals have felt from both reference groups, which opens the door to an identity purgatory of sorts.

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The Awakening: Loneliness The “middle margin” can be a lonely place. How do I as a biracial individual construct this notion of “me” and so reconcile seemingly contradictory aspects of my self that are communicated by the cultural nuances of the day? The imposed template does not fit with my reality. While the society imposes black or white, I look at my reality and feel both. I feel the pull from both sides; yet I feel strangely rejected, too. At times, I feel like a diplomat, brokering an uneasy truce between warring parties. However, at others, I get the impression that no one understands me and that I am destined to walk alone.

How is it that biracial individuals come to reconcile the identity dilemmas posited above? In the end, where does the push-pull of society and reference groups place us in relation to self? An existence “in between” reference groups may be fraught with isolation, and the option of pluralism is one that is frequently not available; although intuitively and futuristically, it is the one that makes the most sense and offers the most hope. Until that latter option is culturally legitimized, many biracial individuals find themselves developing a “migrant” notion of self, meaning they shuttle and move back and forth between both reference groups. This concept of an integrative identity (Daniel, 1996) or protean identity (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002a) has at its foundation situational and contextual variables that trigger reference groupspecific attitudes, values, and behaviors. Great attention is paid to the details of self and others and the ensuing interpersonal interactions. While this is certainly not a feature unique to the biracial experience, as such analyses are undertaken within any interpersonal context; to many biracial individuals, this is a survival skill whose development and ultimate mastery are absolutely essential given the contrasting worlds they must traverse. The Awakening: Anatomy of the Lunchroom . . . Where Do I Sit Today? Ah, where to sit today? This is actually a more complex question than it appears to be. The joys of high school lunchroom politics. That was always the question as I walked down the steps around the noon hour. The options were rather numerous, each with its own set of rules, nuances, topics, and personalities. In retrospect, I have come to realize that each “neighborhood” represented a collection of stereotypes, some more accurate than others. There was the southeast corner of the

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cafeteria, or “Little Africa,” as we proudly referred to it. Its refreshing atmosphere allowed for a linguistic break from the intellectual fac¸ade of standard English. There the language flowed colorfully and freely as we contemplated issues as diverse as the latest R&B and rap singles to which teachers and fellow students were the most racist. Another option was more centrally located, and while given no specific name, its relatively nondescript and white nature could be described courteously as mini-suburban. While in a distinctly different locale from Little Africa, it was many of these students with whom I shared classes. Replete with designer clothes and an air of je ne sais quoi, discussions of soon-to-bepurchased cars, SAT preparation, and college plans filled the air. To see my cultural shifts was a thing of beauty. I was good. I could keep up with the best of them. Occasionally I would bring a friend from one group over to “the other side”; although this hardly ever ended well. The worlds were too different, too adversarial, too suspicious, and too foreign and strange to one another. At times I questioned whether these were even the same school. Inevitably I began such an endeavor with an introduction, as I was taught that a good host does such a thing. These were usually met with some token mumbles of acknowledgment, as everyone knew each other to some degree, yet interactions were rather rare. Then for the next hour I would initiate, translate, facilitate, and in the end, vacillate on the prudence of my decision to attempt merging my two worlds in the cafeteria, and ultimately hesitate to do it again. TOWARD NEGOTIATING A “FIT” Forcing the development of monoracial identity from multicultural ancestry serves as a constant reminder that someone does not “fit” with the current system that is in place (Daniel, 1992). A race-based cognitive dissonance results when personal identity (self-concept) does not coincide with group identity. This stems from the denial of “fit ” with white society and the reluctant “fit ” extended by the black community, both of which come laden with uncertainty and suspicion. Kich (1992) presents a three-part process through which this negotiation of fit takes place: (1) awareness, (2) struggle for acceptance, and (3) acceptance. Awareness of difference begins early, as notions of self and “other” are readily apparent, both within the family and out, yet there may be varying degrees to which this notion of difference is emphasized. As the development of self-concept initiates, self-definition and those defined by “other” (parents, peers, society, etc.) begin to dominate

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the psychological landscape. Initially, it is parents who provide the language and foundations of this experience in a way that “conveys . . . a message of acceptance and positive valuation about being biracial” (Kich, 1992, p. 308). Yet as the spheres of influence widen beyond the safety of the family borders, the standard question posed to biracials (“What are you?”) begins from peers and community. “Differentness” becomes more of a concern and issue as a place in the social hierarchy of childhood is established. Parents may be somewhat impotent to fully grasp the issues impacting their biracial children, as doing so represents an added layer of experience that they may not have gone through in their own development. The Awakening: The Chameleon Through family tradition and customs, I know that I represent a new type of person. At times I feel as if I have transcended race, but I do not feel free. By appearance and history I am black; but what about the “other” side of my being? Where does that come into the picture? No one ever seems to focus on that. I can deftly display a variety of aspects of self, from perspective-taking and ideological stances to speech patterns and dance moves. Who am I? I feel as if I do not own my racial heritage. It has been defined for me by the genes of my parents and by society’s interpretation of my phenotype. Who am I? I am an actor in a play that just happens to be real life. As the performance begins, I am often compelled to ask, “Whom do you wish to know?” Tell me and I will produce him, like a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.

The resolution of this identity formation process is its final stage, selfacceptance (Kich, 1992). This represents the end result of the process whereby biracial individuals balance their self-perceptions (self-concepts) with the societal messages. While the positive psychological outcome of this process is a cohesive identity, how this may look will vary from person to person. There are varying degrees to which individuals internalize the potentially contradictory notions of race offered by socializing agents and the broader society. Other factors in this process that deserve consideration are physical appearance and individual and family responses to marginalization (Caluza, 2000). Of marginalization, a concept we have noted before, Tucker (as cited in Kich, 1996) states, “people . . . [are] ignored, trivialized, rendered invisible and unheard, perceived as inconsequential, de-authorized, [and as] ‘other’” (pp. 270–271). Repeated exposure to marginalization may lead to the internalization of the societal love–hate relationship played out between reference groups

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(that is, black–white tensions) (Hershel, 1995; Kich, 1996). Being cast into the role of “other” by white society and “other among others” within the minority reference group presents a rather daunting place from which to develop a positive, self-accepting identity. Yet, the selfaccepting biracial identity is “not dependent on the other person’s recognition or confirmation and relies more on an integration [of a self] that includes a clearer and heightened awareness of [multiple] heritages” (Kich, 1992, p. 315). The degree to which individuals develop an identity that allows them to “float” back and forth between reference groups can be related to components of the acculturation model offered by Segall et al. (1999). Irrespective of the previously noted quandary of reference group acceptance, the parallel process of adjusting to a culture provides a framework to refine our view of the variability of the integrative or protean identities and their related psychological and behavioral aspects. To begin with, there are varying degrees of how far an individual is willing or able to go in adhering to or shedding cultural characteristics. And while each of these reactions is not inherently positive or negative, keeping in mind that people frequently initiate a plan of action that they deem appropriate for their situation, there are potential rewards and pitfalls as individuals negotiate these waters. Each of these psychological responses within the framework of the integrative or protean identities does not represent static or fixed approaches, but rather represents fluctuating dimensions of self as biracial individuals actively attempt to garner a place for themselves in society, both psychologically and physically. The process of assimilation results when an individual gravitates toward the dominant culture and attempts to shed aspects of his or her culture of origin (nondominant). Most noticeably, this may occur in language, style of dress, and other related observable elements, such as dating preferences. Within our context here, the more assimilated biracial individual will identify, even if unconsciously, with white America. In essence, this individual may feel a certain degree of comfort within white culture, especially if socialization experiences or scenarios, such as interracial adoption, provided minimal exposure to minority populations. Yet along with this assimilationist perspective has to come some understanding that acceptance will, at times, arrive minimally from the dominant culture, as the law of hypodescent ultimately assigns placement within the minority group. Individuals may actively reject this placement and characterization by responding to them with renewed efforts to be more like the dominant culture. These attempts

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to gain inclusion in white America may further alienate the biracial individual from the once moderately accepting minority reference group, as the group may begin to question the individual’s group commitment and connection. The use of terms like sellout and Oreo (black on the outside and white on the inside) points to these concerns and questions generated by the minority group and further compounds the push-pull relationship that exists between biracial individuals and reference groups. The Awakening: You on Our Team or What? Why do you talk like that? What are you wearing? Why do you sit with them? What is that music you are listening to? Are you not one of us? The questions fly frequently and without mercy. Having to justify every facet of your existence is never easy or fun. In fact, it is just plain tiring. The questions, the looks, and other disapproving non-verbals seem to come more from blacks than whites, suggesting some degree of indifference to my partial membership in that latter group. I respond in word (“Yes, I’m down, I am a member”) and in deed (I turn my R& B up for all to hear; I turn my “gangsta” rap up for all to hear). But part of me wavers, hesitates, and understands that it is not all that simple. Well, if I am honest, I really don’t feel as though I completely belong; can I claim about 60 percent of “the black feeling”? Is that possible? Phenotypically, I stand out a bit; I’ve been followed in stores, pulled over by police, and viewed as a threat by mothers walking past with their children. But that hardly constitutes criteria for group membership, does it? There is still a feeling of being inauthentic if I leave it at those features alone—it just doesn’t feel right. Maybe I am a sellout.

Another response that may reveal itself is what Segall et al. (1999) refer to as separation, which is an individual’s maintenance of minority culture to the exclusion of the dominant one. Historically, this is a more difficult physical endeavor, as dominant culture features are everywhere, with the exception of ethnic enclaves like Chinatowns, but the concept ultimately refers more to psychological and ideological separation. As such, the biracial individual fiercely takes hold of all things ethnic and immerses herself in that world. While it may appear that this is a self-isolating stance, for some it surely provides comfort; but at the same time does it deny a component of self? This response of separation may not be rooted in the reality of the circumstances, for biracial individuals are inescapably linked to the dominant culture in some shape or form. To actively negate an aspect of self is

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destructive, regardless of its source. If others were to ascribe a singular identity to biracial individuals, we would label such an affront dehumanizing and look upon it unfavorably. However, when we self-select such an identity framework, it may certainly appear more palatable, but this may actually be more self-defeating to the broader development process, as it still removes us from potential social anchors and reference groups, namely dominant culture family members. The Awakening: A View to a Crash—Bike Helmets, Roadside Ditches, and Poor Syntax The words “Fuck you, mother nigger,” stream from within the passing carload of white teenagers as it forces my bicycle (with me barely on it) off the road. I find some solace in the fact that my bicycle and I are not damaged, as I am still fifteen miles from home. I chalk it up as another incident for the teenage version of me to add to the list of things to tell my future children when they are old enough. As I resume my trek homeward, my shaken nerves are calmed by some of the amusement of what just took place. Oh, I certainly don’t like getting run off the road, and the verbal and nonverbal messages were very clear; I think I will probably take a different route home the next time. But the hilarity of some fool’s improper syntax strikes me as funny. I recall that public speaking can make some people a bit nervous and prone to such errors. As I later relate the tale to some black friends, they offer that “white folks are such assholes!” I quickly agree, but later find myself a bit uncomfortable by having supported such a statement. Have my friends and I inadvertently included my family members in our philosophy? Do my friends know that I mean those other white folks, not my family? Come to think of it, whom do my friends really mean with that statement? Certainly not my family. Should I speak up to clarify for everyone? Despite the fact that I was the victimized one, I now feel guilty. DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW VERNACULAR FOR BIRACIAL INDIVIDUALS “What is a rebel? A man who says ‘no’ . . . whose no affirms the existence of a borderline. [A man who, in his act of rebellion], simultaneously experiences a feeling of revulsion at the infringement of his rights and a complete and spontaneous loyalty to certain aspects of

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himself . . . for with rebellion, awareness is born” (Camus, 1957, pp. 13–15). So begins The Rebel, written by the French existentialist Albert Camus, and while more of a political treatise, nonetheless it offers an apt starting point for our discussion on developing a new cultural and linguistic philosophy for biracial individuals. The words of Camus represent a call to psychological arms, as we endeavor to help biracial individuals produce a new set of meaning systems within the vernacular that more accurately affirm their uniqueness and provide the foundation for them to create a “safe space” psychologically. We strive to “rebel” against the current limiting and dehumanizing sociohistorical constructions of race and language and seek to expand the range of legitimacy afforded by the biracial experience. To understand the phenomenological experience of biracial individuals, with the objective of creating sociocultural change, greater inclusion, and more self-defined identity development, it is essential to do so from a strong theoretical base. A variety of recent work has identified major spheres of influence upon biracial identity development, including family, accepting others, peers, school, and community, to name a few (Dovick, 2003; Gleason, 2000; Thompson, 1999; Tomishima, 2000; Wrathall, 2002). While focus on these features is indeed a useful endeavor, they must be explored and processed within the greater sociocultural context. To this end, the ecological systems model of Bronfenbrenner (1979) offers a starting point for deconstructing the broader environmental influences upon an individual’s development. Furthermore, our premise throughout this work has been that the power of society exerts a narrow definition and unhealthy influence upon biracial identity development. A corrective goal would be to redistribute the descriptive power into the hands of biracial individuals themselves and allow them to reestablish their identity, through reframed definitions of self and a rejection of the narrow racial dictates of society. To this end, the empowerment model of feminist therapy (Worell & Remer, 1992) presents a means through which biracial individuals can validate their emerging views of self. This section will present both models, relate them to biracial identity development, and offer suggestions for present and future understandings of the biracial experience. Ecological Systems Model While the original model of Bronfenbrenner (1979) has gone through a variety of versions, it offers an excellent vehicle for viewing the interrelationship between society and individual development.

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With the individual at its center, the model is organized into nested, or layered, systems of environmental influences, such as family, school, extended family, mass media, and culture—all of which impact the developmental process. Like concentric rings within a tree, each layer is impacted by another and eventually interacts with the individual. For our purposes the levels of note are first the innermost one, the microsystem, and the outermost one, the macrosystem. The microsystem comprises those entities and persons who represent immediate and daily (face-to-face) interactions for an individual (such as family, peers, and school). The macrosystem, which is the most complex system and is similar to a society’s culture, comprises culturally based values, attitudes, and beliefs. Of note is the interaction that occurs between the micro- and macrosystems and the subsequent impact on development. At the microsystem level, families may recreate and “pass on” the societal messages that are rooted in the macrosystem. Another response could be that families alter or counter macrosystem influences, especially if there is the perception that they are potentially negative. However, there will eventually be some interaction between a developing person and macrosystem messages, and this will no doubt have some influence upon identity development. While family may create a specific type of environment for biracial individuals, as they venture out into society, they may be faced with a series of very different and potentially conflicting messages. All of this provides a framework to explore how the family of origin has created, communicated, and reacted to some of the broader culturally based messages about race. Feminist Theory As presented earlier, the historically dichotomous notions of race are embedded in the uppermost sphere of developmental influences: the macrosystem. Communicated through a variety of means within society, such as popular media, these impact the process of biracial identity development such that it is pressured to be framed as an eitheror prospect. However, as we have seen, many biracial individuals utilize a more integrated approach, but the pressure of the dualistic distinction remains. The empowerment model of feminist therapy, with its inclusive themes of “both/and,” offers applied tools to this dilemma (Worell & Remer, 1992). In a Bronfenbrennerian stance, the empowerment model recognizes the negative influence of society, via social and political factors that impact individual development. While the model was originally designed for use with women, its themes of

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recognizing, rejecting, and reframing society’s narrow view of an individual and empowering one to validate oneself, parallels our biracial discussion. In direct opposition to the dualistic oppression perpetuated by society, the empowerment model strives to increase appreciation of multiple perspectives of self and allows them all to thrive simultaneously (Worell & Remer, 1992). This inclusive stance seems to mirror the natural developmental process of many biracial individuals who incorporate multiple traditions into their existence. Aside from analysis of the broader, culturally based messages, some understanding of the individual perception of and reaction to sociohistorical construction of race are critical components to biracial identity. Identification of how these themes are internalized may well reveal them through linguistic expression. Language molds us, shapes our view of reality, and calls forth the appropriate social behaviors. However, there is no need to wait until language shifts at the macrocultural level to begin utilizing it to better relate to one’s experiences. This adaptability of language provides a more inclusive approach to selfdefinition and behavioral expression, which ultimately liberates individuals from stifling cultural definitions and sociological conditioning (Daniel, 1996). Recognizing the subtlety with which we agree to social convention is called into question and challenged as the voices of the biracial collective proclaim, “[T]his has gone on for long enough; I will stand for no more. I chose my own terms and conditions for this [social] contract [of self-definition]” (Camus, 1957, p. 14). FINAL THOUGHTS We have charted how society has historically responded to the questions of race and racial identity with an either-or answer. For those of us who are multiracial, the result has often been a “forced fit” (physically, psychologically, and culturally) into one aspect of who we are as people. One way to alleviate this dilemma is presented in the framework that begins the biracial deconstruction of societally defined notions of self. From the ashes of this will arise a more self-generated concept of “who we are,” and ultimately one that will give legitimacy to a new legacy of “unboxed identities” (Weisman, 1996). Derrida (1997) speaks to a similar process through which identity is internally differentiated, as he describes himself as a “European who does not feel European in every part” (p. 114). By this statement, he is deconstructing his identity and recognizing that it is a complex web impacted by features such as country of origin and immigration, which interact

Toolbox for Change Maintenance of limiting images and perceptions of biracial people

For the biracial individual

For everyone else

Race and ethnicity are In defining yourself, be Recognize the culturally seen as aware of the society-level limiting either-or concepts, influences upon your characteristics of whereby biracial identity development and society’s definitions individuals are how you may have of personhood and frequently not internalized them; ask how these impact “allowed” to simply yourself whether you are biracial people. be collective whole developing into the Work to not people. person that you see or the recreate these person whom others have limiting monikers of constructed. self. The continued over- Define yourself in a manner Ask yourself, “Why do reliance on a flawed that fits your I have to know” perceptual “sight” understanding of your what the racial/ system that is used reality and utilize an ethnic status of to determine initial identity framework that another person is to conclusions about fits your life. truly relate to them others. as an individual. Sociocultural Actively take hold of your Strive to respond to presentations (such identity and the language others as individuals as media) of biracial that displays it. Claim and not as individuals rarely them as your own, representatives of a include the notion regardless of where that stereotype. of a “both-and” “fit” places you in the philosophy, which eyes of others. limits our perception of their reality and ultimately our ability to relate to them. Be true to yourself.

Delight in the diversity of the human constellation.

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with family characteristics (like religion). As such, identity is both similar and different to itself. It represents a static and grounded entity, yet one that is constantly in a state of flux and rebirth. It is through the deconstruction of a value-laden, culturally rooted identity that biracial identity will break free from its restrictive bonds. According to Camus, “Rebellion breaks the seal and allows the whole being to come into play” (1957, p. 17). As the population of multiracial individuals steadily increases in number, their collective voice in this new vernacular will be hard to ignore. As an ever-diversifying nation, we are compelled to initiate a cultural reevaluation and reconstruction of identities. What is necessary is accepting the autonomy to choose ambiguity. It is time for a new discourse to address the unshackling of multiracial identity from its oppressive and historically dichotomous bonds of marginalization. It is hoped that the day will come when multiracial people and their identities will no longer be forced to divide into unrelated, contradictory, and adversarial entities. That day is upon us now. Awakened: Out of the Mouths of Babes My response at four years of age to the elderly woman who called me a nigger was, “What? Speak up. I can’t hear you!” As an adult processing this experience with my mother, we came to some conclusions of note. While my initial response was based upon the fact that I truly could not hear the woman clearly, another set of interpretations is offered: “Speak up” and let the world see your ignorance and lack of knowledge; and “I can’t hear you” is more akin to I “do not” hear you, I choose not to, as your words do not penetrate my sense of who I am. There are no receptors here for that reality. It is not I. I am my own person; my self is constructed by me, for me; it is mine alone to share with whom I choose, and how I choose to do it. I am biracial, proud, and whole. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank my mentor, colleague, and friend Dr. James Parker for his insightful critiques of this work. NOTE 1. The terms biracial, multiracial, and mixed race will be used synonymously for ease of discussion. Additionally, unless noted, and given the author’s background, the notion of “biracial” is rooted in white/nonwhite parentage, although it is acknowledged that a variety of equally beautiful familial scenarios could be considered biracial.

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REFERENCES Allen, T. W. (2001). The invention of the white race: Racial oppression and social control. In E. Cashmore & J. Jennings (Eds.), Racism: Essential readings (pp. 357–379). London: SAGE Publications, Ltd. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). Ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Caluza, K. T. (2000). A psychoeducational support group for multiracial adolescents: A twelve-session treatment manual (Doctoral dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology, 2000). Dissertation Abstracts International, 61(1), 561B. Camus, A. (1957). The rebel (A. Bower, Trans.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Cooke, T. I. (1998). Biracial identity development: Psychosocial contributions to self-esteem and racial identity (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, 1998). Dissertation Abstracts International, 58(10), 5669B. Daniel, G. R. (1992). Passers and pluralists: Subverting the racial divide. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America (pp. 91–107). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Daniel, G. R. (1996). Black and white identity in the new millennium: Unsevering the ties that bind. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), The multiracial experience: Racial border as the new frontier (pp. 121–139). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. De Saussure, F. (1959). Course in general linguistics (W. Baskin, Trans.). New York: Philosophical Library. Derrida, J. (1997). Deconstruction in a nutshell: A conversation with Jacques Derrida. New York: Fordham University Press. Dovick, S. M. (2003). Experiences of African American and Caucasian biracial/ biethnic clients in psychotherapy (Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University, 2003). Dissertation Abstracts International, 63(7), 3469B. Ferber, A. L. (1995). Exploring the social construction of race. In N. Zack (Ed.), American mixed race (pp. 155–167). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Gleason, D. J. (2000). Racial identity development in biracial individuals: An analysis of therapists’ accounts of psychosocial and psychological factors (Doctoral dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology, 2000). Dissertation Abstracts International, 61(1), 530B. Hall, R. E. (2001). Identity development across the lifespan: A biracial model. Social Science Journal, 38, 119–123. Hershel, H. J. (1995). Therapeutic perspectives on biracial identity formation and internalized oppression. In N. Zack (Ed.), American mixed race (pp. 169–181). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kich, G. K. (1992). The developmental process of asserting a biracial, bicultural identity. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America (pp. 304–317). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

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Kich, G. K. (1996). In the margins of sex and race: Difference, marginality, and flexibility. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), The multiracial experience: Racial border as the new frontier (pp. 263–276). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row. Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1986). Racial formations in the United States. London: Routledge. Rockquemore, K. A., & Brunsma, D. L. (2002a). Beyond black: Biracial identity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Rockquemore, K. A., & Brunsma, D. L. (2002b). Socially embedded identities: Theories, typologies, and processes of racial identity among black/ white biracials. Sociological Quarterly, 43, 335–356. Root, M. P. P. (1992). Within, between and beyond race. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America (pp. 3–11). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Root, M. P. P. (1995). The multiracial contribution to the psychological browning of America. In N. Zack (Ed.), American mixed race (pp. 231–236). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Segall, M. H., Dasen, P. R., Berry, J. W., & Poortinga, Y. H. (1999). Human behavior in global perspective. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Snyder, L. L. (2001). The idea of racialism: Its meaning and history. In E. Cashmore & J. Jennings (Eds.), Racism: Essential readings (pp. 91–97). London: SAGE Publications, Ltd. Thompson, C. A. (1999). Identity resolution in biracial black/white individuals: The process of asserting a biracial identity (Doctoral dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology, 1999). Dissertation Abstracts International, 59(1), 6498B. Tomishima, S. A. (2000). Factors and experiences in biracial and biethnic identity development (Doctoral dissertation, University of Utah, 2000). Dissertation Abstracts International, 61(2), 1114B. U.S. Census Bureau. (2001). The two or more races population: 2000. Retrieved November 1, 2003, from www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/ c2kbr01-6.pdf Vico, G. (1744). The new science of Giambattista Vico (T. G. Bergin & M. H. Fisch, Trans.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Weisman, J. R. (1996). The “other” way of life: The empowerment of alterity in the interracial individual. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), The multiracial experience: Racial border as the new frontier (pp. 152–164). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Worell, J., & Remer, P. (1992). Feminist perspective in therapy. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Wrathall, M. W. (2002). What about the children? The psychosocial wellbeing of multiracial individuals. (Doctoral dissertation, Azusa Pacific University, 2002). Dissertation Abstracts International, 63(1), 556B.

CHAPTER 5

Bias in Counseling Hmong Clients with Limited English Proficiency Michael Goh Timothy Dunnigan Kathryn McGraw Schuchman

A

hospital in a large midwestern city was trying to create a warmer welcome by displaying a sign in the hospital reception area that welcomed patients in the languages of its multilingual constituents. The new sign hung prominently as one entered the facilities, with the first line in English reading, “Welcome to our hospital. We’re here to help you!” Just below it, the same phrase in Hmong read: “Welcome to our hospital. We’re here to hurt you!” This story would be more humorous if not for the fact that it was true. It is a stark reminder of how even with the best of intentions, language, if not carefully treated, can have the most opposite and detrimental of consequences. In Minnesota, Asians are the second largest racial group among all children of color. More than one third (38 percent) of Minnesota students who are English-language learners speak Hmong—the most common language among those 29,000 students. Over 45,000 Hmong were counted as residents of the Minneapolis–St. Paul (Twin Cities) metropolitan area in the 2000 census. They began arriving in Minnesota in the late 1970s as a traumatized refugee population. Significant immigration, both primary and secondary, continued through the early 1990s. The Hmong population in Minnesota is said to be the largest urban Hmong population in the world (The Minneapolis Foundation, 1999). Despite over two decades of immigration to the Twin Cities metropolitan area, mental health services for Hmong children and families are inadequate. While many community

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mental health centers provide quality care, mainstream institutions still lag in their ability to provide quality services that overcome cultural and language barriers. Providing equal access to the health care system is the law. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination against any person on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program receiving federal assistance, has frequently been understood to mean that qualified interpreters must be provided in health care settings. Many Hmong families depended upon resettlement agencies and government programs for such basics as supplemental income, housing, and employment training. In recent years, Hmong have turned to other mainstream institutions to obtain forms of help that are relatively new to them, including mental health services. Mental health providers have had considerable difficulty understanding the viewpoints of Hmong clients, particularly those who are English-language learners and require interpreters. In recognizing the risk of poor communication, federal law mandates “linguistic accessibility to health care” under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In addition, Minnesota law also requires public health care institutions to provide services for English-language learners under the Bilingual Services Act of 1995 (MN Statutes 15.441, Subd. 1). However, Ohmans (1998) noted that Minnesota’s English-language learners had a hard time accessing health care services because demand for interpreters far outstripped supply; and even when trained interpreters were hired, the system became overwhelmed. An example was how one medical center’s “46 interpreters made over 54,000 individual patient visits in 1997 . . . [and] the use of untrained, volunteer interpreters was rife with hazards . . . in one study of recorded ad hoc interpreter-assisted encounters, 25 percent to 50 percent of the words and phrases were incorrectly relayed” (p. 6). Ohmans (1998) reminds us that the common practice of using family members, friends, and children as interpreters not only undermines confidentiality and blurs family roles and boundaries but, more importantly, is considered a civil rights violation by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. In mental health practice, when clients leave a clinician’s office feeling misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and receiving less than adequate service because of language, this constitutes discrimination even if clinicians or the agency did not intend it. Ridley (1995) describes this as “unintentional racism.” Language discrimination in mental health practice is not something to be taken lightly. The surgeon general’s report Mental Health:

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Culture, Race, and Ethnicity (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001) concluded that culture matters in how ethnic minorities fail to access or confront barriers when trying to obtain help. In particular, the report noted, “a major barrier to effective mental health arises when provider and patient do not speak the same language” (p. 163). In this chapter, we describe our process and work with the Hmong in Minnesota in overcoming language discrimination in mental health. While other cultures experience similar language discrimination, the complexities of Hmong language make this a unique challenge. By offering our process, our application of cultural semantics, and the guidelines for the use of interpreters we developed as a model for overcoming language discrimination in mental health, we hope that our efforts will help other culture groups that face similar challenges. In the first section of this chapter, “Bridging Non-English–English Mental Health Concepts,” we describe the development, process, and methods of a multidisciplinary investigative approach for bridging nonEnglish and English-language mental health concepts. In the second section, “Cultural Semantics for Mental Health Providers,” we illustrate the need for cultural semantics in mental health. Section three, “The Use of Interpreters in Mental Health Counseling,” explores the issues of introducing interpreters into the provider–client relationship and suggests some guidelines for using interpreters in mental health counseling. In the summary section, we will review key implications for research and practice.

BRIDGING NON-ENGLISH–ENGLISH MENTAL HEALTH CONCEPTS: OUR PROCESS WITH THE HMONG The challenge of crossing from American English into Hmong in a western mental health setting is a complex task with substantial barriers that can prevent clinical efficacy; it requires essential knowledge that is often difficult to ascertain. Because of the variation and complexity involved in bridging these cultures and languages, a group of clinicians and academicians in Minnesota, including the three authors of this chapter, began meeting and working on ways to remove language discrimination so that the Hmong could better access mental health services. Differences in the ways Hmong and non-Hmong Americans conceptualize individual and family values, spirituality and religion, biological

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processes, and other natural phenomena can be extensive. Their respective views regarding health, illness, and healing are sometimes very difficult for westerners to reconcile. Under such circumstances, communication across the two cultures in mental health settings can be extremely challenging. The process to bridge this language gap was led by an interdisciplinary group of professionals from such fields as social work, counseling psychology, medicine, cultural anthropology, linguistics, and linguistic anthropology. The team comprised both clinicians and academicians and included several Hmong members. The aim of the investigators from early on was to identify and compare key Hmong and English expressions for mental health conditions and treatments in order to increase mutual understanding between clinicians and clients. This group became the Hmong Mental Health Concepts Task Force, a working group of the Hmong Mental Health Providers’ Network of Minnesota. The Hmong Mental Health Providers’ Network The Hmong Mental Health Providers’ Network of Minnesota was created in response to several tragic cases of violence within Hmong families. Representatives of Twin Cities Hmong mutual assistance associations, mental health clinics, hospitals, and other private and governmental agencies formed the Network in 1998. Its mission is to explore and establish ways in which service providers can better coordinate mental health and social services and share expertise, to expand and promote information and understanding of mental health and mental health services within the Hmong community, and to identify and provide guidance for research, policy, and legislative initiatives that promote positive mental health outcomes for the Hmong community. Early discussions among mental health clinicians—social workers, psychologists, and bilingual staff who provided intervention and interpretation-identified problems with existing mental health services. One of the principal problems was inadequate language interpretation resulting in language discrimination. Practitioners emphasized as most problematic the scarcity of interpreters and delays in receiving interpretation assistance as much as the ineptitude of the interpretation. Many mental health practitioners—both Hmong and non-Hmong— asserted that one solution to poor quality of services because of language barriers was to increase the number of bilingual clinicians trained in a variety of specialty areas within mental health services

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(psychologists, psychiatrists, etc.). However, most practitioners agreed that waiting for sufficient numbers of bilingual clinicians to be trained was not even within sight. An overview of research and an examination of community practice standards revealed that there was a wide variation in the ways interpretation was provided in mental health settings. Also, little information was available about methods used in interpretation or guidelines for the translation of mental health concepts between Hmong and English. Hmong Mental Health Concepts Task Force Shortly after the establishment of this network, a subgroup of clinicians set out to investigate the problem of mental health interpretation, which led to the creation of a task force of researchers and practitioners. Initially called the Hmong Mental Health Concepts Task Force, members joined to study concepts of mental health and their application for services in the Hmong community. Details on the work of this task force are presented in the second section of this chapter. Developing Key Collaborators and Identifying Important Contributors to Research Finding professionals with the necessary expertise for this work was a uniquely challenging task, in part because the professionals who possess the needed expertise do not necessarily work in mental health or interpretation. For example, individuals who provided interpretation held a variety of positions in which interpreting was not their primary role. Often persons who interpret have no professional identification with the field of interpretation, so locating qualified persons required atypical searching. It was also important that researchers have sufficient expertise in their professional fields as well as expertise in cross-cultural work. This was somewhat challenging but important for the cultural foci of our investigation. These professionals included psychologists with multicultural training and experience, a linguist with a foundation in anthropology, and a nurse with experience as an interpreter, among others. What was perhaps most striking about our process was the diversity of disciplines represented. The members involved on regular and ad hoc bases came from backgrounds that included social workers, school counselors, licensed psychologists, anthropologists, linguists, academics, professional interpreters, community mental health practitioners,

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youth workers, religious workers, and medical practitioners, to name a few. It is symbolic that such an effort did not rest on the shoulders of any one particular provider, nor did it rest solely on representatives from one ethnic group. It further reflected the complexity of the task involved as well as the respect that such a task, if done well, required complex skills that no one discipline possessed. A natural consequence, however, has been the reality that teams take time to form and that the process of dialogue, debate, and discussion requires much time and patience. Methods of Investigation The initial task of this research was to produce a reference work to facilitate effective Hmong and English interpreting in mental health settings. Initially, members gathered to work on developing an encyclopedia to aid mental health clinicians and interpreters in their work with Hmong clients. There was consensus about the importance of the task force developing tools that would be tangible and applicable to clinical settings. The end result would need to make clinicians’ interventions more facile and competent and make help more accessible and understandable for clients. One of the first steps in the development of this reference work required practice and illustration of analyzing word meanings and how these efforts could be achieved in the process of interpretation. Actual case studies aided researchers in outlining key words and developing context and meaning. In this way, researchers used idiographic data to illustrate concepts—a method similar to creating an encyclopedia entry. One important development through the research group has been a listserv: Hmong and English Mental Health Interpreting and Translating (HEMHIT). This listserv has provided an alternative way to facilitate discussion on these various research topics of Hmong mental health. Its overall goal is to aid in the improvement of communication between mental health professionals and their Hmong clients. Details about this listserv follow in the next section of this chapter. As research directions were identified, the important function of the interpreter also became more illuminated. The literature and a community assessment of mental health interpreters revealed a multitude of ways in which mental health interpretation was provided in the clinical setting. The skills of the interpreter, the role of the interpreter, and the relationship between the interpreter and clinician vary widely among settings. Exploration into the role of the interpreter in mental

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health contexts is an area currently being studied (Goh, McGrawSchuchman, & Yang, 2003), and is described in the third section of this chapter. An important third component to this investigation was for the task force to be informed and educated about traditional and indigenous healing and helping systems within the culture. This provided a critical context for appreciating and understanding language use. Parallel Projects In the evolution of the Hmong Mental Health Concepts Task Force, it was discovered that the Minnesota Department of Human Services recently conducted a translation project. This process used expert reviewers along with other professionals to develop mental health education materials. The outcomes of the project included the development of a short glossary of mental health concepts translated into Hmong in print as well as audiotape media. Lessons learned from initial research cited the idiosyncratic nature of terminology as a barrier in translating. One problematic piece of feedback was that the publication was developed for western audiences and fell short of the explanations needed for English-language learners. Prior to the start of the task force, we also learned that the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning had developed a dictionary for special education terms. Researchers were able to benefit from this unique project. The department had employed a team of professionals to brainstorm, analyze, and concur on definitions related to special education. The outcome was a lengthy document of terms that community providers have praised for its quality translation. One challenging entry on autism highlighted the complications that arise when there are no equivalents in the target language. The translated term resulted in a definition requiring half a page. Other regional efforts were also uncovered, including the work of professionals in a Wisconsin community with a high Hmong population. In this area, Hmong social workers were developing a terminology list using consensus-building among bilingual mental health professionals to identify a standard of translation for a variety of mental health concepts. This group of providers is uniquely qualified to analyze mental health concepts in Hmong since, as bilingual professionals, they possess knowledge of both the Hmong language and mental health education and training. However, they faced challenges in mental health interpretation because of their limited understanding

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of linguistics and language analysis and the absence of research methods and protocols to aid consensus-building. In recognizing the efforts of others in similar projects, our emphasis was to create a cooperative sharing network rather than any sense of competitiveness. Evolution of Research Directions Today the Hmong Mental Health Concepts Task Force—now called the Hmong Mental Health Research Group—studies mental health in the Hmong community by analyzing language, culture, indigenous healing methods, and western mental health practices. The task force studies them to increase knowledge and improve the effectiveness of mental health interventions within the Hmong community; to influence the development of western mental health concepts employed by Hmong to improve capacity; and to develop models of the best practices that can inform interpretation in other cross-cultural mental health contexts, including cross-cultural research and mental health outreach. Members gather to dialogue, brainstorm, and collaborate on a variety of research topics on Hmong mental health. Their purpose is to demonstrate how we are attempting to compare key Hmong and English expressions for mental conditions, processes, disorders, and treatments in order to increase mutual understanding between clinicians and clients. Throughout investigation, there has been consensus about the importance of keeping research and development grounded in the community. Inputs from community professionals, community members, and mutual assistance associations are frequently collected. The goal has been not only to identify terminology, but also to learn what is common and where there are conceptual differences. Participants discuss their experiences and challenges of this task and the challenge of translating and making understandable western concepts of mental health. In the next two sections, we will illustrate two of the outcomes for overcoming language discrimination that resulted from the work of the Hmong Mental Health Research Group in Minnesota. CULTURAL SEMANTICS FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS In this section, we present preliminary results of projects involving (a) the sharing of Hmong language data via an Internet listerv and

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(b) the building of a Hmong–English dictionary at a publicly accessible web site. These results are presented in order to demonstrate the relevance of cultural semantics to the provision of mental health services in multilingual settings. Cultural semantics is the study of culture-specific concepts by analyzing the use of key, everyday linguistic terms. In other words, cultural semanticists analyze how key linguistic terms are used in everyday discourse in order to understand and interpret culture-specific concepts. We recommend that mental health providers who serve linguistically diverse clienteles have a degree of formal exposure to the methodology of cultural semantics. When mental health providers and their clients speak different languages, confusions arise that competent interpreting alone cannot dispel. Both sides tend to rely on culture-specific expressions, literal and figurative, that are very difficult for the other to comprehend. Responsibility for reaching cross-linguistic and cross-cultural accommodations falls mainly on clinicians. They must learn to employ language that is both adequately descriptive and amenable to interpretation. They also have to develop an ethnographer’s ability to infer correct cultural meanings from the interpreted speech of their clients. Mental health clinicians who serve linguistically diverse clienteles unavoidably act somewhat like cultural semanticists. Although it is possible to perform these functions somewhat successfully at an intuitive level, we argue that the experience of consciously applying the principles and methods of cultural semantics helps one to discern the nature of, and to deal more effectively with, contrasting conceptual systems that are linguistically encoded. In order to better understand the knowledge base that Hmong rely upon when dealing with mental health problems, the Hmong Mental Health Concepts Task Force was set up as described earlier in this chapter. The name of the task force proved infelicitous inasmuch as the name itself could not easily translate into Hmong. As one member observed, “The Hmong don’t have a term for ‘mental health,’ and neither do we.” For some Hmong, particularly those who had learned English as a second language, the term has an entirely pejorative meaning. An intelligent and well-educated Hmong individual once described the plight of a mutual acquaintance in the following way: “Things kept getting worse until pretty soon he was mental health.” Being very aware of the negative connotations of the term mental health, Hmong sometimes substitute it for their own word vws, meaning “crazy” or “unable to control one’s own actions.”

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Each meaning of “mental health,” and of any other polysemous (having many meanings) English term, usually requires a separate Hmong definitional phrase. For instance, the Hmong expression for “well-being,” kev noj qab nyob zoo, has been recruited to signify “mentally healthy state.” The phrase ntawm siab ntsws, which literally means “pertaining to the liver (and) lungs,” a standard metaphorical way of talking about feelings (or what English speakers call “emotions”) is sometimes added after kev noj qab nyob zoo to make explicit the feeling dimension of well-being. When referring to various forms of emotional distress, Hmong describe the liver and/or lungs as being “difficult” (nyuaj) or “disturbed” (ntxhov). The phrase kev nyuaj siab nyuaj ntsws is now employed as the semantic near-equivalent of “emotional disturbance” in general and “depression” in particular. The task force quickly appreciated how challenging it was to compare and contrast Hmong lexicalized concepts of thinking and feeling with those of English. We first had to adopt a more appropriate name, the Hmong Mental Health Research Group. Paraphrased as “The Group Who Studies Hmong Well-Being,” our name could now be translated into Hmong. Several of us began reviewing English–Hmong word lists that had been compiled by bilinguals working for government health and social service agencies. The lists’ purpose was to standardize word choices and ensure greater accuracy in interpreting and translating. English was usually the source language and Hmong the target language. The results ranged from poor to unusable. The following entry was taken from a preliminary list produced under the auspices of a Minnesota state agency. Mental health: kev mob hlwb; kev ntxhov siab (italics added) Way/sick/brain: way/disturbed/liver Brain disease: disordered feelings

Starting from a bare phrase, one often used as a euphemism for “mental illness,” it is not surprising that the translator matched “mental health” with “brain disease” and “disordered feelings.” The same gloss for “mental health” appears today on the Internet at the most frequently consulted English–Hmong dictionary website (ww2.saturn.stpaul.k12. mn.us/Hmong/sathmong.html). The primary strategy has been to find a best fit between English and Hmong terms without taking into consideration the fact that meanings may vary widely over a range of possible contexts. Unfortunately, relatively little attention has been paid to the question that originally stimulated the interest of the Hmong Mental Health

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Research Group. What can be learned about Hmong perceptions from how they talk about matters that we classify as mental health issues, and how might this knowledge be used to increase cross-cultural understanding? Widening the Cultural Semantics Resource Base Using a small grant provided by the University of Minnesota to encourage its faculty to become more engaged in projects that benefit the wider community, the second author (TD) organized the Hmong– English Mental Health Interpreting and Translating Internet Listserv (HEMHIT), and began promoting it as a public forum for comparing Hmong and English lexical resources for talking about kev noj qab nyob zoo ntawm siab ntsws, or “emotional/psychological well-being.” Professional and lay language experts were invited to discuss their favorite Hmong and English terms for mental states and processes and to suggest ways of translating them in various contexts. The information derived from these discussions, it was explained, would be used to compile the web-accessible Hmong–English Mental Health Dictionary (fmdb.cla.umn.edu/hmong_dict/). English was chosen as the primary analytical language, or metalanguage, for the listerv so that persons with mental health expertise could participate even if they knew relatively little or nothing about the Hmong language. Despite the privileged status of English, we believe that data and critical perspectives contributed by bilinguals have prevented serious bias. Building a Bilingual Mental Health Dictionary With the help of a Hmong research assistant, we have begun composing entries for the Hmong–English Mental Health Dictionary. Basically, we extract crucial data from HEMHIT discussions and then ask listerv members to judge the results of our analyses. The main elements of an entry or dictionary page, which were carried over from another lexicography project, can be seen in the following example: Emotion, feel negative emotion Definition: puas siab puas ntsws. Examples: 1. Yog vim li cas nws ho puas siab puas ntsws? Why is he/ she feeling bad? 2. Nws siab ntsws puas tag ntev lo lawm. He/She has been emotional for a long time.

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Notes: The English word emotion is most often used to refer to strong negative feelings. Hmong speakers use puas siab puas ntsws, which is literally “damaged liver damaged lungs,” to talk about similar, but not conceptually identical, feelings. The phrase nplooj siab nplooj ntsws, “the liver the lungs,” can denote good or bad feelings depending upon the context, but it’s more likely to be the latter. The phrase can also be understood as referring to qualities of character and temperament, such as Nws nplooj siab nplooj ntsws zoo li cas? or “What is he/she like—What kind of a person is he/she?” Other metaphorical meanings are common, such as Nws nplooj siab nplooj ntsws yog leej twg? for “Who’s his/her sweetheart?” English emotion has culture-specific meanings that cannot be readily interpreted or translated. Thus, using emotion, emotional, and emotionally to explain the meaning of any Hmong expression is a bit misleading. Regarding this point, see Wierzbicka’s (1999) book Emotions across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and Universals. Related concepts: siab, ntsws

The entry word or phrase is classified according to its grammatical function. The idea of “experiencing emotion” is most often expressed in Hmong as a verb phrase that denotes a dysphoric state or condition. There any many Hmong terms for positive or good feelings. As is true of many other languages, Hmong has no general label for all the different kinds of affect, euphoric as well as dysphoric, that are technically categorized as emotions in psychological textbooks. Immediately below the English entry in the dictionary is a short Hmong definition, actually a short gloss, which is back-translated into English. Next comes the example section with two typical sentences containing the Hmong expression puas siab puas ntsws. The notes provide additional information about the collocational (word combination) range of siab ntsws along with some observations about the nonequivalence of Hmong and English words for affective states. We are not sure whether the heading synonyms will prove useful enough to be retained, but do expect related concepts to come more into play as our understanding of Hmong conceptual organization increases. Because “depressed” has a particular diagnostic significance in clinical settings, we decided to describe its most apparent and common symptoms in Hmong rather than provide a brief gloss like nyauj siab. Depression Definition: Feem ntau Hmoob txhais lo lus Askiv depression ua kev nyuaj siab ntxhov siab. Typically, Hmong translate the English word depression as “difficult, confused liver.”

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Examples: 1. Nws muaj kev nyuaj siab ntxhov siab tas mus li. He has depression all the time, He’s depressed all the time. 2. Ua neeg nyob muaj kev nyuaj siab ntxhov siab tas mus li. To be human is to have some emotional turmoil all the time. Notes: The Hmong expression nyuaj siab ntxhov siab can refer to feeling states that are negative but not as serious as depression. related concepts: anxiety, nyuaj siab

In everyday Hmong conversation, the lexical label applied to a person’s mental distress depends to some extent on its presumed causes. A number of Hmong figurative expressions of the form modifier ⫹ liver/ lungs have been used to interpret and translate “depressed,” such as nyuaj siab (literally “difficult liver”) and ntxhov siab (“confused liver”) in the example sentences. These will eventually have their own entries and be distinguished on the basis of what Hmong regard as the usual causes and most typical manifestations of each condition. The entry for vwm demonstrates how Hmong terms are defined, illustrated, and explained in the dictionary. vwm Definition: to be crazy, insane Example: 1. Tib neeg thwm hais tias ib tus neeg vwm thaum nws ua tsis raug kev raug cai vim nws khoo tsis tau nws tus kheej. A person is said to be crazy when he violates normal standards of behavior because he can’t control himself. 2. Nws yog tus neeg vwm ua sim tua nws tus kwv. He’s the crazy person who tried to kill his younger brother. 3. Nws muaj ntsis vwm rau qhov nws nyiam huv heev. He’s kind of crazy because he likes to be so clean. 4. Nws vwm rau hluas nkauj. He’s crazy over a girl. Notes: To be called vwm is very insulting. A person can become vwm from time to time without having an illness. The English term mental health is sometimes interpreted/translated as vwm. For instance, a mental health treatment facility may be characterized as a place for curing insanity, that is, tsev kho mob vwm. Related concepts: mental health, mental illness

The definition is again back-translated, this time into Hmong, and the example sentences show how vwm matches fairly well in certain contexts with different meanings of “crazy.” The pejorative nature of vwm is explained in the notes. That Hmong may refer to mental health facilities with a phrase that back-translates as a “place for curing insanity” has obvious implications for promoting health care services in the Hmong community.

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Even when an English term appears to have a Hmong equivalent, a comparison of their contextual uses often reveals important differences in meaning. Despite the fact that quag dab peg has been glossed in bilingual lexicons as “epilepsy” and as “an epileptic seizure,” it more precisely denotes “convulsion” or “loss of physical control.” Among the causes of such seizures are brain trauma, intoxication, and assault by a spirit. When talking about “epilepsy” to Hmong, care has to be taken to explain that the term denotes a persistent disease rather than an acute, temporary condition. The final example taken from our nascent Hmong–English Mental Health Dictionary concerns the term cultural competence. Cultural competence Definition: kev pab ib haiv neeg raws li lawv kev cai. Helping a people in ways appropriate to their culture. Example: Nws qhia Miskas txog kev pab Hmoob raws li lawv kev cai. He/She is teaching non-Hmong Americans to help Hmong in ways appropriate to their culture. Notes: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (www.mentalhealth.org) has suggested that the Hmong phrase haum haiv neeg kev cai, (“fits a people’s culture”), be used for cultural competence. HEMHIT members have also proposed: (1) haum ib haiv neeg twg kev coj noj coj ua, pertaining to how a particular group sustains itself, (2) kev txawj lis dej num rau lwm haiv neeg, knowing how to work with a people, and (3) paub kev cai dab qhuas, knowing the spiritual traditions. Gloss 1 contains the phrase coj noj coj ua, which would be understood as referring primarily to the manner in which a people support themselves. Gloss 3 may not be acceptable to some Christian Hmong inasmuch as dab qhuas refers specifically to non-Christian beliefs and practices. Related concepts: culturally competent, txawj

The general idea of cultural competence is easily expressed in Hmong. Yet, as the notes indicate, it is unlikely that one Hmong phrase will ever become the conventional lexical symbol for all that “cultural competence” has come to mean and will come to mean. The same applies to other English terms that label semantically unstable conceptual categories within the domain of mental health, including the apex term itself. Cultural Semantics as an Essential Aspect of Cultural Competence Training Providers of mental health services must learn a great deal about the viewpoints, wants, and expectations of their clients in order to

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perform in a culturally competent manner. Acquiring such knowledge involves applying special skills and strategies. In reviewing two interlinked projects involving the analysis of culture-specific terminologies related to mental states and processes, we have tried to demonstrate that the methodology of cultural semantics is an effective means to building a knowledge base for good communications between mental health providers and clients who are English-language learners. Cultural semantics also clarifies why cross-linguistic semantic equivalences aren’t always achievable, and it better enables the clinician to work within present conceptual limitations while pushing against them. We are arguing that professionals who work with culturally diverse clienteles need to be formally exposed to this methodology. We are not suggesting that they be trained to function expertly as cultural semanticists, but only that they become acquainted with the advantages of comparative key term analysis, possibly during a single intensive workshop taken as one small part of their program of professional development.

THE USE OF INTERPRETERS IN MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING I had a very bad experience with an interpreter, which makes me very aware of how carefully you have to prepare before working together with a client. The hospital was attempting to provide counseling support to an unmarried Portuguese teen who had just delivered a baby. Since no one on the staff spoke Portuguese, a Portuguese-speaking priest was invited in to serve as an interpreter. I asked the priest to explain to the girl the services that were available to her in the community. The girl burst into tears. I asked the priest why the girl was crying and he said that he felt it was important to begin by reminding the girl that she had committed a mortal sin for which she must ask God’s forgiveness. (Murphy & Dillon, 1998, p. 74) In one widely cited incident, a seven-year old girl was asked to tell her mother what an ultrasound examination had revealed: that the woman’s fetus was dead in utero. (Ohmans, 1998, p. 6) A teenager incorrectly interpreted a Minneapolis physician’s directive for x-rays, and told his mother that she was going to be microwaved. (Ohmans, 1998, p. 6)

Beyond understanding cultural semantics, clinicians need to know how to apply them in a clinical situation. Mental health counseling is complicated enough, given the dynamics between two people. Imagine

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adding a third person: in the cases of couples, family, or group counseling, the presence of additional persons can heighten already present feelings of suspicion and mistrust. “Just translate word for word,” a common instruction to interpreters, is laughable to many experienced users of interpreters who understand the fallacy of that logic, as we have illustrated in the previous section. There is no room here to list the hundreds of other anecdotes of misunderstandings and clinical mistakes that have occurred; some of the more poignant can be found in Fadiman’s (1997) book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. As we have argued earlier in this chapter, the role of interpreters in mental health settings, therefore, clearly goes beyond literal translation of the spoken word. Quality interpretation is critical in assuring a meaningful therapeutic process and a successful outcome. Clinical Issues in Mental Health Interpreting Quality interpretation is central to overcoming the language discrimination experienced by refugee and immigrant populations when they try to seek help. Needless to say, in mental health counseling, communication is critical to the therapeutic process. In order for the provider to fully understand the information available about a patient or family, the skill of the interpreter is crucial. The interpreter is therefore essential not only to facilitate verbal communication but, more importantly, to understand what the information means. Practitioners sometimes struggle to convey important information to clients. This problem becomes even more challenging when providers and clients speak different languages and communicate through interpreters. To date, the bulk of the literature on the use of interpreters in mental health settings focuses on psychiatric (medical) models. In these settings, interpretive challenges arise primarily in the accurate assessment and diagnosis of psychological illness. An interpreter, frequently a relative or child of the client, may lack the training needed to accurately translate medical jargon (Egli, 1987). Likewise, clinicians receive little training on how to effectively work with interpreters (Gong-Guy, Cravens, & Patterson, 1991). This unfortunate combination often results in interpretive distortions that compromise the clinician’s ability to accurately assess the client’s status. For example, an untrained interpreter may attempt to make sense of a client’s incoherent utterances, and the clinician may miss a diagnosis of psychosis. Or, perhaps a clinician may

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not understand that cultural norms may cause a younger daughter to underreport or misreport her father’s psychological symptoms. In either case, the messages conveyed may inaccurately depict the client’s mental health status. All this runs contrary to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. Social service organizations around the United States have begun to address these problems by training interpreters to work as paraprofessionals alongside clinicians. These interpreters not only bridge language gaps, but they also act as cultural brokers who explain cultural norms that may affect client–clinician interactions. In many cases, these paraprofessionals are trained to fulfill multiple roles such as counselor, community advocate, caseworker, and interpreter and translator (Egli, 1987). In 1987 and 1988, California sponsored federally funded training conferences for refugee mental health paraprofessionals. Most of the participants stated that it was their first organized training experience in refugee mental health (Gong-Guy et al., 1991). The research on and successful use of paraprofessionals seems to have prompted the development of clear guidelines for interpreter training. For example, Downing (1992a, 1992b) recommends that interpreters learn the specialized vocabulary and concepts of the mental health field. He also recommends that interpreters’ training include cultural “brokering” skills. That is, interpreters should be aware of the potential pitfalls that might arise in a clinic visit and alert the clinician when a cultural gap must be traversed. Pollard (1997) developed a video curriculum to assist interpreters and clinicians alike in learning how to work together to best serve the needs of their mental health clients. This video addresses some of the specific challenges for mental health interpreting. For example, an interpreter should recognize when an assessment tool is culturally inappropriate and communicate this to the clinician. These tools have good face validity but do not fully capture the complexities within the process of interpreting for mental health. Mental Health Interpreting: What We Know and What We Need to Know Recent reports and surveys indicate that the demand for paraprofessionals is likely to grow in the new millennium. A report from the Working Group of the Minnesota Interpreter Standards Advisory Committee (Ohmans, 1998) states that the demand for trained interpreters in Minnesota has vastly outgrown the supply. The report also outlines

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the human and monetary costs of misdiagnosing non-English-speaking clients when a trained interpreter is not present. A survey conducted by the Wilder Research Center in Minnesota (Mattessich & Parry, 2000) reports that nearly 20 percent of the 1,119 people surveyed indicated that they could not speak English at all. The report also asked participants to identify their greatest stressors. Language barriers were identified most often (26 percent of participants) as the greatest source of stress in these immigrants’ daily lives. The literature noted thus far speaks to the urgent need for trained professional interpreters in mental health settings, and many training programs have already been implemented, albeit mostly for medical settings. Researchers have also identified some of the specific psychological concerns that immigrants and refugees are bringing to mental health providers (Holtzman & Bornemann, 1990; Butcher, Egli, Shiota, & Ben-Porath, 1988). This information is critical for improving mental health services for immigrants, but it is not enough. Research on interpretation in mental health practice is sparse. Aside from ethical standards, codes of conduct, or guidelines on interpretation procedures, there is little information available to guide mental health interpreting. This limitation has important implications for future study. First, the professional role of the interpreter has been defined in the literature in broad aspects of interpretation, such as the importance of accurate interpretation and confidentiality practices. However, there is little guidance regarding the essential functions of an interpreter. Responsibilities of the interpreter that need further examination and development include, among others, the role of the interpreter in establishing trust, the responsibility of the interpreter to convey meaning about culture-based communications, and intervention methods for identifying miscommunication. In addition, the necessary training and skills required for competent interpretation in the professional field of mental health have not been adequately addressed. There is no standard for competency in mental health interpretation and no training available that prepares interpreters to understand the complex arena of mental health and psychological practices. Moreover, there are few lists or dictionaries of mental health concepts available in Hmong (which is also true of many high-use languages), other than the works in progress mentioned earlier in this chapter, that could aid interpreters in translating western mental health concepts into the target language. Consequently, variability and inaccuracy are significant in the interpretation and translation of mental health terminology.

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Last, the professional relationship between the interpreter and clinician and their joint relationship to their clients needs to be redefined and reinforced to adequately acknowledge the crucial role of the interpreter in mental health interventions and to establish guidelines for practice that are specialized and integrated into mental health treatment. Unfortunately, despite psychology’s important contributions to the understanding of the therapeutic process, the field has yet to examine how the addition of an interpreter to the therapeutic setting influences processes and outcomes. There is a clear lack of research on how interpreters actually affect the mental health counseling process. While much of the literature has addressed issues of interpreting in medical settings, less is said about the mental health counseling process. That is, how does the interpreter influence the client–clinician dynamic that is central to the therapeutic process? How does the presence of an interpreter impact the necessary ingredients of effective mental health counseling, such as building rapport, warmth, empathy, genuineness, positive regard, and other conditions? What if interpreters develop negative emotions or traumatic reactions to clients and clients’ stories? Initial Findings At the time of writing this chapter, a grant-supported research project is being completed on the use of interpreters in mental health counseling (Goh et al., 2003). The goal of this research is to enhance the understanding of quality systems of care that involve quality interpretation and to influence improving health care practice to immigrant populations by providing a “best practices in mental health” interpretation to benefit interpreters, providers, and clients. We are trying to determine how to help our clients more effectively so that they feel understood, return for services, and benefit from the help provided. In the process, we believe that we are trying to communicate the mental health message in an effective way so as to increase mutual understanding between care providers and clients, thus overcoming language discrimination. Utilizing a qualitative research methodology, thirty Hmong interpreters participated in ninety-minute structured in-depth interviews that covered such areas as (a) the models, process, and procedures that are used in their interpreting; (b) issues and dynamics in the clientprovider-interpreter triad; and (c) issues of training and educating interpreters. Preliminary findings reflect a variety of interpreting

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models that range from little contact between interpreter and mental health provider to models where interpreters are as empowered as practitioners, participate in case consultations, and play a major role as cultural brokers for clinicians. There is also great diversity in the amount of training; expectations of interpreters and clinicians about the roles and responsibilities of interpreters; and the need or lack of need for a strong, consistent working relationship with clinicians. Because of the lack of legislation in Minnesota on the need to provide interpreters in mental health counseling for clients who are English-language learners, there also appears to be a concomitant lack of education and training for those who claim proficiency as mental health interpreters. A detailed presentation of our findings will be forthcoming. In the meantime, the following are recommended guidelines for using mental health interpreters, based on our preliminary findings, according to the various stages of mental health delivery. Preparation for Clinical Sessions Establish Goals and Procedures Establish goals and procedures for the session. Explain confidentiality/limits, if necessary. Provide the interpreter with a brief summary of the client. Establish Roles and Understand Relationships Consider the interpreter a member of the health care team. Discuss the client and interpreter’s background to learn about the impact of gender, age, social or ethnic issues, and dialects. Determine how the interpreter’s position in or relation to the community may impact interpreter/client relations. Review Terms and Topics Explain the purpose of the session. Discuss technical terms that may be used. Discuss sensitive topics to be discussed. Discuss whether the interpreter is likely to feel uncomfortable. Discuss interpreter “censorship/editing.” Learn some basic words and phrases in the client’s language. Beginning the Session Discuss Confidentiality Explain how provider and interpreter keep confidentiality, and explain the limits of confidentiality.

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Explain to the client that the interpreter and provider will discuss everything the client says. Explain that interpreter and provider may take notes to help achieve accuracy; it helps to prepare the interpreter to paraphrase and summarize and allows the provider to understand and clarify. Establish Speaking Time Remember to allow extra time, since everything has to be said twice and explanations will generally take longer. Explain that the interpreter may interrupt dialog talking to allow for accurate interpretation. Explain that questions may need to be asked. Remember there may be times when it is important for the client to speak to the interpreter without stopping.

During the Session Practice Good Communication Face the client and/or family members and speak directly to him/ her/them. Speak slowly and clearly in a regular tone of voice. Use simple language and straightforward sentences; avoid metaphors, slang, and jargon. Use nouns rather than pronouns whenever possible; this way the referent will be clear. Practice good English communication; some clients may still understand English. Allow Time for Questions and Clarification Allow time for the interpreter to talk with the client; this may be necessary if the client needs further clarification to understand what has been said, or if the client does not understand certain western practices or technical terms. Discuss with the interpreter concerns about client’s understanding or interpreter’s separate conversation with the client. Allow time for the interpreter to talk with the provider; this is important for the interpreter to gain clarification about practices and technical terms. Allow time for the interpreter to explain the culture to the provider when simply interpreting the words is not enough.

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Allow Time to Summarize Ask clients to summarize or repeat information to help determine whether concepts have been properly translated and understood. Providers and interpreters can summarize issues discussed. Use the Time during Interpretation Observe body language and use the interpreter to help you understand nonverbal messages. Use the time to plan the next response. Use the time to evaluate what has happened in the session. After the Session Allow time with the interpreter after the session to obtain information about nonverbal cues, speech pattern and tone, and cultural information that may be useful to understanding the client/context. Discuss the interpreter’s impression of the client’s problems or misunderstandings, and other issues that could not be discussed. Seek feedback from the interpreter. SUMMARY OF KEY IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE To overcome language discrimination experienced by mental health clients who are English-language learners, our knowledge of how to cross cultures through language needs to expand. At the present time, we believe that the theory, research, and training around language issues in mental health counseling are insufficient to adequately prepare clinicians for multicultural work requiring second-language competencies. To ignore issues surrounding language barriers to mental health would be considered unethical (Sue, 1998), racist (Ridley, 1995), and “cultural malpractice” (Hall, 1997). Currently, theories of practice that examine and illustrate methods of practice for clinicians and interpreters are not readily available. Codes of conduct, ethical standards, and styles of communication are some of the guidelines available to clinicians and interpreters that direct behavior and practice. However, these principles and procedures are remote from the theory needed to inform practice and guide clinical intervention. Theories are needed that hypothesize and promote not just access to language but key dimensions important to the quality of access.

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For example, the theories needed to advance the role of the mental health interpreter should be related to skills, methods, approaches, and constructs relevant to communication and relationship development within the interpreter–clinician–client triad. These theories need to explore and define the use of interpreters in mental health counseling and postulate various mental health interpreter models—highlighting their processes, strengths and weaknesses, and recommending the best applications. It has also been suggested here that guidelines about the professional roles and functions of the multicultural clinician and mental health interpreter need to be further investigated to establish criteria for competence and practice. For example, further analysis may continue to establish that one function of the cross-cultural clinician may be that of linguistic analysis that will require the training of specific competencies (such as an introduction to cultural semantics) and other professional development issues (such as learning to work collaboratively with an interpreter in the therapeutic relationship). Furthermore, from our own experience, we see the task of the cross-cultural interpreter to also be that of linguistic innovation, where new uses of words are developed in both English and the target language, and oftentimes require split-second spontaneity and ingenuity. More study into the processes of mental health interpreting will help advance cross-cultural understanding of the processes that ethnic minorities and new immigrants, specifically English-language learners, experience in mental health. Among the most vulnerable areas of clinical application is that of psychological assessment using standardized assessment instruments to determine cognitive, mental, or affective states. There are inventories in use that have been translated or are used with verbal interpretation. While these instruments may be some of the tools available for assessment conducted cross-culturally, many that have been translated have not been validated through research for use in cross-cultural psychological interpretation. The Beck Depression Inventory is one such instrument that has been used but largely unstudied in its application to diverse ethnic populations. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) has been used with the Hmong population, but lack of validating research raises serious questions about its utility. First, the translation of the inventory is still in debate among bilingual mental health professionals, which is in itself problematic. The question of face validity is certainly relevant, since clinically it could be demonstrated that alternative symptoms of depression may be more relevant to measure within the Hmong

Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

That English language learners are somehow incompetent.

Try learning to speak a second language. Language acquisition, especially for adults, requires tremendous skill and commitment. Individuals who cross cultures not only have to overcome language barriers but also adjust socially, culturally, physically, politically, and psychologically. When operating in their native tongues, these individuals are highly competent.

Community

That individuals and families who do not speak English should learn to speak English. That English language learners are not entitled to share in community resources.

No one chooses to experience language discrimination. It is often a consequence of circumstance. The priority of learning to speak English competes with other demands of finding shelter, social support, familial ties, and financial security. It is exactly community resources and support that they need to help them take the steps needed to overcome language discrimination.

Practitioners/educators

That clients need to speak English in order for proper mental health services to be rendered.

To discriminate against and withhold services for anyone based on any personal characteristic, in this case language, is clearly unethical and against the law. In many states it is required by federal law that interpretive services be provided for clients who are English-language learners.

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That the responsibility for Clinicians are in the best position, because of their overcoming language understanding of the therapeutic relationship, to effect discrimination is the sole positive action in overcoming language discrimination. responsibility of the Clinicians need to obtain some understanding of cultural client. semantics, the use of mental health interpreters, and health/ That the responsibility for mental health practices of the target culture. While overcoming language interpreters can play a critical role in eliminating language discrimination is the discrimination, it is the clinician’s job to brief interpreters responsibility of the about expectations, roles, and responsibilities during the interpreter. session. If you are committed to working with this That all interpreters can be population for the long term, it would be helpful to learn mental health some key phrases in your client’s language. The training interpreters. interpreters receive is not consistent across disciplines and That the delivery of mental around the country. Mental health interpreting requires health services to clients specific skills that pay attention to linguistic, cultural, as well who are English as process cues. Bilingual therapists are not necessarily trained language learners is the to be interpreters and may consider their strength to be in job of bilingual their clinical skills rather than their language skills. Until therapists. educational programs around the country see a surge in the recruitment and training of bilingual therapists, such a goal continues to be far from reality.

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population (such as somatic expressions). In addition, of course, the empirical evidence available for the BDI has been established largely with English-speaking white individuals. For instruments like the BDI to be confidently used with other ethnic populations, the best translation or even a new development of inventory items needs to be established. Further research also needs to be conducted to increase our understanding and integration of alternative healing concepts and practices. Through an increased understanding of traditional approaches to healing, mental health clinicians gain important insight into help-seeking behaviors, problem identification, treatment expectations, and methods of care important for working with other ethnic populations. This knowledge may help identify correlates to care that can be useful to augmenting western mental health care. It can also help identify important distinctions that will help clinicians to bridge care. Through exploration, practice methods that promote collaboration between traditional and western healers can also be defined. Alliances with indigenous healers and helpers can be established. In this way, helpers can work cooperatively to complement care provided to Hmong families, identify problems more effectively, and determine the need for referral to other healers more efficiently. In addition to theory and research, components of practice need to be established. First, education and training for clinicians and interpreters are essential. The field of interpretation will need to continue to establish its authority in a variety of disciplines and professional positions that involve interpretation. Interpreters and educators will need to appreciate that interpretation of mental health concepts is a challenging task, and that bridging concepts in mental health is an additional layer of complexity in translation that requires additional knowledge and training. Clinicians will need to acquire complementary skills that facilitate the interpretation of mental health concepts. Clinicians will also need to study, learn, and practice the special set of skills required to establish effective working partnerships with interpreters and to apply the necessary interventions at all stages of treatment as in any other treatment modalities (family therapy, group therapy, therapy with children, etc.). The guidelines and qualifications of multicultural clinicians and mental health interpreters with regard to overcoming language discrimination in mental health will need to be established for the field to advance and for quality of care to continue improving. Interpreters and clinicians, together and through their independent professions, need to establish standards of practice to benefit their clients. They

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will need to join forces to address the challenges of this work in order to establish relevant terminology, develop interview protocols, and enforce preferred models of interpretation, among other guidelines. Part of the task of developing appropriate standards of care will likely require advocating the development of policy that will benefit our clients. Sorting out meaning across cultures is laborious and costly, as it increases the amount of time a clinician spends developing accuracy in communication. New systems will need to be determined and implemented in order to adequately compensate all professionals involved in client care and for the same scope of care provided to English-speaking clients. Systems and providers will need to be held accountable for overcoming language discrimination. In turn, clinicians will need to contribute to the resolution of these and similar problems. There are many challenges that confront the clinician when treating clients who are English-language learners and have little experience with American culture. How effectively professional mental health expertise is integrated with a target language and culture is the important task of this clinical encounter. Success creates the understanding and empathy so important for human relationships and good clinical work. Quality care and competent care standards for English language learners will need to contain some criteria that address the importance of language that leads to effective communication. Standards will also need to assert the value of the alliance between clinician and interpreter in achieving this end. These standards for language access will be the only way new Americans will be able to overcome language discrimination. In this way, new Americans will have an equal opportunity to experience the same levels and quality of mental health care as everyone else. REFERENCES Butcher, J. N., Egli, E. A., Shiota, N. K., & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (1988). Psychological interventions with refugees. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota. Downing, B. T. (1992a). Professional interpretation: Insuring access for refugee and immigrant patients. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota. Downing, B. T. (1992b). The use of bilingual/bicultural workers as providers and interpreters. International Migration, 30. Egli, E. A. (1987). The role of bilingual workers without professional mental health training in mental health services for refugees. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.

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Fadiman, A. (1997). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York: Noonday Press. Goh, M., McGraw-Schuchman, K., & Yang, P. (2003, January). The use of interpreters in mental health counseling: Issues and guidelines for best practice. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association National Multicultural Conference and Summit, Hollywood, CA. Gong-Guy, E., Cravens, R. B., & Patterson, T. E. (1991). Clinical issues in mental health service delivery to refugees. American Psychologist, 46(6), 642–648. Hall, C. C. I. (1997). Cultural malpractice: The growing obsolescence of psychology. American Psychologist, 52(6), 642–651. Holtzman, W. H., & Bornemann, T. H. (Eds.). (1990). Mental health of immigrants and refugees. Proceedings of a conference sponsored by Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and World Federation for Mental Health. Austin, TX: University of Texas. Mattessich, P., & Parry, K. (2000). Speaking for themselves: A survey of Hispanic, Hmong, Russian, and Somali immigrants in Minneapolis-St. Paul. St. Paul, MN: Wilder Research Center. The Minneapolis Foundation. (1999, Fall). Minnesota, nice or not? Minneapolis, MN: Author. Murphy, B.C., & Dillon, C. (1998). Interviewing in action: Process and practice. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Ohmans, P. (Ed.). (1998). Bridging the gap: How to meet the need for interpreters in Minnesota. St. Paul, MN: Working Group of the Minnesota Interpreter Standards Advisory Committee. Pollard, R. Q. (1997). Mental health interpreting: A mentored curriculum [Videotape]. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester. Ridley, C. R. (1995). Overcoming unintentional racism in counseling and therapy: A practitioner’s guide to intentional intervention. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Sue, S. (1998). In search of cultural competence in psychotherapy and counseling. American Psychologist, 53(4), 440–448. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Mental health: Culture, race, and ethnicity—A supplement to mental health: A report of the surgeon general. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

CHAPTER 6

A Quest for Identity: Racism and Acculturation among Immigrant Families Sandra Mattar

“

M

om . . . what am I?” This simple question from my twelveyear-old daughter was enough to raise my anxiety as a parent. She had asked me this question before, but this time the question was delivered with a punch, a cry for self-definition, very much consistent with her entrance into the adolescent world. Her question came with a distressed tone—an indication of an active struggle to attain psychological adjustment and a mental and physical well-being. I immediately knew that she was asking me about race. She wanted a category. She explained that she needed an answer for her friends at school: “They keep asking me, and I don’t know what to tell them.” I thought that being the only nonwhite in her class at a private school, a straight-A student with a Spanish name, both her South American parents holding graduate degrees, and with an upper-middle-class background, she did not fit the mainstream stereotype of a “Latina.” Therefore she confused her friends who wanted an answer. I thought, Welcome to the world of stereotypes, of prejudice and discrimination. “Well,” I answered calmly, trying not to dwell on my feelings as “the other,” a feeling I had faced since becoming an immigrant in the United States, “I don’t have an easy answer. Let’s see: Your maternal grandparents are from Lebanon, and your paternal grandparents are from Portugal. Your dad and I were born in South America (Venezuela), and you were born in Boston, Massachusetts.” My answer must have

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been too complicated because she said, “I’ll tell them I am from Boston.” Yes, probably this is less complicated, as is the fact that her classmates have changed her name from Maria to “Mia” because, I suspect, it sounds “less ethnic.” This answer is not only less “complicated,” but is an example of a decontextualization that is typical in countries where the “self-made” individual represents an image to strive for. In this sense, there are seldom references of “place” and of the influence of the intergenerational transmission of culture, context, and history (P. Hull, personal communication, 2003).

AMERICA: WHITE OR BROWN? At a time when the “browning” (Rodriguez, 2002) of America from an increasing Latino and Asian immigration seems an imminent possibility, questions such as “What am I?” are gaining salience among mental health workers across the nation. According to Schmidley (2001), in the year 2000 the number of immigrants and first-generation children in this country reached an unprecedented 56 million, or onefifth of the entire U.S. population. The U.S. Bureau of the Census in 2000 revealed important demographic changes: “The Asian American/ Pacific Islander population increased by almost 50 percent, the Latino/ Hispanic population by over 58 percent, African Americans by 16 percent, and American Indians/Alaska Natives by 15.5 percent, in marked contrast to the 7.3 percent increase of whites” (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2000, in Sue & Sue, 2003). Trimble (2003) speaks of the need to pay attention to the personality changes produced by social change and acculturation in a century where acculturation due to global mobility is so pervasive. Sue and Sue (2003) also talk about living with a “clash of worldviews, values and lifestyles” and the potential conflictive implications. Cuellar (2000) also warns of the importance of better understanding the mental health consequences of the acculturation process. Reaction of some form is not an uncommon response to culture contact. On some extreme positions, people become violent and attempt to extinguish or exterminate cultural symptoms or beliefs of others, including the people who support those systems. These reactions occur when people are threatened by some cultural feature of others. As the United States become increasingly more multicultural or culturally diverse, does this increase risk for psychological conflicts due to acculturation processes and forces (p. 48)?

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TENSION BETWEEN CLINGING TO THE PAST AND BELONGING The question “Who am I?” is not uncommon among adolescents, especially children of immigrants. This question was a dreaded one for me growing up, and one that still echoes in my mind. As a daughter of Lebanese immigrant parents in Venezuela, who I was remained elusive to me. At school, I could not fully identify with my peers, nor see myself portrayed in Venezuelan history lessons. At home, the use of the Arabic language, which sounded impossibly guttural to me, made talking in Spanish a preferable option. Maybe a need to belong among my peers also made it more attractive to me. My daughter’s question brought back to me, in the words of Falicov (1998), “the issue of belongingness, the agony of whether I should return to my roots or stay close to the new life created in my adoptive country.” Returning to one’s roots is an automatic reaction that works as a defense mechanism in times of anxiety. Immigrant parents tend to cling to their old ways in times of uncertainty. In fact, raising children in a country different from one’s native country thrusts one into an unknown world where there are no solid personality anchors. In other words, a lasting sense of security and confidence may be difficult to maintain when there is little understanding of social outcomes that are expected. Many of the things that parents from the mainstream U.S. culture were able to take for granted, I had to learn and relearn. During this process, my children were forced to pay for my cultural inexperience. ACCULTURATIVE STRESS AND CULTURE SHOCK Thou shalt leave everything beloved most dearly; and this is the shaft which the bow of Exile first lets fly. Thou shalt prove how salt the taste is of another’s bread, and how hard a path it is to go down and up another’s stair. (Dante, Paradiso, The Divine Comedy)

My experiences of distress have been referred to in the mental health literature as “acculturative stress” (Berry & Kim, 1988), which involves “a personal crisis . . . (where) the old social order and cultural norms often disappear, and individuals may be lost in the change . . . hostility, uncertainty, identity confusion and depression may set in” (p. 246). The term culture shock has also been coined to describe the consequences of an uprooting experience, or “the uprooting of

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established ways of thinking and doing, and the massive, abrupt exposure to a new language and new way of life (which) precipitates psychological distress” (Falicov, 1998, p. 55). There are several factors that moderate the relationship between acculturation and stress. Among these are the nature of the larger society (the ethnic diversity, cultural pluralism and social/cultural supports, exclusion practices, among others), the type of acculturating group (third world versus first world immigrant), modes of acculturation (marginalization, separation, or integration from/to the host society), demographics and social characteristics of the individual, and the psychological characteristics of the individual (Berry, 1990). EXPERIENCES OF DISCRIMINATION AND ETHNIC IDENTITY My daughter’s question also brought up my first encounter with racism in this country, an experience I had never confronted before in Venezuela. In Venezuela, racial discrimination is much more subtle than in the United States, where “race is an elusive, perplexing, troubling and enduring aspect of life” (Carter, 1995). Indeed, unlike in Venezuela, in the United States there is a history of slavery that still permeates every aspect of American life; as well as tremendous human diversity, perhaps unlike any other country in the world. The way the history of relations between minorities and mainstream culture plays out in the United States is also very different. The prevalent notion in the United States is that diversity equals race, not that diversity equals culture. Culture and race are considered one and the same. SOCIETAL PRESSURES AND THE NEGOTIATION OF NEW IDENTITIES My first experiences with discrimination were very painful. I was caught off guard in a world of social nuances based on race and hate. I lacked the intellectual and emotional arsenal that would have helped to cope with the humiliation. I learned that some of these skills were taught to children belonging to certain groups in the United States even before they started walking. As an upper-middle-class woman growing up in Venezuela, where the development of an ethnic identity was a nonissue (it was taken for granted), I did not have to negotiate my identity. I belonged to the group in power, and therefore

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there was no need to articulate who I was. Just like in the United States, “ethnic” conversations are only for “the other.” It was not until coming to the United States that I was consciously impacted by the issue of ethnic identity. I struggled to find a category that would include my Venezuelan and Lebanese heritages. It was my Spanish accent that finally determined who I was, as my physical traits were confusing to many. People could not place me into one racial category. Many times I passed as white as long as I did not open my mouth. Root (1992, 1996, in Sue & Sue, 2003) indicates that this dilemma is typical of multiracial children who are constantly confronted with ambiguous reactions from people who cannot place them inside a clear racial category. The pressure to choose a race can result in “invalidation, conflicting feeling of loyalties to the racial/ethnic identities of parents, internal trauma, and confused identity development” (Sue & Sue, 2003, p. 368). In my case, society eventually categorized me as a Latina, not a Venezuelan-Lebanese. The label Latina was an ethnic category imposed from the outside. It was not a category that I built on my own. I resented this imposition because it discounted the totality of who I was. My background had been reduced to an accent, and it came with numerous stereotypes. Eventually, I adopted this identity because doing so was easier than not doing so. I did not have to explain myself anymore. In a way, I thought, “If people want a category, I will give them just that.” I also fell prey to group pressure. Coming from Venezuela made me an official “Latina,” no doubt. The process of representing myself as a Latina is the result of a reaction against an imposed ethnic identity, a representation created by social pressures to conform to prescribed labels, and one that is closely connected to a process of stereotyping and discrimination. It is also equally connected to my previous privileged history in Venezuela, where people like me were not part of “the other” group. CHOOSING BETWEEN “NATIONALITY” AND “ETHNIC IDENTITY” The process of “choosing” or embracing ethnic labels, I learned later, is common among immigrants who come from countries where nationality, rather than race, is emphasized as a major identity descriptor. Upon arrival in the United States, immigrants become “the other,” which is the first blow to their identity. From being “one like the rest,” the immigrant becomes “one unlike us.” This is, no doubt, a narcissistic

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injury of major proportions. However, this process is less shocking when immigrants move into neighborhoods in the new country that are microcosms of their countries of origin. For these immigrants, being among countrypeople buffers them from the reality of being different and the treatment that comes with it. For those of us who may not fit the mainstream culture’s somewhat simplistic definition of ethnic identity, our identity seems to be more imposed from without than willfully adopted from within. This is the dilemma of the multiethnic immigrant such as myself, and of many Latin Americans who, upon becoming immigrants in the United States, learn that they are not white but rather “people of color.” Eventually, they also learn the disparaging societal treatment that comes with that label. SOURCES OF CONFLICT AND AMBIGUITY For the immigrant, defining ethnic/racial identity is part of a developmental process that is closely tied to acculturation (Phinney, 2003). The process of defining ethnic identity becomes an active negotiation with the environment, and as Berry (1990) indicated, it is mediated by many forces. As I try to define myself in a new world, there are several questions that I struggle to answer in my varied roles as a crosscultural psychologist, teacher, immigrant parent, and woman: How do immigrant children who do not fit a clear-cut stereotype of their immigrant group fare in life? Who defines self-identity, race, and culture, thereby silencing other discourses and narratives? What might be the price children pay for growing up in a world of rigid and stereotyped racial/ethnic categories? How might children of immigrant parents establish a coherent sense of self while often living out their lives between two distinct worlds, and what additional developmental tasks might children of immigrant parents need to navigate? How might immigrant parents negotiate their own personal identities while facing the challenges of raising children in a country different from their own? How might immigrant parents support the development of their children’s ethnic and cultural identities? How might the parents avoid alienating their children’s desire to belong to the country in which they live, whether it is rightfully theirs by birth, or by adoption?

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How can parents promote their children’s attachment to their new country? What might be the price in mental health that both immigrant parents and their children are forced to pay in order to flourish in the new country? Would a healthy outcome be the same between immigrant parents on the one hand, and their children on the other?

Additionally, related questions emerge about the acculturating process of white-appearing immigrant children compared to immigrant children who do not “pass” as white. Do they “acculturate” faster because they look white? In other words, how do race and social class affect the course of children’s ethnic identity development, and their successful adaptation to mainstream society? DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS FACING IMMIGRANT CHILDREN Cultural identities are not solely determined in response to racial ideologies, but racism increases the need for a positive self-defined identity in order to survive psychologically. (Tatum, 1997)

This chapter focuses on immigrant individuals as well as individuals who are in intercultural relationships. However, the literature on black racial/ethnic identity (Helms, 1990) development proves very helpful in illuminating the struggles faced by both immigrant children and their parents. After all, black children have to grow up in a country that still, in the twenty-first century, remains segregated in many more ways than one, thereby creating two separate cultures. Also, like many Native American children, immigrant children often have to deal with issues of competing national loyalties, expressed both in language and country allegiances, racism and discrimination, and a redefinition of skin color and social class, among others. Studies on biracial children help us understand the developmental tasks faced by immigrant children. Like the latter, the former group faces mixed and ambivalent reactions from mainstream populations, not much different from my daughter’s classmate’s question “What are you?” Biracial/bicultural children also struggle with “imposed” identities or “the pressure to choose sides,” which are a product of the American history of racial categorization (Tatum, 1997). The 2000 U.S. Census provided more choices around racial categories. However,

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it stills falls short in capturing the multidimensionality of several immigrant groups in the United States, such as Latinos and Asians. IMMIGRANT ADOLESCENTS AND THE MULTICULTUAL EXPERIENCE: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AMERICAN? Through their development, children of immigrants face issues similar to those faced by the aforementioned groups. These issues become more salient during adolescence, when they are already struggling with an ever more confusing world, as they try to sort out their bicultural or even tricultural experience. Adolescence also gives them the cognitive tools to understand the nuances of racist treatment and discrimination, and the notions of injustice and unfairness. Many immigrant children learn, for the first time, that there are different rules for them simply because of their foreign backgrounds. They also struggle to integrate different lifestyles into their lives, and their understanding of who they are. Unlike the majority of her white peers, my daughter is going through adolescence with an extra developmental task. Managing this task can deeply affect her self-esteem and her need to belong to a community that she can trust. This is the task of understanding that she is not like the rest of the group, and that her parents are different, as well. She needs to negotiate how “American” she is. She also needs to learn to deal with the culture shock she experiences in her travels between school and home, which, in essence, sometimes becomes an international trip. My daughter constantly reminds me that “we are in America, not in Venezuela,” a statement that reflects her need to define herself in “American” terms, as well as to test my limits of what is acceptable! As far as she is concerned, I can toss out every learned rule on childrearing because “the rules are different here.” Alluding to a similar experience, Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco (1995) state that immigrant children “typically do not share their parent’s dual frame of reference. They cannot frame their current experiences in terms of the old country ideals, standards and expectations” (p. 326). DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES AND IMMIGRANT CHILDREN According to Hardy and Laszloffy’s (2000) review of major psychological developmental theories, the majority of the theories fail to

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address the experiences of children and families of color. From Freud to Erikson, Piaget, and Kohlberg, to name a few, they have all failed to address issues of race and ethnicity. In this sense, Hardy and Laszloffy (2000) indicate, “Because of the specific challenges created by living in (such) oppressive contexts, children and families of color must negotiate several unique tasks in addition to those that are specified in traditional developmental theories” (p. 109). Among these unique tasks are the following: • Living with racism and the development of coping mechanisms: Hardy and Laszloffy indicate that children have to “negotiat(e) the dilemmas of silence and of speaking” in the face of racism and injustices. Here, I am reminded of the time when I was completing one of the requirements for my doctoral clinical training at an all-white, upper-middle-class elementary school in the Boston suburbs. In this place, I was the target of the most humiliating and disparaging treatment I had ever received. My supervisor, a black woman, encouraged me to take a stand against this treatment. When I told her I did not know how to deal with such racism, I learned something interesting, and maybe matter of fact for people used to living with discrimination. I learned from her that black mothers typically taught their children how to manage racism as soon as they learned how to talk. This coping mechanism is a way of surviving growing up in an oppressive environment (J. Turner, personal communication, 2003). As an immigrant who was not used to discrimination, the notion of using my own voice when I had been silenced was new and uncharted territory for me. It was also a territory that caused me severe distress. • Living with rage: The second task that children of color need to master, according to Hardy and Laszloffy (2000), is “negotiating the dilemma of rage,” or how to express the suppressed negative emotions that result from society’s constant mistreatment of such children. • Internalized oppression: A third task is “negotiating the dilemma of selfhate,” which refers to the phenomena of internalized oppression, and adopting the language and behaviors of the oppressor.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS What Language Should I Speak? Just like black children, immigrant children of color also seem to struggle with the aforementioned tasks. However, as Zavala (in Tatum, 1997) indicates, the choice of what language to speak also forms an integral part of these children’s identity formation and constitutes an extra developmental task to negotiate. It is no surprise to me

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that along with my daughter’s quest for discovering “who” she might be, she expressed a desire for reinforcing her Spanish language skills. There are several possible explanations why she expressed this desire. One can speculate that she likes to “show off” her Spanish language skills because being bilingual is fashionable in some middle-class circles. Another possibility is that she wants to reaffirm her connection with her parents’ native country in order to understand who she really is. A third possibility might have to do with her newly developed awareness of discrimination. She might be, according to Phinney (1989), in the period of exploration, “where young people typically learn the history of their group and become more aware of discrimination, a process that may lead to a deeper commitment to their ethnicity” (p. 77). The choice of language has tremendous implications for personality development. In this sense, Espin (1997) indicates, Language and speech do not occur in a vacuum. In the United States, the dominant society ascribes inferior social status to Black English and to bilingualism. The differential valuing of languages and accents has a profound impact on the development of self-concept and identity. When bilingual skills are devalued, also devalued are those parts of the self that have developed in the context of another language. (p. 76)

Language Use and Acculturation Level Espin further suggests that ethnic language use is another indicator of acculturation level and is related to ethnic identity. However, she does not view it as a necessary predictor of the latter. According to Marsella and Yamada (2000), the notion of ethnocultural identity is a good indicator of the variation that exists within ethnic groups. Ethnocultural identity is the “extent to which an individual endorses and manifests the cultural traditions and practices of a particular group . . . the extent to which (he/she) is identified with and practice(s) the lifestyle of that group” (p. 13). I believe that this concept is more accurate than the concept of acculturation to describe the extent to which an individual subscribes to a particular culture. Stereotypes and Self-Identity, Self-Esteem, and Internalized Racism Another task closely connected to the immigrant children’s wellbeing and quality of life is how to deal with a world that stereotypes

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immigrants as “less than” and supports myths that portray particular groups very negatively. My daughter has already asked me questions such as, “Why are all Latinos poor?” I can hardly control myself when I hear questions like this, but I am also aware that she is being raised in an upper-middle-class, mainly white community. The way she has internalized society’s negative messages about Latinos is appalling and frightening. Also, she appears at times not to be connected with the group identified as Latinos. In the meantime, she struggles at school because, while she loves to “show off” her Spanish-language skills, she does so in an environment that tells her “you are not like them.” There is no doubt that she is internalizing the latter message. But I cannot forget that both my husband and I are parts of the equation in this racial/ethnic internalization game. How can you teach your children to be proud of their ethnicity when the message in the community around you is “you either assimilate or else you don’t belong.” There is no possibility of embracing one’s culture unless mainstream society confronts its own fears around difference and is willing to embrace “the other” as he/she is. Phinney (2003) states that, “Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of ethnic identity is its strength and valence, or how positively individuals feel about their group membership.” In this sense, immigrants have a better chance at mental health when they feel proud of who they are as a group. However, the degree of pride that any immigrant group may be able to achieve is, in many ways, limited by the amount of pride allowed by the new culture. Speaking of this positive self-identification among immigrant groups, Falicov (2002) indicates, Striving for the dream of stability in a new land is riddled with pressures to subscribe to the dominant culture’s story, which negatively judges dark-skinned, poor immigrants. . . . The social climate of structural exclusion and psychological violence suffered by immigrants and their children is not only detrimental to their participation in the opportunity structure but it also affects the immigrant children’s sense of self, through a process of what Carola Suarez-Orozco (2000) aptly calls “social mirroring.” (p. 281)

Falicov’s statement makes me think of the host culture’s reaction to personal identity’s threats. What is the mainstream reaction when immigrant groups try to assert themselves and show pride in who they are? As with the black experience, social reactions by the dominant culture tend to be toward silencing those voices.

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ACCULTURATION AND RACISM Marginalization and the Search for Ethnic Identity Experiences of discrimination determine, at some level, the immigrant’s motivation to undertake further exploration of his/her ethnic identity. Rumbaut (1994, in Phinney, 2003) found an inverse connection between the adolescent’s experiences of discrimination and his/her self-identification as American. In other words, the more you are the target of discrimination in the United States, the less American you will feel. This process represents an irony in that the dominant group’s reaction against the immigrant’s self-definition results in a strengthening of these groups’ ethnic identities.

Cultural Allegiance Along with the task of choosing what language to speak, which is a task faced by both immigrant parents and children, there is also the “cultural allegiance” dilemma, or the “identity as a member of the larger society” (Phinney, 2003). This task refers to a child’s sense of cultural identification with a country, a flag, history, and cultural traditions: it is also known as patriotism. For an immigrant parent, this is a very challenging and heated issue. The family’s dilemma of “choice of country,” or which country they adopt, is not an isolated choice. There are numerous factors that determine this choice, such as the family’s racial and socioeconomic background, degrees of technological development similarities between one’s former and adoptive country, the degree of segregation in the community lived in, level of education, work and visa-status issues, and the ways in which parents encourage a particular identification, among others.

Acculturation Conflicts Along the same lines, Sue and Sue (2003) indicate that many minority ethnic groups are confronted with a society that has a very different set of values. The resolution of this conflict takes several routes: some individuals maintain their native cultures, while others assimilate and exchange their values for those of the host culture. A third group of people become bicultural and “fare much better because of an ability to accept and negotiate aspects of both cultures” (p. 352).

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Situational Acculturation Trimble (2003) describes a phenomenon called “situational acculturation,” whereby the outcomes of an individual’s acculturation process are a unique combination and interaction of variables. The situation and the corresponding demands of the dominant or contributing culture may contribute considerably more to people’s choice of behavioral repertoires than the general acculturating expectations that they have learned (Trimble, 2003, p. 10). Racism and discrimination “have profound effects on individuals’ level of acculturation, their concurrent acculturative stress, and the level of personal identification with the culture of origin and the dominating or contributing culture” (p. 9). The most recent trends around ethnic identity models suggest that the development of ethnic identity is context-sensitive. Kim-Ju and Liem (2003) found correlations between ethnic self-awareness and ethnic group status, group composition, and ethnic identity orientation. In other words, the social context influences ethnic self-awareness. For example, factors of social class and occupation can interact with the individual’s age and gender, as well as with the given social setting (racial makeup) in which that person is immersed. Overall, there is an assumption in the literature on acculturation that becoming “acculturated” is a goal, rather than a process that is very much determined by the particular combination of individual and contextual variables. The Interaction between Acculturation and Ethnic Identity Phinney (2003) emphasizes a multidimensional understanding of ethnic identity in relation to acculturation, stressing the inadequacy of linear models to understand how, for example, immigrants and their children develop an ethnic identity vis-a`-vis the majority. Phinney stresses that ethnic identity varies along several dimensions: over time or across generations, in different contexts, and with age or development. The notion of “true assimilation” may be an anathema (Trimble, 2003). Along similar lines, Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco (1995) stress that [m]igration is an open-ended process that differentially affects the experiences of various generations, the U.S.-born second generation, the third generation, etc. Hence, we are critical of theories of immigrant assimilation and acculturation that tend to offer premature closure (e.g.,

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“by the second generation group X was fully assimilated”) to what is, in our estimation, an intergenerational dynamic process. (p. 324)

MUTUALITY VERSUS POWER: IMPLICATIONS FOR ETHNIC IDENTITY While Phinney (2003) acknowledges a close connection between ethnic identity and the experience of discrimination, she does not address how mainstream America’s willingness to engage in conversations of ethnic identity, race, and discrimination could affect how people of color define themselves. In my personal experience, these conversations almost never happen. This should be a bilateral process: that which is defined cannot escape the influence of who the definer is. In other words, the dominant group’s urge to define “the other” needs to include a discussion of who the dominant group is. In this sense, object and subject are intrinsically connected. Benjamin (1988) has spoken of the mutuality that needs to exist between self and other: A condition of our own independent existence is recognizing the other. True independence means sustaining the essential tension of these contradictory impulses; that is, both asserting the self and recognizing the other. Domination is the consequence of refusing this condition. (p. 53)

Indeed, asserting the self and recognizing the other is the only way to a harmonious coexistence in our society. However, as Benjamin suggests, this process cannot take place in an environment where domination of self over the other exists. This is part of the cycle of oppression that keeps people from developing a healthy sense of self. Promoting a Positive Racial/Ethnic Identity One of the major challenges that I have confronted as an immigrant parent of three children is how to teach them to keep a dignified sense of themselves as minorities in this country without “contaminating” them with my own negative encounters with racism. But nothing in my life prepared me for the painful experiences of witnessing the disparaging treatment of my own children. Upon having my first child, I decided, like many parents do, that she had to know that she had the exact rights every child in America had. This was the way I grew up—no doubt a privileged view of the world. I wanted her to experience how being in the majority felt. I was, in Parham’s model of racial identity, in the pre-encounter phase,

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which is characterized by a lack of racial awareness. It was when my daughter reached preschool that I realized that my efforts at ignoring my children’s ethnicity were senseless. She came home at four years old and told me that she was “brown and different.” This was not an insight that she had come upon on her own. Her teacher had used her and two others in the classroom as examples of how people are different. I suspect that this was the result of the additive teaching and training model of the 1990s, still practiced today, where people “celebrate the differences” in skin color, giving a lip service to diversity. My daughter seemed genuinely concerned that she was unlike the majority of her peers. She had not noticed that her skin was brown until that moment. Probably none of the other children had noticed, for that matter. Is it Validation or Invalidation? What was presumably intended as a celebration of human diversity by the preschool teacher became an experience of domination. The assumption behind the teacher’s comment was that “this is how the other” looks. I was infuriated with the teacher for making my daughter stand out in the group and making her feel different. Of course, this was very naive on my part, a result of not having those experiences growing up. As I became more acculturated, and through my children’s experiences, I realized that even in the first years of elementary school, children start to sort themselves out on their own, culminating in a clear segregation once they reach high school and start dating (Tatum, 1997). Interestingly enough, this phenomenon occurs in many Latin American countries, but around class. It is not surprising then that in Latin American countries there are so many upheavals around economic inequality, which is a clear form of discrimination. Had I brought up the incident of the skin color with the school, it would have fallen on deaf ears. This was a mainly white school, and we were clearly in the minority. Both my husband and I spent several sleepless nights pondering the dilemma of what to do with our children’s education. We decided to live in our current neighborhood because of the quality of the public schools. Unfortunately, living in a very diverse city would mean significantly lowering the education level of our children. In a way, we were pioneers in our city. My children were just a handful of nondominant children in their schools.

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“Don’t Be So Sensitive” How much one chooses to share, and the support one gets, are mediated by contextual variables. I could not share with my white friends, for fear of being misunderstood. They would also have had a hard time relating to my story. My relatives in South America were not a support either because they have never experienced what it means to be a “minority.” The only support I found was at work, where I interacted with colleagues who were not only people of color, but also had the same interest in diversity I had. It is clear that the way we dealt with racism and discrimination with our children very much paralleled our own racial identity development and acculturation process as immigrants.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION AMONG IMMIGRANT PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN: SOME SUGGESTIONS As I start writing this section, I am aware of the inherent biases that I bring as an immigrant with a mixed ethnic background, and with my particular demographics. I will try to stay away from universal claims. What I present next reflects not only my clinical observations and readings on the subject of protective factors that help individuals cope with race and discrimination, but also my own experience as an immigrant woman. Tatum (1997) indicates that some of the factors associated with a positive psychological adjustment in multiracial families are variables such as “higher socioeconomic level, attending integrated schools, living in multiracial neighborhoods, having a multicultural social life, enjoying open, warm relationships with parents . . . it also helps to have positive race-consciousness that includes a willingness to talk to children openly about issues related to identity” (p. 175). There are strategies prevalent among black families that may be useful to immigrant parents in their efforts to cope with the hardships of acculturation and racism/discrimination: [T]o maintain a positive self-image, have connections to the community, maintain an accurate connection of what is happening in the environment, cope with stressors and adapt to the environment, have emotional intimacy with others, maintain a sense of competence, and work productively. (Ramseur, 1991, as cited by Illovsky, 2003)

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Furthermore, Ramseur suggests that immigrant parents have kinship and extended family networks; work toward harmony, cooperation and interdependence; accept differences; foster internal development, work, and achievement orientation; adhere to tradition; have strong male and female bonds; have adaptable and flexible roles; develop support to deal with stressors (for example, obtain emotional support from others and appreciate one’s roots); respect and utilize the skills and wisdom of senior family members; and emphasize children. In the Toolbox for Change, I offer a series of suggestions for immigrant parents, educators, and practitioners. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Although categorical self-labels are important indicators of identification . . . they do not encompass the full range of the psychological meaning of ethnic identity. (Phinney, 2003, p. 68)

Immigrant children and their first-generation parents face numerous developmental tasks that are disregarded by major psychological developmental theories. They face a daunting task of trying to sort out who they are in the midst of very contradictory messages and situations. They try to maintain cultural allegiances for their parents’ sake, while at the same time they are being pushed by their mainstream peers to accept mainstream discourses and deny their backgrounds. Part of this is a result of an acculturation force that teaches people to embrace a country and its traditions. However, there are other factors that permeate everyday interactions. The notion of acculturation, while useful in understanding immigrants’ mental health, is archaic in its linear conceptualization. Issues of ethnic identity development are as important in the immigrant’s mental health as are the notions of racism and discrimination. I believe that in studying the development of ethnic identity and acculturation, it is imperative to address not only the individual variables, such as age, gender, and class, but also the mainstream’s social status given to a particular race (for example, Asian versus black, where it is clear that whites tend to marry more Asians than blacks, or the stereotype that Asians are smarter than Latinos and blacks). Also, it is important to address the pressure to conform imposed by the majority group, and its implications for a person’s livelihood. A serious redefinition of what it means to “have” an ethnicity in the United States is imperative. Reviewing the notions of “majority” and “minority” is necessary when notions of pure racial groups are

Toolbox for Change For Immigrant parents and their children

Strategies for change • Expose your children to role models along different cultural lines. Mirroring is a powerful tool for developing a child’s behavioral repertoire. When a child cannot see herself portrayed in the mainstream social channels, both her self-esteem and her potential for growth are limited. Having a multicultural repertoire of role models results in multiple possibilities for that child, as well as teaching her about human potential regardless of personal characteristics. • Be surrounded by a diverse group of friends. Heterogeneous groups are more creative and more validating of our multiplicity of experiences as human beings. A diverse group also avoids the parochial experiences that make racism and discrimination so prevalent. Diverse groups carry the message that “one size does not fit all,” thereby freeing the individual of rigid behavioral expectations and feelings of entrapment. • Always remember that this is a country of immigrants. Because you arrived later, it does not mean that you are entitled to fewer rights than the rest of the population. No one can tell you that. Know what your legal rights are. • Raise U.S. citizens, but also raise them as citizens of the world. In this era of globalization and continuous cross-cultural encounters, such practice might help your children experience less stress, as well as help them to become more adaptive. Teaching such concepts also sends immigrant children the message that “they do not have to live between two worlds” (GopaulMcNicol & Armour-Thomas, 2002, p. 178). It is also important to keep in mind that the acculturation process is different for immigrant parents and their children. Strong cultural allegiances and identities do subside over time for both immigrant parents and their children (Gopaul-McNicol & Armour-Thomas, 2002). • Teach your children about racism and the injustices that result from it. Give them examples of both blatant and hidden racism. Most importantly, teach them about institutionalized racism and the negative impact it has on people’s lives. 154

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Strategies for change • Parental involvement in the schools is crucial to educating teachers around their own cultural traditions and ethnic notions. Raising the level of awareness around the different needs different populations have might increase tension between parents and teachers, because the prevalent assumption is that “you don’t have a right to question the status quo . . . this is how we have done it for years . . . you are not going to change it . . . go back to your country.” These are actual covert and overt reactions I have personally both received and witnessed when I or others have demanded change. It is important to keep in mind that tensions will always arise when individuals come with a new paradigm. The key issue here is how to engage the whole system in supporting your claims. Civil rights laws have made it possible to demand the changes necessary for everyone’s welfare. • Demand representation of your own ethnic and cultural group. Educate mainstream citizens about people like you in order to challenge prevalent stereotypes. Also remember the relevance of a two-way communication channel. You break barriers when you reach out. However, remember that this is not your sole responsibility. Groups in power need to engage in this dialogue, too. • Be proud of who you are. By choosing to live and work in the United States, you are contributing to the diversity of thinking that makes this country so powerful. Remember that homogeneous thinking leads to stagnation, which in turn results in self-destruction. • Allow your children to share traits of both your country of origin and the United States. Isolating children from mainstream influences just for the sake of cultural preservation is selfish and maladaptive. As GopaulMcNicol and Armour-Thomas state (2002), “parents must understand that the strong cultural identity may dissipate over time, as each new generation becomes more Americanized” (p. 148). continued 155

Toolbox for Change (continued) For Practitioners/ educators

Strategies for change • Continue to work around self-awareness of your own biases and prejudices toward people different from you. Learning to feel comfortable with “difference” is an invaluable asset in your professional life. Along with self-awareness, it is imperative to learn the professional skills necessary to deal with particular groups such as immigrants in the United States. Good intentions are not enough. • Clarify personal notions of “acculturation.” What does an acculturated person look like? Keep in check your urges to indoctrinate people with your own life values. • Clarify your personal notions about what it means to be American and/or patriotic. In an era of globalization and with exposure to an increasingly diverse population in the United States, groups in power might experience a nostalgia to return to a “safer” time, when there were fewer heterogeneous forces in power to threaten the makeup of the “American fabric” (mainly, a white view of the world). Working with immigrants can be refreshing and disturbing at the same time. It can become a threat to an individual’s sense of identity, because it challenges his/her ethnocentrism and universal assumptions. Immigrants also represent a threat to people’s livelihood because accepting them means having to share economic resources that can seem limited at times. • Be constantly aware of mainstream society’s pervasive and insidious negative messages about minority groups. While this might seem a daunting and unnecessary task, it is crucial to keep in check how groups in power promote institutionalized racism. • Encourage conversations about difference, power, and oppression. Whether because of guilt or an inability to relinquish power, these conversations are not happening in our society, thereby promulgating the cycle of oppression. • Empower immigrant families by providing them with the available system resources. Parents cannot advocate for their children when they are not clear on how the system works and what their rights are.

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Strategies for change • Promote the creation of broader definitions of race to include the multiple realities that are part of a growing number of children in this country. The increasing immigration rate in the United States, as well as factors such as geographic mobility and multiracial unions, among others, make the notion of race seem rigid and static. We need to teach our children to think of race not in terms of skin color, but rather in terms of multiple identities. Also, engage in a serious conversation about who defines those categories and for what purpose. The notion of race only serves one purpose: to oppress those who do not look like “us.”

becoming outdated in such a multicultural country as the United States. This reviewing should include issues of power. More recent generations of white Americans are wondering whether they have an ethnicity. It is no surprise then to see hordes of white teenagers adopting black mannerisms and lifestyles. There is also a recent interest in finding relatives (no matter how distant) who may provide one with a minority status for job seeking or college applications. This phenomenon was very clear in Venezuela once the European Union was formed. Those who made fun of the country’s numerous Spanish and Portuguese immigrants made a sudden reconnection to their Spanish and Portuguese roots in order to obtain EU passports. Economic issues are also closely connected to acculturation and ethnic identity. In my experience as a third-generation immigrant across three continents, I have observed a close connection between economic prosperity and a more adaptive acculturation process. In this sense, who retains the economic power is key to understanding how immigrant groups adapt to a new country. The way we talk about ethnic identity of immigrants in the United States also needs to change because ethnic/racial labels impose social constructions that, in many cases, are not shared by immigrants themselves. It is important to examine the immigrants’ ecological context, or what Falicov (2002) calls the “ecological niche,” including economic and social/political pressures in their adoption of racial/ ethnic categories. A very well-to-do immigrant I once met told me that home was where you found economic prosperity. But, in my view,

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“home” is also a place where you feel you belong, where you do not have to worry about some law changing and robbing you of your immigrant status; or where you know your child is going to be treated fairly, no matter his/her ethnic/racial background. I will feel at home when I am no longer forced to be the “other,” or what the rest of the group wants me to be in order to diminish its own anxieties. Home means peace, and peace means exactly what the Pledge of Allegiance prescribes: “liberty and justice for all.” As I look back at my experiences as an immigrant parent, it is clear that my initial response to my daughter’s question “What am I?” was rather naive. Maybe it was just the beginning of a developmental process for me, a process that was activated by her quest for identity. My answers to her will vary through the years as I try to unravel and articulate the mysteries of who I am.

REFERENCES Benjamin, J. (1988). The bonds of love. New York: Pantheon Books. Berry, J. (1990). Psychology of acculturation: Understanding individuals moving between cultures. In R. W. Brislin (Ed.), Applied cross-cultural psychology (pp. 232–253). London: SAGE Publications, Ltd. Berry, J., & Kim, U. (1988). Acculturation and mental health. In P. Dasen, J. Berry, & N. Sartorius (Eds.), Health and cross-cultural psychology (pp. 207–236). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Carter, R. (1995). The influence of race and racial identity in psychotherapy. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Cuellar, I. (2000). Acculturation and mental health. In I. Cuellar & F. Paniagua, (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural mental health. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Espin, O. M. (1997). Psychological impact of migration on Latinas: Implications for psychotherapeutic practice. In O. M. Espin (Ed.), Latina realities: Essays on healing, migration, and sexuality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Falicov, C. J. (1998). Latino families in therapy: A guide to multicultural practice. New York: Guilford Press. Falicov, C. J. (2002). Ambiguous loss: Risk and resilience in Latino immigrant families. In M. Suarez-Orozco & M. Paez (Eds.), Latinos: Remaking America. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the University of California Press. Gopaul-McNicol, S., & Armour-Thomas, E. (2002). Assessment and culture: Psychological tests with minority populations. San Diego: Academic Press.

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Hardy, K., & Laszloffy, T. (2000). The development of children and families of color: A supplemental framework. In W. Nichols & M. PaceNichols (Eds.), Handbook of family development and intervention (pp. 109–128). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Helms, J. (Ed.). (1990). Black and white racial identity: Theory, research and practice. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Illovsky, M. (2003). Mental health professionals, minorities and the poor. New York: Brunner-Routledge. Kim-Ju, G., & Liem, R. (2003). Ethnic self-awareness as a function of ethnic group status, group composition, and ethnic identity orientation. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 9(3), 289–302. Marsella, A., & Yamada, A. M. (2000). Culture and mental health: An introduction and overview of foundations, concepts and issues. In I. Cuellar & F. Paniagua (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural mental health: Assessment and treatment of diverse populations. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Phinney, J. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34–49. In K. Chun, P. B. Organista, & G. Marin (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (p. 77). Phinney, J. (2003). Ethnic identity and acculturation. In K. Chun, P. B. Organista, & G. Marin (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (pp. 63–81). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Rodriguez, R. (2002). Brown: The last discovery of America. New York: Penguin Putman. Schmidley, D. (2001). Profile of the foreign-born population in the United States: 2000 (Current Population Reports, Series P23-206). U.S. Census Bureau, Government Printing Office. Retrieved June, 17, 2003, from www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-206.pdf Suarez-Orozco, C., & Suarez-Orozco, M. (1995). Migration: Generational discontinuities and the making of Latino identities. In Lola RomanucciRoss & George De Vos (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Creation, conflict and accommodation (3rd ed.). Walnut Creek, CA : AltaMira Press. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Tatum, B. (1997). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? New York: Basic Books. Trimble, J. E. (2003). Introduction: Social change and acculturation. In K. Chun, P.B. Organista, & G. Marin (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (p. 10). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

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CHAPTER 7

Coping with Immigration: New Challenges for the Mental Health Profession Linna Wang Darryl Freeland

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mmigration and immigrants have for decades received attention in cross-cultural mental health studies. However, following U.S. Census 2000 data and the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the immigrant who has been spotlighted by these most current, disturbing events confronts as never before the mental health profession. This new encounter between immigrants and mental health professionals highlights the need for a new knowledge of care and service delivery, which can add another enriching dimension to multicultural studies and practice. This chapter utilizes a cross-disciplinary approach to the issue in two parts. First, it briefly surveys studies on, and issues of, immigration and immigrants from both national and international perspectives, including the immigrant’s unique experience in this society, which presents both similarities to and differences from both domestic and racial minorities. The second part proposes that to integrate the newcomers into this society, public policies that promote multiculturalism and integration must be established and activated from government levels. This chapter identifies three major factors that contribute to the failure of the mental health system in serving immigrants’ needs. The “silo state” (described later) of the current mental health system is oppressive to the newcomers, more so than to the general consumers of mental health services. The Eurocentric values of the American

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mental health professions conflict with the cultural values of many immigrants, and the etic (culturally universal) approach to mental health by professionals on the individual level constitutes the major force that keeps mental health services out of the reach of immigrants. To work with immigrants, to improve their general wellness and mental health, the mental health systems and their constituent professionals must make a paradigm shift in their views and in their orientations—a shift from an inward convergence to integration that reflects the characteristics of an international and global society. This shift will require systemic, structural changes that necessitate cross-disciplinary, preventive means of meeting the mental health needs of immigrants. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF IMMIGRATION According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the foreign-born population in the United States has been increasing steadily since the 1970s. By March 2003, the foreign-born population exceeded 32 million and accounted for 11.5 percent of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003)—up from 4.7 percent in 1970, the lowest point in U.S. history. The rapidity of this increase was prominent in the last few decades of the twentieth century (from 6.2 percent in 1980 to 7.9 percent in 1990 and 10.4 percent in 2000). The population change, however, has not been limited to the increased numbers only. The feeding countries have also changed. As a percentage of the total, immigration from European countries decreased from about 62 percent in the 1970s to 15.3 percent in 2000, while immigration from Latin American countries increased from about 19 percent in the 1970s to 51 percent in 2000, and immigration from Asian countries increased from about 9 percent in 1970 to 25.5 percent in 2000. While the United States is experiencing the second great wave of immigrants in its history, the newcomers of this wave are very different from those in the last wave. This difference has profound and multidimensional implications, from national immigration policy to management of daily interaction with the new immigrants. Put into a global, ecosystemic perspective, however, the drastic change in the U.S. population is but an integral part of the interdependent global web of economic, political, social, technical, and environmental events, forces, and changes. The rapid increase in the foreign-born U.S. population reflects a high level of international migration during the past generation. In the last few decades of the

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twentieth century, almost every continent in the world experienced similar population change. About one million legal and 500,000 illegal immigrants enter into European countries annually, and about one third of jobs were filled by foreign laborers in some Asian countries. Australia has the highest portion (about 24 percent) of the foreignborns in its population. While economists cheer global immigration as the fastest way to boost globalization (The Economist, 2002a), that immigration also poses international political challenges. Immigration tests the host country’s sense of “self,” challenging policymakers to find management methods for the influx, including integration of the newcomers. Additionally, and of crucial import, how immigration and immigrants are managed and integrated directly affect world peace. Immigration can be identified as a human experience, which has occurred almost as long as human history has. However, immigration is more than an individual decision: governments leave their fingerprints on this human experience. Historically, colonial countries have imported laborers from their colonies or have exported them from one country to another—for example, France imported people from its North African colonies. From the Indian subcontinent, Great Britain imported Indians as well as exported them to Africa. Currently, the U.S. government imports skilled workers via H-1 working visas from Asian countries to staff its fast-growing high-tech industries, while excluding workers from other selected countries, rendering those immigrants “illegals.” Refugee immigration is the result of government actions, whether these actions are in the form of violence (civil war, international war, etc.) or persecution (political or religious). Still significant, government-sanctioned slave trades produced “forced immigration” onto Africans. Factors that contribute to individual decisions to immigrate include economic gain, family reunification, and asylum from persecution. Economic gain itself sometimes is not a strong-enough incentive for an individual to embark on such a hard journey. Economic incentive is often driven by or coupled with conditions in a failing state, a context that can produce hopelessness in the minds and hearts of potential immigrants. The transition from such a state can include a foreign destination occupied by family and friends who have settled down in the country, and relationships that can decrease the barrier and the cost of the immigration, thus making the trek and the transition easier for others to follow. That phenomenon can explain the frequently observed clustering of immigrants from the same regions of the sending

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countries. Indeed, a primary condition of destination is frequently not economic gain but kinship. People who immigrate for economic reasons and family reunification tend to be voluntary immigrants. They start the psychological preparation for the new country long before the journey begins. By contrast, people who seek asylum as refugees from political oppression, religious persecution, or war are more likely to be involuntary immigrants. They have to abandon all of their possessions, leave their homeland at short notice, and escape to foreign environs with deficits of language and psychological preparation. They may perceive immigration as being imposed on them. The imposed immigration may create more helplessness and less willingness to interact with the hosting culture. International immigration surveys also indicate that internal immigration (migration within the home country) and external immigration (migration outof thehome country)areoftenintertwined, while large-scale immigration usually occurs at the onset of industrialization (The Economist, 2002b). This variant process can partially explain the global phenomenon of immigration in the last two decades of the twentieth century: economic globalization jump-started industrialization in many Latin American and Asian countries. In that context, a farmer’s wife may start to work in a sweatshop in a nearby city (internal immigration) to accumulate the needed funds for her husband’s later migration to another country (external immigration). After he settles down in the other country, she and the children will follow, as will then the extended families and friends (family reunification) follow the initial familial group. ACCULTURATION: ASSIMILATION VERSUS INTEGRATION Acculturation, a process that individuals undergo in response to a changing cultural context (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dason, 1992), is inevitable in the immigration experience. The course of acculturation, however, is a two-way, interactional process between the newcomers and the hosting society. The course of acculturation is decided by the immigrant on an individual, pragmatic, and psychological level, as well as by the hosting country at the population level. That acculturation complex contains changes in social structure, economic base, and political organization (Graves, 1967). How immigrants are treated and what is expected of them are closely associated with the political structure and public policies of the hosting country. Such treatment depends on the orientation of the hosting country—whether it is a multicultural

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society or monoculture society. A monoculture society privileges a singular presentation: one language, one religious practice, and one ethnic group. As the Australian minister for immigration in the late 1960s claimed, a monoculture society is one, “everyone living in the same way, understanding each other, and sharing the same aspirations” (Bullivant, 1985, p. 12). In a monoculture society, the immigrant’s acculturation is socially constructed (and therefore expected) as a linear, convergent assimilation process: in that mode of acculturation, individuals acquire the second culture while letting go of their original culture. But such linear singularity contains a prejudicial discrepancy that can doom human dignity, cultural integration, and sociopolitical engagement. Deceptively, “on the one hand it seems like a simple enough proposition: an outcome of adaptation of new environments, a process of ‘learning the ropes’ and ‘fitting in’ through which ‘they’ become like ‘we,’ a convergence hypothesis, a sort of regression to the mean. . . . But on the other hand, it is an explosive term, value laden with arrogant presumptions of ethnic superiority and inferiority and fraught with the bitter baggage of the past—and the politics of the present, to be sure” (Rumbaut, 1997, p. 483). Monoculture society and its assimilation orientation are the fertile ground for anti-immigrant public policies and sentiment. In contrast to a monoculture society, in a multicultural society, pluralism is valued by its population and by its government policy. A central issue of concern to the multicultural society is how to manage that part of its cultural diversity that is associated with immigration. Instead of the focus on assimilation typical of a monoculture society, a multicultural society promotes integration for its newcomers, a process wherein individuals can develop healthy identities and mutually positive intergroup attitudes in a multicultural, sociopolitical context. In such societies, public policies are positively linked to pluralism (Berry et al., 1992). No ethnicity is “superior” to any other, and intergroup relationships are characterized by mutually respectful partnerships. Canada is an example of a multicultural society. In its dual-language system, no one language takes precedence over the other, nor does any ethnic group over any other. Similarly, after realizing that assimilation never worked, the Australian government in 1978 formally endorsed a multicultural policy, proudly announcing itself as one of the most cosmopolitan societies on earth (Bullivant, 1985), thus setting Australia on the course of actualizing multiculturalism. In Sweden, an explicit multiculturalism policy was adopted in 1975, with three goals: equality, freedom of choice, and partnership. These goals in Sweden

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aim to give immigrants the same living standard, to assure ethnic and linguistic minorities a genuine choice between retaining and developing their cultural identity, and to create an environment wherein immigrants, minority groups, and native populations all benefit from working together (Lundstrom, 1986). Like the majority of the state-nations in the world, the United States, although multiracial, is a monoculture society. Even though as a whole the benefits of immigration to the U.S. economy outweigh its costs, federal assistance to immigrants has been declining. For example, the end of the State Legalization Impact Assistance Grants (SLIAG) in 1994 diminished federally funded, targeted-education, health, and social services programs for immigrants. The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 banned most forms of public assistance and services for legal immigrants who remained noncitizens. The lack of multicultural policies at the federal level has created a void that leaves roomfor anti-immigrantpolicies/propositions to be put onto states’ ballots. A notorious example is California Proposition 187, passed in 1994, which attempted to prohibit virtually all health care for 1.6 million immigrants residing in California, and to force over 300,000 of their children out of the school system. Although a U.S. district court judged the prohibition unconstitutional, the initial passage of the proposition gave a boost of confidence to the anti-immigrant forces nationwide, provided legal sanction to the harassment and discrimination against immigrants, and set precedent for other anti-immigrant propositions to be put onto the ballot, such as California Proposition 227. As a monoculture society, the United States tends to favor an assimilationist orientation to its newcomers. America’s schools and other institutions consciously turn immigrants into Americans. The cry for the need of assimilation and the lament of its inadequacy were recorded as early as 1880: “There is a limit to our powers of assimilation and when it is exceeded the country suffers from something very like indigestion. We know how stubbornly conservative of his dirt and his ignorance is the average immigrant who settles in New York, particularly if he is of a clannish race like the Italians. Born in squalor, raised in filth and misery and kept at work almost from infancy, these wretched beings change their abode, but not their habits in coming to New York” (quoted in Chavez, 1996, p. 251). Assimilation is seen as a linear process for immigrants to merge into the “core society.” That assimilation process begins early, when the newcomers set their feet on the soil of the new country, with a final product of “identificational

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assimilation,” a self-image of the unhyphenated American (Gordon, 1964). This process is usually accomplished within two to three generations. As a nation, the United States demonstrated an exceptional capacity for assimilation, absorbing tens of millions of people from every corner of the world. At the same time, the process of “becoming American” has been a process far from linear, neither straightforward nor uniform (Rumbaut, 1997). As noted, the process of acculturation or Americanization can begin years before the immigration actually occurs, as potential immigrants psychologically prepare themselves for the longest journey of their lives. For example, nearly half of the new immigrants in the United States can speak English well or very well (Rumbaut, 1994), and many people have visited America before they immigrate (Massey & Espinosa, 1997). This linguistic knowledge and cultural familiarity are a reflection of globalization and widespread contact with American culture and lifestyle (Rumbaut, 1997), acquired through family connections (Massey & Espinosa, 1997) and worldwide adoption of English education.

ASSIMILATION PARADOX Assimilation is reported to be positively associated with the advancement of the immigrant’s life quality when its criterion is income. For example, evidence from Britain shows that, when assimilation level is measured by language acquisition, which is considered the key to assimilation, fluent English boosts an immigrant’s earnings by around 17 percent an hour (The Economist, 2002c). When assimilation is measured by the length of stay in the host country, Mexican Americans enjoy wage growth of 30 percent or more between the first and second generations (Reyes, 2001). However, a survey of public health literature has disclosed the existence of an “assimilation paradox,” a negative correlation among assimilation, physical health, and mental health. Some “high risk” groups of immigrants who are “less assimilated” to the U.S. culture, particularly low-income immigrants from Mexico and Southeast Asia, show unexpectedly favorable outcomes when health and mental health are concerned. Markides and Coreil (1986) refer to this phenomenon as an “epidemiological paradox” of assimilation. Several pregnancy outcome studies have indicated that less-assimilated immigrant women (new immigrants) actually have had better pregnancy outcomes than have more assimilated (second generation) women, as the outcomes are measured by birth weight and infant

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mortality rates—despite the fact that these women are of the poorest group, and they tend to utilize prenatal care much later than do other groups (Williams, Binkin, & Clingman, 1986; Scribner & Dwyer, 1989; Weeks & Rumbaut, 1991; Yu, 1982). Contrary to conventional wisdom, the relationship between social economic status and health (poor people tend to have poor health, a condition also apparent in the general American population) usually does not repeat itself among the new and therefore less-assimilated immigrants and their children (Beiser, Hou, Hyman, & Tousignant, 2002.) Indeed, public health data indicate another pattern: increased assimilation is often associated with increased health risk behaviors (Marks, Garcia, & Solis, 1990), such as smoking (Haynes, Harvey, Montes, Nicken, & Cohen, 1990), drug use (Amaro, Whitaker, Coffman, & Heeren, 1990), and alcohol use (Gilbert, 1989). In terms of mental health, different sources yield different results. Clinical studies on immigrants and refugees tend to focus on depression and anxiety, indicating that a large number of refugees experience severe clinical depression, anxiety symptoms, and/or posttraumatic stress syndrome—disorders that are attributable to preimmigration conditions, such as multiple traumatic experiences before emigration (Allodi, 1991; Chung & Kagawa-Singer, 1993; Mollica & Lavelle, 1986; Nguyen, 1989). Community-based studies (using nonclinical samples) tend to indicate that new (thus less-assimilated) immigrants are less likely to suffer lifelong depression than are more-assimilated immigrants, and their anxiety and depression are more likely to be situational, affiliated with postimmigration factors such as discrimination, unemployment, and daily hassles (Beiser et al., 2002; Pernice & Brook, 1996a). Studies on refugees indicate that diagnoses of schizophrenic disorders occur with greater frequency among refugees than among non-refugee immigrants (Krupinski, Stoller, & Wallace, 1973), although the prevalence is rather low (Gong-Guy, Cravens, & Patterson, 1991). Within refugee groups, diagnoses of brief reactive psychoses, particularly those characterized by paranoid reactions and hysterical psychosis, occur with far greater frequency than do diagnoses of schizophrenic disorder (Lin, 1986). Those data seem to confirm once again that immigration per se may not necessarily compromise immigrants’ health or mental health (Aronowitz, 1992; Munroe-Blum, Boyle, Offord, & Kate, 1989). Rather, assimilation may be a process highly stressful for immigrants. This process of “they” becoming “we” gives legitimacy to the superiority of the “core society,” a process that endorses discrimination, which

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has been identified as the major acculturative strain clearly associated with psychological symptoms among immigrants (Carter-Pokras & Woo, 1999; Dion, Dion, & Pak, 1992; Pernice & Brook, 1996a; Sanchez & Fernandez, 1993; Sandhu & Asrabadi, 1994; Ying, 1996). In this converging process of regressing to the mean, “they” have to let go of whatever differences they do have before “they” can become “we,” even though these differences may be vital to the physical and mental well-being of the immigrants. This process is especially stressful at the beginning stage of relocation, when the newcomer is overwhelmed with daily hassles (Abouguendia & Noels, 2001), poverty (National Council of Welfare, 1998), and discrimination (JasinskajaLahti & Liebkind, 2001). It remains controversial whether new immigrants actually go through a euphoric phase before they are hit by the stressful reality of relocation, as proposed by some researchers (Leherher, 1993; Brink & Saunders, 1976; Rumbaut, 1985). Most of the studies indicate that mental health risk occurs soon after resettlement (Tyhurst, 1982; Sluzki, 1986). Ritsner and Ponizovsky’s (1999) cross-sectional and in part longitudinal study with a large community sample indicates a two-phase temporal pattern of development of psychological stress, consisting of escalation and reduction phases. The psychological distress escalates right after the immigrant’s arrival, and peaks at twenty-seven months. The distress then starts to decline. The reduction phase continues to the end of the fifth year. This study, consistent with Beiser’s (1988) and Pernice and Brook’s (1996b) data, did not support the existence of any distress-free period during the first 2.5 years after immigration. In fact, refugees may remain at heightened risk of paranoid disorders that occur many years following resettlement because of social and linguistic isolation (Hitch & Rack, 1980). IMMIGRANTS AND INDIGENOUS RACIAL MINORITIES: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES Research findings indicate that there are similarities and differences between the new immigrants and the U.S. indigenous racial minorities. Given their short history in this country, most of the immigrants have not had the same history of racial discrimination and oppression that blacks have had. The second wave of immigration started in the early 1980s, and most of the newcomers in this wave did not experience the civil rights movement (including the women’s movement) of the 1960s, and they may have limited knowledge of that history

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and significance. However, the discrimination that immigrants experience is still race-based. As Pernice and Brook’s (1996a) data showed, while all other immigrant groups in New Zealand reported experiences of discrimination, British immigrants in their sample not only did not report such experiences, they did enjoy increased status in their new country. New immigrants, however, do experience prejudice and discrimination different from that of the indigenous minority groups— black men are stereotyped as violent, Asian immigrants are perceived to be taking jobs from the natives, and Latino immigrants are portrayed as draining national resources. The experience of assimilation and its impact are different among immigrants: they differ according to the reasons for immigration and the immigrant’s social class in the home country. For instance, Asian Indians with highly transferable human capital, such as computer and science technology skills, tend to immigrate to the United States for further career development. They tend to be from middle or higher social classes, have studied in an English language education system before immigration, are more likely to be professionals in the United States, and are generally of a much higher socioeconomic group (Mehta, 1998). Their experience of discrimination (or sometimes their lack of such experience) is not only drastically different from that of, say, black Americans, but their experience of prejudice can also be very different from that of other Asian immigrants, such as the Vietnamese, who as a group may have had limited English or transferable skills. Most of the immigrants are from relatively more homogeneous populations. They tend to be from the majority population group (some from the privileged group) in their home countries. The new status of “minority” and the discrimination that comes with it can be shocking to them, leading to their disillusionment about the pursuit of the American dream. Compared to domestic racial groups that have a long history of racial oppression, immigrants without such history of victimization can be less prepared psychologically and less strategically skillful in the grueling task of handling discrimination and prejudice, subtle or blatant; an innocence that in turn exacerbates the immigration stress. Tension, animosity, and disrespect among ethnocultural groups are often observed, as well. In the process of assimilation, immigrants often get the same message— “get with the program”—from both the dominant Caucasian and indigenous minority groups. Thus ironically, if not tragically, the achievement of certain immigrant groups is often used as evidence to enhance the racial discrimination against indigenous minority groups and other immigrant groups.

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FAILURE OF THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEMS FOR THE NEWCOMERS The American mental health system, as an integral subsystem of the monoculture society, favors an assimilationist orientation as well, and much research has been cast in a similar, inwardly bound mold—that is, how to help immigrants fit into the core U.S. culture. The majority of clinical literature on helping immigrants has focused on how to moderate the existing theories and models to work with immigrants, stressing the importance of acculturation in clinical considerations. Research has indicated that, indeed, the more-acculturated immigrants have consumed more mental health services than have less-acculturated ones (Kung, 2003; Vega, Kolody, Aguilar-Gaxiola, & Catalano, 1999). It has been known for decades, since the groundbreaking research by Sue and McKinney (1975), and confirmed time and again by others (Nguyen, 1985) that immigrants and ethnic minorities tend to underutilize mental health services. The underutilization, however, has been attributed to immigrants’ lack of knowledge or appreciation of psychological treatment. Perceived as the immigrant’s failure to utilize a modern method of psychological care, that nonparticipation or underutilization is not taken as a hint to the possible incompatibility between the newcomers and an American mental health system rooted in an American culture. Although some researchers have tried to identify the gap between the American mental health system and immigrants’ characteristics and needs, in its attempts to provide service to the newcomers, the mainstream mental health field remains unchanged, perpetuating a system that is clinic-oriented, individual-oriented, and provider-oriented. In that system, good-willed but otherwise naive professionals may have joined forces with the general societal values, perhaps unintentionally but nevertheless disparagingly engaging in the practice of prejudice and discrimination against immigrants by imposing culturally incompatible values, norms, practices, and service delivery formats onto immigrants. The mental health professionals have demonstrated admirable compassion in rendering help to the immigrant community. Help, however, must be a statement of outcome rather than a passionate declaration of intent (Gist, 2002). This outcome should be judged by the well-being of the new members—the immigrants themselves—on their own terms, not by the service providers’ demonstration of compassion alone. The finding that consumption of mental health services only rises with immigrants’ acculturation level (Wells, Hough, Golding, Burnam,

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& Karno, 1987; Wells, Golding, Hough, Burnam, & Karno, 1989) must not be taken as a permission to wait for the immigrants to achieve a certain level of acculturation first, before mental health professionals provide services to them. Assimilation did work for the immigrants of European heritage coming in the first wave of immigration in the history of this country. But that assimilation took about 100 years. The majority of the first wave of immigrants were Caucasians. European cultures, although different both among themselves and from the American culture, tended to cluster with or be close to American culture (Hofstede, 1991). The immigrants coming in the second wave are visibly different in appearance; they are from cultures that are categorically different from American culture, and they have a much shorter history in this country (the median length of residence in the United States is only 14.4 years for the total foreign-born population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). Their acculturation tasks involve much more than changing lifestyle and getting rid of accents. There is no guarantee even then that they would be accepted as unhyphenated Americans, even if they accomplished these tasks, as many third- and fourth-generation visibly different groups, such as Asian Americans, could testify. Most of the European immigrants coming in the first wave bought one-way tickets to the new continent, and they could never look back. With the advanced technology of modern communication and transportation, the new immigrants can have much stronger ties with their home country roots. The mental health system simply cannot afford to wait passively for immigrants to acculturate before the systems deliver quality services to them. The mandate to mental health professionals to engage in social responsibility and social advocacy requires that mental health professionals serve the lessacculturated immigrants and their families. BARRIERS OF THE NEW IMMIGRANTS TO THE ACCESS OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES The American mental health system has not been merely unsuccessful in meeting the mental health needs of Americans in general— as stated in the Commissioner’s Report on the mental health system (President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003)— the mental health system has failed miserably to serve the immigrants. Critical factors that contribute to such failure are identified here as the “silo” structure of the mental health system on the system level, the pathology orientation of mental health disciplines on the content

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of service level, and the etic view of cultures held by many mental health professionals on the individual level. The System Level The current mental health system is inwardly fragmented and separated from other disciplines, such as the public health and physical health systems. Within the mental health system, there are clear divisions among disciplines, not limited only to psychiatry, psychology, social work, marriage and family therapy, public sector and private practice, and so on and so forth. There exists an often-unspoken yet very apparent pecking order, with psychiatry at the top, social work at the bottom, and testing and psychotherapy in between. Medication is superior (at least in terms of payment) to talk therapy, while “clinical work” is superior to “non-clinical social support.” Interdisciplinary integration and cooperation are preliminary (Meyerson, Chu, & Mills, 2003). Turf war among the disciplines commonly protects a status quo in the name of enhancing professional identity. Such division is further perpetuated by licensing laws, funding systems, and codes of ethics of each discipline that are punitive to any attempt to cross a disciplinary line or to negotiate cross-disciplinary integration. For example, the code of ethics of the American Psychology Association, the American Counseling Association, and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy all state that their members should practice only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, consultation, study, or professional experience—a requirement that on the face is designed to ensure that the mental health professional does no harm by wandering into an area where s/he lacks sufficient training but, again, “ethical guidelines” too often serve as barely veiled turf claims whose bottom line is commodification of the discipline for financial gain or, at the very least, a posture of superiority of orientation. How to coordinate with professionals from other disciplines is not a required training component of any of the disciplines. If a professional attempts to step out of the office and coordinate with others, s/he may risk behaving unethically, at the risk of a lawsuit. The ever-increasing complexity and bureaucracy of such a self-serving system leaves millions of Americans lost in a maze, in the process of being “referred” to different subsystems. Such complexity is even beyond the coping skills of some mental health providers who opt to take cash for their services, leaving consumers to deal with a maze of common, conflict-ridden systems such as those

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involving insurance claims—if they (much less immigrants) even have insurance coverage! If the coordination of care falls squarely on the backs of consumers, such a system is virtually inaccessible to immigrants who are from different social and health care systems. The structure alone of such a health care system reflects the traditional assimilation orientation toward the newcomers, as that orientation requires newcomers to acquire a highly sophisticated knowledge of the mental health system before they could even begin to navigate the maze of the system. The Content of Service Level On the content level, a number of researchers (many of them minorities or immigrants themselves) have made substantial contributions to the understanding of the barriers that hinder immigrants’ access to the mental health services. A number of barriers have been identified, such as the high rate of uninsured (Ku & Matani, 2001), lack of language skills to understand the mental health system (Fan, 1999), lack of bilingual staff, lack of knowledge about mental health systems and western psychology concepts (Marwaha & Livingston, 2002), absence of targeted programs (Gong-Guy et al., 1991), and so on. These barriers are both explicit and intuitively identifiable. The implicit barriers, however, lie in the conflict between immigrants’ cultural values and the hidden values inherent in the American mental health system. While less recognizable, these surreptitious values probably constitute the major force that keeps mental health services from the reach of the newcomers in U.S. society. For example, while even native-born Americans find mental health interventions stigmatizing, this stigma has, however, a different connotation for many immigrants. With high family and group orientation, immigrants are reluctant to seek counseling because psychotherapy can stigmatize not only the person who needs help but also that person’s entire family system. The obligation to protect the family name and sometimes the reputation of the whole group (for example, the “model minority” reputation) is an added dimension of social stigma for immigrants. Some researchers and practitioners have recognized and then written about the conflict between these culturally rooted antipathies (Das & Kemp, 1997; Meadows, 2003; Phan & Silove, 1999). Notably, Sue and Sue (2003) have done a fine job conceptualizing and summarizing such discrepancies. According to Sue and Sue (2003), western psychology and psychotherapy prize the values of individual focus, expressiveness (verbal,

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emotional, and behavioral), insight searching, self-disclosure, scientific empiricism, and distinctions between mental and physical functioning and ambiguity. Each of these values potentially conflicts with immigrants’ cultural values; therefore, these western psychology values become a barrier to immigrants’ access to mental health services. For example, verbal, emotional, and behavioral expressions are highly valued by American psychology and are capacities often taken as indicators of progress. Some therapy models emphasize the importance of the ability to recognize, acknowledge, describe, and verbally communicate emotions. On the contrary, high-context cultures (cultures where communication is highly contextual and where a lot of information is delivered nonverbally and/or assumed in the context) tend to view such open expression of emotions as lack of maturity and self-control. What is more valued is what is assumed and unspoken yet well understood by the people from the same high-context culture. While psychology jargon has become part of mundane language in psychology-minded American culture, in many other cultures people are more likely to explain the causes of their emotions rather than to label their emotions (Cervantes, 2002). Among certain immigrant peoples, emotions are often communicated through subtle nonverbal cues, gestures, and behavioral interactions that may be missed by the verbal communication-oriented U.S. professionals. Great discomfort and feelings of inadequacy may arise when immigrants are confronted with the unfamiliar task of labeling and verbally communicating their emotions—in a word, communicating in a fashion that is considered inferior. Asian immigrants value harmony, which dictates that people should anticipate the emotional needs of others, should not express strong feelings at the expense of interpersonal harmony, and, in an effort to maintain harmony in a disagreement, should overlook the differences (Kim, Li, & Liang, 2002). Noh and Kaspar’s (2003) study on Korean immigrants also found that active, problem-focused coping styles were more effective in reducing the impacts of perceived discrimination on depression, while frequent use of passive, emotion-focused coping had debilitating mental health effects. Most cultures in the world do not differentiate mental health and physical health as clearly as does the U.S. culture. In the home countries of many Latino and Asian immigrants, somatization is well accepted as a way of expressing emotions (Lee, Lei, & Sue, 2001; Isaac & Janca, 1996), while the definition of problems can be drastically different from that of western psychology. For example, it is well accepted in Chinese culture that anger increases the probability of liver problems,

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that fear hurts the kidneys, that sadness injures the spleen, and that even happiness—if it is extreme—can be harmful to the heart. Somatization and social stigma of emotional disturbance naturally land immigrants in physicians’ offices more than in mental health facilities. If those persons are referred to the mental health providers, and if they can then find their way there at all, their definition of the problems (spirit possession, heartache, weak nerves, loss of soul substance, etc.) (Azhar & Varma, 2000) may be considered mysterious at best, misunderstood, and thus discredited. What is clearly defined as pathological by western psychology—such as delusion and hallucination—can be considered desirable by some immigrants (McDaniel, 1989). The unfamiliar definition of a “problem” marks only the beginning of difficult and frustrating experiences for both the mental health provider and the consumer. While the content of American psychotherapy contains values that conflict with many immigrant traditions, an additional but less noted values conflict occurs in the office-based, talk-cure format. That format can account for immigrants’ underutilization rate of mental health facilities. Talk therapy has its roots in white, middle-class values of meaning-searching and insight-seeking. An assumption in those values is that the problem resides either inside the person or inside the family system of the person; therefore, transformation is to occur through the intrapersonal mechanism of cognitive or emotional change or interpersonal interaction change. The bottom line is “they have a problem and it is our job to find it out.” The linear, scientifically oriented psychotherapy designed to treat both individuals and family systems starts by defining the problem and then helping the individual or family to take responsibility for owning and solving the problem. In other words, problems are within either the person or the family, and so are the solutions. This individualized pathology orientation determines the format of service delivery as one that is officebound. This format—confining the person, couple, or family to a formal setting, disclosing intimate information to a stranger on a limited fifty-minute time frame in an arbitrarily fixed weekly schedule, and negotiating payment for solving the problem that is defined in strange terms—is anything but familiar to the new immigrants. Again, immigrants are likely to experience transitional depression and anxiety related to postimmigration factors, such as discrimination, language barriers, and lack of housing, employment, and medical assistance. These are problems that cannot easily, if at all, be talked away, regardless of how much new meaning can be reframed into the

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immigrants’ experiences. The talk therapy format simply does not make much sense to them. It is frustrating to the clinician whose skills are confined in insight and personal skills-seeking, as well as to the immigrants who would like to know how to deal with “real life” problems. The immigrant’s constant talk about the problems encountered in the new country can be perceived and interpreted by the clinician as a deficit of external locus of control that borders on pathological “resistance,” “non-compliance,” or merely an unwillingness to take personal responsibility—conditions familiar to the mental health worker that can be interpreted as real problems that are worth treating. The format of talk therapy is not only unfamiliar to the new immigrants: if it is imposed on them, it can do them harm. The new immigrants tend to be from community-oriented cultures, and they tend to pool community means to deal with hardship or problems in life. As Sun and Steward (2000) found, Hong Kong Chinese people, regardless of gender and education level, use social support as a means of coping, and their social interactions increase when stressors become more threatening. New immigrants rely on the family and community, and they often opt for familiar traditional healing practices (Nguyen, 1984). When office-based talk therapy is adopted as a means of solving problems, immigrants are taken from their social contexts, and they are required to focus on an internal resolution, an action that can cut them off from their natural sources of coping and strength. They may be trapped in a paradoxical box: the more progress they make in learning skills that are valued by the U.S. culture, such as assertiveness and “emotional independence,” the more distant they can become from their source of strength and familiarity. The more they are required to become independent individuals, the farther they get from their primary value of community. The negotiation of those two poles can be a complex and stress-producing task that, when imposed, can be more harmful than helpful. The Individual Level On the individual provider’s level, the good-willed and passionate mental health professional, when not in touch with and not knowledgeable of the biases and Eurocentric nature of her or his own values, assumptions, and beliefs as well as those of the profession, may unknowingly provide a low quality of service to new immigrants. Such racial superiority and Eurocentrism can take forms from blatant to subtle, ranging from a barely veiled prejudicial recommendation,

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making insensitive or even insulting suggestions (such as “Have you thought about naturalization or religious conversion?” offered to a Middle Eastern Muslim woman immigrant who has been experiencing intense discrimination since 9/11), to providing immigrants with the same treatments that have “proved effective” for white Americans, regardless of the fact that most of the psychology research was done on the white U.S. population (Graham, 1992). Well trained in the Eurocentric systems, many providers take the etic (culturally universal) position in working with the new immigrants. That etic position can involve the process of “naming,” a process involving an assumption that there is only one and “correct” way of defining normality and abnormality—a belief that there exists for an individual or family an ideal status of being, and that there is an objective standard for functional human behavior. While professionals with an etic position may not deny the importance of culture to a certain extent, they may also view culture as merely one of the many independent variables that are an optional consideration, rather than understanding culture as the background of human behaviors—indeed, as the backdrop of authentic human drama, often comprising rich and heroic proportions. These good-willed professionals are too often willing to perform the minimum modification in diagnosis, treatment, and interaction with immigrant clients. With the sanction of the dominant societal force, the professional structure and the professionals’ own etic position, many mental health providers continue to propose white solutions, regardless of the identity of the immigrants with whom they are working (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1989, 1998). When cultural contextual variables are ignored, dominant culture prevails. The cultural imposition of dominant group values can lead minorities to internalize negative self-images (Espiritu, 1997). Immigrants can adopt a sense of inferiority and a desire to conform to those values and expectations that are glorified as normal in the mainstream society (Pyke, 2000). Ethnocentric monoculturalism is a powerful social force that is dysfunctional in the U.S. pluralistic society. The U.S. mental health system, with its goals and service delivery process that are informed, influenced, and determined by this powerful force of monoculturalism, inevitably has been ill-equipped to address the needs of immigrants in the pluralistic society and has therefore failed to serve the needs of the diverse members of that society. The problems at the system, professional, and individual levels overlap and intertwine, with each supporting and maintaining the status quo of the others. The system has become selfperpetuating, “stuck in a status quo approach to care that accepts

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tradition and mediocrity rather than demanding innovation and excellence” (Kelly, 2002, p. 1). The world, however, is not stuck in the status quo. The accelerating process of globalization draws people from different geographic and cultural origins into close contact and relationships. As Marsella (1998) notes, the world has become a global community in which lives have become increasingly interdependent, where most global events and forces increasingly become local events and forces. Since the abuse, suffering, and victimization of any person or people has implications for all, the health and well being of all human beings must be assigned a new priority in all our lives. Mental health professions must respond to this interdependence with determination and rigor. NEW CHALLENGES TO THE U.S. MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM To demonstrate with integrity its essential value to the national economy and the overall health of the nation’s population and to keep abreast of the needs of a society that is rapidly changing to be more international and global, the mental health system has no other choice but to face decisively the challenges in this new era. There must be a paradigm shift from the inwardly converging orientation that requires assimilation before treatment to the outwardly embracing orientation that seeks to integrate and accommodate all cultural variations and perspectives. The goal, however, should not be to provide “equal treatment” to immigrants but “equal access” (Sue & Sue, 2003) to create an opportunity for the new members of the society to have equal access to the services that are available to the rest of the population. To achieve this goal, changes must occur at all three levels—system, professional, and individual. The outcomes for those goals should be those that are considered desirable and valuable by the immigrants. Similarly, those outcomes should be measured by the criteria of the immigrants’ general functioning in U.S. society, the immigrants’ economic gain, and the value that their position merits in the society. However, such outcomes can be achieved only through matching services to the pressing needs of immigrants—namely, the needs to overcome language barriers, to obtain assistance in employment training and opportunities, to acquire housing, to access medical care, and to gain knowledge and skills in dealing with daily hassles and hardships. By their very nature, these needs require services that are preventionand education-oriented rather than clinical treatment-oriented. The

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delivery format of such services, therefore, will most commonly also be community-based rather than office-based. Challenges on the System Level No change on the system level can materialize without a change in funding systems. Since the federal government is the single biggest payer for the nation’s health care, federal funding has to reflect the value of prevention and cross-system coordination. It needs to prioritize allocation to such programs as housing assistance, employment training and assistance, and care coordination. Cross-system coordination should include the interface between mental health and physical health and between mental health and federal and local governmental policymakers and agencies. Instead of functioning as an ambulance parked at the bottom of a cliff, waiting for people to fall, the mental health system must become an active player in prevention, in bettering the society and the life of its citizens, proactively providing society with its expertise in the knowledge of human behavior, providing such information to society and policymakers. The mental health system should take a systemic approach, orchestrating with all the systems involved to develop working relationships and partnerships with other systems to establish different levels of “wraparound” programs. The expertise and strength of the mental health professions should be used constantly to survey the playing field in a timely manner, to identify the underserved population, and to provide pertinent information to decision-makers who can change policies and reallocate resources to the most-needed areas. U.S. foreign policy by and large influences which group of people are the next coming into the country. Therefore, especially in the case of refugees, the mental health system should have a close, interactive working relationship with government foreign policymakers, should be informed by those policymakers of who will be the next group of newcomers, and should reciprocally inform policymakers of the availability of social resources. That reciprocal information should include whether the society at large is ready to provide humanitarian support to the potential newcomers, thus collaborating with policymakers on resource allocation that respects the needs of immigrants and the society that can integrate them. With its knowledge and expertise, mental health professionals can rather accurately predict the needs and behavioral patterns of different groups of immigrants and refugees; therefore, the mental health system should take a leadership role,

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offering its expertise to anticipate the needs of the next wave of newcomers, and to develop assistance programs according to the specific needs of the newcomers even before they set their feet onto U.S. soil. For example, if it were known that one group of newcomers possessed limited skills but were from countries/regions where the education system was English-based (as in some African countries that had been British colonies) and the other group were people with more transferable skills (although there, the education system might be local language-based), then assistance programs for the first group would be more employment capacity-enhancing, and assistance programs for the second group intuitively would focus more on language training. Such programs can be developed in anticipation of the next wave of immigrants and refugees, to embrace them and integrate them as soon as they arrive. As advocates for immigrants’ general well-being, mental health professionals must work with the local government to create tax incentives for businesses to create employment opportunities, as is often done for the American disabled population. The wall between mental health and physical health care systems has to be knocked down. No discipline, no single approach, and no solitary action or intervention can reliably provide the comprehensive and overarching support for this most marginalized population. As a partner, not as a competitor, the mental health profession should stand side by side with primary care services, to coordinate the care that is of immigrants’ choice. Service must be delivered within the immigrants’ contextual environment, such as in their homes, community centers, schools, religious institutions, regional associations (immigrants from the same region often organize their own association as a social support), social/festive events gatherings, etc. The mental health system has to go to those places where the problems and needs are, to tackle the problems on the spot, preventing them from further festering to a degree that requires costly and stigmatizing psychological treatment. Many existing wraparound programs that offer services to the youth (Chenven & Brady, 2003) can be borrowed as models for such services to the immigrants. Challenges at the Professional Content Level The content of mental health service to immigrants should steer away from the traditional DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)based diagnoses and internally focused interventions. Instead, the service should be heavily educational (Kagan & Shafer, 2001), providing

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information that is crucial to survival in this country—for example, the norm of childrearing practice; information and direction to social resources; the general social rules and norms, regulations, and policies in U.S. society; the differences between the political, financial, educational, and medical systems in the United States and those of their home countries; immigration regulations and policies, etc. Help-seeking immigrants should be regarded as people who encounter problems in their lives, not as people who have problems (Sue & Sue, 2003). Problems should be externalized, and the first move should be strengths-searching and resource-identifying, not pathology-hunting. Community resources and “alternative” measures should be utilized in problem-solving. Alternative measures, much to the discomfort of many western practitioners trained primarily in the reductionism tenets of the natural sciences, often include religion and spirituality. While mental health professionals have to make room for and learn to coexist with other healers and healing mechanisms, such as religious priests or monks, spiritual healers or counselors, shamans, herbal treatment, yoga, massage therapy, prayer, ceremonial rituals, and so on, most nonwestern cultures do not have clear separations among religion, spirituality, and healing. These healers and healing mechanisms can have equal, if not more, healing power to the immigrants who share the same belief systems. These healers and healing mechanisms should be treated as valid allies that are, for many immigrants in belief and in practice, on a par with other professionals. While it is vital to fight against the social stigma of mental illness, there should be the same rigor in fighting the social stigma of being “foreign.” This action is vital for immigrants if they are to develop healthy cultural identities that, in the process of acculturation, have been identified as strong predictors of mental health. As long as stigmas are attached to “foreign” accents, “foreign” looks, or “foreign” beliefs, immigrants will always get the same message—that being “foreign” is less than red, white, and blue—that being “foreign” disqualifies and discredits them by default, and that they are not welcome unless they become nonhyphenated Americans. No discipline or profession can function without basic theory guidance and tenets. Especially in mental health work with immigrants, there must be a well-articulated theoretical perspective. While most of the psychological theories and concepts are severely limited in their compatibility to the values and world views of the immigrants, it is believed that to engage in professional mental health work with immigrants, social constructivism and systems theory are theories of

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choice (Marsella, 1998), for these theories share the holistic views held by most non-western cultures. These theories broke with earlier scientific linear causality, moving toward a psychology and anthropology compatible with and similar to that of eastern philosophy. They share the philosophy that emphasizes the embeddedness of different levels of life contexts and activities within ever-ascending dimensions and interrelatedness of every social group. They recognize the interdependent and interconnected nature of the world, and they strive for the balance of forces and powers—especially the hidden forces and powers. They recognize the validity of and give legitimacy to indigenous psychologies and healing practices, and they strive to give a voice to those who are easily overridden by the majority. These theories provide understanding and use of conceptual and theoretical perspectives that link global forces to microsocial, psychosocial, and biopsychosocial levels of human behavior. Challenges at the Individual Level With the challenges and required changes on the systems and professional content levels, individual mental health professionals also have to face the challenge of acquiring another skills set that includes a knowledge base that is culturally competent to work with immigrants. These mental health professionals must have higher tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, because whenever they walk into any one group of immigrants’ lives, those lives are a new unknown. They must embrace a capacity to lean into their discomfort, to recognize and to challenge the Eurocentric nature of the assumptions, values, and concepts held both by themselves and by their professions. They must be flexible, willing to switch roles when such shifting is necessary and helpful. They should be able to switch frequently from clinician to consultant, to Internet technician, to social advocate, to community activist, and so on. Mental health professionals should be able to apply their research skills to assess quickly the immigrants’ needs, deficits, and strengths and to design programs that meet culture-specific or group-specific needs by utilizing the immigrants’ strengths and available means. They have to acquire knowledge of the immigration process, which includes the differential treatment that the U.S. government issues to immigrants of different status. They need to be informed of national and international issues and events and educated on U.S. foreign policy and geopolitics. Clinicians must learn how U.S. foreign policy is carried out in different countries or regions and how that policy affects international immigration.

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As an example, without knowing the historical background, current events, and U.S. role in the Middle East, a mental health professional can never fully understand and therefore work effectively with Palestinian immigrants. Without the knowledge of the historical, political, and financial relationships between Japan and Korea and the geopolitics in Asia, mental health professionals may easily misinterpret as prejudice the comments of mistrust that Korean immigrants express toward Japan, and the mental health worker may take a wrong turn from there. Challenges to Academic Training When culture competency is being discussed, one cannot not talk about training. Mental health education, as an integral component of the nation’s health care system, is shaped and defined not only by the dominant societal views and values but also by the profession’s values and assumptions. The status quo of mental health training is consistent with that of the mental health system. With its curriculum content dominated by western theories and treatment modalities, it caters to the white middle-class audience, as evidenced in most psychology programs’ predominance of Caucasian faculty and student bodies. The education system has to change with the rest of the mental health system to produce professionals well prepared to serve the changed population. The curriculum changes should inquire about such topics as economics, politics, and climate—conditions that vastly affect life and human beliefs and behaviors. Currently, the public health perspective has little attention in mental health education, as the private practice or specialty clinic model dominates the U.S. free market health care system. As an unprecedented number of immigrants are coming into this country, with most of them coming from places where socialized primary care medicine or indigenous and spiritual healing practices are more prevalent, the enormity of mental health needs and tasks will inevitably require more economically feasible alternatives to current office-based specialty clinic interventions. A greater attention to environmental factors and social policies and practices that contribute to depression, anxiety, aggression, and the like can help produce more culturally consonant and economically cost-effective solutions to mental health problems. In contrast to the present training models and curriculum, this concentration would require a training regimen of broader scope that focused on larger organizations that involved mental health services.

Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals

They versus we. “Foreign” equals “less.” Foreigners fleece the American people. They take jobs away and drive wages down. If you don’t love this country the same way that we Americans do, go back to your own country. Get with the program.

Public campaign to fight the social stigma of being foreign. Promote integration rather than assimilation. Promote social awareness of immigrants’ contributions to the nation. Educate self in foreign affaires and U.S. foreign policy. Broaden view by learning from the foreigners in the U.S. and other countries.

Practitioners

We treat you just like any other human being. I can’t help you if you don’t understand my culture or the way we do business here. Please teach me about your culture. It is beyond my training to help you, so let me make a referral.

Awareness of Eurocentric nature of the mental health profession. Acquire new knowledge and skills. Take preventive and public health approaches. Get out of office and go to where the problems are. Do not wait for the problems to come to you.

Community/ society

No orchestrated assistance system designed for immigrants. Immigrants are left alone to swim or sink. Anti-immigrant legislature.

System changes at all levels. Special funding for culture/group-specified programs. Interface of all systems. Get politically involved in monitoring and opposing antiimmigrant legislature.

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CONCLUSION The trend of immigration is going to continue in the United States and globally. With one of the best economies and a large number of the best-trained mental health professionals in the world, the United States is in an advanced position to respond to increased global interdependency and its consequences. How immigrants are treated in this society has far-reaching impacts on world peace. If the United States is to play a leadership role in the international arena of peace and the advances of civilized humankind, there is no other choice but to face the challenge to improve the welfare of the new members of the American society. Mental health professionals, as social advocates and agents of change, have a significant role in this endeavor. To summarize the images of oppression and the suggested strategies to combat such oppression at different levels refer to the toolbox for change. REFERENCES Abouguendia, M., & Noels, K. (2001). General and acculturation-related daily hassles and psychological adjustment in first- and second-generation South Asian immigrants to Canada. International Journal of Psychology, 36(3), 163–173. Allodi, F. A. (1991). Assessment and treatment of torture victims: A critical review. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179, 4–11. Amaro, H., Whitaker, R., Coffman, J., & Heeren, T. (1990). Acculturation and marijuana and cocaine use: Findings from HHANES, 1982–1984. American Journal of Public Health, 80, 54–60. Aronowitz, M. (1992). Adjustment of immigrant children as a function of parental attitudes to change. International Migration Review, 26, 89–110. Atkinson, D. R., Morten, G., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.) (1989). A minority identity development model. In Counseling American Minorities: A cross cultural perspective (3rd ed.) (pp. 35–52). Dubuque, IA: W. C. Brown. Atkinson, D. R., Morten, G., & Sue, D. W. (1998). Counseling American minorities (5th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. Azhar, M. Z., & Varma, S. L. (2000). Mental illness and its treatment in Malaysia. In I. al-Issa (Ed.), Al-Junun: Mental illness in the Islamic world (pp. 163–186). Madison, CT: International Universities Press. Beiser, M. (1988). Influences of time, ethnicity and attachment on depression in Southeast Asian refugees. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 46–51. Beiser, M., Hou, F., Hyman, I., & Tousignant, M. (2002). Poverty, family process, and the mental health of immigrant children in Canada. American Journal of Public Health, 92(2), 220–228.

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Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Segall, M. H., & Dasen, P. R. (1992). Crosscultural psychology: Research and application. New York: Cambridge University Press. Brink, P. J., & Saunders, J. M. (1976). Transcultural nursing: A book of reading. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Bullivant, B. (1985). Educating the pluralist person: Images of society and educational responses in Australia. In M. Poole, P. de Lacey, & B. Randhawa (Eds.), Australia in transition: Culture and life possibilities. Sydney, Australia: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Carter-Pokras, O., & Woo, V. (1999). Health profile of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Ethnicity and Health, 4(3), 117–120. Cervantes, C. A. (2002). Explanatory emotion talk in Mexican immigrant and Mexican American families. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Science, 24(2), 138–164. Chavez, L. R. (1996). Borders and bridges: Undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America. In S. Pedraza & R. Rumbaut (Eds.), Origins and destinies: Immigration, race and ethnicity in America. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Chenven, M., & Brady, B. (2003). Collaboration across disciplines and among agencies within systems of care. In A. J. Pumariega & N. C. Winters (Eds.), Handbook of child and adolescent systems of care: The new community psychiatry (pp. 66–81). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Chung, R. C. Y., & Kagawa-Singer, M. (1993). Predictors of psychological distress among Southeast Asian refugees. Social Science and Medicine, 36, 631–639. Das, A. K., & Kemp, S. F. (1997). Between two worlds: Counseling South Asian Americans. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 25(1). Dion, K. L., Dion, K. K., & Pak, A. W. (1992). Personality-based hardiness as a buffer for discrimination-related stress in members of Toronto’s Chinese community. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 24, 517–536. The Economist (2002a). The best of reasons: Who gets in. Nov. (2). The Economist (2002b). Irresistible attraction: Who moves, and why. Nov. (2) The Economist (2002c). Feeling at home: Why some immigrants settle in faster than others. Nov. (2). Espiritu, Y. L. (1997). Asian American women and men. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, Publications, Inc. Fan, C. (1999). A comparison of attitudes towards mental illness and knowledge of mental health services between Asian immigrants and AngloAustralians. Community Mental Health Journal, 35(1), 47–57. Gilbert, M. (1989). Alcohol consumption patterns in immigrant and later generation Mexican American women. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 9, 299–313.

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Gist, R. (2002). What have they done to my song? Social science, social movements, and the debriefing debates. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 9(2), 273–279. Gong-Guy, E., Cravens, R. G., & Patterson, T. E. (1991). Clinical issues in mental health service delivery to refugees. American Psychologist, 46(6), 642–648. Gordon, M. M. (1964). Assimilation in American life: The role of race, religion, and national origins. New York: Oxford University Press. Graham, S. (1992). “Most of the subjects were white and middle class”: Trends in published research on African Americans in selected APA journals, 1970–1989. American Psychologist, 47(5), 629–639. Graves, T. D. (1967). Psychological acculturation in a tri-ethnic community. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 23, 337–350. Haynes, S. G., Harvey, G., Montes, H., Nicken, H., & Cohen, B. H. (1990). Patterns of cigarette smoking among Hispanics in the United States: Results from the HHANES, 1982–1984. American Journal of Public Health, 80, 47–53. Hitch, P. J., & Rack, H. (1980). Mental illness among Polish and Russian refugees in Bradford. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 206–211. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw-Hill. Isaac, M., & Janca, A. (1996). Somatization—a culture-bound or universal syndrome? Journal of Mental Health, 5(3), 219–222. Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., & Liebkind, K. (2001). Perceived discrimination and psychological adjustment among Russian-speaking immigrant adolescents in Finland. International Journal of Psychology, 36(3), 174–185. Kagan, H., & Shafer, K. C. (2001). Russian-speaking substance abusers in transition: New country, old problems. In S. L. A. Straussner (Ed.), Ethnocultural factors in substance abuse treatment (pp. 250–271). New York: Guilford Press. Kelly, T. A. (2002). Dealing with fragmentation in the service delivery system. Retrieved on Aug. 25, 2003, from www.mentalhealthcommission. gov/presentations/kelly.doc Kim, B. S. K, Li, L. C., & Liang, C. T. H. (2002). Effects of Asian American client adherence to Asian cultural values, session goal, and counselor emphasis of client expression on career counseling process. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49(3). Krupinski, J., Stoller, A., & Wallace, L. (1973). Psychiatric disorders in East European refugees now in Australia. Social Science and Medicine, 7, 31–49. Ku, L., & Matani, S. (2001). Left out: Immigrants’ access to health care and insurance. Health Affairs, 20(1), 247–257. Kung, W. W. (2003). Chinese Americans’ help seeking for emotional distress. Social Service Review, 77(1), 110–135.

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Lee, J., Lei, A., & Sue, S. (2001). The current state of mental health research on Asian Americans. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 3(3–4), 159–178. Leherher, Z. (1993). The psychology of immigration: A literature review. Jerusalem: Israeli Defence Forces & JDC-Brookdale Institute of Gerontology and Human Development. Lin, K.-M. (1986). Psychopathology and social disruption in refugees. In C. L. Williams & J. Westermeyer (Eds.), Refugee mental health in resettlement countries (pp. 61–73). Washington, DC: Hemisphere. Lundstrom, S. (1986). Opening address to IACCP conference. In L. Ekstrand (Ed.), Ethnic minorities and immigrants in a cross-cultural perspective (pp. 9–13). Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger. Markides, K. S., & Coreil, J. (1986). The health of Hispanics in the southwestern United States: An epidemiological paradox. Public Health Reports 101, 253–265. Marks, G., Garcia, M., & Solis, J. (1990). Health risk behaviors in Hispanics in the United States: Findings from HHANES, 1982–1984. American Journal of Public Health, 80, 20–26. Marsella, A. J. (1998). Toward a “global-community psychology”: Meeting the needs of a changing world. American Psychologist, 53(12), 1282–1291. Marwaha, S., & Livingston, G. (2002). Stigma, racism or choice: Why do depressed ethnic elders avoid psychiatrists? Journal of Affective Disorders 72(3), 257–266. Massey, D. S., & Espinosa, K. W. (1997). What’s driving Mexico-U.S. migration? A theoretical, empirical, and policy analysis. American Journal of Sociology, 102(4), 939–999. McDaniel, J. (1989). The madness of the saints: Ecstatic religion in Bengal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Meadows, G. (2003) Buddhism and psychiatry: Confluence and conflict. Australasian Psychiatry, 11(1), 16–21. Mehta, S. (1998). Relationship between acculturation and mental health for Asian Indian immigrants in the United States. Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs, 124(1). Meyerson, B., Chu, B., & Mills, M. V. (2003). State agency policy and program coordination in response to the co-occurrence of HIV, chemical dependency, and mental illness. Public Health Reports, 118(5), 408–415. Mollica, R. F., & Lavelle, J. P. (1986). The trauma of mass violence and torture: An overview of the psychiatric care of the Southeast Asian refugee [Report]. Boston: Indochinese Psychiatry Clinic, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Munroe-Blum, H., Boyle, M. H., Offord, R., & Kates, N. (1989). Immigrant children: Psychiatric disorder, school performance, and service utilization. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 59, 510–519.

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National Council of Welfare. (1998). Poverty profile 1996. Catalogue H67-1/ 4-1996-E. Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada. Nguyen, S. D. (1984). Mental health services for refugees and immigrants. Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 9(2), 85–91. Nguyen, S. D. (1985). Mental health services for refugees and immigrants in Canada. In T. C. Owan (Ed.), Southeast Asian mental health: Treatment, prevention, services, training, and research (DHHS Publication No. ADM 85–1399, 261–281). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Nguyen, S. D. (1989). Towards a successful resettlement of refugees. In M. Abbott (Ed.), Refugee resettlement and well-being (pp. 71–86). Auckland, New Zealand: Mental Health Foundation. Noh, S., & Kaspar, V. (2003). Perceived discrimination and depression: Moderating effects of coping, acculturation, and ethnic support. American Journal of Public Health, 93(2), 232–239. Pernice, R., & Brook, J. (1996a). Refugees’ and immigrants’ mental health: Association of demographic and post-immigration factors. International Journal of Social Psychology, 136(4). Pernice, R., & Brook, J. (1996b). The mental health pattern of migrations: Is there a euphoric period followed by a mental health crisis? International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 42, 18–27. Phan, T., & Silove, D. (1999) An overview of indigenous descriptions of mental phenomena and the range of traditional healing practices amongst the Vietnamese. Transcultural Psychiatry, 36(1), 79–95. President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. (2003). Achieving the promise: Transforming mental health care in America. Retrieved July 29, 2003, from www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/ FinalReport/CoverLetter.htm Pyke, K. (2000). “The normal American family” as an interpretive structure of family life among grown children of Korean and Vietnamese immigrants. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 62(1), 240–256. Reyes, B. I. (2001). A portrait of race and ethnicity in California: An assessment of social and economic well-being. San Francisco: Public Policy Institute of California. Ritsner, M., & Ponizovsky, A. (1999). Psychological distress through immigration: The two-phase temporal pattern? International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 45(2). Rumbaut, R. G. (1985). Mental health and the refugee experience: A comparative study of Southeast Asian mental health: Treatment, prevention, services, training and research. Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health. Rumbaut, R. G. (1994). Origins and destinies: Immigration to the United States since World War II. Sociological Forum, 9(4), 583–621.

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CHAPTER 8

Multiple Minority Individuals: Multiplying the Risk of Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Nicole L. Nelson Tahira M. Probst

T

he dawn of the new millennium brings with it a revolutionary change in the way we view the workforce. For the first time ever in the United States, women and minorities are entering the workforce in greater numbers than white men (Offermann & Gowing, 1990). In fact, as of the year 2000, women and minorities will make up 85 percent of the entering workforce, and by the year 2021, at least 25 percent of the workforce will be age 55 or older (Blank & Slipp, 1994). Latinos already comprise the largest minority group, and it is estimated that by 2050 one out of every two Americans will be a minority. In addition, by 2050, immigration will have increased the total U.S. population by 80 million people, and two thirds of immigrants arriving annually will be of working age (Toossi, 2002). This will cause a shift in the composition of the workforce in which, eventually, young white males will become the minority population.

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF WORKPLACE DIVERSITY Although there are many benefits of organizational diversity (for example, enhanced recruiting from a tight labor pool, increased creativity, and organizational flexibility), research suggests that minority status is associated with a number of negative outcomes. For example,

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absenteeism and turnover rates are generally higher among women and minorities than they are among white men. According to Meisenheimer (1990), women in the U.S. workforce have an absenteeism rate that is 58 percent higher than that of men. Another study of American employees revealed that the turnover rate for women and blacks was more than double that of white males (Hymowitz, 1989). Cox (1994) cites lack of career advancement and lack of fit with the organizational culture as reasons for these higher rates of turnover and absenteeism. In addition, women and minorities often feel they have limited access to informal networking and mentoring opportunities, which can be critical for career success (Ibarra, 1993).

NEW THOUGHTS ON REAPING THE BENEFITS AND OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF DIVERSITY There is relatively little research to explain why diverse groups of employees often experience negative workplace events (Cox & Nkomo, 1990). In addition, most studies of discrimination and harassment tend to limit their focus to one minority group at a time (blacks, Asian Americans, Latinos, etc.) and do not consider multiple forms of diversity—reflecting, for example, racioethnicity, gender, disability, age, and sexual orientation. To rectify this oversight, we introduce in this chapter the concept of “multiple minority status” and propose that belonging to more than one minority group simultaneously—in other words, having multiple minority identities—will have a significant impact on the work experiences of minorities. As of yet, there has been little research done in this area. However, based on research suggesting that minority group members experience a host of negative physical, psychological, and job-related outcomes, we expect that being a multiple minority will further increase the likelihood of experiencing these negative outcomes. In this chapter, we also consider the critical role that the organizational diversity climate can play in the workplace experiences of employees. Because of the challenges brought about by today’s rapidly changing workforce, organizations need to focus on monitoring their climates for diversity, in addition to the typical focus on modifying individual employee behavior via diversity-training initiatives. Unfortunately, while many companies are concerned with fostering a positive diversity climate within their organizations, there are few tools available to

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Figure 8.1 Antecedents and consequences of workplace discrimination and harassment

organizations to quickly and effectively diagnose their diversity climates. Thus, a second goal of this chapter is to present such a tool, which can provide a comprehensive assessment of organizational diversity climate that takes into account gender, age, race/ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PROPOSED MODEL To frame our investigations into the antecedents and consequences of workplace harassment and discrimination, an integrated model of the workplace experiences of minorities was developed (see Figure 8.1). This model theorizes three major factors that influence the level of harassment and discrimination experienced in the workplace: (1) the organizational diversity climate, (2) the employee’s multiple minority status, and (3) the employee’s identity importance. In turn, harassment and discrimination have repeatedly been shown to lead to lower levels of employee job satisfaction, increases in absenteeism and turnover, decreases in corporate loyalty, and increased levels of psychological distress and physical health complaints. What Is Organizational Diversity Climate? An organization’s climate can be defined as a set of shared perceptions regarding contingencies between individual behavior within organizations and organizational consequences resulting from that behavior (Naylor, Pritchard, & Ilgen, 1980). As a result of these shared perceptions, individual behaviors that lead to negative outcomes for an employee will be avoided, whereas individual behaviors that lead to positive outcomes will be reinforced. In a similar fashion, an organization’s

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diversity climate reflects shared employee perceptions regarding the predicted consequences of various forms of workplace harassment and discrimination. In other words, a positive organizational diversity climate will be intolerant of workplace harassment and discrimination, whereas a negative diversity climate will convey to employees that harassment and discrimination are tolerated by the organization. Because of today’s shifting demographics, organizations are becoming increasingly concerned with ensuring that they foster a positive climate for diversity within their workplace. A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (2001) found that 66 percent of Fortune 1000 companies have initiated diversity training, education, and awareness efforts to foster better working relationships. Yet, despite these efforts, nearly a quarter of respondents also reported that these training programs were ineffective in reaching their goals. More disturbing, the number of workplace discrimination and harassment complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2002) has remained virtually unchanged over the past decade, with complaints totaling 80,840 and settlements nearing a quarter of a billion dollars. These data reinforce the notion that diversity training is not the sole solution to addressing the challenges brought about by today’s rapidly changing workforce. Rather, organizations also need to focus on monitoring their climates for diversity, in addition to the typical focus on modifying individual employee behavior through diversity training efforts. While there are few studies documenting the impact of organizational diversity climate on workplace discrimination and harassment, there has been substantial research on sexual harassment. Specifically, Hulin, Fitzgerald, and Drasgow (1996) developed a measure of organizational climate related to sexual harassment called the Organizational Tolerance for Sexual Harassment Inventory (OTSHI). This measure assessed employee perceptions regarding organizational contingencies between sexually harassing behaviors and subsequent consequences. Subsequent research conducted by them and colleagues (Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley, 1997) found that the organizational tolerance of sexual harassment was the largest predictor of sexual harassment in the workplace, accounting for nearly five times the variability in sexual harassment episodes over other common predictors such as job gender context (that is, the proportion of men to women in the organization). This research was groundbreaking because it provided a framework for diagnosing organizational tolerance

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for workplace discrimination and harassment—a framework that was expanded upon by Probst and Nelson (2003) to develop a broader measure of organizational diversity climate that can be used to assess organizational tolerance for multiple forms of workplace discrimination and harassment. Based on the theory and research described above, the first proposition set forth in this chapter is offered. Proposition 1 Organizational diversity climate will be the largest predictor of employee experiences of workplace discrimination and harassment. Defining Multiple Minority Status Before one can study outcomes of minority status, there must be an agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a “minority” classification. According to Cox (1994), diversity may be defined as “otherness.” Characteristics that make people diverse may be categorized as either primary or secondary dimensions. Primary dimensions include relatively unchangeable aspects of a person, such as race, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical ability, and cognitive ability. The majority of these primary dimensions are covered by equal employment opportunity legislation, due in part to the general permanence and often visually identifiable nature of these characteristics. Secondary characteristics, in contrast, are generally more malleable traits, such as socioeconomic status, political views, marital status, parental experience, and work experience. Because secondary characteristics are less outwardly obvious and (most argue) can be changed, many are not currently protected under law. Since primary dimensions of diversity are generally more salient and form the basis of the major civil rights legislation in the United States, these were the characteristics used to define minority status in our study. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, individuals must not be discriminated against due to their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Therefore, in this study, racioethnic minority status was defined as any nationality/ethnicity other than white (non-Latino) European. According to Smith (1984), data from the nationwide General Social Survey show that 64 percent of Americans are Protestant, 25 percent are Roman Catholic, 2 percent are Jewish, and 7 percent have no religious preference. Accordingly, religious minority status was defined as any affiliation with a religion other than Protestant.

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The 2000 U.S. Census reports that females actually make up a numerical majority of America’s population (51 percent). However, they were accorded gender minority status in this study due to their historic underrepresentation in the workplace, particularly in positions of power. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1978 protects workers over the age of forty from discriminatory practices; therefore, age minority status was accorded to workers over the age of forty. Disabled minority status was defined, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as having an impairment that substantially limited one or more major life activities. Currently, there are no federal laws to protect people from employment discrimination due to their sexual orientation, despite multiple introductions of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 1997 (ENDA). At this point, only ten states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Nonetheless, sexual minority status was defined as any sexual orientation other than heterosexual. Finally, because of employment discrimination faced upon returning from the war, Vietnam veterans were accorded equal opportunity employment protection under the Vietnam Veteran’s Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. Thus, Vietnam veteran status was our last identified minority category. WHY DO MULTIPLE MINORITIES FACE MULTIPLE CHALLENGES IN THE WORKPLACE? According to Triandis, Kurowski, and Gelfand (1994), employees accept or reject working with diverse individuals to the extent that there is a perception of similarity between the pertinent groups. Perceived similarity is influenced by the history of conflict between the groups, the amount of cultural distance between the groups, possession of knowledge of the other culture, an understanding of the other culture’s language, the experience of equal status interactions, sharing a common social network, and the sharing of superordinate goals. The importance of perceived similarity can be useful for understanding the factors that help or hinder collaboration among diverse individuals. First, it acknowledges that multiple factors influence the perception of similarity. The more similar individuals perceive themselves to be to one another, the more positive their resulting interactions will be. Conversely, it follows that the more dissimilar an individual is compared to the dominant culture, the more difficult his or her workplace experiences are expected to be.

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In the Triandis et al. model, multiple minority status can be considered analogous to cultural distance. The greater the difference between a minority individual’s cultural beliefs (such as religion or language) and those of the dominant culture, the less similar he or she is perceived to be by the dominant group. The same is true for minorities who are “different” due to disability, sexual orientation, age, and so on. The greater the differences are between their experiences and those of the nonminority group, the less similar these minorities are perceived to be to the majority group, and the more vulnerable they are to becoming targets of harassment and discrimination. Personal Stories and Empirical Studies As of yet, there have been very few empirical studies focusing on multiple minorities in the workplace. A qualitative investigation conducted by Mighty (1997) explored the barriers immigrant women of color experienced in the workplace. Mighty proposed that these individuals experienced “triple jeopardy” because of their minority status membership in three areas: race, gender, and ethnicity. After conducting detailed interviews with fourteen participants, several conclusions were drawn regarding the impact of “triple jeopardy” in the workforce. First, most participants had trouble finding employment. According to the participants, this was not because they lacked the skills or qualifications but because of discrimination due to their race, gender, or immigrant status. Second, many were not satisfied with their salary and/or promotion rate when compared to majority group members. Although by and large the women reported being satisfied with their work, they also felt pressure to excel to make up for their race, gender, and ethnicity. The women also felt that their relationships with white co-workers, though polite, never reached a personal or intimate level of friendship. Furthermore, the participants’ lack of trust in the organizations they worked for prevented them from developing a high level of organizational commitment. A second study conducted by Ford showed that compared to nonminority males, Mexican American females reported higher levels of job stress as well as lower levels of job satisfaction overall. On a similar note, Pak, Dion, and Dion (1991) found that when Chinese college students attending a Canadian university were discriminated against, Chinese women (a double minority group) subsequently reported significantly lower self-esteem in comparison to the men (a single minority group).

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In summary, if individuals have multiple characteristics that classify them as minorities, their cultural distance from the dominant group will be even greater. Therefore it might be surmised that as minority status increases (from single minority to double minority to triple minority, etc.), the level of discrimination and harassment will increase in a similar manner. The addition of each level of minority status will likely lead to a corresponding increase in cultural distance, which will in turn put the multiple minority individual in greater danger of harassment and discrimination. Based on this, we offer the following proposition: Proposition 2 As the number of minority identities increases, the level of workplace harassment and discrimination experienced by the multiple minority will correspondingly increase. How Important Is Identity Importance? Another area critical to the investigation of the workplace experiences of minorities concerns identity importance. Identity importance is the extent to which individuals value various aspects of their unique identities (for example, race, gender, and sexual orientation). A study by Jaret and Reitzes (1999) measured the importance of racial-ethnic identity for blacks, whites, and multiracials and compared it to other identities, including gender, age, occupation, marital status, and social class. Contrary to the hypothesis that racial-ethnic identity would be most important to black individuals’ self-concept, gender was the most important identity for black, white, and multiracial participants. However, blacks did place overall greater importance on their racial-ethnic identity than did whites. Also, black females had the highest ratings of importance for their racial-ethnic identities, whereas white females had the lowest ratings. In fact, black females rated all identities (occupation, age, social class, etc.) as more important to their self-concept than did the other groups. But how might identity importance influence experiences of harassment and discrimination in the workplace? Perhaps individuals who place greater importance on various aspects of their self-identity, such as their race or gender, also feel less a part of the dominant culture than individuals who place little importance on these personal traits. Those who feel they are part of the out-group may also be more prone to perceiving harassment or discrimination from in-group members.

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Individuals who have identical demographic characteristics may attach varying levels of importance to those personal traits. For instance, suppose four different Asian American women work in a given organization. The first woman may believe her gender is one of the most important components of her self-identity. Perhaps the second woman believes her race is the most important facet of her self-identity. The third woman may believe that both her gender and her race are equally important to her self-identity. Finally, the fourth woman may believe neither her race nor gender is of central importance to her self-identity. In this situation, it is hypothesized that the woman who attaches the greatest amount of importance to her dual minority status will also report the highest level of harassment and discrimination, even though all women in this example are double minorities. We propose that the more important that minority status is to an individual, the higher the likelihood that the individual will experience workplace harassment or discrimination. There are two unique, yet equally important, mechanisms by which this may occur: (1) an increase in the likelihood of identifying an incident as harassing, and (2) an increase in the relative likelihood of such an incident occurring. First, individuals who attach less importance to their minority identity may not identify objectively harassing or discriminatory behavior as such. For example, a woman may overhear a sexist comment from a co-worker, but if her gender is not a very important part of her selfidentity, it may not offend her as much as it may another woman who overhears the same comment but whose gender is of greater importance to her self-identity. Second, identity importance may actually influence the likelihood of harassing incidents. Loden and Rosener (1991) point out that when minority group members express discomfort with the dominant group’s values, they are seen as being oversensitive, “rocking the boat,” or demanding “special treatment.” Therefore, individuals who are very vocal about their minority identities or do not try to “fit in” with the dominant culture may actually expose themselves to more negative workplace experiences. Consider the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on sexual orientation in the United States military. As sexual minority identity increases in importance, it will likely be increasingly difficult to comply with this policy. However, individuals who reveal their sexual minority orientation in the military expose themselves to workplace harassment, discrimination, and even discharge from the armed services. Therefore, it is important to consider not just the absolute level of minority status (single, double, triple, etc.), but also how important

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each dimension is to the individual in question. Absolute number of minority layers and the relative importance of these dimensions to the individual’s self-identity may both contribute to a widening of the distance between perceptions of in-group and out-group members. Therefore, we propose: Proposition 3 Individuals who attach great levels of importance to minority aspects of their identity will be more likely to report experiences of workplace harassment and discrimination than individuals who attach less importance to their minority status. This increase may be due to an increased propensity to label negative interactions as discriminatory or harassing, an increased propensity to be exposed to such discrimination or harassment, or a combination of the two. TESTING THE MODEL’S PROPOSITIONS In order to test the three propositions outlined above, all faculty and staff at a large public university located in the Pacific Northwest were invited to participate in a comprehensive study of workplace diversity within the university. University faculty and staff were contacted via e-mail regarding the project and were directed to click on a link at the end of the e-mail if they wished to participate in the anonymous online survey. A total of 719 faculty and staff participated in the survey. This represented 18 percent of the approximately 4,000 faculty and staff employees within the university. Although efforts were made to contact as many employees as possible, it is difficult to ascertain how many were actually reached, given the lack of a comprehensive e-mail database of current university employees. Thirty-four percent of the respondents were male. The vast majority self-reported their ethnicity as white (87.4 percent), which roughly corresponds to the percent of employed whites within the university; 3.5 percent self-identified as Asian or Pacific Islander; 1.4 percent black; 1.2 percent Native American; 1.4 percent Hispanic/Latino; and 4.3 percent chose “other.” The majority of respondents reported they were heterosexual (95.8 percent), with 2.3 percent self-reporting as homosexual and 2.0 percent self-identifying as bisexual. Nearly 7 percent of employees reported having a physical disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Finally, one third of employees were over forty years of age, meeting the requirements for protection under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

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Survey Measures Organizational diversity climate. The Organizational Diversity Climate scale (Probst & Nelson, 2003) diagnoses the organization’s diversity climate by assessing individual perceptions of organizational responses to five major types of workplace harassment (age, race, gender, disability, and sexual orientation) perpetrated by two potential sources of harassment (supervisor, co-worker). Employees are presented with ten hypothetical workplace scenarios representing either co-workers or supervisors engaging in harassing or intolerant behaviors. They are then asked to consider what might be the organizational responses to these incidents. Table 8.1 contains a complete set of the scenarios. As noted earlier, organizational climate can be diagnosed via perceived organizational contingencies between individual behavior and outcomes. Thus, whereas the scenarios themselves provide the examples of harassing or discriminatory behavior, the response scales were written to assess the perceived likely consequences for the alleged harasser and the victim should he or she lodge a complaint about the behavior. Thus, keeping their organization in mind, respondents were instructed to indicate on a five-point scale (1) how risky it would be for a harassed employee to file a complaint about the supervisor or coworker, (2) how likely it would be that the complainant would be taken seriously, and (3) the likely consequences for the alleged harasser. Perceptions of risk could range from 1 ⫽ “extremely risky: they would almost certainly create problems for themselves” to 5 ⫽ “no risk: they would not create problems for themselves.” Perceptions of how seriously the complaint would be considered could range from 1 ⫽ “almost no chance they would be taken seriously” to 5 ⫽ “very good chance they would be taken seriously.” Finally, consequences could range from 1 ⫽ “probably nothing would be done” to 5 ⫽ “there would be a very serious punishment.” Multiple minority status. Multiple minority status could range from 0 (heterosexual, white, Protestant, able-bodied, non-Vietnam veteran, male, below age forty) to 7 (sexual minority, nonwhite, non-Protestant, disabled, Vietnam veteran, female, over age forty). Among participants in this study, six levels of minority status were the highest achieved (a disabled sexual minority, non-Christian male, Vietnam veteran over age forty). Identity importance. In order to assess identity importance, we asked participants to rate how important each demographic characteristic

Table 8.1 Organizational diversity climate scale scenarios Co-worker Ethnicity/ Race

An employee in your A department frequently makes racial and ethnic slurs and refers to minority employees as “token hires” who wouldn’t be there without affirmative action programs. Sexual One of your co-workers A Orientation frequently makes jokes about “gays,” “dykes,” and “lesbians.”

Supervisor supervisor in your department makes frequent references to “incompetent minorities who take jobs away from more qualified applicants.”

supervisor in your department frequently says that homosexuality is immoral and that he won’t hire or promote any known homosexual if he can help it. Age One of the employees in your A supervisor in your department frequently department indicates that makes comments about he feels older workers “old fogies who should don’t have “fresh ideas” retire” because they are to contribute to the “behind the times.” department and frequently says that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Disability A co-worker in your A supervisor in your department makes frequent department gripes about negative comments about the Americans with disabled employees “playing Disabilities Act and says it up their disabilities so they forces him to make can get special unreasonable accommodations and accommodations for privileges.” individuals with “supposed” disabilities. Gender One of the employees in your A supervisor in your Harassment department makes frequent department makes (Hulin, remarks about incompetent references to Fitzgerald, & women doing jobs they are “incompetent women Drasgow, not capable of doing and trying to do jobs they 1996) refers to them as were never intended to do “affirmative action hires” and taking jobs away from and “bitches with attitudes” better-qualified workers.” in their presence. He makes all women in the department feel incompetent and unwanted.

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(gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, and physical ability/disability) was to their self-identity using a scale of 1 (not important) to 7 (extremely important). An example item was, “How important is your gender to your self-identity?” Job gender context. We were also interested in exploring the impact of the gender makeup of the participants’ workplace environment (the job-gender context). Therefore, two items were written to assess the dominant gender context of participants’ workplace environments. One item asked whether the participant was in a traditional or nontraditional job for his or her gender. The second item asked for the proportion of males to females in the participant’s workplace (“mostly men,” “more men than women,” “more or less the same number of men and women,” “more women than men,” and “mostly women”). Harassment and discrimination. Several forms of workplace harassment and discrimination were assessed in this study: racioethnic harassment, harassment due to sexual orientation, sexual harassment, age harassment, and harassment due to physical disability. Specifically, a modified version of the Ethnic Harassment Experiences Scale (EHES) (Schneider, Hitlan, & Radhakrishnan, 2000) was used to measure ethnic and racial harassment. Participants were asked to rate on a 1 (never) to 5 (very often) scale how often they had experienced seven specific incidents of racial and/or ethnic harassment (such as “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors made derogatory comments about your race/ethnicity?”). Six items from the Workplace Heterosexist Experiences Questionnaire (WHEQ; Waldo, 1999) were used to assess employees’ experiences of harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Participants were asked to rate on a five-point scale, ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often), how frequently they experienced incidents of harassment and discrimination based on their sexual orientation (such as “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors made you feel it was necessary for you to ‘act straight’ [monitor your speech, dress, or mannerisms, etc.]?”). Perceptions of sexual harassment were assessed by nine items from the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerald, Gelfand, & Drasgow, 1995). Questions assessed gender harassment (such as “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors told suggestive stories or offensive jokes?”), unwanted sexual attention (such as “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors stared or leered at you in a sexual manner?”), and sexual coercion (such as “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors made you afraid of poor treatment if you didn’t cooperate with his/her sexual request?”).

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Table 8.2 Predictors of workplace harassment and discrimination Predictor

b

t

p⬍

Organizational diversity climate Multiple minority status Identity importance Minority status x identity importance

⫺.36 .14 .05 .07

⫺10.25 3.85 1.29 1.93

.001 .001 ns .05

Four items were written for this study to assess experiences of harassment and discrimination based on age. Participants were asked to rate the frequency of experiences of age-based harassment and discrimination using the five-point scale from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). Sample items included, “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors called you ‘dead wood,’ ‘old fogie,’ or some other slur?” and “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors excluded you from social interactions due to your age?” Two items were created to assess experiences of harassment and discrimination based on physical disabilities (such as “Have any of your colleagues or supervisors made comments about how disabled workers can’t do the job properly or don’t deserve special accommodations?”). Finally, as an additional harassment/discrimination measure, participants were also asked to indicate yes/no if they had ever been harassed, denied a promotion, or denied a raise due to their race, gender, physical disabilities, sexual orientation, or age.

THE FINDINGS Testing Proposition 1: Organizational Diversity Climate Proposition 1 stated that the largest predictor of workplace experiences of discrimination and harassment would be the organizational diversity climate. In order to test this and the other propositions, workplace harassment (as measured by the EHES, WHEQ, SEQ, and the age and disability scales constructed for this study) was regressed onto organizational diversity climate, multiple minority status, identity importance, and the interaction between identity importance and minority status. As can be seen in Table 8.2, organizational diversity climate accounted for the largest amount of variability (13 percent) in reports of workplace harassment and discrimination. Multiple minority

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Figure 8.2 Level of reported workplace harassment as a function of minority status

status was also a significant predictor, accounting for 2 percent of the variance. These data suggest that the diversity climate within an organization is the best predictor of employee perceptions of workplace discrimination and harassment, thus supporting Proposition 1. Similar results were found when analyzing the data from questions that asked specifically whether employees had been harassed, denied a promotion, or denied a pay raise due to their race, gender, physical disability, or age. For each of these three dependent variables, organizational diversity climate was once again the best predictor of the negative workplace experience. Testing Proposition 2: Multiple Minority Status As noted above, multiple minority status was significantly related to reports of negative workplace experiences. The more minority groups with which individuals were affiliated, the more likely they were to report experiences of harassment and discrimination. A follow-up ANOVA was used to compare the reports of harassment/discrimination from single, double, triple, and quadruple minorities. The results of the test were significant, F (3, 620) ⫽ 7.25, p ⬍ .001, and suggest that reports of negative workplace interactions steadily increase with increasing layers of minority identity. As illustrated in Figure 8.2, single minorities had a mean harassment/discrimination

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score of 1.15 (SD ⫽ .22); double minorities had a mean score of 1.23 (SD ⫽ .28); triple minorities’ mean score was 1.28 (SD ⫽ .39); and the mean score of quadruple minorities was 1.30 (SD ⫽ .24). Thus, support for Proposition 2 was found. Testing Proposition 3: The Impact of Identity Importance Proposition 3 predicted that the more important an individual’s identity as a minority was, the more likely he or she was to report workplace harassment and discrimination. The analysis presented in Table 8.2 does not suggest such a straightforward conclusion. As can be seen in those results, identity importance itself was not directly related to harassment and discrimination. However, the interaction between identity importance and minority status was significant. In other words, among individuals who did not place much importance on their minority status, multiple minority status was less related to negative workplace experiences. On the other hand, among individuals who reported high levels of identity importance, increasing levels of multiple minority status were more strongly related to increasing reports of negative workplace experiences. Additionally, when employee minority status was low, identity importance was not related to reports of harassment. On the other hand, when there were multiple minority identities, greater identity importance was related to more negative workplace experiences. The form of this interaction can be seen in Figure 8.3. Similar significant interactions were also found when predicting employee self-reports of workplace harassment, being denied a pay raise, and being denied a promotion. In each case, individuals with high identity importance showed a greater relationship between multiple minority status and these negative workplace outcomes than individuals with low identity importance. Together, these results provide thought-provoking support for Proposition 3. Minority status is related to workplace experiences of discrimination and harassment, particularly if the minority individuals placed a high level of importance on their minority status. Unfortunately, while intriguing, these data cannot determine whether these results are due to an increase in “sensitivity” on the part of minority individuals or an actual increase in “exposure” to discrimination and harassment. Other Analyses: The Job Gender Context Matters There were two different questions used to assess the job gender context in which employees were working. The first assessed whether

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Figure 8.3 The interactive effect of minority status and identity importance

the employee was in a nontraditional position for his or her gender, whereas the second specifically measured the gender composition in the workgroup. Results consistently suggested that the job-gender context in which employees work has a large impact on their experiences of workplace discrimination and harassment. Employees who indicated that they were in a nontraditional position for their gender were three times more likely to report being harassed at work, two and a half times more likely to be denied a promotion, and four times more likely to report being denied a pay raise. Interestingly, this effect was greater for men in traditionally female positions than women in traditionally male roles. Perhaps this is due to the greater emphasis on and visibility of women’s experiences of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. The second set of analyses centered on the gender composition of the employee’s workgroup. We anticipated that females working in a predominantly male job gender context and males working in a predominantly female job gender context would experience higher levels of harassment/discrimination. As expected, we found a significant main effect for job gender context, F (4, 689) ⫽ 5.62, p ⬍ .01,

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with higher overall levels of harassment/discrimination occurring in environments dominated either by males (M ⫽ 1.26, SD ⫽ .34) or females (M ⫽ 1.30, SD ⫽ .39) compared to work environments with balanced gender compositions (M ⫽ 1.16, SD ⫽ .22). In addition, an interesting interaction was observed between gender and the job-gender context, F (4, 689) ⫽ 3.45, p ⬍ .01. Specifically, men experienced significantly less harassment/discrimination when working in a male job gender context (M ⫽ 1.28, SD ⫽ .36) than when working in a female job gender context (M ⫽ 1.42, SD ⫽ .54). For females, the exact opposite was true. Women experienced significantly more harassment/discrimination in a male job gender context (M ⫽ 1.24, SD ⫽ .32) than in the female job gender context (M ⫽ 1.18, SD ⫽ .30). Thus, it appears that both men and women are more likely to report being harassed and discriminated against when they are in a workgroup dominated by members of the opposite sex.

MOVING FORWARD: DEVELOPING TOOLS FOR CHANGE The goal of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the predictors of workplace harassment and discrimination. In particular, we examined the organizational diversity climate, the multiple minority status of employees, identity importance, and the job-gender context in which employees worked as drivers of these workplace experiences. Overall, the data supported the major propositions developed in this chapter. First, the single biggest and most consistent predictor of workplace harassment and discrimination was the organizational climate for diversity. Second, multiple minorities were subject to greater levels of discrimination and harassment than single minorities. Third, when minorities placed a heavy value on their minority identities, the above relationship was stronger than when their identity importance was lower. Finally, the job gender context was also a significant predictor of workplace experiences, such that employees working in a nontraditional field or in a workgroup dominated by members of the opposite sex were much more likely to face workplace discrimination and harassment. In the sections below, we explore the meaning of these findings and suggest individual and organizational tools for change to combat workplace discrimination and harassment. These tools for change are summarized in the Toolbox for Change.

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TOOLS FOR CHANGING THE ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY CLIMATE Analyses consistently point to the organization’s climate for diversity as the best predictor of employee workplace experiences. These findings bode very well for the future of minorities in our workplaces, because an organization’s diversity climate is malleable and can be altered, whereas minority status cannot. Our findings suggest that while minority status does play an important role in determining the extent of workplace harassment and discrimination, it has less of an impact than the organizational diversity climate. Therefore, efforts should be focused on creating and maintaining an inclusive and supportive environment for all employees. Diversity-friendly policies and procedures need to be in place, but more importantly, employees need to be made aware of their existence. Merely stating that an organization must have a positive climate for diversity is easy; however, until recently, diagnosing an organization’s climate for diversity has not been. However, with the development of the Organizational Diversity Climate scale (ODC) by Probst and Nelson (2003), organizations have a quick and easy-to-use tool for making such diagnoses. Because the ODC is grounded in perceived organizational contingencies between individual behavior and organizational consequences, scores on the scale can provide practical suggestions for organizations trying to improve their climate for diversity. Organizations can use scores on the ODC to determine the source of workplace discrimination and harassment—that is, is it co-worker on co-worker harassment or supervisor on subordinate harassment? In addition to identifying which population of workers requires additional diversity training, the three subscales of responses can be used to determine what specific steps an organization must take to improve the climate (for example, lower the risk associated with filing a complaint, disseminate more widely the consequences of harassing behavior, and/ or better communicate the seriousness with which complaints will be taken). Finally, results from the ODC can be used to identify which forms of harassment are most prevalent in the organization (ageism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc.) and thus assist in determining where the content of future diversity training should focus. In order to illustrate the interpretations that can be drawn from the ODC, consider the following hypothetical organizational profile in Table 8.3. By computing the means from employees on each of these dimensions, one can diagnose problem areas and make recommendations for organizational improvement. Before proceeding with the

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Table 8.3 Hypothetical organizational diversity climate profile: a tool for change Source of harassment/discrimination Co-workers Supervisors 2.65 3.90 Ageism 2.10

Sexism 4.60

Risk of reporting harassment 4.47

Type of harassment Heterosexism 4.00

Racism 2.13

Disability 4.96

Organizational contingencies Likelihood of being Consequences for taken seriously perpetrator 4.05 3.25

Note: Reponses can range from 1 to 5 and are scaled such that higher numbers reflect a more positive perception of the diversity climate dimension. For example, a 5 on the risk subscale reflects “no risk: complainants would not create problems for themselves.”

interpretation, it is important to note that all subscales are scaled such that higher numbers reflect a more positive diversity climate on that dimension. In the example in Table 8.3, co-workers are clearly being seen as more likely to engage in harassing behaviors than supervisors. This suggests that the organization may have done a good job training its supervisory staff but needs additional training for its nonmanagerial employees. In addition, the results of this ODC profile suggest that ageism and racism are the greatest threats to a positive diversity climate. Perceptions of workplace heterosexism, disability-based harassment, and gender harassment are relatively positive (low-occurring), whereas perceptions of ageism and racism are negative (more likely to occur). Finally, employees perceive that there would be little risk in a victim filing a complaint about workplace harassment and feel that there would be a good chance that the organization would take them seriously. However, more could be done to improve employee perceptions regarding the consequences for the perpetrator. In this case, a 3.25 reflects a general feeling that the perpetrator would be “told to stop,” but the organization would fall short of giving the employee a formal warning or a very serious punishment. In summary, by administering the ODC to employees within an organization, organizations can use it as a diagnostic tool to determine who is committing workplace harassment, what types of harassment prevail, and the perceived organizational consequences of such harassment.

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IMPROVING THE EXPERIENCES OF MULTIPLE MINORITIES: TOOLS FOR CHANGE A major strength of this study was the inclusion of a wider array of minority categories than is typically studied. Individuals may feel or be perceived as “different” not just because their race or gender excludes them from the majority group but also for being an older worker, a Vietnam veteran, a member of a minority religious group, or for having an alternative sexual orientation. All of these traits were found to significantly impact how individuals in this study felt about themselves and how they were treated by those around them. In future research, it may be worthwhile to include an even-broader array of minority categories, such as overweight individuals and smokers. One major implication from this research was the significant relationship between multiple minority status and workplace experiences of harassment and discrimination. As individuals possess increasing layers of diversity, they increasingly perceive themselves as targets of discrimination and harassment. Why is this the case and what can be done about it? It may be that multiple minorities are simply more visible in organizations due to their numerous differences from other employees. Each layer of minority status further distances them from the majority group dominant in the workplace. As theorized by Triandis and colleagues, decreasing perceptions of similarity are expected to be related to increasing levels of perceived distance. This may make multiple minorities more vulnerable to the experience of harassment. Triandis and colleagues offer multiple methods for countering this perception of distance. Specifically, they recommend that organizations Stress previous examples of successful cooperation. Identify similarities and stress commonalities among group members. Identify advantages of diversity and benefits that can accrue as a result. Identify and/or create superordinate goals that can unify the workgroup. (1994, p. 811)

Consider the Impact of Identity Importance When taken into conjunction with minority status, the level of importance that an employee attaches to his or her multiple identities can play a pivotal role in the workplace experiences of that employee. In this study, we found that harassment and discrimination increased not only as the levels of minority status increased, but also as minority status was identified as more important to the employee’s self-identity. As a

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result of these many “differences” and the importance that employees attached to them, they may feel less a part of the dominant culture and they may be perceived by others as less a part of the dominant culture. Although this study revealed that the amount of importance an individual attaches to his or her minority status is a useful predictor of harassment and discrimination, it failed to discover why. For instance, is it because individuals who place high importance on their minority status are simply more sensitive in what they consider harassment/discrimination? It may be that because their minority status is so important to them, they are more likely to label comments or behavior directed toward their minority group as harassing or discriminatory than are individuals who place little importance on their minority status. Conversely, it may also be the case that individuals who place large importance on their minority status are confronted with more harassment and discrimination because they are more vocal about the existence or the importance of their minority status. For example, a woman may be very active in feminist politics and make her co-workers aware of her views. This may make her a target for harassment and discrimination, not simply because she is a female, but because she is vocal about her minority status. It is possible that the harassing coworkers may have “overlooked” her minority status if she did not continually remind them of it with her “militant” (to their way of thinking) stance on women’s rights. As noted earlier, research has found that members of the majority group often dismiss outspoken minorities as “oversensitive” or “militant.” Yet a third possibility may be that since multiple minorities are harassed and discriminated against more often than single minorities, this increased harassment/discrimination makes them more aware of their multiple minority status. Since they are constantly being reminded of their multiple minority status, it may become a greater focal point of their self-identity. A FINAL TOOL FOR CHANGE: RECOGNIZE THAT ANYONE CAN BE A VICTIM OF HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATION A final important finding from this study was the significance of the job gender context in predicting workplace discrimination and harassment. Regardless of whether the minority was (1) a male in a traditionally female position or a female-dominated workgroup or (2) a female in a traditionally male occupation or a male-dominated

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Toolbox for Change Organizational change

Employee change

Diagnose your diversity climate

Recognize the multiple minority

Use the ODC as a diagnostic tool for change to assess: Who is committing the harassment. What forms of harassment are prevalent. The risk to victims in reporting harassment. The likelihood of being taken seriously. The consequences for the perpetrator.

Be aware that each of us has multiple identities and group affiliations and that diversity is more than race or gender. Our multiple identities can influence the likelihood that we and others will face workplace discrimination and harassment.

Promote a gender-balanced workforce Strive to equalize the proportions of men and women in workgroups. Include men and women in diversity efforts.

Bridge the gap Seek to discover areas of similarity between yourself and your coworkers. Participate in organizational diversity efforts and celebrations.

workgroup, the findings were similar: employees working in a nontraditional field or in a workgroup dominated by members of the opposite sex were much more likely to face workplace discrimination and harassment than employees in a gender-balanced workgroup. Thus, regardless of which gender dominates the work environment, the gender in the numerical minority will be a likely target of harassment/discrimination. Previous research has shown that a male job gender context was a predictor of females experiencing sexual harassment (Fitzgerald et al., 1997); however, this study shows that female job gender context is equally important in predicting harassment and discrimination directed at males. CONCLUSION There are many factors that influence whether and to what extent employees will be the targets of workplace discrimination or harassment. This chapter outlined several such factors based on a large-scale empirical investigation and recommended multiple tools for change that

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individuals and their organizations could utilize in the ongoing effort to improve the workplace experiences of all employees.

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Naylor, J. C., Pritchard, R. D., & Ilgen, D. R. (1980). A theory of behavior in organizations. New York: Academic Press. Offermann, L. R., & Gowing, M. K. (1990). Organizations of the future: Changes and challenges. American Psychologist, 45, 95–108. Pak, A. W., Dion, K. L., & Dion, K. K. (1991). Social-psychological correlates of experienced discrimination: A test of the double jeopardy hypothesis. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 15, 243–254. Probst, T. M., & Nelson, N. L. (2003, April). Development and validation of the organizational diversity climate scale. Paper presented to the 2003 Conference of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Orlando, FL. Schneider, K. T., Hitlan, R. T., & Radhakrishnan, P. (2000). An examination of the nature and correlates of ethnic harassment experiences in multiple contexts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(1), 3–12. Smith, T. W. (1984). America’s religious mosaic. American Demographics, 6, 19–23. Society for Human Resource Management. (2001). Impact of diversity initiatives on the bottom line. Alexandria, VA: Author. Toossi, M. (2002). A century of change: The U.S. labor force, 1950–2050. Monthly Labor Review, 125(5), 15–28. Triandis, H. C., Kurowski, L. L., & Gelfand, M. J. (1994). Workplace diversity. In H. C. Triandis & M. D. Dunnette (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 769–827). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Waldo, C. R. (1999). Working in a majority context: A structural model of heterosexism as minority stress in the workplace. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46(2), 218–232.

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Index

Absenteeism, 194 Acculturation: changes secondary to, 138; conflicts of, 148; definition of, 164; economic issues associated with, 157; ethnic identity and, 149–150, 153–158; language use and, 146; mental health consequences of, 138, 171–172; psychological adaptation to, 152–153; racism and, 148–150; reactions to, 138; situational, 149 Acculturation model, 99 Acculturative stress, 139 Adolescents, 144 Adoptees, 24 Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1978, 198 Age minority status, 198 Akaka Bill, 73 Allport, Gordon W., vii Americanization, 167 Anxiety, 54, 168 Asian Americans: Asians versus, 43–44; behaviors, 47–49; bicultural efficacy, 41–42;

cultural sensitivity of, 46–47; cultural values of, 47–49; descriptors of, 45; differential evaluative standards for, 51–52; differential treatment against, 51; educational attainment, 50; group-oriented nature of, 46; job promotion denial, 51; language connections to culture, 44–45; life experiences of, 43; mentoring for, 57–59; prejudice against, 39–42, 49–52; stereotyping of, 45–47; tracking of, 51; unrealistic and unreasonable expectations, 52; whites versus, 47–49; work-related mistreatment of, 51–52 Assimilation: description of, 98, 165–167; of European immigrants, 172; health risk behaviors and, 168; identificational, 166–167; life quality and, 167; race-based differences, 170; stress associated with, 168

220

Assimilation paradox, 167–169 Asylum from persecution, 164 Australia, 19–20 Bahai, 29 Beck Depression Inventory, 131, 134 Bicultural efficacy, 41–42 Bilingual Services Act of 1995, 110 Biracial ancestry: Blackfoot, 11; contemporary, 20–37; definition of, 1; Lumbee, 16–17; Muslim immigrants, 10; personal stories of, 2–8, 91; royal families with, 15–16 Biracial children, 143–144 Biracial identity: assimilation, 98; deconstruction of, 106; definition of, 1, 95; development of, 93–94, 102; ecological systems model of, 102–103; factors that influence, 102; feminist theory of, 103–104; “fit,” 97–101; isolation and, 96; language and, 92; loneliness and, 96; marginalization, 98; race and, 92; self-acceptance, 98–100; separation and, 100; societal influences on, 93–95; sociocultural presentations of, 105; summary of, 104 Biracial individuals: phenomenological experience of, 102; vernacular for, 101–104 Black Dutch, 9–10 Blackfoot, 11 Black Indians and Intertribal Native American Association, 11, 25–26 Border identity, 95 Boundary setting, 59 Brass Ankles, 13 Buddhism, 29 Bureau of Indian Affairs, 25 Burnett, Swan, 9

Index

Cajan, 13–14 Catawbas, 13 Children: biracial, 143–144; immigrant, 143–144 Civil Rights Act of 1964, 61, 110, 197 Collectivist values, 47 Colonialism: definition of, 66; description of, 66–67; forms of, 77–79; healing methods from, 82; recovery from, 79–82 Colonization: destructive effects of, 83; effects of, 82–83; of Hawai’i, 65–66; racism and, 66 Cook, James, 68 Cooperation, 48 Core society, 168 Cross-cultural adoptees, 24 Cross-cultural identity, 24 Cultural allegiance, 148, 153–158 Cultural awareness, 43, 56–57 Cultural competence, 122, 184 Cultural distance, 199, 213 Cultural semantics: definition of, 117; for Hmong Americans in Minnesota, 116–123 Cultural sensitivity, 46–47 Culture, language connections to, 44–45 Culture shock, 139–140 Darwin, Charles, 88–89 Decolonization, 77 De Medici, Allesandro, 15–16 Depression: Beck Depression Inventory for diagnosing, 131, 134; description of, 54, 120–121; in immigrants, 168, 176; in refugees, 168; transitional, 176 Derrida, Jacques, 92 “Differentness,” 98 Disabled minority status, 198 Discrimination: anxiety caused by, 54; “core society” mindset and,

Index

221

168–169; depression caused by, 54; documentation of, 60; ethnic identity and, 150; experiences of, 140; false positives caused by, 56; feelings of worthlessness caused by, 55; helplessness caused by, 55–56; identifying of, 49–52; individual responses to, 52–56; intrusive cognitions caused by, 55; legal protections against, 61–62; loss of confidence caused by, 55; loss of drive caused by, 56; lower wages and, 50; mediation for, 61–62; mentoring to combat, 57–59; paranoia caused by, 54; psychological adaptation to, 152–153; sleep disturbance caused by, 54; strategies to combat, 56–62 Diversity: characteristics that create, 197; definition of, 197; perceived similarity effects on, 198; workplace (see Workplace diversity) Dred Scott v. Sanford, 90 Duty and obligation, 48

Ethnic identity: acculturation and, 149–150; ambiguity and, 142–143; conflict sources in, 142–143; context-sensitive nature of, 149; defining of, 142; development of, 157–158; discrimination and, 150; economic issues associated with, 157; experiences of, 140; importance of, 200–201; mutuality and, 150; “nationality” and, 141–142; promotion of, 150–151; societal pressures and, 140–141 Ethnocentric monoculturalism, 178–179 Ethnocultural identity, 146 Etic position, 178 Eurocentrism, 177

Ecological niche, 157–158 Ecological systems model of biracial identity, 102–103 Economic gain, 163 Economic incentive, 163 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), 60–61 Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 1997, 198 English-language learners: challenges for treating, 135; Hmong Americans (see Hmong Americans in Minnesota) Epidemiological paradox of assimilation, 167

Gender minority status, 198 Globalization, 163, 167, 179 Guidance, 57, 59–60 Gypsies, 9

False positives, 56 Family reunification, 164 Feelings of worthlessness, 55 Feminist theory of biracial identity, 103–104 “Fit,” 97–101 Forced immigration, 163 Free blacks, 18–19

Haoles, 72–73 Hapa, 77–78 Harmony, 48 Hawai’i: annexation of, 69; colonialism in, 77–82; colonization of, 65–66; cultural immersion programs in, 80; Hapa, 77–78; history of, 67–72; immigrants to, 70; independence of, 75–76; Ka’ala Farm, 80–81;

222

military in, 78–79; native people of, 73–74; Opelu Project, 81–82; oppression in, 65; racism in, 72–73; Republic of, 71; self-governance by, 76; sovereignty of, 74–75; United States in, 71–72 Hawaiian Recognition Bill, 73–74 Helplessness, 55–56 History: definition of, 65; of Hawai’i, 67–72 Hmong Americans in Minnesota: cultural competence training, 122–123; cultural semantics for, 116–123; health care access for, 110; Hmong and English Mental Health Interpreting and Translating, 114–115, 119; interpreter use by, 110; key collaborators for, 113–114; listserv for, 114, 118; mental health dictionary for, 119–123; mental health services for, 110–111, 117–123; Minnesota Department of Human Services services for, 115; regional efforts for, 115; research contributors for studying, 113–114; statistics regarding, 109–110; values of, 111–112 Hmong Mental Health Concepts Task Force, 113, 117 Hmong Mental Health Providers Network, 112–113 Human Genome Project, 23 Hypodescent, 95, 99 Identificational assimilation, 166–167 Identity: biracial (see Biracial identity); border, 95; development of, 99; ethnocultural, 146; monoracial,

Index

97; pluralistic, 94–95; transcendent, 94–95 Identity importance: description of, 200–202; multiple minorities in workplace influenced by, 213–214; studies of, 203, 205, 208 Illegal immigration, 163 Immigrant(s): adolescents, 144; assimilation of, 166–167, 170, 172; barriers to mental health services, 172–179; depression in, 168, 176; description of, 139; discrimination against, 169–170; ethnic identity of, 141–143; illegal, 163; indigenous racial minorities and, 169–170; inferiority sense by, 178; life quality of, 167; mental health of, 168–169, 171–179; Muslim, 10; “nationality” of, 141–142; psychotherapy as viewed by, 176–177; self-identification by, 147; statistics regarding, 138; stereotyping of, 170; talk therapy, 176–177; transitional factors that affect, 176–177 Immigrant children: developmental psychological theories and, 144–145; developmental tasks for, 143–144; educators of, 156–157; language spoken by, 145–146; parents of, 152–158; psychological adaptation among, 152–153; racism faced by, 145; rage experienced by, 145; self-identification by, 147; stereotypes faced by, 146–147; summary of, 153–158; teaching about racism to, 152–153 Immigrant parents: description of, 152–158; suggestions for, 152–153 Immigration: asylum from persecution as reason for, 164;

Index

census data regarding, 162; contributing factors, 163; economic incentive for, 163; family reunification as reason for, 164; forced, 163; globalization benefits of, 163; history of, 163; illegal, 163; international perspective of, 162–164; national perspective of, 162–164; refugee, 163; summary of, 186; U.S. foreign policy effects on, 180–181 Individualist values, 47 Interdependence, 47 Interpreters: clinical issues regarding, 124–125; clinician’s relationship with, 127; competency of, 126; future of, 131; guidelines for using, 128–131, 134–135; for Hmong Americans in Minnesota, 110; in mental health services, 123–130; as paraprofessionals, 125; research on, 127–128; responsibilities of, 126; training of, 125 Interracial identity, 24 Intimidation, 52 Intrusive cognitions, 55 Isolation, 96 Job gender context, 205, 208–209, 214–215 Job promotions, 51 Ka’ala Farm, 80–81 Language: acculturation and, 146; biracial identity influenced by, 92; cultural connections by, 44–45; decolonization and, 77; definition of, 91; functions of, 91; immigrant child’s struggle with, 145–146; race-based

223

effects of, 92; sociohistorical construction of, 91–97 Latinos, 193 Liholiho, Alexander, 69–70 Lili’uokalani, 70–71 Limit setting, 59 Linguistic systems, 91 Linnaeus, Carolus, 88 Loss of confidence, 55 Loss of drive, 56 Lumbee, 16–17 Macrosystem, 103 Marginalization, 98, 148 Mashantucket Pequot, 12 Meanness, 17 Mediation, 61–62 Melungeon, 8–9 Mental health: of immigrants, 168–169, 171–179; physical health versus, 175–176, 181 Mental health education, 184 Mental health professionals, 183–184 Mental health services: academic training challenges, 184; acculturation and, 138, 171–172; alternatives to, 182; barriers to, 172–179; challenges to, 179–184; cross-system coordination of, 180; educational-based approach, 181–182; failure of, 172–173; funding of, 180; hierarchy of, 173; for Hmong Americans in Minnesota, 110–111, 117–123; for immigrants, 171–172; individual level of, 177–178, 183–184; interpreters for (see Interpreters); professional level of, 181–183; psychology, 175; psychotherapy, 174–175; standardized instruments for, 131; system level, 173–174,

224

180–181; values prized by, 174–175 Mental illness social stigma, 182 Mentoring: boundary setting purposes of, 59; guidance from, 57; opportunities gained from, 58; purposes of, 57–59; role modeling from, 57; support gained from, 57 Mexican Americans, 199 Miscegenation, 90 Mixed-race Aborigines, 19–20 Mixed-race heritage: history of, 18–19; personal story of, 2–8; in United States, 18–19, 90–91 Monoculturalism, ethnocentric, 178–179 Monoculture society: description of, 165; United States as, 166 Monoracial identity, 97 Moors, 10–11 Mulatto fever, 21 Multicultural identity, 24 Multicultural society, 165–166 Multiple minorities in workplace: challenges for, 198–202; empirical studies of, 199–200; identity importance for, 200–202, 213–214; tools for changing the experiences of, 213; women, 199 Multiple minority status: cultural distance and, 199; definition of, 197–198; description of, 194; studies of, 203, 207–208; workplace discrimination and harassment and, 197–198, 203, 207–208, 213 Muslim immigrants: description of, 10; history of, 10 Mutuality, 150 Nanticoke, 12 “Nationality,” 141–142

Index

Native Americans: African people intermarriage with, 13; ancestry, 25–27; description of, 11–12 Opelu Project, 81–82 Oppression, 65 Organizational diversity climate: definition of, 195; description of, 194–195; prevalence of, 196; studies of, 203, 206–207; tools for changing, 211–212; workplace discrimination and harassment affected by, 196–197 Organizational diversity climate scale, 211 Paranoia, 54 Paraprofessionals: demand for, 125–126; interpreters as, 125 Pequot, 12 Perceived similarity, 198 Pessimism, 48 Piper, Adrian, 21–22 Pluralism, 165 Pluralistic identity, 94–95 Portuguese, 5–6 Prejudice: anxiety caused by, 54; against Asian Americans, 39–42; depression caused by, 54; different evaluative standards as, 51–52; differential treatment as, 51; documentation of, 60; false positives caused by, 56; feelings of worthlessness caused by, 55; guidance for, 59–60; helplessness caused by, 55–56; history of, xiii; identifying of, 49–52; individual responses to, 52–56; intimidation as, 52; intrusive cognitions caused by, 55; job promotion denial, 51; loss of confidence caused by, 55; loss of drive caused by, 56; mediation for, 61–62; mentoring to

Index

225

Race: biracial identity and, 92; census data regarding, 88; demographic changes, 22–23; language systems affected by, 92; societal effects of, 23; sociohistorical consequences of, 88–91 Race-mixing: definition of, 90; in United States, 90–91 Racial etiquette, 90 Racial identity, 150, 200–201. See also Ethnic identity Racial slurs, 50 Racioethnic minority status, 197 Racism: acculturation and, 148–150; colonization and, 66; against immigrant children, 145; psychological adaptation to, 152–153 Rebel, 101 Refugees: depression in, 168; immigration of, 163; relocation of, 169 Religious minority status, 197 Role modeling, 57

Self-knowledge, 56 Self-select, 100–101 Senna, Danzy, 21 Sense of well-being, 49 Separation, 100 Sexual Experiences Questionnaire, 205 Sexual harassment, 196–197, 205 Sexual minority status, 198 Shoemaker, Henry W., 9 Situational acculturation, 149 Sleep disturbance, 54 Social hierarchy, 89 Social stigma, 176, 182 Society: biracial identity and, 93–95; ethnic identity and, 140–141; monoculture, 165–166; multicultural, 165–166; race and, 23 Somatization, 175–176 Standards of care, 135 State Legalization Impact Assistance Grants, 166 Stereotyping: of Asian Americans, 45–47; description of, 50; of immigrant children, 146–147; of immigrants, 170 “Stolen Generation” of Australia, 19–20 Stress: acculturative, 139; assimilation, 168 Surnames, 14–15 System of appearance, 89

Self: migrant notion of, 96; negating aspects of, 100 Self-acceptance, 98–100 Self-concept, 97 Self-discipline, 48 Self-expression, 49 Self-generated characterizations, 95 Self-governance of Hawai’i, 76 Self-identification, 147 Self-identity, 93, 201, 213–214

Talk therapy, 176–177 Threats, 52 Tracking, 51 Transcendent identity, 94–95 Transracial adoptees, 24 Triracial American ancestry, 1 Triracial identity: contemporary, 20–37; indicators of, 14; Lumbee, 16–17; naming patterns for, 14–15

combat, 57–59; paranoia caused by, 54; sleep disturbance caused by, 54; strategies to combat, 56–62; tracking as, 51 Psychological assessments, 131 Psychology, 175 Psychotherapy, 174–177

226

Triracial isolates: definition of, 1, 8; Moors, 10; surnames and, 14–15; Turks, 10 Turks, 10–11 Tuscarora, 14, 17 Unitarianism, 29 United States: assimilation in, 166–167; demographic changes in, 138; foreign-born population of, 162–163; foreign policy of, 180, 183; as monoculture society, 166 Unreasonable expectations, 52 Vulnerability, 53 Whites, Asian Americans versus, 47–49 Workplace discrimination and harassment: filings of, 196;

Index

gender and, 205, 208–209, 214–215; identity importance and, 200–201, 203, 205, 208; job gender context and, 205, 208–209, 214–215; model of, 195; multiple minority status and, 197–198, 203, 207–208, 213; organizational diversity climate effects on, 196–197, 206–207; self-identity and, 201; sexual harassment, 196–197, 205; studies of, 205–206 Workplace diversity: benefits of, 193–195; challenges of, 193–195; perceived similarity effects, 198–199; research regarding, 194–195; statistics regarding, 193; training regarding, 196 Workplace Heterosexist Experiences Questionnaire, 205

About the Series and the Series Editors

I

t is expected that nearly half of the entire U.S. population will be of nonwhite ethnic and racial minorities by the year 2050. With this growing diversity, clinicians, researchers, and, indeed, all Americans need to understand that the Eurocentric psychological views particular to Caucasians may or may not be relevant or adequate to address mental health issues in racial and ethnic minorities. This series addresses those issues, aiming to better understand how these factors affect mental health, and what needs to be done, or done differently, to heal disorders that may arise. JEAN LAU CHIN is a licensed psychologist and systemwide dean of the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. She is also president of CEO Services, which offers clinical, educational, and organizational development services emphasizing cultural competence and integrated systems of care. She holds a doctorate from Teacher’s College of Columbia University. Dr. Chin’s past positions include associate professor of psychiatry at the Center for Minority Training Program, Boston University School of Medicine; regional director of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership; executive director of the South Cove Community Health Center; and codirector of the Thom Child Guidance Clinic. She has authored, coauthored, or edited books including Relationships among Asian American Women (2000), Community Health Psychology

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About the Series and the Series Editors

(1998), and Diversity in Psychotherapy: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity and Gender (1993). VICTOR DE LA CANCELA is associate clinical professor of medical psychology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He is also deputy executive director of Tremont-Crotona Child Development Center, and a clinical psychologist serving with the United States Army Reserve. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at the College of Medicine and Hospital at Howard University. He is a fellow of Divisions 1, 12, 38, 44, 45, 49, 51, and 52 of the American Psychological Association. In 1998, he received a letter of commendation from the president of the United States for teaching excellence. Robinson is a distinguished visiting professor at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at the Tripler Army Medical Center. He earned his EdD in counseling psychology at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, completed a clinical psychology residency at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and earned an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health. Robinson worked earlier as chief of interdepartmental programs in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at Howard University, and has also served as dean of the Division of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of the District of Columbia, clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and clinical attending faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University School of Medicine at the Cambridge Hospital.

About the Advisers

JESSICA HENDERSON DANIEL is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and both director of training in psychology and associate director of the LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) Training Program in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Boston. She is also an adjunct associate professor of psychology in the clinical psychology program at Boston University. Daniel is the past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35, APA; and is coeditor of The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women (2003). Her awards include the 1998 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School; the 2001 Education Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois; the 2002 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award from APA; and the 2003 Professional Award from the Boston & Vicinity Club, Inc., National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. JEFFERY SCOTT MIO is a professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at California State Polytechnic University–Pomona, where he also serves as the director of the master of science in psychology program. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois–Chicago in 1984. He taught at California State University–Fullerton in the counseling department from 1984–1986, then taught at Washington State University in the Department of Psychology from 1986 to 1994 before accepting his current position at CSPU–Pomona. His interests

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About the Advisers

are in the teaching of multicultural issues, the development of allies, and how metaphors are used in political persuasion. NATALIE PORTER is vice provost for academic affairs systemwide at Alliant International University. She is also an associate professor of psychology. She received her PhD from the University of Delaware. Porter’s research interests include feminist and anti-racist models of clinical training and supervision, cognitive and emotional developmental changes in individuals abused or traumatized as children, and feminist therapy supervision and ethics. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a coeditor of Race and Ethnicity in Psychology, a Praeger series. JOSEPH EVERETT TRIMBLE is a professor of psychology at the Center for Cross-Cultural Research at Western Washington University. Trimble was a fellow in the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2000 and 2001. He is a research associate for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in the Department of Psychiatry, National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research. He is also a scholar and adjunct professor of psychology for the Colorado State University Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research. In 1994, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, Division 45, American Psychological Association. In 2002, he was honored with the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the Washington State Psychological Association. He has authored eightytwo journal articles, chapters, and monographs, as well as authored or edited thirteen books, including the Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2002). MELBA J. T. VASQUEZ is in full-time independent practice in Austin, Texas. A past president of APA Divisions 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) and 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology), she has served in various other leadership positions. She is a fellow of the APA and a diplomate of the ABPP. She publishes in the areas of professional ethics, psychology of women, ethnic minority psychology, and training and supervision. She is coauthor, with Ken Pope, of Ethics in Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Practical Guide (1998, 2nd ed.). She is the recipient of several awards including Psychologist of the Year, Texas Psychological Association, 2003; Senior Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, APA, 2002; Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship,

About the Advisers

231

Columbia University, 2002; John Black Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Practice of Counseling Psychology, Division 17, APA, 2000; and the Distinguished Leader for Women in Psychology Award, Committee of Women Psychology, APA, 2000. HERBERT Z. WONG has provided management consulting, diversity training, and organizational assessments to over 300 government agencies, businesses, and other organizations. He was the cofounder and president of the National Diversity Conference, Inc., which presented contemporary issues and future directions of workforce diversity. He was a consultant to the President’s Commission on Mental Health (1977), the White House Conference for a Drug Free America (1989), and the President’s Initiative on Race–White House Office of Science and Technology (2000). In the past twenty-five years, Wong has written extensively on multicultural leadership, cross-cultural communication, and diversity issues. Wong received his PhD in clinical and organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.

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About the Contributors

STEPHANIE ROSE BIRD is an assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She earned her master of fine arts degree in visual arts at the University of California–San Diego. TIMOTHY DUNNIGAN is an anthropological linguist who teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. His primary area of study is the role of cultural semantics in comparative cultural studies. At present, he is working on a dictionary that compares and contrasts how Hmong and English speakers categorize psychological states and processes. DARRYL FREELAND is associate professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program of the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University in San Diego. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California. MICHAEL GOH is assistant professor with the Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology Program at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. His teaching, research, and service are focused on improving access to mental health services for ethnic minority, new immigrant, and international populations as well as being focused on the internationalization of counseling psychology. He was recently appointed a multicultural education fellow at the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Hmong Mental Health Research Group, an interdisciplinary team seeking to develop mental health approaches that are culturally and linguistically appropriate for the Hmong and

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About the Contributors

other Southeast Asian immigrant groups. His research has been presented at regional, national, and international conferences including the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, APA’s National Multicultural Conference and Summit, the International Congress of Psychology, and the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology. He is coauthor of Psychology in Singapore: Issues of an Emerging Discipline (2002) and has published several book chapters and journal articles. DEBRA M. KAWAHARA is assistant professor in the clinical psychology doctoral program at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. Her main interests are multicultural psychology and training, Asian American mental health, and trauma. In addition, she is actively involved in presenting to and training mental health professionals in the delivery of culturally competent services, particularly to ethnic and minority populations. She received her PhD degree (1994) from the California School of Professional Psychology–Los Angeles. SANDRA MATTAR is associate professor of psychology in the PsyD program at John F. Kennedy University, Graduate School of Professional Psychology, in Orinda, California. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the MA in counseling program at JFKU. Mattar received her psychology degree in Caracas, Venezuela, and her PsyD at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP). She was a Harvard fellow at the Victims of Violence Program at Cambridge Hospital in Boston. Her main professional work focuses around immigrant families, the psychology of acculturation, ethnic & racial identity, cross-cultural mental health issues, and the psychology of trauma. She has taught courses at University of California Berkeley–Extension and MSPP–Extension. Her publications include the following articles, papers, and chapter: “Depression and Anxiety Among Immigrant Women,” “Forging Troubled Waters: The Inclusion of Race and Culture into Teaching and Clinical Practice,” “Three Continents, Three Generations: Lessons Learned during My Immigration and Acculturation Process,” and “The Self Revisited: A Cross-Cultural Perspective,” among others. Mattar speaks four languages and is the daughter of Lebanese immigrants to Venezuela. NICOLE L. NELSON is a personnel research psychologist at the Federal Aviation Administration Civil Aerospace Medical Institute. She is a principal investigator on the Organizational Assessment Team

About the Contributors

235

in the Training and Organizational Research Laboratory. Her current research focuses on organizational effectiveness, performance measurement, and the identification of factors related to human error to enhance performance of aviation-related personnel. Dr. Nelson received her PhD in social/organizational psychology from Washington State University. TAHIRA M. PROBST is an associate professor of industrial/organizational psychology in the Department of Psychology at Washington State University–Vancouver. Her research interests include issues surrounding workplace diversity, international human resource management, and occupational health psychology. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and her research has appeared in outlets such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Group and Organization Management, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Teaching of Psychology. KATHRYN MCGRAW SCHUCHMAN is a psychologist in independent practice working with children and adolescents and their families. For thirteen years, she has provided assessment and therapy to children, teens, and young adults. Currently, she specializes in mental health services with refugees and immigrants. Throughout most of her work, Kathryn has been involved in community-based initiatives. She has been chair of the Hmong Mental Health Providers Network, an organization focused on building collaborations and strengthening advocacy among professionals involved in mental health services with Hmong, and is currently developing a nonprofit multicultural center for integrated health. Schuchman is also engaged in cross-cultural research focusing on the mental health concepts, language, indigenous healing practices, and mental health interventions of the Hmong. MATTHEW J. TAYLOR is an associate professor of psychology and a fellow at the Research Center for Cultural Diversity and Community Renewal at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. With a degree in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, his teaching, research, and clinical interests are eclectic with a core theme of minority mental health. He teaches the courses Cross-Cultural Psychology, Cross-Cultural Development, and Culture and Mental Health. Much of his research has focused on substance abuse and associated problems within minority communities. Other work has examined the use of historical cultural themes in therapeutic scenarios

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About the Contributors

with minority clients. He has practiced clinical cross-cultural psychology at the Indian Health Service (IHS) Hospital in Phoenix, and the American Indian Center of Mid-America in St. Louis. He has also given numerous talks on race, interracial relationships, identity formation, and the impact of American culture on the mental health of minority groups. He is biracial (German-American and black), was adopted at eighteen months by a German-Irish American family, and grew up on the East Coast. JAYE JANG VAN KIRK is a professor of psychology at San Diego Mesa College. She serves as the Psi Beta vice president for the Western/ Rocky Mountain region and is currently Psi Beta national presidentelect. She has interests in psychobiology and in the development of academic potential of students. She has presented sessions on leadership and innovative teaching and was recently invited to speak at the Oxford Round Table at Oxford University, England, on the challenges that ethnic women face in achieving higher education. She received her master’s degree in experimental psychology from California State University–Fullerton. LINNA WANG is assistant professor of marriage and family therapy and coordinator of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Alliant International University. She holds a PhD in marriage and family therapy from Brigham Young University, an MBA in strategic management and international business from Alliant, and a BA in English and literature from Shandong University, China. ANN S. YABUSAKI is a licensed psychologist and has served as faculty, dean, and president of graduate schools of psychology in the San Francisco Bay area. She maintains a private practice and directs the substance abuse treatment program at the Coalition for a DrugFree Hawaii. She also serves as the principal evaluator for a federal grant to train mental health providers serving Asian and Pacific Island communities. KENICHI K. YABUSAKI is a private consultant for biochemistry and biomedical diagnostic assay design and development. His doctorate in biochemistry is from the University of Arizona–Tucson. He has held positions as adjunct faculty at John F. Kennedy University and at Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology.

The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Recent titles in Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Sources of Stress and Relief for African American Women Catherine Fisher Collins Playing with Anger: Teaching Coping Skills to African American Boys through Athletics and Culture Howard C. Stevenson Jr., editor

The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination VOLUME 3 BIAS BASED ON GENDER AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION

Edited by Jean Lau Chin Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

PRAEGER PERSPECTIVES Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Jean Lau Chin, John D. Robinson, and Victor De La Cancela Series Editors

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The psychology of prejudice and discrimination / edited by Jean Lau Chin ; foreword by Joseph E. Trimble. p. cm.—(Race and ethnicity in psychology, ISSN 1543-2203) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-98234-3 (set : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98235-1 (v. 1 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98236-X (v. 2 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98237-8 (v. 3 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98238-6 (v. 4 : alk. paper) 1. Prejudices—United States. I. Chin, Jean Lau. II. Series. BF575.P9P79 2004 303.3'85'0973—dc22 2004042289 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright 쑕 2004 by Jean Lau Chin All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004042289 ISBN: 0-275-98234-3 (set) 0-275-98235-1 (Vol. 1) 0-275-98236-X (Vol. 2) 0-275-98237-8 (Vol. 3) 0-275-98238-6 (Vol. 4) ISSN: 1543-2203 First published in 2004 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

vii

Introduction by Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

Prejudice and Discrimination against Women Based on Gender Bias Roberta L. Nutt

1

CHAPTER 2

Powerpuff Girls: Fighting Evil Gender Messages or Postmodern Paradox? Carole Baroody Corcoran and Judith A. Parker

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CHAPTER 3

Life Experiences of Working and Stay-at-Home Mothers Judith LeMaster, Amy Marcus-Newhall, Bettina J. Casad, and Nicole Silverman

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CHAPTER 4

Running into the Wind: The Experience of Discrimination in an Academic Workplace Michelle Kaminski

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CHAPTER 5

Internalized Oppression among Black Women Anita Jones Thomas, Suzette L. Speight, and Karen M. Witherspoon

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CHAPTER 6

Black Women Coping with Stress in Academia Lena Wright Myers

133

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CHAPTER 7

Sexually Underrepresented Youth: Understanding Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning (GLBT-Q) Youth Shannon D. Smith

151

CHAPTER 8

Socio-Spatial Experiences of Transgender Individuals Kim D. Felsenthal

201

CHAPTER 9

Black Men Who Have Sex with Men Carlton W. Parks

227

CHAPTER 10

Coping among Victims of Sexual Prejudice and Discrimination Martin Kantor

249

Index

275

About the Series and the Series Editors

285

About the Advisers

287

About the Contributors

291

Foreword

Civilized men have gained notable mastery over energy, matter, and inanimate nature generally and are rapidly learning to control physical suffering and premature death. But, by contrast, we appear to be living in the Stone Age so far as our handling of human relations is concerned. (Gordon W. Allport, 1954, p. ix)

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lthough written over fifty years ago, the haunting words of the eminent social psychologist Gordon W. Allport may ring true today. His intent then was to clarify the various elements of the enormously complex topic of prejudice. Since the writing of his now well-cited and highly regarded text on prejudice, social and behavioral scientists have made great strides in furthering our knowledge of the field. Since 1950, for example, thousands of books, journal articles, and book chapters have been devoted to studying prejudice and discrimination. Professor Allport would be somewhat pleased with the numbers because that was partly his expectation when he said, “So great is the ferment of investigation and theory in this area that in one sense our account will soon be dated. New experiments will supersede old, and formulations of various theories will be improved” (1954, p. xiii). But has there been that much improvement that we have moved away from a Stone Age understanding of human relations to a higher level of sophistication? The question begs for an answer, but that can wait until later.

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Let me back up for a moment to explore another line of thought and inquiry that bears directly on the significance and importance of this wonderful set of books on the psychology of prejudice and discrimination. For as long as I can remember, I have been deeply interested in the origins of, motives in, and attitudes about genocide and ethnocide; as a young child I did not use those horrific terms, as I did not know them then. But I did know about their implied destructive implications from stories passed along by sensitive teachers, ancestors, and elders. The deep social psychological meaning of the constructs later became an intense interest of mine as a graduate student in the turbulent 1960s, an era filled with challenges and protestations of anything regarding civil rights, discrimination, racism, sexism, and prejudice. During that era I threw my mind and spirit into the study of Allport’s writings on prejudice—not merely to study them, but to explore every nuance of his scholarly works to expand the depth of my understanding and expecting to come away with fewer questions and more answers. I was not disappointed in my exploration. I was baffled, though, because I recognized more so just how complicated it was to prevent and eradicate prejudice and discrimination. As I write these thoughts, I am reminded of a sign that was once posted over the porch roof of an old restaurant and tavern in a rural South Dakota community adjacent to an American Indian reservation. The sign was hand-painted in white letters on a long slat of weathered wood; it was written in the Lakota language, and the English translation read, “No dogs or Indians allowed.” The store was and is still owned by non-Indians. The offensive, derogatory sign is no longer there— likely torn down years ago by angry protestors from the nearby reservation. While the sign is gone, the attitude and intent of the message still linger in and around the rustic building, except that it is more insidious, pernicious, and guileful now. The prevailing prejudicial and loathsome attitude is a reflection of many of the residents of the small town. Many of the town’s residents tolerate Native Americans because they dependent on them economically, but their bigoted and closed-minded convictions are unwilling to accept Native Americans as equals and provide them with freedom of movement and expression. The wretched, mean-spirited, pernicious attitudes present in that rural South Dakota town symbolize the prevailing changes in attitudes and behavior across North America—the blatant signs are gone, but in many places and for many individuals the prejudicial attitudes persist, sometimes in sly and subtle forms. On other occasions they are overt and repulsive. Chapters in these volumes summarize and

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explore the social and psychological motives and reasoning behind the persistence of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory practices. They go beyond the conclusions drawn by Professor Allport and other early writers on the topic and take us into domains represented by those who have experienced prejudice and discrimination firsthand, as did their ancestors. Indeed, a voice not included in early studies on prejudice and discrimination is intensified and deepened as more and more ethnic groups and women are represented in the social and behavioral sciences than in years gone by. Stories and anecdotes, too, recounted by the rising groups of diverse scholars and researchers, lend a new authenticity to the literature. Some of the accounts provide a different perspective on historical events involving racial hatred that provide more thorough descriptions of the details and perspectives. Revisionist historical approaches have a place in the study of prejudice and discrimination because for so long the authentic voices of the victims were muffled and muted. For example, as a consequence of European contact, many Native American communities continue to experience individual and community trauma, a “wound to the soul of Native American people that is felt in agonizing proportions to this day” (Duran & Duran, 1995, p. 27). The cumulative trauma has been fueled by centuries of incurable diseases, massacres, forced relocation, unemployment, economic despair, poverty, forced removal of children to boarding schools, abuse, racism, loss of traditional lands, unscrupulous land mongering, betrayal, broken treaties—the list goes on. Brave Heart and DeBruyn (1998) and Duran and Duran (1995) maintain that postcolonial “historical and intergenerational trauma” has left a long trail of unresolved grief and a “soul wound” in Native American communities that contribute to high levels of social and individual problems such as alcoholism, suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, and negative career ideation. The presence of Native American scholars contributed a voice that was suppressed for decades because some feared the consequences if these scholars told their stories. The stories and accounts of past racial events and their corresponding trauma also were not told because there were few visible ethnic scholars available. Decades ago the topics of prejudice and discrimination largely emphasized race and, more specifically, the racial experiences of black Americans. Over the years the topic has expanded to include the experiences of other ethnic groups, women, the elderly, those with disabilities, those with nonheterosexual orientations, and those with mixed ethnic heritages. The volumes edited by Jean Lau Chin expand

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the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism to add a broader, more inclusive dimension to the understanding of prejudice and discrimination. The addition of new voices to the field elevates public awareness to the sweeping effects of prejudice and discrimination and how they are deeply saturated throughout societies. The amount of scholarly attention devoted to the study of prejudice and discrimination closely parallels the growth of ethnic diversity interests in psychology. Until about thirty years ago, psychology’s mission appeared to be restricted to a limited population as references to blacks, Asian Americans, Native American and Alaska natives, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Ricans were almost absent from the psychological literature; in fact, the words culture and ethnic were rarely used in psychological textbooks. The long absence of culture in the web of psychological inquiry did not go unnoticed. About three decades ago, ethnic minority and international psychologists began questioning what the American Psychological Association meant by its use of human and to whom the vast body of psychological knowledge applied. America’s ethnic psychologists and those from other countries, as well as a small handful of North American psychologists, argued that American psychology did not include what constituted the world’s population. They claimed that findings were biased, limited to studies involving college and university students and laboratory animals, and therefore not generalizable to all humans. Comprehensive literature reviews reinforced their accusations and observations. Accusations of imperialism, cultural encapsulation, ethnocentrism, parochialism, and, in some circles of dissent, of “scientifically racist” studies, run the gamut of criticisms hurled at the field of psychology during that period. Robert Guthrie (1976), for example, writing in his strongly worded critique of psychology, Even the Rat Was White, argues that culture and context were not taken seriously in the history of psychological research. Given these conditions and the myopia of the profession, it is no small wonder that prejudice and discrimination were not given more widespread attention. The topic was not perceived as salient and important enough for extensive consideration. The four volumes in this set are a testament to the amount of change and emphasis that are focused on ethnicity, culture, and the topics of prejudice and discrimination. The changing demographics in the United States call into question the relevance of a psychology that historically has not included ethnic and racial groups and that fostered a research agenda that was ethnocentric and bound by time and place. This can no longer be tolerated,

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as the rapid growth of ethnic minority groups in the United States amplifies the need for more attentiveness on the part of the social and behavioral sciences. Consider the population projections offered by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. By 2050, the U.S. population will reach over 400 million, about 47 percent larger than in 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). The primary ethnic minority groups— specifically, Hispanics, blacks, Asian Americans, and Native American and Alaska Natives—will constitute almost 50 percent of the population in 2050. About 57 percent of the population under the age of eighteen, and 34 percent over the age of 65, will be ethnic minorities. America never was and likely will not be a melting pot of different nationalities and ethnic groups for another century or two. As the mixture and size of ethnic groups increase, we are faced with the disturbing possibility that an increase in prejudice and discrimination will occur accordingly. Given this possibility, the topics covered in these volumes become even more worthy of serious consideration, especially the ones that emphasize prevention. Given the demographic changes and the topical changes that have occurred in the social and behavioral sciences, the extensive contents of these four volumes are a welcome addition to the field. Editor Jean Lau Chin and her long list of chapter authors are to be congratulated for their monumental effort. The volumes are packed with useful and wonderfully written material. Some is based on empirical findings, some on firsthand experiences. The blend of various writing styles and voice adds to the breadth of coverage of the topic. The many points of view provided by the contributors will help shape the direction of research and scholarly expression on a topic that has been around since the origins of humankind. We can hope that the contributions of these four volumes will move the field of human relations from a perceived Stone Age level of understanding to one where we believe we are moving closer to eliminating prejudice, discrimination, and the vile hatred they engender. Joseph E. Trimble Professor of Psychology Western Washington University Bellingham, WA March 21, 2004

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REFERENCES Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. (1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 56–78. Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American postcolonial psychology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Guthrie, R. (1976). Even the rat was white: A historical view of psychology. New York: Harper & Row. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). Census of the population: General population characteristics, 2000. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Introduction

P

rejudice and discrimination are not new. The legacy of the Pilgrims and early pioneers suggested a homogenous, mainstream America. Our early emphasis on patriotism in the United States resulted in a false idealization of the melting pot myth. Prejudice and discrimination in American society were overt and permeated all levels of society, that is, legislation, government, education, and neighborhoods. In the 1960s, attempts to eradicate prejudice, discrimination, and racism were explicit—with an appeal to honor and value the diversity within different racial and ethnic groups. This soon extended to other dimensions of diversity, including gender, disability, and spirituality. However, long after the war to end slavery, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, desegregation in the schools, and the abolition of antiAsian legislation—indeed, in the midst of growing public debate today regarding gay marriage—we still see the pernicious effects of prejudice and discrimination in U.S. society. Prejudice and discrimination toward differences in race, ethnicity, gender, spirituality, and disability have had negative psychological consequences, and they continue in primarily covert forms. Bias and disparities still exist and result in inequity of services, opportunities, and practices in American society. Combating prejudice and discrimination in today’s environment warrants some different strategies. We live in an environment of heightened anxiety due to war and terrorism. Thanks to technological advances in communication, travel, and the

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Internet, news and information from all parts of the world are almost instantaneously brought to us. We live in a global economy with a narrowing of borders between countries and groups. Generations of immigrants have resulted in the U.S. population becoming so diverse that there may soon be no single majority group within most major cities. Technological advances have eliminated the biological advantage of males in strength and the biological “limitations” of women of childbearing age in the work environment. Yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Irrational and unjust perceptions of other people remain—more subtle, perhaps, but they remain. This four-volume set, The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination, takes a fresh look at that issue that is embedded in today’s global environment. Images, attitudes and perceptions that sustain prejudice and discrimination are more covert, but no less pernicious. What people say, believe, and do all reflect underlying bias. We do not claim here to address every existing form of prejudice or discrimination, nor do we cite every possible group targeted today. What we offer are insights into a range from the most to least recognized, or openly discussed, forms of this injustice. Each chapter offers new perspectives on standing issues, with practical information about how to cope with prejudice and discrimination. The “toolbox” at the end of each chapter suggests steps to be taken at different levels to combat prejudice and discrimination and to achieve change. At the individual level, self-reflection needs to occur by both the victims and perpetrators of discrimination. Practitioners, educators, and all who deliver services potentially impart a bias perpetuating prejudice and discrimination. At the systems level, communities and policymakers must join together and have the will to combat discrimination. How does one remain “whole” or validate one’s identity despite persistent assaults to self-esteem from prejudice and discrimination? How does one raise children or teach amid societal institutions that perpetuate bias? Culturally competent principles and practices are needed to provide a framework for managing diversity and valuing differences. Volume 1, Racism in America, looks at stereotypes, racial bias, and race relations. How do we avoid internalizing racism or accepting negative messages about a group’s ability and intrinsic worth? How do we address institutionalized racism that results in differential access to goods, service, and opportunities of society? Volume 2, Ethnicity and Multiracial Identity, looks at discrimination toward differences due to immigration, language, culture, and mixed race. Volume 3,

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Bias Based on Gender and Sexual Orientation, looks at gender bias, women’s issues, homophobia, and oppression of gay/lesbian lifestyles. Volume 4, Disability, Religion, Physique, and Other Traits, strives to examine less-spotlighted bias against other forms of difference, and begins the difficult dialogue that must take place if we are to eradicate prejudice and discrimination. Written for today’s people and environment, these volumes are rich with anecdotes, stories, examples, and research. These stories illustrate the emotional impact of prejudice and discrimination throughout history and as it still strikes people’s lives today. While the chapters spotlight psychology, they interweave history, politics, legislation, social change, education, and more. These interdisciplinary views reflect the broad contexts of prejudice and discrimination that ultimately affect identity, life adjustment, and well-being for every one of us. Please take with you the strategies for change offered in the toolbox at the end of each chapter. Change needs to occur at all levels: individual, practitioner/educator, and community. The intent of the toolboxes is to move us from the emotional to the scholarly to action and empowerment. They are intended to encourage and compel readers to begin individual change that will spur community and social action. With each person who reads these volumes, gains understanding, and finds the motivation or method to help make his or her small part of the world a more just and open-minded place, we have moved closer to making our goal a reality. Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

Prejudice and Discrimination against Women Based on Gender Bias Roberta L. Nutt

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here is a long history of discrimination against women in U.S. culture and the world that often rests on the foundation of gender bias, which restricts the roles and potential of both women and men. However, for women this discrimination and prejudice often result in role conflict, devaluation, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, depression, discouraged achievement, victimization, dependency, and feelings of helplessness (Nutt, 1999). Most cultures teach women that they are of lesser value than men, and this message is repeated throughout the life span. Characteristics viewed as masculine are more highly valued than those considered feminine, such as assertiveness versus submissiveness, achieving versus caretaking, and strong versus gentle. In many cultures, when women are not instructed to be invisible, there is an overemphasis on physical appearance and beauty to the detriment of full personal development (Wolf, 1991). Women’s voices are frequently silenced, and their thoughts and opinions are not valued (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; Jack 1991, 1999; Thompson, 1995). Theorists suggest that in recent times in lesstraditional cultures, women actually receive paradoxical messages, such as “you should be gentle and nurturing while also being a shrewd business woman in the workplace” (Halas & Matteson, 1978; O’Neil & Egan, 1992), which result in confusion and vulnerability to self-doubt. Then when women encounter prejudice and discrimination,

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they may collude with the system and believe they deserve it. Hence, women feel devalued by external sources and devalue themselves. Although a variety of changes have occurred in the United States in the past several decades regarding expectations of women and men (Eagly, Wood, & Diekman, 2000), most researchers still report different gender-role socialization patterns for girls and boys and women and men. These patterns may be even more striking in other countries around the world that have experienced less social change in the late twentieth century, and they also vary by ethnicity, class/economic status, sexual orientation, and religion. Hence, prejudice and discrimination against women are found in many places around the world. INFANCY Parents still tend to treat and dress girls and boys differently (Matlin, 1996). In western cultures, girls’ clothing suggests delicacy and fragility through color (pastel—often pink) and style (dresses with frills and bows) and less likely lends itself to action-oriented activity or exploration. Girls’ rooms are also more often decorated in pastel colors with flowers and lace for decor (Pomerleau, Bolduc, Malcuit, & Cossette, 1990), which further suggests girls’ need for protection and an inability to be independent and strong. Adults also play with girl babies in different ways than they do with boys. They are gentler with girls, as girls are seen as delicate and weaker, and adults are more likely to play roughly and aggressively with the hardier, stronger boys (Grieshaber, 1998; Huston, 1983; Rubin, Provenzano, & Luria, 1974). Girls are praised for being cute and adorable and displaying behavior labeled “sweet.” They are more often “helped” and “rescued” (Paludi, 2002). There is substantial evidence in U.S. culture and many others that boy babies are preferred over girl babies, especially for a firstborn child (Arnold & Kuo, 1984; Basow, 1992; Hamilton, 1991; Pooler, 1991). In some countries, girl babies are even killed or sold (Neft & Levine, 1997), so strong is this preference for boys and discrimination against girls. CHILDHOOD In childhood, the different expectations and treatment of girls and boys continues and increases. Girls’ activities are more likely to be restricted (Gilligan, 1982; Lytton & Romney, 1991) under the guise of

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protecting them. Children’s books and toys strongly communicate society’s expectations of their appropriate gender-role behaviors (Clark, Lennon, & Morris, 1993; Evans & Davies, 2000; Kortenhaus & Demarest, 1993; Robinson & Morris, 1986). Toys for girls usually aim them toward future roles as wives and mothers—dolls, stoves, dishes, etc. They are not typically given the boy-oriented toys like building blocks, chemistry sets, and vehicles that might teach them career values and skills. They are less adventurous and engage in fewer activities. Fairy tales and children’s books, with some exceptions, further stereotype girls as passive victims who need rescuing or as caretaking nurturers (Bordelon, 1985; Purcell & Stewart, 1990). Girls are taught to look good (Wolf, 1991) and to rely on men to rescue and take care of them. In addition, girls are underrepresented in children’s books despite recent attempts to equalize the ratio (Doyle & Paludi, 1998). Children’s books still predominantly portray male and white characters, communicating to white girls and girls of color that women are not important (Reid & Paludi, 1993). These messages result in girls and women not feeling important or competent and able to take care of themselves. The messages lead the larger culture also to view women as not competent or independent, and less is expected of them. Gender stereotypes are reinforced in the classroom as children enter the school system. Girls are less often called upon in class or encouraged to speak up in public (AAUW, 1992; Sadker & Sadker, 1994), and black girls receive even less attention (AAUW, 1992; Orenstein, 1994). Boys are given more time to answer questions, and they are often asked to elaborate, which leads them to think more deeply. Girls more typically receive a vague or neutral response. Also, when girls have difficulties with a problem, the teacher usually gives them the solution rather than encouragement to figure it out themselves. The Association of American Colleges (Hall & Sandler, 1982) described the U.S. school system as a chilly classroom climate for women, extending from elementary school to college and even graduate school. Teaching style also favors a male style of learning, which further disadvantages most girls (Belenky et al., 1986; Ginorio & Huston, 2000). Consequently, girls feel less valued in the classroom. They participate less, which further erodes self-worth and other people’s attitudes toward them as girls. Their voices are silenced and their ideas and opinions are seen as not mattering (Jack, 1991, 1999; Thompson, 1995). Girls learn to defer to boys, give higher value to neatness than creativity, emphasize appearance over intelligence, and

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fear and avoid science and math (Sadker & Sadker, 1994). Their classroom performance deteriorates. During this time period, children resist involvement with the “other” sex (Feiring & Lewis, 1987; La Freniere, Strayer, & Gauthier, 1984; Lobel, Stone, & Winch, 1997; Maccoby, 1998; Martin & Fabes, 2001), further isolating girls. The isolation of any group, especially one with lesser power, is directly related to the ease with which that group may receive discrimination. In fact, girls and women are given more latitude in behavior and attire than boys and men because the masculine is more highly valued (Feinman, 1981; Urberg, 1982). Sex harassment of girls by boys is being reported in U.S. elementary schools, and there are countries that do not even allow girls to be educated (for example, in Afghanistan during the Taliban era). On television, boys favor sports, shows about the supernatural, and entertainment cartoons, while girls are attracted to comedy. As in American children’s books, these shows portray more male than female characters (Thompson & Zerbinos, 1997), a finding that has been replicated in Japan (Rolandelli, 1991). Boys and girls are also portrayed primarily in stereotyped, traditional roles (Furnham & Bitar, 1993; Furnham & Twiggy, 1999; Signorielli, 1989). Since, on the average, American children watch eight to fourteen hours of television each week (Wright, et al., 2001), TV’s messages have a significant impact. On prime time television, women also are seen less frequently (Signorielli & Bacue, 1999), although there has been some progress in depicting women in the workplace and in nontraditional careers. The lack of sufficient competent female role models in the media disadvantages girls and reinforces prejudice toward women as lesser. ADOLESCENCE Gender differences are even further accentuated at adolescence, thereby strengthening gender bias. Pipher (1994) considered adolescence the most critical period of gender-role conflict and change. She stated, “Something dramatic happens to girls in early adolescence. Just as planes and ships disappear mysteriously into the Bermuda Triangle, so do the selves of girls go down in droves” (p. 19). Even girls who have done well academically in elementary school often pull back from academic achievement in adolescence. Girls who continue to achieve are often criticized, even ridiculed, since high academic performance is considered a masculine trait. Their femininity may be questioned. Girls therefore lose confidence

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in their academic abilities (Freiberg, 1991; Walker, Reis, & Leonard, 1992), are directed toward traditionally “feminine” and generally lower-paying careers, tend to under-aspire in relation to their abilities, and lose self-confidence and self-esteem (AAUW, 1992; Brody, 1997; Kling, Hyde, Showers, & Buswell, 1999). Girls and women are then perceived as less competent than men, with prejudicial attitudes toward women as a result. Less is expected of them, girls who attempt to escape their traditional roles are sanctioned, and the genderbias system is reinforced. There is some evidence that black girls may suffer less of this loss of self-esteem because of the influence of parents who actively work to confront racism and support their daughters’ self-esteem (Michaelieu, 1997). As girls reach dating age, they tend to pay more and more attention to appearance and social popularity. They spend large sums of money on clothing, makeup, and fashion magazines, particularly those aimed at teenagers. Although it is biologically appropriate and desirable for adolescent girls to increase their fatty tissue to maintain normal reproductive functioning, girls perceive any increase in body weight or size as problematic in a culture that values a lean “masculine” body for women and devalues and criticizes a more feminine, round, shapely body (Martz, Handley, & Eisler, 1995; McKinley & Hyde, 1996). Not being sufficiently thin, and therefore attractive, creates negative self-evaluation (Cattarin, Thompson, Thomas, & Williams, 2000; Evans, 2003; Thornton & Maurice, 1997), a finding that holds across multiple cultures (Bay-Cheng, Zucker, Stewart, & Pomerleau, 2002; Demarest & Allen, 2000; Henriques & Calhoun, 1999; Pumariega, 1997), although somewhat less among blacks (Cash & Henry, 1995; Hebl & Heatherton, 1998). This overemphasis on appearance via thinness causes many adolescent girls to submit themselves to stringent dieting, which may take a serious toll on their health, in addition to leading to prevalent eating disorders (Frederick & Grow, 1996; Haworth-Hoeppner, 2000; Striegel-Moore & Smolak, 2000). Kaschak (1992) described this violation of the female body as a combat zone in that “women become the enemies of their bodies in a struggle to mold them as society wishes, to mediate and embody conflicts between the physical and the demands of society” (p. 193). She elaborated that “conflicts surrounding women’s desires and appetites, about taking up space, and about adult sexuality are expressed elegantly and painfully in eating disorders in women” (p. 195). Frederickson and Roberts (1997) delineated the consequences of shame, anxiety, and serious mental

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health problems that result when women’s bodies are objectified. Women’s guilt about not being physically perfect and desirable and taking up more than their share of space leads to feelings of guilt and self-devaluation. These feelings may be further accentuated in cultures where women are hidden from view by clothing or isolation. Because these attitudes are widespread, they result in prejudice and discrimination toward women who do not meet the cultural ideal of beauty. These women feel shamed and criticized, and their development is limited. YOUNG ADULTHOOD In young adulthood, the emphasis on appearance and its connection to relationships in women’s lives continues to grow. In describing this classic developmental stage of “identity versus role confusion,” Erikson (1964, 1968) postulated that a young woman cannot fully form an identity until she knows the man she will marry. He thereby assumes women must satisfy their relational needs before they can define an identity. His premise suggests that women are only half-people waiting for someone to fulfill and complete them (Kolbenschlag, 1981; Russianoff, 1981). While newer theories have emphasized the importance of connection and relationships to both genders (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991), Erikson’s writings are still seriously adopted by many. The assumption that a woman cannot develop a separate, independent identity but rather is defined by the men in her life (husband, male children, father) leads the culture again to believe that women are lesser and incomplete. It provides support for those who would restrict women’s roles based on the assumption that women have inherent role restrictions and lesser competencies. Kolbenschlag (1981), in her aptly titled book, Kiss Sleeping Beauty Goodbye, described young women as continually waiting: waiting for the completion of something missing in their lives, waiting for young men to bring purpose and fulfillment to their lives. While waiting, young women restrict themselves from living fully and fully developing their lives. They often put major life issues and decisions “on hold.” “The ‘tomboy’ phase, which often precedes puberty, is, for many young girls, the last eruption of individuated personality before the fall into ‘beauty’ and the inevitable ‘sleep’ of the female psyche” (p. 8). “The second persona in the . . . girl’s repertoire is that of the desire to live for another. This role will school her in self-forgetfulness,

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service and sacrifice, in nurturing rather than initiating behaviors . . . She will give up everything when the expected one comes, even the right of creating her own self” (p. 10). At the same time, Miller (1986) and Spence and Buckner (2000) noted that “in our culture serving others is for losers, it is low level stuff. Yet serving others is a basic principle around which women’s lives are organized; it is far from such for men” (p. 61). Kolbenschlag (1981) concluded that “giving advice to women [about who they should be] has been one of the most constant industries in Western civilization” (p. 11). The result is that women are viewed as inferior creatures who are assumed to be passive and submissive, dependent on others for identity and protection, and fearful of unexpected events and new challenges. They are not expected to be able to make their own choices and therefore need directions from others, which can be used to justify discrimination against allowing them in positions of responsibility and authority. While it is certainly true that the numbers of young women with career aspirations and educational achievement have grown in recent decades, the messages about women’s need for another to complete them continue. Viewing just one episode of the recent, popular television series Sex and the City provides strong evidence for this focus on relationships in women’s lives, even for women in successful careers. American women are putting more emphasis on education and career and are waiting longer to marry, but the expected lifestyle for adult women is still heterosexual marriage, traditional gender roles in the marital relationship, and the rearing of children (Bridges, Etaugh, & Barnes-Farrell, 2002; Chaffin & Winston, 1991; Prentice & Carranza, 2002; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996), an expectation that holds across most cultures (Frieze et al., 2003; Funk & Mueller, 1993; Massey, Hahn, & Sekulic, 1995; Morinaga, Frieze, & Ferligoj, 1993). Extended family and friends begin to ask pointed questions of a woman who has not married by twenty-eight or thirty or who is married but does not have children. “The motherhood mystique asserts that being a mother is the ultimate fulfillment for a woman. (In contrast, men are viewed as being fulfilled not merely by becoming fathers but by having varied, unique lives full of experiences and achievements)” (Unger & Crawford, 1992, p. 431). This motherhood message creates a double-bind situation in that while motherhood is widely praised, it actually receives low status and prestige in most cultures (Mueller & Yoder, 1997). Prejudice will result when women are viewed primarily as wives and mothers rather than independent individuals with a

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variety of important roles. In its extreme form, this view results in justifying the physical abuse of wives by their husbands in countries around the world (Glick, Sakalli-Ugurlu, Ferreira & de Souza, 2002; Haj-Yahia, 1998, 2002; Harway, Hansen, Rossman, Geffner, & Deitch, 1996; Harway & O’Neil, 1999; Yllo & Straus, 1990). Recent research has shown some shift in roles of women in heterosexual marriage. As women develop careers and create a stronger sense of competence and independence, they also want and expect more egalitarian roles in marriage (Botkin, Weeks, & Morris, 2000)— more egalitarian than men endorse (Fowers, 1991). However, most couples still view the male partner as the one with more power (Felmlee, 1994). A number of studies have demonstrated that equality of power generally leads to higher marital satisfaction (Acitelli & Antonucci, 1994; Schroeder, Blood, & Maluso, 1992; Shacher, 1991; Sperberg & Stabb, 1998). However, only a minority of marriages have achieved true equality in terms of behavior (Steil, 1997). Extensive research indicates that a disproportionate share of household labor is still performed by women (Baxter, 1992; Beckwith, 1992; Biernat & Wortman, 1991; DeMeis & Perkins, 1996; Starrels, 1994) regardless of race/ethnicity (John & Shelton, 1997) or socioeconomic status (Wright, Shire, Hwang, Dolan, & Baxter, 1992). The average amount of female-typed tasks (meal preparation, cleanup, laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping, etc.) done by husbands across white, Latino, and black couples in the United States (John, Shelton, & Luschen, 1995) and many other countries (Moore, 1995; United Nations, 1995) is about 20 percent. This is progress, since the amount for all housework in 1965 was 8 percent to approximately a third in the 1990s (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, & Robinson, 2000), but it is not yet equity and continues to reflect old prejudices regarding women’s and men’s roles. Consistent with earlier descriptions, in the past young women were not encouraged to develop the problem-solving, independent, risktaking, and abstract way of thinking necessary for career decisionmaking, maturity, and advancement negotiation (Wade, 2001). Early career theorists even based their writings on a white male model and saw women’s career development as inferior or nonexistent (Fitzgerald & Crites, 1980). In the 1940s, researchers believed women had no personal need for achievement but achieved vicariously through their husband and male children (McClelland, 1961). There is still evidence that young women’s career aspirations are typically lower than their abilities

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(Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Eccles, 1987; Walsh & Osipow, 1994), and young women are still often guided into traditional teaching, nursing, and other service careers. They are frequently steered away from science, math, and computers (Arch & Cummins, 1989) or discriminated against when they try to enter a male-dominated career area (Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Steele, James, & Barnett, 2002; Yoder, 2002). While this discrimination is slowly changing as women do enter male-dominated professions, the change is slow (Kaufman, 1995). Another particular barrier for women in the workplace is sexual harassment. As a result of sexual harassment and the hostile climate it creates, women change jobs and careers, leave educational programs, suffer decreased morale and job satisfaction, and become less productive (Dansky & Kilpatrick, 1997; Fitzgerald & Omerod, 1993; Levy & Paludi, 1997; Munson, Hulin, & Drasgow, 2000; Paludi, 1996). Those who do not believe women belong in the workforce might use sexual harassment to drive women out: an act of discrimination based upon prejudice. Finally, the mental health system, since its members are also products of the culture, has not treated women fairly. Women are diagnosed and treated in greater numbers than men (Russo & Green, 1993) and are likely to be diagnosed with disorders that frequently represent exaggerations of the female role, such as depression, agoraphobia, histrionic disorders, dependent personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and eating disorders (Bekker, 1996; Caplan, 1995; Handwerker, 1999; Rudolf & Priebe, 1999). These diagnoses may then be used to discriminate against women and judge them as less competent than men. In therapy, these attitudes yield the greater likelihood that male clients will be given a more positive prognosis and an instrumental “let’s fix it” approach, while women are often directed to solutions and given less responsibility for change (Fowers, Applegate, Tredinnick, & Slusher, 1996; Klonoff, Landrine, & Campbell, 2000; Rudman & Glick, 2001; Seem & Johnson, 1998). MIDDLE AND LATER ADULTHOOD In middle and later adulthood, the earlier described patterns continue. There is an ongoing emphasis on women being valued primarily for their appearance (which stereotypically declines with age) and their caretaking abilities (Bridges et al., 2002; Frederickson & Roberts,

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1997; Miller, 1986; Prentice & Carranza, 2002). In her book The Beauty Myth (1991), Wolf describes in great detail how images of beauty are detrimental to women. Women sacrifice much money, time, physical pain, and esteem in the pursuit of beauty, often to the detriment of personal and professional development. As stated by Wolf, “Since the Industrial Revolution, middle-class Western women have been controlled by ideals and stereotypes as much as by material constraints” (p. 15). Beauty has been shown to give the women who possess it advantages in both relationships with men and in the marketplace. Complicating this emphasis on beauty is the evidence that the current U.S. standard for beauty is one that no woman can truly achieve (Heyn, 1989; Kilbourne, 1994). This impossible goal devalues women and results in distorted body images, depression, chronic personal dissatisfaction, eating disorders, excessive and dangerous cosmetic surgery, and a lessening of self-esteem (Dunn, 1994; Saltzberg & Chrisler, 1995). Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-Moore (1984) labeled this strong and prevalent obsession with weight and dieting as “normative discontent,” such that even normal-weight women consider themselves too fat. Such discontent, dissatisfaction, feelings of depression and self-criticism, and devaluation of self make it difficult for a woman to stand up for herself in personal and professional arenas, which leads to the larger society viewing women as weaker and lesser, thereby deserving discrimination and less respect. In fact, Brown (1987) has suggested that women’s distortion of body image and fear of fat have resulted from male standards that value smallness, weakness, and the absence of overt power in women. The socialization messages discussed earlier continue to have negative consequences on women’s physical and mental health. Hare-Mustin (1983) observed the harmfulness of gender-role socialization and gender-role conflict and postulated that “the demands of traditional sex roles lead to more problems for women than men. Certain aspects of women’s sex roles may influence the development of mental illness, such as holding in negative feelings, behaving to satisfy a male partner, passivity, learned helplessness, exaggerated femininity, and other-directedness” (p. 595). The caretaking role can lead women to overvalue their love relationships, invest too much of their selfworth in their connections and relationships, and give insufficient attention to developing important aspects of themselves and their skills and competencies. As suggested earlier, these emphases may also lead to physical and mental diagnoses that label and devalue women.

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At midlife, there is some decline in physical abilities and the loss of reproductive ability (Etaugh, 1993; Hayflick, 1994; Whitbourne, 1985). Stereotypically, this has led to many western cultures devaluing middle age and older women as dried-up, useless, old hags (Cole & Rothblum, 1990; Gergen, 1990; Rostosky & Travis, 1996). The changes that occur with aging, such as wrinkles and gray hair, are perceived to diminish femininity (Heilbrun, 1991) even though they are perceived to enhance masculinity. Heilbrun remarked that “signs of age come upon women in our society like marks of the devil in earlier times” (p. 56). Middle-aged and older women often report feeling invisible, since the feature for which they were most valued, their physical beauty, has declined. They are underrepresented in all varieties of media. In a study spanning 1940 through the 1980s, the 100 highest-grossing movies not only underrepresented women compared to men, they also tended to portray them more negatively (Bazzini, McIntosh, Smith, Cook, & Harris, 1997). Similarly, only 3 percent of characters portrayed by older actors on prime time television were women, again presented more negatively (Vernon, Williams, Phillips, & Wilson, 1991). In magazines, older women’s age is disguised by airbrushing (Chrisler & Ghiz, 1993); and, except for advice on dentures, laxatives, and incontinence and needs for medical attention, older women are ignored in advertising (Bailey, Harrell, & Anderson, 1993; Grambs, 1989). More recent writing has begun to celebrate the liberation, freedom, and independence of middle age (Bergquist, Greenberg, & Klaum, 1993; Friedan, 1993; Grambs, 1989; Greer, 1992; Helson & Wink, 1992; Jong, 1994; Niemela & Lento, 1993; Rountree, 1993; Sang, 1993; Sheehy, 1992). Many women in their fifties appear to be in the “prime of life.” They report their lives as positive, financially comfortable, engaged in social issues, autonomous, and highly satisfying. Upon reaching midlife, many women “wake up” to the socialization messages (Kolbenschlag, 1981) and begin to make changes in their lives. Over the past two decades, many women in the United States who have raised their families have been entering the work force, sometimes for the first time, or are continuing their education (Alington & Troll, 1984). They are enjoying their new lifestyles and accomplishments (Mitchell & Helson, 1990) and increased freedom of self-definition (Friedan, 1993), although some retain anger and frustration about time they feel they have lost, and also at the internal and external barriers, prejudice, and discrimination in personal and

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professional life around both the sexism and ageism they experience on their way to their new goals. Many women at midlife report heightened sexual desire and pleasure and increased marital satisfaction after children have left home and they are free of fears of unwanted pregnancy (Leiblum, 1990; Mansfield & Koch, 1998). Similar results have been reported for lesbian couples (Cole & Rothblum, 1990). They feel more control over their lives in all areas (Mitchell & Helson, 1990) and a sense of joy in living. Hence, there appears to be a disparate view of middle and late adulthood between the culture and the participants. While the culture—at least U.S. culture—may devalue women as they age and deem them invisible, the women themselves report increased freedom and life satisfaction. THE SENIOR YEARS There is ongoing evidence that in later years, there is some tendency toward role reversal between women and men (Neugarten, 1968; Sinnott, 1984). As stated in the prior section, women tend to become more independent and in charge of their lives while men tend to become more relationally oriented and may regret the connections they missed. Unfortunately, since appearance is not considered enhanced by age in women, in many ways their value decreases (Healey, 1986). In her classic article, Sontag (1972) suggested that there was a double standard of aging that devalued women (Canetto, Kaminski, & Felicio, 1995). The resulting cultural prejudice leads to discrimination against older women. They are often viewed as inept, with little of value to say. Due to gender differences in life expectancy and the tendency for women to marry older men, there are many more widows than widowers in the United States (Etaugh, 1993; Hess & Waring, 1983). The rates are even higher for Latina and black women (Markides, 1989). Widowhood for many women has traditionally been described as a time of loneliness, social isolation, poverty, and depression (Lopata, 1979; Matlin, 1996). However, women’s better skills in interpersonal relationships provide some advantages during this time period, although parts of society may shun and reject older people (Whitbourne & Hulicka, 1990), particularly single women. The stereotype that older women live in poverty is partially supported by the fact that women’s retirement benefits have been only 60 percent of the amount men receive (Arber & Ginn, 1994; Belgrave & Haug, 1987), since women have consistently received less pay on

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the average than men, may have interrupted their working life for childrearing, and are expected to live longer (Patterson, 1996; Ryder, 2000). While the prevailing assumption in the United States is that the majority of the elderly are living in nursing homes, this lifestyle is true for only 5 percent of people over sixty-five, although 70 percent of these people are women. The percentage of people in nursing homes rises to approximately 20 percent by age eighty, predominantly women (Russo, 1990). Since widows value their autonomy and independence, they prefer to live alone in their own homes. Financial security in widowhood, however, varies by ethnicity and social class, with higher poverty rates for blacks, Native Americans, and Latinas (Hardy & Hazelrigg, 1995; Logue, 1991; Silverman, Skirboll, & Payne, 1996). In spite of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, most women live active and happy lives in their senior years, with a continued emphasis on learning and growing (Friedan, 1993). They broaden their social networks (Arber & Ginn, 1994; Hessler, Jia, Madsen, & Pazaki, 1995; Shumaker & Hill, 1991; Shye, Mullooly, Freeborn, & Pope, 1995) and are involved in many outside activities. They report stronger beliefs in self-efficacy than do men of similar age (Bosscher, Van Der Aa, Van Dasler, Deeg, & Smit, 1995). Elderly women have much life experience to offer to the broader society (Siegel, 1993). CONCLUSION This chapter has attempted to present both the prejudice and discrimination committed against women based upon gender bias while also describing progress made within the last several decades. There is still ample evidence in U.S. culture and other cultures of discrimination against women based upon the view of them as valued less than men, but there is also growing evidence of women leading fuller and richer lives as the complexity of their roles grows. The discrimination is based upon several principles that span the lifetime. These include (1) valuing women primarily for their appearance, (2) expecting women to live through others and sacrifice personal needs for others, (3) valuing men more highly than women, (4) lower academic and career expectations of women, (5) feelings of passivity and learned helplessness, and (6) general disempowerment and loss of selfesteem. The number of women (and men) challenging these principles at all levels is resulting in change, but not change at a rate many would wish.

Toolbox for Change For Individual

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

I am an unattractive woman because I don’t look like the models in magazines.

Examine evidence regarding normal weight; read evidence of thinness messages in advertising and other media. I feel guilty when I make Confront stereotype that more money than my financial success is a husband. masculine characteristic. If I say what I really think, Realize that my opinion is as no one will like me. important as anyone else’s. I must wear high-heeled Examine evidence of harm shoes to be feminine. done to women’s feet by high-heeled shoes. I feel like a bad person if I Every person deserves take time for a leisurely personal time and rest and bubble bath when I could relaxation. be cleaning the house or sewing for my family.

Community/ Every woman’s most Boycott products that suggest society important job is to fit a women’s appearance is their cultural ideal of beauty. most important characteristic. Only men are suited for Actively support the fundthe responsibility of high raising and campaigns of political office. women candidates. Girls are not as good as Develop sports teams—baseball, boys at sports. football, hockey, etc.—based upon skill, not gender. Women are too emotional Create equity in the military to serve as effective so that women have equal police officers or military responsibilities and equal personnel. opportunities. Practitioners/ Girls are just not good at educators math and science.

Encourage girls to develop math and science skills and boys to develop their empathic sides. It is more important for Teach both girls and boys girls and women to learn workplace and home skills; to care for their families Design reading assignments than develop workplace with diverse role models. skills.

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Toolbox for Change For

Images/Perceptions

Strategies for change

An assertive woman is a “bitch.”

Validate women’s voices and ability to stand up for themselves. Boys and men will achieve Recognize that both girls and more in their lives, so women and boys and men they deserve more have a need to achieve and attention. have equivalent potential; encourage girls to talk in class. A woman cannot form an Recognize that every person is identity separate from capable of forming a strong the man she marries. self-identity. Traditional “masculine” Provide gender issues characteristics are more workshops for all valuable than “feminine” practitioners and educators. characteristics. Girls and women must be Educate the public about the thin to be beautiful. dangers of eating disorders, especially via media.

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CHAPTER 2

Powerpuff Girls: Fighting Evil Gender Messages or Postmodern Paradox? Carole Baroody Corcoran Judith A. Parker

GIRL (INTERRUPTED) POWER

T

rust me. You don’t even have to own a television set for the invasion to happen. If you are close to a child under ten who has been labeled “female” in the United States, chances are very good that the Powerpuff Girls already rule your world. For the uninitiated, the Powerpuff Girls are a marketing empire aimed at young girls. Created by a male cartoonist in 1998, the Powerpuff Girls aired on the Cartoon Network. By the release of their successful big-screen feature film in 2002, Powerpuff retail merchandising profits had already exceeded a billion dollars (Havrilesky, 2002). This animated series featured three flying girls Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles—who, under the mentor ship of Professor Utonium, worked to keep the town of Townsville free of danger. According to the show’s premise, Professor Utonium was trying to create three perfect little girls but accidentally added the powerful Chemical X. Instead of sweet, girly-girls, he got three cute but tough super heroes. (Fisherkeller, 2002, p. 189)

In a land populated by pink princesses who each seem to own a double-digit horde of Barbies (my child is bombarded with gifts of Barbies, which make up a constantly growing pile in our closet), what could possibly be wrong with three cartoon girl superheroes, you may

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ask? Let’s look at the subtext of the cartoon’s premise. Instead of “God created woman” (perfect “girly” females), we have “man played God” (science). Given the inevitable mortal screw-up, we end up with the familiar biological mutation “a mad scientist-created monster”—in this case, aggressive, destructive, adorable, saucer-eyed girls. The Powerpuff Girls embody man-made mistakes, but hey, at least these three flukes of nature are cute and tough! Still, Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles would never pose as a serious threat to Professor Utonium. After all, the Powerpuff Girls possess amazing superpowers due to a freak accident, a hazardous exposure to an unnatural, masculinizing agent. This is in stark contrast to a much more interesting “mad scientist” narrative that we will examine later in a Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott music video. Today, despite popular culture’s successful marketing of merchandise (from toys and clothing to music) bearing bold slogans like “Girls Rule” and “Girl Power,” boys know from the get-go that girls lack boys’ authentic power. In truth, the Powerpuff Girls are “powder puff pussies,” who, like gender-reversed powerpuff football players, never pose a threat to real (that is, male) power. Indeed, these Bgirls are male-defined and thus necessarily have no source of power that is actually their own. Moreover, in our so-called post-feminist, post-patriarchal new world, “being a girl,” by definition, requires that female children act blissfully unaware of their powerlessness. Like the paradox of being cute and tough, girls are expected to embrace and embody an obvious and inherent contradiction without question or notice. As a young radical feminist who came of age in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I decided later to search the Internet for the perspective of my younger sisters in struggle. Interestingly, the first thing I found confirmed and echoed my age-related concerns. This online editorial on “grrl” power and third-wave feminism refers to the Powerpuff Girls when noting the tendency for young women to reject the label “feminist” while living out feminist ways of being that are a direct result of hard-won benefits made possible by older feminists. The editorial states, For older feminists, the reluctance of young women to take on a feminist identity is something to reckon with. The discourse of girl power evolving within the new strands of feminism requires more and deeper discussion in order to reach a “third wave” of feminism beyond Buffy, Dark Angel, Ally McBeal, Motoko Kusanagi, Lara Croft, the Powerpuff girls, and Charlie’s Angels. (Women in Action, 1998–2003)

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In a similar vein, in an insightful Salon article exploring feminism, girl power, and the Powerpuff Girls, Havrilesky (2002) articulated the source of my fears better than I could at the time: That our heroes’ girl-ness is beside the point might just be the most revolutionary aspect of the show. In some ways, these likable squeeze toys have pulled off the ultimate branding feat: They represent girl power without having to mention it. Given a recent Gallup poll that found that only 25 percent of women today consider themselves feminists, the Powerpuff Girls may reflect a shift from embracing political and social labels to choosing between carefully packaged products that have ideologies encoded deep within their shiny exteriors.

But real power cannot be found in packaged products. Instead, it demands a sense of agency, as in a mode of exerting power and, in doing so, an instrumentality that confers control. Thus, Powerpuff Girls lack agency, and they don’t even know it! Their “girl power” exists as a quirk that derives from the needs of an external agent: their creator, a man. According to the story, the ill-fated experiment to produce perfect test tube girls (from a formula of sugar and spice) was motivated by the professor’s weariness with the cold, cruel (male?) state of the world. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup’s intended existence was to serve as lovely cheerleaders, an antidote for the postmodern blues that ailed their chemically careless male sponsor and patriarch, a much older and wiser white man. In order to decipher whether the “power” in Powerpuff Girls was a slick media recycling act, an old-school version of “girly powder puff fluff” that I chafed under as a child, I reached the point of no return. I had to watch the Powerpuff Girls. TOWNSVILLE’S RULES GIRLS? Given my shift, my six-year-old child was mildly shocked but ecstatic to find that she at long last had successfully gained my permission to watch an episode of Powerpuff Girls. Previously I had told her she could watch them when she was “old enough,” after her preschool teacher advised me that the Powerpuff Girls were “bad and said swear words” (I was already getting into hot water with my child for using the swear word stupid). As TV-aversive parents know, despite a lack of commercial television viewing, my child was already well-versed in Powerpuff Girldom. Indeed, it ruled her kindergarten playground, and at age five she had wheedled me into buying her a cup at a convenience store that was so hideous-looking I couldn’t

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fathom why she wanted it so badly. After much pleading to my repeated refusals, I relented because she agreed to dump out the sugary chemical liquid that was in the container. I was clueless about the Powerpuff Girls but knew enough to feel duped when I realized later that I had bought into some marketing ploy aimed at young girls. Partly, this bug-eyed, bulging, demon-headed cup with what looked like horns fooled me by not looking like all the other merchandising products aimed at my daughter. Those were cloying, sugary sweet, and thus easy to spot and not buy without needing to know whether they were Jasmine, Anastasia, or that Mermaid—the one who made her Tita (grandmother) furious because she gave up her voice for a man! As we began viewing our maiden Powerpuff Girls episode, I was momentarily perplexed and then quickly annoyed as I watched repeated bouts of girl-on-girl violence. (This action makes up the first major portion of the episode.) “I thought they were supergirls. When are they going to rescue someone?” I asked, barely disguising my disapproval. The plot in this particular episode involves Buttercup’s first lost tooth and subsequent discovery of the tooth fairy. With dollar signs flashing from her eyes, she quickly realizes that by violently attacking Blossom and Bubbles, she can knock out their teeth (and then move onto others) and stash a huge sack of coins under her bed, courtesy of the tooth fairy. Eventually the somewhat bemused professor gently intervenes. Professor Utonium reminded me of the benign “Father knows best” tradition of television “pops” from my childhood, sort of a Steven Douglas (the single father played by actor Fred McMurray on My Three Sons) only with more of Ozzie Nelson’s goofiness thrown in (teen idol Ricky Nelson’s dad on Ozzie and Harriet). A recurring plot device for the Powerpuff Girls’ episodes, I would learn, involves the damsels being rescued from their latest superpower mishaps by the professor. Indeed in this episode, Buttercup comes to see the error of her ways and, in the end, stops using her superpowers to beat up her sisters and the town’s villains for a profit. Upon viewing my second Powerpuff Girls episode, I encountered Townsville’s boss, the mayor (in addition to a second standard plot line). It turns out that the Powerpuff Girls do indeed save the day, but only when they are summoned into action by a special phone, a hotline directly wired from the mayor’s office. The mayor, short in stature and totally inept, like Mr. Magoo or Elmer Fudd, is prone to bouts of weeping and is a bumbling sexist. Yet, he presides over

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Townsville, thanks to three obsequious kindergarten girls and a silicone-enhanced secretary. “Is he the villain?” I asked, noting the patronizing manner that made his little darlings beam with delight. His faithful secretary, Ms. Bellum, or Sara, towers over her boss with a flowing red mane and voluptuous body—Sans Bellum! Picture the animated sexpot Jessica Rabbit (from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) decapitated but somehow with an undisturbed coif. With just two potential female role models available (the other is their “plain Jane” school teacher), the Powerpuff Girls naturally worship Ms. Bellum. This faceless Gal Friday is infinitely smarter than Townsville’s ruling patriarch, as is her trio of young prote´ge´s. However, all these females go to absurd lengths to play coy and/or dumb in order to preserve the mayor’s authority, along with the illusion that this oaf is in charge. The mayor is like the man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz, only (thanks to the untiring efforts of his dames) his fraud is never exposed. I had watched two Powerpuff Girls episodes, and both clearly illustrated critical features of patriarchy. “Oh, great,” I thought as I watched Buttercup gleefully bust her sister’s chops in the first episode, “just like ‘real’ girls”—who inevitably must turn on each other (here replete with cat fights) and compete to earn the favor of the head man, a powerful and frequently incompetent white male. I’ll return later to the third episode we watched, which explicitly addresses feminism. There I also learned that girls should not confront, let alone beat up, their boy peers and that, perhaps more pertinently, it is a girl’s responsibility to keep other girls in line. By now, I was not at all surprised to learn that according to the Cartoon Network figures, boys account for the majority (56 percent) of the Powerpuff Girls’ children’s audience (Havrilesky, 2002). I was reminded of the feminist classic The Creation of Patriarchy, where Gerda Lerner (1986) articulated so well the requirement that girls and women must (and indeed do) play a crucial role in the perpetuation of male domination as the status quo. To wit: The system of patriarchy can function only with the cooperation of women. This cooperation is secured by a variety of means: gender indoctrination; educational deprivation; the denial to women of knowledge of their history; the dividing of women, one from another, by defining “respectability” and “deviance” according to women’s sexual activities; by restraints and outright coercion; by discrimination in

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access to economic resources and political power; and by rewarding class privileges to conforming women. (p. 217)

By definition, in a patriarchy, men (not women) rule, and most assuredly, girls never rule! How is it that these “girls rule” messages, superficially praising girls’ power, instead inculcate norms of “pseudo power” for young females? Girls and adolescent females are not completely unaware of their limited agency. Rather, it seems that they must receive strict training to learn complicity in accepting this illusory notion of empowerment. A question posed by Havrilesky (2002) alludes to the Powerpuff Girls’ precarious state: “Why take on a political label when you can wear a cool-looking Tshirt that says the same thing, but without any of the negative associations? Is she a feminist? Oh, no! She just loves those Powerpuff Girls!” Why then is it so attractive to many (white) girls to accommodate a reality where boys rule, whites rule, merchandising rules, and girls have to pretend that they’ve got some kind of power they don’t really have? What are the incentive and payoff for girls not imagining and not exercising their real powers? In a description of Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles’ appeal, Havrilesky (2002) again may provide some clues. She says of the Powerpuff Girls: For hyper-analytical adults and avid third-wave feminists, they’re animated proof that strong female characters can kick ass and take names without compromising their femininity. For children, and those grown-ups weary of gender-centric postulation, the teensy heroines do viewers the favor of skipping fancy-schmancy politics in the service of good humor.

Hmm, perhaps that’s why I was fascinated when I turned to the Powerpuff Girls for instruction and, ultimately, deconstruction. Except for my own telling tendency to substitute “powder” for “power,” at least Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles linguistically marked a site where power and girls coexisted in the same breath. But once decoded, what I found was a postmodern paradox: The Powerpuff Girls have power only to the extent that they are complicit in supporting Professor Utonium’s patriarchal laboratory world and only if they wield their superpowers in service of Townsville’s official patriarch, the mayor. However, my greatest surprise was in my discovery of just how well these supergirl media icons embodied the contradictory gender power messages aimed at very young female children and particularly the ones my own child is encountering.

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GENDER PATROL: POWERPUFF GIRLS RUN AWAY FROM BOYS! Even if you are a strong, confident female child, kindergarten can be a rude awakening. I was reminded of my own 1950s grade school capability of “beating the boys” when two years ago, my athletic five-year-old described being the frequent target of male playground harassment. Her eyes lit up when I suggested that perhaps she and the girls should pull a “switcheroo,” given that she was stronger and could run faster than the most aggressive offending boy. I was pointing out a contradiction for her. In a “switcheroo,” I explained, the girls would catch the boys and “body lock” them so tight that they couldn’t move and perhaps the boys could see how they liked it. The next day she came home crestfallen. Despite considerable effort, she could not find a single girl who was willing to participate in her “switcheroo” plan. Further, and perhaps more infuriating, she was soundly chastised by the self-appointed “head” Powerpuff Girl, who informed her that Powerpuff Girls ran AWAY from boys! As the work of Thorne (1986, 1993) demonstrates particularly well, the playground continues to function as a critical site for gender politics. Gender play involves constructing and enacting power asymmetries in children’s gender relations as well as learning their cultural meanings. Thorne’s analysis of gender play includes the concept of “border work,” a mechanism for reinforcing “other” phobia, that is, interactions that strengthen group gender boundaries and create a sense of “the boys” and “the girls” as separate and opposing sides. Playground games like cross-gender chasing and capture, or “cooties,” construct borders that effectively reinforce the boundaries between boys and girls through both contact and avoidance (Thorne, 1993). These activities teach hierarchy and power differences that reflect stereotypical gender relationships in our culture at large. For example, Thorne found that boys are more aggressive and likely to invade girls’ games. Her observations showed that girls’ play tends to be more sexually defined and that they are also teased and violated more than (and by) boys. Overall, boys’ play interaction patterns assert spatial, physical, and social dominance over girls, which, along with a healthy dose of entitlement, resembles proscribed traditionally gendered behavior expected of many adult men (Henley, 1977). More recent research findings are consistent and supportive. For example, Martin’s (2003) work explains how preschoolers’ bodies

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become gendered, along with the institutional practices that construct physical differences very early in life. But let’s go back to the playground and my child’s failed attempt to enlist a Powerpuff Girl as an ally to pull a “switcheroo.” It turns out that the next day she decided to chase and capture a boy (she chose her tormentor) on her own. Although she did not gain any Powerpuff Girl points (which thankfully was not her goal), after witnessing her behavior, the “boss” of the Powerpuff Girls began ordering the other Powerpuff Girls to chase and capture the boys. This dubious “victory” may have been due to age and gender-related shifts in playground dynamics rather than my child’s individual bravery. However, it still provides her with a good, tangible example of the merits of her agency. Last year, upon entering the first grade, my child informed me that she refused to be a “cootie girl” and play the current “hot” playground game. In this contemporary strain of “girls have cooties,” boys who encounter any girl call her a cootie girl and run away. A cootie girl then could chase the boy in hopes of giving him cooties. As Thorne (1993) noted from her observations of gender play, chasing games often evolve into pollution rituals such as “cooties.” Apparently, although boys and girls can give cooties to each other, girls are the key contaminators in the game. Girls can pass “cooties” on to other girls, but “cooties” are rarely, if ever, passed from boy to boy (another [homophobic as well] contradiction I pointed out to my child). In examining the dynamics of contamination and how it never occurs by male gender membership status alone, Thorne (1993) points out that “there is also a notable gender asymmetry, evident in the skewed patterning of cooties; girls as a group are treated as an ultimate source of contamination, while boys as boys—although maybe not as Chicanos or individuals with a physical disability—are exempt” (p. 192). Together, my child and I came up with a “super cootie” game that would empower the girls and reward any boys who would break free of their gender group boundaries, but like the switcheroo, our plan required first the collaboration of at least one girl ally before my daughter could attempt to elicit a boy ally. I did know of one particular boy whom she and her (female) best friend both liked but did not “like like,” because he was “not like” a boy. The rules are different now that she is in second grade. She’s already experienced almost three years of intense public school indoctrination (and separatism) necessary to carefully construct and strictly enforce the required race,

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class, gender, and sexual orientation rules. Still, I’m convinced that pointing out gender (as well as other) asymmetries and planning corrective strategies to address power imbalances will serve her well, if not next year in the third grade, then perhaps in graduate school. FROM COOTIE GIRLS TO COOTCHIE MAMAS: THE DOUBLE-BARRELED DOUBLE STANDARD Almost from the very beginning of kindergarten, my daughter endured daily a period of being taunted to the point of tears on the bus by a popular boy. We had to rehearse “comebacks” and reactions that she decided “weren’t mean” (since she had informed me that my initial responses were mean). Thus, as a five-year-old girl, she had to learn to defend herself in order to not continue to be an “easy” target. Later, I learned that the teasing started because she assertively rebuffed her tormentor’s repeated attempts to kiss and hold her. The negative consequences that followed her refusal to allow unwanted male contact are disturbing as well because of their pervasiveness in schools (AAUW, 1993). To me, her suffering was a kindergarten variety of sexual harassment. My child’s experience was certainly not atypical for a female in kindergarten. It was normative as her “initiation” into this contradictory world of heterosexual gender politics. I was horrified when I realized as a mother that I had arrived at this “boys will be boys” point in the gender role socialization script, where my part was to help introduce and normalize the idea that invasive, callous, and mean behaviors could/should be construed as something positive—attraction! Was I expected to helpfully explain to my child that this uninvited negative attention was actually an indication of heterosexual romantic interest and regard for her? Indeed, that if a boy is aggressive or coercive, she should learn to tolerate it, but also perhaps be flattered? This is hardly a template for “girl power” or “girls rule,” however “postfeminist” her Powerpuff world may construe itself to be. A behavior pattern of (sexual) dominance and entitlement is acceptable strictly “for boys and men only,” and it constitutes the privileged male side of the sexual double standard. My child’s encounter with a first “boyfriend” is merely the precursor to the older and ageless version of the restrictions imposed on females by the double standard, replete with age-appropriate perils. Put simply, this dualism produces “material girls” who can only be “good” (virgin/madonna)

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or “bad” (bitch/whore). Often overlapping with the girl-on-girl aggression mentioned earlier, the danger and titillation provided by tales from the dark side of these dichotomies continues to flourish and is evident by the currently selling spate of “bad girl” books. With provocative titles like Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Girls’ Aggression (Simmons, 2002); The Secret Lives of Girls: What Good Girls Really Do—Sex Play, Aggression and Their Guilt (Lamb, 2001); Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut (White, 2002); and Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence (Wiseman, 2002), the latest crop of “bad girl” books varies widely in terms of genre, origins of primary source material, intended audience, and much more, including the quality of ideas and scholarly merits. Still, if we look for the barest common thread among all of them, it is that these narratives testify to the robust nature that the sexual double standard clearly enjoys as we enter a new millennium. (HETEROSEXUAL) WHITE BOYS RULE Despite three decades of unprecedented change in gender role definitions in the United States, the social constructions of gender remain adversarial (for example, the opposite sex), particularly when it comes to sexual behaviors and violence sanctioned and even glorified in males but not females. Known by the somewhat benign and highly recognized term, this stubborn, cock-eyed dictum called “the double standard” has lost none of its power or luster, particularly given the gender progress made in other areas (Hall, 2004). The sexual double standard automatically confers tremendous (not to mention dangerous) power to all young males who consequently are socialized to learn to experience the male sex drive as something akin to hero Keanu Reeves’s uncontrollable runaway bus from hell in the 1994 movie Speed. The flip side results in Sandra Bullock (the sexually self-negating young female) assuming a no-win, dangerous position that includes total responsibility for the task of steering and somehow putting the brakes on this reckless, impossible male force of nature. Indeed, the sexual double standard rewards such futile attempts at female agency with a romantic kiss at best from the real hero and, at worst, deserved punishment, most often by blaming a victim for her demise, regardless of whether or not she exercises sexual agency.

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Like the “does she or doesn’t she?” double standard itself, the overriding aim of some of the previously mentioned “fallen girl” books is to chronicle and perhaps caution but not to problematize or disrupt the patriarchal roots that produce, maintain, and reify these virgin/ whore, mutually exclusive slots for girls. However, on a more positive note, refreshingly feminist versions of these tales are beginning to appear, for example, books such as Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation (Tanenbaum, 1999) and Cunt: A Declaration of Independence (Muscio, 1998). Certainly much has been written (scholarly or otherwise) attesting to both the necessity and various means by which mandatory heterosexuality, homophobia, the sexual double standard, and male violence against women function to protect, preserve, and perpetuate patriarchy (Pharr, 1988). Alternatively, there is scant evidence of enough erosion or progress within these entrenched power systems (in realms such as politics, education, religion, economics, and sexuality) to accurately describe our current world as post-patriarchal. This is not to say that these sturdy pillars upholding and enforcing white, wealthy, male hegemony are fixed and intractable. Rather, when so much power is at stake, it would be naive, though certainly welcomed and convenient for the major beneficiaries, to think that these long-held social doctrines can be easily changed without facing major resistance and backlash on the part of the status quo. This is exactly why a claim that, for example, the Powerpuff Girls represent a significant postmodern change in cultural gender roles warrants critical analysis. As Bourque (2001) points out, in examining gender, power, and leadership (forms of agency), the media play a significant role, particularly since the denial of sexual inequality is an important perceptual issue. She supports her stance with a quote from Rhode (1997), who writes, “Women’s growing opportunities are taken as evidence that the ‘woman problem’ has been solved. This perception has itself become a central problem. The ‘no problem’ problem prevents Americans from noticing that on every major measure of wealth, power and status, women are still significantly worse off than men.” Havrilesky (2002) raises these very issues of the media, double standards, sexual inequality, and male rule in her discussion of the Powerpuff Girls and girls’ contemporary notions of power: Can a new generation of gender-blind Powerpuffs conquer inequality simply by optimistically refusing to recognize its existence? For many girls

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today, this approach seems to work. They don’t cry out against inequality; they simply take for granted that the world will treat them fairly— and in some cases the world seems to follow suit. . . . Power isn’t something that many women feel they should have to struggle for. And for them, dressing sexily or behaving cute is beside the point—those things should enhance their power, not diminish it. It’s tough to disagree with such a refreshing self-actualized approach, particularly since it eliminates the need to put a male face on oppression.

(WHITE) GIRLS RULE? The Powerpuff Girls are “white,” or perhaps more accurately, racially unmarked or “neutral.” Just to make sure, I checked with my thensix-year-old, who told me that they were “white and kind of pink, actually” but certainly not black. My child is multiracial and was raised to be aware and proud of her black, Cherokee, and German heritages. She is just another mestiza in my family, where not only skin color and tone, but also religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, and gender differences are consciously noted and discussed, yet such diversity is the accepted family norm. So, my child never had reason or occasion to seriously question her racial identity until after attending kindergarten for one week, when she came home from school and reported that she was not brown enough, but (wondering aloud) if she was browner, would I have to work all the time and would we have to have no money? In recent years, “whiteness” has emerged as a focus worthy of academic study and debate (Fine, Weis, Powell, & Wong, 1997). In articulating how the power inherent in whites’ construction of their identity as “cultureless” bolsters (whether intentional or not) white racial superiority, Perry (2003) provides a useful description of the dominant group’s perspective: “Unaware of their privileged position as the norm, whites’ seemingly ubiquitous claim of culturelessness . . . suggests that one is either ‘normal’ and ‘simply human’ (therefore the standard to which others should strive) or . . . ‘postcultural’ (therefore, developmentally advanced)” (p. 363). As Twine’s (1996) work on “brown skinned white girls” delineates so well, class and culture allow for a construction of white-identity suburban communities. Once outside the family fold, like her fair-skinned mother with her newly acquired class privilege, my child immediately learned that a color- and power-evasive paradigm (Frankenberg, 1993) was available to her: one that enabled her to socially construct a white identity.

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Without her family’s imposed critical consciousness, my child could easily remain unaware that poorer or darker-skinned girls (excluded “others”) never enjoyed the options she had by virtue of her phenotype and economic status to “pass.” Still, despite her advantaged position as “white-skinned brown girl,” my female child could not escape the teasing brought on by her female and male kindergarten peers, including taunts that she was not “a girl” or “ladylike” due to serious gender infractions like being the only female child to wear shorts under her skirt and exhibiting too much physical prowess in gym class and on the playground. I’ll never forget the sad look on her face while she told me, “Mommy, sometimes I just don’t feel like a boy or a girl.” Because my automatic response was “well, good!” in solidarity, I chose to reveal to her my own humiliating ordeal in 1959, when I decided on my own in first grade to wear pants to school, then a strict taboo. My rebellious spirit (at the time it was labeled bad judgment) resulted in public shame, a summons to the principal’s office, a phone call to my parents, and ultimately, being sent home from school. Although girls can now wear pants to school, I’m not convinced that violating gender norms is any easier today as a child, and certainly there are still enough negative consequences to keep most boys and girls in line when it comes to gender conformity. As Risman’s (1998) research on the complexities for children who grow up in families with changed gender role expectations illustrates, “beyond these abstract [egalitarian] belief statements these children depend on their own lived experiences for understanding gender. And they ‘know’ that boys and girls are very different” (p. 232). As Sandra Bem (1993) makes clear, the widespread uncritical acceptance of biological determinism and firm belief in the “naturalness” of socially constructed categories such as race, gender, and sexual orientation makes it difficult for adults—not to mention children—to challenge and resist racist, sexist, or homophobic cultural messages. In fact, unequal treatment by gender begins so early, now frequently prior to birth, that it seems natural. Subsequently these socially constructed gender differences become a post hoc validation of existing social inequalities for females and males (Butler, 1990). Added to that are the results of more than a decade of developmental research, particularly the extensive qualitative studies conducted on adolescent girls by Carole Gilligan and her Harvard colleagues (Gilligan, 1982, 1993; see Basow & Rubin, 1999, for comprehensive reviews of these and other important findings). In the

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United States, white middle-class females by the age of ten face more and more contradictions and developmental crossroads, as they are termed (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). During this period, female adolescents describe facing considerable difficulties from trying to negotiate societal demands to adhere to traditional gender roles that are even stricter than what they faced as girls. For the majority, their attempts to conform are reflected in new pressures such as a strong emphasis on pleasing others, being nice, perfectionism, and increased attention to physical attractiveness. This “relational crisis” faced by white, middleclass girls has been construed as a loss of “voice” or a struggle between “authentic and inauthentic” selves. While feminist psychologists may disagree about the research conceptualizations reflected in these labels, there is consensus that for girls who enjoy the benefits of race and class privilege, this developmental period is accompanied by increased risks for developing depression, eating disorders, and a drop in self-confidence compared to childhood levels of self-esteem (Gilligan, Rogers, & Tolman, 1991; AAUW, 1991). This body of work suggests that even as my child constructs a more privileged “white” identity, there’s a bumpy road ahead, and the pressure on girls seems to be occurring at increasingly earlier ages. In an exceptionally rich article, Harad (2003) uses literary criticism, literature, and tales from junior high school to provide feminist insights that inform the patriarchal functions of female adolescence. She recalls the famous “nymphet” Lolita (from Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel of that name) and uses Lolita as archetypal of what she calls “the sexy girl”: [A]n ordinary middle class white girl transformed by the obsessive gaze of a middle-class middle-aged man into the essence of femininity . . . who haunts the days of girls. Girls who are suddenly captured by powerful, silent rules about how to be a girl. Girls who have suddenly lost their right to simply be “people.” Girls who grow up to be women who are still afraid of being bitches or sluts, or who have to adopt those labels as badges of pride in order to act on their desires. And who still watch each other warily, waiting for a mistake, a betrayal. (p. 87)

In a patriarchy, objectification becomes a critical task of adolescence and thus must be accomplished in the transition from girl to woman. As Harad (2003) notes with respect to Lolita and power, “Although her powers may be great, they depend wholly on recognition by [that type of] man. Lolita herself has little chance of manipulating these powers for her own purposes” (p. 86).

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Lolita’s power is derived from her attractiveness to men; therefore she lacks agency and any power derived from her own sexual desire. In adolescence, girls learn that power is granted only by male desire and recognition; or as Lee (2003) notes in her work on menarche and adolescence: Femininity means moving from assertive actor to developing woman, learning to respond to the world indirectly. . . . Women are encouraged to accommodate male needs, understand themselves as others see them and feel pleasure through their own bodily objectification, especially being looked at and being identified as objects of male desire. (p. 88)

Recent work like that of Michele Fine and Debra Tolman (Fine & Macpherson, 1991; Tolman, 2003) explores the “disconnect” a girl learns to experience from her body and erotic desire. If white adolescent girls, like their male adolescent counterparts, were encouraged to have a construction of their bodies and sexuality that was both powerful and positive, then the double standard and mandatory heterosexuality, two vital lynchpins of patriarchy, would be seriously threatened. Despite cultural pressure and messages to the contrary that already surround my seven-year-old female child, I am trying to teach her to derive power not from how desirable she is to males, but from her own physicality and sexuality—in short, to recognize and possess real agency instead of illusory power. Already difficult, I know this will hardly be an easy task and that we will both face mounting resistance as she enters adolescence. BLACK GIRLS ARE (UN)RULY Close your eyes for a minute and just imagine that the Powerpuff Girls are black instead of white. What do you see? For one thing, they wouldn’t be named Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles! No, they would have boisterous names like Tawanna, Laquisha, and Shamika. Instead of keeping the town of Townsville free of danger, they would be the danger—baaad-ass female gangstas on a crime spree in New Jill City. Unlike the negative portrayal of white, upper-middle-class suburbanites as girls whose agency is presumably confined to shopping malls, black girls do have real agency, not as a liberated choice but as a necessity for survival. Summoned as a strategy for successful resistance in a white man’s world, it is not a characteristic that we would

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expect to be portrayed positively. Further, given the double and sometimes triple whammy of a disadvantaged position with respect to gender, race, and perhaps also class, if anything, black girls undoubtedly must contend with many more contradictory messages than white girls. Indeed, silence may be used as a powerful act of political resistance for black girls as well as others (Mahoney, 2001). When black girls or women are considered at all, it is a marginal, negative portrayal that often is only considered and thus framed to serve the needs of whites regardless of gender. Black females provide a necessary and convenient contrast only to support the case for the virtues of white women and girls. As Fordham (1993) and others have made painfully clear, in the history of the United States, the ideal of womanhood has been defined as being morally superior, chaste, dainty, and of course, white. This bourgeois depiction of the feminine “ideal” is sometimes described as “the cult of domesticity,” a term from the Victorian era. Such a definition is inherently racist and can only exist by dehumanizing black women, or as Zora Neale Hurston (1969) put it, as “mules.” Unfortunately, this pure, genteel vision of the perfect white female was built upon the backs and knees (not to mention spirits) of black women who toiled first as slaves and then as domestic workers. Black women continue to disproportionately occupy these positions, as do other women of color. Despite the violent and oppressive legacy of slavery, racism, sexism, and classism that has characterized the black female experience throughout U.S. history, black girls and women remain almost totally invisible in the research literature. Further, as many black feminists have pointed out, often when research does exist, it is not created or framed with the perspectives, concerns, or interests of black females in mind. In an insightful paper, Henry (1998) examined the contradictory consciousness and untenable position that black girls must negotiate in their schooling. She also critiqued the treatment of the black female in research literature: Moreover, underlying some of this literature may lurk a hypothesis of “black-girl-as pathologized-female.” Black girls often serve as a comparative minority cohort in many educational studies; even in literature which is of great significance in helping us understand issues of race, class, gender and culture, most often, Black females are relegated to footnotes, occasional lines, a few meager paragraphs, or a couple of pages. (p. 154)

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It is not surprising that when the scant research on black adolescent girls does indicate that they possess more positive characteristics than their white counterparts, these findings receive cursory treatment and tend to serve only as a convenient backdrop to aid attempts at understanding the source of white adolescent girls’ relative shortcomings. Extant research does indicate that black girls have better self-esteem, healthier body images, and in general, more agency (Leadbeater & Way, 1996). However, unlike their “racially neutral,” economically privileged white counterparts, “those loud black girls” (Fordham, 1993) end up being cast as the image of a very different crisis, namely, aggressive and violent behavior—the racialized, sexualized representation of female adolescent sexuality. Certainly just the degrading language used to describe black girls and young women (freak, bitch, ho, teaser, baby-mommas, etc.) captures well not only their racist and sexist intent, but also the scapegoating role these pernicious stereotypes continue to serve.1 SHE BLACK SHE BRAVE (SHEBONICS) In a study that serves as an outstanding (and, unfortunately, too rare) example of the cogency and insight gained by framing an analysis from a black feminist perspective, Emerson (2002) explores “negotiating black womanhood” in music videos. Her sample includes representations of young black females that are examples of objectification and exploitation, but she also found portrayals of young black women’s agency. The most interesting video in which this occurs is Sock It to Me (1997), in which Missy Elliott collaborates with the rappers Lil’ Kim and Da Brat. It has an outer space fantasy theme, and in the visual narrative, Missy and rapper Lil’ Kim appear in red and white bubble space suits as explorers on a mission. As soon as they land on an uncharted planet, they are pursued by an army of monstrous robots under the control of the evil “mad scientist,” portrayed by Missy’s collaborator and producing partner Timbaland. . . . Just as Missy and Kim appear to be in danger of succumbing to Timbaland’s goons, fellow rapper, Da Brat . . . comes to the rescue on a jet ski type spacecraft. They speed off through space, fighting off the mad scientists’ crew, and arrive safely at Missy’s mother ship, prominently marked with the letter M. (Emerson, 2002, p. 127)

At long last, we have three B-girl super sheroes who would give the Powerpuff Girls and a whole posse of male “mad scientists,” whatever

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their race, a run for their money! The contrast between this mad scientist narrative and the one that begins this chapter is powerful, to say the least. Consider also the interpretation and value of agency in Missy Elliott’s narrative compared with my earlier exercise in imagining the Powerpuff Girls as blacks. Here we have young black females venturing off on their own to brave new worlds, outnumbered, yet still escaping the threat of male domination through agency and sisterhood!

GIRLS RULE OR GIRLS RULE GIRLS? Unfortunately, but perhaps not coincidentally, the Powerpuff Girls are white. Still, they are sisters who are presented, at the very least, as feminist icons. So what happens if Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles do operate outside their usual realm of patriarchal influence? Unlike Missy and her feminist crew, the girls learn that sisterhood is powerfully misguided and dangerous when they fall under the (nefarious) influence of feminism. The third episode my child and I just happened to watch was, to my amazement, called “Equal Fights.” I found the episode transcripts and character descriptions cited below on an unofficial website (http://www.ppgworld.com/ppgcomics/). At the start of this cartoon, the Powerpuff Girls encounter a woman villain named Femme Fatale robbing a bank. Described as “the feminist of all feminists, Femme Fatale hates men with a passion and will only accept money in the form of Susan B. Anthony coins.” Our feminist villain is clad in heels and white jumpsuit with the biological symbol of the female sex (a circle with a cross pointing down) emblazoned on it in blue. She carries a firearm shaped like a female symbol, where the end of the cross is the muzzle. Femme Fatale sports long blond hair and headgear with matching motif. The circle of the female sign sits atop her head, with the horizontal bar of the cross forming a mask over her eyes and the vertical bar stopping over her nose. No macho meathead can stop her, but to Femme Fatale’s surprise, three girl tykes manage to wallop and capture her. However, en route to being put in jail, Femme Fatale convinces the Powerpuff Girls that they have been belittled, taken advantage of, and undercompensated; in solidarity, the trio set her free. Among other things, the sudden miniature militants Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles then refuse to clean their room, confront a playground bully, empower the

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elementary school girls, zap a Ken doll with their laser vision, and finally tell off the mayor when he pleads for their help because of “some ‘crazy tomato’ robbing the mint of all the Susan B. Anthony coins.” Luckily for the always-incapable mayor, he also keeps his position due to that decidedly nonfeminist, hot, sexy, and headless woman who does his job. Thus it is Ms. Bellum, the secretary the girls so look up to, who takes it upon herself to restore the three formerly hardworking superheroes to their senses. She summons the help of the other (traditional) female character in Townsville, Ms. Keane, their concerned schoolteacher, along with a few other female characters created just for the occasion. It is the women, led by Sara Bellum, who must confront and deprogram Bubbles, Buttercup, and Blossom and make them realize the absurdity of their feminist claims of sexism and unequal treatment in Townsville. Returned to their “normal, rational” thinking, the Powerpuff Girls quickly recapture Femme Fatale and throw her in the slammer. Their critical thinking so seriously impaired under feminist brainwashing, once free they realize that this greedy feminist doesn’t even know who Susan B. Anthony was and are lucid enough to provide this post-feminist history lesson: Buttercup: Once upon a time, women weren’t allowed to do much of anything. Bubbles: Susan B. Anthony knew that that was wrong. Blossom: In 1872, she broke the law by voting. And even though she was found guilty, the feds wanted to go easy on her. Girls: Because she was a girl! Blossom: And not send her to jail. Femme Fatale: (stammering) Well, you—you know, she was this . . . well, men . . . girls should . . . oh, man! Buttercup: Susan B. Anthony didn’t want special treatment. She wanted to be treated equally. Bubbles: She demanded that she be sent to jail, just like any man who broke the law. Blossom: And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do to you.

The episode closes with this final line from Femme Fatale in her cell, her white jumpsuit now replaced by convict stripes: “You can’t do this to me! [whining] Horizontal stripes make me look fat.” Of course, in a cartoon that pokes fun at gender roles and stereotypes, the rule of order must be upheld and maintained by females untainted by the folly of feminism. But the real world operates that way, too.

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Examples spring to mind from any work arena where male superiors frequently reward women who help keep other women in line. In my day, more often than not, you had to break rank to join the very few fortyish-aged women (renegades) promoted to the rank of full professor. You also knew your salary would never match that of certain female colleagues who languished profitably at the rank of associate professor (with much more service but still less pay than their male colleagues). At least that’s how it was in the bad old days, and I hope times have changed for my junior colleagues in the tangled groves of academe. Yet I still hear tales of “queen bees” and “ice maidens” who thrive at their sisters’ expense in all varieties of employment sectors. This is what females are socialized to do to get ahead of other females (but not males) in patriarchal systems. How many feminists my age started out like I did as a child, wishing they could be boys and thinking how they either didn’t like or didn’t fit in with girls? But so early? I don’t remember heavy girl-against-girl combat as a painful source of betrayal already in place by the second grade (like it is for my child). Reading all those “mean girls” books were like flashbacks from a bad trip that I needed no reminder of from my junior high days. Harad (2003), I think, has it right when in response to questions about how or why feminism is relevant to young women, she answers in the affirmative by saying simply “junior high is still hell.” Of course, for me that hell resulted in a promise to myself to someday study the worst period of my life if I survived it. I kept my word. Ignoring wise advice to use the university subject pool, or at least the laboratory school, for my master’s thesis, I headed back to hell—a working-class junior high school—to collect data on peer popularity and perceptions of masculinity (agency) and femininity (communion) in female and male adolescents. My thesis (and then dissertation) findings defied all the predictions carefully derived from the mid 1970s theoretical literature on sex role development. Rather, at the start of junior high school in seventh grade, despite gender, students perceived as popular by their peers were perceived as possessing high levels of both feminine and masculine traits (using the Personal Attributes Questionnaire) (Spence & Helmreich, 1978). By tenth grade, peer ratings of popular males’ degree of masculinity and femininity (both high) had not changed. In contrast, by the first year of high school, popular females were still perceived to be high in femininity but not masculinity (agency), regardless of their peer raters’ genders. Since the two studies were not longitudinal, any interpretations of girls and boys’ changes over

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time demanded caution. However, over twenty-five years later, these findings sound depressingly current to me. According to her much more recent account, involving a very angry group of junior high girls, apparently Harad (2003) couldn’t stay away from hell either. In a quote from her interaction with the girls, she reveals, What they feared most, the girls insisted, was not the power of men or boys or teachers or criminals, but the power of other girls, who invented and enforced the labels. . . . In a tie for number one on their (dreaded labels) list: “slut” and “bitch/feminist”. . . . They’re the same thing, the girls explained. . . . These, then, were the girls’ greatest fears: to be seen as having too much desire, too much anger, too much power—and to be cast out of the circle of “normal girls” for these sins. (p. 83)

In discussing the girls’ fears and labeling them “depressingly familiar” to those aware of old school feminism, Harad makes explicit the connection between the old women’s movement and the current lessons girls face in adolescence. Harad (2003) indicates that what they indeed share are “familiar though unspoken assumptions that oppose power and desire and are driven by the need to be desirable to but protected from the desire of men and boys” (p. 83). We need to reassure young girls that while junior high is indeed hell, feminism is far from it. GIRL POWER IS POWER EVASIVE (NOT GENDER BLIND) Still, the real impact of “The Powerpuff Girls” may lie in its unrelenting focus on giddy fun for the sake of fun, its hints of a new era of popular art that plays with gender instead of struggling under the weight of it, thereby creating an imaginary world as appealing as it is unbound by archaic stereotypes. (Havrilesky, 2002)

The Powerpuff Girls are consistently purported to be “gender blind,” a concept that I think reflects the confusion between two ideas—that gender shouldn’t matter versus that gender doesn’t matter. What struck me was how the “power blind” and the “gender blind” notions of the Powerpuff Girls and “girl power” feminism were more accurately “power evasive” (like claims of being “colorblind” to race) (Frankenberg, 1993). Without recognizing and analyzing the lack of agency and the source of desire from a critical feminist perspective, I thought that much was lost in the translation of younger (and not so young) women’s take on the Powerpuff Girls. This seemed to allow

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for the “post-feminist” interpretation of “girls rule” that I encountered so frequently in the writings I discovered through my Internet search. Consider an opinion piece I found online (Sartrell, 2000) that begins with this bold observation: “Gender: It’s back with a vengeance, but also with a twist. Fox television has launched The Boyz Channel and The Girlz Channel, sex-differentiated cable networks. Toys R Us is creating separate girls’ and boys’ zones in their stores. And in elementary classrooms and schoolyards across the country, the boys and girls seem, as much as ever, to be from different species: the girls talk, draw, read; the boys yell, punch, can’t sit still.” Sartrell then discusses the alleged failure of 1960s children in their own childraising experiments to find evidence of gender as a social construction or gender difference being rooted in patriarchy. Instead of gender as an evil patriarchal plot, she claims we discovered the source: [T]hat there was something (gasp) in the hormones. Our boys wanted to go bow hunting with Nerf products or fight with Star Wars Light Sabers. Men kept getting nominated for president of the United States and going to movies that consisted mostly of explosions. Finally we gave up and started reinstituting painful truisms like “boys will be boys.”

No power differences here, just potent hormones like Chemical X. But here’s the real twist: Sartrell asserts that although feminism failed in eliminating gender difference, it was successful in redefining femininity. Her evidence and perfect symbol of “girl-ry” progress is provided by those Powerpuff Girls, along with the merchandise girls now purchase in addition to Barbies. According to Sartrell, referring to modern girls: “Much of what they’re buying has “Girl Power” or “Grrlz Rule” emblazoned across it. Bad sass attitude is a superficial sign of a deep change in our popular culture and in the lives of our children.” She predicts that these future girls with their “wider selection of off-the rack personae” and a major popular culture market in place as support will bring about radical unprecedented change as women. Apparently it’s those pesky raging male hormones that render them immune to feminism. In fact, the focus of Sartrell’s opinion piece is itself a familiar (power-evasive) twist. Namely, we need to focus our energy and attention not on girls but on boys instead. A more thoughtful “post-feminist” analysis is evident in Havrilesky’s (2002) well-written online Salon article that actually looks closely at

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the messages behind our three superheroes. When I first read it, I kept wondering how such a piece with clear insights could completely avoid these power issues. By doing so, the contradiction of the Powerpuff Girls is transformed into a dilemma brought on by tough and sexy heroines (Havrilesky, 2002): “Is Lara Croft powerful because she can take you down or because you’d like her to go down on you?” Thus, when Havrilesky (2002) wonders whether the popularity of Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles reflects a genuine cultural shift in gender roles, it’s not because they lack agency and that their power is derived as objects of male desire versus subjects of their own sexual desire, “but rather our inability to stomach female anger unless it’s sugarcoated in cuteness and scored with a pervasively chirpy, nonthreatening tone.” Thus, as noted earlier, once we embrace “gender blindness” and remove the “male face of oppression,” she advises that “the more salient question for budding feminists may not be whether it’s acceptable to be powerful and pretty at the same time, but whether being powerful without being pretty is even an option. When Janet Reno’s appearance garners more sniping than her policies, and Britney Spears’ looks get more glowing reviews than her songs, it’s difficult to see how real power in the absence of beauty could ever be enticing to a new generation of girls, even with the help of Powerpuffs.” Of course, I believe it is our responsibility to teach the reality of our feminist experiences, knowing what’s at stake and the importance of distorting our image, successes, and failures. Otherwise, young women and girls are receptive to what older feminists may see as ridiculous “post-patriarchal fallacies” under the guise of “girl power” from other (closeted? reluctant? white? middle-class? heterosexual?) “post-feminists,” and the guys can sit back and enjoy the profits of their clever merchandising. It reminds me of Townsville, where feminists are uninformed, greedy villains who impart delusional thinking to unwitting young girls who must be straightened out by subservient “real” sexy women who are sometimes missing their heads. Meanwhile, both the incompetent sexist men (the mayor) and the well-intentioned, absent-minded men (the professor) can, thanks to the girls, kick back, relax, and enjoy—without ever lifting a finger. Ahh . . . now that’s patriarchy! SISTERHOOD IS POWERPUFF-FUL? When we cheer on a little girl who knocks a villain’s teeth out, are we cheering female power, or is it all an inside joke, an exercise in absurdity that plays on existing injustices? (Havrilesky, 2002)

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For the last year or so, I have been tinkering with a model and trying to illustrate how various factors come together in patriarchy to capture and constrain girls as young women. Like Marilyn Frye’s (1983) image of a birdcage, I was thinking of elements of female adolescence as the vertical bars (objectified versus embodied, agentic versus nonagentic, self-derived desire versus other-derived desire, etc.). These bars of course could only be held firmly in place by encircled horizontal bars: compulsive heterosexuality, the double standard, and male violence against girls and women. Without these bars, for example, girls possessing embodied, agentic self-derived desire would not find themselves entrapped just as surely as girls who are passive, objectified with male-derived desire also do. The shape of your cage also changes in configuration as a function of status: race, class, religion, body size, physical attractiveness, and so on. Taken from this model, I developed 2 x 2 tables, crossing levels of agency (high versus low) and desirability to males (high versus low) to depict how conceptions of power delimit and define possibilities for girls and young women. For a feminist workshop dealing with media images and adolescent girls, I planned an exercise for participants to classify popular females in music—Britney Spears, Courtney Love, Gwen Stefani, Ani DiFranco, Missy Elliott, Beyonce, Lil’ Kim, Janet Jackson, and so on—accordingly. Depending on variations in race and class or age, the categories still translate into tired stereotypes with familiar labels such as bitch, slut, virgin, shrew, or dyke. It was after the presentation at a feminist colleague’s house that I came across the article written by Harad (2003) on Lolita and junior high girls, where she states, In the commonplace formula, a slut is “easy” and relatively powerless. A bitch is powerful but sexless and undesirable—to men and boys, at least. This means the only way to be a bitch/feminist and sexual is to be a lesbian, a possibility so frightening to the girls that they wouldn’t even mention it until I did so. Homophobia combines with the narrow options for expressing heterosexual desire to pit girls against one another, competing, controlling, and labeling someone else’s flaws so their own won’t be noticed. (p. 83)

She calls for correctives of feminist theory, the history of feminism, and more feminist stories, and I couldn’t agree more. What strikes me as problematic about the Powerpuff Girls is that they are disingenuous. The cartoon and presumably their young audience don’t seem to be aware of the content and context of feminism that I find necessary to put tongue in cheek.

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Feeling hopelessly out of date and weary, like Professor Utonium, but with only one child and no superpowers, I head off to another feminist conference with no childcare and wonder what so-called post-feminists will do with their kids in a few years if they are not part of a heterosexual couple or (with gay marriage in the news) homosexual couple with two incomes. Then I worry, remembering that with few feminists, there will soon be few such conferences. In addition to watching episodes of the Powerpuff Girls, writing this chapter forced me to reflect on my own past and try to look through my young child’s eyes at how girls and women are represented today. To be honest, I don’t really like what I see. What became increasingly clear to me was that girls were negotiating a barrage of contradictory messages; and that with the help of representative images like Blossom, Buttercup, Bubbles, and Ms. (Sara) Bellum, I think I have gained a better understanding of why that is. In that first online article I found (Women in Action, 1998–2003) on grrl power and third wave feminism, the editorial refers to contradictions as a reason why young women reject the label “feminist”: Some women’s studies scholars will argue that the perception that young women of today enjoy much more rights and freedom is just that—a perception. While they may indeed have more choices, in both the public and private spheres, they are also subjected to tremendous pressure because of the incongruities in how they grew up, the values they were taught, the standards of performance imposed on them, and the persona or image they need to maintain. Young, urban-based, universityeducated women of this generation are socialised into a certain consciousness that embraces certain values inculcated by family, peers, school, church, and media, on the one hand, and rejecting many others, on the other. For example, many young women have a liberal view of their bodies and sexual expressions, including premarital sex. A view, it should be added, shared by their peers and families, although the former might be celebrating such openness of young women with their bodies and their sexuality, and the latter may be fretting about this. Yet, such an attitude of ease with one’s body and sexuality is exactly one of the struggles feminists have fought for in the last three decades.

I think of my college students of late in feminist studies classes who label the slightest female irritation as a symptom of PMS, an epidemic that somehow failed to even exist when I was their age and surely wasn’t needed to explain why we feminists were pissed off. I was

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tempted to dismiss the “stigma of the f-word” as yet another luxury for white, upper-middle-class women, like their cell phones and new cars with built-in CD players. But I knew there was more to it— recalling how before starting this paper I typed in girl as my key search term for a Psyclit database search and not one journal article came up. In female desire and sexuality, there is an inherent contradiction. Tolman (2003) captures this well when she points out the role scholars play in supporting the status quo: That few feminists have explicitly identified adolescent girls’ sexual desire as a domain of theory or research suggests the extent to which girls’ own sexual feelings are resisted in the culture at large. At best psychologists seem to be colluding with the culture in simply assuming that adolescent girls do not experience sexual desire; at worst, by not using the power and authority conferred upon them to say what is important in human experience and growth, psychologists participate in the larger cultural resistance to this feature of female adolescence and thus reify and perpetuate this resistance. (p. 100)

So I return to my original question: Is there any real substance behind the latest wave of the “girl movement”? Is it an always-overdue “call to arms” or just more evidence of Powerpuff cutesy girl fluff? Isn’t this the era of girls who rule, rock, and kick ass? Aren’t grown women embracing a girly ethos because of how exhilarating girlhood is these days? Aren’t we all wearing powerpuff t-shirts just to grab us a taste of female youth? (Pomerantz, “Grinding the Concrete”)

My travels into the Powerpuff world have convinced me of my previous suspicions and provided concrete evidence that the Powerpuff Girls lack agency, and so does the contemporary notion of “girl power.” At the start of this paper, I was skeptical of how girls and young women could be unaware of their powerlessness. In closing, my skepticism has had to shift to the apparently widely held belief that girls and young women have real de facto agency and thus power. And while it is easy to get caught up in the thrill of scene-makers, let’s face it—the Riot Grrl movement of the early 1990s has been done to death. Third wave feminism may now want to turn its attention to a different kind of feminist politics, the kind that is not so obvious or observable. In so doing, third wave has the potential to expand on all the possible ways in which girls can begin to think about themselves as

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powerful, political, and part of the process of change. (Pomerantz, “Grinding the Concrete”)

The above quotation from Pomerantz refers to girl skateboaders. It is taken completely out of context to illustrate my point, and I actually liked the article. I only mention this because I don’t want to feed the image that feminists my age are anti-“girls just wanna have fun.” Rather, my concern is that my child will not be able to have fun if she assumes she has power while institutional gains we fought for are being quietly dismantled without awareness and hence resistance. In rather stark contrast, however, it seems that not all young feminists are as tickled pink by the present rise of “girldom.” For example, in an essay with the ungirly title “A Call for Young Women to Get Mad!” in the online journal feminista!, Delanie Woodlock (2000) debunks pop-feminism’s infatuation with the nonthreatening concept of girl power, such as the depiction of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a feminist icon. In the following quote, Woodlock directly challenges the same cultural icons that other young women her age praise: They say we are in a post-feminist era, which seems true if we look to popular culture. There is not much feminism out there. Porn is chic. S/M is sex. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is a feminist icon, and young women have girl power to improve their lives. Bad girls, sluts and porn stars are the new elite, “the new girl order.” . . . [The legacy] . . . lives on with girl power pop-feminism, which is giving us a culture where young women are set up for a fall and are fooled into believing there are no obstacles to their freedom.

I wanted to close with a quote from Delanie Woodlock (2000) in solidarity because when I read her piece I could identify with her on a very personal level. I thought she sounded like me at her age: furious and writing poems and plays about madness and women with ants not in their kitchens but in their brains. I want to tell her to hang in there because I can picture her surrounded by the chorus of rolling eyeballs now and perhaps for years to come. Like in high school when the film MASH came out and my solemn prediction that there would someday be a comedy about the Vietnam War was met with considerable disbelief and ridicule. So please listen when she says, “Young women do have power. Not the pseudo-girl power promoted so readily by patriarchy, but a real passionate, mad power. Fueled by generation upon generation of women who have fought before us, we

Toolbox for Change Activity 1: Change your mind! Read women’s lives and history Read books from the first, second, and third waves of feminism. For example, try these favorites: • Miriam Schneir (Ed.): Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings • • • •

Una Stannard: Mrs. Man Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex Tillie Olsen: Silences Shulamith Firestone: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution • Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique • Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch • Gloria Anzaldu´a: “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” in Gloria Anzaldu´a, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

• Angela Y. Davis: Women, Race, & Class • Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith (eds.): All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies • Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman (Eds.): Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism • Edwidge Danticat: Behind the Mountains Activity 2: Change your community! Imagine different outcomes Try to remember a situation that occurred in your community (such as family, school, neighborhood) where you felt discriminated against because of your age or, conversely, where you felt you had unearned privilege because of your age. Were you able to take an action to create more equity for yourself and other people in that situation? Freewrite for five minutes as you try to imagine other ways to deal with that situation now. Activity 3: Change your world! Organize for change Part 1: Research the lives and accomplishments of four great leaders for civil rights and workers’ rights: Septima P. Clark, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dolores Huerta. Watch the video Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker.

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Toolbox for Change Focus on different ways of developing a movement for social change. Talk about the distinctions among these terms: mobilizing, organizing, spheres of influence. Part 2: Role-play for (and against) change. Have student groups collaborate on the action planning worksheet to develop a proposal for change at your college (institution/organization). Then have each student group present its proposal for a change at the college to the teachers/graduate students (other “higher-ups in the hierarchy”) who are acting the roles of college administrators (board members, committee) who are receptive, evasive, defensive, critical, dismissive—difficult!—at the same time they are always expressing appreciation for students’ ideas and encouraging further efforts that occupy the students’ time. After your “hearing” with the administrators, your group needs to refocus on a problem you want to address and develop a proposal to overcome some of the obstacles you have already encountered in your effort to achieve your goal.

have within us—between us—a real chance of reclaiming ourselves. Young women, it is our responsibility to continue the fight for women’s freedom, to refuse to accept a future of limited control over our own lives. Rise up, connect with your sisters, let them feel our resistance” (Woodlock, 2000). Action Planning Worksheet 1. What action do you want to take to interrupt or combat ———? 2. What resources or materials, if any, would you need to achieve your goal? 3. How can you get those resources? 4. What behaviors or steps would taking this action entail? 5. What is the realistic timeline for carrying out the steps involved in this action plan? 6. What hazards or risks are involved? 7. Is this action worth taking that risk? (If not, go back to number 1 or think through what could be done to minimize that risk.) 8. What obstacles might you encounter? 9. What could you do to overcome these obstacles? 10. What supports do you have? 11. Where could you find more support?

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12. How can you measure/evaluate your success? (How can slow change be differentiated from failure?) (Adapted from Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 1997) NOTE 1. See West (2004) for an excellent article on the oppressive images of Mammy, Jezebel, and Sapphire.

REFERENCES Adams, M., Bell, L. A., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1997). Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge. American Association of University Women Education Foundation (AAUW). (1991). Shortchanging girls, shortchanging America. Washington, DC: AAUW. American Association of University Women Education Foundation (AAUW). (1993). Hostile hallways: The AAUW survey on sexual harassment in America’s schools (No. 923012). Washington, DC: Harris/Scholastic Research. Basow, S. A., & Rubin, L. (1999). Gender influences on adolescent development. In N. Johnson, M. Roberts, & J. Worell (Eds.), Beyond appearance: A new look at adolescent girls (pp. 25–52). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Bem, S. L. (1993). The lenses of gender: Transforming the debate on sexual inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Bourque, S. C. (2001). Political leadership for women: Redefining power and reassessing the political. In S. C. Bourque & C. M. Shelton (Eds.), Women on power: Leadership redefined (pp. 84–113). Boston: Northeastern University Press. Brown, L. M., & Gilligan, C. (1992). Meeting at the crossroads: Women’s psychology and girls’ development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge. Emerson, R. A. (2002). “Where my girls at?” Negotiating black womanhood in music videos. Gender & Society, 16, 115–135. Fine, M., & Macpherson, P. (1991). Over dinner: Feminism and adolescent female bodies. In M. Fine (Ed.), Disruptive voices. Albany: State University of New York Press. Fine, M., Weis, L., Powell, L. C., & Wong, L. M. (Eds.). (1997). Off white: Readings on race, power, and society. New York: Routledge. Fisherkeller, J. (2002). Growing up with television: Everyday learning among young adolescents. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

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Fordham, S. (1993). “Those loud black girls”: (Black) women, silence, and gender “passing” in the academy. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 24(1), 3–32. Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Frye, M. (1983). The politics of reality: Essays in feminist theory. New York: The Crossing Press. Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gilligan, C. (1993). Letter to readers, 1993. In In a different voice (2nd ed.), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gilligan, C., Rogers, A. G., & Tolman, D. L. (Eds.). (1991). Women, girls and psychotherapy: Reframing resistance. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. Hall, R. L. (2004). Sweating it out: The good news and bad news about women in sport. In J. Chrisler, C. Golden, & P. D. Rozee (Eds.), Lectures on the psychology of women (pp. 56–74). New York: McGraw-Hill. Harad, A. (2003). Reviving Lolita; or, because junior high is still hell. In R. Dicker & A. Piepmeir (Eds.), Catching a wave: Reclaiming feminism for the 21st century (pp. 81–98). Boston: Northeastern University Press. Havrilesky, H. (2002). Powerpuff girls meet world. Salon. Retrieved July 2, 2002, from http://www.salon.com/ Henley, N. M. (1977). Body politics: Power, sex and nonverbal communication. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Henry, A. (1998). “Invisible” and “womanish”: Black girls negotiating their lives in an African-centered school in the USA. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 1(2). Hurston, Z. N. (1969). Mules and men. New York: Negro Universities Press. Lamb, S. (2001). The secret lives of girls: What good girls really do—Sex play, aggression and their guilt. New York: The Free Press. Leadbeater, B. J., & Way, N. (Eds.). (1996). Urban girls: Resisting stereotypes, creating identities. New York: New York University Press. Lee, J. (2003). Menarche and the (hetero)sexualization of the female body. In R. Weitz (Ed.), The politics of women’s bodies: Sexuality, appearance, and behavior (pp. 82–99). New York: Oxford University Press. Lerner, G. (1986). The creation of patriarchy. New York: Oxford University Press. Mahoney, M. A. (2001). The problem of silence in feminist psychology. In S. J. Freeman, S. C. Bourque, & C. M. Shelton (Eds.), Women on power: Leadership redefined (pp. 61–83). Boston: Northeastern University Press.

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Martin, K. A. (2003). Becoming a gendered body: Practices of preschools. In R. Weitz (Ed.), The politics of women’s bodies: Sexuality, appearance, and behavior (pp. 219–239). New York: Oxford University Press. Muscio, I. (1998). Cunt: A declaration of independence. New York: Seal Press. Perry, P. (2003). White means never having to say you’re ethnic: White youth and the construction of “cultureless” identities. In J. A. Holstein & J. F. Gubrium (Eds.), Inner lives and social worlds (pp. 362–380). New York: Oxford University Press. Pharr, S. (1988). Homophobia: A weapon of sexism. Little Rock, AR: Chardon. Pomerantz, S. Grinding the concrete (third) wave. Available at http://www. ppgworld.com/ Rhode, D. (1997). Speaking of sex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Risman, B. (1998). Ideology, experience, identity: The complex worlds of children in fair families. In Gender vertigo: American families in transition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Sartrell, C. (2000). It’s time for us to rethink boyhood. Available at http:// www.crispinsartwell.com/media/gender.html Simmons, R. (2002). Odd girl out: The hidden culture of girls’ aggression. New York: Harcourt. Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. L. (1978). Masculinity and femininity: The psychological dimensions, correlates, and antecedents. Austin: University of Texas Press. Tanenbaum, L. (1999). Slut! Growing up female with a bad reputation. New York: Seven Stories Press. Thorne, B. (1986). Girls and boys together . . . but mostly apart. In W. W. Hartup & Z. Rubin (Eds.), Relationships and Development (pp. 167– 184). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. Thorne, B. (1993). Gender play: Girls and boys in school. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Tolman, D. L. (2003). Daring to desire: Culture and the bodies of adolescent girls. In R. Weitz (Ed.), The politics of women’s bodies: Sexuality, appearance, and behavior (pp. 100–121). New York: Oxford University Press. Twine, F. W. (1996). Brown skinned white girls: Class, culture and the construction of white identity in suburban communities, Gender, Place & Culture, 3(2), 205–224. West, C. M. (2004). Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Developing an “oppositional gaze” toward the images of black women. In J. Chrisler, C. Golden, & P. D. Rozee (Eds.), Lectures on the psychology of women (pp. 236–252). New York: McGraw-Hill. White, E. (2002). Fast girls: Teenage tribes and the myth of the slut. New York: Scribner. Wiseman, R. (2002). Queen bees and wannabes: Helping your daughter survive cliques, gossip, boyfriends and other realities of adolescence. New York: Crown Publishers.

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Women in Action (WIA). (1998–2003). Grrl power and third wave feminism. Isis International–Manila. http://www.isiswomen.org/pub/wia/wia203/ editorial.htm Woodlock, D. (2000). A call for young women to get mad! Women in Action. Available at http://www.isiswomen.org/pub/wia/wia203/ editorial.htm

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CHAPTER 3

Life Experiences of Working and Stay-at-Home Mothers Judith LeMaster Amy Marcus-Newhall Bettina J. Casad Nicole Silverman

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n 1997, the country was transfixed by the death of eight-monthold Matthew Eappen while in the care of his nanny. In the months after his death, and during the trial of the nanny, much criticism was focused on the working mother of the child, Dr. Deborah Eappen, a Boston physician (“Parents of Baby,” 1998). At the same time, the Clinton administration developed programs (such as Temporary Aid to Needy Families of 1997) designed to get poor mothers off welfare and into the workforce. More recently, a famous radio personality argued that mothers who worked outside of the home were negligent (or in the case of poor women, in a “tragic” situation). This intersection of events prompted a well-known newspaper columnist to comment on the implied double standard that low-income mothers are expected to work outside of the home, even when daycare is poor, and middle-class mothers are expected to stay home, even when excellent provisions for their children are available. Are these viewpoints about mothers common today? Is there a double dilemma such that mothers are criticized if they stay home and take care of their children and criticized if they go back to work and put their children in daycare? Russo (1976) used the term motherhood mandate to argue that society expected mothers to be available to their children and to be the primary caretakers. In the last three decades, the roles carried out by mothers have shifted as more mothers have entered the workforce.

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What do we know about the perceptions that members of society hold for stay-at-home and working mothers? Do these perceptions differ from the reality that stay-at-home and working mothers experience? Do these perceptions and realities differ among mothers from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds? Are mothers satisfied with the life choices they have made? Are there patterns to the life choices that mothers make? Do mothers’ expectations, real experiences, and life choices lead to prejudice and/or discrimination against them because of their motherhood status? These are the primary questions that will be addressed in this chapter. More specifically, this chapter reviews the current literature on (1) perceptions and stereotypes of working and stay-at-home mothers, (2) the real-life experiences of working and stay-at-home mothers, and (3) various models women choose when navigating the paths of career and family. The most common family type in the United States in the twentyfirst century is the dual-earner family, where both men and women work outside the home to provide financial support for the family (White & Rogers, 2000). Today, only 3 percent of American families have the traditional arrangement of a stay-at-home mother and a working father who is the sole breadwinner (Gilbert & Rader, 2001). More and more women are working outside the home, with women currently making up over half of the U.S. workforce (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003). Many working women also are mothers. Indeed, over half of mothers with children under age one work outside the home (Erel, Oberman, & Yirmiya, 2000). Although working mothers have become a common part of today’s society, societal views have not kept pace with this change and do not reflect reality. That is, many Americans still expect mothers to stay at home to care for their children while fathers work to provide for the family (Ganong & Coleman, 1995).

SOCIAL ROLE THEORY Women Should Be Mothers; Men Should Be Providers One explanation for why society still holds traditional views of families is provided by social role theory (Eagly & Steffen, 1984). Social role theory suggests that because men have historically been the primary breadwinners and women the primary caretakers of children, people still associate men with work and women with motherhood (Eagly, Wood, & Diekman, 2000). When women choose to engage in

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roles other than motherhood, like paid employment, and men choose to engage in roles other than financial provider, like being stay-athome fathers, people tend to react negatively (Doherty, 1998). Society’s lingering expectation that women focus on caring for children rather than focus on a career has been called the “motherhood mandate” (Russo, 1976). The motherhood mandate suggests that women should want to become mothers. Their motherhood role is viewed as the most important aspect of their identities, whereas their worker role is a secondary identity. According to this standard, “good” mothers are expected to be constantly available for their children and to sacrifice their careers for family. Similar to the motherhood mandate for women, society judges men according to the provider role (Bernard, 1981). Men are expected to provide for the financial needs of their families. If they cannot fulfill their provider role, their competence is questioned. Fathers who want to play an active role in childcare, for example by working part-time, are likely to be viewed as less competent than fathers who work full-time (Etaugh & Folger, 1998). Mothers Should Be Feminine; Fathers Should Be Masculine As illustrated in the example of fathers working part-time, people often make assumptions about individuals’ personality traits based on stereotypes (Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Harris, 1991). Men and women are presumed to have certain personality traits and behaviors because of their traditional social roles as fathers and mothers (Eagly & Steffen, 1984). The personality traits commonly associated with fathers and mothers include (1) communality, or the ability to work well with and care about others; (2) agency, or being task-oriented and competent; (3) femininity, or having qualities traditionally associated with women; and (4) masculinity, or having qualities traditionally associated with men. To successfully fulfill their caretaker role, mothers are assumed to be communal, which includes being nurturing, warm, caring, and willing to sacrifice their careers for family (Ganong & Coleman, 1995). Men are not expected to be communal or nurturing, because these traits are presumably not required of the provider role. Working mothers have been viewed as less communal and less committed to their families (Bridges & Etaugh, 1995) and less nurturing (Bridges & Orza, 1992; LeMaster, Marcus-Newhall, Casad, & Silverman, In press)

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than stay-at-home mothers. In contrast to communality, men are presumed to be agentic, or competent and task-oriented, because these traits are required for successful financial providing (Eagly et al., 2000). Women are not expected to be agentic because these traits are presumably not required of the motherhood role. Women are expected to have feminine personality traits such as kindness, sensitivity, and patience (Prentice & Carranza, 2002). Stayat-home mothers are considered more feminine than employed mothers (Bridges & Etaugh, 1995). For example, stay-at-home mothers were rated by college students as more soft-spoken than employed mothers (Riedle, 1991). When women violate the expected norms of the feminine personality traits by working outside the home, they are liked less and receive less approval than women who possess these feminine personality traits (Marcus-Newhall, LeMaster, Casad, & Shaked, In press). Fathers employed part-time were considered more feminine than mothers employed full-time. For example, fathers who worked part-time to care for their children were rated as more communal than mothers who worked full-time (Etaugh & Folger, 1998). Men are expected to have masculine personality traits, such as competitiveness, assertiveness, and ambition (Prentice & Carranza, 2002). Just as fathers employed part-time are viewed as more feminine (Etaugh & Folger, 1998), employed mothers are perceived as more masculine, such as being more self-sufficient and having stronger leadership abilities, than stay-at-home mothers. However, employed mothers also are perceived as less feminine than stay-athome mothers (Riedle, 1991). Mothers Are Devalued as Workers People tend to make assumptions not only about personality traits based on stereotypes but also about behaviors based on stereotypes (Harris, 1991). These assumptions affect how people actually behave (Olson, Roese, & Zanna, 1996). For example, people have stereotypes about what personality traits are required to perform a particular job. Real estate agents are expected to be extroverted, or outgoing, whereas librarians are expected to be introverted, or quiet and reserved. These stereotypes about careers led people to rate individuals whom they thought were extroverted as more suitable for the real estate job and individuals thought to be introverted as more suitable for the librarian job (Snyder & Cantor, 1979). This finding suggests

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that people’s expectations regarding the behaviors required to perform a job may lead to discrimination in hiring. If a stay-at-home mother decides to apply for a job, the employer may expect the mother to be low in competence and unable to perform the job simply because she is a mother. There are several real-life examples of how people’s expectations about personality and behavior lead them to treat others in a discriminatory manner. For example, in a Michigan court case, a judge granted custody to a paternal stay-at-home grandmother rather than the child’s biological mother. The mother worked outside the home, attended school, was unmarried, and put her child in daycare, which the judge apparently thought made her an unsuitable mother (Ganong & Coleman, 1995). In another example, a female senior manager was denied promotion to partner because she was not “feminine enough” and needed a “course at charm school” where she could learn to “walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely . . .” even though she had the top sales among the eighty-eight candidates for the position (Price Waterhouse vs. Hopkins, 1985, as cited in Fiske, Bersoff, Borgida, Deaux, & Heilman, 1991, p. 1050). Although the expectations of working and stay-at-home mothers appear to be discrepant from actual behaviors, what does the research show about the actual experiences of working and stay-at-home mothers? PERCEPTIONS DO NOT MATCH REALITY: WORKING AND STAY-AT-HOME MOTHERS’ ACTUAL EXPERIENCES The roles carried out by mothers shifted as more mothers entered the workforce. Women are more likely to balance multiple roles as partners, mothers, and workers. Difficulty with balancing multiple roles has been labeled “work–family conflict,” which is defined as incompatible pressures in one’s roles such that participation in one role is made more difficult by participation in another role (Greenhaus, Parasuraman, Granrose, Rabinowitz, & Beutell, 1989). Terms such as role strain and role conflict often are used interchangeably with work–family conflict. Interestingly, research examining work–family conflict has produced contradictory conclusions. Some researchers have found that balancing several roles and responsibilities can be rewarding (Zambrana & Frith, 1988) and lead to increased well-being

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(Barnett & Marshall, 1993), whereas other studies have found that fulfilling multiple roles can be demanding and overwhelming and result in work–family conflict (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998). Whether mothers experience work–family conflict is determined by the quality of their multiple roles rather than the number of roles (Barnett & Hyde, 2001). Factors such as high-stress jobs, traditional sex-role attitudes, and help with the housework influence role equality (Amaro, Russo, & Johnson, 1987; Krause & Markides, 1985). As one can imagine, mothers who have less-stressful jobs, hold less-traditional sex-role attitudes, and have help with the housework tend to experience less work–family conflict. One result of combining the roles of motherhood and employment is psychological distress. There is an upper limit to the benefit of engaging in multiple roles; too many roles can lead to psychological distress (Barnett & Hyde, 2001). Individuals in low-prestige jobs experience greater psychological distress than individuals in high-prestige jobs (Matthews, Raikkonen, Everson, Flory, Marco et al., 2000). Some studies indicate that employed wives are more distressed than employed husbands (Gore & Mangione, 1983). Whether women experience psychological distress depends on several factors, including role quality, job support, and spousal support. Another result of having multiple roles is the potential for workplace discrimination. Combining family life and employment is beneficial for men, often resulting in higher salaries, career advancement, and greater career satisfaction. However, when women combine family life and employment, they often have lower salaries, hindered career advancement, and less career satisfaction (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000; Phillips & Imhoff, 1997). Discrimination: Explaining Why Men and Women Are Treated Differently in the Workplace Why might this differentiation between men and women occur? One explanation is that women tend to devalue their own work, something called the “depressed-entitlement effect.” In a laboratory study, women paid themselves less than men paid themselves for the same task (Jost, 1997). This may be because men and women often report being ambivalent about women as financial providers for the family (Thompson & Walker, 1989). Women often are not viewed as financial providers in dual-earner families, even if they earn a higher salary than their husbands (Cook, 1993). These beliefs are

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likely due to the historical role of men as the sole financial providers for their families (Eagly et al., 2000). Expectations often influence behavior (Harris, 1991). Beliefs in men’s role as the financial provider may lead women to expect lower salaries than men and for employers in turn to provide lower salaries. A second explanation for workplace discrimination is that some employers expect that most or all young women in the workplace will want to marry, have children, and leave their careers. Because of the commitment of time, resources, and training, employers may avoid hiring women who might leave their careers in the early stages. Even when hired, supervisors and co-workers may question young women’s commitment to their careers, hindering potential mentoring relationships and advancement. When women temporarily interrupt their careers to have children, their future income and chances for promotion are negatively impacted (Booth, 2002; Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000). Women who use company benefits such as flexible work schedules, family care leave, and childcare services risk being perceived negatively, having their job commitment questioned, and being placed on the “mommy track” (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998; Schwartz, 1998). A third explanation for workplace discrimination is that employed women may be seen as violating their traditional feminine gender role and the motherhood mandate. When women appear too aggressive or tough, which is often required for top jobs, they risk being evaluated negatively (Furr, 2002). As stated in the 1989 Supreme Court case Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, “An employer who objects to aggressiveness in women but whose positions require this trait places women in an intolerable Catch 22: out of a job if they behave aggressively and out of a job if they don’t” (as cited in Fiske et al., 1991, p. 1055). Ethnic Differences in Work–Family Conflict Thus far our discussion of the differences between men’s and women’s experiences with work–family conflict has primarily, if not exclusively, focused on those who are white and middle class. But what do we know about differences and/or similarities between white women and ethnic minority women? Do the same patterns exist or are there differences that should be taken into account when thinking about issues for ethnic minority working and stay-at-home mothers? Although the majority of research on working mothers has been

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conducted with white women, there is a growing body of research concerning the experiences of black, Asian American, Latina, and Native American working mothers. Although certain aspects of role strain may be common to working mothers of all ethnic backgrounds, there are important differences in the ways that ethnic groups experience role strain. These similarities and differences have important implications. Black Working Mothers Black women have been working outside the home longer than white women (Bridges & Orza, 1996; Gilbert & Rader, 2001). As a result, balancing multiple roles of motherhood and employment may come more easily to black mothers. Due to economic necessity, black mothers often did not have the choice to stay home full-time with their children, as did many white mothers, and often were the heads of the household. However, employment is also is a way that black women have tried to overcome social and economic inequalities in the United States. Black mothers with infants are more likely to work than are their white counterparts with the same socioeconomic status (Granrose & Cunningham, 1988). Black women also are more likely to work after marriage and childbirth than white women. Because many black mothers are the heads of their households, they may feel less ambivalence toward being financial providers than white women (Myers, 1989). In addition, black men tend to be more accepting of wives’ employment than are white men (Broman, 1991; Orbuch & Custer, 1995; Rushing & Schwabe, 1995). The research that addresses work–family conflict among black mothers reveals that they often receive strong support from their families for their roles as working mothers (Benin & Keith, 1995; Broman, 1991). For example, Benin and Keith investigated social support among employed black and white mothers. They specifically investigated types of family support such as help with childcare and transportation, which directly help mothers balance their work and family responsibilities, thereby reducing their feelings of role strain. Although both groups reported moderate levels of support from their families, family was a particularly important source of support for black mothers. In fact, black mothers were more likely to receive additional support by living with their own mothers. In addition, black couples tend to have more egalitarian relationships than white couples (Broman, 1988). Black husbands tend to be more involved in

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household tasks and childcare than white husbands, providing additional support for black mothers (Orbuch & Custer, 1995; Hossain & Roopnarine, 1993). Asian American Working Mothers Research on Asian American working mothers’ experiences with role strain is growing. It has been found that as Asian immigrant women enter the workforce, they often become the co-providers or breadwinners of their families; yet this new role may have unintended negative consequences. For example, employed Asian immigrant women may experience role strain as employment often intensifies their responsibilities as employees, wives, and mothers. In addition, many face discrimination in the workplace as well as a higher likelihood of marital conflict, divorce, and even spousal abuse because the husbands often feel that their traditional beliefs about being the financial providers have been threatened. Researchers have suggested that employed Asian immigrant wives may not feel empowered, in part, because their wages may be too low to make them feel self-sufficient. Korean immigrants, for example, tend to be reluctant to adjust their traditional gender role beliefs, which have been attributed to their “. . . cultural homogeneity, their economic segregation, and their high affiliation with Korean ethnic churches” (Min, 2001, p. 309). It is important to note that researchers also have found that Asian immigrant women tend to view their work in a positive light (Espiritu, 1999). As noted by one researcher, “. . . like many ethnic, immigrant, poor, and working-class women, working-class Asian women view work as an opportunity to raise the family’s living standards and not only as a path to self-fulfillment or even upward mobility as idealized by the white feminist movement. As such, employment is defined as an extension of their family obligations—of the roles as mothers and wives” (Espiritu, 1999, p. 642). Other researchers investigated the ways in which culture, ethnicity, and nationality affect women’s attitudes toward employment. One study compared middle-class Japanese and American women’s perceptions of working mothers. Although both groups of women in the study were full-time housewives, neither Japanese nor American women fully endorsed the statement “I could be happy as a full-time housewife” (Engel, 1988, p. 367). The researchers suggested that although Japanese women may be changing their perceptions of working mothers, their overall attitudes are still more conservative than those

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held by American women. Furthermore, Japanese women believed more strongly that a mother’s employment outside the home fundamentally hindered marital and child development. Whereas Japanese women believed that wives or mothers should not work outside of the home without their husbands’ approval, American women believed that wives or mothers should not work outside the home unless they themselves wished to. American mothers also believed in mothers’ capability of balancing work and family. These findings were explained in part by the discrepancy between the Japanese values of collectivism and the American values of individualism (Engel, 1988). Latina Working Mothers The experiences of working and non-working Latina mothers are reminders of the negative effects of prejudice and discrimination. For example, one study found that many Latina women had experienced discrimination in their jobs; such negative experiences in the workplace have been associated with decreased psychological well-being and increased role strain. The researchers also identified an in-home contributor to Latina women’s experiences with role strain—having a Latino partner. Latino partners tended to be less supportive of their wives or female partners working outside the home. Some researchers have suggested that traditional sex-role beliefs and cultural expectations may increase the role burdens of Latina women (Amaro et al., 1987; Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila, 1997). However, researchers have found that Latina mothers do not succumb to the pressures of cultural stereotypes. In one study, Latina mothers did not believe they should be solely responsible for maintaining the household while also working outside of the home. Instead, they valued egalitarianism in their relationships and expected their husbands to help with household tasks and childcare responsibilities (Herrera & Del Campo, 1995). Married Latina women tend to be less satisfied working outside of the home if they hold traditional gender-role beliefs (Krause & Markides, 1985), which illustrates the importance of holding gender role beliefs that are consistent with actual behavior. Researchers also have found that certain factors are associated with higher risk for psychological distress and depression among Latina women. In general, perceived spousal support, help with the housework, having a prestigious occupation, and fluency with the English language are associated with lower levels of depression and psychological distress and an overall higher self-reported health status

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(Krause & Markides, 1985; Rivera, Torres, & Carre, 1997). In contrast, having a high-stress job, a low income, and experiencing discrimination in the workplace are related to depression and psychological distress (Amaro et al., 1987). Latino subgroups have been found to have different experiences with role strain and psychological distress. Whereas one study found that Cubans experience less role strain than Mexican American women, other studies have found that Cuban American women and Mexican American women experience better health than Puerto Rican women (Rivera et al., 1997). The finding that members of different Latino subgroups have varied experiences with role strain and psychological distress has important implications. As noted by several researchers (Amaro et al., 1987; Rivera et al., 1997; Zambrana & Frith, 1988), it is increasingly important to be aware of the differences among Latino subgroups and to avoid treating them as one homogenous group. Native American Working Mothers The research on role strain among Native American women also is limited. Previous researchers have noticed that Native American women often are not included in studies about work. This may be due, in part, to difficulty locating Native American participants (Byars & McCubbin, 2001). Despite the difficulty in locating Native American women, a few studies have investigated Native American working women’s experiences with role strain. Researchers have been interested in the relationship between gender role and psychological well-being among employed Native American women (Napholz, 1995, 2000). Gender role orientation refers to the extent to which a person displays both masculine and feminine personality traits. In one study, Native American working women who showed more feminine traits had overall poorer psychological well-being, as they tended to have lower self-esteem, greater depression, and greater difficulty with balancing multiple roles. This finding was partially explained by the possibility that displaying more masculine traits or a combination of masculine and feminine traits made a woman more flexible and therefore more capable of balancing different roles and responsibilities. Napholz (1995) suggested that Native American women who displayed more feminine traits had a harder time dealing with work and family roles than women who showed both feminine and masculine traits.

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In another study, Napholz (2000) brought Native American women together to form a support network. Many of the women faced multiple roles and responsibilities, such as conflicting work and family obligations. In addition, many women were struggling to develop a better sense of themselves within the context of modern Native American society. By sharing their own personal experiences, the women in the support network were able to identify the causes of their role strain as well as generate personal resources and strategies for reducing their role strain. For example, many women reported feeling guilty about working outside of the home and not spending enough time with their families. They also reported feeling pressured and confined by traditional Native American female roles. Through the support network, the women received the support and resources necessary to relieve their feelings of guilt by learning to let go of “mistakes made in the past and [instead, make] choices that [facilitate] both individual and family growth” (Napholz, 2000, p. 259). By setting boundaries with others, the women were able to become more attentive to their own needs. In addition, reclaiming their connection to Native American culture, such as “drumming, singing, dancing, and spiritual practice” (Napholz, 2000, p. 265), was an important source of belonging and psychological well-being for Native American women. The women in this study were able to redefine their roles within Native American culture to better achieve balance in their lives (Napholz, 2000). Implications for Research For several reasons, it is important to examine the similarities and differences among white, black, Asian American, Latina, and Native American women’s experiences with role strain. The research shows that the majority of women, regardless of their ethnicity, find it difficult to balance their work and family responsibilities. This finding can be used to better understand how role strain for working mothers can be reduced. Several factors, such as receiving family support and help with the housework, benefit most working mothers, regardless of their ethnicity. Although researchers have found similarities in the ways women of different racial backgrounds experience role strain, there are key differences that may have important implications. For example, in one study with Native American women, several participants did not complete a part of the survey that is commonly used to assess depression.

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As noted by the researcher, this may indicate the “need for more culturally sensitive instruments for Native American women” (Napholz, 1995, p. 70). The researcher further suggested that “because of the community-based definition of self, many traditional therapeutic interventions emphasizing individual volition and responsibility . . . may prove inappropriate [for Native American women] without a cultural translation” (Napholz, 1995, p. 71). Part of the value of studying role strain among various ethnic groups is the ability to develop research tools, policies, and interventions that will be beneficial and culturally sensitive for women of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Thus, our expectations about working and stay-at-home mothers and our information about their “real” experiences in these roles tend to be based on white, middle-class mothers, who are depicted as the “norm.” When researchers have studied mothers’ experiences, they usually have looked at white, middle-class mothers’ experiences. Future work needs to take this into account and be aware that the white, middle-class working and stay-at-home mothers’ experiences may or may not be similar to those of ethnic minority mothers. BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY CONFLICT: SEQUENCING CHOICES Given mothers’ experiences with work–family conflict, it is important to understand the way women balance the demands of work and family life. Although their choices may be constrained by economic and cultural factors, women can decide whether or not to marry and have children. Further, they make take on these roles at different points in their lives. How do mothers make their decisions about when to work, get married, and have children? What are the effects of the order of these choices? No research of which we are aware has examined the expectations or realities that are experienced by mothers according to the sequence of choices they make about work, marriage, and children. In this section, we provide a framework for these sequencing patterns as well as discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of these patterns. It should be noted that most of the research cited in this section involved white, heterosexual participants. The experiences of newscaster Connie Chung represent one possible sequencing pattern. In 1990, Chung announced that she was taking time off from her career as a news anchor for CBS to start a family. Chung had achieved a remarkable degree of success in a very

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competitive and challenging field. During this time, the women’s movement was encouraging women to pursue their own careers and see themselves as having more options than marriage and motherhood. Women, particularly educated women, were responding by postponing marriage (The Wall Street Journal, as cited in Gilbert, 1993). Indeed, Chung had not married until about age forty. She discovered to her dismay that she was having a difficult time becoming pregnant and eventually adopted an infant (Schindehette, Carswell, Sheff, & Micheli, 1990). A few years earlier than Connie Chung’s well-publicized efforts to conceive, the popular press had described two stories in great detail. One was drawn from research that showed a critical shortage of marriageable men for women over thirty (Bennett, Bloom, & Craig, 1986, as cited in Faludi, 1991). The second involved an apparent increase in infertility. DeCherney and Berkowitz (1982) reported that women’s chances of conceiving dropped sharply after age thirty. The popular press declared that women were taking a terrible risk in postponing childbearing beyond age thirty. Faludi (1991) suggests that women were being warned on all sides of the dangers involved in either postponing marriage or childbearing or trying to combine career with family. Women who took this advice and married and had children earlier in their lives faced their own difficulties. A great deal of research outlined the mental and physical benefits of employment and the psychological risks of full-time homemaking (Crosby, 1991; Ferree, 1984; Golding, 1989; Lennon, 1998; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990; Shehan, 1984). Not all women choose to marry young and stay home with their children. In fact, women are represented in the workforce in record numbers. Gilbert (1993) reported that 59 percent of married women with children under the age of six were in the workforce and, of these, 70 percent worked full time. Sixty-seven percent of married women with children under eighteen were employed, and 73 percent of those were employed full time. These women contributed approximately 40 percent of the household income. Women, it seemed, faced a dilemma. Full-time homemakers felt isolated at home when caring for families (Lennon, 1998). Women who returned to the workforce after taking time off from careers felt penalized by having lost productive career-building years (Crittenden, 2001). Women who postponed marriage and childbearing until the late thirties or early forties were being warned of a shortage of marriage partners and drastically reduced rates of fertility. Women faced a dilemma.

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SEVEN MODELS/PATTERNS OF SEQUENCING Although there are many ways for women to organize their lives, there are seven basic patterns characterizing the modern woman that can be identified. These are by no means the only patterns but rather serve as prototypes of many others. Each model is described here, along with a discussion of its advantages and disadvantages that have been determined from past research. It should be noted that the authors of this chapter are not endorsing one pattern over another, nor are they suggesting that women have made good or bad decisions based on the life sequences they have chosen. The Woman Who Marries Young and Stays Home The first of these is the traditional role of the unemployed married woman in the nuclear family. Although this role is now in the minority (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003), it still holds a powerful place in the culture’s mythology (Ganong & Coleman, 1995). There are clearly advantages for the young woman who chooses this path. She will select her husband during a time when she has the largest population of unmarried men from whom to choose. The tendency for women to marry men who are more successful on some dimension (such as financial success, termed “the marriage gradient” by Bernard, 1972) has been well documented (Peplau & Gordon, 1985), and these women will be less likely to encounter fertility problems (DeCherney & Berkowitz, 1982). If this woman should have trouble conceiving, she has time for medical intervention before her “biological clock” runs down. When she has children, she need not feel torn between the demands of her home and those of the workplace. The husband often benefits from the advantage of having a full-time homemaker who devotes herself to his nurturance and that of the children (Bernard, 1972). The husband is relieved of most of the tasks of running a home and managing a family. His responsibility is limited to providing financial support. In this marriage, the wife’s role as full-time homemaker is clearly defined. Both the wife and the husband are likely to agree that he is the head of the family and has the greater authority (Bernard, 1981; Cook, 1993; Steil & Weltman, 1991). This role, however, comes at a price. Researchers have suggested that full-time homemakers are at higher risk of depression than are employed women (Crosby, 1991; Ferree, 1984; Golding, 1989; Lennon, 1998; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990; Shehan, 1984). The tasks that the full-time homemaker does are often dull, repetitive, and

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without reward (Oakley, 1974). When her children leave home, the full-time homemaker may be more likely to suffer from the “empty nest” syndrome than her employed counterpart (Bart, 1971). If her marriage ends in divorce, she is at risk for poverty (Price & McKenry, 1988). Further, she will find it harder to leave an abusive relationship because she is financially dependent on her husband (McHugh, Frieze, & Browne, 1993). The Stay-at-Home Mom Goes to Work or School This pattern is related to the first, in the sense that the woman who follows this pattern has lived some part of her adult life as a full-time wife and mother, and then returns to the workplace or school. She shares some of the advantages of the full-time homemaker. She has selected her husband at a time when many men are available. Because she has not yet begun her career, she does not face the limitations of the marriage gradient that the career woman does (Bernard, 1972). She will be less likely to have trouble with fertility (DeCherney & Berkowitz, 1982). The husband may enjoy many of the advantages of a traditional marriage. This pattern has disadvantages as well. Women following this path will enter the workforce later in life and may never achieve the level of success of their childless counterparts (Crittenden, 2001). The bulk of household tasks is likely to remain with the wife, even though she is working. Hochshild (1989) found that most employed women put in a full day of work on the job and then returned home to perform a second full day of housework and childcare, a phenomenon she called the “second shift.” She also found that women felt caught between the demands of work and the demands of family. Although Hochshild’s findings are controversial, many studies indicate that, even though working women have decreased the number of hours they devote to housework and men have increased the number of hours they spend doing these chores, equity has not been achieved (Gilbert, 1993; Pleck, 1992). Further, husbands in these marriages may still have more power, even though wives are contributing significantly to the household income. In fact, studies have shown that marital power remains with the husband, even if the wife earns more than the husband (Steil & Weltman, 1991). Similarly, in most dual-career marriages, the couple sees the wife’s career as secondary to the husband’s (Steil, 2001). Finally, it may be difficult for

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the family to adjust to new roles and expectations when the stay-athome mother returns to work or school. These first two patterns have many advantages in the family domain, but significant disadvantages in the work domain. The next two patterns have disadvantages in the family domain, but advantages in the work domain. The Career Woman (Married or Unmarried) without Children Women may choose not to have children or may be childless through circumstances beyond their control. Women may choose to remain childless in order to pursue educational or career goals (Landa, 1990) and/or because they value their autonomy and independence (Houseknecht, 1979). There are clear economic advantages to this model. Women without children now earn almost 90 percent of men’s wages (Waldfogle, 1998). Further, childless marriages often are happier than marriages with children (MacDermid, Huston, & McHale, 1990). There is little evidence to suggest that the psychological well-being of childless women is lower than that of mothers (Muller & Yoder, 1997). Even women who are childless by circumstances beyond their control rather than by choice are no more likely than mothers to suffer decreased psychological well-being (Baruch, Barnett, & Rivers, 1983). Nor are single women necessarily unhappy. Many single women do not regret being childless or single and report enjoying the freedom to live their lives as they please. They often derive satisfaction from a sense of self-sufficiency and competence. Many never-married women report having active and fulfilling lives (Paradise, 1993). For example, Loewenstein, Block, Campion, Epstein, Gale et al. (1981) found that 75 percent of childless single women expressed no regret at not having had children. There are, of course, disadvantages to both childlessness and being single. Women who are childless often are evaluated harshly by society (Baruch et al., 1983), and much of our social structure is organized around couples. However, single women often develop social support networks with friends and family and do not necessarily feel lonely (Burnley & Kurth, 1994). The Married Career Woman Wants a Baby The married career woman who decides to have a baby later in life enjoys many of the advantages of the childless woman. She has been

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able to devote herself to her education and career during her twenties and early thirties. Further, she and her husband are likely to enjoy a level of financial security, professional accomplishment, and emotional security that will make the transition to parenthood somewhat less stressful. Couples may also have grown accustomed to sharing household responsibilities and are more likely to share parenting duties (Gilbert, 1993). However, postponing childbearing until the mid-thirties may be problematic if fertility becomes an issue (Schwartz & Mayaux, 1982). The Career Mother Becomes a Stay-at-Home Mom If the career mother decides to stay at home, she will avoid the guilt and role strain that her working counterparts often experience. However, she may find that she has lost status with her colleagues (Crittenden, 2001) and is at higher risk of depression (Crosby, 1991; Ferree, 1984; Lennon, 1998; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990; Shehan, 1984). Further, she will certainly lose the income that she earned and the advantages that come with that income. If she returns to work later, her career may never be as successful as it was previously (Crittenden, 2001). Double-Duty Mom: Begin Family and Career Simultaneously In many ways, the double-duty mom is the new norm. She has some of the advantages of both the stay-at-home mother and the career mother. She has less trouble finding a partner and is less likely to experience fertility problems. However, she may find that she is “mommy tracked” as she struggles to balance her family responsibilities with her career goals. In regard to her career, she will be seen as less ambitious and be given fewer opportunities for advancement. Moreover, in terms of her mother role, a great deal of flexibility is required on the part of both partners and is often accompanied by role strain for both partners (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998). Single Mothers The single mother who chooses this pattern often feels that it expresses her need for a child, but not for a partner (Bock, 2000), and single mothers are as satisfied with being parents as are married mothers.

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Even mothers who find themselves single through widowhood or divorce often are proud of their ability to survive and handle a difficult job (Smith, 1997). The obvious disadvantages of this pattern include financial stress and the necessity of managing a household and children alone. Families headed by women are much more likely to be poor than other families (Steil, 2001). Finding good childcare is crucial for all working mothers, and single mothers are particularly vulnerable to the lack of quality care for their children (Polakow, 1993). DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS In sum, there are several conclusions that can be drawn from this chapter. First, despite our movement forward in equality for women, working mothers are perceived negatively by society, and there still are negative perceptions of mothers as compared to fathers. Mothers often are stereotyped as either housewives or career women (Riedle, 1991). These subgroups of mothers are strongly held and prevent changes in overall stereotypes of mothers (Richards & Hewstone, 2001). Given that stereotypes can affect how people behave (Olson et al., 1996), research needs to explore how to change these negative stereotypes. For example, Herrera and Del Campo (1995) noted the need to change the stereotype of Latina women as submissive. This stereotype is outdated and disempowers Latina women. Second, the research from this chapter has demonstrated that working mothers are struggling with their multiple roles. Mothers often do not admit that they struggle with balancing work and family life because they worry about being deemed bad mothers (Nicolson, 1998). Mothers also are hesitant to admit that they enjoy other aspects of their lives, such as their careers. Feeling isolated and overworked are understandable responses to work–family conflict. It is healthy to deal with stress by acknowledging tensions between work and family with statements such as “I wouldn’t be without [my child], but . . .” (Woollett & Marshall, 2001, p. 172). This statement acknowledges the positive aspects of being a mother while admitting that there are negative components. Third, organizations cannot afford to ignore work–family conflict. Research indicates that employees with high levels of work–family conflict are more likely to perform poorly, be absent or tardy, leave the job, and have less organizational commitment than employees with little or no work–family conflict (Baltes, Briggs, Huff, Wright, &

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Neumann, 1999; Krausz, Sage, & Sidemen, 2000; Ralston & Flanagan, 1985). In response to problems of work–family conflict, organizations have implemented “family friendly” policies such as alternative work schedules, or flextime, family care leave, and childcare services. However, the effectiveness of these policies in the reduction of work–family conflict is minimal. Other variables, such as ability to manage multiple roles, marital status, spouses’ attitudes, perceptions of spousal support, and perceptions of organizational support, may be related to whether organizational policies will be effective (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998). Coping with the Challenges of Being a Working Mother Based on the conclusions drawn from this literature review, there are many resources for coping and overcoming these challenges. It should come as little surprise that working mothers often rely on several coping strategies for reducing their role strain (DeMeis & Perkins, 1996). After all, working mothers often are intensely devoted to both their families and careers. Women have been found to utilize several strategies for coping with multiple roles, ranging from trying to do everything more efficiently to adjusting their attitudes about their multiple responsibilities (Elman & Gilbert, 1984). Fortunately, coping strategies generally help working women deal with their role stress (McLaughlin, Cormier, & Cormier, 1988). However, researchers have noted the tendency of working mothers to hold themselves personally responsible for reducing work–family conflict rather than consider the structural, institutional, and societal changes that could help them balance their work and family lives. For example, the most commonly used coping strategy of working women is increased role behavior, a strategy whereby women attempt to do everything more efficiently (Elman & Gilbert, 1984). Working mothers should not only rely on themselves to reduce role strain but also on external resources such as “flextime, paternity leave and quality daycare in close proximity to one’s place of employment” (Elman & Gilbert, p. 326). Some mothers who can afford to do so choose to work part-time and report satisfaction with fulfilling their desire to work and also enjoy their mothering role. At first glance, it seems as if women benefit from working part-time. After all, women who work part-time experience numerous benefits, ranging from increased satisfaction with their home environments, personal efficiency, and life overall. However,

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there is a complex relationship between working part-time and experiences with role strain. For example, researchers have found that working part-time does not necessarily benefit employed women equally, as nonprofessional women typically have more to gain from part-time work than professional women, and professional women continue to experience work–family conflict, even if they work parttime. Although professional women recognize certain benefits of working part-time, they also report considerable negative consequences such as feeling less included in their work environments, worrying that their opportunities for growth and enhancement at work have been jeopardized, and feeling stigmatized by their coworkers for choosing to work less than full-time (Barker, 1993). Interestingly, Barker found that role strain for working women was reduced not by working part-time but by working in an environment where the majority of workers were women. Overall, the role of part-time employment in reducing role strain for women remains unclear, but the research on this topic is promising. As noted by Higgins, Duxbury, and Johnson (2000), “In order to truly make a difference in the quality of life for women with children, part-time work also must be made desirable and rewarding” (p. 29). Perceived spousal support and help with the housework often have been associated with less role strain and work–family conflict (Herrera & Del Campo, 1995; Krause & Markides, 1985). In a relationship, the experiences of one partner often influence the experiences and wellbeing of the other partner (Parasuraman, Greenhaus, & Granrose, 1992). If a husband supports his wife’s career, then positive psychological outcomes become more likely. However, if he is not supportive, the opposite holds true, and negative psychological outcomes are more likely. How Can Policy Changes Reduce Work–Family Conflict? As of 1999, around 60 percent of employers offered flexible work schedules to at least some of their employees. While employees value flextime, little research has identified the conditions under which flextime will be most effective at reducing or preventing work–family conflict. Most of the research examining the impact of flextime has been focused on organizational benefits of using alternative schedules. It has been demonstrated by a vast amount of research on the availability of alternative work schedules that flextime is the most

Toolbox for Change For Individuals

Images/perceptions Mothers expected to be primary caretakers and men primary financial providers.

Strategies for change Promote egalitarian division of family work, such as shared household tasks, shared childcare.

Working mothers viewed Recognize and promote as more masculine, staynontraditional roles in self at-home moms viewed as and others, which will help feminine, but less change stereotypes. competent; stay-at-home Seek spousal and family and part-time employed support. fathers viewed as feminine. Redefine gender roles, Conflict of traditional including perceptions of gender roles or cultural motherhood and beliefs with need to fatherhood, to match your work. current situation. Trouble with fertility. Accept change as a natural Tendency of working part of adult development. mothers to hold Seek fertility treatment, adopt themselves personally children. responsible for alleviating work–family conflict. Recognize that structural, Stigma against childlessness institutional, and societal and remaining single. changes need to be made to alleviate work–family conflicts. Promote the legitimacy of childlessness and singlehood. Community/ Assumptions about society behavior based on stereotypes may lead to job discrimination. Mommy track. Work–family conflict leads to dissatisfied and lesseffective employees.

Greater rewards for part-time work. Flexible and alternative work schedules. On-site affordable quality daycare. Reward family friendly organizations to achieve greater organizational support.

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Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions Part-time work is not rewarded or desirable.

Strategies for change Government policies: Subsidized daycare for lowincome families. Improved family care leave legislation, such as extended paid family leave time, paid paternal leave. Stricter laws to prevent discrimination against working parents.

Practitioners

Mothers may not admit that motherhood has negative aspects.

Promote strategies to reduce stress among mothers and fathers.

Mothers may not admit their struggles with an unrealistic ideal of “the good mother.”

Acknowledge the positive aspects of being a mother while admitting there are negative components.

Fathers may have unrealistic expectations about being a good provider.

Promote egalitarian division of labor, such as legitimacy of female primary financial providers and male primary caretakers.

Stereotypic assumptions of mothers’ and fathers’ roles, Recognize and promote traits, and behavior nontraditional roles in others, which will help change stereotypes.

beneficial schedule to employers, with the prime benefits of reduced absenteeism and tardiness (Baltes et al., 1999). Another policy to improve work–family conflict is on-site daycare facilities. Few organizations provide on-site, high-quality daycare, which is a much-needed resource for many working mothers (Scarr, Phillips, & McCartney, 1989). However, even before the organizational policies are implemented within work settings, changes need to be made with family care leave

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policies. The mandated twelve weeks of unpaid parental leave (Family and Medical Leave Act [FMLA] of 1993) are not sufficient for most working mothers because they only allows twelve weeks of unpaid parental leave, which many women cannot afford to take (Marks, 1997). Organizations concerned about the impact of work–family conflict, such as employee productivity and absenteeism, as well as organizations with genuine concerns for employees’ well-being, should augment the mandated policy with at least partial paid leave. The United States is the only nation, among 100 countries, that does not provide paid, job-protected maternal leave (Kamerman, 1989). Sweden offers mothers and fathers nine months of job-protected leave at 90 percent pay, with the option of extending the leave by three months with less pay (Scarr et al., 1989). The FMLA policy needs to extend the time limit and provide some wage replacement. CONCLUSION Based on what we have provided within this chapter, we believe that there is not only a need for organizational change but also a need for more empirical research. Areas that need to be further explored are (1) multi-method research using both qualitative and quantitative instruments; (2) interdisciplinary research that forges the links between psychology, sociology, economics, and politics; (3) the intersection of race, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation on work–family conflict; (4) person perception research with non-student samples such as adults from the community; (5) research that includes both employees and employers; (6) moderators and mediators of negative perceptions and reality of working mothers; (7) how stereotypes affect actual experiences, such as discrimination, and ways to change these stereotypes; and (8) research directly addressing issues relevant to mothers’ experiences as distinct from issues relevant to women in general. REFERENCES Amaro, H., Russo, N., & Johnson, J. (1987). Family and work predictors of psychological well-being among Hispanic women professionals. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11, 505–521. Baltes, B. B., Briggs, T. E., Huff, J. W., Wright, J. A., & Neumann, G. A. (1999). Flexible and compressed workweek schedules: A meta-analysis of their effects on work-related criteria. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 496–513.

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CHAPTER 4

Running into the Wind: The Experience of Discrimination in an Academic Workplace Michelle Kaminski

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hat does it feel like to be the target of discrimination at work? At first, you feel isolated and definitely not valued. After a while, you think it’s your fault, that you are somehow not good enough. Later, you start to notice that some groups of people are treated differently by the boss. Some are treated better, for example by being given more support to get their job done, or more rewards for the same level of performance. Others are treated worse—denied access to resources, for example. You notice that those who are treated worse look like you and those who are treated better don’t look like you. You start to get angry. Maybe you make efforts to improve things. But at some point you come to a choice: stay and fight, or go somewhere else where you believe it will be better. That briefly captures the emotional process I went through on my last job as a university faculty member. I have two goals in using this narrative form to describe my personal experience with discrimination there. First, I hope to identify specific behaviors by organizational leaders and members that contribute either to a feeling of inclusion or exclusion. I will do this by describing my interactions with other faculty members, as well as by identifying some general patterns that might occur in other organizations. Although sexism and racism are institutional problems and require change at organizational and institutional levels, it is still individuals within those organizations who must make those changes. By focusing on specific behaviors,

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we can identify concrete steps that individuals can take to promote change. Second, I want to describe the emotional impact of working in an environment that systematically undervalues women. This is important because so many people believe that issues of discrimination have been solved, that it’s just not a problem in today’s workplace. Others believe that managers actually favor women and minorities because they are so afraid of lawsuits. My experience is quite the contrary. On my previous job, I saw systematic ways in which men (all white men, as it happens) were given more resources, higher pay, and better evaluations than the women who were as good as—or even better—than their male counterparts. And that bias has a cost, both to the organization, which loses the talents of some of its members, and to the individual who may suffer both a psychological and an economic impact (Belle & Doucet, 2003; Cortina & Magley, 2003). Kathy Germann, a diversity trainer and consultant, suggested this metaphor for working and living in a discriminatory environment: it’s like running into the wind. It might be a small breeze or a stiff headwind, but you feel it. It slows you down. You have to work harder to succeed. I’d like to expand on that a little bit. In work organizations, some people are running with the wind at their back; they get extra help and so it’s not surprising that they achieve their goals quickly. Others are running into the wind, so even with the same levels of effort and ability, it’s going to take them longer to achieve the same goal. How much difference does it make? Well, to extend the track example, a race time is declared “wind-aided” (and therefore not comparable to other times) if there is a tail wind of only two meters per second, or about 4.5 miles per hour. That’s not very much. It’s difficult to quantify the extra help that a member of a dominant group might get in a discriminatory work organization, or the extent of the resistance faced by women and minorities in the same settings. But even a small pattern of differences can have a large cumulative effect. MY EXPERIENCE At my previous job, I was working as a faculty member at one of the top public universities in the United States. I believe I experienced gender discrimination on that job. “Discrimination” has a specific legal definition. But I am not a lawyer, and the sense in which I am using it may or may not meet the legal definition. What I mean is

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that male and female faculty members of the same rank were treated differently, and the men were given significantly more advantages than the women. Here is some background information about my former department. About 60 percent of the students were women. During the four years I was there, the faculty composition was approximately as follows: ten senior male faculty, one senior female faculty (who retired during this period), five junior male faculty (two of whom became tenured during this time), and three junior female faculty. The department had not granted tenure to a female faculty member since the mid-1980s, about fifteen years before I got there. Several women faculty had come and gone since that time. Some were denied tenure, and some, like me, were so frustrated with the atmosphere there that they left for other jobs before going up for tenure. When I began that job, I was, like most people, eager to succeed and confident in my abilities. I had just co-authored a book I was proud of (Kaminski, Bertelli, Moye, & Yudken, 1996) and looked forward to conducting additional research. But the warning signs came early. Even in my interview for the job, a retired male faculty member took me aside and said that I should be careful because women had a hard time getting tenure there. One of the women faculty members was quite candid about the issue. Naively, perhaps, I believed that although it would be challenging, I could still succeed in that environment. Ultimately, my decision to leave had less to do with my level of success and more to do with my psychological well-being. Again, let me emphasize that I started the job with confidence and hope. And so I would like to describe the events that changed my feelings to frustration and futility. Academic readers will understand that, at many universities, research publications are by far the most significant factor in career advancement, including becoming tenured. While I had my own research plans, shortly after I arrived one of the senior faculty members (I’ll call him “A”) asked whether I was interested in working on a case study about a very controversial event in our field. Of course I said yes. About a month later, he told me that he was going to offer the work to a graduate student instead of me, because the (male) student needed the money. I said fine, I had plenty of other projects in mind. Privately, I thought it was odd. I had been trained in case study methodology and had published several case studies before. To my knowledge, neither “A” nor the student had the methodological and interviewing skills that I did. So,

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I thought it was odd to exclude me. In addition, while the student would be paid to work on the project, as a faculty member, I would have done it as part of my normal workload. I did not have to be paid extra. All three of us could have worked on it. I didn’t make much of being excluded at the time, but it turns out that that was the first and last time in my four years there that any senior faculty member would offer to work with me. So, I went ahead with my own research agenda. One of the things that help faculty members accomplish their research is having a graduate student work with them. In our department, graduate students were given positions as research assistants (which include a tuition waiver and a modest salary) and assigned to work with certain faculty members. The students were paid out of the department’s budget, and all faculty were entitled to one research assistant who worked for ten hours per week. I was given a research assistant, but only for five hours per week. When I asked the department head for the same amount of research assistant hours as the other faculty, he said that it was not up to him. This seemed disingenuous, since he was the boss. He said that it was up to one of the administrative staff members. While the staff person handled the paperwork and indeed exercised some discretion about which student was a good match for which professor, the head of the department outranked her considerably. If he had told her to give me a research assistant for ten hours, she would have been required to do so. I’ve noticed over the years that management always has some reason why women and minorities deserve less. But the reason often is not a logical one. Similarly, Moss and Tilly (2001) describe a complex mix of fact and fiction in what employers say about hiring decisions and race. About this time, I was beginning to compare the research support the department gave me to what it gave the male junior faculty. While not all the men received favorable treatment, some did. One man in particular (“B”) received an extraordinary level of support from one of the most powerful senior members (“C”). Junior faculty member B was excused from a number of his duties as a faculty member so he could put more time into his research and therefore increase his chances of being tenured. Whenever B was assigned to serve on an administrative committee, C would tell the department head that B could not serve on the committee because he needed time to focus on his research. (Committee work, while necessary to the functioning of the university, is generally both unglamorous and unrewarded.) The department head would agree and release B from any committee

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assignment. In fact, the department head repeatedly said that he would protect junior faculty from having to do too much committee work. But in my case, it didn’t work that way. I was required to serve on the executive committee, which was one of the more burdensome committees in terms of number of hours required. I also served on two search committees, a strategic planning committee, and was the faculty liaison to the alumni board. I did not mind doing the committee work. But in hindsight I see what an advantage it was to B not to have to spend much time doing this kind of work. C helped B out in an even larger way. He taught one of his classes for him. Technically, the class was jointly taught by B and C, but the students reported that B did almost nothing and didn’t come to the class very often. To understand what impact this had on B’s tenure prospects, consider this: Faculty have three components to their jobs: teaching, research, and service (such as committee work). In terms of getting tenure, research is the top priority, teaching matters a little, and service does not count at all. C removed all of B’s service obligation, and some of his teaching load, leaving B more time than his peers to focus on his research—and therefore increasing the likelihood he would receive tenure. There was something else about B and C that might seem unimportant at first: every day they went to lunch together. Sometimes other male faculty members, including the department head, joined them. Every day they walked by my office door on their way to lunch. In the four years I worked there, they did not invite me to join them even once. Admittedly, lunch is not the most important thing about work. But being excluded both in work and social events can have a double impact on one’s psyche. The social ease that comes with sharing meals, or the lack of it, can make a difference in how people treat each other at work. When one of the other women confronted them and asked why they never invited the women to lunch, their response was quite interesting. They said that they just talked about sports, and the women wouldn’t enjoy it. Well, that might be true for some women, but not in my case. I’ve played a number of recreational sports—softball, skiing, swimming, basketball, volleyball, and a little bit of street hockey. I’m also a fan. I have attended, in person, a World Series, a Super Bowl, a Stanley Cup final, and regular season events in those and other sports, from basketball to lacrosse. I watch sports on television. B and C knew I was a sports fan. I beat them in their football pool one year,

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and they helped me get basketball season tickets. So, it’s just not true that they didn’t invite me to lunch because I wouldn’t want to talk about sports. Again, there is always a reason that more powerful people use to justify why they exclude some people but not others. But the reasons frequently do not withstand even the most basic level of scrutiny. The lunches would not have mattered if other aspects of the department were not so systematically biased. A real turning point in my awareness of this bias was the time I served on the executive committee. Among other duties, the executive committee assists the department head in evaluating the faculty’s performance at the end of every year. By this time, I had been in the department for three years and had heard the department head and others talk about what constituted good performance. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of it. But it absolutely did not match the performance ratings and raises given out. (As a junior faculty member with no security, I did not feel comfortable criticizing my senior colleague’s pay raises, and I’m not proud to admit that I just went along with what the department head said, even though I thought some of his decisions were clearly biased.) What I learned was that good performance seemed to hinge on having a male name at the top of the annual activity report. In some cases, men with no publications were given higher ratings than women with publications. Publications by women were often discounted. One year, I had a publication in the same outlet as the department head. My publication, however, did not “count.” Regarding another journal, one of the very few publications focused on my area. I was repeatedly told by the department head not to publish there because it was considered too low-quality. (They accept approximately 20 percent of the manuscripts they receive.) I was told it would not count in my performance evaluation. This disappointed me because my work was an especially good fit with that journal, and it would have been easier for me to publish there than elsewhere. So, I was very surprised when one of my male colleagues (D) had two publications there and it was considered outstanding performance. At this point I felt misled at best, and flat-out lied to at worst. But I also felt betrayed. Anytime B was in danger of receiving poor performance reviews, C intervened and explained that while B’s work was low in quantity (in spite of all that extra time he had when he was not teaching or serving on committees), it was extremely high in

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quality; and it might not be published this year, but when it finally was, it would be great. I’m glad B got that kind of support. But I felt betrayed because my own supervisor did not support me in this way. To my knowledge, he never said, “Why would a publication in the same journal count for D, but not for Michelle?” This was a supervisor who said he was on my side and said he wanted me to get tenure. But he would simply not do what C did for B. He would not argue a case in my favor. As a junior faculty member, it’s hard to make these arguments for yourself. You might be intimidated. You might fear retaliation. But even if you’re not concerned about that, there’s a pretty good chance that you don’t have access to the information that goes into the performance review process or on who is getting extra money for what from the department head. It was only because I was on the executive committee—which junior faculty are normally excluded from—that I saw this behavior. My overall impression of the performance review process there was that if you changed the names at the top of the annual report, the ratings would change dramatically as well. My supervisor played a role in another incident. He assigned me to host a women’s conference. This conference is an annual event in our field, and it is rotated among a group of universities in the region. I was both excited and overwhelmed at the prospect of hosting it. I was excited because I had taught at the conference before when it was at other schools, and I knew what a powerful experience it was for the participants. But I was also overwhelmed because it was a huge amount of work. The coordinator had to organize about fifteen instructors, seventy-five to 100 participants, food, lodging, and evening activities, and do it on a shoestring budget. (Participants paid about $475 each, which covered five nights’ lodging, six days of meals, and five days of instruction.) But in addition to my concern about pulling the conference together, I faced another problem. Senior faculty member E argued in an executive committee meeting and later sent me a series of email messages claiming that we should not host it. His argument was that we should not host a women’s conference of any sort because it would be biased against men. He said that neither the department nor the university could sponsor a women’s conference. I pointed out that the university hosted its own working women’s conference every year, and our department had hosted this regional conference at least twice before. But this did not change E’s mind. He continued to send me email messages a few times a day. I estimate that I spent two

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hours a day for two weeks reading and responding to E’s emails. And I stewed about it every night when I went home, and woke up feeling angry every morning. I was furious at E both for the position he took, and for the process he followed. Why was he attacking me for something I was assigned to do by my supervisor? Why didn’t he take it up with my supervisor? My supervisor tried to handle this as though it were a personal dispute between E and me, which it was not. He told me that E was really a nice guy, and that over the years he had been one of the senior faculty who was most helpful to women. (The latter point might be true. In fact, after this incident he was noticeably more helpful to me.) The point was not whether E and I got along. I was assigned to do this work by my supervisor, and E should have directed his concerns toward my supervisor. My supervisor should have said that it was his decision and he stood by it. But that’s not what happened. Instead, I was forced to spend a considerable amount of time defending myself—time that could have been better spent doing other things. Furthermore, I could not imagine anyone attacking any of the male junior faculty for teaching a course they were assigned to teach. And if anyone attacked B, C was certain to defend him. In contrast, I was largely left alone to battle an unwarranted attack from a person who, if I had stayed there, would have voted on whether or not I got to keep my job. Before I talk about my responses to these events, I would like to mention one more story. It’s about one of the other women who worked in this department, but who also left without becoming tenured. She lived several hours from campus, because her husband could not find work in the small university town and instead worked in a larger city. This issue was discussed when she was hired. She kept an apartment in town and was on campus three days a week. At one point, one student complained that he couldn’t find her. The department head told her she had to be more accessible. So, she started coming to campus Monday through Thursday. This is the story as she told me, and I observed that she was indeed in the office four days a week. But immediately after she left, faculty and staff started saying that she had been in the office only one day a week, and that was why she never got tenure there. I came to realize that this was part of a pattern of telling public stories that, first, did not match the actual events and, second, explained why the woman left or would soon leave.

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THE EMOTIONAL TOLL In the introduction, I said that one of my goals in writing this was to describe the psychological impact that working in this environment had on me. But I find that it is difficult, and somewhat painful, to do so. I glanced at some of the notes I kept during that period, and in doing so, I felt like I was reliving the same emotions again— the pain of knowing you are not valued, the frustration at trying to make improvements and making no progress whatsoever, and the deep disappointment in some whom I believed to be genuinely wellmeaning but unwilling to admit there was a problem. But it is also difficult because someone who is professionally competent is not supposed to admit that he/she was in this situation. They are supposed to say that everything is fine and they will do a good job no matter what. There is a stigma associated with saying you have been harmed because of discrimination. In this way, it is somewhat like what happens to women who are subject to sexual harassment at work, who are raped, or who are the victims of domestic violence. You don’t really want to admit it in public. Because if you do, there are plenty of folks who will think it is your fault. Although workplace discrimination is clearly not as violent or traumatic as those experiences, it is another example of blaming the victim. In this case, I want to talk about it. In part, this is because many people believe that there is no more discrimination in the workplace. Yet, women earn about 78 percent of what men do in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003) and are significantly underrepresented in leadership positions (Estrich, 2000). But a more important reason to mention it is that if we don’t talk about it, it won’t change. In fact, I feel an obligation to speak out about it. Why? Because in other work settings in which I was treated well, I was reaping the benefit of battles that other women before me had fought. And the only way to repay that debt is to fight for the women and others who will come after me. In this particular case, I can state unequivocally that this job damaged my psychological well-being. I began to doubt my skills and abilities. I knew things were not quite right. But I didn’t know exactly what was wrong. Whatever it was, I thought it was my fault. Some describe this as internalized oppression (Weber, 2001). My sleep suffered, and so did my self-esteem. When B talked to me about what a great place he thought it was, I even felt shame. If it was such a great place, why was I so unhappy? After a time, I didn’t even want

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to run into some of the senior faculty in the halls. I felt that they had judged me as unworthy of sharing a workplace with them. I had accumulated too much negative affect and did not want to risk any interactions that would lead to more. But a few key events changed my emotional perspective. The battle about the women’s school was one of them. Serving on the executive committee was an even more important one. There, I learned that discretionary funds controlled by the department head, which I didn’t even know existed, were generally used to support the activities of male faculty members. If the women didn’t even know the money was there, how were they supposed to know to ask for it? But it was witnessing the performance evaluations that really made me angry. There was a significant discrepancy between the public stories about who published how much and what actually showed up in the annual reports and resumes. Seeing these things, I started to get angry. I sought support from the other junior women in my department, from my husband, and from women faculty in my field at other universities. The women in my department provided social support. The women from other universities, who were senior and had seen these kinds of issues before, confirmed my views about the institutional nature of the problem (that is, that it wasn’t my fault) and helped me think about strategies to address them. My husband provided both kinds of support. I also noticed a discrepancy between internal and external evaluations of my research and teaching skills. Within my department, some of my colleagues did not seem to think that well of my work. But I consistently got very positive feedback from people outside my department, which helped restore my confidence. FIGHTING BACK Without the support of people outside my university, I would have remained very unsure of my assessment that much of what I was experiencing was a work environment that was hostile to women. But within the university, a report was published that offered me an opportunity to raise the issue in my department. This report assessed the status of women faculty at the university, including the percentage of women faculty and the salary gap between men and women faculty in each unit. Our unit was the only one that showed a significant decline in the percentage of women faculty during the period reported (1993–1998). In addition, the salary gap in our unit was among the

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largest on campus. Surely, I thought, this would call attention to the plight of women faculty in my unit. I was wrong. I tried to use the report to raise the issue of support for women faculty at an executive committee meeting. I was told there was no problem with the department. If there was an issue, it was my problem. I tried to raise it again at our annual faculty retreat at the start of the next semester. Among the points I made (most of which are discussed above) were the following: • Currently, there are no women with tenure in the department. • The last time tenure was granted to a woman was in the mid-1980s. That faculty member since retired. • When she retired, at the start of my third year, I became the longestserving female faculty member in the department. • I got less research support in the form of graduate student assistants than my male colleagues. • I was burdened with far more committee assignments than the male junior faculty. • Some men were mentored, and some men weren’t. No women were mentored.

The department head, in planning for the meeting, collected some data. He reported that of the fifteen faculty who had been hired in the previous ten years, four had already left. All four were women. The topic was discussed considerably. Some of the senior males denied there was a problem. C played an especially central role. He said that all four women who left did so for personal reasons. I said that some of them had told me otherwise. They told me that they were treated badly because they were women, and that was why they left. But, needing letters of recommendation, and not wanting to burn their bridges, all of them did give a plausible personal reason as the public explanation for their departure. Admittedly, that did not help my cause. But, in this meeting, I asked the faculty directly, “How many women is it going to take? How many have to leave here before you admit there’s a problem?” There was no answer. Ironically perhaps, E, the faculty member with whom I had had the conflict about the women’s conference, took one of the more constructive approaches in this meeting. E suggested that we as a department needed to look at how we treated all junior faculty, male and female, and how much support we provide them. While this may seem to skirt the question of discrimination, I thought it was potentially a

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helpful approach. First, I believed that if we really examined how all the junior faculty were treated, we would find a noticeable gender difference. Second, and more importantly, this approach had the potential to solve the problem. If we committed to providing support to all junior faculty, and actually acted on it, then both the women and the men would get support, which is what I wanted to accomplish. One of the aspects of support we discussed was mentoring. C claimed that “Everybody knows that women and minorities need mentors,” implying that white men did not. My view is that everyone needs mentors, but that in this particular workplace, men had more access to them. Surprisingly, C denied that he served as a mentor to B. He said he did all these things because he and B were friends. Indeed, they were friends. But he definitely provided professional support to B in a way that fits with most definitions of mentoring. So, in the end, what was the result of my efforts? The faculty as a whole would not yet acknowledge that there was a problem. Therefore, they saw no need to try to fix it. The resolution for me was a personal one. I found a new job at another university, at a higher salary. But I also left feeling more positive about myself. Standing up to those who had power over me, even though I did not see any real change, gave me confidence. I can’t change that workplace—in fact at least one more woman has left. But perhaps I can provide support to others who find themselves in similar situations by helping them recognize some of the signs that they are working in a discriminatory environment. They are not crazy. It is not their fault. They are running into the wind. WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT DISCRIMINATION IN TODAY’S WORKPLACE? Although we have had laws in the United States that prohibit employment discrimination because of sex, race, color, religion, or national origin since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the laws tend to address the most egregious forms of discrimination. And in many ways, discrimination against what I will call disadvantaged groups (e.g., women, racial and ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities) takes more of a subtle form today than in the past. As a result, it can be even harder to fight. Gaertner and Dovidio (1986) describe a parallel bias based on race as “aversive racism,” and McPhail (2003) argues that the concept should be extended to include aversive sexism.

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Below, I’ve listed a set of behaviors that I believe can combat discrimination in today’s workplace. But first, I also list some behaviors that I see as warning signs that a workplace has significant diversity issues. Warning Signs 1. Stories that justify unfavorable actions toward members of disadvantaged groups. My experience was that there was always some reason why the women were treated badly, and in each case it was an idiosyncratic reason. In other settings, there might be one common explanation, such as having children. But the theme was that the woman was always an exception to the rule, and it was always her fault (or her choice). But the rules aren’t made for women; they are made for men. So it’s not surprising that women’s lives don’t fit them as well. If almost every member of a disadvantaged group is viewed by dominant group as not so successful, there is likely a problem. But the problem may well lie with the organization and its leaders rather than in the members of the disadvantaged groups. Similarly, if the only women to be thought successful had behaved “just like men,” that would not be evidence that a workplace was free from discrimination. Indeed, it supports the view that only people who are “like men” can succeed there, and people who behave “like women” are not welcome. 2. Leaders who are aware of the problem but unwilling to speak out. Although I did not dwell on it above, one of the department leaders told me privately that he agreed that there really was a problem with the way women faculty were treated. But he added that, when in front of other faculty members, he would claim that there was no problem. Although he may have meant well, thinking he was making me feel better, that kind of behavior is not helpful. It only makes it harder to solve the problem because it can’t be acknowledged. 3. Denying the experience of the disadvantaged group. We all want to succeed at work. I believe people generally don’t want to admit that they have been the targets of discrimination. I think that in many cases, by the time someone comes to the point of saying they feel discriminated against, they have gone through some difficult experiences and have entertained a variety of explanations that include selfdoubt and self-blame among them. They likely have quite a bit of evidence before they cite discrimination as the cause.

Often, when someone in a disadvantaged group complains, or even when a group of them get together and formally complain, the immediate response from the leadership is to deny it. But I argue that

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by the time the individual or group of people gets to the point of making an official complaint, they usually have very solid grounds. Whether the experience meets the legal definition of discrimination or not, those in power do not have the right to deny what the members of the disadvantaged group have experienced. Constructive Behaviors In contrast to the warning signs described above, I believe that the positive behaviors described below can help to create an environment in which everyone feels included. 1. Transparency in decision-making. This can prevent discrimination as well as other kinds of ethical problems. Also, it is consistent with democratic beliefs. Decision-making processes should include input from those whom the decisions affect. Both the process and the results should be made known to the entire group. Information about resource distribution (what resources are available and who gets them) should be available to all, so that potential biases can be revealed. 2. Fairness in performance evaluation. At first glance, it might seem that fairness is easy to achieve. Most workplaces have some numeric measure to assess performance in different jobs-annual sales, number of goods produced per day, number of defects per 1,000 parts. At research universities, the number is publications. But in real life, sales staff can be given better or worse territories; production workers can be stationed at newer, more efficient machines or at older ones that break down frequently. This analogy from a track and field official is instructive: “If an athlete runs 10.6 in still air, and another athlete in the next town runs 10.6 with a 20 mile-per-hour wind at his back, it would be unfair to say their performances are equal” (Hollobaugh, 2003). Similarly, the employees with the twenty-mile-per-hour wind at their backs typically run faster (achieve more), in part because they are given more resources, are mentored, and sometimes are simply outright favored because of bias. When the employees who are running into a twentymile-per-hour wind run a little slower (achieve less), it doesn’t necessarily mean they are worse athletes. It simply means they are running in different environments and their performances cannot be directly compared. However, the same information about what kinds of performance matter should be given to all. Imagine a track coach who told the men on the team that they would be considered top performers if they won the 100, 200, or 1500 meter races or the marathon. If this same coach told the women that the only way for them to perform was in the 100 meters, and that no other race counted, there would only be

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a certain type of female athlete who could fit in. It would be a substantially less-well balanced team, with fewer chances of winning. Most organizations need a variety of skills to prosper in the long term. 3. Tracking resource distributions. To make high performance equally likely, give the same resources and support to both men and women. How do you know you are doing this? Monitor it. Keep track. Count up the graduate assistant hours, the travel funds, and everything else you can. Measure the wind speed—whatever elements make performance easier in your work environment. Then compare the environment for each group. Track the salaries as well. A group of senior women faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Committee, 1999) measured a variety of items and surprised themselves and much of academia with the results. But the disparity in numbers (such as lab space and other resources) was hard to dispute and was fixable. From my point of view, it is not the case that we want everyone to be competing with no support (or at zero wind). We want all of our organizational members to succeed. We want them to have the wind at their backs to the extent possible. What we don’t want is for only the group with the most power to have the wind at its back, and the rest to be running into the wind. 4. Inclusivity. Discrimination is about one group exercising power over another (Connell, 1987; Weber, 2001). While some of the items above address the issue of power, the issue of group identity is important as well. I’m disappointed to say that some of my male colleagues simply could not see women as peers. Rather than seeing us all as part of the same profession, they seemed to see me and the other women faculty as “the other.” In a very basic, simple, and human sense, we need to find common ground, so that everyone in the workplace and beyond can find ways in which people of other demographic groups are nevertheless identified as “like me.” (See Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000, for a description of the Common Ingroup Identity Model.) I believe that it is much harder to discriminate against someone we identify as “like me” than someone we view as “not like me.” We all need to have a broad and accepting view of who is “like me.” 5. Labor unions. Although many professional workers find unions distasteful, unions have been a significant force for equality in our society. In many workplaces—hospitals, manufacturing plants, government offices—people receive the same pay for the same job regardless of their race, gender, age, religion, or disability status because that is what unions have negotiated. In workplaces that base pay on merit, unions can still play a role. Unions represent professional athletes, journalists, and faculty using contracts that set a minimum pay for each job classification, with the possibility of being paid more for better performance. But more importantly, unions establish a form of procedural

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justice in the workplace. Delaney and Lundy (1996) discuss the advantages and limitations of unions in promoting diversity in the workplace.

If there had been a faculty union at my old university, I could have taken my complaint to them, and they would have helped me to confront management. I would not have had to battle alone. And I would have had the power of the collective group behind me. I might have had the wind at my back instead of blowing hard against me. Additional Suggestions Both the warning signs and the constructive behaviors described above are categorized in the Toolbox for Change. My focus thus far has been on individual and organizational factors. In order to be consistent with other chapters in this book, I will add a few comments about what practitioners and educators can do to combat prejudice and discrimination. First, practitioners (that is, clinicians) may need to recognize that low self-esteem, depression, and avoidance behaviors may be symptoms of discrimination. Clearly, these are also symptoms of a variety of other mental health problems, and do not, in and of themselves, lead to a diagnosis that involves the experience of discrimination. However, they can be the result of discrimination. Second, many people do not want to admit that their work problems involve discrimination. Someone who experienced the types of things described in this narrative, but who did not have enough information to make the comparisons to how other people in similar jobs were treated, might not even know they were being treated differently. A practitioner could raise questions about how other employees, particularly those in the same job category, are treated. For example, are they given more resources? Third, educators can develop programs (either conferences or courses) that are targeted at members of disadvantaged groups. Those who come to these programs will likely learn a great deal from each other, as well as from the instructor. It will help them analyze whether their issues involve discrimination or whether they involve more general problems faced by all workers (communication issues, work demands that are too high, supervision that is ineffective, etc.). But if their particular experience does involve discrimination, other program participants will likely have suggestions about specific strategies to handle it.

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Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals

Don’t deny what members of disadvantaged groups describe as their experience. Don’t blame the victim. View all people as “like me.”

Powerful individuals must speak out, just as the disadvantaged must. Be inclusive.

Community/ society

Don’t create, accept, or Implement transparency in transmit an decision-making. organizational mythology Implement a fair performance about why members of evaluation system. certain (disadvantaged) Monitor the distribution of groups “inevitably” fail. resources. Form a labor union.

Practitioners

Recognize that low selfAsk how members of esteem, depression, and dominant versus avoidance behaviors may disadvantaged groups are be symptoms of treated at work or in the discrimination. relevant environment. Teach classes targeted at the needs of disadvantaged groups.

EPILOGUE Although this is likely obvious to the reader, I would like to point out that I have described things from my own perspective—how I observed and experienced them. I suspect that my male colleagues would describe the situation differently. I should also add that there were other men, including senior men, in this workplace who did not behave in exclusionary ways. But the proportion was a problem. In the four years I worked in this department, there were about a dozen senior male faculty members, and I have described issues with six of them above. Another problem, insurmountable without support from higher up within the university, was a leadership that was quite tolerant of the existing situation. While I was willing to fight about these issues for a time, I ultimately lost hope that anything would improve. So I chose to leave. I found a similar job with my

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current employer, Michigan State University. In my few short years here, I have felt more productive and more satisfied with my work. But I have the luxury of geographic mobility and portable skills. Not everyone can afford to leave a job, or is willing to move to another state. In a tough economy, new jobs can be hard to find. Pension and health insurance rules sometimes handcuff people to jobs they would otherwise leave. I believe that we should not be forced to choose between a job and our psychological well-being. So we must all work to make our organizations more inclusive. We can start by taking the newcomers to lunch. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to Elaine Yakura and Dan Hamilton for their thoughtful comments on this chapter and to John Siebs for technical input. REFERENCES Belle, D., & Doucet, J. (2003). Poverty, inequality, and discrimination as sources of depression among U.S. women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 101–113. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2003). Highlights of women’s earnings in 2002. U.S. Department of Labor Report No. 972. Committee on the Status of Women Faculty, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). (1999). A study on the status of women faculty in science at MIT [internal report]. Connell, R. W. (1987). Gender and power: Society, the person, and sexual politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Cortina, L. M., & Magley, V. J. (2003) Raising voice, risking retaliation: Events following interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8, 247–265. Delaney, J. T., & Lundy, M. C. (1996). Unions, collective bargaining, and the diversity paradox. In E. E. Kossek & S. A. Lobel (Eds.), Managing diversity: Human resource strategies for transforming the workplace (pp. 245–272). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. Estrich, S. (2000). Sex & power. New York: Riverhead Books. Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism (pp. 61–89). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (2000). Reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Hollobaugh, J. (2003). Frequently asked questions. Retrieved October 27, 2003, from www.michtrack.org/FAQ/faq2.htm

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Kaminski, M., Bertelli, D., Moye, M., & Yudken, J. (1996). Making change happen: Six cases of unions and companies transforming their workplaces. Washington, DC: Work and Technology Institute. McPhail, T. L. (2003). Selection and race: A test of the aversive racism theory. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 64(1-B), 452. Moss, P. I., & Tilly, C. (2001). Stories employers tell: Race, skill, and hiring in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Weber, L. (2001). Understanding race, class, gender, and sexuality: A conceptual framework. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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CHAPTER 5

Internalized Oppression among Black Women Anita Jones Thomas Suzette L. Speight Karen M. Witherspoon

T

oni, a thirty-two-year-old black university professor, is waiting in line to make some last-minute copies before her class begins. A white woman quickly approaches Toni, saying, “Be a dear and add this to your stack. When you finish, bring it to room 405.” She disappears as quickly as she appeared, leaving Toni stunned and overwhelmed. Rhonda is a twenty-four-year-old black woman who recently started a new position as an administrative assistant. Many of the men in her department make suggestive joking comments to her, and she finds herself uncomfortable when alone with them. She befriends Tina, a white woman, who indicates that the men never make comments to her. Tina says, “Maybe they think you’re okay with it.” Linda is a fifty-four-year-old corporate executive who has been with the same company for twenty years. Her immediate supervisor, Anthony, is a recent MBA who started with the company just over six months ago. Whenever Linda makes suggestions in team meetings, Anthony ignores her, but her ideas are always presented to the board as if they were originally Anthony’s. Linda’s friends and family encourage her to confront Anthony or the board about this, but Linda is reluctant as she is unsure whether she will be able to control her temper. There are a number of alternatives that the three women can ponder before responding to their scenarios. The women can consider how their race influences the reactions that others have to them. After all, blacks frequently experience racism and discrimination, especially in

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the workplace (Jackson & Sears, 1992; Landrine & Klonoff, 1996). Or they can consider how their roles as women influence the scenarios. Women often experience sexual harassment and discrimination and are characterized as overly aggressive in the workplace. But, more than likely, these women are going to process their experiences through both their race and gender, as black women. Toni will assume that she was asked to make the copies because her colleague assumed that she was a secretary instead of a professor. She may believe that her colleagues assume that she is helpful and happy, almost eager to serve. Rhonda will assume that her male colleagues see her as sexually desirable and available, as black women are thought to be more sexualized than white women. And while Linda may be aware that many corporate women are seen as aggressive instead of assertive, she may also fear that her colleagues will respond to her as “that angry black woman” and easily dismiss her concerns. It is also likely that all three women will attempt to cope with experiences such as these by improving their performance, watching their language, and controlling their emotions (Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2003). They are likely to believe that any negative reaction to their experiences, any sign that they are not strong, competent, under control, and capable of handling everything, may be a failure to themselves, their families, and their community. This is often the fate of black women who must negotiate and develop an identity in an oppressive society, overcoming barriers in their lives from experiences of the unique combination of racism and sexism. Black women experience the “‘double jeopardy’ condition of having to deal with both racism and sexism but also the commonplace condition of unique combinations of the two. . . . This realworld blending often makes it difficult to know the separate contributions of each element in particular situations that involve both racial and gender barriers to social mobility and personal achievement” (St. Jean & Feagin, 1998, p. 16). In addition to navigating oppressive experiences, black women have to develop a self-concept that incorporates both gender and racial identity. Theory and research exploring racial and gender identity have treated them as separate processes, concluding that for black women, racial identity may occur before womanist or gender identity (Carter & Parks, 1996; Parks, Carter, & Gushue, 1996). It is as if women must explore the two as parallel processes without considering their interaction and interactions. The phrase “women and minorities” highlights the dilemma; society forces black women to choose gender or race. But for many, it can be

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difficult to separate the two intertwined components of identity, as they see themselves simultaneously as black and female. Their gender is raced, and their race is gendered (Omi & Winant, 1994). This chapter will explore the influence of multiple oppressions on identity and both healthy and unhealthy responses to internalized oppression on black women. It will present the three prevalent stereotypes of black women based on images and myths from slavery, along with the more recently occurring image of the “superwoman.” The implications for psychological functioning and the influence of the stereotypes on interpersonal relationships will also be included. The chapter will conclude with recommendations to alleviate distress from internalized oppression, including the development of critical consciousness and an authentic self. STEREOTYPES OF BLACK WOMEN: HOW DO OTHERS SEE ME? Society has unique perspectives on black women due to the legacy of slavery. Societal images of black women differ from those of white women. The images of black women include that they are dominant, hostile, sexually promiscuous, defiant, rude, and loud (Bell, 1992; Fordham, 1993; Greene, 1994, 1997; Jackson & Sears, 1992; McNair, 1992). There are three stereotypes of black women that derive from slavery: Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel (Abdullah, 1998; Mitchell & Herring, 1998; West, 1995). Mammy Mammy is characterized as an obese, dark-skinned woman with broad features who, during slavery, worked in the master’s house, often serving as nanny, housekeeper, and cook. She was allowed in the slave owners’ household because her physical characteristics were deemed asexual and unattractive, making her non-threatening to the slave owners. Mammy was expected to take care of the needs of others, a task that she was believed to delight in, even to the neglect of her own needs. Mammy never complained and was viewed as amiable and a deferential problem solver. The image of Mammy has led to black women being perceived as nurturing, good caretakers, strong, supportive, and selfless (Mitchell & Herring, 1998). Media images that reflect this stereotype include the pancake icons Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth, Louise from the television show The

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Jeffersons, and Florida from Good Times. Black women who internalize this stereotype may feel the need to be nurturing and supportive of others, often at their own expense, leading to lower self-concept and self-confidence (Abdullah, 1998; Gainor, 1992; Greene, 1994; West, 1995). Many black women feel guilty if they cannot help others and may set aside personal needs to give to others. One of the authors of this chapter strongly identifies with the Mammy image. She was elected to serve as chair of the department at each university where she was employed as an assistant professor before receiving tenure. While she does have organizational skills and leadership abilities, it may be that her candidacy was a reflection of the Mammy image. Her choice to serve as chair despite the negative consequences for her own scholarly productivity also stems from her desire to be seen as helpful and supportive, the internalization of the Mammy stereotype. Sapphire Sapphire was a character from the 1940s and 1950s Amos and Andy radio and television show and was seen as callous, crude, loud, argumentative, full of verbal assaults, and a woman who took pleasure in emasculating men. The perceptions of black women from the Sapphire image include that they are arrogant, controlling, loud, hostile, obnoxious, and never satisfied (Bell, 1990, 1992; Mitchell & Herring, 1998; West, 1995). Since the days of Amos and Andy, Sapphire has been popularized in the media through various characters on television. Florence, the maid from the television series The Jeffersons, is a good example of Sapphire’s characteristics through her constant “playing the dozens” with her employer, George Jefferson. Aunt Esther from Sanford and Son is remembered for the constant berating of brother-in-law Fred Sanford and even going so far as to strike him with her purse during her humorous, yet debasing assaults. We are bombarded with these “tough girl” images in videos. Sapphire is the woman on the corner rolling her neck, with both hands on her hips, telling off the person who has just offended her. The internalization of this image may cause women to have difficulty expressing their needs or displaying anger comfortably. They may assume that the only way to be heard is to be full of rage, aggressive, or loud (Mitchell & Herring, 1998). Black women may have difficulty with assertiveness and may restrict their assertiveness to protect others for fear of overwhelming others (Adams, 2000). They may also fear being verbally expressive, restrict their anger, or may use

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anger to hide their vulnerability (West, 1995). They may also fear that signs of assertiveness or anger label them as manipulative, hostile, and controlling (Bell, 1992). Smith (1999) recounts her own challenges with the Sapphire image as a law professor at a predominately white university. Peers and students frequently perceive her as loud, aggressive, argumentative, bitchy, and quick-tempered. Students’ perceptions of her clothing and hair were used to solidify their image of her as threatening, intimidating, and angry. White students have come to her office to say that they were upset because she unfairly interrupted them while they were talking in class. Others came to office hours to say that she had a personal problem with them either because she looked at them in class and did not call on them or because she did not give praise for their answers. Professor Smith reports that she cannot stand too close to a student without that person later reporting that they felt oppressed and should she correct a student’s error of law, then she is “picking on them.” If Professor Smith uses supplemental handouts to the reading, then she is overloading them. If she does not, then she is not adequately educating them. She is trapped by the Sapphire image. Jezebel Jezebel, another image from the legacy of slavery, is perceived as seductive, manipulative, and unable to control her sex drive (Mitchell & Herring, 1998). The sexual exploitation and victimization of black women was often justified by the notion that black women were highly sexualized and animalistic in their desires for men and sex. The Jezebel image served several functions during slavery. Sexualizing African women justified the widespread sexual assaults of white plantation owners, their sons, and friends against enslaved women. Second, it raised expectations of high fertility among black women, which justified increasing their property value. Finally, it served as a controlling image against white women, by reinforcing oppositional characteristics and the gender hierarchy held in place by a racist, classist, and sexist system (Collins, 1990). A modern-day variety of the Jezebel image is the welfare queen stereotype who is promiscuous, loose, immoral, and lacking sexual restraint (Bell, 1992; Daniel, 2000; Greene, 1994, 1997). The character Jackee from the show 227 is an excellent example of a sex-crazed black woman who uses her body to get what she wants. The Jezebel image has implications for how sexual victimization is experienced by black women (Wilson, 1993; Wyatt,

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1997). Women may fear reporting rape because of victim-blaming (West, 1998). Internalizing this stereotype may lead women to perceive sexuality as one of their few assets or may cause them to repress sexual feelings (West, 1995). Rochelle is a poor, fifteen-year-old black who was molested by her uncle as a pre-teen. Rochelle sees herself as unattractive but thinks that she can use her body to get things she wants from boys. She is willing to do sexual favors in exchange for money. Having boyfriends makes her feel powerful and popular. These stereotypes are not the only images of black women that exist, but are the ones that are written about and studied the most. Black women have also been seen as over-recipients of affirmative action, as welfare queens, and as tragic mulattos. More successful black women can be seen as raceless, or perceived as being somehow “different” from other black women (Daniel, 1995; West, 1995). CONSEQUENCES OF OPPRESSION: WHERE DOES IT HURT? Internalizing the stereotypes of Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel may influence mental health and psychological functioning of black women. The stereotypes are dangerous because they tell black women that they can take anything anyone throws their way, that they need little nurturing or support, and that they must not have problems. Strong identification with the stereotypes may also influence interpersonal relationships, as they convey messages that others are not to be trusted, sex can get you what you want, there is only one right way to be black, and that loving, gentle communication does not get black women anywhere (Mitchell & Herring, 1998). Greene (1994) states that women often fear that their behavior is associated with the stereotypes, leading them to inhibition, to emotional restriction, and to avoid rather than acting out the characteristics of the stereotypes. Other women may distance themselves from other blacks, or may feel like impostors or frauds despite their success. Facing the stereotypes of Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel may cause black women to exert tremendous psychological energy each day. Perhaps the most overwhelming message from the stereotypes is the notion that black women should feel guilty when they put others’ needs before their own. Many black women will develop a fac¸ade of strength and may have difficulty admitting to problems or asking for support (McNair, 1992). Many black women are socialized to view themselves as the “superwoman” who is capable of accomplishing multiple tasks

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successfully (Mitchell & Herring, 1998). Historically rooted in slavery, there was a notion that black women were incapable of being overworked. It is this illusion that causes black women in our society to be thought of as born with extraordinary strengths and an ability to withstand an extreme level of work and stress (Scherenzel, 2002). Black women have witnessed their grandmothers and mothers raising children, extended family members, and communities while balancing work outside the home without complaint and with apparent little difficulty. This image of the superwoman, the strong, independently functioning woman, leads many to feel weak and like failures if they are not successful or need to ask for help (Greene, 1994; Thompson, 2000). “‘Strong black woman’ is a mantra for so much a part of U.S. culture that it is seldom realized how great a toll it has taken on the emotional well-being of the black woman. As much as it may give her the illusion of control, it [strength] keeps her from identifying what she needs and reaching out for help” (Romero, 2000, p. 225). Claire Huxtable, the mother on The Cosby Show, is an example of the superwoman, as she took care of her family, worked as a lawyer, took in extended family members, and volunteered at community agencies, seamlessly and without exhaustion or a hair out of place. The desire to portray an image of endurance and strength often prevents women from expressing their inner desires and needs, psychological distress, depressive or anxiety symptoms, or from seeking therapy (Boyd, 1993; Gainor, 1992; Greene, 1994; West, 1995). Internalizing the superwoman can lead to a fac¸ade of high self-esteem while women hide feelings of anger, fear, shame, pride, and loneliness. When the fac¸ade is cracked, it may reveal anxiety and low selfesteem (Jordan, 1997; Neal-Barnett & Crowther, 2000). For example, Marva has accomplished more in a day than most of her family members have accomplished all week. She rose early this morning and went to the office to prepare for her agency’s important meeting with one of their largest contributors. Her day was intense, and she only took a break once during the day, and that was to call her mother and remind her to take her diabetes medication. After work, she attended a training session for mentors in the volunteer program from her church. At twenty-seven, she was one of the youngest volunteers. She stayed after the training to help clean up and graciously accepted leftovers that she later gave to her neighbor down the hall, who was struggling to feed her family. After dutifully returning phone calls to family members and completing a few chores around the house, Marva settled down for the evening by rereading her chapters in the

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marketing course she attended twice a week to obtain her master’s degree in business. This seemed like a typical day for Marva, and as usual, she found herself exhausted with difficulty falling asleep. SELF-CONCEPT: WHO AM I? Oppression has the adverse side effect of causing its victims to engage in psychological “armoring,” the process of finding ways to protect their self-concept and self-esteem while facing and confronting discrimination (Edmondson-Bell & Nkomo, 1998). Recipients of oppression often spend a great deal of time and exert much psychological energy coping with their experiences. For example, if a black woman is ignored while trying to make a purchase, she will have to process whether the slight occurred because she is black, a woman, or a black woman. She is likely to think about the incident for some time after it occurs and to seek out others to confirm or validate her experience. Repeated acts of oppression can influence the psychological and behavioral functioning of individuals and the development of the selfconcept. The processing of oppression influences two components of identity: public and private regard (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998). Members of ethnic minority groups come to understand that members of the majority have particular perceptions of them. Sellers and colleagues define “public regard” as the extent to which one feels that others view blacks positively or negatively. Private regard is defined as how the person feels about blacks and being black. The internalization of oppression can lead individuals to adopt personas that match the stereotypes, based on their feelings of public and private regard. Individuals who feel that others have low regard for their group may intentionally act in an opposite fashion, to prove that they are better than the perceptions or stereotypes of their group. If these individuals also have low private regard and feel negative about being a member of their group, then their self-esteem will be low, and they may react more negatively to oppressive acts. Members may also internalize oppressive stereotypes and act them out. Others may fear negative public regard and attempt to overcome it but fail by acting out the stereotypes. For example, if a person is regarded as hostile, she may lose her temper due to the frustration of being treated as if she were hostile. Blowing up confirms the stereotype, which will lead the individual to experience a sense of guilt and shame for confirming the stereotype.

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The images of black women are inconsistent with the stereotypic image of white women, who are seen as submissive, docile, and feminine. The message black women often receive is that they cannot be feminine in the “right” way, like white women are. Internalizing this message may lead to a sense of self-hatred and inferiority (Gainor, 1992). In addition to differences in psychological characteristics, black women also face white physical standards of beauty, such as skin color, facial features, hair color and texture, and body size and shape. Commercials for hair care products, cosmetics, and fashion magazines usually feature women with long, flowing blonde hair and blue eyes. The black women featured tend to have long straight hair and more Caucasian or fine features. When model Alek Wek, a Sudanese woman, became famous, many were surprised at her very strong traditional African features. Although research has suggested that black girls and women have better body images (Kempa & Thomas, 2000), some of them develop a sense of low self-esteem because they do not meet the ideal standards for beauty. Many black women go to great lengths to straighten and lighten their hair and have issues with skin color (Abdullah, 1998; Adams, 2000; Gainor, 1992; Greene, 1994; Neal, 1989). Our initial research examining the stereotypes and self-esteem found that women who endorsed the Mammy and Sapphire images were more likely to have lower self-esteem (Thomas, Witherspoon, & Speight, 2004). DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY: SICK AND TIRED There is some evidence that internalizing the stereotypes may lead to psychological symptoms, including depression and anxiety (Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2003; Neal-Barnett & Crowther, 2000). As previously discussed, adapting to the Mammy image may lead women to become overly nurturing, sometimes to the neglect of self. When women feel overly burdened by the demands, they may become anxious about their ability to handle life’s demands, and may feel depressed about their inability to maintain control. The “superwoman” image in particular may be linked to the denial of psychological problems, such as depression. The National Mental Health Association conducted a survey of black attitudes toward depression and found that blacks were confused about the definition, causes, and symptoms of depression (Mitchell & Herring, 1998). For example, 63 percent of blacks believed that depression was a personal weakness, suggesting that it is unlikely that a black woman will admit to experiencing depressive

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symptoms, even when they are noticeable to others. Only 31 percent of blacks in the study believed that depression was a health problem. About 40 percent of the participants indicated that they would not seek treatment because of denial—that is, trouble admitting that it is happening—and 38 percent would not seek treatment because of shame or embarrassment (NMHA, 1996). In a qualitative study of twelve West-Indian Canadian women, Schreiber, Stern, and Wilson (2000) found that the women attempted to “manage their depression with grace and to live up to the cultural imperative to be strong” (p. 4). The women thought that suffering was a normal part of life and that one endured personal misery privately in isolation. The women attempted to divert themselves, turning to spiritual support, getting involved in activities, and thinking positively. Less than half of the women sought professional help. One reason black women do not get treated for depression is that they often expect to feel sad, tired, and unable to think straight. There are some spiritual and religious proverbs, such as “God won’t give you any more than you can bear,” that support the notion that women should continue to function, often past the point of exhaustion (Thomas, 2001). Therapists must start challenging this notion and empower black women to engage in better self-care and to seek out and accept support from others. Neal-Barnett and Crowther (2000) summarized the literature on anxiety (post-traumatic stress, panic, generalized anxiety, obsessivecompulsive disorder, and phobias) for black women, who are more likely to experience anxiety than white women are, due to combined racism and sexism. Victimization, most commonly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, may be an underlying factor in the development of other anxiety disorders (Bell, Hildreth, Jenkins, & Levi, 1988). Higher levels of violence and sexual trauma are associated with severe agoraphobia (Michelson, June, Vives, Testa, & Marchione, 1998). Data from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) suggest that blacks report more simple phobias than other groups do (Brown, Eaton, & Susman, 1990). Black women are unlikely to seek help for anxiety-related symptoms but more often seek services for relationship problems or bereavement. Black women often do not seek treatment because they interpret the anxiety as a normal part of their lives as black women: “We have to keep on keeping on.” This is the internalized stereotype of the superwoman, the strong black woman who bears all. They may also fear that once they disclose the source of their anxiety, they will become flooded

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by other negative emotions (Neal-Barnett & Crowther, 2000). Our initial research examining the stereotypes and psychological functioning found that women who endorsed the superwoman and Sapphire images were positively related to paranoia, interpersonal insensitivity, hostility, and depression symptoms (Witherspoon, Thomas, & Speight, unpublished). RELATIONSHIPS: CAN I CONNECT? One of the unfortunate byproducts of oppression in its racist and sexist forms is the creating of interpersonal difficulties between groups as well as within groups. Oppression can influence relationships with whites at work. Many black women experience discrimination in the workplace. Although they may often be preferred for hiring over black men, they often may not be accepted in a warm and inviting way into their places of employment. Many black women have the challenge of overcoming stereotypes while concentrating on their professional roles. The need to appear competent and successful often causes women to take on too many responsibilities at work and to become overburdened (Romero, 2000). Women report experiences with gendered racism on the job (St. Jean & Feagin, 1998). Women may suffer from anger and feelings of powerlessness due to gender and race-related stress. They also report feeling social isolation and exclusion. Black women often report that they find it difficult to be their true selves in the workplace (Bell, 1990; Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2003). The pressure to perform well and be a good representative of the black race can add psychological stress and ultimately influence physical health of women. Finally, women may try to decrease the discomfort that whites often feel from interracial contact (Greene, 1994), thus preventing them from speaking up about discrimination. This “taking care of others” might feel familiar for women with the internalized superwoman and Mammy images, but it also takes an emotional toll on them that remains hidden. Internalized oppression can contribute to a sense of divisiveness among black women. Controversy exists regarding skin color, as women with light and dark complexions wrestle with issues of attractiveness. Historically, skin color was used to determine social status and standing, with lighter complexions preferred (Hall, 1995). There is often some judgment among black women about hairstyles, from relaxed hair to natural styles, and the presence of Caucasian features (Neal, 1989). Conflict can also occur with black women from different social class status. As women gain more education and work in professional settings, they

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often become more bicultural, able to function effectively in the mainstream and the home culture. Being bicultural often comes at a cost, as women feel isolated or are accused of being “uppity and too good” for their black peers (Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2003). Internalization of the stereotypes can also lead to problems with intimacy and romantic heterosexual relationships. Relationships with men and women have also been negatively impacted by the presence of gendered racism (St. Jean & Feagin, 1998). A recent Newsweek article highlighted the difficulties that may occur due to the “gender gap” between black women and men. Black women are educated at higher levels and are more likely to be hired in managerial or professional roles than black men, which may strain relationships. Black women may often downplay their education or success in order to maintain relationships (Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2003). Many women fear remaining single due to the shortage of available black men (Cose, 2003). Some women prefer to take on men who need to be fixed or molded from personal and professional problems rather than be alone (Romero, 2000). Another byproduct of oppression is black women’s victimization from domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault. Many are not able to report sexual harassment or victimization against black men because of pressures to “protect” the race (Bell, 1992), as evidenced by the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas controversy. Finally, the most damaging influence of internalized oppression on black women, and the superwoman image in particular, is the difficulty women face in being vulnerable (Adams, 2000; Romero, 2000). The need to be strong may prevent women from confiding in others and may place distance in interpersonal relationships. Relationships with other black women and intimate relationships with black men have been influenced by internalization of the stereotypes. The most costly influence has been the inability of many black women to fully connect with others, as the fear of vulnerability in relationships often feels overwhelming. Black women may suffer silently, finding some relief in church services or through prayer but denying themselves the benefits of social support and comfort from family and friends. COPING/HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIORS: I DON’T NEED HELP, DO I? Although many black women recognize symptoms from the stress of discrimination and oppression, they continue to function and often do not seek mental health services. There are a number of reasons why

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women do not pursue treatment. Many women seek family members or friends to discuss their issues or seek advice from spiritual and religious leaders (Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2003). Unfortunately, many are reluctant to seek services from social service professionals due to suspicion and lack of familiarity with professional mental health services. Mental health professionals are also mandated reporters of abuse, suicide, and homicide, and women often fear having children removed from their household by child protective services. Oppression has also led many blacks to be protective of family members, leading them to avoid treatment altogether or withhold information once in treatment. Black women carrying their shield of strength in front of them will view any need for assistance as an admission of failure or weakness, thus evoking feelings of shame. This shame often proves counterproductive because black women may deny issues like child abuse, incest, domestic violence, and alcohol and drug addiction. Other women seek to cope with oppression and oppression-related stress through negative behaviors. One popular form of self-medicating in black women is overeating. Much of the research focuses on the formal Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) criteria for anorexia or bulimia, suggesting that these eating disorders are less prevalent in black women (Kempa & Thomas, 2000). Research has also suggested that black women have fewer distortions and dissatisfaction with body image (Hall, 1995; Makkar & Strube, 1995). While black women may not meet the criteria for bulimia, they often display symptoms of binge eating, or eating for comfort. Other women may cope by abusing alcohol and drugs. It may be easy for a woman to relieve stress from discrimination and pressures at work by using substances to relax. Rather than discuss emotional problems and risk vulnerability, black women may mask symptoms with substance abuse or other medical conditions (NMHA, 1996). CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AUTHENTIC SELF: WHO AM I, REALLY? Although experiences with oppression can be exhausting and overwhelming, there are ways to cope with these adverse experiences, and ways to develop and protect positive self-esteem. This process has been called psychological armoring (Edmondson-Bell & Nkomo, 1998). There are two primary ways for black women to address and overcome oppression: by developing critical consciousness and creating

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an authentic sense of self. In order to survive and resist oppression, it is important to understand the nature of oppressive systems and the broader sociopolitical context. Individuals need to be able to assess their experiences in light of the context and to separate their personal response from societal expectations. Individuals need to be able to identify oppressive systems and question why oppression occurs; this is the process of developing critical consciousness (Watts & Abdul-Adil, 1997). Watts and Abdul-Adil developed a program to develop critical consciousness for black boys. Participants were encouraged to critically examine and interpret situations as a means to externalize oppressive experiences and to inspect them in a depersonalized fashion. The program is grounded in Freire’s (1990) notion of praxis, “reflection and action on the world in order to transform it” (p. 33). In order to liberate oneself from oppression, one must first recognize the external constraints that oppression places on self-development and self-determination (Young, 1990). Again, women struggle with the internalization of the Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire, and superwoman images. Internalizing oppression manifests in various ways. Attempts to distance oneself from the stereotypes can cause a woman to develop a fac¸ade of strength, to repress feelings, to restrict anger, or to be uncomfortable with sexuality. Women may feel the need to be giving and nurturing to others, often to the sacrifice of themselves. In short, black women may often feel compelled to be, act, behave, and feel in ways that make others comfortable, or in ways that match the expectations of others. Many women discuss feeling like impostors and/or feeling uncomfortable with themselves, and they fear letting others down. Instead of being defined by others, black women need to develop an authentic sense of self, a self that is internally defined. Women who have self-determination are able to develop their identities, make choices, and behave in ways consistent with their own standards, values, and ideals. This is both an internal and external struggle. One must combat the oppressor “within” and the oppressor “without” (Freire, 1990). The development of an authentic sense of self involves the following steps: see it, name it, question it, resist it, and transform it (Isom, 2002). First, women need to develop an awareness of the pervasiveness of oppression; they need to see it. This includes understanding the reality of racism and sexism, understanding the history of the stereotypes and the sociopolitical context within which they operate, and recognizing individual acts of oppression as well as the institutional structures that support and maintain oppression. The second step is to name it, to

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define the true nature of oppression as it occurs. This step is critical to the development of an authentic sense of self. It is the process of separating societal influences, allowing the person to correctly label her experiences. The next step involves questioning one’s experiences. Am I responsible for this image? Did I cause the person to respond to me in a particular way? Interrogating allows the woman to critically explore and scrutinize her experiences, to further separate societal images, systematic oppression, and internalization of oppression. The fourth step is to resist it. Resistance includes being assertive and defending the self. Resistance may also mean confronting an oppressor, letting the person know that their comments or behaviors have been hurtful. These steps allow women to overcome oppression by transforming it and becoming fully self-defined women of African descent. Transforming oppression ends up transforming society through transforming the self. As black women begin to define themselves on their own terms, the negative historical images from slavery will lose their hold on the women’s psyches and the society within which they live. Seeing, acknowledging, naming, questioning, and resisting oppression and societal images will empower black women to be more fully human— willingly, boldly, and unapologetically able to create their own truths and realities. The model can be seen through the examples presented at the beginning of the chapter. Toni can see and acknowledge that the professor assumed she was a secretary, as black women are often seen in clerical or service roles more easily than in professional roles. She can name the experience of oppression. She can begin to question the motives of the professor who left the copies and explore her role and possible response to the actions. She can resist the temptation to respond to the stereotype. Toni may feel guilty for feeling angry, or she may feel uncomfortable in not making the copies and then choose to go late to her own class. Or she can resist and simply correct the professor in mistaking her for a secretary. Acknowledging that she has the right to be treated respectfully will help her to transform the incident. Rhonda can engage in a similar process. She can see and name the sexual harassment for what it is: a response to the Jezebel image of her as a black woman. She can question the motives of the male coworkers and question her role in the harassment. After the critical examination of the harassment, she can resist it by insisting that the harassment stop. She can tell her co-workers about her discomfort, and if necessary, report them to human resources. Taking a stand against harassment will help her to respect herself, transforming the

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Toolbox for Change For Individuals

Images/perceptions Mammy Jezebel Sapphire Superwoman

Community/ society

Practitioners

Mammy Jezebel Sapphire Superwoman

Mammy Jezebel Sapphire Superwoman

Strategies for change Developing an authentic self: resisting and transforming oppression Seeking social support Seeking mental health treatment for stress, depression, and anxiety Policies that promote equity and fairness Sexual harassment policies Child care support for families Mission statements that promote gender and racial equity Recognizing social injustice and power inequities in relationships with clients/ students Resisting oppressive practices in classroom settings Diversity and sensitivity training

oppression. Finally, Linda can see and name her supervisor’s abuse of power. She can question his motives and examine her role in allowing him to take credit for her ideas. She can also begin to determine whether her anger is justified and resist the oppression by finding acceptable forms of expression of her anger. Standing up for herself and her ideas, and claiming them, can help her to transform the oppressive images of black women. The development of the authentic sense of self needs to occur both within communities and within the sisterhood of other black women. Black women need to socialize young girls to develop self-concepts that transform negative images. Black women can have divisive relationships due to differences in skin color, hair texture, social class, and educational levels. One of the ways that the oppressor works to maintain the system

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is by creating and highlighting intragroup differences, so that those who are oppressed engage in in-group fighting instead of fighting the oppressor. Black women can benefit from supporting each other in developing an authentic self. They can uniquely embrace the reflected beauty of one another. By encouraging one another, caring for one another, and connecting with one another, black women can inspire, sustain, and buttress their sisters as they struggle to resist their individual and collective oppression. Black women supporting and empowering each other provide the ultimate method of transforming society and liberating the self.

CONCLUSION Black women face the unique interaction of discrimination and prejudice and are perceived and evaluated according to the stereotypes of Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel. Many women adopt the “superwoman” image, the need to do it all, without help or assistance. The internalization of these images has led to psychological symptoms, particularly depression and anxiety, interpersonal difficulties, and problems at work. Black women need to develop critical consciousness, the ability to sort and evaluate negative messages and oppressive images. They also need to develop an authentic self, to find their own voice, and to support each other in the struggle for liberation.

REFERENCES Abdullah, A. S. (1998). Mammy-ism: A diagnosis of psychological misorientation for women of African descent. Journal of Black Psychology, 24, 196–210. Adams, J. A. (2000). Individual and group psychotherapy with African American women: Understanding the identity and context of the therapeutic patient. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene, (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspectives and practices (pp. 33–61). New York: Guilford Press. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV-TR. New York: Author. Bell, C. C., Hildreth, C. J., Jenkins, E. J., & Levi, D. (1988). The need for victimization screening in a poor outpatient medical population. Journal of the National Medical Association, 80, 853–860. Bell, E. L. (1990). The bicultural life experience of career-oriented black women. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 11, 459–477.

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Bell, E. L. (1992). Myths, stereotypes, and realities of black women: A personal reflection. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 28, 363–376. Boyd, J. A. (1993). In the company of my sisters: Black women and self-esteem. New York: Dutton. Brown, D., Eaton, W. W., & Susman, L. (1990). Racial differences in prevalence of phobic disorders. Journal of Nervous and Marital Diseases, 178, 434–441. Carter, R. T., & Parks, E. E. (1996). Womanist identity and mental health. Journal of Counseling and Development, 74, 484–489. Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Cambridge, MA: Unwin Hyman. Cose, E. (2003, March 3). From schools to jobs, black women are rising much faster than black men. What it means for work, family and race relations. Newsweek. Daniel, J. H. (1995). The discourse on Thomas vs. Hill: A resource for perspectives on the black woman and sexual trauma. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 7, 103–117. Daniel, J. H. (2000). The courage to hear: African American women’s memories of racial trauma. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene, (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspectives and practices (pp. 126–149). New York: Guilford Press. Edmondson-Bell, E. L. J., & Nkomo, S. M. (1998). Armoring: Learning to withstand racial oppression. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 29, 285–295. Fordham, S. (1993). “Those loud black girls”: (Black) women, silence, and gender “passing” in the academy. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 24, 3–32. Freire, P. (1990). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. Gainor, K. A. (1992). Internalized oppression as a barrier to effective group work with black women. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 17, 235–242. Greene, B. (1994). African American women. In L. Comas-Diaz & B. Greene (Eds.), Women of color: Integrating ethnic and gender identities in psychotherapy (pp. 10–29). New York: Guilford Press. Greene, B. (1997). Psychotherapy with African American women: Integrating feminist and psychodynamic models. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 67, 299–322. Hall, C. C. I. (1995). Beauty is in the soul of the beholder: Psychological implications of beauty and African American women. Cultural Diversity & Mental Health, 1, 125–138. Isom, D. (2002). Me, I got many parts: An exploration of racialized gender with African American youth. Unpublished dissertation. Jackson, A. P., & Sears, S. J. (1992). Implications of an Afrocentric worldview in reducing stress for African American women. Journal of Counseling and Development, 71, 184–190.

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Jones, C., & Shorter-Gooden, K. (2003). Shifting: The double lives of black women in America. New York: Harper Collins. Jordan, J. M. (1997). Counseling African American women from a cultural sensitivity perspective. In C. Lee (Ed.), Multicultural issues in counseling: New approaches to diversity (pp. 109–121). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Kempa, M., & Thomas, A. J. (2000). Culturally sensitive assessment and treatment of eating disorders. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 8, 17–30. Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. (1996). The schedule of racist events: A measure of racial discrimination and a study of its negative physical and mental health consequences. Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 144–168. Makkar, J. K., & Strube, M. J. (1995). Black women’s self-perceptions of attractiveness following exposure to white versus black beauty standards: The moderating role of racial identity and self-esteem. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 1547–1566. McNair, L. D. (1992). African American women in therapy: An Afrocentric and feminist synthesis. Women and Therapy, 12, 5–19. Michelson, L., June, K., Vives, A., Testa, S., & Marchione, N. (1998). The role of trauma and dissociation in cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy outcome and maintenance for panic disorder with agoraphobia. Behavior Research & Therapy, 36, 1011–1050. Mitchell, A., & Herring, K. (1998). What the blues is: Black women overcoming stress and depression. New York: Perigee. National Mental Health Association (NMHA). (1996). Clinical depression and African Americans. Retrieved November 19, 2003, from www.nmha. org/ccd/support/africanamericanfact.cfm Neal, A. M. (1989). The role of skin color and features in the black community: Implications for black women and therapy. Clinical Psychology Review, 9, 323–333. Neal-Barnett, A., & Crowther, J. H. (2000). To be female, middle class, anxious, and black. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24, 129–136. Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. Parks, E. E., Carter, R. T., & Gushue, G. V. (1996). At the crossroads: Racial and womanist identity development in black and white women. Journal of Counseling and Development, 74, 624–631. Romero, R. E. (2000). The icon of the strong black woman: The paradox of strength. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspectives and practices (pp. 225–238). New York: Guilford Press. Scherenzel, M. S. (2002). Debunking the myth of the black superwoman. Black Entertainment Television. Retrieved September 26, 2003, from www.bet.com

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Schreiber, R., Stern, P. N., & Wilson, C. (2000). Being strong: How black West-Indian Canadian women manage depression and its stigma. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 32, 39–45. Sellers, R. M., Smith, M. A., Shelton, J. N., Rowley, S. A. J., & Chavous, T. M. (1998). Multidimensional model of racial identity: A reconceptualization of African American racial identity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 18–39. Smith, P. J. (1999). Teaching the retrenchment generation: When Sapphire meets Socrates at the intersection of race, gender, and authority. William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law, 6, 53–214. St. Jean, Y., & Feagin, J. R. (1998). Double burden: Black women and everyday racism. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Thomas, A. J. (2001). African American women’s spiritual beliefs: A guide for treatment. Women and Therapy, 23(4), 1–12. Thomas, A. J., Witherspoon, K. M., & Speight, S. L. (2004). Toward the development of the Stereotypic Roles for Black Women scale. Journal of Black Psychology, 30, 426–442. Thompson, C. L. (2000). African American women and moral masochism: When there is too much of a good thing. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspectives and practices (pp. 238–250). New York: Guilford Press. Watts, R. J., & Abdul-Adil, J. K. (1997). Promoting critical consciousness in young, African-American men. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 16, 63–86. West, C. M. (1995). Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Historical images of black women and their implications for psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 32, 458–466. West, C. M. (1998). The connection between historical images of black women and domestic violence. In Assembling the pieces: Leadership in addressing domestic violence in the African American community. Conference proceedings of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Wilson, M. (1993). Crossing the boundary: Black women survive incest. Seattle, WA: Seal Press. Witherspoon, K. M., Thomas, A. J., & Speight, S. L. Psychological functioning of African American women: The role of stereotypical images. Unpublished manuscript. Wyatt, G. E. (1997). Stolen women: Reclaiming our sexuality, taking back our lives. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

CHAPTER 6

Black Women Coping with Stress in Academia Lena Wright Myers

A

ll women in America have experienced some form of oppression in their lifetimes. In a world of unjust and cruel experiences perpetrated by “others” who consider themselves holders of power and privilege, expressions of gender differences appear to be the order of the day. A quick window of opportunity is clearly seen in our daily lives as we go about our business in the workplace. However, for women of color in general and black women specifically, there is something more than just gender differences. You may ask, “Don’t all women understand their oppression?” Of course we all do. But the liabilities of intersecting the female sex and the black race make a distinct gender for black women. Let me give an example of this. A few years ago, I served as an invited distinguished scholar in residence for a week at a very elitist all-female college in the Midwest. My responsibilities included delivering a keynote address for a public forum, as well as three classroom lectures focusing on gender and multiculturalism in academia. I welcomed the opportunity! The experience was emotionally rewarding, until I gave my final classroom lecture on women in the work force, in which I related my experiences as a black woman in the academy. Twenty minutes after the start of my lecture, the professor interrupted and asked, “Are you

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saying that you have experienced more racism than sexism in your academic career?” before she abruptly concluded, “That’s not what you are to talk about.” With as much civility as I could possibly maintain, I politely replied, “I am coming to an explanation of that in my next statements.” I completed my lecture and entertained students’ interesting and thought-provoking questions, none of which suggested I should make a distinction between racism and sexism. The events of that classroom lecture engendered a two-page letter from a white male professor who had accompanied me to the classroom and remained to hear my lecture. His letter questioned the other professor’s rationale for unethically interrupting my presentation, and he sent copies to high-level administrators. The following evening at a pre-planned reception in my honor, the professor tearfully apologized to me for her behavior in the classroom, saying, “I had some problem with your emphasizing racism more than sexism to the girls . . . and I’m sorry for what I said to you, because I really don’t know your experiences.” I accepted her apology and enjoyed the rest of the reception. It is interesting to note that neither the content of the course nor my lecture intended to assign effectual weight to racism or sexism. Instead, it was about gender, multiculturalism, and my experiences. That situation replayed itself in my mind with heightened clarity as I considered possible motivations for the professor’s comments. It is a good example of how some white women, who have not been victims of racism, lack a full understanding of the impact racism has on women of color. In an effort to raise social consciousness, the events of that classroom lecture led me to question the necessity of choosing whether racism or sexism holds greater significance in the lives and careers of black women. Clearly, both “-isms” and most other forms of “-isms” are an injustice to human beings. People are products of their experiences; determining the repercussions of “-isms” should be an assessment process unique to individuals. The classroom lecture experience also illustrates the idea that some people have little difficulty assessing their own victimization within American society systems of oppression—be they racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, or another “-ism.” However, at the same time, people typically fail to comprehend ways in which their thoughts and actions can ultimately reinforce and uphold another’s subordination. After my experience as an invited distinguished scholar in residence, I was presented with an important decision. I could attempt

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to systematically divide the effects of racism and sexism; however, I felt that in doing so I would compromise my perception of my experiences as a black woman. Therefore, writing this chapter is very important to me in addressing our experiences in the workplace and how we deal with stress resulting from our experiences. WHERE WE STAND TODAY We live in a world that devalues both the female sex and the black race. Within this world, black women have been stereotyped as nurturing, scheming, lewd, and unintelligent. In ways parallel to many of the obstacles Black men face, they are assigned personally limiting occupational roles—servant laborer, mammy, prostitute, church lady, matriarch, etc. Black women who become professionals, entrepreneurs, or even successful entertainers are often viewed as “strong” black women or else are perceived to be emotionally cold, selfish, and aggressive in unwomanly ways. Missing from the traditional occupational roles for black women, to this day, is a wide-scale recognition of their intellectual competence. (Zack, 1998, p. 123)

Until recently, we were excluded from professional positions in traditionally white colleges and universities. Just before World War II, we, as faculty and/or administrators were deliberately excluded by law or tradition from predominantly white institutions of higher learning (Benjamin, 1991, p. 123). However, even with present-day opportunities for greater inclusion, many of us have found life inside white academia to be fraught with numerous contradictions and dilemmas. Some scholars describe this experience very well: It is difficult to talk about being Black in a White space, even though in the United States such is usually the case. The difficulty to speak, to name, without appearing to whine, is a near impossibility, since African American women are not expected to speak at all. It is particularly difficult to be heard since despite reality, the myth still prevails that African American women are making great professional strides. Enmeshed within this myth is the belief that even when African American women are suffering, obstacles are faced stoically and handled with a prayer, and a smile. In other words we always overcome. We African American women are reluctant to dispel this myth for it is one of the positive stereotypes afforded us. (Farmer & James, 1993, p. 205)

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In addition to the previous statements, we are very much aware of what is going on in our lives as we work within the walls of white academia. As Carthy (1992) puts it, Black women have been more than victims; they have been actors, conscious builders of relations from which they benefit, and though confined certainly to a very limited sphere of the white patriarchal world, their position affords them clear understanding of their oppression. (pp. 43–44)

Nationally, 2.2 percent of faculty in higher education are black females. Once we accept a job in academia, we inevitably face obstacles that other faculty members are able to avoid. Black women hold 6 percent of the full professional rank compared to 1.6 percent for black men, 9.9 percent for white women, and 88.2 percent for white men. Most of us are typically found among non-tenure-track lecturers, instructors, and assistant professors, and we also earn less than our white colleagues at these institutions. THE RESEARCH I collected data from sixty-two black women who worked at traditionally white-collared universities throughout the country. The sample included black faculty and administrators from both private and public four-year colleges and universities and community colleges. The women were from various disciplines, from the ranks of instructor to full professor. There were two recent retirees who had “spent almost a lifetime” at very reputable research universities from which they retired. Data were collected by email and regular mail. Fifty-three of the women responded by email, and nine responded by regular postal mail. The women wrote their own narratives in answers to five general issues/questions: 1. Their early experiences of how persons with whom they worked perceived their ability to fulfill their responsibilities as faculty/administrators. 2. Their experiences of racism from their assumed superiors, such as chairpersons, deans, students, etc. 3. Their experiences of sexism from their assumed superiors, such as chairpersons, deans, students, etc. 4. Which of the two practices (racism or sexism) would you say had the greater effect on you? Please explain why you chose this practice.

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5. What is your present rank at the college/university where you are/ were employed?

Our Experiences as We See Them My reflections for this chapter complement what Powell (1983) so poignantly stated: Historically, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements were transforming for all kinds of people—black, white, male and female. These movements were the political training grounds for thousands who would later be active in anti-war, anti-nuclear, women’s and continuing Black community organizing. It was a time of open resistance and defiance, when many of us tested the limits set by our oppression to see how far they would give. (p. 285)

With those movements came several social and political benefits for some oppressed groups. However, the omnipresence of oppression remains in the lives of many black women in academia as we approach the twenty-first century. The following discussion is the scenario that is frequently enacted in our everyday lives. I grew up in Mississippi, and at sixteen years old as an accelerated student, began my freshmen year at a historically black private college during the height of the civil rights movement. I had a real sense of my experiences of racism—experiences by which any individual undoubtedly would have been affected. My birth circumstances let me know what racism was about while growing up at a time before the profound period of consciousness-raising about sexism had fully developed. But, it was very clear to me during my early years that to be denied the opportunity to drink from a water fountain marked “white only” was not because I was a woman. The fact that I could not enter any white-owned and/or operated restaurant and be served food was not based on the fact that I was female. All of my early education was restricted to an all-black school—not because I was female, but because I was black. When I began college, I lived fewer than eight blocks from the one traditionally white four-year coeducational state university in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I could not attend that college— not because I was female, but because I was black. The preceding chronology of my early experiences brings me to where I have been in academia for the past several years. An earlier experience at traditionally white institutions that stands out in my mind was a statement on one of my student evaluations.

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It read, “I was told by one of my [other] professors not to expect to learn much in this class—but I learned a lot.” I read the comment but did not think much about it until the next term when a white female student stopped by my office to discuss a project about violence against women during the following term. She asked me, “Did you see the comment that I made on your teaching evaluation?” I realized that students remained anonymous on evaluations, so I asked her, “What was the comment?” With a seemingly noticeable level of naivete, she continued, “Professor ——— (white male) told me to go ahead and take your class, but not to expect to learn very much, but I learned a lot.” Wow! Was that one for the books?! I believed her. I realized that this was a case of a white male perceiving me as lacking in knowledge of social psychology—a specialty in which I am very well prepared. He expressed this to a young white female, who later told me she was encountering a black female in her classroom for the first time in her life. The fact remains that as black women, these questions are often raised about our expertise and knowledge, despite the fact that we come from the same universities and academic backgrounds. Some of us were even trained in universities that outranked the ones from which some white women and men graduated. A few years later, I chose to teach a graduate seminar, which I had taught in previous years at the same university. Through some unexplainable decision in the graduate committee meeting, I was denied the opportunity to teach the course that term. It was assigned to an untenured, white female assistant professor. Being aware of the fact that a proposed system of rotating among the faculty who had earned PhDs in that specialty was made earlier, I inquired about why it was decided that I could not teach the course. After discussing this with a few colleagues, I got responses ranging from a shrugging of shoulders to “you know . . . I really don’t remember how they came up with that decision.” I have kept written documentation that the same white male mentioned earlier, who had told the student not to expect to learn anything in my class, also stated, “As long as I am in my present position, Lena Wright Myers will never teach another graduate course.” Well, how wrong was he? I taught the course later. This is a prime example of racism that totally contradicts his fac¸ade of staunchly supporting women’s rights and racial equality. Even in the face of a traditionally irrefutable, excellent record in grantsmanship and publishing, I can document comments made by certain white male colleagues when referring to the work of some specific black women. Statements such

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as the following are made: “She is a prolific writer and researcher who is known nationally—but her works are mostly about blacks, and are lightweight.” Even though black women in academia do speak the English language, there is the tendency for some whites to interpret what they think we mean. On numerous occasions, I have served on committees and advisory boards in traditionally white university settings. As I begin to make statements about the issue being discussed, invariably some personally assumed authoritative figure says, “Professor Myers means that you should think about the issue this way.” That person—typically a white male—continues to explain to the group what he thinks I meant, until I ask him not to speak for me. Clearly this person’s behavior suggests that we black women in academia need an interpreter and are not capable of saying what we mean. This type of behavior also suggests the serious need to exude a level of domination, or rather to exhibit control. At the same university, I was giving a final exam. Students were given their term papers as they turned in their exams. As a white female student received her term paper, she looked at me and shouted, “How can you give me a D⫹ on this paper?” Before I could explain the reason for the grade, as was already noted on her paper, she walked a few steps away from the desk where I was seated, then turned around and threw the paper at me and shouted, “You don’t like me, anyway! I’m going to tell the dean on you, black bitch!” She then stormed out of the classroom, kicked over a wastebasket near the door, and continued to shout from the hallway, “Fuck you, black bitch!” It took all the emotional guts I had to avoid stooping to her level, and at that moment, I was determined to take every measure possible to ensure that she would never again call me a black bitch. After she left, six students remained in the classroom, still taking their exams; all of them gave testimony to her conduct in a judiciary council. She was given disciplinary probation for the duration of her undergraduate education at the university. Although it has been a few years since that incident, my reminiscence of that experience brings to mind another very recent incident—harassment by a young white male student. Hence, black women are not only victims of demeaning acts of male dominance, but some of us have to deal with harassment as well. An example of this follows. Recently, I encountered an unusual interaction with a white male student enrolled in one of my classes. On two consecutive days, as

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I sat in my office with the door closed and working with my graduate assistant, the student opened the door, walked directly to me, and standing less than eighteen inches from me, asked, “Where is my exam paper?” He was referring to exam papers that had been returned to the students sometime earlier, during his absence from class. When I attempted to go over to a table to get his paper, he moved with me. In other words, each time I moved away from him, he moved toward me. When I requested, “Please don’t stand so closely as we talk,” he replied, “I’m not doing anything.” He finally left my office. I closed the door behind him and resumed work with my graduate assistant, who remained in the office during both encounters. Within less than two minutes, there was a loud knock on my door, at which time I asked, “Who is there, please?” Then came the voice saying, “Me.” I opened my door, and there he stood, saying, “You don’t like me, do you?” I responded, saying, “I like all of the fifty-eight students in that class—and I don’t want to continue a verbal confrontation with you.” Again, he left the office, but the next day, much of the same behavior continued; plus, he left a threatening message on my office answering machine. Through the assistance of the judiciary council director and the campus police, the problem was finally solved—at least I hope so—at the writing of this chapter. I had another experience in which I was accused of tampering with my student evaluations. At the end of spring term, I had gone home for the summer as I traditionally do. I received a letter from one of my white male colleagues encouraging me to hurry and sign my contract for the next year. At the end of the letter was the statement “By the way, I want you to give me the names of students who delivered your evaluations to the department office last spring.” Considering the fact that I had not been asked such a question during my career in academia, and since I could not recall the names of students, I asked other colleagues what this was about and whether they had received such a request. They informed me that they had no knowledge of such a request. I had been experiencing health problems during the latter part of that spring quarter, so I decided to concentrate on my health as opposed to worrying about such a request. I was not contacted again about the evaluations, so I assumed it must not have been that important. However, when the budget and merit committee met later that fall, I received a response to my appeal from the same colleague who had requested the names of students. It read, “I wrote to you last summer

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asking you for information about problems with your student evaluation forms and did not receive any responses . . . our concern about the way you handled student evaluation forms, without any input from you, led this fall to a series of changes that everyone must now follow.” (The change was to seal the envelope and have both student and professor sign their names across the seal.) When I asked for a oneon-one conversation about the reason for such a request, he nervously stated, “We just want you to give us the names of students.” After that, my written response to the committee and him was, “If the budget and merit committee is basing my teaching evaluations on their assumption that I have mishandled student evaluations in some way, they must be able to back up such an allegation with documentation. Therefore, I am requesting that you and the committee either formally charge me in writing along with documentation to back up such an allegation, or drop the matter entirely.” I never heard anything more from the colleague or the committee. That experience is sad on one hand, yet laughable on the other. Why? Because in the twenty-six years I have been a tenured full professor at several colleges and universities, including that university, I had never heard of such a ridiculous thing. It is important to note that I was actively recruited by that same university based strictly on my “national reputation as a sociologist” per media coverage. Since that white male could not come up with a better reason to demean and label me as “incompetent,” he was fishing for something that was utterly preposterous. What a serious waste of his energy because of his intimidation of my mere presence. Some experiences can be devastating, to say the least. Thus far, I have discussed some of my experiences in academia. Examples of the experiences of other black women are included in this chapter. Our lives in academia may result in different expressions of our experiences. The accounts and commentaries of black women are very important because we have realistic, first-hand knowledge of every aspect of our lives, and specifically, experiences in white academic environments. Therefore, we are better judges of our experiences than any nonblack outside observers. There are very real differences between us in terms of race, sex, age, class, and other characteristics that make people different. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences and to examine the distortions that result from them or from misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation (Lorde, 1998). Therefore, fair but

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general definitions of racism and sexism for this chapter are as follows: Racism is the belief in the inherent superiority and dominance of one race over all others, and thereby the right to dominance. Sexism is the belief in the inherent superiority and dominance of one sex over the other, and thereby the right to dominance. The preceding discussion should provide the reader with subsequent common themes identified by other black women faculty/administrators in predominantly white institutions. Common themes such as patronizing, disrespect for knowledge, unethical behavior, structural impediments, and numerous other examples indicate the impact of racism, as well as the intersection between racism and sexism. While space will not permit detailed narratives of the sample, the results show that numerous black women of the sample reported that their qualifications were continuously challenged in their academic environments. Some noted that often their ideas were only viewed as legitimate when white colleagues stated them as their own. Frequently noted by most of the respondents was that their colleagues subjected them to magnified and extreme evaluations. In addition, a large number of the women stated that they felt pressured to outperform other (white) colleagues just to maintain perceived equal performance status with them. Several of the black faculty members also noted that research topics that focused on race were not considered of much importance, especially in the tenure and promotion process. It was shown that even when their research was published in journals dedicated to such a focus, the journals were not considered prestigious or reputable enough. A number of the respondents addressed faculty–student interaction as an issue in the academic environment. This included harsh judgment of teaching style and disrespect for course content, especially when race was discussed. Some even noted outright verbal and nonverbal attacks by some of the students. The majority of the women noted that racial experiences were typically far more overwhelming sources of oppression than gender experiences. COPING WITH THE STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES Over the past several years (1973 to the present), I have researched and written about self-esteem and coping among blacks in general and black women specifically. I define coping as alternative ways of dealing with the pressures of society. Hence, coping helps us to provide some explanation of resources used by black women in adjusting to

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the various social pressures we experience in every day life. This is to say that there is a causal relationship between what we think of ourselves and how we cope. It is to suggest that feelings of selfworth lead to a greater ability to cope (Myers, 1991, 1998, 2002). If we know who we are and what we are about, we should know fairly well how we would deal with unpleasant experiences. This simply means “tapping our inner resources.” After this, we develop and maintain an image of ourselves, despite adverse experiences (Myers, 1991, p. 22). It has been proven that numerous black women at various levels of employment appear to retain a remarkable sense of self-worth (Dill, 1988; Rollins, 1985). It is through the power of self-definition that we as black women intellectuals have long explored this private, hidden space of our consciousness that allows black women to cope with and, in most cases, transcend the confines of race, class, and gender oppression (Collins, 1989, pp. 92–93). I chose not to include any questions about self-esteem and coping for this chapter. However, it is very interesting that several of the respondents addressed how they dealt with experiences of adversity in academia. For example, one woman wrote, It is believed that my general outlook on life not only colors my perceptions of my experiences in the workplace but also colors how my superiors and colleagues think of and relate to me. I am told that I approach life as “a detached onlooker” rather than as “an active participant,” meaning that I have the ability to be involved and yet maintain a certain distance. In all probability, this attitude (approach) towards life and work was developed as a result of my beliefs about living in a society that presumed me to be inferior by reason of race. To this extent, it appears that I developed an “inner-directed” philosophy of life to regulate and control my behaviors, which enables me to have a positive sense of self. Therefore, I approach my work as a job more so than as a career. This attitude allows me to focus on doing the best work that I can do without a great deal of “self-esteem” investment.

Another respondent expressed her feelings in dealing with her experiences. According to her, My experiences have made me tremble with anger, heightened my distrust, and tested my perseverance. But I never allowed the situation to destroy my hope and alter my dreams. Why? Simply because I know who I am and what I am about, and I will never allow any acts of racism, sexism, or any other -isms to destroy my sense of who I am or destroy my level of competence in academia.

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One respondent discusses her personal experiences and how they have helped her cope with the experience of racism: I really believe that having gone to a historically Black college for my undergraduate degree contributed greatly to my ability to deal with my experiences of racism in traditionally white institutions where I received my Ph.D. and where I am presently employed. Why do I say this? Simply because my sense of who I am was reaffirmed in that early environment prior to going into traditionally white environments.

In her narrative, titled Trying to Fit In, one of the black respondents gives her take on our experiences as follows: Alienation, social dislocation, political and psychological bankruptcy are descriptors of what I felt while teaching at two predominantly white colleges. While the outcomes were different, the experiences were as psychologically damaging. This made healing a slow process, which for some African American women is never complete, while for others we slowly regain our center.

Truer words were never spoken! Yes, we do regain “our center.” If we were not able to regain our center, the few of us would not have remained in traditionally white institutions throughout the nation. For years it has been my belief that our key to coping with racism and sexism as black women is to get an image of ourselves based on how well we do whatever we are doing and how others whose opinions matter to us view our successes. My previous research shows that our social support systems provide the primary function for our developing and maintaining a positive level of self-esteem. One of the black women’s narratives complements the notion of special support systems. She writes, My family experiences provided the strength to compete in a white racist academic environment. My father always told me that I could be anything I wanted to be. However, he admonished that whites would try to block my progress. In addition, a strong church participation helped to buffer the effects of racism. I was raised in a close knit church that encouraged my intellectual pursuits.

We may observe that some of the women made specific reference to their early socialization in terms of a sense of “self.” What do I mean by social support systems? I define social support systems as those helping

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Figure 6.1 Social support systems in development and maintenance of self-esteem

agents or individuals within their environment whom black women identify as providing social support and feedback in solving problems or during periods of crisis. We can observe from Figure 6.1 that close friends and family are of equal importance for black women. I can certainly relate to this! I often find myself touching base with my significant others through whatever forms of communication necessary. It has been proven that close friends are more supportive of emotional feelings, values, and beliefs. In society at large, some people tend to discuss problems only with personal friends rather than family members. This, again, is a way of coping with otherwise unbearable life situations (Myers, 1991, p. 28). Our self-worth and self-reliance must be internally generated and support networks established in and out of the academic settings. This process is forever present as we interact with our significant others throughout life. We tend to maintain a steady pace by holding on to external and internal support systems in the face of adversity. It may not be so obvious, but it is equally true that, as black women separated in space but belonging to the same social category (race, sex, class, and in some cases, age), we have come to recognize our common fate.

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Thus, we may deal with efforts of racism and sexism in a somewhat uniform manner (Myers, 1991). As one scholar puts it, No other woman on earth could have emerged from the hell of force and temptation which once engulfed and still surrounds Black women in American with half the modesty and womanliness they retain. (Du Bois, 1969)

The preceding statements are not to imply that black women in traditionally white institutions are “superwomen” in terms of physical strength. Coping is not to be interpreted as being hardened to the effects of adversity. We certainly are vulnerable to being moved by such things as sorrow, loneliness, neglect, unhappiness, and even happiness. But we are also capable of finding the means and alternatives for developing and maintaining our emotional stability in terms of a positive sense of self. However, our positive sense of self does not erase the negative effects of racism and sexism that we experience in our everyday lives in traditionally white colleges and universities. It only makes it a little bit easier to deal with. In a truly just society, both racism and sexism as well as other types of “isms” should be eradicated. Moving toward the successful inclusion of women and minorities involves commitment and action by institutional leadership. Institutional leaders can show commitment to the advancement of black women in many ways. Possibilities include highlighting the excellent work of individual black women faculty, placing the participation and success of minority women high on the list of critical issues to the institution, and recruiting qualified black women for significant positions within the administration. Other faculty should be educated about the needs of black faculty and be committed to making noticeable change. It is not enough to simply tolerate diversity. Instead, it should be accepted and embraced. In the journey toward tenure or other promotions, as well as long-term job satisfaction, it is most important that black women maintain self-confidence . . . because this is what will help transform predominantly white institutions. The stories have been told, and undoubtedly their tellers have known a range of human experiences unknown by most. The frustration of reaching endlessly can be exhausting to the black woman who captures victory after victory—only to tell herself to push harder. She knows that the respect she so desperately seeks, as a black and as a woman, is not likely to find its way past the rigidity of an environment defined by someone else.

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Toolbox for Change

Many women experience differential treatment not only because of race but because of gender as well. For black women, this subordinate status twice defined is very pronounced in academia for its victims. The sample of black women in traditionally white colleges and universities reported general experiences that were significantly influenced by racism and sexism. In many ways, black women were not given credit for outstanding work efforts and achievements. Whether it is through exclusion, through behavior based on prevailing stereotypes, or a blatant skepticism of their professional ability, colleagues directly and indirectly acted to undermine the success of the black women used in the research for this chapter. Such influence is by no means undetected in the everyday struggles of black women in academia. However, of one thing nearly all respondents are certain: the racism and sexism that work to hinder black women are largely unnoticed by others. The continual fight for change is a lonely battle for many, at times fueled only by an incredible fortitude. Such

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profound inner strength rests at the heart and soul of women who refuse to wear labels—especially the label that calls them victim. Perhaps in the future the realities of African American women in academia will be significantly brighter. It will be through joint efforts of academic institutions as a whole and through the dedication of determined individuals that today’s realities will be replaced by new revolutions in thought and action. Reality is not infinite and unchangeable; rather, it has the potential to be shaped by a society that embraces diversity. In the end, reality will be what we want it to be. And for African American women in academia, this reality will be a promising indicator of our outstanding accomplishments—past, present, and future. (Myers, 2000, p. 22)

We recognize stress imposed upon us by the stressors, and we deal with it in social psychological ways that work for us. REFERENCES Benjamin, L. (1991). The black elite: Facing the color line in the twilight of the twentieth century. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Carthy, L. (1992). Black women in academia: A statement from the periphery. In H. Bannerji et al. (Eds.), Unsettling relations: The university as a site of feminist struggles. Boston: South End Press. Collins, P. (1989). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. Dill, B. T. (1988). Making your job good yourself: Domestic service and the construction of personal dignity. In A. Bookman & S. Morgen (Eds.), Women and the politics of empowerment (pp. 33–52). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Du Bois, W. E. B. (1969). The souls of black folks. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett. Farmer, R., & James, J. (Eds.). (1993). Spirit, space, and survival: African American women in (white) academe. New York: Routledge. Lorde, A. (1998). Age, race, class, and sex: Women redefining difference. In P. S. Rothenberg (Ed.), Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study. New York: St. Martin Press. Myers, L. W. (1991). Black women, do they cope better? (Rev. ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Original work published 1980) Myers, L. W. (1998). Black male socialization: Revisited in the minds of respondents. Stamford, CT: JAI Press. Myers, L. W. (2000). Realities in academe for African American women. The Journal of Women in Higher Education, 9(4), 21–22. Myers, L. W. (2002). A broken silence: Voices of African American women in the academy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.

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Powell, L. C. (1983). Macho and black feminism. In B. Smith (Ed.), Homegirls: A black feminist anthology. New York: Kitchen Table-Women of Color Press. Rollins, J. (1985). Between women: Domestics and their employers. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Zack, N. (1998). Race, class, gender and sexuality: The big questions. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

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CHAPTER 7

Sexually Underrepresented Youth: Understanding Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning (GLBT-Q) Youth Shannon D. Smith

My son, Matthew, was a bright star poised to take on the future. He had such hopes and potential. He was an enthusiastic student, an articulate speaker, and he was honestly gay. His life was crushed by the hatred of others. I believe that my son was killed because somehow, somewhere, his killers learned that the lives of gay people are not as worthy of respect, dignity and honor as the lives of other people. I ask you to ensure that students in your school never learn that dangerous lesson. (Judy Shepard, 1999)

J

ust imagine that you were the author of these words about your son—how would you feel? How would you respond to the killers? What would you say to them? How might the course of your life be altered if your child became the victim of a hate crime? Unless you were to experience such a tragic event, you could only speculate about the distressing possibilities. Unfortunately, Judy Shepard has no need to speculate about this possibility. These are her words in an open letter addressed to school administrators, urging them to take steps to stop acts of violence toward sexually underrepresented youth. Young people oppressed due to nontraditional sexual orientations and gender identity and expression can include any young person who identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered,

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and/or questioning (GLBT-Q). They are deemed “underrepresented” because they are a minority population within the dominant culture and larger group of heterosexual-oriented people. Many people may not be familiar with the names Judy and Dennis Shepard, but most people are familiar with the name Matthew Shepard. Across the nation, in mid-October 1998, the headlines reported the brutal beating and cruel murder of this twenty-one-yearold human being. This crime of hate was provoked in response to the nature of Matthew’s sexual orientation. That is, he was gay. And for being gay, he was brutally murdered. Matthew was physically assaulted by two men, tied to a fence alongside a desolate road in Wyoming, and left to die in the dark cold of the night on October 12, 1998. As if the murder of their son were not enough pain and grief to endure, Reverend Fred Phelps arrived at Matthew Shepard’s funeral to tell Mr. and Mrs. Shepard that their son “got what he deserved.” This is a prime example of how cruel people can act based upon heterosexist notions about human sexuality. Heterosexism (the belief that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality), transgenderism (the fear and hatred of transgendered persons), biphobia (the fear and hatred of bisexual persons), and homophobia (the fear and hatred of homosexuality) ultimately lead to prejudicial notions, discrimination, violence, and anti-gay hate crimes toward the sexually underrepresented. Sexism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex type over another type and thereby the right of dominance, is the major form of oppression that supports heterosexist notions. This murder was tragic, and it is even more tragic and difficult to comprehend that this type of hate crime could be carried out in our modern society. However, it demonstrates the destructive powers of fear and hatred when combined in heterosexist notions and sexual prejudice(s). Although Matthew was a young, gay, Caucasian male, such crimes are not limited by age, gender, race, culture, religion, or other social and ethnic factors. There have been many cases of blatant discrimination and hate crimes toward diverse people groups who are sexual minorities. For example, Sakia Gunn, a fifteen-year-old girl, was recently stabbed (May 11, 2003) due to her proclamation of being a lesbian after Richard McCullough, twenty-nine, approached her and her friends and propositioned sexual and lewd advances. Sakia died shortly afterward in the emergency room. Some three thousand people turned out for Sakia’s funeral, many of them young,

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queer people of color. This tragic murder is one more among many examples of the destructive power of sexual prejudice. To prevent more needless deaths like Sakia’s and Matthew’s (as well as the grief of parents and friends) due to hate crimes and other forms of prejudice, all people must have a better understanding of both the external obstacles (violence, lack of resources, societal attitudes, etc.) and the associated internal impediments (that is, internalization of sexual prejudice) of GLBT-Q youth. To understand the sexual development crises that GLBT-Q youth face, it is necessary to understand basic sex terminology, theories of sexual development, the risks of certain sex behaviors, and the societal prejudices against people of nontraditional sexual orientations and gender identity and expression. Finally, we must all be aware of the consequences of the physical and emotional violence often perpetrated by family, friends, and strangers against GLBT-Q youth. First, I provide an overview of key terminology related to prejudice and discrimination of the sexually underrepresented. Then, the discussion continues with a brief outline of sexual development, including its biological components, and a review of sexual orientation and identity development. This backdrop will provide the reader with accurate information and understanding regarding GLBT sexual development across the lifespan. Once this outline is complete, the discussion focuses on specific ways in which GLBT-Q youth experience discrimination and prejudice. Five major areas of focus are reviewed: (1) anti-gay hate crimes, (2) disclosure of sexual orientation, or “coming out,” (3) family discrimination, (4) discrimination at school, and (5) medical discrimination and health care needs. Finally, practical tools and methods of advocating for GLBT-Q youth are presented. DEFINING SEXUAL PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION The term homophobia was initially coined in 1967 to signify an irrationally negative attitude toward gay or lesbian people (Weinberg, 1972). The definition included dread of being in close quarters with gay men and lesbian women, and an irrational fear, hatred, and intolerance by heterosexuals. In the United States, two particularly prominent historical influences fostering anti-GLBT-Q attitudes have been heterosexism, the belief in the moral superiority of institutions and practices associated with heterosexuality (Greenberg, 1988), and

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religious fundamentalism. Recently, the focus on negative attitudes toward GLBT-Q persons has expanded to include traditional ideologies of family, gender, and personal and social relationships/ constructs (Herek, 1988; Zea, Reisen, & Diaz, 2003). Homophobic attitudes have been found to be associated with an acceptance of traditional gender roles, involvement in religious fundamentalism (Herek, 1984a, 1984b), and the belief in a psychological cause of homosexuality (Matchinsky & Iverson, 1996). Some people make a distinction between homophobia and heterosexism. Homophobia has been defined at the individual level as a person-centered negative emotional response to homosexuality, whereas heterosexism has been defined in ecological terms. In other words, it is a systematic process of privilege toward heterosexuality relative to homosexuality based upon the notion that heterosexuality is normal and ideal. Therefore, the foundation of heterosexuality is one of power and privilege. Herek (1993) defines heterosexism as the “ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any nonheterosexual form of behavior, identity, relationship, or community” (p. 90). It is also important to differentiate between homonegativity and homophobia. Homonegativity is a multidimensional construct that includes anti-gay attitudes, beliefs, and judgments. Additional views of homophobia include a unidimensional construct that comprises several emotional responses (such as fear, anger, disgust) that persons experience while interacting with GLBT people (Hudson & Ricketts, 1980). A three-dimensional view of homophobia consisting of negative attitudes, culture-bound commitments to traditional sex roles, and personality traits has been proposed (Fyfe, 1983). O’Donohue and Caselles (1993) outlined an interactive model of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional components with situational determinants in producing homophobia-driven aggression. Finally, others have suggested that homophobia is a construct that consists of negative attitudes, affective regulation, and malevolence toward gay men and lesbians (Adams, Wright, & Lohr, 1997; Hagga, 1991). Throughout this chapter, I intend to use this term in its broadest sense. Other terms have emerged recently to capture more specific prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuality, including the term biphobia, which is the fear or dislike of people who do not identify or behave as either gay, lesbian, or heterosexual (Hutchins & Kaahumanu, 1991). Transgenderism is prejudice multiplied by power that is used by traditionally gendered people toward nontraditionally gendered

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people (transgendered, transsexual, cross-dressers, intersexuals, drag queens, and drag kings) to restrict access to resources (Chen-Hayes, 2000) or to deny resources altogether. There have been many terms used to describe prejudicial attitudes and behaviors toward the sexually underrepresented. Herek (2000) proposed the use of the term sexual prejudice for the scientific analysis of all negative attitudes based upon sexual orientation, including heterosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, and homosexuality. For the purpose of this chapter, sexual prejudice will refer to negative attitudes and acts of violence toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (GLBT-Q) persons, perceived or otherwise, same-sex behaviors, and GLBT-Q communities. Occasionally, I will use previously mentioned terminology when it is appropriate for purposes of readability and to maintain consistency with the original cited authorship when referring to the literature. AN OVERVIEW OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND SEXUAL IDENTITY The term sexual orientation is one that conjures up many different ideas due to the various definitions that have emerged from the literature in recent years. Although a comprehensive discussion of the nature of sexual orientation is beyond the scope of this chapter, an operational definition of sexual orientation is supplied for the reader. For an in-depth discussion of sexual orientation, the reader is referred to Broido (2000). The construct of sexual orientation has been redefined over the past several decades. It has been thought of as a consistent pattern of sexual arousal toward persons of the same and/or opposite gender (Spitzer, 1981) and tends to encompass the elements of fantasy, conscious attractions, emotional and romantic feelings, sexual behaviors, and other potential components (Friedman, Green, & Spitzer, 1976; Remafedi, 1985). Numerous variations of sexual orientation (GLBT) are not only plausible but are also probable in most populations (Gonsiorek, Sell, & Weinrich, 1995). In recent years, sexual identity has adopted the component of self-identification, as homosexual, bisexual, gay, lesbian, heterosexual, or questioning (Klein, Sepekoff, & Wolf, 1985; Chung & Katayama, 1996.). Therefore, sexual orientation is defined here as a multidimensional construct that encompasses several interconnected dimensions of sexual attraction, behavior, and fantasies, as well as emotional, social, and lifestyle preferences

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including the use of a sexual identity self-label (Smith & ChenHayes, 2003). Sexual orientation should not be confused with sexual identity. For the purpose of this discussion, it is important to distinguish between sexual orientation and sexual identity. While they may be interrelated, they are not similar in meaning. Sexual identity is an organized set of beliefs that a person holds to be true about the meaning of sexual attractions, desires, and related affections. These are perceptions of how attractions, desires, and affections correlate to a sense of self and one’s chosen identity. This self-identification may be classified using socially established categories including heterosexuality and homosexuality, and more specifically those of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (GLBT-Q). Sexual identity is conceptualized in historic and culturally specific notions, it is changeable over the life course, and it may or may not be congruent with one’s sexual orientation (Savin-Williams, 1998). For example, some youth who engage in same-sex sex behavior may not identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Other youth who do identify as GLB have not, as of yet, engaged in same-sex sexual activity. Therefore, sexual behavior is not the determining factor of sexual orientation, but sexual identity may dictate how one engages in sexual activity/behaviors. The nature of sexual orientation can be a confusing matter for developing children and adolescents, and it is often confounded by sexual prejudice (homophobia and heterosexism). Adolescence is a confusing time for young people as their bodies undergo numerous physical and hormonal changes, especially during puberty. Added confusion occurs for many youth as they try to make sense of their immature affections and attractions to others, including members of the same sex. Sexual experimentation with the opposite and same-sex partners is often a part of the experiences that assist young people toward learning about sex behaviors and developing an understanding of their own sexuality, including sexual orientation and sexual identity. Young people begin to engage in various sexual activities during adolescence, including same-sex behaviors, for a variety of reasons. Although young people often provide numerous explanations for their sexual behaviors, such rationales generally can be grouped into three main categories: experimentation, sexual attraction, and social and cultural factors. Experimentation is one major reason for pre-adult sexual activity. Young people engage in child and adolescent sexual experimentation with either the same or opposite sex/gender partners or both,

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primarily as means to “try out” their sexual abilities. The motivation for sexual experimentation can originate from many sources, such as curiosity, peer pressure, or as is often the case with children, acting out some behaviors that they have observed at home (such as television) or elsewhere. Sexual attraction is another major reason that young people engage in sex activities. Sexual attraction may include the physical, emotional, or social attractions and fantasies that cause one to feel romantic or erotic toward the same or opposite-sex gender, or both. Finally, social and cultural factors have a major influence upon young people’s sexual behaviors. Examples include age of sexual engagement, marital rituals, and family lifestyle practices. Once again, it is important to note that same-sex behavior does not necessarily dictate a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered orientation. For many children and youth, this type of sexual activity is a normal part of sexual development. Same-gender/sex activity via experimentation is one way that young people learn about sex behaviors. For example, a thirteen-year-old boy once said to me that he couldn’t wait to kiss his new girlfriend, saying, “I finally got enough practice with my friend Mark.” It was obvious to me that this boy was learning about sexual behaviors with a member of his peer group, but indeed he was not of a gay orientation. Same-gender/sex behavior can also help young people to sort through some of the confusion associated with their sexuality, particularly when it comes to understanding the “true nature” of their sexual orientation. Research indicates that there is an age span ranging from early childhood to late adolescence when GLBT individuals tend to develop an awareness of their same-sex/gender feelings and attractions, with the average age range between eight and eighteen, and the average age of accepting the knowledge of one’s minority sexual orientation at approximately fifteen (D’Augelli, Hershberger, & Pilkington, 1998; Elze, 2002; Floyd & Stein, 2002; Telljohann & Price, 1993). While engaging in same-sex/gender behavior, young people may confirm their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered (GLBT), or heterosexual. Those who are GLBT-oriented will likely find confirmation between their psycho-emotionalsocial-sexual attraction and feelings and their same-sex/gender behavior over time. Although I have been discussing various behaviors, and those behaviors imply choice, I have not used terminology that implies that

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sexual orientation is a choice. For example, the term sexual preference is considered to be scientifically and politically incorrect when referring to sexual orientation because it implies that one chooses or that one can choose a specific sexual orientation (heterosexual or GLBTQ). The notion that one has the ability to choose among the existing options of sexual orientation is not consistent with the current state of scientific knowledge and research. Many GLBT people believe that they did not choose their sexual orientation, nor did they ever have the option to choose (Chen-Hayes, 2000). In addition, many heterosexual people hold the same belief that they did not (nor could not) have the choice to be heterosexual in sex orientation. Gonsiorek and Weinrich (1991) suggest that the term sexual preference is misleading because it not only assumes conscious or deliberate choice but also trivializes the depth of psychological process involved in sexual development. They also recommend use of the term sexual orientation, indicating that homosexual feelings are a natural part of one’s psyche and are established earlier than conscious choice would necessarily indicate. As mentioned above, people can make choices about how they express their sexual and gender identity and their sex/gender behavior; however, this is often confused by the use of the term sexual preference. Therefore, the term sexual orientation will be used throughout this writing. SEXUAL IDENTITY Sexual identity is not the same as sexual orientation. Instead, sexual identity development emerges over a lifetime, interacting in tandem with sexual orientation and sexual behavior, which are mediated by sociocultural, religious, and family influences. However, it is a unique component of both individual identity and these mediating factors. Several models of sexual identity development that have been proposed are briefly noted here; however, they will not be discussed in detail here. Cass (1979) proposed a six-stage developmental model, Coleman (1987) proposed a five-stage model, and Troiden (1989) introduced a five-stage model with several stage dimensions. Other models have been proposed (D’Augelli, 1994; Fassinger & Miller, 1996; McCarn & Fassinger, 1996; Minton & McDonald, 1984; Troiden, 1979), and they are highlighted here for the reader to reference, and to stress the fact that many aspects of sexual identity are developmental: in many respects, sexual identity is a unique, ongoing process that unfolds over the lifespan.

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Although phases or stages of sexual identity have been proposed, Floyd and Stein (2002) recently identified that gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth display multiple patterns of reaching milestone experiences in their sexual identity development. Therefore, regardless of the particular model of sexual identity development that one uses to view this process, sexual identity development is a unique experience for each individual and will not always reflect proposed stage models of development. Stage models of sexual development are useful in capturing broad aspects of identity development; however, unique aspects of this process must be understood for an individual perspective. It is also important to understand that sexual identity development is unique across variants of homosexuality for young people (Eliason, 1996b). Although there are similarities, there tend to be unique differences among underrepresented sexual groups. Research and theory have acknowledged the uniqueness of gay (McDonald, 1982), lesbian (Chapman & Brannock, 1987; Eliason, 1996a; Whitman, Cormier, & Boyd, 2000), bisexual (Weinberg, Williams, & Pryor, 1994), and transgendered (Grossman, O’Connell, & D’Augelli, 2002) identity development processes. GLBT-Q identity can be confusing for many individuals because they may feel the need to change the presentation of their sexual identity depending on the social/environmental context. Homosexual youth will act “straight” in one setting and “gay” in another environment depending on what type of behavior is socially acceptable, appropriate, and safe. Managing this double life and identity can become a preoccupation and add to the minority stress and the burden that many GLBT-Q carry. This double or even triple minority status can become difficult to manage over time and across various settings, particularly when group memberships cross over, bringing to question any inconsistencies. For example, some ethnic-minority GLBT-Q individuals feel that they have to choose between their ethnic/racial group and being homosexual, a view that is supported by many ethnic groups because a GLBT lifestyle is seen as rejection of the “ethnic heritage” or assimilation into the “white” culture (Harper, Contrearas, Correa, & Clack, 1999). Depending on the cultural context, Latino gay men have been noted to identify as gay in the context of an identified “gay” bar, but not in the context of their family (Zea, 1999); thus, it is seen as “context dependent” (Zea, Reisen, & Diaz, 2003). This form of sexual orientation environmental shifting is adopted by many GLBT-Q youth, particularly as they learn

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to understand their homosexuality against the backdrop of the heterosexist world and all of the prejudice and discrimination that it affords. Encounters with sexual prejudice and discrimination including heterosexism, social stigma, and anti-gay hate crimes are major determinants of how the sexual identity development process unfolds for each GLBT-Q person. Until an atmosphere of homosexuality is accepted as just as normal as heterosexuality, heterosexism will dominate social and culture norms, and sexually underrepresented groups will suffer from both subtle and blatant forms of oppression and prejudice. THE BIOLOGY OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION There are numerous theories about the origin of sexual orientation. However, current research indicates that sexual orientation derives from a complex interaction of environmental, psycho-emotional, and biological factors (Swaab, Gooren, & Hofman, 1995; Klein, Sepekoff, & Wolf, 1985; Weinberg, 1984). In most people, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. It is both scientifically and socially inappropriate to ask, “What makes you gay?” just as it is inappropriate to ask, “What makes you straight?” Questions regarding sexual orientation should not focus more intently on homosexuality any more than heterosexuality, although this has been the historical trend. This trend has been strongly influenced by heterosexist privilege and multiple forms of oppression, including sexual prejudice and genderism. Rather, investigation into the nature of sexual orientation should focus on just that, sexual orientation—not homosexuality any more than heterosexuality. I find it interesting that no scientific endeavors have yet to embark on the discovery of the cause of heterosexuality. Although the precise origin of sexual orientation is not known, there is some preliminary evidence to suggest that a biological basis is involved (Bancroft, 1990; Bancroft, 1994). There are four major areas of investigation into the biology of sexual orientation, including the role of hormones, neuropsychological functions, brain structure, and genetic factors. I will briefly highlight two areas that have received much attention recently: evidence from research on the brain structure and from genetics. Several research studies indicate that differences in the structure of the human brain may help to account for uniqueness in sexual orientation. For example, morphometric analysis of the hypothalamus revealed that the volume of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in gay

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men is 1.7 times as large as that of a reference group of male subjects and contains 2.1 times as many cells (Swaab & Hofman, 1990; Swaab, Gooren, Hofman, 1995). The sexually dimorphic nucleus (SDN) data indicate the selectivity of the enlarged SCN in gay men. The size of the third interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH) were found to be more than twice as large in the heterosexual men as in the gay men (LeVay, 1991). The anterior commissure was examined in ninety postmortem brains from gay men, heterosexual men, and women. The midsagittal plane of the anterior commissure in gay men was 18 percent larger than in heterosexual women and 34 percent larger than in heterosexual men. This finding supports the hypothesis that factors operating early in development sexually differentiate the structures and functions of the brain, including the anterior commissure and sexual orientation, in a global fashion (Allen & Gorski, 1992). However, one recent study (Lasco, Jordan, Edgar, Petito, & Byne, 2002) was not able to replicate these findings and indicated that speculation regarding the role of sex differences in hemispheric functioning must be regarded as premature. Biology, including genetic and inborn hormonal factors and chromosomes, may play a significant role in a person’s sexuality (Hu et al., 1995), although many questions remain (Banks & Gartrell, 1995). Recent studies of monozygotic twins indicate a high correlation of like sexual orientation, which suggest that a biological mechanism is involved in shaping both homosexuality and heterosexuality (Buhrich, Bailey, & Martin, 1991; Eckert, Bouchard, Bohlen, & Heston, 1986; Whitam, Diamond, & Martin, 1993). A half century ago, Kallman (1952) first noted 100 percent concordance for a sample of homosexuality in monozygotic twins and 12 percent in dizygotic pairs. Of a sample of 115 gay men who had male twins, 52 percent of identical twin brothers were also gay compared with only 22 percent of fraternal twin brothers and 11 percent of adopted brothers (Bailey & Pillard, 1991). In a comparable sample of 115 lesbians, 48 percent of identical twin sisters were also lesbians compared with only 16 percent of fraternal twin sisters and 6 percent of adopted sisters (Bailey, Pillard, Neale, & Agyei, 1993). Therefore, there appears to be a high correlation between genotype and sexual orientation. Genetics have also provided evidence that sexual orientation may be linked to the X gene. Hamer, Hu, Magnuson, Hu, and Pattatucci (1993) investigated male sexual orientation by pedigree and linkage analyses on 114 families of gay men. They discovered increased rates of same-sex orientation in the maternal uncles and male cousins of

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these subjects. DNA linkage analysis of this group of forty families in which there were two gay brothers and no indication of non-maternal transmission revealed a correlation between gay orientation and the inheritance of polymorphic markers on the X chromosome in approximately 64 percent of the sibling pairs tested. The linkage to markers on Xq28, the subtelomeric region of the long arm of the sex chromosome, shows that at least one subtype of male sexual orientation is genetically influenced. In a follow-up study, linkage between the Xq28 markers and sexual orientation was detected for the gay male families but not for the lesbian families. The results corroborate the above finding of linkage between Xq28 and male homosexuality in selected kinships and suggest that this particular chromosomal region contains a locus that influences individual variations in sexual orientation in men but not necessarily in women (Hu et al., 1995). However, one recent investigation did not find evidence to support the notion that male sexual orientation was influenced by an X-linked gene (Bailey et al., 1999). Although there is no evidence for a “gay” gene as the popular media may have indicated, the evidence does suggest that genes are involved in determining sexual orientation. It is important to recognize that there are many factors that constitute a person’s sexual orientation, and these factors will vary accordingly for each individual. Human sexual orientation is complex and diversely experienced, and biologic theories and investigations do not account for all of the complexities involved. Other models have been proposed to account for the multiple complexities involved in sexual orientation. For example, a biopsychosocial model (Friedman & Downey, 1993) and an interactionist model (Byne & Parsons, 1993) have been proposed to account for the complexities not accounted for by a strictly biological approach toward understanding sexual orientation. PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GLBT-Q YOUTH Prejudice and discrimination toward GLBT-Q youth are well documented. This section addresses the nature of sexual prejudice and its impact upon children and youth. The nature of anti-gay hate crimes is presented. In addition, the impact of sexual prejudice is discussed as it pertains to the process of sexual identity disclosure (“coming out”), family relationships, the school setting, and GLBT-Q health care needs.

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Anti-gay (GLBT-Q) Hate Crimes Sexual prejudice may culminate in anti-gay (GLBT-Q) hate crimes. Antigay hate crimes are violent acts perpetrated against an innocent victim either because or on presumption that the person is of a sexually underrepresented group. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs makes it clear that anti-gay hate crimes are a distinct form of hate crime; anti-gay hate crimes are based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Unlike the origin of other forms of hate crimes (such as anti-Semitism stemming from religious hatred), anti-gay crimes—or, more technically correct, “anti-GLBT-Q” hate crimes—are precipitated in response to actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender, that is, underrepresented sexual orientation and gender identity and/or status. In the 2000 annual Uniform Crimes Report (UCR) published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate crime is defined in the following manner: “A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin” (p. 59). Of the 8,152 hate crime incidents reported to the FBI in 2000, 54.8 percent were motivated by racial bias, 16.5 percent by religious bias, 16 percent by sexual orientation bias, 12.4 percent by ethnic/national origin bias, and 0.4 percent by disability bias (FBI, 2000). Since the FBI started tracking anti-gay hate crimes, the rate has doubled from approximately 8 percent in 1991 to 16 percent in year 2000. The 1,589 reported victims of sexual orientation hate crimes in 2000 demonstrate that sexual prejudice and discrimination are a major problem perpetrated against sexual minority populations in the form of violence, and the increasing trend indicates that antigay bias is becoming substantially worse. The UCR (FBI, 2000) data include only those hate crimes that were reported to authorities; it does not document the untold number of incidents that are never reported to law enforcement agencies. For example, of the 11,690 reporting law enforcement agencies (representing forty-eight states and the District of Columbia), 83.8 percent reported that no hate crime(s) occurred in their jurisdiction, and the remaining 16.2 percent reported that at least one hate crime occurred. It appears that many anti-gay hate crimes are not reported to authorities based upon the fact that 84 percent of law enforcement agencies indicate no hate crimes in their jurisdictions. The underreporting is

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consistent with information from GLBT-Q persons who indicate they do not report to authorities due to fear of discrimination and retribution (Braford, Ryan, & Rothblum, 1994; Herek, Gillis, & Cogan, 1999; Herek, Cogan, & Gillis, 2002). Research indicates that large numbers of children and youth are victims of crimes that are never identified by authorities (Boney-McCoy & Finkelhor, 1995; Saunders, Villeponteaux, Lipovsky, Kilpatrick, & Veronen, 1992). In addition to the UCR reports, the professional literature has documented the occurrence of anti-gay hate crimes and physical violence, as well as the negative effects of such perpetration against young GLBT-Q persons from sexual prejudice (D’Augelli & Dark, 1995; Dean, Wu, & Martin, 1992; Hershberger & D’Augelli, 1995). GLBT-Q youth experience verbal and physical threats and assaults simply due to the underrepresented nature of their sexual orientation, something that they are not responsible for creating or choosing. Just as heterosexual people feel and believe that they did not choose their sexual orientation, meaning that they were “born” heterosexual, so too is the feeling and belief of the sexually underrepresented. Just as it is scientifically, socially, and politically inappropriate to ask a heterosexual person, “Why did you choose be heterosexual?” so too is the question “Why did you choose to become GLBT?” inappropriate to the sexually underrepresented. Comparing adult lesbian and gay victims of recent non-bias crimes to anti-gay hate crimes, Herek et al. (1999) indicated that recent hate crime victims displayed significantly more symptoms of depression, anger, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. Significant differences were not noted among bisexuals. Gay and lesbian hate crime survivors manifested significantly more fear of crime, greater perceived vulnerability, less belief in the benevolence of people, a lower sense of mastery, and more attributions of their personal setbacks to sexual prejudice than did non-bias crime victims and non-victims. This association can be psychologically harmful because sexual orientation is such an important part of the self-concept, and it can be particularly disrupting to young people. Research indicates that childhood victimization can disrupt the normal course of development and can be associated with symptoms over the life span (Boney-McCoy & Finkelhor, 1995). Prejudice derives from irrational fears and a lack of understanding and information and generally operates out of misinformation including myths, stereotypes, and stigmas. Unfortunately, many people have not been educated about sexual development and therefore do not

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have a correct understanding of sexual orientation and sexual identity formation. For example, many people are unaware of the biological mechanisms involved in sex formation as well as sexual orientation and development. In addition, many people continue to maintain the false belief that GLBT persons can choose their sexual orientations (Armesto & Weisman, 2001). As a result, myths, stereotypes, and stigma about homosexuality continue to perpetuate in society, causing the perpetration of sexual prejudice in the form of anti-gay hate crimes and acts of violence. Discrimination for “Coming Out” Research has demonstrated that GLBT-Q youth identity development is unlike heterosexual identity development in various ways (Floyd & Stein, 2002). One obvious difference is that heterosexual youth do not have to disclose or “come out” with their sexual orientation. The “heterosexual assumption” (Cain, 1991; Plummer, 1975; Ponse, 1978) is the philosophy that, unless otherwise indicated, all individuals in society are heterosexual. This assumption establishes social privilege for heterosexuals. Heterosexist privilege automatically and unquestionably assumes a heterosexual sexual orientation within the population. This is one major component of heterosexual privilege that is reflected in the dominant culture. With this pre-established privilege, GLBT-Q youth face the unique task of having to reveal their sexual orientation as something other than the assumed social norm. As a result, GLBT-Q youth face the potential for sexual prejudice and discrimination based upon this social dynamic of heterosexist privilege as reflected in the dominant culture. One consequence of coming out in the heterosexist, dominant culture (hetero-dominance) is that the GLBT-Q youth subculture often fear revealing their homosexuality due to personal and social stressors such as fear of rejection, fear of being ostracized, fear of verbal and physical attacks, and homelessness (D’Augelli et al., 1998; Hetrick & Martin, 1987; Pilkington & D’Augelli, 1995). This minority stress (Meyer, 1995, 2003) is due to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination, which create a stressful environment that can lead to psychological and emotional difficulties for GLBT-Q youth. Harry (1989) reported that gay adolescents were more likely to undergo physical abuse by a parent, mainly the father, than heterosexual counterparts were. This was especially true for those adolescents who displayed effeminate behaviors and/or who were known to have engaged in same-sex sexual

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behavior. Russell, Franz, and Driscoll (2001) reported that youths who experienced same-sex or both-sex romantic attraction were more likely to experience extreme forms of violence than youths who indicated heterosexual attraction. Youths reporting same-sex and bothsex romantic attractions were also more likely to witness violence and were at greater risk of experiencing, witnessing, and perpetrating violence than youths who identified as heterosexual. D’Augelli et al. (1998) examined issues related to disclosure of sexual orientation on a sample of 105 GLBT-Q youth (ages 14–21, thirty females, seventy-five males). Average age of awareness of orientation was age ten, and self-labeling occurred about four years later. First disclosure occurred at age sixteen on average (SD ⫽ 2.2). Therefore, subjects in this study had lived at home for about eight years while being aware of their underrepresented sexual orientation, for four years having self-identified, and for an additional two years before “coming out.” First disclosure was to a friend (77 percent) for most participants. Those who disclosed to a parent (9 percent) chose their mother. Three-quarters (76 percent, n ⫽ 80) revealed their sexual orientation to a parent at age 17 on average; many (39 percent) were eighteen or older. Of these eighty who told parents, 65 percent revealed to mothers, 9 percent to fathers, and 25 percent to both. Only half of the mothers and siblings, and one quarter of fathers, displayed acceptance of their coming out. One quarter of fathers and 10 percent of mothers displayed active rejection. In many cases, disclosure resulted in threats, both verbal and physical, and included verbal and physical abuse. One major strategy that homosexual youth employ to cope with sexual prejudice is to live in silence about their sexual orientation; they simply learn to hide (Martin, 1982). Unfortunately, this protection strategy distorts relationships and creates an increasing sense of isolation and loneliness. For example, of the 25 percent of subjects from the D’Augelli et al. (1998) study who chose not to disclose their sexual orientation, 12 percent reported past suicide attempts. Although more frequent attempts and thoughts of suicide were reported by those youth who had disclosed, many were victimized; whereas there were no reports of victimization from the nondisclosed group. Non-disclosure may protect GLBT-Q youth from being physically and verbally victimized, but it has a negative, internalized impact on normal homosexual development. GLBT-Q youth internalize a sense of homonegativity related to their underrepresented status. It appears that it is safe in the “closet,” but the closet

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seems to have its own set of minefields to watch out for, such as the increased stress of needing to hide. A pattern of disclosure seems to exist as a necessary function of identity development, with greater disclosure occurring as GLBT-Q identity solidifies. Youth who disclose tend to feel more comfortable about being GLBT-Q and establish friends and develop peer social networks more readily than those who choose not to disclose (D’Augelli et al., 1998). Those who disclose report fewer problems revealing their sexual orientation to friends and others, despite past victimization. Therefore, there is a positive correlation between sexual orientation disclosure and development of a positive self-GLBT-Q identity. Povinelli, Remafedi, and Tao (1996) reported that identification as homosexual (gay or bisexual) at a younger age, having a large network of friends who understand one’s sexuality, and having had a steady male partner reflected the extent of gay and bisexual identification and acculturation. The bottom line is that it is potentially dangerous for young people to disclose that they are GLBT-Q. Whether at home or at school, revelation of one’s underrepresented sexual status can result in verbal and physical harm. However, the paradox is that non-disclosure tends to thwart normal GLBT sexual identity development. Family Discrimination In addition to the negative and violent responses of family members as a result of coming out, GLBT-Q youth often face other forms of sexual prejudice from family members. Family discrimination is perhaps the most difficult for young people to deal with and to understand. From a young age, children are taught heterosexual norms and lifestyle behaviors. Comments such as “When you grow up and get married . . .” or “I can’t wait for you and your spouse to have children . . .” convey heterosexist norms and subsequently deny homosexuality as a viable lifestyle and behavior. By the early age of five, children have internalized a concept of marriage that often includes members of opposite genders (Broderick, 1966). Unfortunately, the presumption of heterosexuality leaves many families unprepared for a child’s disclosure of homosexuality and often leads to shattered parental expectations, hopes, and dreams. As a result, GLBT-Q youth face family isolation. Many of these young people do not want to hurt their parents by shattering their heterosexual assumptions and dreams, and therefore choose to live in silence. Often, they choose

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not to disclose in order to isolate their family and loved ones from anticipated turmoil that they believe would occur as a result of their sexually underrepresented status (Ben-Ari, 1995). Parents and siblings of GLBT-Q youth must also undergo a type of coming-out process. Revealing their child’s underrepresented status is not an easy task, as it means overcoming the loss of a heterosexual child as well as having to face sexual prejudice in society. Robinson, Walters, and Skeen (1989) reported a five-stage progression of mourning and loss in dealing with their child’s sex orientation: shock, denial, guilt, anger, and acceptance. Parents may blame themselves for their child’s sex orientation—believing that they were not adequate role models, they provided too much attention or affection, or they encouraged non-stereotypical play or behavior (Hunter, 1987). Parents and siblings need to seek appropriate information, seek support, and develop a positive view of their family. Unfortunately, some families would prefer their GLBT-Q child to live in silence instead of facing the challenge of family integration and overcoming sexual prejudice. Living in silence is another way that GLBT-Q youth protect themselves against anticipated fear of rejection and harm. Whereas many other underrepresented groups (such as black and Mexican American youth) rely on family support in the face of oppression and violence, family segregation is a unique form of isolation experienced by GLBT-Q youth. Other minority groups are not always able to hide innate characteristics that receive discrimination and prejudice (Strommen, 1990), but GLBT-Q youth are able to play the role of heterosexual indefinitely, supported in part by social norms and heterosexist privilege. Thus, GLBT-Q youth experience an “invisible” minority status in the attempt to hide their underrepresented sexual orientation. Despite the great amount of energy required to maintain a heterosexual image, the risk of rejection and sexual prejudice help maintain the silence and the decision to stay in the “closet” (Wells & Kline, 1987). Being “invisible” may have some advantages, but it also brings with it the intense anxiety of being “outed” and the tremendous amount of energy it takes to maintain a heterosexual fac¸ade. Fear of negative parental reactions is justified in many cases of GLBT-Q disclosure (Miller & Boon, 2000; Remafedi, 1987; Strommen, 1989; Oswald, 2000). Parental reactions range from mild negative reactions to extreme acts of violence and abuse. Coming out to parents is one of the most difficult decisions that GLBT-Q youth have to make (Savin-Williams, 1989). Anticipated parental response to disclosure is very often one of negativity for GLBT-Q youth (Boon &

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Miller, 1999). Adolescent males who believed that their sex orientation would result in negative parental response were found to have accurately predicted such a reaction (Cramer & Roach, 1988). Robinson, Walters, and Skeen (1989) reported that parents of gay and lesbian adults felt sadness, fear, regret, and depression related to their children’s sexual orientation, in addition to concerns for their safety and well-being. D’Augelli et al. (1998) found that 51 percent of mothers, 27 percent of fathers, and 57 percent of siblings were fully accepting upon disclosure. About one-third of the parents were tolerant, but not fully accepting. However, negative reactions were twice as common for the fathers, with 26 percent expressing rejection compared to 10 percent of mothers and 15 percent of siblings. Verbal abuse toward males was reported by one-quarter of the mothers, and over one-third toward the females. Almost 20 percent of fathers, as well as brothers, displayed verbal abuse. Lesbians were threatened more often with physical attacks than were gay males and were more often actual victims of attack perpetrated by mothers. Brothers of gay males perpetrated the most physical threats as well as physical assaults. There were virtually no incidences of attack among the non-disclosed group. Gay and bisexual men from the Corliss, Cochran, and Mays (2002) study reported higher rates (than heterosexual men) of childhood emotional and physical maltreatment by their mother or maternal guardian, and major physical maltreatment by their father or paternal figure. Lesbian and bisexual women also reported higher rates of major physical maltreatment from both mothers and maternal guardians as well as their fathers or paternal guardians. Discrimination at School For many GLBT-Q students, school can be an unsafe place. School environments tend to promote heterosexism, homophobia, and strict rules about gender conformity (Chen-Hayes, 2001). Research has documented that individuals assumed to be homosexual were harassed by teachers and peers in elementary school and that these experiences intensified in secondary school (Uribe & Harbeck, 1992). Others have identified the classroom as one of the most homophobic of all social institutions (Elia, 1993; Unks, 1994) and one of the most challenging environments to work in to meet the needs of GLBT-Q youth (Smith & Chen-Hayes, 2003). GLBT-Q students report hearing peers use derogatory words such as dyke or faggot at least once per

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day, as well as by teachers once per month. However, these verbal offenses were not disciplined or addressed by teachers or administrators. As a result, these students reported increases in negative feelings such as loneliness, alienation, and rejection, which were associated with higher suicide ideation and attempts; and running away and academic deterioration (Jordan, Vaughan, & Woodworth, 1997). Research indicates that approximately 28 percent of GLBT-Q adolescents drop out of school (Bernstein, 1995). Negative experiences at school can lead to a drop in academic performance and attendance among sexually underrepresented youth. GLBT-Q youth are more than four times as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to miss school due to feeling unsafe (GLSEN, 1999). Due to these unique stressors, many experience an increase in academic and social failure, decreased involvement in extracurricular activities, and non-completion of a high school (Durby, 1994; Remafedi, 1987). Staff members, teachers, and administrators often believe or do not acknowledge that GLBT-Q students exist in the school setting. Many simply deny the “possibility” that such students may be their very own. Such a rigid denial system precludes them from accepting that GLBT-Q students are present in every school. Rending these youth “invisible” is one tactic utilized to avoid having to meeting their distinct needs. A recent study found that in Seattle, Washington, of 8,406 respondents in the ninth to twelfth grades, 4.5 percent of respondents described themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Ninetyone percent described themselves as heterosexual. Another 4 percent indicated that they were “not sure” of their sexual orientation (Reis & Saewyc, 1999). Population estimates of GLBT-Q persons in the United States range between 4 percent and 10 percent, the average estimate of GLBT-Q youth population being 6 percent (Ginsberg, 1998). Denial of such facts prevents school staff from effectively meeting the psychosocial needs of these students, and it further supports the “invisibility” syndrome. Another major problem facing GLBT-Q youth is the lack of representation in the school curriculum and in classroom instruction and discussions (Fontaine, 1997; Harris, 1997). Teachers typically do not receive training or attend workshops on their own regarding sexual orientation and GLBT-Q issues/needs, and most have less than one hour of this type of training before receiving their degrees (Bliss & Harris, 1999). GLBT-Q students also lack positive role models in the school setting (Malinsky, 1997; Martin, 1982; Uribe & Harbeck,

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1992). Without identified positive role models, these students often self-identify with the negative stereotypes that are portrayed in the school system. The presence of visible GLBT staff members is essential in providing support and role identification for these at-risk students. Unfortunately, many school personnel are themselves afraid to be “out” in their school workplace due to fear of discrimination and the threat of potential job loss (Anderson, 1994; Bliss & Harris, 1998). Discrimination in the Health Care Setting: GLBT-Q Health Care Needs Recently there has been an increased recognition of GLBT-Q adolescent health care needs and the unique issues that they face as a sexual minority group (Allen, Glicken, Beach, & Naylor, 1998; Beach et al., 1993; Perrin & Kulkin, 1996). In order to provide adequate medical and health care for GLBT-Q youth, physicians, nurses, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other providers must have a proper knowledge and understanding of homosexual development and its unique health care needs. Often, GLBT-Q youth will not discuss their unique medical concerns due to fear of discrimination based upon sexual orientation and homosexual sex practices (such as injury from anal intercourse). In one study (Telljohann & Price, 1993) 19 percent of males and 18 percent of females indicated that they would not disclose or discuss their sexual orientation with their physicians due to fear of discrimination. Gay males tend to choose health care providers based upon the providers’ like sexual orientation, and lesbians tend to choose female providers (Paroski, 1987). Allen et al. (1998) reported that two thirds of their GLB subjects (n ⫽ 102, ages 18–23) stated that they never discussed sexual orientation with their medical providers during their youth (ages 14–18), but reported the desire to do so. Sixty percent of subjects (n ⫽ 81) reported not feeling safe discussing sexual orientation with their providers. Fewer than half of the subjects remembered being informed about medical confidentiality. Those who were informed of such were three times more likely to discuss their minority sexual orientation. Over 70 percent of the subjects who reported not being informed about medical confidentiality indicated that they would have been more likely to discuss their sexual orientation under this blanket of security. A total of thirteen subjects had disclosed their

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sexual orientation to the heath care provider(s), and half of those males were given information on HIV prevention. Two of the thirteen subjects reported that their health care providers seemed to take offense at their sexual orientation, and two indicated that the information was discussed with their parents without consent. One respondent stated that her medical provider made note of her sexual orientation on the medical record against her permission to do so. None of these thirteen subjects were referred to a support group for GLBT-Q teens, even though this has been a professional recommendation for this population for over fifteen years (Gonsiorek, 1988). The research regarding discrimination of GLBT-Q youth in the medical setting is limited. However, the investigations conducted on adult homosexuals illuminates the severity of sexual prejudice within the medical community. GLBT-Q families have also experienced sexual prejudice with the health care system. These include issues concerning conception choices and family constellation; issues of disclosure (“coming out”); family breakdown or separation; issues of custody and legal rights, particularly for non-biological parents; lack of social acceptance; overt social disapproval for GLBT-Q families; and the impact of this on children (Clay, 1990; Deevey, 1989; Eliason, 1996a; Gentry, 1992; Gold, Perrin, Futterman, & Friedman, 1994; Kenney & Tash, 1992; Nelson, 1997; Perrin & Kulkin, 1996). Research on adult GLBT persons indicates that the health care system has not always met their health-related needs and concerns, and a significant proportion of health care providers still hold prejudiced views and condemnatory attitudes toward homosexuals (Eliason & Randall, 1991; James, Harding, & Corbett, 1994; Rose, 1994; Schwanberg, 1996). Homophobia, stereotyping, and stigmatization by health professionals are crucial factors in the health care experiences of many GLBT-Q persons (Baker, 1993; Grossman, 1994; Morrissey, 1996). When their sexual orientation is known, gay men and lesbians have reported embarrassment by care providers, fear, ostracism, refusal to treat, demeaning jokes, avoidance of physical contact, rough physical handling, rejection of partners and friends, invasion of privacy, breaches of confidentiality, and feeling at risk of harm (Harvey, Carr, & Berrnheine, 1990; Mackereth, 1994; Stevens, 1994). For lesbians, these negative experiences have impacted readiness to seek medical care, causing delays in obtaining treatment, fear of disclosure of sexual orientation, feelings of anxiety and vulnerability, and fears of discrimination (Trippet & Bain, 1992).

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Sex Behavior Risks and Discrimination Certain sexual behaviors, not sexual orientation, pose medical risks for GLBT-Q youth. The notion of GLBT sexual orientation as a deviant form of sexual expression and identity can lead to unsafe sexual practices among sexually underrepresented youth. These youth engage in high-risk behaviors—including high-risk sex activity—due to negativity, rejection, violence, and other acts of prejudice and discrimination based upon underrepresented sexual orientation. Runaway and homeless GLBT-Q youth have been identified as practicing high-risk sex behaviors (Johnson, Aschkenasy, Herbers, & Gillenwater, 1996; Rotheram-Borus, Koopman, & Ehrhardt, 1991; RotheramBorus, Mahler, Koopman, & Langabeer, 1996), including prostitution and survivor sex (Greene, Ennett, & Ringwalt, 1997, 1999; Yates, MacKenzie, Pennbridge, & Swofford, 1991). Examples of unsafe sex behavior include the high rate of not using a condom during anal intercourse among gay men or multiple sex partners. A common injury that occurs during rectal intercourse is damage of the epithelial surface of the rectal mucosa, thus allowing the transmission of pathogens. The most common pathogens transmitted through rectal intercourse are hepatitis B, cytomegalovirus, and HIV (Remafedi, 1990). Unprotected oral-anal and digital-anal sex contact can also transmit hepatitis A virus (Allard, Beauchemin, Bedard, Dion, Tremblay et al., 2001; Henning, Bell, Braun, & Barker, 1995). Unprotected oral-genital sex can lead to oropharyngeal disease as well as gonococcal and nongonococcal urethritis for the insertive partner (Lafferty, Hughes, & Handsfield, 1997). Bacterial vaginosis is a noted pathogen transferred in lesbians (Rich, Buck, Tuomala, & Kazanjian, 1993). Despite the threat of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), high-risk sexual behavior continues among GLBTQ youth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 1999) report that sexual exposure accounts for most adolescent AIDS cases and HIV infections. Of the 14 million people worldwide who were HIV-infected by 1993, roughly half were adolescents (Goldsmith, 1993). In the United States, estimates of HIV-infected youth range from 110,000 to 250,000 (Rotheram-Borus, O’Keefe, Kracker, & Foo, 2000). The age of infection has been rapidly declining, with one in four new infections occurring in youth ages 21 or younger (Gourevitch, 1996; Rosenberg, Biggar, & Goedert, 1994). Recent data suggest that approximately half of the new infections are

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among youth (CDC, 1998a). Ninety-two percent of seropositive youth acquired HIV via sex transmission, and 8 percent through drug injection (CDC, 1998b). AIDS has recently taken seventh place among the leading causes of adolescent deaths for ages 15 to 24 (Hoyert, Kochanek, & Murphy, 1999). A cumulative total of 9,507 AIDS deaths of adolescents aged 15 to 24 were reported from 1998 through 2002. The rate of AIDS diagnosis has been increasing each year from 1998 through 2002, from 1,591 to 1,833 for this same age group (CDC, 2002). Many young people tend to be well informed about HIV/AIDS and hold relatively positive attitudes about HIV/ AIDS prevention; however, many do not perceive themselves to be at risk of HIV infection (Reitman, St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Alleyne, Brasfield et al., 1996; Remafedi, 1994; Sikand, Fisher, & Friedman, 1996). Mental Health Risks and Discrimination Unfortunately, many GLBT-Q youth do not escape the social stigma that is often associated with HIV/AIDS and other STIs. They do not seek appropriate medical, psychological, or other health care treatment due to the social prejudice that is associated with HIV/ AIDS and STIs (Allen et al., 1998; D’Augelli & Hershberger, 1993; Grossman, 1994; Harper & Schneider, 2003; Robinson, Walters, & Skeen, 1989). In addition, GLBT-Q youth feel the burden that their sex orientation automatically puts them at risk for a potentially lethal infection (D’Augelli, 1998), which compounds the negative effects of their experience with minority stress (Meyer, 1995, 2003). In addition to HIV/AIDS and STIs, depression and suicide are major health care needs facing GLBT-Q youth. Rates of suicide ideation range from 50 percent to 70 percent, and actual suicide attempts among sexually underrepresented youth are consistently higher than those of the general population of adolescents, ranging from 20 percent to 42 percent across studies (Remafedi, French, Story, Resnick, & Blum, 1998), a rate that is three times higher than that of heterosexual youth. Several researchers have suggested that bisexual and questioning youth may be at an even higher risk of suicide than self-identified gay or lesbian youth due to the lack of positive self-esteem and role identification (D’Augelli & Hershberger, 1993; D’Augelli, Hershberger, & Pilkington, 1998, 2001, 2002). Retrospective studies have identified risk factors associated with GLBT-Q

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suicide, including age of first awareness (Remafedi, 1987), rejection based on sex orientation (Schneider, Farberow, & Kurks, 1989), substance use/abuse, gender atypicality, and family conflict related to identity assumption (heterosexuality) (Remafedi, Farrow, & Deisher, 1991). The overall severity of GLBT-Q suicide attempts is comparable to that of their heterosexual counterparts. Some studies suggest that sexually underrepresented youth who are depressed may consider suicide as an escape, not necessarily related to their sexual orientation/identity, but as a direct result of social discrimination and sexual prejudice (D’Augelli & Hershberger, 1995; Rotheram-Borus, Hunter, & Rosario, 1994; Savin-Williams, 1994). ADVOCACY FOR SEXUAL UNDERREPRESENTED (GLBT-Q) YOUTH As seen in the above overview, sexually underrepresented youth face myriad acts of prejudice and discrimination, including multiple forms of oppression resulting in sexual prejudice. The developmental challenges are innumerable in the face of such opposition. However, there is hope. Progress toward reducing sexual prejudice and heterosexism is being made, and the GLBT-Q community and its advocates are experiencing increasing normalization of homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, and diverse forms of gender expression. Although much progress still remains, GLBT-Q youth have greater support networks, agencies, and programs to assist them in normal GLBT development than ever before in history. Members of the hetero-dominant group must become allies for the sexually underrepresented. GLBT-Q Advocacy Advocating for GLBT-Q youth is paramount for ending sexual prejudice and halting acts of violence and anti-gay hate crimes. Heterosexual people have a major responsibility to advocate for members of the sexual minority. An ally is a member of the dominant majority culture—in this case, heterosexuals who work to end oppression through support of and as advocates for the oppressed population (that is, GLBT-Q persons). Suggestions on how to have an effective counseling relationship with GLBT-Q clients include the following: • Learn to self-reflect and examine your own heterosexism and transgenderism.

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• Professional counselors must become knowledgeable of GLBT-Q issues. • Use inclusive language (partner, significant other instead of spouse, etc.), and do not assume anyone’s sexual orientation or gender identity/ expression. • Distinguish between heterosexual and traditional gender identity privilege. • Clients should be accepted by the counselor without sex prejudice, regardless of their sexual orientation. Unconditional acceptance must be displayed toward clients at all times, even when clients are confused about their orientation, or even when they change their minds as to their gender identity expression. • Counselors need to assist clients in understanding their feelings about sexuality. • Provide accurate information about GLBT-Q issues, both in scholarly and literature writings to help do away with stereotypes. • The counselor should be able to suggest peer support groups in the local and regional area to the GLBT-Q client. • Aid the client toward developing personal coping skills to deal with negative and hurtful social stereotypes and stigmas. • Counselors need to be cautious of suicidal tendencies, substance abuse, and other psychosocial risk factors of GLBT-Q youth. • Counselors have to deal not only with the clients, but with the families as well. • Assist clients with making their own decision about coming out, and the appropriate timing. • Counselors must protect and advocate for GLBT-Q youth across situations and people. • Use general counseling strategies, such as confidentiality and maintaining boundaries with clients.

Basically, in order to provide GLBT-Q youth with the warmth and understanding they want and deserve, a mental health counselor must be gay-affirming. A gay-affirming professional is one who has evaluated his/her own sexual values, is familiar with resources for GLBTQ youth, is willing to accept and support GLBT-Q youth even when they struggle to accept themselves, and is willing to identify and challenge heterosexism and other forms of sexual prejudice. Gay-affirmative professionals must be willing to do what others and GLBT-Q

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youth may not be able to do—be proud, supportive, and a strong voice for all sexual orientations and gender variations. CONCLUSION As I have thought about closing this chapter, I have struggled with summarizing so many important issues regarding GLBT-Q youth. Since I began with the murder of Matthew Shepard, I leave you with the words of Dennis Shepard spoken to the one who murdered his son. In my opinion, there is no greater act of social advocacy, kindness, and respect for all people than what was demonstrated by Mr. Shepard (1999) in the following: Mr. McKinney, one final comment before I sit and this is the reason that I stand before you now. At no time since Matt was found at the fence and taken to the hospital have Judy and I made any statements about our beliefs concerning the death penalty. We felt that would be an undue influence on any prospective juror. Judy has been quoted by some right wing groups as being against the death penalty. It has been stated that Matt was against the death penalty. Both of these statements are wrong. We have held family discussions and talked about the death penalty. For example, he and I discussed the horrible death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. It was his opinion that the death penalty should be sought and that no expense should be spared to bring those responsible for this murder to justice. Little did we know that the same response would come about involving Matt. I, too, believe in the death penalty. I would like nothing better than to see you die, Mr. McKinney. However, this is the time to begin the healing process. To show mercy to someone who refused to show any mercy. To use this as the first step in my own closure about losing Matt. Mr. McKinney, I am not doing this because of your family. I am definitely not doing it because of the crass and unwarranted pressures put on by the religious community. If anything, that hardens my resolve to see you die. Mr. McKinney, I’m going to grant you life, as hard as it is for me to do so, because of Matthew. Every time you celebrate Christmas, a birthday or the fourth of July, remember that Matthew isn’t. Every time you wake up in that prison cell, remember that you had the opportunity and the ability to stop your actions that night. Every time that you see your cell mate, remember that you had a choice and now you are living that choice. You robbed me of something very precious and I will never forgive you for that. Mr. McKinney, I give you life in the memory of one who no longer lives. May you have a long life and may you thank Matthew every day for it. Your Honor, Members of the Jury, Mr. Rerucha, Thank you.

Toolbox for Change Issue: Images/ perceptions

Change at individual level

Change at community level

Advocating change in mental health/educational systems

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Homophobia

Become aware of internalized homophobia.

Have hate-crime reporting mechanisms and strong hate-crime laws. Train legal professionals on the legal, medical, and health consequences of homophobia.

Train health professionals and educators in the dynamics of individual, family, and institutional prejudice resulting from homophobia.

Heterosexism

Become aware of how one reinforces genderstereotypical roles and notions of “acceptable” sexual identity

Eliminate use of exclusionary language; support equal rights for same-sex relationships (such as marriage, health benefits, legal rights).

Educate people about diverse forms of relationships and sexual development. Support comprehensive sexual education. Utilize inclusive language in counseling and educational settings.

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Anti-gay hate crimes

Confront use of defamatory language (gay-bashing) and threats of physical harm toward GLBT-Q youth/adults.

Support penalties for discrimination and hate crimes based on sexual orientation. Support organizations that work to stop anti-gay hate crimes (human rights campaigns)

Educate people on the destructiveness of oppressing and marginalizing groups based on sexual orientation. Train educators on the seriousness of teasing and aggression based on homoprejudice. Provide support groups for victims of anti-gay crimes.

“Normal” sexual development

Be knowledgeable of biological, psychological, emotional, and social factors in sexual development. Be accepting of diverse sexual orientations and sexual self-identities.

Support sex education and research. Advocate for nonheterosexist research on typical sexual development (for example, rather than research the “cause” of homosexuality, research on the emergence of all sexual orientations).

Do research on sexual issues and create avenues for dissemination of sexual research to the public.

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APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES There are a number of helpful books, articles, videos, pamphlets, web sites, and organizations covering GLBT-Q issues. The following list, while not exhaustive, emphasizes resources that may be of particular interest to professional school and mental health counselors, families of GLBT-Q youth, school personnel, and GLBT-Q youth. The references are separated into their most relevant targeted population. Many of the references may be of interest across all categories. School Counselors and Mental Health Professionals Brown, M. L., & Rounsley, C. A. (1996). True selves: Understanding transsexualism for families, friends, coworkers, and helping professionals. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Capuzzi, D., & Gross, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). Introduction to the counseling profession. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Chen-Hayes, S. F., & Banez, L. (2000). LBGT youth counseling in schools and families leader guide. Amherst, MA: Microtraining Associates. Chung, Y. (1995). Career decision making of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. Career Development Quarterly, 44(2), 178–190. Creighton, A., & Kivel, P. (1992). Helping teens stop violence: A practical guide for counselors, educators, and parents. Alameda, CA: Hunter House. DeCrescenzo, T. (Ed.). (1994). Helping gay and lesbian youth. New York: Haworth Press. Dworkin, S., & Gutierrez, F. (Eds.). (1992). Counseling gay men and lesbians: Journey to the end of the rainbow. Alexandria, VA: American Association for Counseling & Development. Elia, J. P. (1993). Homophobia in the school: A problem in need of a resolution. The High School Journal, 77, 177–185. Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). (1997, January 1). Staff development on homophobia issues. Retrieved February 12, 2002, from http://www.glsen.org/templates/resources/record.html? section⫽18&record⫽382 Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). (2000, April 1). The GLSEN lunchbox: A comprehensive training program for ending anti-gay bias in schools. Retrieved February 12, 2002, from http:// www.glsen.org/ templates/resources/record.html?section⫽18&record ⫽767 Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). (2001, October 30). Lesson plan: What do “faggot” and “dyke” mean? Retrieved February 12, 2002, from http://www.glsen.org/templates/resources/ record.html?section⫽18&record⫽1049

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Harris, M. B. (1997). School experiences of gay and lesbian youth: The invisible minority. New York: Haworth Press. Herdt, G. H. (Ed.). (1989). Gay and lesbian youth. New York: Haworth Press. Hershberger, S. L., Pilkington, N. W., & D’Augelli, A. R. (1997). Predictors of suicide attempts among gay, lesbian and bisexual youth. Journal of Adolescent Research, 12(4), 477–497. Hunter, S. (Ed.). (1998). Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth and adults: Knowledge for human services practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Irvine, J. (Ed.). (1994). Sexual cultures and the construction of adolescent identity. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Namaste, V. K. (2000). Invisible lives: The erasure of transsexual and transgendered people. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. O’Connor, A. (1994). Who gets called queer in school? Lesbian, gay, and bisexual teenagers, homophobia, and high school. The High School Journal, 77, 71–72. Owens, R. E. (1998). Queer kids: The challenges and promises for lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. New York: Harrington Park Press. Robinson, K. E. (1994). Addressing the needs of gay and lesbian students: The school counselor’s role. The School Counselor, 41, 326–332. Savin-Williams, R. C. (1990). Gay and lesbian adolescents. Marriage and Family Review, 14(3–4), 197–216. Savin-Williams, R. C. (1990). Gay and lesbian youth: Expressions of identity. New York: Hemisphere. Schneider, S. G., Farberow, N. L., & Kruks, G. N. (1989). Suicidal behavior in adolescent and young adult gay men. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 19, 381–394. Smolinsky, T. (2001, December 14). What do we really think? A group exercise to increase heterosexual ally behavior. Retrieved February 12, 2002 from http://www.glsen.org/templates/resources/record.html?section ⫽18&record⫽1093 Tolan, P. H., & Choler, B. J. (Eds.). (1993). Handbook of clinical research and practice with adolescents. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Williamson, I. (1999). Why are gay men a high risk group for eating disturbance? European Eating Disorders Review, 7(1), 1–4.

Parents, Families, and Friends Bernstein, R. (Ed.). (1995). Straight parents, gay children. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press. Casper, V., & Schultz, S. B. (1999). Gay parents/straight schools: Building communication and trust. New York: Teachers College Press. Clark, D. (1990). Loving someone gay. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts.

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Dew, R. F. (1995). The family heart: A memoir of when our son came out. New York: Ballantine. Evelyn, J. (1998). Mom, I need to be a girl. Imperial Beach, CA: Walter Trook. Fairchild, B., & Hayward, N. (1989). Now that you know: What every parent should know about homosexuality. (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Gottlieb, A. R. (2000). Out of the twilight: Fathers of gay men speak. New York: Haworth Press. Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. (1995). Our daughters and sons: Questions and answers for parents of gay, lesbian and bisexual people. Washington, DC: Author. Patterson, C. J., & D’Augelli, A. R. (Eds.). (1998). Lesbian, gay and bisexual identities in families: Psychological perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press. Savin-Williams, R. C. (2001). Mom, dad. I’m gay. How families negotiate coming out. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.

GLBT-Q Youth Bass, E., & Kaufman, K. (1996). Free your mind: The book for lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth and their allies. New York: HarperCollins. Bean, J. (Ed.). (1986). In the life: A black gay anthology. Boston: Alyson Publications. Borhek, M. V. (1993). Coming out to parents: A two-way survival guide for lesbians and gay men and their parents. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim. Fricke, A. (1981). Reflections of a rock lobster: A story about growing up gay. Boston: Alyson Publications. Gray, M. (1999). In your face. New York: Haworth Press. Harris, M. B. (Ed.). (1998). School experiences of gay and lesbian youth. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. Heron, A. (Ed.). (1994). Two teenagers in twenty: Writings by gay and lesbian youth. Los Angeles: Alyson Publications. Kay, P., Estapa, A., & Dessetta, A. (Eds.) (1996). Out with it: Gay and straight teens write about homosexuality. New York: Youth Communications. Marino, T. W. (1995). To be young and gay in America. Counseling Today, 37(11), 1–8. Rench, J. E. (1992). Understanding sexual identity: A book for gay teens and their friends. Lerner Publishing Group. Stanley, J. P., & Wolf, S. J. (1980). Coming out stories. Boston: Persephone. Williams, W. (1985). The spirit and the flesh: Sexual diversity in American Indian culture. Boston: Beacon.

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Teachers and School Administrators Chasnof, D., & Cohen, H. (1996). It’s elementary: Talking about gay issues. Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association. Comstock, G. D. (1991). Violence against lesbians and gay men. New York: Columbia University Press. Gay, Lesbian and Straight Teachers Network (GLSTN). Retrieved April 21, 2003 from http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/orgs/glstn/ Harbeck, K. M. (Ed.). (1997). Coming out of the classroom closet: Gay and lesbian students, teachers, and curricula. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press. Harris, L. (1993). Hostile hallways: The AAUW survey on sexual harassment in America’s schools. Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. Herek, G., & Berrill, K. (Eds.). (1992). Hate crimes: Confronting violence against lesbians and gay men. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Jennings, K. (Ed.). (1994). One teacher in ten: Gay & lesbian educators tell their stories. Los Angeles: Alyson Publications. Kessler, S. J. (1998). Lessons from the intersexed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Letts, W. J., & Sears, J. T. (1999). Queering elementary education: Advancing the dialogue about sexualities and schooling. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Pinar, W. F. (Ed.). (1998). Queer theory in education. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) NationalGuidelines Task Force. (1996). Guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education: Kindergarten–12th grade (2nd ed.). New York: Author. Swartz, K. J. (1996). The price of non-existence: Psychosocial risk factors in gay and lesbian adolescents. Doctoral dissertation, Wright State University, Dayton, OH. Unks, G. (Ed.). (1995). The gay teen: Educational practice and theory for lesbian, gay and bisexual adolescents. New York: Routledge. Uribe, V. (1991). Project 10 handbook: Addressing lesbian and gay issues in our schools (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: Friends of Project 10. Woog, D. (1995). School’s out. Boston: Alyson Publications. Woog, D. (1998). Jocks: True stories of America’s gay male athletes. New York: Alyson Books.

Magazines Some magazines would be useful to display in the school counseling office so that students can become more educated on GLBT-Q issues

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and GLBT-Q students can feel more comfortable with their sexuality. The magazines Inside Out, OUT, The Advocate, OutYouth, Rethinking Schools, and Y.O.U.T.H. all would be useful in creating safer schools. Videotapes There are numerous videos addressing a broad range of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression issues that can be purchased online from GLSEN, PFLAG, or Microtraining Associates. The following is a brief list of recommended videos for school counselors, teachers, parents, guardians, administrators, and students. All God’s Children, produced by Woman Vision, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum (1996). Purchase item #VHS-AGC-WV2. All God’s Children is a documentary regarding the black church’s acceptance of black lesbian women and gay men as a unique component of the church body. This video highlights the role of the church and its members’ commitment to equal rights and social justice for all people. A classroom study guide accompanies the video. Both My Moms Are Named Judy: Children of Lesbians and Gays Speak Out, produced by the Lesbian and Gay Parents Association (1994). Purchase item #VHS-BMM-PR1. Designed for elementary-school educators and administrators, this video presents a diverse group of children (ages 7–11) who have lesbian and/or gay parents. These children openly discuss their family relationships and their feelings about being teased because of their parents’ homosexual orientation. They reveal insight on secrecy and silence about homosexuality in the classroom, and they provide practical suggestions on how to effect positive change. Gay Youth, an Educational Video, produced by Pam Walton (1995). Purchase item #VHS-GAY-PW. This video compares the unfortunate suicide of twenty-year-old Bobby Griffith with the remarkable life of seventeen-year-old Gina Guiterrez. It demonstrates how LBGT-Q youth are at great risk in our society. More importantly, it shows that through proper education and information coupled with acceptance and support, LBGT-Q youth can overcome the obstacles faced by sexual minorities. I Just Want to Say, produced by GLSEN (1998). Purchase item #VHS-JWS-GL1. Tennis champion Martina Navratilova discuses the anti-gay climate in schools across the nation and its devastating impact on gay youth. She reveals how educators and school personnel can effectively teach respect and dignity for all students. Two very important

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Public Service Announcements follow the main feature with Judy Shepard. Youth OUTLoud! Addressing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth Issues in Our Schools, produced by Sun & Moon Vision Productions (2000). Purchase item #VHS-YOL-GL1. Promoting safety is a must for all students, particularly for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth of color in our schools. This documentary reveals the stories of several high school students who initiate positive change from local school district policies to state and federal laws. Counseling LBGT Youth in Schools and Families: I, II, produced by Microtraining Associates (http://www.emicrotraining.com/) (2000). Video series by two counselor-educators (Stuart Chen-Hayes and Lynn Banez) that teaches professional counselors how to work effectively with LBGT issues in schools. Multiracial vignettes throughout; leader guide and transcript in addition to the two videotapes. It’s Elementary, produced by Women’s Educational Media purchase (1995). Purchase item #VHS-YOL-GL1, or the educational training version #VHS-IEM-HC. It’s Elementary gives real-life examples of school activities, faculty meetings, and classroom discussions about lesbian and gay issues. There is an accompanying viewing guide designed to facilitate open constructive dialogue among the adults in school communities.

Internet Web Sites There are many available web sites that are directly related to GLBT-Q students and families. The GLSEN web page (http://www.glsen.org/) stresses the organization’s drive to create safe schools for GLBT-Q students. Training outlines, curriculum ideas, current laws, and articles regarding GLBT-Q education are downloadable. In-class activities are pre-made and age-appropriate, such as “Homophobia 101 and 201,” as is the anti-homophobia curriculum for schools’ staff and students. Professional contacts and a resource center are outlined to assist GLBT-Q people and allies in better understanding surrounding issues. Resources exist for parents of GLBT-Q youth to understand and accept their children’s sexuality and create a safer home environment, thus further reducing psychosocial risk factors (Fairchild & Hayward, 1998). The Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) web site (http://www.pflag.org/) promotes the health and wellbeing of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons and their families and friends through education and support, as well as advocating against discrimination. The site includes a complete listing of

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PFLAG chapters by state, with links to local chapters, and numerous region-related products available for purchase, such as books, clothing, stickers, and other items supporting GLBT-Q lifestyles. Also available on this page is the pamphlet entitled, “Be Yourself: Questions and Answers for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth,” at http://www.qrd. org/qrd/youth/be.yourself. The publication is especially helpful in helping youth to understand the issues surrounding their sexuality and other problems they may face. The American Counseling Association division for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues in Counseling (AGLBIC) (http://www.aglbic.org/ index.htm) is dedicated to educating counselors about the unique needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals while advocating for their social rights. The site provides contact information for therapists who are division members and specialize in counseling GLBTQ clients. An online journal, division newsletter, and an information exchange listserver exist for those who want to become more competent in and inquisitive about GLBT-Q issues. The American Psychological Association offers the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues (http://www. apa.org/divisions/div44/), promoting GLBT-Q lifestyles through research, education, and policy. Perhaps the most important tool for the counseling professional is a list of guidelines encompassing attitudes toward sexual minorities, relationships with family members, issues of diversity, and professional education. Additional links include journal articles, newsletters, conference information, and listserver subscriptions. Information related to specific cultural and ethnic backgrounds include the following: • National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Organization: (www.llego.org) • Gay Asian Pacific Support Network: (http://www.gapsn.org/) • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender South Asians: (http://www.tri kone.org/)

Religious sites include the following: • United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Concerns: (http://www.umaffirm.org/) • Gay and Lesbian Mormons: (http://www.affirmation.org/) • Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Catholics: (http://www.digni tyusa.org/) • Lutherans Concerned for and Affirming God’s Love for Gay and Lesbian People: (http://www.lcna.org/)

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• Unitarian Universalists’ queer-affirming association of congregations: (http://www.uua.org/obgltc/wcp/wc1expln.html)

Other web sites that offer GLBT-Q students, their families, and advocates information include the following: • Out Proud: National Coalition for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth: (http://www.outproud.org/), where you can find numerous helpful brochures, links, classroom guidelines, and educational tools such as those mentioned above. • Sex Education and Information Council of the United States (SIECUS): (www.siecus.org http://www.siecus.org) • National Center for Lesbian Rights: (www.nclrights.org http://www. nclrights.org) • Oasis Magazine: (http://www.oasismag.com/), for queer and questioning youth who want to write to each other. • Outright: (http://outright.com/) • The Cool Page for Queer Teens: (http://www.bidstrup.com/ cool.htm).

Additional GLBT-Q Organizations and Internet Web Sites • AGLBIC: The Association for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues in Counseling (also includes transgender issues): (www.aglbic.org) • BINET: Bisexual Network of the United States: (www.binetusa.org) • Bisexual Resource Center: (www.biresource.org http://www.bir esource.org) • Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere: (www.colage.org/) • Dignity USA: (www.dignityusa.org/) • IFGE: The International Foundation for Gender Education: (www.ifge.org) • International Lesbian and Gay Association: (www.ilga.org/) • PFLAG: Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (and bisexuals and transgendered persons): (www.pflag.org) • Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD): (www.glad.org/) • Gender PAC: (www.gpac.org/) • GLADD: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation: (www. glaad.org/org/index.html) • GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network: (www. glsen.org) • Human Rights Campaign: (www.hrc.org/)

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• The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission: (www.iglhrc.org/) • Lambda Legal Defense And Education Fund: (www.lambdalegal. org) • Lesbian.com: (www.lesbian.com) • LesbiaNation.com: (www.lesbianation.com/) • National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum: (www.nblglf. org) • National Center For Lesbian Rights: (www.nclrights.org) • National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce: (www.ngltf.org/) • National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Organization: (www.llego.org) • NYAGRA: New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy: (www.nyagra.org) • OUTPROUD: National Coalition of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: (www.outproud.org) • SIECUS: Sex Education and Information Council of the United States: (www.siecus.org) • Triangle Foundation: (www.tri.org/) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank Drs. Shannon Dermer and Stuart Chen-Hayes for their editorial comments and suggestions for this chapter.

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Uribe, V., & Harbeck, K. M. (1992). Addressing the needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth: The origins of Project 10 and school-based intervention. Journal of Homosexuality, 22, 9–28. Waldo, C. R., Hesson-McInnis, M. S., & D’Augelli, A. R. (1998). Antecedents and consequences of victimization of lesbian, gay, and bisexual young people: A structural model comparing rural university and urban samples. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26, 307–334. Weinberg, G. H. (1972). Society and the healthy homosexual. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Weinberg, T. S. (1984). Biology, ideology, and the reification of developmental stages in the study of homosexual identities. Journal of Homosexuality, 10, 77–84. Weinberg, T. S., Williams, C. J., & Pryor, D. W. (1994). Dual attraction: Understanding bisexuality. New York: Oxford University Press. Wells, J., & Kline, W. (1987). Self-disclosure of homosexual orientation. Journal of Social Psychology, 127(2), 191–197. Whitam, F., Diamond, M., & Martin, J. (1993). Homosexual orientation in twins: A report on 61 pairs and tree triplet sets. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 22(3), 151–170. Whitman, J. S., Cormier, S., & Boyd, C. J. (2000). Lesbian identity management at various stages of the coming out process: A qualitative study. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, 5(1), 3–18. Yates, G. L., MacKenzie, R. G., Pennbridge, J., & Swofford, A. (1991). A risk profile comparison of homeless youth involved in prostitution and homeless youth not involved. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 545–548. Zea, M. C. (1999, November). Latino HIV-positive gay men’s narratives on disclosure of serostatus. Paper presented at the 127th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. Zea, M. C., Reisen, C. A., & Diaz, R. M. (2003). Methodological issues in research on sexual behaviors with Latino gay and bisexual men. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31, 243–252.

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CHAPTER 8

Socio-Spatial Experiences of Transgender Individuals Kim D. Felsenthal

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estern culture constructed sex, sexuality, and gender categories based on oppositional binaries, such as male/female, straight/gay, normal/deviant, that were to add structure and “normalcy” to our society. Now, because of advances in medical technology and changes in cultural and religious convention, these socially prescribed constructs are becoming more fluid and less defined. It is easier and more acceptable to question or even change who one is. This includes the act of “coming out” as gay or lesbian, “transitioning” to the other sex (either operatively or by cross-dressing), or by denying, thereby defying, all classification systems. One may now self-identify as transgender, transsexual, transvestite, gender bender, intersexed, drag, butch, queer, androgynous, gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, or polymorphous. Therefore, the reductionist and restrictive binary taxonomies do not apply to today’s gender-fluid society. Our society does not recognize the spectrum of genders and, therefore, individuals who are gender-variant have no “place” within our socio-spatial environment. So, what happens when an individual does not fall within the two gender categories? Where does that person fit? Someone who is trans1 challenges, even breaks, the rigid gender binary system and must grapple with these questions daily. Western society ensures trans people that there is no “place” for them by enacting biased, regulatory performances that fortify only the male and female constructs. By

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this I mean that through medical intervention, psychological diagnoses, governmental regulations, media interpretation, individual biases, and citizen policing, one is required to act, dress, and be only what their sex dictates. When an individual transgresses the gender dichotomy, the repercussions are significant. The hostile environment that trans individuals face creates perilous conditions for them when they are “out” in public. Transphobic attitudes are played through acts of violence that considerably limit the use of public accommodations. If trans individuals are fearful when out in public, they will increase their tendency to stay close to home and will limit their capacity to use public space without fear of heterosexist violence. This has considerable consequences. When an individual does not have access to and use of public space, this will severely hinder identity development (Proshansky et al., 1983). This chapter will look at the socio-spatial environment in which the trans individual lives. I will first discuss the construction and fortification of the gender binary of males and females. Thereafter, I will explore what happens when that binary is broken, and the sociospatial implications of this fissure. Finally, I present some of the spatial strategies that trans individuals use to counter society’s adverse reaction of them. Much of the information included here is from recent empirical work that has been performed either by the author, from a recent study on gender-variant individuals, or by other researchers in the burgeoning field of trans studies. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF MALE AND FEMALE Historically, sex has been referred to as biological—a chromosomal difference separate from culture or discourse. It has been defined by one’s XY or XX chromosomes as well as by bodily differences, such as genital constructs and hair growth variations. Gender, however, is considered, according to the seminal work of psychologist Robert Stoller, an “overall sense of being male or female” and is present in a child’s first year of life (Stoller, 1968). According to his theory, it is an internal experience that occurs within the individual’s psyche. An infant, however, is born into a sexed society where heteronormative gender roles and behaviors are strictly taught and enforced. Thus, the social construction of gender is more rigidly defined by behavior as well as self-identification as either male or female, masculine or feminine.

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John Money’s research on the construction of gender in intersex individuals provided much of the groundwork for trans research. He found that once doctors declared the sexual identity of an intersex child (usually after several reconstructive surgeries), the child’s gender development and expression would most likely be dictated by social influences (1994). In other words, if both the parents and the child’s social circle treat the child like a boy, then the child will “learn” to become and behave as a boy. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus complements Money’s findings on gender development (1977). Bourdieu posits that one’s enactments, when played out repeatedly, become internalized and normalized. When the process is internalized in the collective, it becomes a societal norm. The proliferation of a binary gender system and the acts performed to fortify it (for example, violence against trans individuals), therefore, are the social habitus for gender norms in western society. If we were to apply habitus to the development of the gender dichotomy, it would start with the parents’ treatment of an infant when it was born. The elementary concept of using color to define gender, such as pink for girls and blue for boys, as well as differential behaviors with male and female infants (such as stimulating girls with talk and boys with rough play) initiates a social dynamic that will be mirrored in society. The gender distinctions are stratified further when parents threaten their child with punishments if they cross-dress or behave in a manner not deemed appropriate for their sex. Douglas Mason-Schrock’s study on transsexual narratives (1996) describes the institutionalization of gender within various subcontexts. At home, for example, the trans participants explained, they were often punished or even sent to a psychologist for cross-dressing behaviors when they were young. These findings parallel those of Darryl Hill’s empirical study on eighteen transgender individuals: “Parental prohibition of crossgender impulses and control of gender expression were fairly common [. . .]” (Hill, 2003, p. 132). As trans children grow, this negative reaction to atypical gender behavior continues in the schools. Often the teacher discourages the child from “inappropriate” behaviors, and the children themselves participate in gender-segregated play. A male-born participant in Mason-Schrock’s study was discouraged from playing jump rope with the girls at school because that kind of play was not considered appropriate for boys (Mason-Schrock, 1996). For adults, gender norms proliferate in the workplace. In this setting, for example, trans individuals are pressured

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to socialize with same-gender colleagues as well as perform in a more “masculine” fashion. In addition, many trans individuals have difficulty finding jobs because of discriminatory hiring practices; in their studies on gender conformity, Gagne and Tewksbury found that when the individuals did work, they “have difficulty keeping [the jobs] because they had not yet perfected their ability to pass as women” (1998, p. 93). In addition, many transsexual individuals are fired or harassed once they “come out” at work. The work environment has strong fortifications of the gender binary. Therefore, for both men and women, the only place where feminine expression can safely be displayed is in the privacy of the home (Chusmir & Koberg, 1990). Public places remain places for gender-consistent behaviors and expression. FORTIFICATION OF THE TWO GENDERS Though gender is expressed in a multitude of ways, the “natural attitude” of gender in our society has spurred us to construct a gender system that consists only of males and females, not allowing for a third, fourth, or nth gender. These two genders are considered mutually exclusive and polar opposites or, according to common belief, are unchanging. This model is fortified and institutionalized through many regulatory processes, such as medical intervention, psychological diagnoses, governmental regulation, media interpretation, individual biases, and citizen policing. Medical Intervention Most scientists claim that gender is a social construction, but that sex is “real.” This ideology supports the belief that there are only two genders, and it is substantiated by the two distinct biologies of male and female. Though some infants are born with genitals that are ambiguous or are born with both male and female organs, these biological differences are considered, by the medical profession, a problem to be “fixed” with “corrective” surgery. Physicians who specialize in the field of intersex conditions maintain that they try to ensure that, “the infant’s true, natural ‘sex’ has been discovered, and that something that was there all along has been found. It also serves to maintain the credibility of the medical profession, [and] reassure the parents” (Kessler, 1998, p. 15). The infant’s “true” or “natural” sex, therefore, must be male or female.

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Psychological Diagnosis The field of psychology also supports the gender binary by pathologizing those individuals who transgress socially accepted sex-role norms. Although the American Psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality from its manual of disorders in 1973, it added the new diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID) in its next edition. GID is defined as (a) a strong and persistent cross-gender identification, (b) a persistent discomfort with his or her sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex, (c) no concurrence with a physical intersex condition, and (d) clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (APA, DSM IV). This addition was highly controversial because of assertions positing that GID was created to prevent possible behavioral manifestations of homosexuality. Cross-dressing or atypical gender behavior in children, some assume, leads to homosexual adults; therefore, if a child is diagnosed with GID, then these behaviors can be “fixed” through therapeutic intervention. Evidence substantiating this proposition, though, is still inconclusive. Government Regulation Current legislation rarely acknowledges the existence of a third gender. Therefore, it does not provide gender-variant individuals protections from discrimination and harassment. In New York state, for example, within two days of the birth, parents must declare on the birth certificate whether the infant is male or female. Additionally, the New York state assembly only recently, in 2002, voted on the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA). This bill adds sexual orientation as a protected category under New York state’s human rights law, but it still does not include language to protect individuals who are transgender or “other members of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] and other communities who don’t conform to mainstream society’s gender ‘norms’ and stereotypes because of their gender identity and/or expression—arguably those most at risk for daily discrimination and violence.”2 There are only four states that have laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. These are California, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and New Mexico. When gender-variant individuals are erased from legislative language, a precedent is set for the rest of society to condone the continued subordination and exclusion of those individuals who do not conform to society’s standards.

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Media Media also plays a large role in the construction and enforcement of gender distinctions. Men and women are portrayed in television shows, movies, and advertisements in gender-appropriate clothing and are behaving in gender-consistent ways. Those who stray from this portrayal are seen as either comic deviants or pathologized psychopaths, as illustrated in the famous gender-ambiguous character Pat on Saturday Night Live, played by Julia Sweeney. The jokes came when the viewer struggled to figure out Pat’s gender. In reality, the jokes about gender-ambiguous people or trans individuals escalate to increased tension and often end in anger and violence. Humor is a common strategy used to sublimate the anger people feel about non-conforming gender performance. As Kate Bornstein, a male-to-female transsexual activist and writer, explains, we are the clowns, the sex objects, or the mysteriously unattainable in any number of novels. We are the psychotics, the murderers, or the criminal geniuses who populate the movies. Audiences have rarely seen the real faces of the transgendered. They don’t hear our voices, rarely read our words. (1994, p. 60)

Darryl Hill’s study reports similar findings supporting the supposition that the media constructs and fortifies the gender binary: “The clearest representation of genderism . . . is found in the portrayals of transgendered people in movies, on television talk shows and, in the news” (2003, p. 124). There is a clear bias in the media against those who transgress gender-normative behavior and looks. Trans people are depicted with a skewed lens that often portrays them in deviant ways. Because of the influence media has on western culture, penetrating most homes throughout the United States, it makes a considerable contribution to the construction of “norms” for gender that support the dichotomy. Individual Bias This section relates to the personal instruments individuals use to fortify a gender binary system. Cognitive processes, psychological influences, self-image, and reliance on stereotypes can generate biased perceptions of others. These perceptions, when applied to gender norms, often result in heterosexist and transphobic violence and harassment. These individual acts of violence help to sustain the gender binary

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by sending a clear message to the trans population that their presence is not acceptable. Cognitive theorists believe that in order for us to organize our thoughts more easily and have a frame of reference, schema congruence, or a correct situational interpretation and prediction, we must place like objects together. Therefore, a person with the physical attributes that match what is the norm for males will be grouped and associated with men. This process of social categorization is an organizational tool that helps to maintain gender distinctions because, cognitively, it is easier for a perceiver to place individuals into only two gender categories. If an individual does not perceptually fit into either of the two gender categories, thus causing difficulty for the perceiver to categorize that person, this may result in the perceiver feeling tension. In Kessler and McKenna’s recent study on college students’ perceptions of gender, they found that, “[a]lthough these students may consider gender extremely complex and allow for the possibility that it is not that important to categorize people by gender, in everyday life not knowing a person’s gender still makes them very uncomfortable. They try to find out what the person ‘really’ is” (2000). Social categorization also can lead to biased generalizations and misperceptions. Women, for example, are stereotyped as submissive, emotional, and maternal; therefore, when a person sees someone who has the physical attributes that match those of women, that someone will automatically be stereotyped in a similar fashion. If that person does not adhere to this social prescription, tension results between the woman and her perceiver. People may harass or attack the individual who is transgressing gender norms, hoping to force that person into a defined category because this will cognitively maintain category congruence. These adverse reactions will often compel transgressing individuals to sustain the gender binaries for fear of transphobic violence. According to social identity theory, stereotyping and prejudicial acts are a means of maintaining one’s self-image, self-worth, and selfintegrity (Fein & Spencer, 1996; Turner, 1991). Fein and Spencer (1996) found, from their empirical studies, a strong link between selfaffirmation and the perceptions of others. A person with a higher self-image, the researchers claim, will be less likely to have biased judgments of others, and vice versa. Likewise, when participants in their study received negative feedback regarding their own identity, acts performed to derogate others boosted their self-esteem. In other words, it boosts one’s self-confidence and social status if they can diminish the status and esteem of others.

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Performing prejudicial acts against others may also be a self-defense mechanism for individuals. According to many psychologists, the anger and hate we feel toward specific groups stems from our own selfhatred. Therefore, in order for us to maintain a healthy ego, we need to have enemies onto whom to project our self-hatred. Similarly, trans individuals become the target of this projection because they are often perceived as gay or lesbian (Deaux & Lewis, 1984; Madson, 2000). When individuals feel insecure about their own sexuality, rather than face the possibility of being gay, it is easier to project their fear and anger onto someone else they perceive as homosexual. In addition, when people lack the experience of socializing with or just seeing people who are not like them, they are led to depend on the media to learn about other cultures and people. The media, though, as explained earlier, demonstrate warped perceptions of the trans population. If people construct their understanding of trans individuals from media images that portray gender variance as pathological or comic, then their attitudes toward people who trangress the gender categories will be negative. Violent or aggressive behavior could manifest from these skewed perceptions dictated to us through media images, thereby creating an environment in which it is impossible to deviate from the gender norms. The sole identity of a trans person causes one to question a system that they have grown up believing in and proliferating. To suggest now that this system is inadequate causes individuals to re-evaluate their own identities and belief systems. This leaves them feeling vulnerable and possibly more open to an unstable self-esteem, elevated feelings of self-hatred, and a quicker acceptance of media information, each of which could trigger adverse reactions to those who deviate from their accepted social framework. Citizen Policing Citizen policing, for my purposes, is the collective process of fortifying gender dichotomy through self-policing. Like individual bias, group bias manifests feelings of tension and anger on a larger scale, which leads to violence against individuals who transgress gender norms. Tarynn Witten and Evan Eyler research hate crimes and violence against gender-variant individuals and have surveyed over 300 transsexual, transgender, and cross-dressing people. They consider transphobic violence to be the following:

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[G]ender terrorism whose underlying motivation is the maintenance of a social system in which males dominate females through emotional, verbal and physical acts of force and in which the line between the genders must be rigidly maintained in support of this social schema. (Witten & Eyler, 1999, p. 461)

The perpetrators, they continue, are misogynist and consider gendervariant people to be undermining male supremacy and the gender dichotomy. In other words, when trans people transition to the other gender or they defy gender categorization altogether, this action affects their social positioning within the power structure. Women, for example, can elevate their status by expressing themselves with a male identity. For many people, this poses a threat to their own power, and it dismantles a social structure that has been fortified for centuries. Theorists in the field of social psychology explain prejudice as the result of ingroup/outgroup dynamics. Ingroup/outgroup dynamics are a social consequence of the cognitive process of social categorization. However, as Tajfel and Forgas assert, social categorization is thus much more than a purely cognitive task: it is central to social life. As such, it is subject to the pressures and distortions of the rich and variegated culture within which it arises (2000, p. 50). They contend that the categories devised through our cognitive processes are not void of cultural meaning. Each has an associated value base that stems from societal inferences. Certain groups, for instance, have higher social value than others: men have more power than women, blacks and Latinos have lower status than whites, and so forth. These intergroup disparities, therefore, create feelings of tension and hostility that lead to acts of violence. Social categorization within intergroup relations also elevates the position of the perceiver’s own social group, the ingroup. Those who are outside their circle—the out-group—are then seen as subordinates. This is a social identity process that has the psychological effect of boosting the perceiver’s self-esteem. In addition, when an ingroup feels a threat to its status, it exhibits greater prejudice toward others (Branscombe & Wann, 1994). This may include a perceived moral threat, such as homosexuality to a right-wing religious institution ingroup that considers same-sex love to be a sin. Similarly, to achieve “positive distinctiveness” for the ingroup, they proclaim, “We are what we are because they are not what we are” (Tajfel & Forgas, 2000, p. 114). This perceived value dissimilarity has been found to play an integral role in antigay prejudice (Haddock & Zanna, 1998).

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Individual bias synthesized with citizen-group policing and institutionalization of gender dichotomies creates an insidious atmosphere filled with tension and violence. Trans individuals, therefore, feel forced to maintain the gender binary by suppressing their cross-gender identity desires and playing out heterosexual, gender-consistent behaviors while in public. WHEN ONE IS NEITHER MALE NOR FEMALE As stressed throughout this chapter, our society allows for only two genders—male and female. The gender binary is socially constructed and then fortified through the various regulatory agencies that have been described in the previous section. There are many individuals, though, who defy the system and do not conform to these gender constructs. These include people who do not fit within the prescribed categories and break society’s model for gender, because of sex differences, autoerotic allures for cross-dressing, or gender identity conflicting with sex and identities. When individuals, by their appearance only, upset this model that society has tried so hard to promulgate and protect, this upsetting triggers strong emotions: “[P]erceivers may experience a range of negative affect, including embarrassment and anger” (Madson, 2000, p. 158). In fact, most people in the United States (over 93 percent) feel that cross-dressing is not “normal” or “all right” (Janus & Janus, 1993). These adverse, transphobic reactions directed toward those who defy gender categories lead to daily acts of discrimination, harassment, and violence. The findings from Witten and Eyler’s surveys indicate that this group is more likely than the general population to experience violence against them because of this (1999). These daily stressors have profound impacts on trans individuals. According to Hill, transgender violence is conceptualized through genderism, transphobia, and gender bashing (2003). Genderism, similar to the feminist concept of sexism, is considered “the system of beliefs that reinforces a negative evaluation based on gender nonconformity or an incongruence between sex and gender.” Transphobia, on the other hand, is “the motivating force for negative reactions to transgendered people that involve fear and disgust in the observer” (Hill, 2003, p. 119). Gender-variant writer and advocate Leslie Feinberg maintains, “Gender-phobia targets women who are not feminine and men who are not masculine. Trans-phobia creates fear of changing sex” (Feinberg, 1996). The results of this biased attitude are discrimination, gender bashing, harassment, abuse, and assault.

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According to Witten and Eyler’s large-scale, transnational survey on the trans population, “transsexual, transgendered and cross-dressing individuals were more likely than their non-transgendered peers to experience multiple forms of violence and victimization across their lifespan” (1999, p. 464). In fact, roughly two transgender individuals are murdered each month in the United States, with at least twothirds of all transgender people having experienced either physical or sexual assault (Isaacs, 2001), most of which happens in public space. Reported incidents against individuals who are trans, however, are lower than what is expected to be the reality of experiences, and they are often difficult to obtain due to the victims’ hesitance to report an attack because of the often turbulent relationships with people in positions of authority, such as police officers and medical physicians: “Members of the transgender community rarely receive appropriate medical and criminal-justice interventions following a physical or sexual attack” (Witten & Eyler, 1999, p. 464). In addition, violence against gender-variant individuals bears close resemblance to that against homosexuals because of the perceived sexuality of “butch” women and effeminate men. Roughly one-third of all hate crimes are against homosexuals (Isaacs, 2001), with nearly half of the incidents involving physical assault and 62 percent of those victims sustaining injury (National Center for Victims of Crime). Individuals who have physical characteristics that are inconsistent with their gender role behaviors are assumed to be homosexual by their perceivers (Deaux & Lewis, 1984) and could be vulnerable to these hate crimes against gays and lesbians. Heterosexist perpetrators also assume that an individual is gay or lesbian if the gender is illegible (Madson, 2000). The New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project reports in its annual Hate Crimes Report that more victims are being assaulted based on perceived sexual orientation. Gender-phobic actions have significant consequences to one who digresses from the gender norms. They not only can result in physical harm to the person through violence and harassment, but the expected adverse reactions coming from society cause daily stressors that will impact the trans individual while navigating in public places. Daily hassles causing stress to an individual have psychological, somatic/ physical, and behavioral outcomes: headaches, negative mood (such as depression), high-risk behavior, and so on (DiPlacido, 1998). For example, youth who have been victimized by assaults show more symptoms, post-traumatic stress reactions, and sadness (BonneyMcCoy & Finkelhor, 1995). Another effect of transphobic violence

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and rejection of the gender-nonconformist is a pressure to conform to the gender binary—many trans people feel they must decide to be either one gender or the other rather than keep a more fluid identity: Beginning in early childhood, and continuing throughout their lives, individuals learn to expect rejection, stigmatization, and the loss of relationships, should they violate gender norms. Fear of rejection acts as a pressure to establish and maintain “proper” gender. (Gagne & Tewksbury, 1998, p. 87)

When trans individuals challenge western culture’s binary gender system by proving that there is a spectrum of genders and sexualities, there are considerable costs to be paid. Expressing gender behaviors or identities that are not consistent with their sex leaves trans people vulnerable to this homophobic and transphobic violence that permeates our society. Socio-Spatial Implications of Living In-between Virtually anything on the other side of this door makes me uncomfortable [pointing to the adjacent front door to her home that leads to the outside world]. (42-year-old)

Historically, prejudice has been played out spatially, for example, with the ghettoization of the Jewish people to racially segregated schools and bathrooms. Spatial practices that reinforce prejudice against gender and sexuality continue to be played out today. According to philosopher Nancy Fraser, dominant groups use spatial tactics to fortify their social positions: “[W]here societal inequality persists, deliberative processes in public spheres will tend to operate to the advantage of the dominant groups and to the disadvantage of subordinates” (1993, p. 527). In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, women were to be out in public alone only if they were engaging in a particular activity, such as shopping. If not, they were deemed nonrespectable or having sexual intentions. In public parks, women and girls over the age of ten were separated into areas that were often cordoned off with a fence or concealed behind shrubbery, and access to this space was restricted to certain hours of the day (Cranz, 1980). Today, women continue to be limited geographically, with travel remaining close to the home and conducted for targeted activities (Franck & Paxon, 1989).

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Before the 1969 Stonewall revolt—the event that spurred lesbians and gay men to reclaim the streets, their commercial and recreational establishments, and their identities—much of gay and lesbian life was closely monitored through police raids and public surveillance. Individuals who were not wearing at least three articles of clothing consistent with their sex were arrested or harassed and beaten by police officers and the general public. Though today there are many gay and lesbian establishments flourishing throughout the country, space for those who are trans remains scarce. The statement that opened this section renders a clear picture of the current socio-spatial experience of individuals who are gendervariant: everywhere outside the home is foreboding. In general, public places are uncomfortable environments for people not fitting into the gender “norms.” In a study conducted by the author on the experiences of individuals not identifying as male or female (Felsenthal, 2001), all participants experienced some form of aggression against them, whether it was verbal harassment or physical attacks while “out” in public. One participant spoke of being chased out of the neighborhood at gunpoint, while others spoke of verbal threats and physical attacks: I got stabbed in the neck, I got crap beat out of me a few times. I got beat up pretty bad for this [gender] issue. I had to put everything in a box for quite a few years. And just kept it as a private thing in my home. (46-year-old) At one point we were getting followed around by men that were talking shit. It’s like being a dog and making circles, looking to see who’s following you. (37-year-old) It has been made clear . . . that my presence can give offence, that they have not been happy with my appearance. They say nasty things to your face. (48-year-old)

Public bathrooms are particularly problematic for trans individuals. Most are gender-specific, designated for males or females, forcing individuals to choose a gender if they are to use the facility. This dilemma poses a problem not only for the gender-variant individual but for the patrons of the public bathrooms as well. Public rest rooms are the worst. The last time I was in a woman’s bathroom was 12 years ago. (37-year-old)

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Sometimes I just pee outside to avoid that situation. (28-year-old) I got arrested in Tuxedo, NY, got beat up by the cops there, harassed to no end. That was about not being allowed to use the bathroom anywhere so I pulled over to the side of the road. (46-year-old) (Bathrooms) create a feeling of consternation, confusion to the point of paralysis. Confusion easily shapes into anger or hostility. Unisex bathrooms would be the smart thing to do. (48-year-old)

Dressing rooms also pose a problem for trans individuals. Some of the participants mentioned using the Internet to do their shopping just to avoid uncomfortable situations. Others buy their clothing in thrift shops where there are typically no dressing rooms and where the workers are also known to be “alternative.” Many of the places I go don’t have dressing rooms, so I don’t have to deal with it. (28-year-old)

One might assume that places designated for or that have been appropriated by the gay and lesbian community would be open and bias-free to the trans population. The words transgender and sometimes queer have even been added to the title of many gay and lesbian organizations to imply full acceptance and inclusion of those who are gender-variant. However, all of the participants in the author’s study claimed that the gay and lesbian community still resisted full inclusion of the trans population. Many participants stated that they still were not able to find a community or place within these environments because of the built-in bias and social stigma attached to them. We are the black sheep of the gay world. They are angry with us ’cause we are giving them a bad name . . . we are not maliciously stating anything against them, we’re just being us. (37-year-old) They feel that trans people are an unacceptable face of the community . . . because they are often thought of as outlandish or sex workers. (48year-old)

These tensions by the gay and lesbian community toward those who are trans are played out geographically with the boundaries imposed to restrict access to public space by those who are trans: They [gays and lesbians] look at us [gender-variant people] like we are infiltrators. (28-year-old) I went into the men’s bathroom at the gay expo and I got looks from people and I thought: “Shame on you!” (27-year-old)

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There are lots of gay bars where I would not be accepted walking into looking like this. (48-year-old) Part of [a video segment on gays and lesbians] was having an inclusive queer community and not to include trans people—how the fuck can you do that!?! (27-year-old) This church around the corner [has] a very big sign out front that says they accept all people, including gays. But the preacher couldn’t deal with transexuals at all. The MCC [a church for the GLBT community], that is a more interesting situation. They have a transgender group, the only thing is the first day I am there they want to dump me into this transgender group. Say you accept us and then you pen us off, segregate us, and with no distinctions. (42-year-old)

Most spaces that are specifically designated for the trans population are therapeutic organizations that provide social services such as group therapy or drug and rehabilitation counseling. There are very few places like bars, cafes, or clubs for trans individuals to go for social support, socialization, and networking. To a large extent, gay and lesbian space has allowed members of a subordinate group to be the majority where they establish their own social norms and maintain control over that environment: The first thing one sees [on Fire Island Pines] is a charming skew of accustomed male mores. Everywhere men hug and smooch; couples walk, hands entwined or casually draped into the rear of a partner’s cutoffs. . . . Everywhere an easy male affection suffuses the air. (Nimmons, 2002, p. 20)

This has not been the case for the trans population. The experience of negotiating space within New York City’s public spheres for the participants is complicated and poses relentless risks of intimidation or bodily harm. Both the heterosexual and homosexual communities resist inclusion of those who are gender-variant by remaining static in their compliance with the socially prescribed gender dichotomies. SIGNIFICANCE OF BEING OUT OF “PLACE” [T]he subjective sense of self is defined and expressed not simply by one’s relationship to other people, but also by one’s relationships to the various physical settings that define and structure day-to-day life. (Proshansky et al., 1983, p. 58)

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Any social existence aspiring or claiming to be real but failing to provide its own space would be a strange entity, [without space] it would fall to the level of folklore and sooner or later disappear all together thereby immediately losing its identity, its domination. (Lefebvre, 1991, p. 53)

In the two excerpts above, Proshansky and LeFebvre highlight the significant role that place has in the construction and expression of individual and collective identities. Environmental psychologists explore this dynamic relationship between people and place, revealing a significant interplay between their two constructions. They assert that access to public places provides individuals with “links to the physical world” and helps one create and sustain a sense of self. Concepts such as place identity, place attachment, and placemaking demonstrate the significance of these person-place relations (Lynch, 1993; Hummon, 1992; Gerson, Stueve, & Fischer, 1977; Proshansky et al., 1983; Dixon & Durrheim, 2000). The concept of place identity as described by Proshansky and others (1983) offers a link between defining the self and the lived experience in the context of the physical environment. According to Proshansky, place identity is a “substructure” of self-identity, and identities are defined by transactions with the physical environment. Environmental psychologists assert that appropriating and creating meaningful space are fundamental rights and part of what it means to be human. Without the ability to claim and form attachments to space, one’s identity development and proclamation will be hindered. This is a critical point when thinking about the experiences of trans individuals in public spaces. Impending harassments and assaults by heterosexist and transphobic individuals and groups restrict a trans person’s access to many public spaces. Spatial restrictions placed on individuals because of prejudices, therefore, have significant outcomes on an individual’s identity development and expression. Denying access to and use of space to particular individuals or groups will maintain their subordinate position and can erase or invalidate their identity. Conversely, owning and appropriating space help to define and proclaim one’s individual and collective identities. SPATIAL TACTICS FOR AFFIRMATION AND EMPOWERMENT A poem by Maya Angelou (1978) states: “But still like air, I’ll rise.” This is a proclamation made to show the strength of black people to overcome a pernicious environment of extreme and overt

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racism. As described in the previous sections, the trans population has also faced hostile territories in western culture. They have also had to devise strategies to overcome this hatred that has been targeted toward them. A simple, yet very powerful way people who are trans “rise” from their oppressive, misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic environment is to appropriate and govern space—claim it as their own. Using Nancy Fraser’s nomenclature, they create subaltern counter publics: “parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests and needs” (1993, p. 527). People who do not conform to the socially constructed cultural norms, therefore, will create their own spaces in which to construct, reproduce, and display their identities. Subaltern counter publics are essential to the proclamation and validation of collective identities. Kevin Lynch’s strategies for creating “meaningful space” (1993) coincide with the establishment of subaltern counter publics. He asserts that for a place to have meaning to an individual, certain conditions must be met. Two conditions Lynch proposes that are of particular importance to the GLBT community are that the place must not limit the activity of the user, and it should create a safe environment that allows for freedom of behavior. In other words, there must be places that afford outward affections between same-sex individuals, as well as places that offer space for gender-variant expression without fear of homophobic or transphobic violence. Per Gustafson developed a three-pronged factorial approach to placemaking that supports Lynch’s ideas (2000). He posits that the self (one’s subjective experience), others (inhabitants of the space), and the physical environment (built and naturally landscaped) are all interrelated factors that play significant roles in how one creates meaningful space. For example, a queer space will become a meaningful space to trans individuals if they have personal attachments and memories of it, positive social dynamics with other trans people there, and if particular aspects of the physical space itself, such as lighting and color schemes, appeal to them. Individuals who transgress the socially accepted gender binaries pose a unique challenge to “normative” use of, appropriation of, and attachment to space. Appropriation is the act of making something one’s own. When “we appropriate aspects of the world as anchors for self identity, . . . we change our environment and we are in turn changed by environmental experience.” Appropriating and creating meaningful

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space, according to place attachment theory, are fundamental rights and part of what it means to be human. Without the ability to claim and form attachments to space, one’s identity development and proclamation will be hindered. It is within this defined space that the users can feel they are able to move freely to meet their (individual and social) needs and drives (Proshansky, Ittelson, & Rivlin, 1976). In gay and lesbian literature, the process of appropriating space is often termed “queering” space. Many queer theorists assert that “queering space” is the production and repetition of queer acts performed in heterosexual space (Desert, 1997; Valentine, 1996). For example, according to this idea, a woman kissing her girlfriend on the sidewalk would be creating a temporal lesbian space on that sidewalk. I question the reality of this supposition. To make heterosexual space queer is to appropriate it, to be the majority in that space, and have the ability to assert some kinds of regulatory controls over it. In other words, a queer space is one where many homosexuals and transsexuals can congregate, behave, and express a sexual identity freely without fear of homophobic violence. It is where their behaviors become the norm. The lesbians on the sidewalk are not the norm for that space and stand a good chance of facing harassment for their “deviant” performance. In contrast, many groups of trans individuals do find ways to “queer” space. By reinterpreting, reclaiming, and reconstructing space that is trans, they, in turn, are queering space. The home, for example, is reinterpreted for many trans people. It serves as a multi-functional platform for working, socializing, and networking, in addition to providing a place for living (sleeping, eating, and relaxing). Dwelling thus contributes to supporting and grounding the various selves (as friend, worker, activist, etc.) for the participants. The participants use the home in ways that parallel bell hooks’ “home of resistance”: The homeplace was the one site where one could freely confront the issue of humanization where one could resist. Black women resisted by making homes where all black people could strive to be subjects, not objects, where we could be affirmed in our minds and hearts despite poverty, hardship, and deprivation, where we could restore to ourselves the dignity denied to us on the outside in the public world . . . it was about the construction of a safe place where black people could affirm one another and by so doing heal many of the wounds inflicted by racist domination. (hooks, 1990, p. 42)

Dwellings are also a place to break free of the gender role norms that are attached to it, such as the home being “women’s space.” When

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the residents of the house have gender identities that transgress the norms, there is more freedom to reinterpret and re-establish domestic rules (for example, the rule that the woman cleans and the man takes out the garbage). Domestic chores, then, can be more congruent to one’s personality than to societal expectations. More important, the home is the place where most cross-gender behaviors are initially played out. Men can, in the privacy and safety of their own home, dress in women’s clothing without fear of embarrassment or transphobic violence. In Erving Goffman’s (1959) terms, this backstage environment is the place where the performer “can relax; he can drop his front.” It is also the place where performers can be schooled in frontstage identity expression (actions of politeness and decorum played out for “audiences”). This is where trans people learn to “do” gender and practice new gender-specific skills. Reclaiming space gives trans individuals the opportunity to reposition themselves within the social hierarchy. For example, settings for music and sports allow trans people to excel, and possibly surpass, other participants in certain activities that give them the power to gain control over that environment. Sports, performance arts, and music have created that avenue for social movement. I go to jazz clubs where nobody cares what you are, if you like jazz, you’re in. It’s not about who you are, it’s about what you do, your knowledge and expertise. (42-year-old) I could be who I was and excel and have the guys be more impressed with my skill. (28-year-old speaking about soccer) I was on a biker team and a very famous street fighter. Many transgenders were on biker teams. (30-year-old) I would move right in and start with the biggest guy fighting. I was a big fighter. (37-year-old)

Trans people also (re)construct alternative sites established exclusively for them. It is here that the individual who is gender-variant can appropriate, defend, and manage the space. The gender-variant population, who now become the majority, establishes the rules and norms to be followed. The True Spirit Conference (TSC), for example, is an annual conference established specifically for gender-variant people—a place that accepts and encourages gender expressions across the scale between male and female. Its venues not only offer entertainment, but education, socializing, and community-building as well. Like the home, TSC offers a space where gender-variant

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individuals are the majority and where regulatory policies are established by them. By reinterpreting, reclaiming, and (re)constructing space, the trans population is able to “queer” space and create a meaningful environment that Proshansky, Lynch, and Gustafson assert are essential to developing and expressing one’s identity. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Michel Foucault proclaims that the most powerful “place” is in the body (1978). The body is our instrument for expressing who we are and who we want to be. It represents social status and positions us within social hierarchies. We have the power, though, to change our bodies and their expressions and thus to dismantle the power associations that are afforded to it. Individuals make alterations to their appearance that are as simple as changing the color of their hair, or they can be as complex as redefining their gender attributes through surgical procedures or wearing clothing inconsistent with their assigned sex. The possibilities of making our identities fluid can be endless, though. According to society’s dictates, they must remain within the boundaries of our prescribed social framework. When one dares to transgress this system by expressing gender in a way that does not conform to accepted standards for males and females, the power that Foucault speaks of is then removed from that individual, leaving them no “place” to be within the socio-spatial structure of our society. Our citizens ensure this placelessness of trans people by creating a volatile environment for them to live in. They leave them no space within the physical geography in which to safely be who they are without fear of homophobic or transphobic violence. Trans individuals, though, are not without agency. They reclaim their individual and collective identities, and thus their power, by defining their own space in which to develop and express their identities freely. Trans individuals use places such as arenas for competitive sports, the True Spirit Conference, and even the home for not only empowerment but also dominance within these subcultures. They actively create space for which to reposition themselves within the social structure from one of subordination to one of authority. Though the trans population is actively taking steps to make a “place” for themselves in our socio-spatial environment, the problem of fortifying our socially accepted gender dichotomy still penetrates

Toolbox for Change For Individuals

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals remain biased Not only does tolerance need in their perceptions and to be practiced, but people actions toward need to welcome into their transgendered individuals. lives and work environments those individuals who do not fall within the two prescribed gender categories.

Community

Bias, discrimination, and violence against transgendered people still permeate our communities.

Just as collective action is taken against those who are transgendered, collective action can also be taken against those who perform prejudicial and harmful acts against transgendered individuals.

Practitioners

Design professionals Nongender-specific space continue to create should be incorporated into environments that the design plans of new accommodate only males construction and and females. renovations. For example, unisex bathrooms and dressing rooms should be offered in places of public accommodation. People within the field of People within the field of psychology . . . psychology need to reassess the utilization of the GID diagnosis.

Educators

Gender-bias and genderTeachers need to be aware of conforming strategies are how their pedagogy affects still played out in the nongender-conforming classrooms. children. Encouraging “genderappropriate” or gendersegregated activities should be minimized if not eliminated from discourse and action. continued

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Toolbox for Change (continued) For Legislators

Images/perceptions The transgendered are virtually erased in the eyes and documents of our legislators.

Strategies for change Revise wording in existing legislation that protects homosexuals from hate crimes and discrimination to include transgendered individuals. In states where there are no current laws that protect either homosexual or transgendered individuals, create laws to ensure their safety and equal treatment in housing, jobs, etc.

our society at all levels, from individual bias to collective prejudicial actions. This condition will continue as long as we live in a culture that only sees gender attribute differences but does not accommodate those who are in-between the gender dichotomy—the struggle to find a “place” for people who are trans will continue, and pernicious crimes will proliferate. How then do we deal with an environment that condones hate crimes against trans people? Discussing and reconceptualizing gender in theory or even crystallizing it in writing is the easy part. Having the tools to implement change is where the challenge rests. Though most can visualize what a third, fourth, or nth gender may look like, how do we make room for them in our society? Where do they fit within the rigid gender framework? Though there are no simple answers to these questions, the Toolbox for Change offers some suggestions on how to possibly address some of these complex issues. NOTES 1. The term trans will be used here as an umbrella term for anyone who self-identifies as gender-variant, transgender, queer, androgynous; or who is a transsexual, either pre-, post-, or non-operative; or who is either intersexed (having ambiguous genitalia) or a hermaphrodite (having both male and female sex organs). 2. Audre Lorde Project Action Alert, February 7, 2002.

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REFERENCES Angelou, M. (1978). And still I rise. New York: Random House. Bonney-McCoy, S., & Finkelhor, D. (1995). Psychosocial sequelae of violent victimization in a national youth sample. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 63, 726–736. Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender outlaw. New York: Vintage Books, Random House. Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Branscombe, N. R., & Wann, D. L. (1994). Collective self-esteem consequences of outgroup derogation when a valued social identity is on trial. European Journal of Social Psychology, 24, 641–657. Chusmir, L. H., & Koberg, C. S. (1990). Dual sex role identity and its relationship to sex role conflict. Journal of Psychology, 124(5), 545– 556. Cranz, G. (1980). Women in urban parks. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 5(3), 579, 595. Deaux, K., & Lewis, L. L. (1984). Structure of gender stereotypes: Interrelationships among components and gender label. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 991–1004. Desert, J. U. (1997). Queer space. In B. Ingram, A. M. Bouthillette, & Y. Retter (Eds.), Queers in space: Communities/public places/sites of resistance (pp. 17–27). Washington: Bay Press. DiPlacido, J. (1998). Minority stress among lesbians, gay men and bisexuals: A consequence of heterosexism, homophobia, and stigmatization. In H. Herek (Ed.), Stigma and sexual orientation: Understanding prejudice against lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (pp. 138–159). California, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications. Dixon, J., & Durrheim, K. (2000). Displacing place-identity: A discursive approach to locating the self and other. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 27–44. Fein, S., & Spencer, S. (1996). Readings in social psychology: The art and science of research. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Feinberg, L. (1996). Transgender warriors: Making history from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Felsenthal, K. (2001). Gender variance and the experience of place. Unpublished manuscript. Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality: An introduction (Vol. 1). New York: Vintage Books. Franck, K., & Paxon, L. (1989). Women and urban public space. In I. Altman & E. Zube (Eds.), Public places and spaces (pp. 121–146). New York/London: Plenum Press. Fraser, N. (1993). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. In S. During (Ed.), Cultural studies reader (2nd ed., pp. 518–537). London/New York: Routledge.

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Gagne, P., & Tewksbury, R. (1998). Conformity pressures and gender resistance among transgender individuals. Social Problems, 45(1), 81–101. Gerson, K., Stueve, C. A., & Fischer, C. S. (1977). Attachment to place. In C. S. Fischer et al. (Eds.), Networks and places (pp. 139–161). New York: The Free Press. Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Gustafson, P. (2000). Meanings of place: Everyday experience and theoretical conceptualizations. Journal of Environment Psychology, 21, 5–16. Haddock, G., & Zanna, M. (1998). Authoritarianism, values, and the favorability and structure of antigay attitudes. In H. Herek (Ed.), Stigma and sexual orientation: Understanding prejudice against lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (pp. 82–107). London: Sage Publications. Hill, D. (2003). Genderism, transphobia, and gender bashing: A framework for interpreting anti-transgender violence. In B. C. Wallace & R. T. Carter (Eds.), Understanding and dealing with violence: A multicultural approach (pp. 113–136). London: Sage Publications. hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. Boston: South End Press. Hummon, D. M. (1992). Community attachment: Local sentiment and sense of place. In I. Altman & S. Low (Eds.), Place attachment (pp. 253– 278). New York: Plenum. Isaacs, T. (2001). Domestic violence and hate crimes. Criminal Justice Ethics, 20, 31–43. Janus, S. S., & Janus, C. L. (1993). The Janus Report on sexual behavior. New York: John Wiley. Kessler, S. (1998). Lessons from the intersexed. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Kessler, S., & McKenna, W. (2000). Who put the “trans” in transgender? Gender theory and everyday life. International Journal of Transgenderism, 4(3). Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. Lynch, K. (1993). Public space meanings and connections. In S. Carr et al. (Eds.), Public space. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Madson, L. (2000). Inferences regarding the personality traits and sexual orientation of physically androgynous people. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24, 148–160. Mason-Schrock, D. (1996). Transexuals’ narrative construction of the “true self.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 59(3), 176–192. Money, J. (1994). The concept of gender identity disorder in childhood and adolescence after 39 years. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 20(3), 163–177. Nimmons, D. (2002, March/April). Communities of equals. The Gay and Lesbian Review.

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Proshansky, H., et al. (1983). Place identity: Physical world socialization of the self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3, 57–84. Proshansky, H., Ittelson, W., & Rivlin, L. (Eds.) (1976). Environmental psychology (2d ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Stoller, R. (1968). Sex and gender: On the development of masculinity and femininity. London: Hogarth Press. Tajfel, H., & Forgas, J. (2000). Social categorization: Cognitions, values and groups. In C. Strangor (Ed.), Stereotypes and prejudice (pp. 113–140). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Turner, J. C. (1991). Social influence. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Valentine, G. (1996). (Re)negotiating the heterosexual street. In N. Duncan (Ed.), Body space: Destabilizing geographies of gender and sexuality (pp. 146–155). London/New York: Routledge. Witten, T., & Eyler, E. (1999). Hate crimes and violence against the transgendered. Peace Review, 11(3).

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CHAPTER 9

Black Men Who Have Sex with Men Carlton W. Parks

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ore systematic attention is being paid by social scientists in the twenty-first century to subgroups within the general population who possess multiple identities that result in multiple oppressions. Such subgroups permit social scientists to uncover the cumulative impact of membership in multiple categories (such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation identity, religious identification, and age) on these individuals’ phenomenological experiences as well as how others behave toward them (Adams & Kimmel, 1997). One subgroup empirically receiving increasing attention is black men who have sex with men. Why is such systematic attention important? Landrine (1995) argues that explanations for overt behavior must be obtained from behavior in context. Thus, as a function of sociohistorical/cohort/contextual influences, the same behaviors expressed by different subgroups may yield different explanations for their occurrence. One can’t presume to know without some verification or confirmation why people behave the way they do. Explanations for the behaviors of any subgroup are often tied to the sociohistorical/ cohort/contextual influences associated with that specific subgroup. Thus, one cannot use white gay men as the “standard” to assess the psychological functioning and adjustment of men who have sex with men.

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CROSS’S REVISED RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT THEORY AND BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN Racial group identity and sexual orientation identity from a lifespan perspective are two psychological constructs that shed some insight into the phenomenological experiences of black men who have sex with men across the life course. In 1991, William Cross discussed a number of revisions in his negrescence model. First, an individual’s personal identity is now theorized to be separate and distinct from his or her reference group orientation. Reference group orientation incorporates the constructs of “salience,” or the importance of race in one’s life, as well as possessing a “valence” (a quality of objects that affects their attractiveness to organisms) that can be positive, negative, or neutral. The relationship between personal identity, reference group identity, and self-esteem is theorized to be varied across individuals with varying outcomes, since personal identity plays a minor role in the development of racial identity. For instance, a person who identifies strongly with his racial group doesn’t necessarily have elevated self-esteem or positive mental health. There exists one exception to this proposed pattern: black self-hatred is believed to be associated with low self-esteem because it incorporates a negative reference group orientation into one’s individual personal identity (Vandiver, Cross, Worrell, & Fhagen-Smith, 2002). The five-stage model has been streamlined into four stages: preencounter, encounter, immersion-emersion, and internalization. These stages reflect the overarching themes of black racial identities. Within the pre-encounter stage there now exist three identities: assimilation, miseducation, and self-hatred. The immersion-emersion stage has two identities: intense black involvement, and anti-white sentiment. Finally, the internalization stage has three identities: black nationalist, biculturalist, and multicultural inclusive. These eight identities describe the expanded negrescence model with only six of the seven measurable identities (biculturalist excluded) measurable on the Cross Racial Identity Scale (Vandiver et al., 2000). The distinction between being a “gay black” versus a “black gay,” where one’s sexual orientation identity or racial identity predominates one’s self-concept, is still a speculative notion. Very little empirical data currently exist supporting the relationship between this distinction and psychological functioning. Etzhorn (1995) revealed that primarily race-identified (black gays) and non-primarily race-identified

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black men (gay blacks) did not differ on measures of sexual orientation or racial identities. Cross and Fhagen-Smith (2001) speculate that the modal black adolescent who is experiencing the development of a gay male or lesbian identity automatically chooses his/her sexual orientation identity to be more salient than the reference group orientation. We need empirical data with culturally diverse black adolescent males attempting to navigate and negotiate the development of their racial and sexual orientation identities to validate such a contention. Such data might possibly reveal the existence of multiple developmental trajectories among this group. It is premature to presume one “politically correct” sequence in the establishment of multiple identities. THE POTENTIAL PITFALLS TO “COMING OUT,” AND SEXUAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT THAT RESULTS IN BLACK MEN CHOOSING NOT TO SELF-LABEL AS GAY OR BISEXUAL Similarly, when black men who have sex with men are involved in the coming out process, there exist a number of assumptions based on dichotomous thinking that concern the “appropriate sequence of events” of the coming out process that lead to psychological well-being and adjustment. It is assumed, based on the more “out” one is, that the more well adjusted they will be across contexts. There is seldom discussion of levels of coming out. Coming out is presumed to lead to problem reduction as well as elevated levels of self-esteem and self-worth. To remain “in the closet” is associated with elevated levels of shame, guilt, and internalized homophobia. When one closely examines the populations these assertions were based on, they were for the most part middleclass, college-educated, white gay men. Once again, context plays an important role here when discussing the impact of sociocultural influences on the coming out process for black men who have sex with men. Morales (1990) asserts that the coming out process creates challenges for ethnic minority men who have sex with men with respect to their loyalties and prioritizing their allegiances to the following three communities: their ethnic minority community (presumed to be “heterosexual”), the white gay male community, and the society at large. To fully come “out” would possibly result in total ostracism and rejection from their ethnic minority community as well as the society at large. Moreover, abandonment by the white lesbian, gay male, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) communities is very likely to occur due to gay racism (Boykin, 1996a).

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Given the frequent occurrences of gay racism that still exist between black men and white gay males (Boykin, 1996a), it is highly unlikely that the white gay male community would become the primary support system of black men. Given the above realities, it is not too surprising that many ethnic minority men who have sex with men choose instead to negotiate a relationship between them and their ethnic minority community that permits them to remain “a member in good standing.” This compromise typically means negotiating a new arrangement with their extended family members, if they plan to remain active and integrated members. This becomes a particularly delicate negotiation, given how gender roles (particularly masculinity) are conceived and perceived among oppressed and marginalized populations (Hatchett, 1991; Marable, 1995; Staples, 1995). Coming out as a gay or bisexual male can often be considered the final public insult to an extended family constellation (Morales, 1996; Boykin, 1996b), since to be considered masculine is to be homophobic (Herek, 1987). If these negotiations are not handled with care and skill, then a new family constellation consisting of non-blood family members will need to be created. With the interaction of geographic region, socioeconomic status, and cohort influences added to the mix, the complexity inherent in the coming out process for men who have sex with men becomes even more apparent. That explains why many have decided, as a survival strategy within a hostile oppressive environment, to “remain in the closet” within different arenas of their lives. Once again, relying too heavily on the white gay male as the “standard” to assess ethnic minority men’s psychological functioning and adjustment may lead to rather faulty assumptions and conclusions related to the coming out process (Smith, 1998). Another illustration of this reality is in the area of self-labeling one’s sexual orientation identity status. One major contribution of the HIV infection/AIDS literature focusing on risky sexual behaviors among men who have sex with men is the difference in the expression of sexual behaviors between various racial subgroups. For instance, black men, compared to whites, are more likely to report engaging in anal intercourse than oral sex. Similarly, men who have sex with men are more likely to self-label as bisexual compared to white men. Black men are far more likely to report concomitant substance use with unprotected intercourse (Heckman, Kelly, Bogart, Kalichman, & Rompa, 1999; Myers, Javanbakht, Martinez, & Obediah, 2003). Male gender roles and sexuality have direct implications for the discussion of risky sexual behaviors between partners in black heterosexual

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close relationships. These discussions become even more sensitive when black males are secretly engaging in same-sex sexual behavior (Campbell, 1995). To address the risk factors related to risky sexual behaviors within the context of black couple relationships, one must begin conceptualizing the interpersonal dynamics (particularly patterns of communication) from a systemic perspective (Campbell, 1995; Wingood & DiClemente, 1997, 1998; St. Lawrence et al., 1998; Wyatt et al., 1997). The gender-role attitudes and behaviors of the male partner concerning risky sexual behaviors play a critical role in the couple dynamics of sexual decision-making. ATTITUDES SURROUNDING THE GENDER ROLES OF BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN HAVE THEIR ORIGINS IN SOCIOHISTORICAL INFLUENCES DATING BACK TO SLAVERY In the United States, the gender-role norms of black men are tied to historical issues dating back to the black male experience of slavery. These past experiences currently impact how the larger society conceives black male masculinity and sexuality as well as how members of the black community perceive one another (Marable, 1995; White & Cones, 1999). Survey findings have revealed that blacks tend to be more liberal with respect to gender-role norms, while other survey findings have found them to be more egalitarian in their gender-role attitudes. Finally, other studies are more likely to report more traditional or conservative gender-role attitudes. Black men have also been found to be more conservative than women, although fewer gender differences between black men and women have been found to exist compared to whites (Hatchett, 1991). Given institutionalized racism, inequities in the economic arena as well as the criminal justice system result in black men being particularly vulnerable to gender-role identity concerns. Black males typically do not adhere to the traditional European model of masculinity, wherein men are perceived to be masters of their own fate (that is, being powerful, independent, decisive, and assertive) (Staples, 1995). This makes it even more difficult for them to be effective breadwinners for their families. Consequently, sexuality in the form of procreation becomes central to a black male’s definition of a sense of self, in direct response to the issues mentioned above (Staples, 1995; Monteiro & Fuqua, 1996).

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In contrast, the black male model of masculinity theorizes that the black male, on a spiritual level, is born with the spirit of both male and female. There is more of a balance in the behavioral characteristics associated with masculinity: strength with gentleness, independence with interdependence, and emotional control with emotional expressiveness. Masculinity is different from femininity in its style and form, not in its basic nature (Lewis, 1975). One needs to utilize the appropriate model/framework when interpreting behaviors associated with ethnically and culturally diverse groups. In reaction to not being masters of their own fate, black males may adopt an interpersonal stance through behaviors, scripts, and posturing that suggests to the outside world that they are in control of the world surrounding them (Lazur & Majors, 1995). When one adds the variable of sexual orientation to the picture, the distorted gender-role image of black male masculinity becomes even more distorted, given the stereotype that all homosexual men behave and act like women. A careful examination of the interaction of race, sexual orientation identity, and gender roles reveals that of black males who have sex with other males, their ethnicity is typically far more central to their core identity than their sexual orientation identity. The opposite is often the case for white gay males. Given these realities, it is presumed at times by both black and white scholars that homosexuality is non-existent in African or black societies, and if it does exist, it is a contaminant of white societies or a byproduct of oppression. The devaluation of homosexual behaviors among males within the black community seems to stem from two issues: whether the black male is “insertive” or “receptive” with his male sexual partner, and whether or not there is some conscious recognition/labeling by the partners that their sexual behaviors are “homosexual” in orientation. Based on AIDS-related research, public health epidemiologists are uncovering the reality that black men are more likely than white men to report engaging in same-sex behavior and to label themselves bisexual (Monteiro & Fuqua, 1996). These findings suggest that sexual expression as well as racial identity develop within a cultural context and should be examined accordingly using culturally sensitive models. BLACK EXTENDED FAMILIES’ FRAGILE AND AMBIGUOUS RELATIONSHIPS WITH BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN The nuclear and extended family plays a pivotal role in nurturing the racial identity and socialization of its members. It becomes the

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major context for social support and the psychological well-being of its constituents. Based on the traditional African belief system, the individual owes his or her very existence to all the members of the family (living, dead, and yet-to-be-born). The individual realizes that he did not and could not exist alone and that he is an integral part of that collective (the family) (Nobles, 1996). These African traditions are reflected in the major strengths of contemporary black families, which include a strong achievement orientation, a strong work orientation, flexible family roles, strong kinship bonds, and a strong religious orientation (Hill, 1999). Coming out as a gay male within one’s nuclear and extended family in the black community can lead to varied family reactions ranging from indifference to tolerance to ostracism. This can be extremely threatening to most men who have sex with men who rely on their extended families for their survival and well-being. Black families can hold rather traditional family values that reflect their religious beliefs. Heterosexual lifestyle norms can be highly valued, since they serve to perpetuate the survival of the family: getting married and having biological children who take on the family name and their traditions. Thus, the family of a black male who has sex with men would have to adjust its expectations and value structure to successfully integrate such a family member. Other, more pressing concerns can vie for the attention and energies of the family, which can make such a task even more daunting. For instance, given the chronic and acute stressors associated with an extended family constellation, there is the real issue of whether there are enough emotional resources to expend on this matter, given the other, “more” pressing concerns. It is incumbent upon ethnic minorities to maintain strong connections to their support systems as a way to buffer the continual stressors they face. Such connections serve as a lifeline to many men who have sex with men who are dealing with overt and covert racism, sexism, and/or sexual prejudice. Family members can provide comfort, aid, and assistance in the form of resources and nurturance. One’s family becomes a “haven” from the storm. To jeopardize this type of support system indefinitely is no small matter to be dismissed lightly. There are serious consequences that will result from tampering with the equilibrium that has been developed with one’s family. Great care and caution need to be taken before men who have sex with men seriously consider threatening such a support system, especially when there is nothing to replace it, and/or the individual in question

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doesn’t have the skills necessary to recreate an alternative support system. For these reasons, it is not surprising that men who have sex with men have maintained their connections with their extended families. EDUCATIONAL ISSUES THAT CAN POTENTIALLY SABOTAGE THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN Black males rely on schools to provide them access to social, economic, and political mobility within our technological society. Thus, the school environment needs to be safe and conducive to learning. It is becoming increasingly apparent that social and emotional adjustments are just as important as predictors of scholastic performance and persistence in school as academic preparation (Monteiro & Fuqua, 1996). Racial and sexual orientation identity formation are strongly related to social and emotional adjustment, which in turn impact school achievement. Carlson (1997) asserts that gay and ethnic minority students and their world views are typically marginalized within the school community. Their voices are seldom heard or taken seriously. Instead, they are perceived by the school establishment as being deviant, different, and disempowered. Pilkington and D’Augelli (1995) revealed that in a school setting, 38 percent of youth of color felt uncomfortable disclosing their sexual orientation. Forty-six percent of youth of color reported hiding their sexual orientation from other students. Nineteen percent of youth of color revealed that they had been physically hurt by another student. Forty-five percent of youth of color have hidden their sexual orientation identity from their teachers, and 6 percent reported being hurt by a teacher because of their sexual orientation. Twentyeight percent of youth of color admitted that their openness about their sexual orientation identity was affected by fears of being physically hurt by students and teachers. These findings reveal a rather hostile environment in the schools that is not necessarily conducive to learning and academic achievement. Without a strong foundation during the primary and secondary school years, it becomes more difficult to benefit from post-secondary educational experiences, which are critical in our current technological society. One area where we have relatively minimal information is how men who have sex with men navigate and negotiate the career development

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process that starts in high school. It is clear that LGBT populations have unique challenges finding assistance in navigating this process (Crouteau, Anderson, Distefano, & Kampa-Kokesch, 2000). Family and societal messages play influential roles in socializing how LGBT individuals develop their occupational interests and choices. Gay and bisexual men are more likely to embrace non-traditional occupations than are heterosexuals due to the process during sexual orientation identity formation where the masculinity construct undergoes a major transformation. Due to sexual prejudice and employment discrimination, gay and bisexual men are also more likely to have restricted occupational choices, since they tend to pursue career lines where there have already been trailblazers before them. Gay and bisexual men also tend to internalize the broader society’s vocational stereotypes pertaining to homosexual and occupational choice, which influences what career lines they perceive to be available to them and worth expending energy to attain. The external environment plays a major role in rewarding and shaping the career development process of black male youth. Racial discrimination and unfair labor practices still make it difficult for black males to establish and maintain full-time employment. Without a strong educational background, that is virtually an unattainable goal. RELIGIOUS INVOLVEMENT AS AN AMBIGUOUS PROTECTIVE BUFFER AMONG BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN Much of the research conducted documenting a positive association between religious involvement and life satisfaction/psychological well-being is based on black samples where sexual orientation identity was presumed but never directly assessed (Levin, Chatters, & Taylor, 1995; Ellison & Taylor, 1996; Ellison, 1993, 1995). Anecdotal data suggest that white gay men, bisexuals, lesbians, and transgendered adults perceive their religious and spiritual practices to be central to their overall sense of self (Barret & Barzan, 1996; Halderman, 1996; Ritter & O’Neill, 1989). Boykin (1996b) and Weatherford and Weatherford (1999) revealed the phenomenological experiences of black men and women engaging in same-sex sexual behavior who remain invisible with the black church for fear of possible expulsion. The yearly or biannual gay bashing, homophobic sermon where the minister preaches against homosexuality is routinely tolerated in silence. Everyone is clearly aware that homosexuals

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are present in the congregation, but there is still total silence. These sermons serve a purpose, as Ellison (1997) explains: There is also a coercive dimension to the role of religious groups that merits more detailed investigations in the future. Religious institutions are institutions of social control, and may have the capacity to levy negative sanctions against deviant members. Persons who neglect family responsibilities, engage in negative lifestyles (e.g. idleness, infidelity/ promiscuity, substance abuse, criminality), or both may bear the brunt of gossip, direct rebukes, and other forms of social pressure from other church members. . . . This threat of ostracism may deter some individuals from indulging in habits and behaviors that might undermine family harmony and stability. (p. 129)

The black church has the potential to provide black men who have sex with men the support necessary to foster their psychological adjustment. Unfortunately, there also exists strong pressure to have all of their parishioners conform to a rather rigid and dogmatic set of lifestyle guidelines. Alternatively, the gay affirmative church (such as Unity Fellowship) has the potential to foster and nurture the integration of racial and sexual orientation identities through three basic functions, as posited by O’Neill and Ritter (1992): affirming the inherent goodness of every human being, developing a sense of community, and providing access to God and/or a creator. This environment also has the potential to create a “haven,” or protective buffer, from the pressures (such as acute and/or chronic stressors) of the outside world and can create a type of “second family” for its constituents. Such an environment can facilitate the development of opportunities for psychological empowerment. THE AMBIVALENT ATTACHMENTS TO INTERRACIAL INTIMATE PARTNERS AMONG BLACK GAY MEN Peplau, Cochran, and Mays (1997) sampled black men and women about their same-sex close relationships. The men were in their early thirties and had completed an average of three years of college. Most were employed full-time, and 31 percent earned more than $30,000 a year. The median annual income was $22,000. Most of these men self-labeled as gay (84.6 percent) or bisexual (10 percent). Another

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5 percent did not self-label as gay or bisexual. Forty-two percent of these black gay men reported being involved in interracial relationships with white gay male partners. Three factors that accounted for 57 percent of the variance shed some light on the personal factors that led participants to select their partners: instrumental resources, such as a job, residence, income, and friends; inner personal attributes, such as personality, cultural sophistication, and spiritual energy; and physical attributes of the partner, like sexual abilities, ethnic background, and physical attractiveness. The relationship duration for these black gay men varied from less than one month to more than thirty-five years. Sixty-one percent reported being in love with their partners. Overall, they described their relationships as close and satisfying. With respect to commitment, 44 percent were currently living with their partners, which was perceived as one indicator of commitment. The men were less satisfied sexually with their current partners than black lesbians were. About 50 percent of these men reported that their relationships were monogamous, but since their relationships began, two thirds had had sex outside of their relationships and had a greater number of partners than did their black lesbian counterparts. Ninety-one percent of the black gay men revealed that this extra activity involved a male partner. Only a minority (19 percent) had told their partners about their extra-relationship sex. When the researchers examined the correlates of relationship satisfaction, they found that only the inner attributes of the partner (personality, intelligence, spiritual energy, etc.) were found to be significantly associated with relationship satisfaction. Similarly, feelings of love and feeling emotionally close were also found to be significant correlates of relationship satisfaction. Finally, perceptions that one’s partner was equally satisfied with their relationship was a significant correlate of relationship satisfaction for this sample. Interestingly, sexual behavior inside and outside of the relationship was found to be associated with personal satisfaction. Greater sexual frequency, higher sexual satisfaction, and monogamy were all significantly associated with overall relationship satisfaction for men who have sex with men. The men’s HIV status was not related to their ratings of relationship satisfaction, to their frequency of sex with their partners in the previous month, or to their sexual satisfaction. Likewise, one’s partner’s HIV status was not associated with relationship satisfaction, frequency of sex with their partner in the previous

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month, or sexual satisfaction. These findings give us a window into the close relationships of black gay men. It is unclear whether or not black men who have sex with men were sampled here. If they were, would they have reported similar findings? Hopson and Hopson (1995) asserted that black heterosexual couples dating back to slavery viewed their own relationships as tied to the social and psychological strengths of the entire black community. White and Parham (1990) link collectivism with egalitarianism within black male/female relationships. Masculinity and femininity from this perspective are not mutually exclusive, and individuals possessing dual qualities (masculine and feminine traits) were highly valued. These relationships always need to be viewed within their sociohistorical/sociocultural context. Thus, blacks’ affectionate and respectful behavioral exchanges are not just a function of their partner’s behavior but also a function of the specific value orientation emphasizing oneness with the larger black community. This resource exchange of love and esteem appears to be governed by socioeconomic influences (Staples, 1985). Gaines, Buriel, Liu, and Rios (1997) have called for more empirical attention to assess these interpersonal relationship dynamics among black partners within the context of black same-sex close relationships. Gaines (1994) revealed that neither affection nor respect was reciprocated to a significant degree among black male– male couples. More concerted empirical attention needs to be paid to diverse types of same-sex relationships, including among ethnically and culturally diverse men. In particular, how do perceived power and influence or the lack thereof (for example, a partner’s ethnic minority status within the external environment) negatively impact the interpersonal dynamics within a same-sex relationship? (Bingham et al., 2003). Poon (2000) discusses how gay men of Asian descent may be more vulnerable to relationship violence within same-sex relationships with white partners. Similarly, Williams (1994) discusses how power, status, and the lack thereof within the external environment get displaced onto the close relationship dynamics leading to relationship violence among heterosexual black couples. Similar work needs to occur to provide some insight into the interpersonal dynamics that occur within same-sex relationship violence among ethnically and culturally diverse men who have sex with men, particularly interracial, same-sex couples. Williams and his colleagues have begun to address this topic (Richie, 2002).

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SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN THE WORKPLACE AMONG BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN The workplace is another arena that provides real challenges to black men who have sex with men. The issue becomes whether or not to reveal their same-sex sexual behavior outside or within this environment to co-workers, superiors, and so on. What type of climates exist within the workplace for employees who are “different?” What types of feedback, along a number of dimensions, both verbal and nonverbal, are being communicated by the administration/employees/staff concerning cultural diversity issues within the workplace? To what extent have all the levels of the organizational staff been adequately prepared to deal effectively with cultural diversity issues as they appear on the scene? What impact have cultural diversity issues had on work productivity? Work environments vary considerably to the extent that they have begun to address these issues. Black men who have sex with men are in a rather delicate position once they enter the work environment, since they don’t self-label as gay or bisexual. If this aspect of their identity is revealed, what types of reactions will occur? More importantly, will they be able to navigate and negotiate the varying outcomes that may occur if this work environment is not inclusive? One case study that may shed some light onto these issues is the qualitative research of Friskopp and Silverstein (1995) that focused a portion of attention on black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Latino gay professionals who were graduates of Harvard Business School’s MBA program and were entering corporate America. Many of these ethnic minority gay professionals chose to remain closeted at work for fear of the consequences to their career paths and development if they came “out.” These individuals felt that it was doubly difficult to fit in. They perceived that there were social and career obstacles to promotions that they believed were almost impossible to surmount. Their experiences coping with gay racism within the white gay male community as well as the heterosexism/sexual prejudice within their ethnic minority communities did not prepare them to integrate their racial and sexual minorities within their work environments. What was interesting was that the subgroup of black gay professionals who did decide to come “out” in corporate America did not experience the retribution that they expected. It is important to note that this sample is clearly an atypical sample that cannot be generalized to ethnic minority gay men. It does

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provide some provocative qualitative data concerning the perceptions of individuals possessing multiple minority identities that result in multiple oppressions and how corporate America responds to such individuals’ overt behavior. What is interesting from a longitudinal perspective is that many of these gay male professionals with Harvard MBA degrees eventually became self-employed, starting their own small businesses outside of corporate America. What would be interesting is to better understand how the process that evolved as they entered corporate America impacted that decision. A long-standing myth that exists is that gay men and lesbians are economically and educationally elite and therefore don’t deserve any special treatment. In an independent study released by the University of Maryland–College Park, researchers documented that the gay population was as economically and socially diverse as any other subgroup. The study reported an average annual income of $26,321 for gay men and $15,056 for lesbians, and concluded that they earned 11 percent to 27 percent less than heterosexual men and 5 percent to 14 percent less than heterosexual women, respectively (Winfeld & Spielman, 1995). When one adds race and ethnicity to this equation, variability in annual income and educational attainment become even more pronounced among gay men and lesbians. MULTIPLE MINORITY STRESSORS EXPERIENCED BY BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN Franklin (1999) has coined the phrase the invisibility syndrome to describe the inner struggles of black men who believe their talents, abilities, personality, and worth are not valued or recognized due to prejudice and discrimination. There are seven dynamic elements to the invisibility syndrome that are related to the repeated daily hassles black men encounter: (1) one feels a lack of recognition or appropriate acknowledgment, (2) one feels there is no satisfaction or gratification from the encounter, (3) one feels self-doubt and the lack of legitimacy, (4) there is no validation from the experience, (5) one feels disrespected, (6) one’s sense of dignity is compromised and challenged, and (7) one’s basic identity is shaken, if not uprooted. It is the social construction of racism that provided the foundation for these acts of prejudice and discrimination (Franklin, 1999; Davis, 1999). Black men, as a result of this process, seldom feel a part of the mainstream culture, and this invisibility impacts their beliefs and

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attitudes as well as their sense of self and self-esteem. Similarly, being invisible also results in the need to manage elevated levels of stress and anxiety. Franklin (1998) defined these reactions as microaggressions—subtle acts or activities experienced as hostile and that fit a personal history and pattern of racial slights and disregard. These realities cut across the mainstream heterosexual culture as well as within the white gay male community (Boykin, 1996a). Black men who have sex with men experience the cumulative effects of these minority stressors (racism, gay racism, sexual prejudice, etc.) even more intensely than traditional black men due to their multiple minority identities resulting in multiple oppressions (DiPlacido, 1998). SEXUAL PREJUDICE EXPERIENCED BY BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY IS STILL UNCLEAR EMPIRICALLY It is commonly asserted that homosexuality is less tolerated within the black community than in the white community (Ernst et al., 1991). Unfortunately, there are very few empirical data sets that document this “reality.” When Ernst et al. (1991) sampled state employees’ responses to the statement “AIDS will help society by reducing the number of homosexuals (gay people),” it was not surprising that black females were more likely to endorse this statement than were white females. There were no differences between black males and white males in their endorsements of this item. These authors interpret these data as a reflection of the reality that gay black men are one more way to reduce the already shrinking pool of available, “eligible” (to women) black single men. Interestingly, Herek and Capitanio (1995), in a two-wave telephone survey with a national probability sample of 391 black heterosexual adults, did not replicate Ernst et al. (1991). Sexual prejudice clearly exists within the black community, but it does not appear to be at elevated levels compared with whites. Based on anecdotal evidence from both gay black men as well as black men who have sex with men, it appears that there still exists sexual prejudice in the mainstream culture as well as the black community, and it inhibits everyone by limiting their choices and their opportunities to grow and integrate these different aspects of their identities. This inhibiting becomes even more problematic when one considers that black men, as

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a group, are still being viewed as an “endangered species” (Gibbs, 1988). STRATEGIES FOR COMBATING PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BLACK MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN As one can tell from the toolbox for change below, from an ecological level of analysis, prejudice and discrimination need to be combated along a number of levels. Individuals need to begin to acknowledge their biases and begin the process of embracing human diversity. The social science literature is clear that the best way to induce attitude change is to establish and maintain relationships that challenge our pre-existing stereotypes and beliefs. This strategy works the best when the parties are involved in a cooperative activity where the outcome is important to both parties. This is a real challenge for this group, since black men who have sex with men tend to be invisible and are reluctant to come “out” to anyone, particularly relative strangers. A more accessible group to start off this process would be black gay men who are “out.” Work on the prevention of HIV infection/AIDS, here in the United States and now around the world, has taught that the adoption of viable prevention programs relies heavily on tailoring these programs to the needs of specific communities. Thus, one size does not fit all. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the explanations for why one community engages in behavior can have no relevance whatsoever for another community. Thus, culturally informed programs tailored to the communities in need of services are the only way to directly impact attitudes and behavior (Brooks, RotheramBorus, Bing, Ayala, & Henry, 2003; Diaz, 1998). There are still many communities that resist such a notion. Their community leaders believe that all communities are alike and we are all human beings with the same needs. These leaders need to be comfortable in restructuring existing institutions to become more inclusive of the diversity within our midst and to service the populations that are presently in need of their services (Richie, 2002). Similarly, lawmakers need to become more inclusive when developing social policy. This means taking into consideration from the outset the considerable intra-individual differences that exist with groups and crafting social policy that acknowledges that reality. White and Cones (1999), Jones (1994), and Watts and Jagers (1997) have excellent suggestions and

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recommendations for community interventions that can dramatically improve the lives of black men. Finally, practitioners and educators have a professional/ethical obligation to provide services to ethnically and culturally diverse populations that seek their assistance. This objective needs to permeate every aspect of the delivery of services and would necessitate retraining (both didactic and experiential) and restructuring existing interventions and treatment/curriculum protocols. This would mean conceptualizing case materials in radically different ways, providing quality multicultural supervision, and re-conceptualizing the process treatment/education and outcome (Schiele, 2000; de Anda & Becerra, 2000). There still exists considerable resistance by both practitioners and educators toward embracing human diversity in all of its forms. Once again, only through continued didactic and experiential training can this process successfully unfold in the twenty-first century.

Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals

Clinging unconsciously to racist and homophobic beliefs (such as feelings of inferiority) about racial and sexual minorities. One’s beliefs impact one’s overt behavior.

Community

Resistance to embracing Dramatic changes in the human diversity. structure and operation of Resistance to the institutions. Social policy development of culturally that is more inclusive of informed primary, racially and culturally secondary, and tertiary diverse groups. prevention, as well as empowerment programs.

Practitioners/ Resistance to multicultural educators education perspectives, and the heterogeneity that exists within racial and sexual minorities.

Establishing and maintaining relationships over time with racial and sexual minorities who challenge one’s pre-existing stereotypes and belief systems.

Exposure to didactic and experiential training based on the Afrocentric paradigm.

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Morales, E. (1996). Gender roles among Latino gay and bisexual men: Implications for family and couple relationships. In J. Laird & R. JayGreen (Eds.), Lesbians and gays in couples and families: A handbook for therapists (pp. 272–297). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Myers, H. F., Javanbakht, M., Martinez, M., & Obediah, S. (2003). Psychosocial predictors of risky sexual behaviors among African-American men: Implications for prevention, AIDS Education and Prevention, 15, Supplement A, 66–79. Nobles, W. W. (1996). Africanity and the black family. In K. P. Monteiro (Ed.), Ethnicity and psychology: African-, Asian-, Latino-, and Native-American psychologies (pp. 100–113). Dubuque, IA: KendallHunt Publishers. O’Neill, C., & Ritter, K. (1992). Coming out within: Stages of spiritual awakening for lesbians and gay men. San Francisco: Harper and Row. Peplau, L. A., Cochran, S. D., & Mays, V. M. (1997). A national survey of the intimate relationships of African-American lesbians and gay men: A look at commitment, satisfaction, sexual behavior, and HIV disease. In B. Greene (Ed.), Ethnic and cultural diversity among lesbians and gay men. Psychological perspectives on lesbian and gay issues (Vol. 3, pp. 11–38). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Pilkington, N. W., & D’Augelli, A. R. (1995). Victimization of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth in community settings. Journal of Community Psychology, 23, 34–56. Poon, M. K. (2000). Inter-racial same-sex abuse: The vulnerability of gay men of Asian descent in relationships with Caucasian men. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services: Issues in Practice, Policy & Research, 11(4), 39–67. Richie, B. E. (2002). Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered session. In O. Williams (Ed.), Community insights on domestic violence among African-Americans: Conversations about domestic violence and other issues affecting their community (pp. 26–29). St. Paul: University of Minnesota Press. Ritter, K. Y., & O’Neill, C. W. (1989). Moving through loss: The spiritual journey of gay men and lesbian women. Journal of Counseling and Development, 68, 9–15. Schiele, J. H. (2000). Human services and the Afrocentric paradigm. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. Smith, A. (1998). Cultural diversity and the coming out process: Implications for clinical practice. In B. Greene (Ed.), Ethnic and cultural diversity among lesbians and gay men. Psychological perspectives on lesbians and gay issues (Vol. 3, pp. 279–300). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Staples, R. (1985). Change in black family structure: The conflict between family ideology and structural conditions. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47, 1005–1013.

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Staples, R. (1995). Stereotypes of black male sexuality: The facts behind the myths. In M. S. Kimmel & M. A. Messner (Eds.), Men’s lives (3rd ed., pp. 375–380). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. St. Lawrence, J. S., Eldridge, G. D., Reitman, D., Little, C. E., Shelby, M. C., & Brasfield, T. L. (1998). Factors influencing condom use among African-American women: Implications for risk reduction intervention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26(1), 7–28. Vandiver, B. J., et al. (2000). The Cross Racial Identity Scale. Unpublished scale. Vandiver, B. J., Cross, W. E., Jr., Worrell, F. C., & Fhagen-Smith, P.E. (2002). Validating the Cross Racial Identity Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49(1), 71–85. Watts, R. J., & Jagers, R. J. (Eds.). (1997). Manhood development in urban African-American communities. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. Weatherford, R. J., & Weatherford, C. B. (1999). Somebody’s knocking at your door: AIDS and the African-American church. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Pastoral Press. White, J. L., & Cones III, J. H. (1999). Black man emerging: Facing the past and seizing a future in America. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. White, J. L., & Parham, T. A. (1990). The psychology of blacks: An AfricanAmerican perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Williams, O. (1994). Group work with African-American men who batter: Toward more ethnically-sensitive practice. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 25(1), 91–103. Winfeld, L., & Spielman, S. (1995). Straight talk about gays in the workplace: Creating an inclusive, productive environment for everyone in your organization. New York: American Management Association. Wingood, G. M., & DiClemente, R. J. (1997). The effects of an abusive primary partner on the condom use and sexual negotiation practices of African-American women. American Journal of Public Health, 87(6), 1016–1018. Wingood, G. M., & DiClemente, R. J. (1998). Partner influences and gender-related factors associated with noncondom use among young adult African-American women. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26(1), 29–51. Wyatt et al. (1997). Adapting a comprehensive approach to AfricanAmerican women’s sexual risk taking. Journal of Health Education, 28(6), 52–59.

CHAPTER 10

Coping among Victims of Sexual Prejudice and Discrimination Martin Kantor

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e cannot eliminate all the prejudice and discrimination in the world. Most of us are potential targets due to one characteristic or another. We hear a lot about prejudice and discrimination regarding race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. We hear less about other prejudice and discrimination that are just as commonly targeted to people based on their body size, disability, dress, and appearance. The overarching principle in the following discussion is that in coping with and managing prejudice and discrimination, knowledge is power that gives targets of prejudice and discrimination both the ability to succeed in life personally and professionally in the face of bigots’ attempts to put obstacles in their way, and also the means to maintain their self-esteem in the face of bigots’ attempts to lower it. In my view, there are not just one but many types of prejudice and discrimination, and each requires a somewhat different corrective. My method for handling bigotry is a six-step approach that outlines a practical, doable method for handling the different types of prejudice and discrimination, based on understanding each specific type. As a psychiatrist with over forty years of clinical experience with patients, I have seen literally hundreds of psychiatric patients for evaluation and therapy, some of whom have been hard-core bigots and others who have shown bigoted tendencies. I have previously addressed issues of psychopathology in general, and specifically the psychopathology of bigotry, in my books, particularly Homophobia,

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where the reader can find more clinical examples of bigotry, as well as references to the origins and sources of my theoretical assumptions. The following discussion emphasizes methods for coping with and managing homophobia, but this is a generic method that may apply to all forms of bigotry, ranging from xenophobia to anti-Semitism, with the details varying only slightly according to who the targets of the moment are. For example, a mindset that is characteristic of all bigots is the need to stereotype by tarring all members of a class with the same brush, paradoxically discriminating against all members of a class by failing to discriminate between them. The following discussion also couples theoretical postulates with specific antitheses. When no specific antithesis is offered, the reader can safely assume that the general principles mentioned throughout apply. IDENTIFY HIDDEN PREJUDICE AND SECRET DISCRIMINATION Denying prejudice and discrimination can temporarily spare a target’s feelings, but this denial will not solve the serious and often permanent emotional and practical problems that prejudice and discrimination create. Therefore, the targets are better off spotting prejudice and discrimination when and where they exist. They need to know when and where they have been discriminated against, and that they are not just imagining it or thinking that they are paranoid when in fact they are being persecuted. The following detailed discussion of bigotry can provide the targets of bigotry with the raw material they need to identify prejudice and discrimination, thereby distinguishing reality from imagination. UNDERSTAND THE BIGOT’S ILLOGIC To protect themselves against the inroads bigots make on their emotions and in their lives, targets of prejudice and discrimination should try to understand scientifically how bigots think. They can profitably identify the cognitive errors that make up bigoted theories. Understanding these cognitive errors highlights how irrational bigotry is. Knowing that bigotry is irrational helps targets of prejudice and discrimination cope by strongly suggesting that the rationale for the bigotry is seriously flawed. Bigots are often sophists who, like all sophists, reason well though falsely. They can often reason more effectively than all but those

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victims best prepared to spot the fallacy of their thinking. They can do this because they tend to be shrewd, preoccupied with their bigotry, and have an emotional need to devalue others. Here are some of the specific logical fallacies (cognitive errors), both gross and subtle, that contribute to the sophistry that is inherent in bigotry. Delusional Thinking The thinking of many bigots, especially those who are paranoid, is characterized by what are called primary delusions. Just as some emotionally troubled individuals think that they are Napoleon and make their case for being Napoleon by announcing “I am he,” then refusing to entertain rational arguments to the contrary, bigots deem their bashing to be right and justified because they “just know” that their targets are defective. Like people who think that they are Napoleon, bigots, when asked how they know that what they say is so, respond, “because I know it.” As bigots see it, they are right to devalue you because you are devalued by their definition of things. Showing no willingness to brook even the best evidential argument to the contrary, they instead respond to even the most cogent counterarguments by repeating themselves. It does not fluster the anti-Semite to be reminded that Albert Einstein was a Jew any more than it flusters today’s “Napoleon” to learn that we have the original’s dead body. Their confident assertions lend their bigotry an air of expertise, and their self-deception makes it possible for them to stun and mesmerize their targets. Paranoid Thinking Bigots tend to condemn others for doing the same things that they themselves think and do, after conveniently forgetting that they themselves also think and do them. They tend to be hypocritical individuals who project their own unacceptable attitudes and desires, like the patient who denied that he had homosexual feelings, which he felt guilty about, by condemning others for being homosexual. Disappointment around a sense of personal failure is also externalized, as in “The reason I am not working is not that no one will hire me because I do not have the skills, but that all the immigrants around here took all the good jobs,” or “Who can get anywhere in Hollywood when the Jews, gays, and lesbians control the whole town?” Such bigots scapegoat others so that they can deny that their

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problems are due to their own shortcomings. They also rationalize their victim-bashing this way, making it okay to “beat up faggots and foreigners.” Antithesis Targets of these bigots can help counter the effects of the prejudice and discrimination by realizing the impersonal nature of the attacks. They can reframe the statements of bigots as the self-statements that they in fact are. They can realize, “He is not talking about me,” or “She is talking about herself.” They can remind themselves that behind every bigoted criticism of another is a criticism of oneself, that, in the vernacular, “It takes one to know one.” Backward Reasoning Here bigots start with a conclusion, then collect only that evidence that supports their initial premise. Part-to-Whole Thinking Here bigots take a slice of reality and make it the entire thing by a process of magnification. The stereotyping that characterizes bigotry involves viewing rare, uncharacteristic, exotic, or nonexistent behaviors as typical of a whole class, and as serious and widespread. In the view of bigots, all Irish are complete sots who drink and talk too much; all Jews are cheap, money-grubbing hoarders; all blacks (but especially those encountered on a dark street) are dangerous; all Puerto Ricans are lazy and shiftless; all Italians are gangsters and buffoons who wear gold chains or dark-colored Zegna suits; and all Asians are sinister individuals not to be trusted. Practically speaking, a class is defined according to one or more assumed negative (not positive) characteristics of that class, forgetting that within any class there are many subclasses, and within subclasses there are many different individual styles, so that in effect the class itself does not really exist. Selective abstraction is a form of part-to-whole thinking that, according to Beck (1985), involves drawing conclusions about a situation or event based on “a [single] detail taken out of context[,] ignoring other, more salient features of the situation, and conceptualizing the whole experience on the basis of this element” (p. 1437).

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Assigning Guilt by Association Bigots put their targets in an excessively negative light by grading them based on the people who sometimes surround them, for example, viewing all gay men as sissified. Paralogical Predicative Thinking According to Jules R. Bemporad and Henry Pinsker (1974), in paralogical predicative thinking, “the slightest similarity between items or events becomes a connecting link that makes them identical” (p. 532). The purpose is to create a new reality along desired lines. For example, many bigots reason falsely that if A can be meaningfully equated with B in any respect, and C can be meaningfully equated with B in any respect, then A ⫽ C. Thus, I (A) am a virgin (B). The Virgin Mary (C) is a virgin (B). Therefore I (A) am the Virgin Mary (C). In similar manner, homophobes who want to avoid recognizing that gay men and lesbians can be soldiers and sailors just as well as anyone else use the slightest (justified, or in this case, unjustified) similarity and force it into a connective link, concluding that gay (A) ⫽ feminine (B), girl (C) ⫽ feminine (B), so gay (A) ⫽ girl (C) (and girls can’t fight). Ad Hominem Reasoning In ad hominem reasoning, criticism of the producer leads to falsely negative evaluation of the product, so that the work is judged by a preinstalled negative opinion of the worker. As one troubled veteran said to me, “What do gay men do in the trenches? Their nails.” Tangential Thinking Tangential thinkers use minor, incremental, logical distortions to create large, major, illogical leaps. Their logical distortions are each so small, their falsifications each so gradual, and their shifts each so imperceptible that the process as a whole becomes convincing. Bigots use tangential thinking to strike fear into the hearts of the general public by creating the illusion that those they target are poised to get out of control. For example, they might “prove” that gay marriage is unacceptable because it breaks the currently accepted social mold, which breaks with tradition, which creates a generation of nontraditionalists, who will create a new, nontraditional society, which will

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overthrow the old, established world order—a familiar example of how bigoted tangential thinking crawls rather than leaps from false premise to false conclusion. Absolutistic and Dichotomous Thinking In this black and white thinking, an individual is, or groups of individuals are, divided into all-good and all-bad, pigeonholed, and judged accordingly. Emotional Thinking According to Robert J. Ursano and Edward K. Silberman (1988), emotional thinking leads to inexact labeling, which involves labeling “events in proportion to one’s emotional response to them rather than according to the facts of the situation” (p. 870). However, not all bigotry is the product of illogical thinking. Some is pure dissimulation for effect, as when a politician makes a certain group a common enemy in an election year just so that he or she can win an election. This kind of bigotry is manipulative, and its goal is to obtain a specific advantage, such as a competitive edge. Also, some bigotry is due to ignorance, which can in turn be due to inadequate schooling or poor briefing. Antithesis Targets of bigotry need to analyze the bigots’ logic to uncover the logical errors. They might start a journal with two columns on the page—on the left, the bigoted reality, and on the right, the comparative truth. That way, the irrationality behind prejudice and discrimination will become clear, and the targets will realize that since bigots make very little sense, the exact details of what they say are of very little importance. A sample journal entry might show on the left, “If you are gay, you will make a bad soldier,” and on the right, “Lawrence of Arabia.” Another might show on the left, “If you are a woman, you will make a bad soldier,” and on the right, “Joan of Arc.” RECOGNIZE THE DIFFERENT MODELS OF BIGOTRY Different models of bigotry tend to be favored by different bigots depending on each bigot’s individual personality and profession. The

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following discussion focuses on homophobia not only for itself but also as a paradigm of bigotry—that is, it generally applies equally to all forms of bigotry, ranging from xenophobia to anti-Semitism. Distinguishing among the types is corrective, for there is a different antithesis for each. Thus the antithesis of religious bigotry may involve joining a different church; the antithesis for sociocultural/political bigotry may require activism; and the antithesis for medical-model bigotry may require understanding that people who are emotionally troubled need to be cured, not taken seriously. The Religious Model The religious model supposedly tells us that homosexuals are sinners. Persons who espouse that model are not merely religious but scrupulously religious individuals. They may be grandiose proselytizers who “know” that they know right from wrong. Sometimes they even consult with God so that they can act as His emissary to spread the Word. This model is ingrained in much of society, and it is a very dangerous one because many gays and lesbians, already self-homophobic for some of the same reasons that others are homophobic about them, imagine themselves to be sinners and take such accusations seriously and personally. Antithesis Gays and lesbians or other targets of religious bigotry need to tell themselves over and over again that they are hearing only from the minority: scrupulously religious people are, in reality, just fanatics and extremists with a religious bent, who additionally like the public eye and know how to get it focused on them. Many observers would agree that truly religious people either have few thoughts on matters bigoted or view gays and lesbians like they view everyone else: as people with flaws and virtues in the usual proportion. Targets of those religious homophobes who regularly quote the Bible should take a few moments and read the Bible to see what it actually contains. They should also remember that there are problems of translation that might warp the original Biblical messages that come down to us. Who is to say, for example, that the translation we are reading is not the work of an original homophobe who has taken words with multiple meanings and bent them to his or her will?

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In summary, targets of religious prejudice and discrimination should understand that truly religious people are out to discover God’s intent and to spread His word, but bigoted fanatic religious people are not out to mouth God’s word, but to put words into God’s mouth. Those who seriously buy into the concept that they are sinners, that is, those who introject the bigot’s words and cannot shake loose from them, may have an underlying emotional problem such as obsessionalism or depression. They may for that reason benefit from seeking personal therapy. The Sociocultural/Political Model In the sociocultural/political model of homophobia, gays and lesbians are forced into the role of participating in the bigot’s game of playing a special card, for example, the race card. They might hear, “Gays and lesbians are a threat to the legitimate family, so vote for me and I’ll take care of that problem” just as Latinos might hear that they “are entirely responsible for California going broke, so vote for me and I’ll bridge the budget gap on their backs.” Often in this model, gays and lesbians are perceived to be eccentrics, that is, not part of the mainstream. There is a good deal of condescension here, usually for the purpose of keeping the target in his or her place. In this view, “it is okay to be gay, but not in my family,” just as “it is okay to be a Jew, but I wouldn’t want my daughter marrying one.” Antithesis This consists chiefly of social activism, such as disseminating information about what minority groups are really like and getting out the vote. Of course all individuals, minority group or not, have a social responsibility to act locally in a way that gives the group they belong to a good reputation in the community. The Medical Model In the medical model of homophobia, the homosexual is not well but sick and needs to be cured. Some therapists—called reparative therapists—espouse this model of homosexuality and set about to cure gays and lesbians of their homosexuality. They often present case examples of what they call successful cures, which they may be able to

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do because they treat a select group—gays and lesbians who apply for therapy to go straight and are therefore by definition already in conflict about their homosexuality. In my professional experience, the patients they “cure” are not committed homosexuals but straights just going through a gay phase—bisexuals of the moment who might easily have tipped anyway even without therapy. Antithesis Targets of this medical model need to realize that they are not sick. Except for those who are homosexuals in serious conflict about their homosexuality and those who are really bisexual, the best idea is to not get involved in any form of therapy that is primarily geared to changing sexual orientation. It is the view of many therapists today that while homosexuals do sometimes need psychotherapy like anyone else, the treatment should be directed not to the homosexuality itself but to the manifestations of emotional disorder that exist in the person who is homosexual, often for reasons that are unrelated to the homosexuality itself. The Biological Model A subtype of the medical model is the biological model, where individuals such as gays and lesbians, gypsies, Jews, or aborigines are viewed not as sinners, objects of political convenience, deviates, or sick, but as defectives, inferiors, or mutants. Those who espouse this model mention genetic issues often and proclaim that their only concern is that their targets will breed and destroy society as we know it. In extreme cases, they go beyond genetics to eugenics, and we hear of camps and sterilizations for the greater good. Antithesis Gays and lesbians should clearly recognize that no one group is genetically inferior to another and that no transmissible “inferior” gene characterizing a whole group has ever been discovered. TREAT BIGOTS AS IF THEY WERE EMOTIONALLY TROUBLED INDIVIDUALS While the medical model of homosexuality is a form of bigotry, the medical model of bigotry offers useful insight that can help victims

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avoid being intimidated. It does so by revealing that serious bigots are troubled individuals with emotional problems diagnosable even without formal psychological training and manageable according to diagnosis-based therapeutic methods worked out over the years and easily adopted for laymen. The operative principle here is that someone who is seriously emotionally disturbed is likely to be wrong about many things. As mentioned in the book Homophobia (1998), homophobia goes far beyond being simply a sociopolitical matter. It is not only learned or something that all those healthy guys down at the sports bar are saying and doing, and it is more than fear based purely on ignorance and unfamiliarity. Serious bigotry of the homophobic kind is profitably viewed as a symptom of one or more underlying emotional problems. That is, much bigotry that passes as intellectual is in fact emotional. Prejudice, like neurosis, serves a defensive purpose, relieving anxiety and enhancing self-esteem, which is why Henry Pinsker says, “Prejudice, serving an adaptive function, will not go away” (2003). The inescapable conclusion is that since serious bigotry is in structure and content akin to an obsession or a delusion, it is appropriate to manage serious bigotry as one would manage any other deeply rooted emotional disorder, giving it the same clinical understanding and therapeutic care that one might lavish on any other psychological illness: applying familiar therapeutic methods to influence the masses, or one by one the individuals who make up those masses. Bigotry targets who know this have a whole new method for handling the homophobes, xenophobes, anti-Semites, and others of like kind who trouble them. However, it must be emphasized that the equivalency is a rough one, that is, while there are distinct similarities between bigotry and emotional disorder, there are also some differences, and so the analogy at some point breaks down. For one thing, any bigoted person is part of and a reflection of his or her society. As Mautner notes (2003), we all learn attitudes and behaviors from media (print, television), and there is observational learning as children learn attitudes and behaviors from their parents. For another thing, the psychopathology in question may in effect be the psychopathology of everyday life. That is, while the bigotry is structurally psychopathological, the psychopathology does not rise to the level of a full emotional disorder and so does not constitute one. However, the differences should not obscure the similarities and lead to the blanket assertion that homophobia is purely a socially learned behavior that can be socially

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unlearned via better education of the individual and the greater enlightenment of social institutions. This is because you cannot unlearn mental illness easily, and that in turn partly accounts for why prejudice and discrimination rarely yield simply to confrontation and arguments to the contrary. Paranoid Bigotry Most serious students of homophobia recognize that paranoid mechanisms are causative in at least some cases. Homophobes who use paranoid mechanisms condemn the homosexual desires of others in order to deny that they have homosexual feelings of their own. Antithesis At least theoretically, managing paranoid homophobia involves cognitive restructuring—focusing on the homophobe’s erroneous projective beliefs and conclusions to get the homophobe to identify them and then start dealing with and resolving his or her own problems by methods other than attributing them to others. Therefore, the proper reply to paranoid homophobes is the personal equivalent of, “It takes one to know one”—meaning that “queers wouldn’t upset you so if they didn’t push one of your very personal buttons,” then adding, “Don’t take it out on me, but instead, bigot, heal thyself.” Two caveats apply. First, the target should participate in the bigot’s disillusionment, not in the bigot’s therapy. Second, confrontation can be dangerous, especially with paranoid homophobes who can even become violent when told in so many words that they hate queers only because on some level they are queer themselves. Therefore, Mautner (2003) suggests that with these homophobes, one should mostly write the scenario out in a personal journal as a catharsis, quietly recognizing the projection involved in order to be in a better position to take the angry words and deeds less personally, along the lines of, “There is nothing wrong with me. You, not I, are the one with the problem.” The targets of homophobes should then join relevant groups and leave it up to these groups to change the world. Depressive Bigotry Just as it is depressive to be excessively and unfairly critical of oneself, it is also depressive to be excessively and unfairly critical of

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others—and being homophobic, or otherwise bigoted, suits that purpose all too well. A troublesome thing about depressive bigots is that they know how to hurt not only themselves but also others. They know exactly how to go for the jugular and where to stick the knife in, thus rendering the other individual’s self-esteem very low the same way that they render low their own. Antithesis Targets can at least theoretically manage depressed homophobes the same way that they can manage anyone else who is depressed, but few would feel comfortable with that approach. Very few would want to take steps to alleviate a depressed homophobe’s depression by giving him or her a pep talk along the lines of “none of us, you included, is as bad as you make me, and us all, out to be”; and then, for the more charitably inclined, recommend a consultation with a therapist. Therefore, a good general supportive measure involves not taking the bigot’s criticisms quite so personally after following what is perhaps the most useful of all the mantras for targets of bigots: “Consider the source.” Manic Bigotry Manic bigotry is malignant narcissistic grandiosity associated with feelings of superiority combined with easy irritability, leading to a tendency to irrationally devalue others with very little provocation and on almost any grounds. Antithesis Theoretically at least, targets who spot manic bigots and understand that their problem is predominantly uncontrolled, speeding, highpressure, irrational anger, will want to put their foot down and set limits—demanding that the bigots control their words and actions. However, once again, these bigots may be dangerous or violent, so instead of a vocal “stop it,” a personal “I refuse to listen to this” mindset may be the “intervention” of choice. Dissociative Bigotry An important characteristic of dissociative bigotry is that it allows contrary ideas to exist side by side. For example, a bigot says, “All

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lesbians hate men,” then contradicts himself and says, “All lesbians want to be men,” two postulates that are both inherently incorrect and entirely incompatible. Anyone who stereotypes is effectively in a state of dissociation, because to stereotype, it is necessary to ignore facts that do not fit. There is little substantive difference among the amnesiac who ignores true facts about his or her identity, the patient with a multiple personality disorder who ignores who he or she actually is or was just a few minutes ago, and the anti-Semite who ignores the possibility that Albert Einstein was not genetically inferior. Antithesis A remedy for targets of dissociative bigots (and for therapists treating such people) is to integrate contradictory beliefs and fantasies the same way patients with a multiple personality disorder, a fugue, or amnesia need to integrate the various parts of their personalities. In simple terms, it behooves the targeted person to ignore all scenarios that constitute a picture that distorts due to having left some of the important pixels out. Obsessional Bigotry Obsessionals see defined groups as falling short of an excessively high ideal that characterizes not reality but obsessive, perfectionistic thinking. As a result, they condemn whole groups of people as “lazy and shiftless and unreliable,” “money-grubbing,” and “filthy dirty.” Obsessional bigots neither shun nor bash their victims. Instead they simply both literally and figuratively wash their hands of them. Antithesis The target who is aware of the dynamics of the bigoted response will save his or her energy by not trying to talk these particular bigots out of their pathological, ritualistic thinking and behavior. He or she will recognize that talking to such bigots is about as unproductive as ordering a compulsive hand-washer to stop the process. Therefore, the remedy involves giving up and staying away. Fortunately, these bigots are usually private miniaturists who can be safely ignored. Malignant Narcissistic Bigotry Narcissistic individuals personalize, coming to believe that everything their targets do is relevant to them, the bigots. Not surprisingly, they

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then become controlling individuals, having made their target’s behavior not only their source of anxiety but also their business, personal concern, and mission in life. Malignant narcissistic bigots feel superior to their targets and believe that they have both the ability and right to abuse them. Theirs is the troublesome combination of being overly self-confident individuals convinced that only they have the truth and that their way is the one and only right way, and being self-deluding, self-congratulating individuals who are convinced that they are pure and others foul. They may become fanatics who proselytize and demand to be heard because they, and only they, have the “word.” Presuming themselves deep and brilliant thinkers, they accept no input and brook no argument from others. Instead, they respond to others’ legitimate protests by digging in and simply restating their cherished beliefs. They also demand an uneven playing field where they have rights and privileges that others should not be given. In a way, many resemble idiot savants whose socalled intellectual formulations appear as brilliant islands in a sea of the general ignorance and dysfunctionality they manifest in most other areas of their lives. That is, not only are these bigots prejudiced, they are often not as smart as they may claim to be. Antithesis An important remedy involves being skeptical of self-proclaimed experts. Instead of being cowed by the malignant narcissist’s selfproclaimed expertise, targets simply should dismiss these individuals’ contentions as products of a self-appointed expert status that overlooks how they in fact are amateurs often with little or no real training, who almost certainly know less than they say and think that they do, who rarely have first-hand experience with the matters of which they speak, and who proclaim a so-called universal wisdom that is little more than their personal opinion. It is fair to question the expertise of such bigots and to demand to see their “credentials.” Phobic Bigotry The often-heard argument that homophobia is not a true phobia is generally sustainable—but not always, for some forms of homophobia do in fact follow the same structural patterns followed by true phobias. In phobic bigotry, the target of the bigotry is in some ways just a symbol of what is truly feared and hated—someone who stands

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in for a specific conflict-laden issue for the bigot. The bigot, after displacing his or her inner conflict onto the target, shuns the target because it represents an internal fear in much the same way a true phobic shuns his or her “trivial prompt”: because it has come to symbolize an inner conflict. For example, imagine a homophobe who is in conflict about his forbidden sexual desires. Like some phobic bigots, he condemns sexuality because of a personal history of serious primal-scene exposure associated with intense masturbation and incest guilt. Next he displaces this entire conflict onto the homosexual so that instead of criticizing himself for his own unacceptable sexual longings, he shuns all homosexuals for theirs, in order to avoid being in any way reminded of their, and so of his own, “perverse sexuality.” Homophobia like his is less “condemn and attack” than “fear and avoid.” The bigot’s familiar cry, “Don’t let him be a pastor in your church” is then the approximate psychological equivalent of the dog-phobic’s cry, “Don’t let that beast anywhere near me.” Homophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, or xenophobia is the phobic bigots’ fear of flying, with gays, Jews, blacks, or foreigners their trivial prompts, chosen “well” as symbols of individual conflicts about sex and hostility. Finally, as with the plane phobia, the fear and avoidance are secondarily rationalized to become “It makes sense to stay away from people who do frightening and disgusting things.” Now the bigot views him or herself not as a bigot. He or she is, or at least thinks he or she is, just a good citizen acting responsibly and doing his or her social duty. Antithesis Coping with and managing phobic bigots involves refusing to be shunned, that is, meeting the avoider head-on and refusing to be excluded, instead demanding one’s civil right to be there, and any affirmative action that is necessary to ensure that one can stay. The correct response to the phobic bigot is, “I don’t care if you fear or disdain me. You have to include me, and if you won’t, I’ll see you in court.” Once again, and this always applies even when not stated explicitly, the target should not put himself or herself in any danger. Therefore, it is often best to accomplish one’s ends impersonally, that is, by joining an organization with clout rather than personally through direct confrontation. Of course, as with depressive bigots, the goal is to stop bigotry, not to become a part of the bigot’s therapy.

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Psychopathic Bigotry We all know that bigotry can be a way to accomplish some specific end and achieve a certain, often political, goal. Often homophobia and xenophobia enhance one’s credentials, helping politicians win a certain vote or get a specific civil appointment. Antithesis The challenge becomes one of keeping the bigot from achieving his or her ends as a reward for his or her unacceptable behavior. Social mechanisms, including the educative-behavioral methods Mautner describes (below), are an effective way to do that. The general public should never replace thinking for themselves with buying into a psychopath’s persuasive but narrowly focused arguments. These arguments are meant to stir the masses up to shared passions entirely for the benefit of the psychopathic striver, who is eager to realize selfish ambitions. The general public should avoid being pawns in the frontline of the bigot’s distractive game. Personality-Disordered Bigotry Bigots express their bigotry in different ways, at least three of which are consistent with the different interpersonal styles of histrionic, passive-aggressive, and sadomasochistic disorders. In such cases, managing bigots involves using methods derived from accepted therapeutic interventions geared to managing the equivalent personality disorder. The Histrionic Style Histrionic bigots overdo themselves, as when they make invidious comparisons among homosexuality, incest, bigamy, and bestiality, reacting with an intensity that is inappropriate given the relative unimportance of what they are concerned about. Antithesis One proper response to hysterical bigotry is “Calm down, take it easy, stop sounding the alarm, and just forget about it.” Another, espoused in Mautner’s transcendentally calming book Living La Dolce Vita (2002), involves living one’s own sweet life regardless, and to

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the hilt, no matter what others say or do—in the vernacular, this means refusing to “let the bastards get you down.” The Passive-Aggressive Style Homophobes who choose the passive-aggressive style are still homophobic, although they are “nice” homophobes who express their homophobia in more subtle ways than most. They do not come out and say that they hate homosexuals. Instead they ask loaded questions that are in fact assertions, such as “Don’t you think that you are ruining your life by moving in with a male lover?” Or, they protest too much that they love homosexuals, as in the familiar “Some of my best friends are gay.” Often they precede their condemnation with a diversionary compliment whose true intent is easily decipherable—for example, the much-overused and patently obvious “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Antithesis Passive-aggressives of all kinds, bigoted or not, need to be asked either to say what they mean, openly and honestly so that one can deal with it directly, or to not say anything so that one does not have to think about it at all. The Sadomasochistic Style Sadomasochistic bigots always seem to hurt themselves in the process of hurting the intended targets of their hatred. They have a need for self-destruction, which they live out, for example, in the form of a Freudian slip that gets them fired as they momentarily forget and condemn someone unfairly for his or her race, creed, color, or sexual orientation. It is not uncommon for them to condemn gays or lesbians to someone who has a family member who is gay or a lesbian, only to themselves wind up being excluded from the family the way they had planned to have the family exclude their target. In conclusion, prejudice and discrimination are in effect transference reactions that involve projecting one’s personal agenda onto the blank screen of the target and making that target into what one wants him or her to be for one’s own emotional or practical reasons. As such, the words the bigots speak about others actually speak volumes about themselves. For as Levinson (1982) suggests, “[I]f bigots

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say the same thing about blacks and Jews as they say about all victims, and about all their targets from the same class even though the targets are a heterogeneous group, then what they say has to come from within, not from without, i.e. that what they say depends . . . upon their own psychology” (p. 57). It follows that the operative action for targets of bigots is to recognize that they as targets are little more than inkblots. That means that what bigots say is not about you but about them, projected onto you. Therefore, targets should not take personally what is said. After not taking it personally, they might also insist on being viewed as individuals in their own right. However, the response must not be one that evokes violence. A good idea is to respond in an assertive way without being aggressive, and one way to do that is to not be demanding or hostile by saying “shut up,” but instead saying something firm but noncontentious, like “this is what works best for me.” PASSIVITY VERSUS ACTIVITY VERSUS COMPROMISE Passivity Targets who choose the passive approach ignore, avoid, or otherwise silently come to terms with bigotry. Passivity involves what O’Connell (1993) calls “agreement.” Here the target handles judgmental bigots by deciding that “some things just aren’t worth getting upset about” (p. E1). This is the counterstrike of choice on those occasions, however few these may be, when it is the better part of valor to retain one’s perspective or sense of humor and let things pass, not accepting intolerance by acting unperturbed about it. Of course, everyone knows that there are dangers involved in being too passive with bigots. Targets who allow themselves to be passive stay beaten down until they become too weak to care anymore. Besides, they let bigots get away with their bigotry, and that usually inspires the more sadistic among them to even higher transports of bigotry. Now the bigot goes from hating a defined group for all the usual reasons to hating them even more in the belief that they can be hated with impunity. True, going along with bigots who devalue women and emasculate men pleases the bigots on one level, but on another, more important level, they just smell blood and attack, inspired to devalue and emasculate even more. Another reason why

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passivity is an imperfect solution is that targets who vocally agree with bigots just for the sake of peace will likely experience cognitive dissonance that can ultimately lower their self-esteem further (Mautner, 2003). This said, there are a few positive aspects to remaining passive in the face of bigotry. Here are some practical reasons for going along— right for some but hardly for all. Bigotry targets who accept being targeted coddle those who target them and on that account may be spared further punishment. For those who confound being assertive with being aggressive, being passive also helps deal in a general way with feeling guilty about speaking up. Activism can sometimes be a waste of effort, for, as the previous discussion has suggested, protesting prejudice can be to as little avail as protesting mental illness. All these things when taken together help explain why some gays and lesbians I have talked to feel that protesting loud and long is sometimes a waste of time. Therefore, they decide that for them the best idea is to live with a bad situation since they are unlikely to make it any better. They feel that since they cannot change the world, they might as well live with the world as it is. So they accept the inevitable and focus not on changing other people but on changing themselves, so that while they are still targets they are no longer victims of bigotry, for the bigotry now bounces off them. Activity Mautner (2003) recommends activity, that is, fighting back. As she puts it, What I am learning is that it is not easy to fight group defamation and discrimination through legal means. The courts have made it difficult in order to avoid the likelihood of frivolous cases, and also because it is hard to award any kind of damages to a large group (e.g., Italian Americans, blacks, gays). My best advice to combat negative stereotyping (which is really at the root of all bigotry—because as Albert Bandura found in his famous observational learning theory experiments in the 60’s, the media has a causal effect on behavior) is to be our own ambassadors and not simply turn the other way when the media or individuals portray a particular group in a defamatory way involving a false generalization that reduces the group in the eyes of society. Our job as members of a negatively stereotyped group is to raise awareness, sensitize, and educate. Therefore we must do the following: 1. Do NOT let derisive humor get past us without informing the joketeller that it is offensive (if they want to know why, explain, if not, let it stand at that).

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2. Write letters to media personnel if they have portrayed a particular group in a negative stereotypical way. Contemporaneously send a copy to the organization that best represents the defamed group (ADL [Anti-Defamation League], AIDA [American Italian Defense Association], etc.) 3. Educate wherever you can. If you are blessed with a brain, you have to use it. Write to newspapers and magazines. Talk to local schools, libraries, etc. There are many organizations and institutions who love a free speaker. Put this in your calendar to do at least twice a year. It is the best type of pro-bono work there is. 4. Once armed with information and facts, make sure you use them whenever the opportunity presents itself in social circles, in the home, and in the workplace. As individuals, we can do a lot to start changing societal attitudes by enlightening and informing those around us.

I myself might add: While targets cannot always convince or cow individual bigots into no longer hating them, they can almost always help pass laws that keep bigots from acting on their hatred. Education and psychoanalysis are among the best ways to change a bigot’s mind. But legislation is probably the best and fastest way to change a bigot’s behavior. The activism suggested here has mostly positive attributes. Activism is not only a good way to alert certain bigots to the fact that their negative views are unjustified, it is also a good way for the target to improve his or her self-esteem, for self-esteem often gains from the pride ordinarily associated with successfully defending oneself and the pleasure that comes from knowing one has actually had a hand in reducing the amount of bigotry in the world. However, there are some negative aspects of activism, too. As previously mentioned, activism can present a personal danger to targets of victims. Many bigots are quick on the trigger and armed, especially the paranoid ones who keep guns in case of what is, dynamically speaking, an “attack from the rear.” Targets sometimes get killed when they “assault” such people. In the case of homophobes who bash gays and lesbians to cope with their own unacceptable homosexual desires, the wrong countermeasures can simultaneously inflame their deepest desires and touch on their worst fears. As Mautner (2003) clearly states, activism may be “risky so you must judge the situation for yourself, and be prepared for the consequences. One Italian American woman was recently fired from an international company when her co-workers referred to their Italian clients as ‘dagos.’ When she complained she was fired for not getting along with her coworkers.” Therefore, two important distinctions must be made. The first

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is the one between impersonal and personal assertion, for example, letters to the editor versus direct confrontation. The second is the one between assertion and aggression (“That upsets me, so I would appreciate it if you would stop, please,” versus “I am going to talk to my lawyer and see what I can do to get you fired for that”). Compromise Compromise, which is the least risky though probably also the least satisfying and least effective approach of them all, is worth considering when faced with opposition from bigots that is so overwhelming that what is ideal may not be achievable, leading to the inevitable conclusion that “half a loaf is better than none.” In this approach, one acts with silent strength and without cloying passivity, discouraging abuse while avoiding passive submission on the one hand and dangerous confrontation on the other; in effect, saying “please” and “thank you” but “I mean what I say.” Sometimes targets compromise by setting their sights lower. Some gay men and lesbians feel that they should consider accepting civil unions rather than full marriage. Some workers are well advised to consider resisting their ambition and not climbing up too far in the corporate ladder. Would-be politicians who are in some ways person ally vulnerable (due to a certain past history) might want to think twice about entering the public arena. Thus Hal Lancaster (“Managing Your Career,” 1996) advises targets of prejudice in the workplace when he quotes a business consultant, saying that some individuals offered a promotion should at least consider staying in their present jobs because they might be “better off where they are” (Tod White, as cited on p. B1). Compromise does not mean masochistically abdicating, such as quitting one’s job due to on-the-job prejudice, without at least first trying to work things out. Compromise means going along at least enough to avoid shouting matches between those on the offensive and those on the defensive. Yet targets still remove the pleasure of the kill from those sadists who are absolutely inspired by the masochistic screams of pain and attack even more when they see the red eyes of their weeping victims. SELECTING THE RIGHT COUNTERSTRIKE Here are some generic counterstrikes to supplement the abovementioned antitheses to specific types of bigotry. The passive-aggressive

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counterstrike involves attacking with one’s wits, not fists. The hypomanic counterstrike involves living well as the best revenge. Here, targets in response ignore the putdowns and the glass ceilings and thrive and prosper regardless, or deliberately out of spite. This is being defiantly generative. The aggressive counterstrike involves using offense as the best defense, once again mindful of the dangers involved. Loraine O’Connell (1993), using mental health counselor Chris Rosenthal as her source and describing ways to handle judgmental people, calls this aggressive form of counterstrike confrontation and suggests that “aggressive counterstrike” might be helpful because “judgmental people are at their worst with those who allow them to get away with it” (“Sitting,” 1993, p. E1). Mautner (2003) also refers to the “door in the face” technique as well as semi-aggressive techniques that involve persuasion, if that is the desired end, such as the “broken record technique” that starts with advertising’s “foot in the door” technique. However, as Mautner also warns, “That is only a good idea if you have an arsenal at home. Sometimes you can tell who is a threat and who is just a bigot-wimp, but not always. With the bigot-wimp, aggression is cathartic and effective, but with the macho-bigot you might have a problem.” The narcissistic counterstrike involves what O’Connell (1993) calls the “fogging technique” (p. E1) and what can also be called the “gay-pride counterstrike.” Here the individual counters that what you criticize me for is “one of the things I like best about myself” (“Sitting,” p. E1). Using this technique, targets can counter prejudice by citing the advantages of being exactly what they are being condemned for. The following is a list of caveats pertaining to counterstrikes, some of which have already been mentioned. 1. A counterstrike should never be a first strike. That is not protection against, but provocation of, bigots. 2. The aim of counterstriking is actual accomplishment, not mere emotional satisfaction. With bigots, the primary goal is not to be liked but to be left alone. 3. Direct counterstrikes are dangerous with bigots who are unstable. Here, roundabout confrontation is the best idea. 4. The timing must be right. Targets should try to avoid having to think on their feet, which often involves thinking reactively and emotionally. They can respond most effectively after they have thought out their approach carefully and given consideration to the best time and place for their counterresponse.

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AVOIDING CERTAIN PITFALLS Trying to Win Bigots Over It is masochistic to focus on trying to convert, or bringing around and winning over, only the people who cannot and will not love one, as if that were the only way that one could feel lovable and as good as the next person. Imagining Bigotry in Its Absence People who belong to a defined class should not respond to constructive criticism as if it were a sign of bigotry. A supervisor had to discipline a gay psychiatry resident because he was having sex with patients in the clinic. The resident called this supervisor a homophobe, but it had nothing to do with the specific acts involved and everything to do with the exact place and time where the resident was performing them. A caveat for targets of bigotry is to never fight the irrationality of bigotry by becoming equally irrational oneself. Being Self-Homophobic As previously mentioned, the bigoted seed grows best on fertile ground, and it is further fertilized by low self-esteem and extreme self-doubt. It is an unfortunate truth that some gays and lesbians and other targets of bigotry are, at bottom, ashamed of themselves. Already convinced that they are somehow defectives or sinners, they buy into what the bigot has to offer them, then treat themselves in much the same shabby and even bigoted way that bigots treat them. Therefore, to some extent, managing the bigotry of others involves managing one’s own self-bigotry, or any other form of self-cruelty, by developing a positive self-view that does not let another’s negative assessment in. Antithesis The treatment principles of self-homophobia and other forms of self-bigotry follow closely the principles of treating any form of low self-esteem, and there are many self-help books that can assist and many therapists out there who can help when called upon.

Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Individual

Depression, low selfesteem, lack of functionality and creativity, suicidality.

Community

Mediocrity due to inhibition/destruction of some of the finest, highest-functioning, most creative members of the community. Loss of power, multidimensionality, and range of talent of the community. Divisiveness and infighting between pros and anti’s (homophobes and homophiles).

Strategies for change Understanding bigots’ illogic and confronting their irrationality. Viewing bigotry as a product of mental illness and therefore not to be taken at face value. Setting up internal firewalls (becoming inured to bigotry). Developing personal pride. Joining groups for strength in numbers. Living well as the best revenge. Education of the leaders. Countering and correcting stereotypes factually.

Popularization of distortive nature of bigotry in the media. Passing anti-bigotry laws. Activism by members of the community who are being targeted by bigots. People of the stigmatized groups should be educated and stay informed about bigotry so they can correct misinformation when they hear it—be it in the home, at social clubs, churches, or schools. People of the stigmatized groups need to raise awareness by writing editorials, giving public workshops, and conducting research.

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Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change Hit bigotry where it hurts—in the pocketbook. That is, do not buy products from advertisers who sell by portraying false negative stereotypes, do not frequent businesses owned and run by bigots, etc.

Practitioners/ Prophetic, self-fulfilling Education of educators. Educators negativity due to treating Passing laws that assure and educating differently equality for patients and based on preconceived students. notions that lead people Affirmations making certain in to behave in the very a practical way that there way that is expected of will be across-the-board them. This creates the fairness regardless of sexual very problems that were orientation, age, race, and initially wrongly the like. identified as intrinsic.

CONCLUSION In conclusion, this chapter presents a six-step guide to help individuals cope with prejudice and discrimination. It emphasizes three main approaches: • Growth—through self-exploration and self-improvement. • Coping—through self-defense via understanding where the bigot is coming from, and through making it easier to discount his or her contentions by appreciating the flaws in his or her logic and the emotional underpinnings of his or her behavior. • Community action—enlisting the community’s help to influence the bigot directly and quash the bigotry sociopolitically.

This chapter has emphasized that while bigotry does not usually tailor itself to one particular target but is more or less the same whether the targets are gays and lesbians, Jews, blacks, or foreigners, there are different types of bigotries that vary according to the personality and profession of the bigot and according to what emotional problem(s)

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prevail and generate the bigoted ideation. It offers both generic and specific countermaneuvers directed to the specific type of bigotry, according to the primary cognitive errors in the bigot’s thoughts, and the primary emotional disorder that generates the bigoted notions and his or her prejudiced and discriminatory behavior. REFERENCES Beck, A. T. (1985). Cognitive therapy. In H. I. Kaplan & B. J. Sadock (Eds.), Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry/IV. Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins. Bemporad, J. R., & Pinsker, H. (1974). Schizophrenia: The manifest symptomatology. In S. Arieti & E. B. Brody (Eds.), American handbook of psychiatry (2nd ed., Vol. 3). New York: Basic Books. Kantor, M. (1998). Homophobia: Description, development, and dynamics of gay bashing. Westport, CT: Praeger. Lancaster, H. (1996, September 10). The job that’s open might be a step up but a bad step for you. The Wall Street Journal, p. B1. Levinson, D. J. (1982). The study of anti-Semitic ideology. In T. W. Adorno, E. Frenkel-Brunswik, D. J. Levinson, & R. N. Sanford (Eds.), The authoritarian personality (Abr. ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. Mautner, R. (2002). Living la dolce vita. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks. Mautner, R. (2003). Personal communication. O’Connell, L. (1993, August 12). Sitting in judgment. Asbury Park Press, p. E1. Pinsker, H. (2003). Personal communication. Ursano, R. J., & Silberman, E. K. (1988). Individual psychotherapies: Other individual psychotherapies: Cognitive therapy. In J. A. Talbot, R. E. Hales, & S. C. Yudofsky (Eds.), The American psychiatric press textbook of psychiatry. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.

Index

Absolutistic thinking, 254 Academia: adversity in, 143; black women in, 135–136; case study of, 137–142 Academic workplace discrimination: constructive behaviors to prevent, 106–108; emotional effects of, 101–102; example of, 94–104; fighting back against, 102–104; overview of, 93–94; performance evaluations and, 106–107; signs of, 105; suggestions for preventing, 108 Ad hominem reasoning, 253 Adolescence: gender differences during, 4–6; sexual activity during, 156–157; sexual experimentation during, 156 Adolescent girls: body weight issues, 5; developmental period of, 40; difficulties experienced by, 40; eating disorders in, 5–6; expectations for, 5; gender differences for, 4–6; in junior high school, 46–47; patriarchal functions of, 40; physical

appearance emphasis by, 5; studies of, 39–40 Aggressive counterstrike to bigotry, 270 Aging: societal standards for, 12 AIDS, 173–174 Anger, oppression-related, 123 Anti-gay hate crimes: coping with, 179; definition of, 163; against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 151–153, 163–165 Anti-Semites, 251 Anxiety, 122–123 Appropriation, 217–218 Asian American working mothers, 69–70 Authentic sense of self, 126–127 Aversive racism, 104 Backward reasoning, 252 Beauty images, 10 Bias: group, 208; individual, 206–208 Bigot(s): absolutistic thinking by, 254; ad hominem reasoning by,

276

253; aggressive counterstrike to, 270; backward reasoning by, 252; dealing with, 258–266; delusional thinking by, 251; dichotomous thinking by, 254; emotional thinking by, 254; guilt assigning by association, 253; histrionic, 264–265; hypomanic counterstrike to, 270; illogic of, 250–251; malignant narcissistic, 261–262; manic, 260; narcissistic counterstrike to, 270; paralogical predicative thinking by, 253; paranoid thinking by, 251–252; part-to-whole thinking by, 252; passive-aggressive counterstrike to, 269–270; passive-aggressive type of, 265; personality-disordered, 264–265; phobic, 262–263; pitfalls in dealing with, 271; psychopathic, 264; sadomasochistic, 265–266; self-bigotry and, 271; tangential thinking by, 253–254; trying to convert, 271 Bigotry: activism against, 268–269; activity-based approach in dealing with, 267–269; biological model of, 257; compromise-based approach in dealing with, 269; depressive, 259–260; description of, 254–255; dissociative, 260–261; emotional disorders and, 258; fighting back against, 267–269; malignant narcissistic, 261–262; manic, 260; medical model of, 256–257; obsessional, 261; paranoid, 259; passivity-based approach in dealing with, 266–267; personality-disordered, 264–265; phobic, 262–263; psychopathic, 264; psychopathological nature of,

Index

258; religious model of, 255–256; sociocultural/ political model of, 256 Biological model of bigotry, 257 Bisexual youth. See Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth Black girls: body image of, 121; portrayal of, 42–43; in research literature, 43 Black men: gender-role identity concerns for, 231; gender roles of, 231–232 Black men who have sex with men: career development of, 234–235; “coming out” by, 229–231; demographics of, 236–237; devaluation of, 232; discrimination against, 242–243; economic statistics, 240; family relationships with, 232–234; gender roles of, 231–232; high-risk sexual behaviors, 230; invisibility syndrome experienced by, 240–241; microaggressions of, 241; minority stressors for, 240–241; overview of, 227; prejudice against, 241–243; racial group identity and, 228; religious involvement by, 235–236; same-sex close relationships, 236–238; selfhatred by, 228; sexual activity by, 237; sexual orientation identity and, 228; sexual prejudice against, 241–242; strategies for, 242–243; workplace challenges for, 239–240. See also Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth; Homosexuality Black mothers: family support for, 68; work–family conflict experienced by, 68–69; as

Index

working mothers, 68–69 Black women: in academia, 135–148; anxiety among, 122–123; assertiveness of, 116; biculturality by, 124; body image of, 125; case studies of, 113–115, 127–129; coping by, 124–125, 142–143; differential treatment of, 147; divisiveness among, 123–124; gender gap with black men, 124; gender identity of, 114; internalization of stereotypes by, 121, 123–124, 126; Jezebel stereotype of, 117–118; Mammy stereotype of, 115–116; media image of, 119; in music videos, 43; oppression of, 118–124; overeating by, 125; physical appearance stereotypes for, 121; racism against, 114; in research literature, 42–43; Sapphire stereotype of, 116–117; self-reliance by, 145; self-worth by, 143, 145; sexism effects on, 147; stereotypes of, 115–118, 126, 135; “strong,” 119; superwoman image of, 118–119, 146; victimatization of, 124; vulnerability of, 124; white women stereotype effects on, 121 Body weight: adolescent girls’ concerns about, 5; obsession with, 10 Border work, 33 Boys: classroom stereotypes for, 3–4; double standard for, 35–36; expectations for, 2–3; gender-based socialization differences in, 2–4; play patterns by, 33; sexual dominance and entitlement by, 35–36; toys for, 3 Career development: for black men who have sex with men, 234–235;

277

for lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered populations, 235; young women’s focus on, 7–8 Career women: who want children, 77–78; without children, 77 Childhood: gender-based socialization differences, 2–4 Children, transgender, 203 Children’s books, 3 Citizen policing, 208–210 Classroom: discrimination in, 169–171; gender stereotypes in, 3–4. See also School “Coming out”: by black men who have sex with men, 229–231; by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 165–167 Cootie girl, 34 Coping: by black women in academia, 142–143; definition of, 142; by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 166–167; with oppression, 120, 124–125; by working mothers, 80–81 Critical consciousness, 125–126 Cross-dressing, 210, 219 Cuban American working mothers, 71 Culture, 1 Decision making, 106 Delusional thinking, 251 Depressed-entitlement effect, 66 Depression: among gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 174–175; oppression-related, 121–122 Depressive bigotry, 259–260 Dichotomous thinking, 254 Dieting obsession, 10 Discrimination: against black men who have sex with men, 242–243;

278

“coming out,” 165–167; against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 165–175; health care setting, 171–172; against Latina working mothers, 70; by sadomasochistic bigot, 265–266; school-related, 169–171; victims of, 249–250; against working mothers, 66–67 Dissociative bigotry, 260–261 Double-duty mother, 78 Eating disorders in adolescent girls, 5–6 Emotional thinking, 254 Family: demographics of, 62; discrimination by, against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 167–169; racial identity and, 232–233; social role theory of, 62–65; social support from, 232–233; in United States, 62 Family and Medical Leave Act, 84. See also Work–family conflict Fathers: black, 68–69; communal role of, 63–64; masculine stereotype of, 63–64; personality traits of, 63–64; provider role of, 62–63 Female, 202–204 Feminine ideal, 42 Femininity, 48, 232 Feminism: description of, 53; importance of, 46 Feminists: description of, 28–29; label as, 51 Full-time homemakers: isolation experienced by, 74; stress experienced by, 75–76 Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning

Index

youth: advocacy for, 175–176; awareness of sexual orientation, 166; biological influences, 160–161; case study of, 151–153; “coming out” discrimination against, 165–167; compassion for, 177; coping by, 166–167; counseling relationships for, 175–176, 180–181; depression among, 174–175; derogatory terms for, 169–170; discrimination against, 165–175; dropping out of school by, 170; ethnic/minority, 159; family discrimination, 167–169, 181–182; hate crimes against, 151–153, 163–165, 177; health care discrimination against, 171–172; high-risk sexual behaviors, 173–174; HIV/AIDS in, 173–174; Internet web site resources for, 185–188; living in silence by, 168; magazine resources, 183–184; mental health risks for, 174–175; mistreatment of, 169; negative attitudes toward, 154; parental reactions, 168–169, 181–182; prejudice against, 162–175; resources for, 180–188; role models for, 170–171; same-sex/gender feelings by, 157; school-related discrimination against, 169–171; sexual behaviors among, 173–174; sexual development crises for, 153; sexual identity of, 156, 159–160; sexual preference by, 157; suicide risks, 174–175; teacher resources, 183; victimization of, 164; videotape resources, 184–185; web site resources for, 185–188 Gay racism, 230

Index

Gender: colors used to define, 203; definition of, 202; individual support for, 206–208; media support of, 206; medical support for, 204; psychological support for, 205; social construction of, 36, 48, 202–203; socialization differences based on, 2–4 Gender binary, 202, 204, 210 Gender blindness, 49 Gender differences: in adolescents, 4–6; in infants, 2; in late adulthood, 9–12; in middle adulthood, 9–12; in seniors, 12–13; in young adulthood, 6–9 Gendered racism, 124 Gender identity disorder, 205 Genderism, 210 Gender norms: in children, 203; description of, 39; in workplace, 203–204 Gender phobia, 211 Gender play, 33–34 Gender-variant individuals: affirmation strategies for, 216–220; appropriation by, 217–218; dress room difficulties for, 214; empowerment strategies for, 216–220; gay and lesbian community tension against, 214–215; government regulation, 205; hate crimes against, 208–209; meaningful space creation by, 217–218; “out of place” feeling of, 215–216; public bathroom difficulties for, 213–214; reclaiming of space by, 219; social spaces for, 215; socio-spatial experiences of, 212–215; space creation by, 217–221; stress experienced by, 211; violence against, 210–211. See also Transgender individuals

279

Girldom, 53 Girls: adolescent (see Adolescent girls); black (see Black girls); classroom stereotypes for, 3–4; expectations for, 2–3; gender-based socialization differences in, 2–4; identity formation by, 6; isolation of, 4; play patterns by, 33; power of, 37–38; toys for, 3; waiting by, 6–7. See also Women Guilt assigning by association, 253 Habitus, 203 Hate crimes: coping with, 179; definition of, 163; against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 151–153, 163–165; against gender-variant individuals, 208–209, 211; statistics regarding, 211 Health care discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 171–172 Heterosexism: definition of, 151; education about, 178; homophobia vs., 154 Heterosexual assumption, 165 Heterosexual marriages: power structure in, 8; women in, 8 Histrionic bigot, 264–265 HIV, 173–174 Homonegativity, 154, 166 Homophobia: biological model of, 257; definition of, 151, 154; description of, 249–250; education about, 178; heterosexism vs., 154; history of, 153; as learned behavior, 258; medical model of, 256–257; paranoid, 259; religious model of, 255–256; sociocultural/political model of, 256; views of, 154

280

Homosexuality: in black societies, 232; genetic factors, 161; hate crimes, 211; health care discrimination against, 172; sexual identity and, 159. See also Black men who have sex with men; Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth Humor, 206 Hypomanic counterstrike to bigotry, 270 Identity: formation of, 6; gender, 205; place, 216; sexual (see Sexual identity) Inclusivity, 107 Infants: gender differences, 203; socialization differences in, 2 Invisibility syndrome, 240 Jezebel stereotype of black women, 117–118 Labor unions, 107–108 Late adulthood: characteristics of, 11; gender differences in, 9–12 Latina working mothers, 70–71 Lerner, Gerda, 30–31 Lesbian youth. See Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth Lolita, 40–41 Male, 202–204 Malignant narcissistic bigotry, 261–262 Mammy stereotype of black women, 115–116 Manic bigotry, 260 Marriage gradient, 75 Masculinity, 232 Media: black women as portrayed by, 119; gender distinctions

Index

supported by, 206; working mothers as portrayed by, 61 Medical model of bigotry, 256–257 Men: black men (see Black men; Black men who have sex with men); communal role of, 63–64; personality traits of, 63–64; provider role of, 62–63, 67 Mental health care: for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 174–175; gender differences in, 9; for women, 9 Mexican American working mothers, 71 Microaggressions, 241 Middle adulthood gender differences, 9–12 Midlife: gender-role socialization during, 11–12; women during, 11–12 Minority stress, 165 Motherhood, 7–8 Motherhood mandate, 61–63 Mothers: agentic view of, 64; black (see Black mothers); caretaker role of, 63–64; devaluation of, as workers, 64–65; double-duty, 78; family care leave for, 83–84; feminine stereotype of, 63–64; personality traits of, 63–64; roles of, 65; sequencing patterns for (see Sequencing patterns for mothers); single, 78–79; social role theory view of, 62–65; stereotypes of, 64–65; work–family conflict for (see Work–family conflict) Narcissistic counterstrike to bigotry, 270 Native American working mothers: role strain of, 71–72; support network for, 72 nth gender, 204

Index

Objectification, 40 Obsessional bigotry, 261 On-site daycare, 83 Oppression: anger secondary to, 123; case studies of, 127–129, 133–134; consequences of, 118–120; coping with, 120, 124–125; critical consciousness for dealing with, 125–126; depression caused by, 121–122; internalization of, 120; negative behaviors used to cope with, 125; overeating secondary to, 125; private regard and, 120; psychological armoring, 125; psychological effects of, 120; public regard and, 120; relationships affected by, 123–124; resistance to, 127; self-concept and, 120–121; sense of self and, 126; workplace effects, 123 Organizations: family friendly policies of, 80; on-site daycare at, 83; work–family conflict effects on, 79–84 Overeating, 125 Paralogical predicative thinking, 253 Paranoid bigotry, 259 Paranoid thinking, 251–252 Part-time work, 80–81 Part-to-whole thinking, 252 Passive-aggressive bigot, 265 Passive-aggressive counterstrike to bigotry, 269–270 Passivity, 266–267 Patriarchy: adolescent girls, 40; definition of, 32; females in system of, 46; objectification in, 40; in Powerpuff Girls, 30–31; societal support of, 37 Personality-disordered bigotry, 264–265

281

Personality traits: of men, 63–64; of mothers, 63–64; of stay-at-home mothers, 64 Phobic bigotry, 262–263 Physical appearance: adolescent girls’ emphasis on, 5; black women stereotypes, 121 Place identity, 216 Placelessness, 220 Play: by boys, 33; gender, 33–34; by girls, 33 Post-feminists, 51 Poverty, 12–13 Powerpuff Girls: background of, 27–28; as black girls, 41–43; critique of, 29–32; disingenuous nature of, 50; episodes of, 44–46; gender viewership of, 31; marketing of, 28; patriarchy themes of, 30–31; plot themes of, 30; popularity of, 49; power evasiveness of, 47–49; power of, 28–29, 37–38, 52; premise of, 28; racial portrayal of, 41–43; “whiteness” of, 38–41 Praxis, 126 Prejudice: against black men who have sex with men, 241–243; defensive purpose of, 258; against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 162–175; historical practices of, 212; ingroup/ outgroup dynamics associated with, 209; against Latina working mothers, 70; origins of, 164; by sadomasochistic bigot, 265–266; as self-defense mechanism, 208; sexual (see Sexual prejudice) Private regard, 120 Psychological armoring, 125 Psychological distress: of Latina working mothers, 70–71; of working mothers, 66, 70

282

Psychopathic bigotry, 264 Public regard, 120 Queering space, 218 Racial group identity, 228 Racism: aversive, 104; gay, 230; gendered, 124 Relational crisis, 40 Relationships: for black men who have sex with men, 232–234; oppression effects on, 123–124 Religion, 235–236 Religious model of bigotry, 255–256 Research literature, black women in, 42–43 Role strain: of Asian American working mothers, 69–70; of black mothers, 68–69; of Cuban American working mothers, 71; description of, 65; of Latina working mothers, 70; of Mexican American working mothers, 71; of Native American working mothers, 71–72; policy changes to reduce, 81–84; research regarding, 72–73; spousal support effects on, 81 Sadomasochistic bigot, 265–266 Same-sex sexual activity, 157 Sapphire stereotype of black women, 116–117 School: discrimination at, 169–171; gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth discrimination at, 169–171; gender norms at, 39; gender play at, 33–34; gender stereotypes in, 3–4; playground games at, 34 Selective abstraction, 252 Self-esteem: self-identity and, 207; social support systems’ effect on, 144

Index

Self-homophobic, 271 Self-reliance, 145 Self-worth, 143, 145 Seniors: activities of, 13; gender differences in, 12–13; poverty experienced by, 12–13 Sense of self: authentic, 126–127; oppression and, 126 Sequencing patterns for mothers: career woman (married or unmarried) without children, 77; career woman who becomes a stay-at-home mother, 78; double-duty mother, 78; married career woman who wants children, 77–78; single mothers, 78–79; stay-at-home mom who goes to work or school, 76–77; unemployed married woman in nuclear family, 75–76 Sex, 202 Sexual activity: during adolescence, 156–157; same-sex, 157; sociocultural influences on, 157 Sexual agency, 36 Sexual attraction, 157 Sexual double standard, 36 Sexual experimentation, 156–157 Sexual harassment: description of, 9, 114 Sexual identity: definition of, 156; developmental models of, 158–159; of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 156, 159–160; of homosexuals, 159; ongoing process of, 158–159; phases of, 159; sexual orientation vs., 156, 158 Sexual orientation: awareness of, 166; biology of, 160–162; definition of, 155–156; genetics of, 161–162; identity, 228; sexual identity vs., 156; variations of, 155

Index

Sexual Orientation NonDiscrimination Act, 205 Sexual preference, 158 Sexual prejudice: against black men who have sex with men, 241–242; definition of, 155; identifying of, 250 Sexual prejudice victims: activity-based approach by, 267–269; bigots (see Bigot); compromise-based approach by, 269; fighting back by, 267–269; overview of, 249–250; passivity approach by, 266–267 Single mothers, 78–79 Social categorization, 207, 209 Social identity theory, 207, 209 Social role theory, 62–65 Social support: definition of, 144–145; family-based, 232–233; self-esteem affected by, 144 Sociocultural/political model of bigotry, 256 Sophists, 250–251 Stay-at-home mothers: career women who become, 78; characteristics of, 75–76; expectations of, 73; personality traits of, 64; research regarding, 74; societal portrayal of, 62; statistics regarding, 62; stress experienced by, 73; who go to work or school, 76–77 Stereotypes: of black women, 115–118, 126; in classroom, 3–4; depression secondary to, 121; internalization of, 121, 123–124; Jezebel, 117–118; Mammy, 115–116; Sapphire, 116–117 Subaltern counter publics, 217 Suicide, 174–175

283

Superwoman image, 118–119, 146 Suprachiasmatic nucleus, 160–161 Tangential thinking, 253–254 Transgender individuals: affirmation strategies for, 216–220; appropriation by, 217–218; children, 203; citizen policing against, 208–210; empowerment strategies for, 216–220; government regulation, 205; individual bias against, 206–208; meaningful space creation by, 217–218; “out of place” feeling of, 215–216; placelessness experienced by, 220; reclaiming of space by, 219; societal challenges for, 201–202; violence against, 202, 210–211. See also Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth; Gender-variant individuals Transgenderism, 151, 154–155 Transphobia, 210 Transphobic violence, 208–209, 211–212 Victimatization: of black women, 124; of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, 164 Violence: against transgender individuals, 210–211; transphobic, 208–209, 211–212 Waiting, 6–7 Whiteness, 38–41 White women stereotype, 121 Widowhood: characteristics of, 12; prevalence of, 12 Womanhood, 42 Women: beauty images’ effect on, 10; black (see Black women);

284

cultural influences on, 1; discrimination against, 1–2; in heterosexual marriages, 8; housekeeping tasks by, 8; mental health care for, 9; physical appearance of, 1; prejudice against, 1–2; sex roles of, 10; sexual harassment against, 9; social categorization of, 207; socio-spatial limitations on, 212; stereotypes of, 207. See also Girls “Women’s space,” 218 Work–family conflict: of Asian American working mothers, 69–70; balancing of, 73–74; of black mothers, 68–69; of Cuban American working mothers, 71; definition of, 65; description of, 65; ethnic differences in, 67–68; factors that influence, 66; ignoring of, 79–80; of Latina working mothers, 70; of Mexican American working mothers, 71; of Native American working mothers, 71–72; on-site daycare to reduce, 83; organization effects, 79–84; policy changes to reduce, 81–84; research regarding, 65–66, 72–73; responses to, 79; spousal support effects on, 81

Index

Working mothers: Asian American, 69–70; black, 68–69; coping with challenges of, 80–81; devaluation of, 64–65; discrimination against, 66–67; experiences of, 65–73; flexible work schedules for, 81, 83; Latina, 70–71; media portrayal of, 61; multiple roles of, 79; Native American, 71–72; part-time work by, 80–81; personality traits of, 64; psychological stress experienced by, 66; research regarding, 74; role stress of, 80; societal view of, 79; statistics regarding, 62; stereotypical view of, 64–65, 79 Workplace: black men who have sex with men, 239–240; gender norms in, 203–204 Workplace discrimination: academic (see Academic workplace discrimination); against working mothers, 66–67 X gene, 161–162 Young adulthood: gender differences in, 6–9; waiting during, 6–7 Young women: career focus of, 7; education emphasis by, 7

About the Series and the Series Editors

I

t is expected that nearly half of the entire U.S. population will be of nonwhite ethnic and racial minorities by the year 2050. With this growing diversity, clinicians, researchers, and, indeed, all Americans need to understand that the Eurocentric psychological views particular to Caucasians may or may not be relevant or adequate to address mental health issues in racial and ethnic minorities. This series addresses those issues, aiming to better understand how these factors affect mental health, and what needs to be done, or done differently, to heal disorders that may arise. JEAN LAU CHIN is a licensed psychologist and systemwide dean of the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. She is also president of CEO Services, which offers clinical, educational, and organizational development services emphasizing cultural competence and integrated systems of care. She holds a doctorate from Teacher’s College of Columbia University. Dr. Chin’s past positions include associate professor of psychiatry at the Center for Minority Training Program, Boston University School of Medicine; regional director of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership; executive director of the South Cove Community Health Center; and codirector of the Thom Child Guidance Clinic. She has authored, coauthored, or edited books including Relationships among Asian American Women (2000), Community Health Psychology

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About the Series and the Series Editors

(1998), and Diversity in Psychotherapy: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity and Gender (1993). VICTOR DE LA CANCELA is associate clinical professor of medical psychology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He is also deputy executive director of Tremont-Crotona Child Development Center, and a clinical psychologist serving with the United States Army Reserve. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at the College of Medicine and Hospital at Howard University. He is a fellow of Divisions 1, 12, 38, 44, 45, 49, 51, and 52 of the American Psychological Association. In 1998, he received a letter of commendation from the president of the United States for teaching excellence. Robinson is a distinguished visiting professor at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at the Tripler Army Medical Center. He earned his EdD in counseling psychology at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, completed a clinical psychology residency at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and earned an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health. Robinson worked earlier as chief of interdepartmental programs in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at Howard University, and has also served as dean of the Division of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of the District of Columbia, clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and clinical attending faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University School of Medicine at the Cambridge Hospital.

About the Advisers

JESSICA HENDERSON DANIEL is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and both director of training in psychology and associate director of the LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) Training Program in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Boston. She is also an adjunct associate professor of psychology in the clinical psychology program at Boston University. Daniel is the past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35, APA; and is coeditor of The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women (2003). Her awards include the 1998 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School; the 2001 Education Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois; the 2002 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award from APA; and the 2003 Professional Award from the Boston & Vicinity Club, Inc., National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. JEFFERY SCOTT MIO is a professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at California State Polytechnic University–Pomona, where he also serves as the director of the master of science in psychology program. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois–Chicago in 1984. He taught at California State University–Fullerton in the counseling department from 1984–1986, then taught at Washington State University in the Department of Psychology from 1986 to 1994 before accepting his current position at CSPU–Pomona. His interests

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About the Advisers

are in the teaching of multicultural issues, the development of allies, and how metaphors are used in political persuasion. NATALIE PORTER is vice provost for academic affairs systemwide at Alliant International University. She is also an associate professor of psychology. She received her PhD from the University of Delaware. Porter’s research interests include feminist and anti-racist models of clinical training and supervision, cognitive and emotional developmental changes in individuals abused or traumatized as children, and feminist therapy supervision and ethics. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a coeditor of Race and Ethnicity in Psychology, a Praeger series. JOSEPH EVERETT TRIMBLE is a professor of psychology at the Center for Cross-Cultural Research at Western Washington University. Trimble was a fellow in the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2000 and 2001. He is a research associate for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in the Department of Psychiatry, National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research. He is also a scholar and adjunct professor of psychology for the Colorado State University Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research. In 1994, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, Division 45, American Psychological Association. In 2002, he was honored with the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the Washington State Psychological Association. He has authored eightytwo journal articles, chapters, and monographs, as well as authored or edited thirteen books, including the Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2002). MELBA J. T. VASQUEZ is in full-time independent practice in Austin, Texas. A past president of APA Divisions 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) and 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology), she has served in various other leadership positions. She is a fellow of the APA and a diplomate of the ABPP. She publishes in the areas of professional ethics, psychology of women, ethnic minority psychology, and training and supervision. She is coauthor, with Ken Pope, of Ethics in Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Practical Guide (1998, 2nd ed.). She is the recipient of several awards including Psychologist of the Year, Texas Psychological Association, 2003; Senior Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, APA, 2002; Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship,

About the Advisers

289

Columbia University, 2002; John Black Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Practice of Counseling Psychology, Division 17, APA, 2000; and the Distinguished Leader for Women in Psychology Award, Committee of Women Psychology, APA, 2000. HERBERT Z. WONG has provided management consulting, diversity training, and organizational assessments to over 300 government agencies, businesses, and other organizations. He was the cofounder and president of the National Diversity Conference, Inc., which presented contemporary issues and future directions of workforce diversity. He was a consultant to the President’s Commission on Mental Health (1977), the White House Conference for a Drug Free America (1989), and the President’s Initiative on Race–White House Office of Science and Technology (2000). In the past twenty-five years, Wong has written extensively on multicultural leadership, cross-cultural communication, and diversity issues. Wong received his PhD in clinical and organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.

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About the Contributors

BETTINA J. CASAD is a doctoral student in social psychology at Claremont Graduate University. Her current research program examines theories and consequences of stereotype violation. CAROLE BAROODY CORCORAN earned her PhD and her MA in social psychology from Miami University, after having received her BA summa cum laude in psychology from Wittenberg University. In 1991 Dr. Corcoran was appointed to the Lt. Governor’s Task Force on the Prevention and Early Intervention to Reduce the Incidence of Sexual Assault, and in 2002 she was named to the Virginia Attorney General’s Advisory Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She is a co-founder of the Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault, as well as co-chair of a National Task Force on Feminist Psychology for Division 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Corcoran has researched how to integrate race and gender into the curriculum and has helped coordinate several grants from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia for developing programs in that area. She also co-founded the Race, Class, Gender Awareness Project and won Mortar Board’s Outstanding Faculty Member Award. Nominated by Mary Washington College for the State Council of Higher Education’s Faculty Awards Program in 1995 and 1996, Carole Baroody Corcoran was promoted to full professor of the psychology faculty in 1998. Dr. Corcoran was co-investigator on a $1 million grant awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate the outcomes

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About the Contributors

of different types of traumatic life experiences in college women. She serves as an organizational development, training, and assessment consultant for creativity, leadership, and diversity. Dr. Corcoran is also involved in coordinating a pilot project using theater, dance, and spoken word with at risk adolescents. Presently, she is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Virginia Women’s Center. KIM D. FELSENTHAL is an adjunct professor of psychology at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and at the New York City College of Technology. Felsenthal is a graduate student at the City University of New York Graduate Center in its environmental psychology program. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning and in environmental psychology. Her dissertation investigates the use of the home in the development and expression of gender and sexuality of transsexual women. She has also conducted research and presented papers on the experience of gender-variant individuals in public space, as well as their subsequent (re)construction of place. She maintains that the physical environment plays a crucial role in the production of gender and sexuality. MICHELLE KAMINSKI is an assistant professor of labor and industrial relations at Michigan State University. She conducts workshops for union members and leaders on a variety of topics, including increasing member involvement in local unions, the union role in highperformance work organization, basic economics, and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). She researches teams in unionized settings, workplace health and safety, and the development of union activists. Previously, Michelle was a bargaining unit chair with the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, Local 35. She received her PhD in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan. MARTIN KANTOR is a psychiatrist who has been in full private practice in Boston and New York City, and active in residency training programs at several hospitals, including Massachusetts General and Beth Israel in New York. He also served as assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical School and as clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–New Jersey Medical School. He is the author of twelve other books, including Distancing: Avoidant Personality Disorder Revised and Expanded (2003); Passive-Aggression: A Guide for the Therapist, the Patient, and the Victim (2002); My Guy: A Gay Man’s Guide to a Lasting Relationship (2002); Treating Emotional Disorder

About the Contributors

293

in Gay Men (1999); and Homophobia (1998). His newest book is Understanding Paranoia: A Guide for Professionals, Families and Sufferers (2004). Dr. Kantor earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School and performed his internships and residencies in the early 1960s at Stanford University Medical Center, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Chicago Clinics. He practices now in New Jersey. JUDITH LEMASTER is a licensed psychologist and earned her PhD in social and personality psychology at the University of California– Riverside. Her past positions include associate professor of psychology at Scripps College, assistant professor of psychology at Pitzer College, visiting assistant professor at the University of California–Riverside, and instructor at California State University. AMY MARCUS-NEWHALL is associate dean of the faculty at Scripps College. She is also associate professor of psychology at Scripps College and a member of the graduate faculty at Claremont Graduate University. She received faculty fellowship research funding to lead a study from March 2003 to March 2004 on working and stay-at-home mothers. She is chair of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Membership Committee and consulting editor for the Psychology of Women Quarterly. She earned her PhD in social psychology at the University of Southern California. LENA WRIGHT MYERS is a professor of sociology at Ohio University. With a specialty in social psychology, she has received numerous honors and awards for her national reputation in research and scholarship. Meyers’s research has resulted in many articles published in professional journals. She has been a contributing author to Another Voice: Feminist Perspectives on Social Life and Social Science, The Black Woman, and Violence in the Black Family: Correlates and Consequences. She is the author of Black Women: Do They Cope Better? which was published in two later-revised editions. Her book Black Male Socialization Revisited in the Minds of Respondents was published in the Contemporary Studies in Sociology series. Her most recent book is A Broken Silence: Voices of African American Women in the Academy. She is a member of numerous national professional organizations, three of which she served as president. ROBERTA L. NUTT is the founder and director of the counseling psychology doctoral program, which emphasizes family psychology and women’s/gender issues at Texas Woman’s University. She is coauthor

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About the Contributors

of “The Division 17 Principles Concerning the Counseling/Psychotherapy of Women: Rationale and Implementation” and the APA book Bridging Separate Gender Worlds: Why Men and Women Clash and How Therapists Can Bring Them Together. Nutt has written and presented extensively on gender and family issues; served in a number of leadership roles in psychology including president of the family psychology division of the American Psychological Association (APA), chair of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, offices in both the women’s and men’s divisions and the counseling psychology division of the APA; and holds the ABPP diplomate in family psychology. She is currently cochairing an APA interdivisional task force developing new guidelines for psychological practice with girls and women. JUDITH A. PARKER, associate professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Mary Washington, earned her PhD in linguistics from Brown University (1992). Her research has focused on speech processing and dyslexia and the oral narratives of children and sexual assault survivors. Dr. Parker co-directs an interdisciplinary research program on linguistic and psychological approaches to narrative and sexual assault trauma. Recent papers and presentations have reported on implications of this research for sexual assault survivors and for pedagogy in writing and teaching communication. In the past year, Dr. Parker’s presentations have focused on anti-female messages perpetuated through the “Powerpuff Girls” empire, power and politeness in the workplace, and the successful model of undergraduate linguistics at UMW. In her newest workshops, Dr. Parker has introduced activist and experiential theater techniques to explore inequities in ability and health, class, ethnicity, gender, language, and race. Dr. Parker’s courses include psycholinguistics; the advanced seminar in speech, narrative, and emotion; linguistic approaches to discourse and text; and women’s studies. Students participating in The Life Stories Project and The James Farmer Scholars Project engage in community service-learning with elderly residents and middle school students in Fredericksburg, Virginia. CARLTON W. PARKS is professor and coordinator of the Multicultural Community-Clinical Psychology Emphasis Area at the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, at Alliant International University; and the campus program director of the graduate programs in educational psychology: school psychology concentration, in the Graduate School of Education at Alliant International University, Los

About the Contributors

295

Angeles. Dr. Parks is a site visitor for the Committee on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association and was a clinical associate at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NICOLE SILVERMAN is an undergraduate honors student at Scripps College, majoring in psychology with a minor in Jewish studies. Her primary research interest lies in social psychology. SHANNON D. SMITH completed his MA in pastoral counseling at the University of Ashland in Ashland, Ohio, and his PhD in counseling from Oregon State University–Corvallis. He has worked as a child and family therapist in community mental health and as a school counselor in the public school system (K–12). Currently he is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas. His research interests include school counseling, counselor education, child and family therapy, play therapy, and the use of technology in counseling. Of particular interest to Shannon is social advocacy for underrepresented people groups. SUZETTE L. SPEIGHT is an associate professor of counseling psychology in the Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Counseling Psychology at Loyola University–Chicago, where she has been since 1991. She received her PhD in counseling psychology from Ohio State University in 1990. Dr. Speight teaches courses including Multicultural Counseling, Ethics and Legal Issues in Counseling Psychology, Identity and Pluralism, Psychology of Oppression, and Professional Issues for Counselors. Her scholarly interests include multicultural training, perceptions and evaluations of similarity and difference, Afrocentric psychology, and identity development issues. ANITA JONES THOMAS is a counseling psychologist with specializations in multicultural counseling and family therapy. Thomas received her BS in human development and social policy from Northwestern University, and an MA in community counseling and a doctorate in counseling psychology at Loyola University, Chicago. Thomas is an associate professor at Northeastern Illinois University, where she teaches courses in multicultural issues, family therapy, professional identity, and ethics. Her research interests include racial identity, racial socialization, and parenting issues for blacks. She has also conducted training seminars and workshops on multicultural issues for state and national professional organizations in counseling and psychology, and for hospitals and corporations.

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About the Contributors

KAREN M. WITHERSPOON is an associate professor of psychology at Chicago State University. She primarily teaches courses in the graduate program in counseling. Her research interests are in identity, mental health, and cognitive self-appraisal. Her current research program is funded through a National Institute of Mental Health grant to study the role of oppression in the mental health issues of black Americans. As a licensed psychologist, Dr. Witherspoon maintains her clinical expertise through part-time consulting with various public schools and social service agencies. Her clinical interests are in psychological assessment and mental health and oppression. Dr. Witherspoon is a national member of the American Counseling Association, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, and the Association of Black Psychologists. She also serves on the board of the Chicago chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists.

The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Recent titles in Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Sources of Stress and Relief for African American Women Catherine Fisher Collins Playing with Anger: Teaching Coping Skills to African American Boys through Athletics and Culture Howard C. Stevenson Jr., editor

The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination VOLUME 4 DISABILITY, RELIGION, PHYSIQUE, AND OTHER TRAITS

Edited by Jean Lau Chin Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

PRAEGER PERSPECTIVES Race and Ethnicity in Psychology Jean Lau Chin, John D. Robinson, and Victor De La Cancela Series Editors

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The psychology of prejudice and discrimination / edited by Jean Lau Chin ; foreword by Joseph E. Trimble. p. cm.—(Race and ethnicity in psychology, ISSN 1543-2203) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-98234-3 (set : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98235-1 (v. 1 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98236-X (v. 2 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-275-98237-8 (v. 3 : alk. paper)— ISBN 0-275-98238-6 (v. 4 : alk. paper) 1. Prejudices—United States. I. Chin, Jean Lau. II. Series. BF575.P9P79 2004 303.3'85'0973—dc22 2004042289 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright 쑕 2004 by Jean Lau Chin All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004042289 ISBN: 0-275-98234-3 (set) 0-275-98235-1 (Vol. 1) 0-275-98236-X (Vol. 2) 0-275-98237-8 (Vol. 3) 0-275-98238-6 (Vol. 4) ISSN: 1543-2203 First published in 2004 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Foreword by Joseph E. Trimble

vii

Introduction by Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

Dress as a Manifest Aspect of Identity: An Indian American Narrative Leena Banerjee

1

CHAPTER 2

Spiritual Diversity and Clinical Practice Ilene Serlin

27

CHAPTER 3

Prejudice toward People with Disabilities Asiah Mason, Helen D. Pratt, Dilip R. Patel, Donald E. Greydanus, and Kareem Z. Yahya

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CHAPTER 4

Beyond the “Triple Whammy”: Considering Social Class as One Factor in Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities Martha E. Banks and Catherine A. Marshall

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CHAPTER 5

Coping with Prejudice and Discrimination Based on Weight Anna M. Myers and Esther D. Rothblum

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CHAPTER 6

Prejudice in an Era of Economic Globalization and International Interdependence Teru L. Morton

135

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CHAPTER 7

The Sociocultural Abuse of Power: A Model for Shared Power BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya

161

CHAPTER 8

From Prejudice and Discrimination to Awareness and Acceptance Marie L. Miville, Jill M. Rohrbacker, and Angela B. Kim

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CHAPTER 9

The Chicago Dinners: A Model for Community Engagement and Social Change Dietra Hawkins, Terri Johnson, and Josefina Alvarez

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CHAPTER 10

When Diversity Becomes the Norm Donald Daughtry, Denise Twohey, David H. Whitcomb, Cindy Juntunen and Michael Loewy

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Index

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About the Series and the Series Editors

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About the Advisers

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About the Contributors

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Foreword

Civilized men have gained notable mastery over energy, matter, and inanimate nature generally and are rapidly learning to control physical suffering and premature death. But, by contrast, we appear to be living in the Stone Age so far as our handling of human relations is concerned. (Gordon W. Allport, 1954, p. ix)

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lthough written over fifty years ago, the haunting words of the eminent social psychologist Gordon W. Allport may ring true today. His intent then was to clarify the various elements of the enormously complex topic of prejudice. Since the writing of his now well-cited and highly regarded text on prejudice, social and behavioral scientists have made great strides in furthering our knowledge of the field. Since 1950, for example, thousands of books, journal articles, and book chapters have been devoted to studying prejudice and discrimination. Professor Allport would be somewhat pleased with the numbers because that was partly his expectation when he said, “So great is the ferment of investigation and theory in this area that in one sense our account will soon be dated. New experiments will supersede old, and formulations of various theories will be improved” (1954, p. xiii). But has there been that much improvement that we have moved away from a Stone Age understanding of human relations to a higher level of sophistication? The question begs for an answer, but that can wait until later.

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Let me back up for a moment to explore another line of thought and inquiry that bears directly on the significance and importance of this wonderful set of books on the psychology of prejudice and discrimination. For as long as I can remember, I have been deeply interested in the origins of, motives in, and attitudes about genocide and ethnocide; as a young child I did not use those horrific terms, as I did not know them then. But I did know about their implied destructive implications from stories passed along by sensitive teachers, ancestors, and elders. The deep social psychological meaning of the constructs later became an intense interest of mine as a graduate student in the turbulent 1960s, an era filled with challenges and protestations of anything regarding civil rights, discrimination, racism, sexism, and prejudice. During that era I threw my mind and spirit into the study of Allport’s writings on prejudice—not merely to study them, but to explore every nuance of his scholarly works to expand the depth of my understanding and expecting to come away with fewer questions and more answers. I was not disappointed in my exploration. I was baffled, though, because I recognized more so just how complicated it was to prevent and eradicate prejudice and discrimination. As I write these thoughts, I am reminded of a sign that was once posted over the porch roof of an old restaurant and tavern in a rural South Dakota community adjacent to an American Indian reservation. The sign was hand-painted in white letters on a long slat of weathered wood; it was written in the Lakota language, and the English translation read, “No dogs or Indians allowed.” The store was and is still owned by non-Indians. The offensive, derogatory sign is no longer there— likely torn down years ago by angry protestors from the nearby reservation. While the sign is gone, the attitude and intent of the message still linger in and around the rustic building, except that it is more insidious, pernicious, and guileful now. The prevailing prejudicial and loathsome attitude is a reflection of many of the residents of the small town. Many of the town’s residents tolerate Native Americans because they dependent on them economically, but their bigoted and closed-minded convictions are unwilling to accept Native Americans as equals and provide them with freedom of movement and expression. The wretched, mean-spirited, pernicious attitudes present in that rural South Dakota town symbolize the prevailing changes in attitudes and behavior across North America—the blatant signs are gone, but in many places and for many individuals the prejudicial attitudes persist, sometimes in sly and subtle forms. On other occasions they are overt and repulsive. Chapters in these volumes summarize and

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explore the social and psychological motives and reasoning behind the persistence of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory practices. They go beyond the conclusions drawn by Professor Allport and other early writers on the topic and take us into domains represented by those who have experienced prejudice and discrimination firsthand, as did their ancestors. Indeed, a voice not included in early studies on prejudice and discrimination is intensified and deepened as more and more ethnic groups and women are represented in the social and behavioral sciences than in years gone by. Stories and anecdotes, too, recounted by the rising groups of diverse scholars and researchers, lend a new authenticity to the literature. Some of the accounts provide a different perspective on historical events involving racial hatred that provide more thorough descriptions of the details and perspectives. Revisionist historical approaches have a place in the study of prejudice and discrimination because for so long the authentic voices of the victims were muffled and muted. For example, as a consequence of European contact, many Native American communities continue to experience individual and community trauma, a “wound to the soul of Native American people that is felt in agonizing proportions to this day” (Duran & Duran, 1995, p. 27). The cumulative trauma has been fueled by centuries of incurable diseases, massacres, forced relocation, unemployment, economic despair, poverty, forced removal of children to boarding schools, abuse, racism, loss of traditional lands, unscrupulous land mongering, betrayal, broken treaties—the list goes on. Brave Heart and DeBruyn (1998) and Duran and Duran (1995) maintain that postcolonial “historical and intergenerational trauma” has left a long trail of unresolved grief and a “soul wound” in Native American communities that contribute to high levels of social and individual problems such as alcoholism, suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, and negative career ideation. The presence of Native American scholars contributed a voice that was suppressed for decades because some feared the consequences if these scholars told their stories. The stories and accounts of past racial events and their corresponding trauma also were not told because there were few visible ethnic scholars available. Decades ago the topics of prejudice and discrimination largely emphasized race and, more specifically, the racial experiences of black Americans. Over the years the topic has expanded to include the experiences of other ethnic groups, women, the elderly, those with disabilities, those with nonheterosexual orientations, and those with mixed ethnic heritages. The volumes edited by Jean Lau Chin expand

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the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism to add a broader, more inclusive dimension to the understanding of prejudice and discrimination. The addition of new voices to the field elevates public awareness to the sweeping effects of prejudice and discrimination and how they are deeply saturated throughout societies. The amount of scholarly attention devoted to the study of prejudice and discrimination closely parallels the growth of ethnic diversity interests in psychology. Until about thirty years ago, psychology’s mission appeared to be restricted to a limited population as references to blacks, Asian Americans, Native American and Alaska natives, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Ricans were almost absent from the psychological literature; in fact, the words culture and ethnic were rarely used in psychological textbooks. The long absence of culture in the web of psychological inquiry did not go unnoticed. About three decades ago, ethnic minority and international psychologists began questioning what the American Psychological Association meant by its use of human and to whom the vast body of psychological knowledge applied. America’s ethnic psychologists and those from other countries, as well as a small handful of North American psychologists, argued that American psychology did not include what constituted the world’s population. They claimed that findings were biased, limited to studies involving college and university students and laboratory animals, and therefore not generalizable to all humans. Comprehensive literature reviews reinforced their accusations and observations. Accusations of imperialism, cultural encapsulation, ethnocentrism, parochialism, and, in some circles of dissent, of “scientifically racist” studies, run the gamut of criticisms hurled at the field of psychology during that period. Robert Guthrie (1976), for example, writing in his strongly worded critique of psychology, Even the Rat Was White, argues that culture and context were not taken seriously in the history of psychological research. Given these conditions and the myopia of the profession, it is no small wonder that prejudice and discrimination were not given more widespread attention. The topic was not perceived as salient and important enough for extensive consideration. The four volumes in this set are a testament to the amount of change and emphasis that are focused on ethnicity, culture, and the topics of prejudice and discrimination. The changing demographics in the United States call into question the relevance of a psychology that historically has not included ethnic and racial groups and that fostered a research agenda that was ethnocentric and bound by time and place. This can no longer be tolerated,

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as the rapid growth of ethnic minority groups in the United States amplifies the need for more attentiveness on the part of the social and behavioral sciences. Consider the population projections offered by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. By 2050, the U.S. population will reach over 400 million, about 47 percent larger than in 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). The primary ethnic minority groups— specifically, Hispanics, blacks, Asian Americans, and Native American and Alaska Natives—will constitute almost 50 percent of the population in 2050. About 57 percent of the population under the age of eighteen, and 34 percent over the age of 65, will be ethnic minorities. America never was and likely will not be a melting pot of different nationalities and ethnic groups for another century or two. As the mixture and size of ethnic groups increase, we are faced with the disturbing possibility that an increase in prejudice and discrimination will occur accordingly. Given this possibility, the topics covered in these volumes become even more worthy of serious consideration, especially the ones that emphasize prevention. Given the demographic changes and the topical changes that have occurred in the social and behavioral sciences, the extensive contents of these four volumes are a welcome addition to the field. Editor Jean Lau Chin and her long list of chapter authors are to be congratulated for their monumental effort. The volumes are packed with useful and wonderfully written material. Some is based on empirical findings, some on firsthand experiences. The blend of various writing styles and voice adds to the breadth of coverage of the topic. The many points of view provided by the contributors will help shape the direction of research and scholarly expression on a topic that has been around since the origins of humankind. We can hope that the contributions of these four volumes will move the field of human relations from a perceived Stone Age level of understanding to one where we believe we are moving closer to eliminating prejudice, discrimination, and the vile hatred they engender. Joseph E. Trimble Professor of Psychology Western Washington University Bellingham, WA March 21, 2004

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Foreword

REFERENCES Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. (1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 56–78. Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American postcolonial psychology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Guthrie, R. (1976). Even the rat was white: A historical view of psychology. New York: Harper & Row. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). Census of the population: General population characteristics, 2000. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Introduction

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rejudice and discrimination are not new. The legacy of the Pilgrims and early pioneers suggested a homogenous, mainstream America. Our early emphasis on patriotism in the United States resulted in a false idealization of the melting pot myth. Prejudice and discrimination in American society were overt and permeated all levels of society, that is, legislation, government, education, and neighborhoods. In the 1960s, attempts to eradicate prejudice, discrimination, and racism were explicit—with an appeal to honor and value the diversity within different racial and ethnic groups. This soon extended to other dimensions of diversity, including gender, disability, and spirituality. However, long after the war to end slavery, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, desegregation in the schools, and the abolition of antiAsian legislation—indeed, in the midst of growing public debate today regarding gay marriage—we still see the pernicious effects of prejudice and discrimination in U.S. society. Prejudice and discrimination toward differences in race, ethnicity, gender, spirituality, and disability have had negative psychological consequences, and they continue in primarily covert forms. Bias and disparities still exist and result in inequity of services, opportunities, and practices in American society. Combating prejudice and discrimination in today’s environment warrants some different strategies. We live in an environment of heightened anxiety due to war and terrorism. Thanks to technological advances in communication, travel, and the

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Internet, news and information from all parts of the world are almost instantaneously brought to us. We live in a global economy with a narrowing of borders between countries and groups. Generations of immigrants have resulted in the U.S. population becoming so diverse that there may soon be no single majority group within most major cities. Technological advances have eliminated the biological advantage of males in strength and the biological “limitations” of women of childbearing age in the work environment. Yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Irrational and unjust perceptions of other people remain—more subtle, perhaps, but they remain. This four-volume set, The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination, takes a fresh look at that issue that is embedded in today’s global environment. Images, attitudes and perceptions that sustain prejudice and discrimination are more covert, but no less pernicious. What people say, believe, and do all reflect underlying bias. We do not claim here to address every existing form of prejudice or discrimination, nor do we cite every possible group targeted today. What we offer are insights into a range from the most to least recognized, or openly discussed, forms of this injustice. Each chapter offers new perspectives on standing issues, with practical information about how to cope with prejudice and discrimination. The “toolbox” at the end of each chapter suggests steps to be taken at different levels to combat prejudice and discrimination and to achieve change. At the individual level, self-reflection needs to occur by both the victims and perpetrators of discrimination. Practitioners, educators, and all who deliver services potentially impart a bias perpetuating prejudice and discrimination. At the systems level, communities and policymakers must join together and have the will to combat discrimination. How does one remain “whole” or validate one’s identity despite persistent assaults to self-esteem from prejudice and discrimination? How does one raise children or teach amid societal institutions that perpetuate bias? Culturally competent principles and practices are needed to provide a framework for managing diversity and valuing differences. Volume 1, Racism in America, looks at stereotypes, racial bias, and race relations. How do we avoid internalizing racism or accepting negative messages about a group’s ability and intrinsic worth? How do we address institutionalized racism that results in differential access to goods, service, and opportunities of society? Volume 2, Ethnicity and Multiracial Identity, looks at discrimination toward differences due to immigration, language, culture, and mixed race. Volume 3,

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Bias Based on Gender and Sexual Orientation, looks at gender bias, women’s issues, homophobia, and oppression of gay/lesbian lifestyles. Volume 4, Disability, Religion, Physique, and Other Traits, strives to examine less-spotlighted bias against other forms of difference, and begins the difficult dialogue that must take place if we are to eradicate prejudice and discrimination. Written for today’s people and environment, these volumes are rich with anecdotes, stories, examples, and research. These stories illustrate the emotional impact of prejudice and discrimination throughout history and as it still strikes people’s lives today. While the chapters spotlight psychology, they interweave history, politics, legislation, social change, education, and more. These interdisciplinary views reflect the broad contexts of prejudice and discrimination that ultimately affect identity, life adjustment, and well-being for every one of us. Please take with you the strategies for change offered in the toolbox at the end of each chapter. Change needs to occur at all levels: individual, practitioner/educator, and community. The intent of the toolboxes is to move us from the emotional to the scholarly to action and empowerment. They are intended to encourage and compel readers to begin individual change that will spur community and social action. With each person who reads these volumes, gains understanding, and finds the motivation or method to help make his or her small part of the world a more just and open-minded place, we have moved closer to making our goal a reality. Jean Lau Chin

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CHAPTER 1

Dress as a Manifest Aspect of Identity: An Indian American Narrative Leena Banerjee

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his chapter discusses two salient but rarely-discussed aspects of cultural (ethnic-racial) identity and difference, those of dress and the way differences in dress are handled in public life in the United States. Dress stands alongside many other manifest (or socially visible) aspects of cultural identity, such as skin color, hair, appearance, language and accents, cuisines, ways of eating, ways of greeting, ways of sitting, ways of dancing, celebrations and ways of celebrating, and so on; and latent (or socially invisible) aspects of ethno-cultural identity such as values, knowledge, attitudes, expectations, belief systems, and so on. This chapter focuses on a personal narrative that chronicles the author’s experiences as a first-generation immigrant with ethnic dress and identity in the public spheres of academia and the professional world in the United States. The narrative also familiarizes the reader with the author’s pre-immigration cultural context, and moves on to discuss how she has grappled with the lessons learned from dealing with dress in the public sphere so that she could pass them down intergenerationally to her young daughter. Sociopolitical analysis of the history of the lack of diverse dress as a manifest aspect of identity in the U.S. public sphere is integrated into the chapter before the chapter makes concluding remarks and suggestions in the toolbox for change.

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THE WAY YOU DRESS AND WHO YOU ARE: REFLECTIONS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO Cultural identity contributes to a core and enduring sense of self. By being connected to a group, this sense of self anchors a sense of belonging and gives rise to feelings, attitudes, and meanings relative to that identity (Phinney, 1990). Cultural identity is used here as a broad term that includes both ethnic and racial identity. Culture as a broad category including color, region, class, language, customs, belief systems, gender, ability, and sexual orientation can include multiple dimensions. Therefore it can generate more flexible, fluid, encompassing mentalities in thinking about individual, communal, and national identity. It is a concept that is not always immediately apparent and can require getting to know people a little before labeling them. Culture is a changeable and adaptable concept unlike race which being based on unalterables such as color and appearance offers a rigid and closed set of categories, inviting stereotyping and a heightened sense of differences. As an alterable, multilayered concept it can be eminently suitable to the self definitional purposes of a diverse, democratic people because it can provide a framework for integration through the identification of commonalities and differences, and at the same time, absorb and reflect new realities and meanings that emerge from progressive exchanges in society. A multiculturalism coming of age among a free and diverse people can promote concepts of self definition that emphasize the dual needs for cohesion and distinctiveness which can engender trust, exchange and the experience of integration. (Banerjee, 2000, p. 17)

Cultural identity of the minority individual has received attention for several decades in the academic literature and has seen two very positive evolutions. One is that the development of ethnic identity that started out being conceptualized as a linear, invariant, stage-specific process (Cross, 1995; Ponteretto & Pederson, 1993; Phinney, 1990; Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1989) proceeding from a position of conscious or unconscious self-hatred through various stages of examination to eventual self-acceptance has been conceptualized first in a more interactive way (Helms, 1995; Carter, 1995; Parham, 1989) and currently in a nonlinear, variable, and fluid way (Yi & ShorterGooden, 1999). The second is that pathologization and negativity

Dress as a Manifest Aspect of Identity

3

seen as inherent in the minority identity have given way to a much more balanced understanding of strengths, resiliencies, and oppressions inherent in it. An example of such a current approach to cultural identity is Yi and Shorter-Gooden’s narrative identity model in which identity development is “fluid, dynamic and constructed in a relational (interpersonal) context” (1999, p. 18). Multiple developmental experiences and multiple sources and aspects of identity such as age, sex, color, SES, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and so on are acknowledged as important and influential in the process. The aim is to understand how individuals have chosen to create their own story by weaving together their strengths and challenges, pulling together the multiple strands into a coherent identity. The indication of a healthy cultural identity is that it feels authentic to the person, is coherent (that is, comprehensive and congruent with regard to the person’s life information), gives the person a sense of order and unity, provides an overall sense of dignity and well-being, and promotes flexible adaptation to life circumstances. One of the threads of such a cultural identity is dress, although this aspect has been fairly “neglected analytically” (Eicher, 1995, p. 1), in the social science literature and in public discourse. In other words, not much attention has been paid to it as yet as an aspect of a person’s identity. Dress has been defined as including “modifications and supplements to the body, extending concern beyond apparel to allow appraisal of body and hair conformation, texture and color, scent and sound” (Eicher, 1995, p. ix). Culture defines proper and preferred dress, formal and informal dress, and expressions of “modesty and flamboyance, concealment and exposure” (Eicher, 1995, p. 3) as it relates to cultural parameters for mens’, womens’, and childrens’ attire. Changes in culture through interaction with other groups or migration can lead to changes in dress that indicate it is indeed fluid and evolving. As an aspect of cultural identity, dress offers the individual and group multiple potential psychological resources and meanings. These include being recognized and being found familiar as well as recognizing (that is, knowing and being known); feeling affinity and a sense of identification; feeling a sense of belonging; feeling distinctive; expressing individuality, mood, creativity, politics, and aesthetic style; feeling pride; feeling a link to a history and collective heritage; and finding a position in time and place in social relationships. For those of minority cultural identity, their ethnic dress offers them all of these avenues for meaning as well as the psychologically significant

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Disability, Religion, Physique, and Other Traits

reality and struggle of the power differential between their ethnic dress and the dress of the dominant majority. Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden (2003) have in their recent book addressed this issue as it applies to the physical appearance of black women. They conclude as below on the basis of extensive surveys and indepth interviews: The pressure to look like someone other than themselves, to look more European and less African, is enormous. And many Black women are pushed to obsession over their hair, their skin tone, and, increasingly their body size and shape. This is what we call the “lily complex,” the belief that the only way to be beautiful is to look as close to “White” as possible. (Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2003, p. 177)

The issue of ethnic dress poses similar challenges for the ethnic minority individual. Dress in the public sphere in the United States conforms and coalesces around certain recognizables with distinctly European roots. This goes along with the idea that in the United States, national cultural identity continues to be conceptualized with a white center and a cluster of minority identities in the periphery (Mukherjee, 1997). The notion of embracing in the public sphere the variety of ethnic dress inherent in a population as diverse and multicultural as the U.S. population seems conspicuous by its absence. Here again, diversity in dress has gone the way of diversity in other areas, such as language; an example of this is creating uniformity out of diversity in place of achieving unity, a far more complex process (Banerjee, 2002). The ethnic minority person is left needing to “look” as much like majority people as possible by dressing like them, so he or she can be seen as appropriate and acceptable at minimum in the public domain. The messages come through in the socialization and the media. The resulting sense of loss from having to discard customary ethnic dress in the public sphere may perhaps be most palpable for immigrant populations but is no less real as a part of the legacy of the price paid to survive and progress in the society for older generations of immigrants. On the other hand, not embracing the diversity available in spades domestically puts the population at a disadvantage in dealing with the world’s inescapable diversity, as globalization becomes the order of the day in every sphere of human endeavor. Some of this chapter is written in narrative form, as the author believes that personal voice has the potential to impact readers in a powerful way, to touch them somewhere that it matters, where apathy,

Dress as a Manifest Aspect of Identity

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naivete, and complacency no longer offer legitimate defenses. Weaving together personal narrative with scholarly analysis can also be compelling because it combines the authenticity of the narrative with the gravitas of the scholarly, placing the personal voice in the larger sociocultural context and providing an experiential glimpse into the issues of our times.

DRESS AND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY: AN IMMIGRANT’S NARRATIVE Aalap, or Allegro When I arrived in the United States, I was twenty-two years old. I had a masters degree in clinical psychology from the University of Delhi in India and enrolled in the AAMFT (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy)—an approved clinical PhD program at Virginia Tech Institute with a focused interest on the family systems paradigm and how to be helpful to families and children through its application. This was in the 1980s. In those early days in the United States, I used to dress in classic Indian style, in starched cotton saris usually hand-loomed, with traditional motifs in the summer and silks to keep warm in the winter. (The sari is an unstitched piece of fabric, usually six meters long, worn with a blouse and a long underskirt.) It expressed my taste and identity, my Indian-ness, my deep appreciation of indigenous, artistic creation of fabric and design, and the style and grace of the traditional apparel. My way of dressing— customary, ordinary, and comfortable to me—not only made me stand out in my predominantly white, western university environment in Virginia, but I felt like I was sticking out in a way that was incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. I would be greeted with the inevitable daily compliments about my dress from many, if not most, quarters. Sometimes these remarks would lead to other astonishing questions and remarks about India: “Do they have houses built of brick in India?” “Can you ride elephants over there in India?” I had professors hold open doors for me and stand up when I walked into the room, and in general around the campus I was aware of being stared at quite a bit. All of this conveyed to me a message about my exotic status that I did not want to have and gave me a great deal of unnecessary and what I felt to be the wrong kind of attention in place of a more matter-of-fact professional approach, which I desired.

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Vilambit, or Slow Movement Right before the first round of field placement interviews were to be held, the director of clinical training and a professor sat me down and asked me if I would consider wearing western dress in placement, suggesting that not doing so might create a barrier in the therapeutic process. My initial response was total shock. Nevertheless, I said to him that I would have to think this through before I could give him a response. I was not accustomed to wearing western dress. I was not accustomed to baring my legs, though I was very accustomed to baring my midriff! I cringed at the possibility of doing something that felt like changing my skin. I had, however, made a long journey to the United States to learn about the practical applications of psychological knowledge that could benefit others, because access to such training was not readily available on my home turf. It was part of my initial breaking away from the ivory tower in which I had been formed, and I had a great deal of admiration for the practical use of knowledge made by my new professors and for their dedication to improving the quality of existence of those with whom they worked. I thought that if I had wanted an academic life solely, then I would refuse to shed my skin as it were, asking that my peers, students, superiors, and I deal with the differences in the process of interaction. In looking at the prospect of becoming a clinician and working with clients in a highly assimilative, conformist culture, I came to the conclusion that it was my professional responsibility to take the greater burden on myself. So, facilitating ease of engagement in the therapeutic process by adopting a western code of dress was something I chose to undertake as my professional responsibility. With great trepidation, I shared this with my clinical director and started investing in a new wardrobe. As I began to wear this new wardrobe, I felt a profound loss that is difficult to put into words. I also got something I had wanted when I first came through the door: just matter-of-fact treatment, and no second and third glances, stares, questions, excessive compliments, or misplaced chivalry. Jugalbandi, or Minuette/Scherzo Now, two decades later, I wear this western dress routinely with a definite stamp of Indian fabric and design. I have looked for and found organizations that sell such clothes in the United States and in India, and it is important to me that their enterprises be involved in resurrecting indigenous dyes, patterns, and fabrics and in empowering

Dress as a Manifest Aspect of Identity

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poor women and disabled people to earn livelihoods. I also travel frequently to India and buy fabrics there and have them tailored or buy the increasingly available “ready-made” clothes, both Indian and western. Developmentally, from late adolescence to early adulthood and beyond, I have gone through several milestones with respect to dress that have been significant to my identity. In late adolescence in India, I chose to wear traditional attire in college because at the time I felt it was congruent with my emerging taste and identity. I resonated with the style, artistry, grace, and femininity of classic Indian saris and the fact that they represented a legacy for me, a connection to how my mother, grandmothers, and aunts dressed. Externally I felt freedom to dress this way or a variety of other nontraditional ways, including dressing in western styles. This freedom was fairly typical in my upper-middle-class milieu. I was at home and felt a sense of congruence with myself as I dressed traditionally, and I felt comfortable in my world as well. As a result, I chose to wear traditional saris exclusively, unlike most of my peers at the time, who experimented with traditional and non-traditional attire, western and eastern, for reasons of their own. Immigration to the United States initially left me still feeling at home in wearing the sari but challenged by external feedback and learning to cope with it. The request to change my style of dress came quickly enough and necessitated more radical steps than I may have taken myself without the external pressure. I chose to adapt to and incorporate western dress, which I liked (just not on me until then!) for reasons that made real sense to me and that I could accept. Nonetheless, the initial experience of wearing western dress felt incongruous and odd. This became moderated gradually by my essential openness to the new dress, my desire to adapt for good reasons, and by the practice of wearing it more. Incorporating Indian features into this dress added meaning and a deeper sense of good feeling and fit with who I was becoming through the process of immigration. My process, because of my early affiliations and circumstances of being a minority and immigrant, had much to do with expressing ethnic identity in a personally consonant and meaningful way. For a person in the majority, similar internal processes may not involve ethnically based majority–minority issues, but rather others, such as expression of personality, style, taste, and so on. Over time, I have thought long and hard about what this experience of mine has had to offer in the dialogue on the evolution of multiculturalism within American culture, as this is indeed my new

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and chosen collective. The issue that sticks is not that one kind of dress is better than any other but that we have a culture, particularly in public or professional life, in which the freedom to wear different legitimate forms of cultural dress is restricted through an unexamined set of societal perceptions and expectations. As I have said before, Multiculturalism is the idea of a plural paradigm that allows retention and transformation of cultural identity through individual or collective choice rather than implicit or explicit coercion, thereby extending to each individual or collective an essential dignity. It fosters a climate of humanism and provides depth and resilience to a culture through access to its collective memories, better perspectives on oneself and others, collective wisdom and collective narrative stories that can be shared, exchanged, or blended freely in the exigencies of survival. Loss of cultural identity is a loss of cultural capital and a loss of opportunity to interact with multiple sources of meaning and expanded cultural resources. (Banerjee, 2002, p. 5)

It is toward this end of empowering ourselves to continually reach for multiculturalism that I write this as I have many other papers, in my own style of mixing the narrative with the scholarly. DIFFERENCE IN DRESS REFLECTS A GAMUT OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES: EXPERIENCES IN ACADEMIA I was the only immigrant and the only full-time student of color in my entering doctoral cohort of ten students. The other student of color enrolled part-time and worked full-time, and so I saw her very little. Soon after I arrived in the program, my professors approached me and proposed that I take several multicultural courses as independent study units. Essentially they proposed that I read certain materials, digest and reflect on them, and discuss them with assigned professors. I warmed to the subject matter instantly. I felt excited about the proposal, but the fact that I was singled out in my cohort for this experience did not make sense to me. Indeed, even in those early days in the field and in this country, I felt something was amiss in this line of reasoning. I expressed my genuine interest in the course of study proposed and also suggested that my cohort as a whole could benefit from this exposure. My faculty politely thanked me for my thoughts and essentially said it was I and not they, in their view, who needed this instruction. They were offering me these opportunities so that I could acclimate and

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acculturate to my new environment, something my peers obviously did not have to do. I was quite unsettled with this answer, but decided that this was not a battle that I felt safe enough to take on at the time. Many years later, I now see this as a product and reflection of the strong assimilationist, rather than multicultural, forces by which the American mainstream has been formed and which multiculturalism continues to face a very uphill struggle to change. This is indeed the assimilationist legacy of white conformity that is based on the belief that the peoples and cultures of northern and western Europe are more evolved and superior to all others, and therefore peoples of other groups must to adopt their mores (Banerjee, 2000). My professors were not trying to single me out, embarrass me, or offend me in any way. They were, out of respect for my potential and me, trying to groom me for success in the American mainstream by going out of their way. I genuinely believe that this was their intent in asking me to modify both my dress and my curriculum. However, in doing so by means that to me reflected unexamined assimilationist values and assumptions, they were unfairly singling me out and denying themselves and my peers a richer experience and dialogue that could have emerged from processes driven by diversity-owning multicultural values. I dove into the courses and read multicultural literature in sociology, family sociology, psychology, and family therapy. I reveled in the extensive individual attention given to me by professors, and we had animated, soul-searching conversations in their individual offices when I met them for independent study appointments. In the end I made the most of what was offered, and the professors recognized me as something of an expert in multiculturalism in the department community, something I could hardly have expected and could hardly believe or accept. Nonetheless, when Celia Falicov’s first book on multicultural issues, Cultural Perspectives in Family Therapy, was published, the editor of Family Relations, who was on our faculty, invited me to write a review of it. I was honored, and I did the job gladly (Banerjee, nee Roy, 1985).

PUTTING THE NARRATIVE INTO ETHNOCULTURAL CONTEXT Roots I identify as an Indian American psychologist and a first-generation immigrant. My professional activities run in three interrelated streams

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of teaching, practice (for me, synonymous with community-based service), and scholarship. I was born and raised in India in an uppermiddle-class Bengali Brahmin family, the daughter of a lieutenant general of the Indian Artillery Corps of the Indian Army and a housewife and stay-at-home mother whose engagement in community services of many kinds has been longstanding and tireless. I was the eldest of three sisters, who have gone on to be a professor of psychology, a distinguished professor of biochemistry, and an artist and animator who has exhibited independently. Besides this nuclear group, I grew up with a large extended family, along with many professional colleagues of my parents and neighbors and community members who were close enough to be called family. I grew up traveling the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent and generally moved every two or three years during my childhood years due to my father’s profession and my parents’ consequent style of life. This pattern of life took me through quite a few wrenching goodbyes and also the thrill and anticipation of new people, places, homes, and schools. In time I realized that it contributed to the ease I have with transition and change, and indeed prepared me for the giant leap of faith involved in immigrating to the United States. I grew up literate in Bengali, my mother tongue; Hindi, the Indian national language; English, the linguistic legacy of colonialism in India; and with a nodding acquaintance with a few other Indian and European languages besides. I also had lessons in the great classical language Sanskrit that Max Mueller defined as the mother or root of the Indo-European family of languages. I attended school in the northern Indian city of Allahabad in the Indo-Gangetic plain at the confluence of the great Indian rivers Ganga and Jamuna and the third mythic river Saraswati (which stands for knowledge). The school was proud of having educated two Indian prime ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and I distinctly remember these and other illustrious alumni being held up for us as role models at the school. At fifteen I graduated high school, passing a board examination administered in India by the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, called Senior Cambridge. During my high school years, besides being a bookworm and having a very tight band of friends, I remember the thrill of owning a bicycle by which I could make my independent way to and fro from school, a few miles each way, in the midst of fairly heavy and characteristically chaotic Indian traffic. I welcomed and relished this daily challenge, developing early competence and independence in

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making my way on the road. Metaphorically, it allowed me to break out a little from the sheltered environs of my upbringing and childhood. After completing high school in the humanities and mathematics (there were no social science offerings at high school in those days), I spent a few months holidaying with my parents in Secunderabad in the Deccan plateau in southern India. My father was on the faculty of the Defence Management Institute in those days and was quite excited about the discipline of psychology as it related to management. He introduced me to a psychologist on the faculty and to their wonderful library. My innate human service interests were strongly ignited as I read the (largely western) literature in the discipline of psychology and conversed with the resident psychologist. Subsequently I applied to study psychology honors at the Universities of Delhi and Mumbai and received acceptances from both places, proceeding to accept the offer from the former. EARLY PATHWAYS TO MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Following a masters in clinical psychology from the University of Delhi, I was strongly inclined to step outside the ivory tower and become involved in real world service provision to the needy. Clarity on this goal came from projects such as an applied clinical class project in the masters program in which I did a mini-epidemiological survey of mental health needs of working poor families who served the university as janitors, gardeners, and so on. The need for intervention for mood and psychotic disorders was alarming, and the needed services were nowhere on the horizon. The same experience occurred when I did a research project on the state of services for the mentally handicapped in India for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences as a special project. The faculty around me at the time were involved in teaching and research, and practice opportunities for psychologists seemed to be confined to labor relations, industrial psychology, and organizational consultation. There were no role models or practice models for clinical or community psychology, the areas in which my interest had already begun to develop. At this point I turned my sights to training and travel to the west to develop the expertise I wanted to have. In consulting with others about taking this course, the comments of Andre Beteille, an eminent and internationally renowned sociologist at the University of Delhi,

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remain in memory. He counseled that if I wanted to get on the conveyer belt of higher education and be served up to the market at the end of it all, I should go to the United States, and if I wanted to be handcrafted, then I should go to the United Kingdom: the two systems of higher education were very different. Coming from the society that I did, the handcrafted option felt more consonant and attractive. I competed for and won an Inlaks Scholarship, a merit scholarship that offered me the opportunity to pursue graduate studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The admissions authorities, in consultation with the Department of Psychology at Oxford, assigned me to the supervision of eminent developmental psychologist Peter Bryant, Watts Professor of Psychology and Fellow of Wolfson College. Besides being a distinguished psychologist whose neo-Piagetian experimental work had substantially furthered our understanding of young children’s development of perception and thinking, Peter was a human being of warmth, sincerity, and integrity; and a great mentor. We both quickly realized, however, that as well as we liked each other personally, we were mismatched professionally. He was a pure developmentalist and experimentalist, not a clinician or applied clinical researcher, and the closest that my interests could come to his were clinical-developmental, and he was not in a position to supervise this. Nor was anyone else in the largely experimental department of psychology at Oxford at the time. I could join Peter’s experimental effort in understanding how young children’s quantitative reasoning developed and how they processed numbers and graphs and so on, and become part of his dynamic and stimulating research group, but that did not seem in sync with me at the core. Looking back, it seems to me that the fact that this clarity came only after I was there in person in Oxford and had many conversations with Peter is testimony to the kind of international communications that were available and possible at the time more than twenty years ago, in contrast to the Internet age of the present day. Furthermore, speaking with practitioners in the United Kingdom at the time, it became clear that hands-on clinical training did not really occur in a very intensive or full-fledged way in their system until the postdoctoral level. This was helpful if frustrating information for me and resulted in my changing course and considering moving to the United States for further training. By this time I was already aware of the family therapy literature. I remember having read Haley’s statement that a revolution was occurring in the therapy room because more than one person (the

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whole family) was being seen in the clinician’s office. I was immediately drawn to systemic ideas and practice and have long felt that my fit with it is attributable to my culture of origin and my way of being brought up. Being brought up in a collectivistic culture and owning many of its values makes me appreciate and understand the importance of the context over and in addition to the individual, when seeing emotional experience in the context of significant emotional relationships and valuing the engagement of the system in the intervention process. I moved to Virginia Tech, to an AAMFT-accredited doctoral program. The Inlaks scholarship that came from a foundation belonging to an Indian woman, Indulakshmi Shivdesani, and which was administered by her Italian husband Count Nicola de Sella de Monteluce, carried over to Virginia Tech and set me up to receive the training I had been seeking. My interest in serving the economically oppressed began in early childhood, growing up in India in a well-off family with considerable household help and witnessing great poverty all around me. I remember as a child of about five or six, living in our three-story ancestral home in Kolkata, observing particular homeless families lay claim to the footpath outside our home at dusk and set up their bedding, cook on their wood fires, and awake at the crack of dawn (which comes very early in the east) to bathe in the water from street hydrants. I still remember the laughter and play of the children bathing in the street at dawn, and the puzzled look on the face of the single woman who spoke to herself, and whom people called “mad.” In the morning these folks would neatly wrap up all their belongings and disappear to return at dusk again. My internal responses as a young child observing all of this were those of abiding interest and an inexplicable sympathy, a mixture of awe in their hardiness and compassion for their hardships. As an undergraduate at the University of Delhi’s elite Lady Shri Ram College, I was a member of the National Honor Society and became involved in projects such as going into neighboring slums to bring literacy to housewives and mothers. I never failed to find a slum home that was spotlessly clean and tended with great care by the women I worked with, despite the overall squalor that lay all around outside. It is as if there was a great distinction between the private and public parts of space, with one owned with great respect and care and the other unclaimed, fetid, and overwhelming. The other aspects of those experiences were the warmth and generosity, the

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human kindness that was ever-present in the women I worked with, making my time spent with them very much an exchange in human terms, not a one-way street. In time, in my life in the United States, I have focused my applied work on serving the economically oppressed and marginalized people of color. This allows me to reach out to some of the most challenged people through my clinical and professional skills and to the community and society through my social justice convictions. I have been a liberal all my life, growing up as a member of a privileged elite raised with a deep sense of responsibility to serve and give back and arriving eventually in the United States to experience being a minority immigrant. The latter experiences fueled my convictions to work in a more direct, visceral, and personal way than the former without the latter ever could have. Therein lies its value. I have expressed this before in a different way: In the process of immigration to the United States, I have personally lost the privilege of being among those who name everything. It is a privilege I have chosen to lose. In my pre-immigration life, I had the experience of a social context where privilege came for no good reason. In my post-immigration life, I have had the experience of a social context where discrimination comes for no good reason. The place in which I now stand in the fullness of the experiences of my life, with access to both kinds of contexts, I own as a unique place from which to give my voice to the cause of democratic social change. (Banerjee, 2002, pp. 14–15)

My experiences with the ever-present social impulse in the United States to take the different or unfamiliar—be it in dress, language, way of greeting, way of sitting, or anything else—and make it disappear or discount it has fueled my passion to advocate that core American culture evolve to its full multicultural potential. The advocacy comes through in the teaching and supervising I do with the next generation of clinicians I train, in the community-clinical service I do, and in the writing that I do to integrate personal narrative with scholarly analysis. Let me segue from the personal to the scholarly. DRESS AS A MANIFEST ASPECT OF IDENTITY: A SCHOLARLY PERSPECTIVE Anthropologists note that in environments in which intergroup differences are large, differentiation between groups tends to focus on

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Figure 2. The shift

Figure 1. Original dress

secondary or surface markers such as dress, language, and appearance. In environments where the differences between groups are small, differentiation tends to focus on primary markers such as kinship, commensurability, and religion (Sumberg, 1995; Nash, 1989). In America, where intergroup differences are large, appearance (or color and physiognomy) is frequently used to differentiate individuals and groups. Dress and language, the most changeable surface markers, disappear from the mainstream of life and thus Figure 3. Current dress reflect the power of assimilationist uniformity, the lack of value placed on lived diversity, and the social policy of white conformity that originated in the seventeenth century and left its definite mark on the society by the early twentieth century (Banerjee, 2002; Fairchild, 1926; Grant, 1916).

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Dress is a manifest aspect of culture because it is socially visible and is therefore very important in social communication. It sets the stage for verbal interactions, the visual aspect of dress being primary in face-to-face interactions (Stone, 1962; Eicher & Sumberg, 1995). All forms of dress arise from cultural contexts and play a part in shaping those contexts as well. Dress can carry information on language, region, marriage customs, religious customs, and standards of beauty, and it can express emotional style and subjective experiences of identity (de Vos & Romanucci, 1982). Through the familiarity that it evokes, the information that it carries, and the subjective and affective responses that it engenders, the way of dressing a body can hinder or facilitate verbal or other communication (Sumberg, 1995). Ethnic dress reflects collective self-image or identity and some of a culture’s central values (Eicher & Sumberg, 1995). This is why ethnic dress can be an instrument of the preservation of group history and provide individuals with links to a meaningful heritage (Eicher, 1995). An example of this phenomenon is the headwrap as an item of dress among blacks, which in its style, underlying meanings, and functions is West African (Griebel, 1995). During slavery, the headwrap signified African origins and personal pride for blacks and a badge of servility for whites, a sign of devalued otherness. The headwrap survived brutal conditions of enslavement, a long history of privation, and many practical barriers to the continuance of material culture for blacks and is a small symbol of the depth, significance, and meaning of cultural markers in general. Those dual souls, described by W. E. B. Du Bois (1903) as souls forged in the crucible of racial slavery in America and a far older African one, are encoded in material form in the headwrap. In the process of differentiation from one another, groups tend to use primary and secondary markers under different conditions, as has been mentioned before. Power differentials between the groups further complicate this interaction. In some cases, the larger group’s recognition of the smaller group’s culture (at points in history when it is politically feasible for the larger group) results in appropriating the smaller group’s symbolism in such forms as dress, changing to some degree the symbol as well. For example, the Scottish highlanders’ dress was recognized and popularized by the British in the mid-eighteenth century at a time when the British appeased the Scottish and secured their own power in political and demographic terms (Chapman, 1995). The kilt could be exploited for tourism and was thus transformed by the hand of the dominant outsider and the Scottish diaspora (Chapman, 1995). On the other hand, Bretons in France,

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whose growing population posed a threat to the French, lacked cultural support and recognition from the French until much later in time. This resulted in some Breton peasants giving up their traditional attire because of tension from the duality of their native attire appearing as elegant and in good taste in their own community and quaint and folklorish in the eyes of the French (Chapman, 1995). A different outcome—mute assimilation—occurs when the power differential and access to resources between groups is perceived to be large. For example, young male Indians in the village of Shamanga in the Ecuador highlands, who traveled to the coast as migrant workers, adopted mestizo dress because foremen and co-workers mocked their Indian dress (Lentz, 1995). The women who remained in the village retained their dress, incorporating into it the colors and new fabrics from mestizo dress brought in by their men. These gendered strategies that the Indians of Shamanga adopted to survive economically and culturally came at the psychological price of internalized racism. Many elements of Indian culture, including dress, that were seen by the mestizos as primitive and negative were denied and internalized (Lentz, 1995, p. 290). In the United States, mute assimilation of a wide cultural variation in minority cultures’ dress is the norm in the mainstream of life. Ethnic dress is relegated to the realm of private social life or life in ethnic enclaves, indicating its lower status, recognition, and acceptance in the culture and society as a whole. The rich array of dress from the world’s cultures is truncated by a culture yet to mature in its awareness and comfort with diversity. World fashion or clothes such as business suits, t-shirts, jeans, athletic shoes, and so on can be considered to be the unofficial dress in the American mainstream. World fashion originates in the tailored garments of Europeans and is linked to urbanization (Eicher, 1995). Therefore, this unofficial national dress in America selects the symbols of European American culture among the many cultures represented by American peoples. The history of oppression as related to the Europeanization of dress has tenacious roots. Missionaries in the United States worked as hard to convert Dakota Indians to wearing European-style clothes as they did to converting them to Christianity (Eicher, 1995). Darwin and Dunlap (as cited in Eicher, 1995) argued that the myths inherited by the world in the last two centuries of economic and political ascendancy of European nations in the form of imperialism and colonialism includes the myth that wearing western dress implies moving up from primitivism to civilization.

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Like culture itself, ethnic dress does not have to be a static reality. It is a domain of consumption that is particularly prone to change (Lentz, 1995) and is particularly adaptive. Can we imagine even for a moment, in this age of globalization, the U.S. mainstream transformed by the stamp of vibrancy of dress from all over the globe? Can we imagine how much richer our visual and cultural experiences could be, and how much more fluid, expansive, and multicultural our mentalities would need to be to navigate and interact with ease and knowledge in such an environment? MY STORY AS IT LINKS TO MY DAUGHTER MIRA’S My own struggles and transformation with dress in the public sphere stand as a model for my own daughter, Mira. Though she is still a young child, she is observant (as young children tend to be), and we often talk about dealing with differences in myriad forms, including dress. Earlier this year I was invited by her second-grade teacher to do a presentation on India. I happily agreed and arranged to be there on my daughter’s seventh birthday along with my sons Rudy and Ives. On that day, I asked her and her eager-faced peers why they thought I was going to speak on India. Promptly came the reply “because you are from there.” I elaborated that I was from here in America, but that I had come from India many years ago and so my roots were from there, and so were a part of Mira’s. I went on to say that the other reason for talking about those roots of Mira’s was that they were not spoken about or seen much in class. The children nodded in agreement and listened more intently. I unfurled a world map to place India in a geographical context relative to them. We talked about how long it takes Mira to fly over to see her grandparents (more than a day!). Children had questions about religion, terrain, climate, and language. Then I went on to focus the dialogue on dress, saying that there are so many things we could explore, but I wanted to offer them a chance to explore one of them that day, namely dress. I went up to the blackboard, drew two human figures, and dressed one in a female Indian costume, the sari, and the other in a male Indian counterpart, the churidar kurta. I wrote these words on the blackboard and we said them aloud together. I shared a Barbie doll in a sari that I had found in India recently and demonstrated draping myself in a sari as well. They seemed to be thrilled. My sons and I handed out activity sheets with human figures drawn on them,

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and they dove into dressing them in saris and churidar kurtas with the crayons and markers. Their colorful creations were wonderful. I went around to each child’s desk and acknowledged each one individually, encouraging them to write the name of the outfit they had drawn and their own name on their sheet of paper, owning the lesson, so to speak. Afterward we celebrated with a mango fruit rollup snack that I had gotten from Little India. Later the teacher reported to me that the children had really enjoyed the exposure to Indian dress and that they had continued to process the lesson in subsequent days. When I visited their spring open house a month later, their artwork from our time together was displayed all over their classroom as a multicultural activity. Most significant to me, which Mira said to me after we returned home from her class activity, was the statement “I thought they would make fun but they really loved what you did, Mom.” I felt in that moment that she had gained an experience that gave her support, freedom, and permission to claim, in her own way in the public sphere of her classroom, dress that represented the distinctive minority part of her identity. About six months later as I prepared to make a solo trip to India, Mira besieged me to be sure to bring her back a sari. In India I set about looking for a child-size sari and succeeded in acquiring a pale green silk sari for her. Upon mentioning her request to my family members in India, however, I was inundated with many more gifts of beautiful saris from them to her. She was thrilled and wanted to try out a bright red one with gold trim first. She was quite thrilled as she inspected herself in the mirror and twirled around, letting the gathers in her sari fan out. Then she said spontaneously that she wanted me to do the dress presentation at school for her eighth birthday as well, only this time she wanted me to drape her in one of her saris as well as part of the demonstration, where I had draped only myself in a sari the last time. It seemed to me that these dialogues, activities, and experiences had passed down to her a thread of her identity with regard to dress and as expressed through dress, and she had in her own way clearly claimed it. DIVERSITY IN OUR CULTURE: DIVERSE NARRATIVES, NEW MIND-SETS, AND SOCIAL MIRRORING This chapter is presented as a narrative that can serve as a psychologically powerful vehicle for weaving together in a coherent and

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comprehensive way the fabric of significant everyday experiences that shape our identities. Narratives can help us to make sense of and give meaning to a life of numerous experiences and daily challenges of coping with differences and “isms.” This itself can be motivating and healing, deepening personal insights on self and context. Extensive and cogent narrative exposure to everyday struggles and issues faced by diverse ethnic minorities can serve readers by not only increasing knowledge but also empathy and readiness to work in diverse settings with diverse people. Bringing diverse ethnic narratives into mainstream professional discourse opens up possibilities for rich and rewarding dialogue across groups. This type of activity is fundamentally important to diversification at the level of awareness and consciousness in the professional mainstream and in the societal mainstream. In other words, such activity can play a part in “carrying a robust and live multiculturalism into the heart and soul of the culture” (Banerjee, 2002, p. 7). In my view, multiculturalism is an advantageous way for the mental health and human service professions to be oriented in the twentyfirst century as the world continues to move toward a complex, communicationally, and technologically integrated and culturally diverse global village. Effective contributions in this context can come not from an avoidance of diversity or retreat to assimilationist processes but from interest, understanding, and ease with it. We are not a society with a history or a culture that is at ease with differences, but one that is being actively challenged on this from many quarters, due to the democratic and open nature of our polity. We are also a young and dynamic society that has been transforming, and at the same time the phenomenon of racism has become subtler. It is thus less obviously present, but it is very often there in the demeanor, the slips, the seating patterns, the unconscious acts, and the hidden but conscious attitudes and behaviors. The personal desire to engage with these issues is important. It involves owning such painful realities that may directly contrast what we may want to believe about ourselves, and involves having the support of others who are similarly engaged and with whom triumphs and struggles on this journey can be meaningfully shared. In the end, difference and diversity are lived issues and matters of personal choice and conviction. They cannot be mandated. So far as we live lives of voluntary segregation with limited real commitment to any diversity that challenges us in our personal lives and in our work, we remain impotent to impact the course of the profession and

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society with it. In this connection, I offer some thoughts in the context of how we name ourselves and others and the consequences of this, as it has clear relevance for the issue of dress as well (Banerjee, 2000). First, it is important to value heterogeneity itself (in place of uniformity), as in a heterogeneous society this would be a healthy act of self-owning. Thus in the context of dress, children, adolescents, and adults can be encouraged to explore and wear majority and minority forms of dress. They can create their own variations based on their creativity, taste, and the pragmatic considerations of weather, laundering, and so on. Societal mirroring of this heterogeneity of dress as both recognizable and valued, when replacing the exotic or outsider status currently given to it, would help in the multicultural evolution of social contexts of dress. Further, such fluidity in replacing more homogenous ways of thinking about dress would encourage mentalities that see subgroup boundaries as permeable and the border as a place of meaningful sharing (Saldivar, 1990). Once again, this would be a vital mind-set that could promote acceptance of diversity and multiculturalism not only with dress but with many other issues besides. The assumption here is not that multiculturalism is an absolute good for society. Rather “from a pragmatic and relative standpoint . . . in the context of a free and heterogenous society, it can be argued to be psychologically, socially and politically good because it can allow a healthy self-owning, a basis for egalitarianism and unification” (Banerjee, 2002, p. 4).

EXAMINED OR UNEXAMINED, DRESS IS SOCIALLY VISIBLE: HOW DIVERSE CAN WE BE? Returning to the specific issue of ethnic dress, I have looked back many times with myriad feelings at my personal transformation and experiences. I choose to highlight it, as it is one of those silent but very socially salient issues, and therefore a subject of particular oppression in that context. No one raises it as an issue; no one really talks about it. I have felt that I was able to make a decision on professional dress that I found I could live with and have certainly come to terms with. I must add that I have worn a diamond nose stud for the last three decades, ever since I took lessons in bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form in Delhi. It was part of a dancer’s traditional dress to have the right nostril pierced, and so I did. Though I gave up the dance form long ago and my traditional Indian clothes later

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on, I held on to the nose stud, which remains with me today. Somewhere, I said to myself, one draws a line! The fact that the change in dress was asked of me is a barometer of how much we in the profession are able to tolerate diversity, respect people’s manifest identities expressed in their dress, and indeed accept diversity as something inherent to our society—something that is at its heart and something that is our own. The historical practice has been to set the standard in terms of white American dress and subjugate all to it. This is the mute assimilation phenomenon referred to in the anthropological literature (Eicher & Sumberg, 1995). At the same time, the standards of dress in the profession reflect perceived expectations of the larger society. Catering to those expectations in the therapy room becomes necessary, since people come to see a therapist at times of stress and distress, and dealing with the unexpected and unrecognized can add to a person’s stress. So we return to the larger question, one that bears reflection by each of us: how can we participate in the transformation of a core Eurocentric, assimilationist culture to a genuinely multicultural one that is congruent with the sociopolitical ideals of a plural, secular democracy? Personally, I do not know that given the chance to do so tomorrow, I would or could return to the way I used to dress in India and when I first migrated to the United States. I do not know that we can walk down the same road twice. I see myself as an Indian American, and my western dress with an Indian stamp accurately reflects and proclaims my identity. My husband is white, and my children are growing up with Indian American, European American, and multicultural ethnic influences beyond the identities and choices of their parents. As immigration to the United States has been increasingly non-European and recent immigrants have been holding on and integrating culturally to some degree rather than giving up and integrating, more discussion about attitudes toward diversity of dress and other manifest aspects of ethnic identity, notably language (a vehicle to the heart of cultures), would be very worthwhile. As Nash (1989) and Sumberg (1995) have pointed out, in vastly heterogeneous societies, surface markers or manifest aspects of difference are the first ones that people tend to and perhaps need to deal with, as they are socially visible and prominent. A traditional Arab American immigrant may be more effectively outreached in therapy by someone in traditional dress and familiar with cultural nuances and the Arabic language, as a bilingual Latino American may be by someone with bilingual facility. As ethnic minorities own their manifest

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and latent diversity and the Euro-American majority respects, accepts, and owns this diversity and replaces and reflects on the homogeneity of their own socialization and integration into the U.S. mainstream, progress on the path of creating multicultural professional cultures within a multicultural, democratic society can be made. Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals

Tailored garments of Reflect on homogenizing European origin are what forces on dress in the one wears and expects to public/professional sphere. see at work. They denote Claim the choice to own and American dress. embrace distinct ways of dress and incorporate into own attire as desired, comfortable, and approriate in the public sphere. Model and pass down this owning intergenerationally. Embrace heterogeneity of dress in the public sphere as representative of social diversity and freedom of expression.

Community

To fit in, to be recognized, to succeed, one must dress in this manner. Dress outside this genre is unfamiliar and less acceptable.

Raise awareness through programs offered to adults at community centers, churches, and other secular and religious organizations about the richness and meaning behind diversity in dress. Include corporate sponsors from textile, clothing, and affiliated industries. Advocate for informed, respectful representation of heterogeneity of dress in advertising by corporate businesses and by the media. continued

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Toolbox for Change (continued) For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Practitioners/ Propriety/impropriety of Include discussion of dress as educators dress is considered within a topic in multiculturalism mainstream notions and in school and college standards, not curricula. multicultural ones. Include workshops and handson experiential explorations of diversity in dress in children’s art, summer school, after-school, and community programs. Introduce heterogeneity in the therapy room in parallel with the extent of visible heterogeneity in the larger community.

Homogeneity of dress based on Eurocentric standards is considered the appropriate dress for the public sphere in the United States. Successful and respected citizens dress in this way. The media, advertising, and garment industries are built on this assumption. Dress that is culturally appropriate in many non-European cultures for the public sphere is unincorporated in the U.S. public domain, and retains an exotic as well as a lower status insofar as it is mostly visible in ethnic enclaves in the private domain. This issue is little discussed and questioned and thus remains guided by the assumption that what is seen, known, and understood to be American dress is centrally connected with the cultural antecedents of its European immigrants, and peripherally with the cultures of all its other immigrants. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Parts of this chapter appeared before in Psychological Foundations, the journal’s winter 2002 special international issue. The author retained the copyrights for those materials. The author acknowledges her debt to her father for his fine and aesthetic sartorial sense, to her mother for her commitment to keeping alive traditional weavers and weaves, and to the rich legacy left by anonymous weavers, artists, and craftswomen and men in India who

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have given their ideas, imaginations, sweat, and toil generation after generation to create beautiful fabrics that Indians and many others the world over have relished and enjoyed for centuries. Thanks are also gratefully extended to the author’s son Rudy and friend Nicola Ragge for taking the two later photographs of her that appear in this chapter. REFERENCES Atkinson, D. R., Morten, G., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (1989). Counseling American minorities: A cross-cultural perspective. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown. Banerjee (nee Roy), L. (1985, April). Review of cultural perspectives in family therapy. In J. C. Falicov (Ed.), Family relations. National Council of Family Relations. Banerjee, L. (2000). Through a child’s eyes: What’s in a name and other thoughts on social categorizations in America. The Community Psychologist, 33(2), 16–18. Banerjee, L. (2002). Psychology and the reach of multiculturalism in American culture. In E. Davis-Russell (Ed.), Multicultural education, research, intervention and training. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Carter, R. T. (1995). The influence of race and racial identity in psychotherapy, towards a racially inclusive model. New York: John Wiley. Chapman, M. (1995). Freezing the frame: Dress and ethnicity in Brittany and Gaelic Scotland. In J. B. Eicher (Ed.), Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Cross, W. (1995). The psychology of nigrescence: Revisiting the cross model. In J. G. Ponteretto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & D. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 93– 122). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. de Vos, G., & Romanucci-Ross, L. (Eds.). (1982). Ethnic identity: Cultural continuities and change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903). The souls of black folks. New York: Fawcett. Eicher, J. B. (1995). Introduction: Dress as expression of ethnic identity. In J. B. Eicher (Ed.), Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Eicher, J. B., & Sumberg, B. (1995). World fashion, ethnic and national dress. In J. B. Eicher (Ed.), Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Fairchild, H. (1926). The melting pot mistake. Boston: Little Brown. Grant, M. (1916). The passing of the great race. New York: Scribner. Griebel, H. B. (1995). The West African origin of the African-American headwrap. In J. B. Eicher (Ed.), Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time. Oxford: Berg Publishers.

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Helms, J. E. (1995). An update of Helms’s white and people of color racial identity models. In J. G. Ponteretto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & D. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 181–198). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Jones, C., & Shorter-Gooden, K. (2003). Shifting: The double lives of black women in America. New York: Harper Collins. Lentz, C. (1995). Ethnic conflict and changing dress codes: A case study of an Indian migrant village in highland Ecuador. In J. B. Eicher (Ed.), Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Mukherjee, B. (1997). Beyond multiculturalism: Surviving in the nineties. In I. Reed (Ed.), MultiAmerica: Essays on cultural war and cultural peace. New York: Viking Press. Nash, M. (1989). The cauldron of ethnicity in the modern world. Chicago: University Press. Parham, T. (1989). Cycles of psychological nigresence. The Counseling Psychologist, 17(2), 187–226. Phinney, J. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499–514. Ponteretto, J., & Pederson, P. (1993). Preventing prejudice. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Saldivar, R. (1990). Chicano narrative: Dialectics of difference. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Stone, G. (1962). Appearance and the self. In A. M. Rose (Ed.), Human behavior and the social process: An interactionist approach. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Sumberg, B. (1995). Dress and ethnic differentiation in the Niger Delta. In J. B. Eicher (Ed.), Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Yi, K., & Shorter-Gooden, K. (1999). Ethnic identity formation: From stage theory to a constructivist narrative model. Psychotherapy, 36(1), 16–26.

CHAPTER 2

Spiritual Diversity and Clinical Practice Ilene Serlin

W

hat is the relevance of religious and spiritual diversity to the psychology of prejudice and discrimination? At the American Psychological Association’s 1999 National Multicultural Conference and Summit, one of the three major themes was “spirituality as a basic dimension of the human condition” (Sue, Bingham, Porche-Burke, & Vasquez, 1999, p. 1065), which psychologists have an ethical mandate to address. While more crises of spirituality are being reported to therapists and more Americans are searching for meaning in their lives, however, psychologists are unable to help. With the effects of globalization and the breakdown of traditional communities comes the freedom to intermarry and create one’s own forms of religion and spirituality (Kristof, 2003; Serlin, 2001).While this may in some cases lead to increased openness and tolerance, it can also lead to backlashes of fear and discrimination. This form of discrimination is also found in response to other forms of cultural diversity. Stuart notes, “Despite innovative efforts to teach cultural competence, stereotypic thinking still clouds many evaluation and intervention efforts” (2004, p. 3). Research shows that most psychologists are not only unprepared to deal with these issues of religious and spiritual diversity, however, but actually have their own biases and prejudices against religion (Shafranske & Malony, 1990). This chapter, therefore, builds on findings from APA’s National Multicultural Conference and Summit in Newport Beach, California,

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which recommended that “psychology must break away from being a unidimensional science, that it must recognize the multifaceted layers of existence, that spirituality and meaning in the life context are important, and that psychology must balance its reductionistic tendencies with the knowledge that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Understanding that people are cultural and spiritual beings is a necessary condition for a psychology of human existence” (Sue et al., 1999, p. 1065). Psychologists should be able to demonstrate religious and spiritual competency (Pope-David & Coleman, 1997), so this chapter proposes theoretical and clinical examples of how to teach psychologists this competence. It explores the relationship between religious and spiritual diversity and the psychology of prejudice and discrimination from the following three perspectives: the impact of globalization on religious and spiritual diversity; the relationships among religion, spirituality, and psychology; and the importance of religious and spiritual competency to clinical practice. GLOBALIZATION AND RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL DIVERSITY Religious affiliations are changing rapidly across the globe as well as within our own country. Waves of immigration have made religious pluralism inevitable. Religion has always been a strong force in America (Kasmin & Lachman, 1993); since the American Revolution, when almost all Americans were Protestants (Hoge, 1996, p. 24), the religious makeup has changed. A Gallup poll from 1992 estimated that 56 percent of Americans were Protestant, 26 percent were Catholic, 2 percent Jewish, 7 percent other, and 9 percent marked no preference. Other figures show that the number of Muslims is increasing and is now between 1.5 percent and 2 percent of the population. Conservative Catholics have the highest birthrate, and the majority of immigrants today are Catholic, with 25 percent to 35 percent being Latino (Hoge, 1996, p. 25). Many people today are attracted to Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, Hinduism, and contemplative or mystical branches of Christianity and Judaism. A national survey showed that 92 percent of all Americans said, “my religious faith is the most important influence in my life” (Bergin & Jensen, 1990, p. 5). Most Americans report that they believe in God, and 75 percent identify themselves as religious (Cadwallader, 1991), while more than 40 percent have admitted to a mystical experience

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or communication with transpersonal beings (Gallup & Castelli, 1989). Nine out of ten Americans say they pray, and 97 percent believe that their prayers are heard (Steere, 1997). Spiritually based rituals have been shown to be effective coping strategies for dealing with life stresses (Pargament, 1997), while the importance of religion is growing among married couples and identified as an “essential ingredient” in long-term satisfying marriages (Kaslow & Robison, 1996). Other individuals today choose new forms of religion or spirituality, or even more esoteric practices such as witchcraft and neo-paganism or earth-based goddess religions (Gimbutas, 1982; Neumann, 1955), while some develop a strictly personal form of spirituality. Recent figures show an increasing number of unaffiliated individuals, while many face unprecedented challenges about forming communities and relationships from new combinations of cultural backgrounds and traditions. While research is beginning to track the impact of multicultural couples and families, however, there is relatively little on the effect of spiritual or religious diversity. These differences may include issues of child-rearing, family traditions, in-law and blended family issues, and personal versus traditional religious or spiritual practices. As globalization brings more interpersonal and interchangeable surroundings, people are losing their sense of place and local community. A community traditionally provided its members with a stable sense of identity, their place in the world, role models, support, and a set of values and beliefs to live by. Norms of moral behavior regulated relationships during courtship and marriage and provided a connection to the ancestors and continuity over time. However, many individuals today are disconnected from that source of identity and stability. They are vulnerable and without traditional support structures (Sue, 1999). They may find the challenge of constructing a personal worldview of purpose and meaning overwhelming, become confused and depressed, and come to psychologists’ offices with a crisis of meaning. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the group of people who marked “no religion” (the socalled “nones”) was “one of the fastest growing religious categories in the United States” (Lattin, 2003, p. A1). The path of creating a personal spirituality is lonely; on the other hand, a spiritual practice can buffer modern Americans in a stressful society. Spirituality and mental health have a long history of connection in America, dating back to the Puritans’ mission to reform society. Religion has been a voice against alcohol abuse, adultery, and forms of

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oppression. It has taken strong stands against issues like abortion, sex outside marriage, and sex between people of the same sex. From a societal perspective, issues of discrimination and prejudice are in effect inseparable from issues of religion and spirituality. Sensitivity to cultural differences helps us “recognize that traditional psychological concepts and theories were developed from a predominantly EuroAmerican context and may be limited in their applicability to the emerging racially and culturally diverse population in the United States” (Sue et al., 1999, p. 1063). When their sense of meaning breaks down, instead of seeking counseling from priests or other religious figures, individuals may come to therapists with a crisis of meaning. There is a crucial role for psychologists to play in helping people sort out highly diverse cultural influences and make meaningful choices for themselves. Clinical Vignette: Psychologists Need to Inquire about a Patient’s Religious and Spiritual History at Intake One client told me that she was having a difficult time putting together her own forms of spiritual practice. Her mother was a Southern Baptist and her father Catholic. She has memories of being in both churches, but doesn’t have a church of her own. In fact, she describes her lack of roots in any one community as a source of psychological pain. In our work together, she talked, drew, and danced out her cultural images. She used music from her own culture and explored feminine role models from those traditions. She needed new images to help her re-imagine herself as a woman, a lover, an artist, and a healer. By exploring a variety of images from other cultures and historical times, she could put together her own set of images. These gave her a sense of self that was more coherent, flexible, and resilient. RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, AND PSYCHOLOGY Religion and psychology have only recently been separated; the Latin term psychologia was first used by Maruic about 1524 to refer to one of the three divisions of pneumatology, the science of spiritual beings and substances. Pneuma (spirit or religious aspect) was inseparable from psyche, or soul (Vande Kemp, 1996, p. 72). However, since that time, modern psychiatry and psychology have been trying to

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situate themselves as natural sciences, aiming to liberate man from religion (Needleman, 1983, p. 6). Positivist scientific psychology uses an exclusive method and view of truth, instead of the multiple epistemologies that are part of the history of knowledge. Psychology, once linked with philosophy, theology, and the arts, has followed medical psychiatry into science (Hillman, 1972). Returning religious and spiritual dimensions to psychology rebalances the positivist trend of modern psychology and is congruent with a broader feminist, narrative, and multicultural psychology whose epistemology is based on personal knowledge (Polanyi, 1958) and alternative ways of knowing (Polkinghorne, 1994). Sue et al. challenge us to see the cultural component of these epistemological differences: “Moreover, a psychology based solely on the separation of science and spirituality and that uses primarily the segmented and reductionistic tenets of the natural sciences is one that may not be shared by three quarters of the world nor by the emerging culturally diverse groups in the United States” (Sue et al., 1999, p. 1065). Because of this, psychological theories are not necessarily generalizable across cultures. Included in this definition of culture is “subjective” culture, which “includes such elements as social norms, roles, beliefs, and values” and aspects of “spirituality and religion” (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993, p. 631). Cultural differences also affect research outcomes and threaten external validity. Definition of Terms Another problem with analyzing the impact of religious diversity and the psychology of discrimination is that definitions of religion and spirituality are confusing. The literature in psychology shows different definitions about to what extent experiences of religion or spirituality include a divine power, a set of beliefs or practices, and a cultural context. For example, the experience of spirituality in family therapy practice has been defined as “a relationship with a Transcendent Being that fosters a sense of meaning, purpose, and mission in life” (Hodge, 2000, pp. 218–219). Religion is usually associated with structured rituals or practices, while spirituality can be defined as a personal and direct experience of the sacred (R. Walsh, 1999, p. 3). Definitions of spirituality have also included an ecological and moral dimension, such as the sense of “connectedness” that spreads out to a compassionate concern for all beings (Elkins, Hedstrom, Jughes, Leaf, & Saunders, 1988) and “living in a manner consistent with

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their interior value framework” (Genia, 1990). In Religion and the Clinical Practice of Psychology (1996), Shafranske distinguishes five kinds of religious/spiritual practices: religious preference, church affiliation, church involvement, religious belief, and personal religious behavior. Wulff contrasts “cumulative tradition” as the “observable contents—temples, scriptures, myths, moral codes, social institutions, and so on—” with faith as the “essential and less variable personal quality . . . one’s orientation toward oneself, other people, and the universe as they are experienced in the light of the transcendent dimension” (1996, p. 47). Whatever definitions are used to describe these dimensions of meaning and self-knowledge, however, they have been significantly left out of our value-free scientific psychology. The split between religion and practice in society is mirrored in the split between religion and practice in the profession of psychology. Modern psychologists tried to position psychology as a science and thus separate it from its roots in religion and philosophy. Sigmund Freud (1927/1961), a product of the German Enlightenment, considered religion to be a defense against unacceptable impulses. Based on a belief in a father God and ritualistic practices, religion was “an illusion” (Freud, 1927/1961). However, not all psychologists were against religion. There has always been an underground tradition of psychologists interested in consciousness and religion. For example, William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience considered religion to be more than the outer behaviors of religious practice and actually “an essential organ of our life, performing a function which no other portion of our nature can so successfully fulfill” (1902/1985, p. 49). Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1932/1969) concluded, “Among all my patients in the second half of life—that is to say, over thirty-five—there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost what the living religions of every age have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook” (p. 334). Ferenczi described the therapeutic process as “redemption” and the “similarity of psychotherapeutic love to that love which permeates the Judeo-Christian tradition” (De Forest, 1954, p. 179). Erik Erikson valued the fact that religion connects us back to our deepest human longings, childhood needs, and basic ontological security. For humanistic psychologists,

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religion was less a regressive function than a progressive one, connecting human beings to the “farthest reaches of the human spirit” (Maslow, 1971). Gordon Allport (1950) was one of the first to describe and document a “mature religious sentiment” as well-differentiated, dynamic, directive, comprehensive, integral, and heuristic (Wulff, 1996, p. 60). The first to make the useful distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic spirituality, Allport discovered an important relationship between extrinsic religious attitudes, prejudice, and traits such as authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, dogmatism, and prejudice against blacks, gay men, and lesbians (Wulff, 1996, p. 61). Erich Fromm contrasted authoritarian religions that emphasized submission to a higher power, guilt, and sorrow with humanist religions that stressed optimal development of compassion, love, and a mature relationship with nature and other human beings. Abraham Maslow also saw religion as a path to human excellence, a life of integration and wholeness, and a mystical experience that was filled with wonder and awe. According to Victor Frankl (1959), religion helps us confront the void of disintegration and discover meaning, coherence, and integration. Psychiatrist Robert Assagioli extended the therapeutic goal of personality integration with spiritual dimensions in a process called “psychosynthesis.” Another link between religion and psychology concerns the relation of religion to mental health. Religion has been positively correlated with mental health: “Through its function of going beyond explanation to acceptance, faith instills a sense of meaning, coherence, and at times, courage in the face of confusion, disappointment, loss, suffering, and anomie” (Shafranske, 1996, p. 2). Crises of meaning can occur at any point in the life cycle, but are particularly apt to hit during times of transition like graduation from high school, marriage, birth of a child, loss of a loved one, and living with a life-threatening illness. Psychiatrist Roger Walsh notes that a spiritual approach to psychotherapy has been positively correlated with decreased anxiety and conflict, enhanced creativity, increased health and longevity, deeper empathy, greater marital satisfaction, and resiliency (1999). A negative relationship between religiosity and suicide, between religious commitment and drug use, and between church attendance and divorce; a positive relationship between religious participation and well-being for the elderly; lower levels of depression in college students; and a negative relationship between religiosity and suggestibility were reported by Gartner (1996). In addition, some religions experience prejudice more than others. Some non-western spiritual

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traditions like Buddhism are becoming more popular, but still face discrimination in mainstream Protestant America. How does a psychologist address these issues, and what kind of training should she or he have? RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL COMPETENCY Religious and spiritual diversity are parts of a general understanding of the need for diversity-based psychology. Awareness of the need for multicultural competence in the training and practice of psychology was achieved with the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists (American Psychological Association, 2003) and the APA’s 2002 Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct (Knapp & VandeCreek, 2003). A new emphasis on training in diversity includes competence in religious and spiritual diversity (Manese, Saito, & Rodolfa, 2004). The multicultural guidelines for competency are applicable to spiritual and religious diversity. These include awareness of one’s attitudes and beliefs, knowledge about cultural differences, and skills in working with diverse groups (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). In addition, the creation of a safe space for psychotherapy is an ethical practice. Pope, Sonne, and Holroyd (1993) listed several factors that contribute to what Manese et al. call a “safe diverse training and practice environment” (2004, p. 19), such as respect for the other and sensitivity and empathy for the other’s experiences. However, training in religious and spiritual competence is not available to most psychologists. In 1948, Allport examined fifty psychology textbooks published between 1928 and 1945 and concluded that “recent authors have virtually banished from their pages the essential problems of the will, conscience, reasoning . . . self, subjective values, and the individual’s world view” (1948, p. 80). The profession has not changed much since that time (Shafranske, 1996, p. xv). Yet some clients are reporting that they feel fragmented by having to consult both psychotherapists and pastors to address both relationship and spiritual issues (Griffith & Griffith, 1992); their needs are not being met. They need help navigating their spiritual and psychological confusion (Serlin, 1989b, 2000). Not only are most psychologists not trained to deal with these issues, but they may in fact have a bias against religion. They report feeling poorly prepared to deal with clients’ religious and spiritual issues (Shafranske & Malony,

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1990) or the psychological effects of globalization (Arnett, 2002, p. 774). They may over-medicate or over-pathologize their clients, missing an opportunity to help them discover the meaning of their symptoms and construct a new identity. Psychologists should not reduce all conflicts to inner psychological disorders, and they should acknowledge the very real impacts of religious and spiritual issues. They should have a clinical proficiency in religious and spiritual diversity issues. They have an “ethical responsibility” to teach it (Shafranske, 1996; Vaughan, 1987). Religious and spiritual competency includes a familiarity with differences between spirituality and religion, ability to differentiate between a healthy and pathological religious or spiritual experience, and an understanding of how spirituality can be both a problem and a helpful dimension in psychotherapy. In response to the culture’s increasing hunger for issues of meaning and purpose, psychiatry and psychology responded with the creation of a new diagnostic category called “religious or spiritual problems” in the 1994 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The role of spirituality is gaining notice in psychology (Tan, 2003; F. Walsh, 1999) and family therapy and couples counseling (Anderson & Worthen, 1997; Moules, 2000; Prest & Keller, 1993; Richards & Bergin, 1997; Rotz, Russell, & Wright, 1993). Some psychospiritual interventions have been empirically validated (Jacobs, 1992; Pargament, 1997; Worthington, Kurusu, McCullough, & Sandage, 1996) and correlated with religious attitudes of the therapist (DiBlasio, 1993; Moon, Willis, Bailey, & Kwansy, 1993). The first APA-accredited integrative doctoral degree was the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, followed by Brigham Young University and others that offered courses like “Spiritual Issues in Family Therapy,” which is offered in the masters in family therapy program at the University of San Diego (Patterson, Hayworth, Turner, & Raskin, 2000). A few organizations, like the Spiritual Emergency Network in Palo Alto, California, specially train counselors to recognize and help with “spiritual emergencies.” Nontraditional programs exist in areas of creation spirituality, transpersonal psychology, and consciousness studies. Other programs have an East/West perspective on spirituality and psychology, like the Naropa Institute in Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Interest in the psychology of religion has grown also within the organized professional structures of psychology. In 1975, the American

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Psychological Association formed a division called Psychology of Religion (Division 36). In 1961, the Journal of Religion and Health was founded, and in 1991 the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion was founded (Wulff, 1996, p. 45). Textbooks began appearing (Argyle & Beit-Hallahmi, 1975; Meadow & Kahoe, 1984; Spilke, Hood, & Gorsuch, 1985; Wulff, 1991). Many crises of meaning, however, do not present floridly as spiritual or religious emergencies, but show up in our clients’ everyday descriptions of inner emptiness and despair. Some clients describe the vague feeling of wanting to connect to something “beyond themselves,” while others want to connect to a sense of meaning in their work. These spiritual crises are not psychiatric disorders that require treatment. They are existential and spiritual afflictions of the psyche. Clinical Vignette: Psychologists Should Be Aware of the Role of Meaning in Their Patients’ Lives In my office, I see young people working for hi-tech or prestigious companies who find no meaning in their lives. They have “arrived” in their prime years of late twenties or early thirties, they are making large salaries, and they feel that they should be enjoying their lives. Instead, many are lonely, feel that what they are doing every day is pointless, and have trouble motivating themselves. Their lives have lost their meaning. A crisis of meaning occurs also in their relationships. Why should they marry today? No longer a guarantee of security, relationships need a new reason for being. Some couples come to therapy to find more meaning in their lives together. Or they may discover that a relationship does not guarantee intimacy or stop their loneliness. New studies have shown that even intramarriage does not bring more intimacy than intermarriage (Heller & Wood, 2000, p. 245). What they miss is a sense of communion and connection that is often described as spiritual. The need for “reclaiming connection” to the basic web of relationships and life is a basic human right (Spretnak, 1991, p. 22). Finally, relationships no longer provide a sense of home. Couples are transient, and few have family homes or families. Many young couples are desperate to make homes but cannot afford the high nationwide prices. Not only do they not have a literal home, but they also lack the neighborhood and web of family responsibilities to create a sense of place. Consequently, they are disoriented, flighty,

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and agitated. Spiritual practices teach them how to stay grounded in themselves. THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES: A BRIEF HISTORY A student training in religious and spiritual dimensions in psychotherapy needs to know the history of this field. Knowledge of these dimensions is ethically mandated, according to Guideline 2 of the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, which says, “Psychologists are encouraged to recognize the importance of multicultural sensitivity/responsiveness, knowledge and understanding about ethnically and racially different individuals (Manese et al., 2004, p. 18).” Understanding the historical resistances and splits between psychology and religion, as well as the history of psychological practices that embrace religious and spiritual diversity, is the foundation of such knowledge. To provide some of that background knowledge, this chapter will provide a brief theoretical overview of historic and contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches that integrate spirituality into their theory and practices. The following section will summarize some of the major schools and briefly describe their traditions and approaches to the issue of spirituality and psychotherapy. Integrative Movements During Boston’s Emmanuel Movement, psychotherapy used mental, moral, and spiritual methods to help sick people. After that movement, the clinical pastoral education (CPE) and pastoral counseling movements emerged as new specializations within psychology (Vande Kemp, 1996). The Christian Psychopathic Hospitals were founded in 1910, followed by private psychiatric hospitals with Christian therapy units. The field of hospital chaplaincy is a growing therapeutic application that is an attractive alternative to the traditional clinical psychology route, and its training programs can offer useful curricula to training programs in psychology and religion. Existential Psychologies Theologians and philosophers like Paul Tillich (1952) and Soren Kierkegaard (1844/1941) described existential states like anxiety, dread, fear, and trembling. Martin Buber (1922/1937) integrated Jewish mysticism with existentialism in the form of dialogue between

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man and God or man and man. Their astute psychological and phenomenological investigation into layers of the psyche contributed to a psychological understanding of the existential human condition. They had immediate influence on a new generation of American psychologists like Rollo May, James Bugental, and Irving Yalom, who developed existential and humanistic perspectives on psychotherapy (Bugental, 1976; May, 1940; Schneider & May, 1994; Yalom, 1980). Transpersonal Psychology Transpersonal psychologists critique western psychology for not going far enough. While western psychology can help us recognize dysfunctional patterns and free ourselves from our pasts, it lacks theory or practices to help us move beyond these patterns. Western psychology has a well-developed taxonomy of mental disorders, but almost nothing about mental “order” or, as the Buddhists say, “basic sanity,” or extraordinary states of mind (Wilbur, 1981). In 1969, Maslow and Sutich (Sutich, 1969) founded the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and the Association for Transpersonal Psychology to explore “the farther reaches of human nature.” Maslow defined transpersonal psychology as a “higher Fourth Psychology, transpersonal, transhuman, centered in the cosmos rather than in human needs and interest, going beyond humanness, identity, selfactualization and the like. . . . We need something ‘bigger than we are’ to be awed by and to commit ourselves to in a new, naturalistic, empirical, non-churchly sense, perhaps as Thorough and Whitman, William James and John Dewey did” (Maslow, 1968, pp. iii–iv). The early transpersonal theorists believed that consciousness existed as a phenomenon that could be systematically studied by science. It used clinical and experiential methods such as meditation to study inner states (Murphy & Donovan, 1997). Abraham Maslow, president of the American Psychological Association from 1967–1968, helped establish transpersonal psychology in the United States. He theorized that human beings needed to first satisfy their basic needs for food and shelter, but then experienced a drive for higher states of consciousness (Maslow, 1971). Maslow identified such extraordinary states of mind as metavalues of “wholeness, perfection, completion, justice, aliveness, richness, simplicity, beauty, goodness, uniqueness, effortlessness, playfulness, truth, and selfsufficiency” (Hastings, 1999, p. 193). Today transpersonal psychology

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has its own national and international organization, journals, and wide popular interest (Frager, 1989; Fadiman & Frager, 1998).

Buddhist Psychology Because the Buddhist method of inquiry into the phenomenology of mind is experiential, it includes the bodily experience of mind: namely, emotions. A Buddhist approach to psychotherapy, therefore, integrates body and mind through meditation and cultivation of the mind (Trungpa, 1969, 1983). In Sanskrit, for example, the words for “heart” and “mind” are part of the same reality or “citta” (Welwood, 1983, p. viii). The expanded mind brings expanded awareness that lets us see things in perspective, as they truly are, and it brings expanded compassion as well (Suzuki, 1949). The essence of Buddhist psychotherapy is the cultivation of compassion, or “maitri.” In the encounter between client and therapist, both hearts awaken. The awakened heart is called “bodhicitta” (Welwood, 1983, p. 159), and the awakened state is called “Buddha nature.” The goal of Buddhist psychology is to cultivate compassion to oneself first, seeing through the veil of illusions and self-deceptions to a clearer sense of reality.

Clinical Vignette: Psychologists Should Know How to Bring a Meditative State into Psychotherapy Training exercises in spiritually and religiously diverse psychotherapy would include simple meditation exercises that are powerful non-invasive treatments for anxiety disorders and other psychological conditions. These practices, which include teaching a moment of mindful meditation, finding a calm center within and slowing down intentionally, also build preventive general resiliency and stability in most clients. For example, a young female client was dating two people, and her head was literally spinning with choices. She couldn’t think her way through them any more. I asked her if she would like to close her eyes and feel her breath, her weight, and her spine. As her breath became slow and steady, she felt her own rhythm. She was able to sense her interiority and feel at home in herself. She felt less panicked and could assess the situation more clearly, feeling a newly internalized locus of control.

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Jungian Psychology Jungian psychology contains a mythic soul and spiritual perspective on psychology. For the past several decades, our culture has had a new interest in Jungian psychology. People sense that something is missing in modern life, in everyday life and relationships. Some call it the quality of “soul,” by which they mean the anima or animating principle of life. A number of imaginative and creative writers have written about soul, including poets Rumi and Emily Dickinson and psychologist James Hillman (1972). Individuals have had to look outside psychology to address life’s essential issues; psychology should restore the cultural and mythic dimension of life to psychological practice (Serlin, 1988, 1989a). Clinical Vignettes Clients bring in images of the men and women in their families, for example, to see which archetypes run in their families and to search for more empowering images. They may be struggling with developmental or age-related crises, or may lack appropriate male role models. They don’t know how to be. Young women experience jealousy and insecurity at their friends’ weddings, and are anxious about what kind of women they want to become. Young men struggle with internalized self-criticism and can never live up to their fathers’ expectations. Understanding their problem in the context of its developmental stage is an effective tool to help them deal with its stresses. Jungian psychotherapy uses symbols and images to represent aspects of the Self. While some of them are explicitly religious, images themselves are processed in a non-rational part of the brain and have a natural affinity for religious and spiritual content. Therefore, another spiritual tool for a diverse psychotherapeutic practice is one of using images, dreams, artwork, etc. to convey psychological material. Seeing themselves in the context of parents, grandparents, geographical background, and family story helps give young people a needed sense of where they come from and to where they are going. An increasingly common tool in family therapy is to tell the family stories and bring in pictures. Seeing similarities and differences between oneself and one’s family of origin sharpens issues of what is genetic and what can be changed, and can help people make more appropriate choices about how to live their lives. For example, one young man came from an extended Italian family. As he approached age thirty, he faced new pressures about

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being a man and establishing himself in the eyes of the community. Through imagery exercises, he began to visualize himself taking his place among the men of his tribe. He visualized the strengths that he inherited from the father he never saw to strengths from his uncles, grandfather, and other role models. He was able to deal with his impending marriage and discover his own unique way of becoming a man in his new partnership. Men can also examine their relationship archetypes relative to the way they partner in relationships. They are encouraged to interchange images of “hero as conqueror” with images like “hero as healer” and Martin Luther King Jr. A young Mexican American woman was struggling with multiple losses of both parents and her grandmother and her own issues of infertility. In a dream, she saw her grandmother, who reassured her that it was okay for her to die because she would be with her God. The client’s grandmother was Catholic and believed that she would go to heaven and see the spirits of her ancestors. This reassurance gave my client enough strength to mourn her losses while still moving on to create her own life. She described, “I feel like I have a grip. I’m not losing it. I’m proud of myself.” BUILDING SPIRITUAL COMPETENCY IN CLINICAL TRAINING Many psychologists are interested in incorporating a spiritual or religious dimension to their work, but don’t know how. While spirituality includes alternative practices like meditation and imagery, it is primarily more of an attitude than a set of techniques. The hallmarks of a spiritual attitude to psychotherapy and issues that underlie most sets of technique are the following: The Here and Now Buddhism teaches the truth of impermanence. Facing our mortality allows us to live more fully in the moment; a spiritual approach to psychotherapy emphasizes the present moment and the development of presence. We learn that we are always home in ourselves. Spiritual practices teach concentration and ways to calm the mind. Psychotherapeutic practices emphasize the importance of “fit” in clinical work rather than prestructured sessions (Maturana & Varela, 1992), continuing a trend started by the postmodern, feminist, and narrative

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therapists that focuses on strengths (Saleebey, 1997) and being in the body (Murphy & Donovan, 1997). The therapeutic reality is coconstructed, promoting a collaborative approach to therapy (Kok & Leskela, 1996). Identity We normally identify with our bundle of personality traits and neuroses, and think that is who we are; a spiritual approach knows that we are more. We normally identify with our jobs or roles; a spiritual approach teaches that even if these things crash, we have a deeper identity. We have moved from the “self ” with a small s, as Jung described, to the “Self” with a large S (Jung, 1958). Beyond the narrow perspective of our insecure egos lies a larger egolessness and panoramic awareness, or “vipassana.” Developing a larger awareness helps us get perspective on ourselves and our problems, and provides space for change to occur. Transcendence Buddhist psychoanalyst Ed Podvoll notes that a psychiatric history is usually the story of pain; instead, he teaches his students to take a “history of sanity,” and he supports their “intrinsic instinct toward wakefulness.” Behind the confusion of the neurosis is usually a deeper level of clarity. Meaning The search for meaning is an essentially human activity, but life may often feel meaningless. Victor Frankl (1959), coming out of a Nazi concentration camp, showed in his theory of logotherapy how the search for the meaning of these life events can itself overcome despair. Spiritual practices help us discover new meanings in the new spaces or emptiness (Buddhist “sunyata”) that opens up. Discovering the meaning of an experience transforms knowledge into wisdom. Compassion Seeing and accepting ourselves as we truly are allows us to develop compassion toward ourselves and therefore to others. A spiritual practice trains the mind, which develops the discipline and courage to face life squarely. Through spiritual practices of “active love,” we

Toolbox for Change The training toolbox consists of two levels: general guidelines of multicultural sensitivity and clinical methods to meet religious and spiritual psychotherapy needs. Clinical training, coursework, and research can develop new ways to help psychologists bring spiritual competence to working with issues of spiritual diversity in therapy today. Level 1: Multicultural sensitivity Be sensitive to one’s own prejudices about religion and spirituality. Avoid efforts to avoid the subject. Instead, try to adopt a non-judgmental and exploratory approach that invites clients to share it with you. Examine your countertransferential issues regarding confrontation with mortality, the void and meaninglessness, freedom and fate, and isolation and community. Work collaboratively and respectfully, co-creating the understanding of the problem, central issues, and progress over time. Using approaches common to feminist, humanistic, and postmodern psychotherapies, therapists do not diagnose or pathologize spiritual issues in psychotherapy. Instead, they try to genuinely understand, with the client, the exact nature of the problem. They may be open about their own spiritual or religious perspectives, but not impose it on the therapy. Treatment goals are discussed together, and periodic check-ins give a sense of progress over time. While honoring the depths, they nevertheless focus on strengths. Use of ethnographic interviewing and assessment techniques to help clients share the uniqueness of their worlds and religious and spiritual mixes. Match therapists and method to client’s background, which improves outcome (Morris, 2001). Level 2: Clinical practices Take a thorough religious and spiritual history. Ask about religion in the family of origin, belief in a transcendent being, cultural belief and rituals dealing with death, and history of spiritual practices and affiliations. Assess for spiritual strengths. What coping mechanisms has the client demonstrated in the past to deal with loss, death, or change? What support system does the client have in terms of religious or spiritual friendships, mentorships, and community? Introduce spiritual practices into therapy. Teach simple meditation and relaxation practices to help clients experience an expanded sense of self, connection, and internal locus of control.

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honor our kinship and extend our compassion to others (Spretnak, 1991). Home Seeing a larger context than the self, we rediscover our larger connection to community and the universe. We find our sense of place: we belong. Some family therapists have developed practices such as spiritual genograms (Frame, 2002) and spiritual ecomaps (Hodge, 2000) to help couples perceive these connections in their own families and extended families. CONCLUSION Psychotherapists today face an exciting challenge. Their clients confront unheard-of changes in identity, mortality, and meaning. Many seek coherence and meaning by discovering their own forms of spirituality, but then need to bring this into larger contexts of relationship and community. By meeting the challenge of religious and spiritual diversity, psychologists fulfill their “ethical and social responsibility as a profession” and as a “scientific discipline” (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993, p. 636). REFERENCES Allport, G. W. (1948). Psychology, in college reading and religion: A survey of college reading materials (pp. 80–114). New Haven, CT: Yale University. Allport, G. W. (1950). The individual and his religion: A psychological interpretation. New York: Macmillan. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. American Psychological Association. (2003). Guidelines for multicultural education, training, research, practice, and organizational change for psychologists. American Psychologist, 58(5), 377–402. Anderson, D. A., & Worthen, D. (1997). Exploring a fourth dimension: Spirituality as a resource for the couple therapist. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 23, 3–12. Argyle, M., & Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1975). The social psychology of religion. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Arnett, J. J. (2002). The psychology of globalization. American Psychologist, 57(10), 774–783.

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Bergin, A. E., & Jensen, J. P. (1990). Religiosity of psychotherapists: A national survey. Psychotherapy, 27(1), 3–7. Betancourt, H., & Lopez, S. R. (1993). The study of culture, ethnicity, and race in American psychology. American Psychologist, 48(6), 629–637. Buber, M. (1937). I and thou (R. G. Smith, Trans.). Edinburgh, Scotland: T & T Clark. (Original work published 1922) Bugental, J. (1976). The search for existential identity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cadwallader, E. (1991). Depression and religion: Realities, perspectives, and directions. Counseling and Values, 35, 83–92. De Forest, I. (1954). The leaven of love: A development of the psychoanalytic theory and technique of Sandor Ferenczi. New York: Harper. DiBlasio, F. A. (1993). The role of social workers’ religious beliefs in helping family members forgive. Families in Society, 74, 163–170. Elkins, D. N., Hedstrom, L. J., Jughes, L. L., Leaf, J. A., & Saunders, C. (1988). Toward a humanistic-phenomenological spirituality: Definition, description and measurement. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 28(4), 5–18. Frager, R. (1989). Transpersonal psychology: Promise and prospects. In R. Valle and S. Halling (Eds.), Beyond ego. Los Angeles: Tarcher. Frager, R., & Fadiman, J. (Eds.). (1998). Personality and personal growth (4th ed.). Palo Alto: Longman. Frame, M. W. (2002). The spiritual genogram in family therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 26(2), 211–216. Frankl, V. (1959). Man’s search for meaning. New York: Praeger. Freud, S. (1961). The future of an illusion. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 21, pp. 1–56). London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. (Original work published 1927) Gallup, G. J., & Castelli, J. (1989). The people’s religion: American faith in the 90’s. New York: Macmillan. Gartner, J. (1996). Religious commitment, mental health, and prosocial behavior: A review of the empirical literature. In E. Shafranske (Ed.), Religion and the clinical practice of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Genia, V. (1990). Religious development: A synthesis and reformulation. Journal of Religion and Health, 29(2), 85–99. Gimbutas, M. (1982). The goddesses and gods of Old Europe, 7000-3500 B.C. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Griffith, J. L., & Griffith, M. E. (1992). Therapeutic change in religious families: Working with the God construct. In L. Burton (Ed.), Religion and the family (pp. 63–86). Binghamton, NY: Haworth. Hastings, A. (1999). Transpersonal psychology: The 4th force. In D. Moss (Ed.), Humanistic and transpersonal psychology: A historical biographical sourcebook (pp. 192–209). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

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Heller, P. & Wood, B. (2000). The influence of religious and ethnic differences on marital intimacy: Intermarriage versus intramarriage. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 26(2), 241–252. Hillman, J. (1972). The myth of analysis: Three essays in archetypal psychology. New York: Harper & Row. Hodge, D. (2000). Spiritual ecomaps: A new diagrammatic tool for assessing marital and family spirituality. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 26(2), 217–228. Hoge, D. R. (1996). Religion in America: The demographics of belief and affiliation. In E. Shafranske (Ed.), Religion and the clinical practice of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Jacobs, J. L. (1992). Religious ritual and mental health. In J. Schumacher (Ed.), Religion and mental health (pp. 291–299). New York: Oxford University Press. James, W. (1985). The varieties of religious experience: A study in human nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1902) Jung, C. G. (1958). Psychology and religion: West and East (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In Collected Works (Vol. 2, Bollingen Series 30). New York: Pantheon Books. Jung, C. G. (1969). Psychotherapists or the clergy. In H. Read, M. Fordham, & G. Adler (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (2nd ed., Vol. 11, pp. 327–347). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1932) Kaslow, F., & Robinson, J. A. (1996). Long-term satisfying marriages: Perceptions and contributing factors. American Journal of Family Therapy, 24(2), 153–170. Kasmin, B. A., & Lachman, S. P. (1993). One nation under god: Religion in contemporary American society. New York: Harmony Books. Kierkegaard, S. (1941). The sickness unto death: A Christian-psychological exposition for edification and awakening (W. Lowrie, Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1844) Knapp, S., & VandeCreek, L. (2003). An overview of the major changes in the 2002 APA ethics code. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 34, 219–224. Kok, C. J., & Leskela, J. (1996). Solution-focused therapy in a psychiatric hospital. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 22, 397–406. Kristof, N. (2003, December 6). Love and race. The New York Times, p. A33. Lattin, D. (2003, December 4). Living the religious life of a none. San Francisco Chronicle, pp. A1, A19. Manese, J., Saito, G., & Rodolfa, E. (2004, January). Diversity based psychology: What practitioners and trainers need to know. Board of Psychology Update, 11, 1–19.

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Maslow, A. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (2nd ed.). New York: Van Nostrand. Maslow, A. (1971). The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Viking. Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1992). The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding (Rev. ed., R. Paolucci, Trans.). Boston: Shambhala. May, R. (1940). The springs of creative living: A study of human nature and God. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury. Meadow, M. J., & Kahoe, R. D. (1984). Psychology of religion: Religion in individual lives. New York: Harper & Row. Moon, G., Willis, D., Bailey, J., & Kwansy, J. (1993). Self-reported use of Christian spiritual guidance techniques by Christian psychotherapists, pastoral counselors, and spiritual directors. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 12, 24–37. Morris, D. F. (2001). Clinical practices with African Americans: Juxtaposition of standard clinical practices and Afrocentrism. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 32, 563–572. Moules, N. (2000). Postmodernism and the sacred: Reclaiming connection in our greater-than-human worlds. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 26(2), 229–240. Murphy, M., & Donovan, S. (1997). The physical and psychological effects of meditation (2nd ed.). Sausalito, CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences. Needleman, J. (1983). Psychiatry and the sacred. In J. Welwood (Ed.), East/West approaches to psychotherapy and the healing relationship (pp. 4–17). Boston: Shambhala. Neumann, E. (1955). The great mother. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. New York: Guilford Press. Patterson, J., Hayworth, M., Turner, C., & Raskin, M. (2000). Spiritual issues in family therapy: A graduate-level course. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 26(2), 199–210. Polanyi, M. (1958). Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Polkinghorne, D. (1994). A path of understanding for psychology. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 14, 128–145. Pope, K., Sonne, J., & Holroyd, J. (1993). Sexual feelings in psychotherapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Pope-David, D. B., & Coleman, H. L. K. (Eds.) (1997). Multicultural counseling competencies: Assessment education and training, and supervision. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Prest, L. A., & Keller, J. F. (1993). Spirituality and family therapy: Spiritual beliefs, myths, and metaphors. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 21, 60–77.

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Richards, P. S., & Bergin, A. E. (1997). A spiritual strategy for counseling and psychotherapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Rotz, E., Russell, C. S., & Wright, D. W. (1993). The therapist who is perceived as “spiritually correct”: Strategies for avoiding collusion with the “spiritually one-up” spouse. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 19, 369–375. Saleebey, D. (Ed.). (1997). The strengths perspective. (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. Schneider, K., & May, R. (1994). The psychology of existence: An integrative, clinical perspective. New York: McGraw Hill. Serlin, I. (1988). The last temptation of Christ. Library journal. California: C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. Serlin, I. (1989a). A psycho-spiritual body approach to a residential treatment of Catholic religious. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 21(2), 177–191. Serlin, I. (1989b, Fall). From Buddhism and back. Lilith Magazine, 21, 23–24. Serlin, I. A. (2000). Dance and religion. In W. C. Roof (Ed.), Contemporary American Religion. New York: Macmillan, Library Reference. Serlin, I. A. (2001). Wandering God: A study in nomadic spirituality [Book review]. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 33(1), 72–74. Shafranske, E. P. (Ed.). (1996). Religion and the clinical practice of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Shafranske, E. P., & Malony, H. N. (1990). Clinical psychologists’ religious and spiritual orientations and their practice of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 27, 72–78. Spilke, B., Hood, R. W., Jr., & Gorsuch, R. L. (1985). The psychology of religion: An empirical approach. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Spretnak, C. (1991). States of grace: The recovery of meaning in the postmodern age. New York: Harper Collins. Steere, D. A. (1997). Spiritual presence in psychotherapy: A guide for caregivers. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Stuart, R. (2004). Twelve practical suggestions for achieving multicultural competence. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 35(1), 3–9. Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R. J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, 477–483. Sue, D. W., Bingham, R. P., Porche-Burke, L., & Vasquez, M. (1999). The diversification of psychology: A multicultural revolution. American Psychologist, 54(12), 1061–1069. Sue, S. (1999). Science, ethnicity, and bias: Where have we gone wrong? American Psychologist, 54(12), 1070–1077.

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Sutich, A. (1969). Some considerations regarding transpersonal psychology. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1, 11–20. Suzuki, D. T. (1949). Introduction to Zen Buddhism. London: Rider. Tan, S. Y. (2003). Integrating spiritual direction into psychotherapy: Ethical issues and guidelines. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 31, 14–23. Tillich, P. (1952). The courage to be. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Trungpa, C. (1969). Meditation in action. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications. Trungpa, C. (1983). Becoming a full human being. In J. Welwood (Ed.), Awakening the heart: East/West approaches to psychotherapy and the healing relationship (pp. 126–131). Boston: Shambhala. Vande Kemp, H. (1996). Historical perspective: Religion and clinical psychology in America. In E. Shafranske (Ed.), Religion and the clinical practice of psychology. Washington: APA Books. Vaughan, F. (1987). A question of balance: Health and pathology in new religious movements. In D. Anthony, B. Ecker, & K. Wilbur (Eds.), Spiritual choices: The problem of recognizing authentic pathos to inner transformation (pp. 265–282). New York: Paragon House. Walsh, F. (1998). Beliefs, spirituality, and transcendence. In M. McGoldrick (Ed.), Re-visioning family therapy: Race, culture, and transcendence in clinical practice (pp. 62–77). New York: Guilford Press. Walsh, F. (Ed.). (1999). Spiritual resources in family therapy. New York: Guilford Press. Walsh, R. (1999). Essential spirituality. New York: John Wiley. Welwood, J. (1983). Awakening the heart: East/West approaches to psychotherapy and the healing relationship. Boston: Shambhala. Wilbur, K. (1981). No boundary. Boston: Shambhala. Worthington, E. L., Jr., Kurusu, T., McCullough, M. E., & Sandage, S. (1996). Empirical research on religion and psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes: A ten-year review and research prospectus. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 448–487. Wulff, D. (1991). Psychology of religion: Classic and contemporary views. New York: Wiley. Wulff, D. (1996). The psychology of religion: An overview. In E. Shafranske (Ed.), Religion and the clinical practice of psychology. Washington: APA Books. Yalom, I. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.

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CHAPTER 3

Prejudice toward People with Disabilities Asiah Mason Helen D. Pratt Dilip R. Patel Donald E. Greydanus Kareem Z. Yahya

Without knowledge of the roots of hostility we cannot hope to employ our intelligence effectively in controlling its destructiveness. (Allport, 1954, p. xvii)

W

e are all affected by prejudice and discrimination (see Table 3.1); each of us is susceptible to it either as observers, perpetrators, or victims. We all have experienced it at some level. Some of the most extreme examples of the effects of prejudice include the Holocaust in Germany, the lynchings in the southern United States, and the ethnic cleansing in Africa and Bosnia. A more recent example is the bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. More subtle forms are common in our everyday lives (see Appendix, Case Example 1). For example, consider portrayals of people with disabilities, such as the limping villains in the movies, the stereotypical roles of East Indian families who can barely speak English and who own “all” of the Seven-Eleven stores, and media portrayals of successful and happy women as tall, skinny, and shapely. Advances in medicine have changed the life expectancy of many individuals who survived their impairments. For example, the numbers of infants who are born premature and survive have increased dramatically; individuals diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and spina bifida now live into adulthood. The ability of medicine to save

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the lives of many individuals who suffer traumatic injuries also contributes to the increased numbers of individuals in our society who live and function with mental and physical impairments. Individuals who at one time did not survive past infancy or were hidden away in relatives’ homes or placed in institutions are now active, contributing, and vital members of society. These individuals are vulnerable to the issues of prejudice and discrimination in every facet of their lives. Examples of discrimination also surround us. More extreme forms of discrimination involve the denial of housing, medical care, or employment based on one’s ethnicity, race, country of origin, or religion. A subtle

Table 3.1 Defining Prejudice, Discrimination, and Disability Term

Definition

Prejudice

A negative attitude toward the members of some group, based solely on their membership in that group.

Discrimination

A negative action toward a group that is the target of prejudice (Baron & Byrne, 2003).

Disability

The condition of a person (1) having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits him or her in some major life activity, and (2) having experienced discrimination resulting from this physical or mental impairment (The Americans with Disabilities Act, PL 504).

Prejudiced person

A person who adopts a negative belief or attitude about another person or group. That attitude refers to a general evaluation that a person holds of himself or herself, other people, objects, and issues (Petty, 1995). The prejudiced individual negatively evaluates and dislikes members of a group just because they belong to that particular group. The disliked individuals’ personal characteristics, beliefs, or contributions to society are not considered by the prejudiced person; those factors have little or nothing to do with the prejudiced person’s evaluation.

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Table 3.1 Term

Definition

Physical or mental impairment

(1) Any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the following body systems: neurological, musculoskeletal, special sense organs, respiratory (including speech organs), cardiovascular, reproductive, digestive, genitourinary, blood and lymphatic, skin, and endocrine; or (2) Any mental or psychological disorder, such as mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, or specific learning disabilities. Major life activities means functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.

Substantially limits

(1) Unable to perform a major life activity that the average person in the general population can perform; or (2) significantly restricted as to the condition, manner, or duration under which an individual can perform a particular major life activity as compared to the condition, manner, or duration under which the average person in the general population can perform that same major life activity.

Categories of disabilities

(1) By diagnosis (such as multiple sclerosis, asthma, or insulin-dependent diabetes), (2) by system affected (such as nervous, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, pulmonary, visual, or auditory), (3) by onset (age at onset and speed of onset), or function loss (for example, quadriplegia or paraplegia).

example may involve asking a customer in a restaurant what his deaf friend wants to order, as if the deaf person cannot think for him/herself and does not even deserve the respect of receiving eye contact from the server. Another example involves assuming that a person

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with cerebral palsy is, prior to any interpersonal interactions, intellectually inferior and then, based on that assumption, talking down to the person as if he or she were a child with limited vocabulary. Prejudice and discrimination may also result from any number of additional factors such as age, geographic origin, occupation, or even simply being overweight, rather than from race, gender, or ethnic background. Prejudice and discrimination are pervasive in our lives; regardless of their form or focus, they are real and damaging. Even the relatively subtle forms may have deleterious effects on the targeted individuals (Shelton, 2000). This chapter is written from the professional and personal experiences of the authors. Each of us has trained to work with individuals who have disabilities, or has a personal disability, or has close family members who have one or more disabilities. We hope that these multiple perspectives will provide the reader with practical and useful information from a scholarly perspective. Our intent is to present “the psychology of prejudice and discrimination,” not the “psychology of disability.” It is crucial to clearly make this distinction for two reasons: first, the “disabled personality” does not exist, nor are there psychological problems that are “naturally associated” with having a disability. Second, in the past the idea of “psychology of disability” has led to an exaggerated perception that there are psychological differences between people with and those without disabilities. The recent findings in the human genome project have shown that human beings are more alike than they are different; the differences that do exist are minor. This chapter also addresses the psychology of prejudice and discrimination toward persons with disabilities. First we provide definitions, historical information, legal information, medical information, and theoretical models from the science of social psychology to explain how prejudice and discrimination developed, were maintained, and were expressed toward persons with disabilities. Once this context is established, we will then present practical case studies with possible solutions. A HISTORY OF PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION Throughout recorded human history, individuals or groups who were perceived as “different” from the main group have been vulnerable to appalling treatment and practices. Examples include abandonment, physical abuse, slavery, and infanticide. Cultural myths held that

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society needed to be protected from people with disabilities. These practices reflected a common societal fear that the so-called physically, mentally, and morally defective persons would degrade the human race (Szymanski & Trueba, 1999). It has been widely believed that most deviance is caused by hereditary factors that, if left unchecked, would result in widespread social problems. Humanitarian reforms during the last half of the eighteenth century brought hopefulness to the treatment and eventual cure of people described as deviant. Unfortunately, when deviance wasn’t cured and continued to be a major social problem, some professionals and societal leaders promoted measures to limit the perceived “harm” that social deviants might inflict on society. Supporters of this view became convinced that it was essential to sterilize and segregate large numbers of these social and mental “incompetents” (Hardman, Drew, & Egan, 2002). Laws were created to prohibit them from getting married. Since some concluded that that wasn’t safe enough, laws were passed to require the targeted individuals to be sterilized to prevent them from bringing others like themselves into the world, thereby decreasing the numbers of so-called deviants. Additionally, these professionals strongly believed that the “disabled” were incapable of taking care of themselves, would be happier with people like themselves, and would be less of a burden on their families and their communities. Actions were taken to move large numbers of the “disabled” from their home communities to secluded special-care facilities. These facilities became commonly known as institutions. Institutions have had many different names, such as special school, hospital, colony, prison, and asylum. By the early twentieth century, the number and size of institutions had increased, and the cost of maintaining these institutions was becoming astronomical. The focus shifted from containment to that of social control. Society was faced with the difficulties of managing large numbers of people without adequate financial resources. The solution was to strip away individuals’ identities and force them into group regimentation. Individual rights were taken away and strict rules were enforced. Sadly, individuals were forced to wear institutional clothing, were given identification tags and numbers, and could not have personal possessions. More and more institution facilities were built (some with barred windows and high walls enclosing the grounds). This sad state continued until the early 1950s. In spite of the growth of the segregated institutions, most individuals with disabilities continued to live at home with their families.

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The families of the persons with disabilities had to manage on their own because there wasn’t much external support for them from state or community agencies. Many families who had children with disabilities did not get help for the children’s basic needs, such as medical, social, or education services. Around this time, the civil rights movement was developing in the United States. Parents of children with disabilities modeled their organizational efforts after the civil rights movement. The United Cerebral Palsy Organization (UCP) was founded in 1949, and the National Association for Retarded children (NARC) began in 1950. The UCP and NARC joined other professional organizations already in existence (such as the National Association for the Deaf, the American Association on Mental Deficiency, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the American Federation for the Blind) to advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities (Hardman et al., 2002). These groups wanted to get accurate information to policymakers, professionals, and families. Each organization focused on the rights of people with disabilities to be included in family and community life and have access to medical treatment, social services, and education. Other parent groups followed, including those of the National Society for Autistic Children (1961) and the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities (1964) (Berry & Hardman, 1998). These actions helped to cause philosophical changes in the United States that recognized and accepted that a range of differences existed among humans. Additionally, these efforts helped to lead to the inclusion of persons with disabilities into community settings, schools, places of employment, and neighborhood homes. Access to education was considered a basic American value, reflecting the expectation that each individual should have an opportunity to learn and develop to be the best of his or her ability. However, many youth with disabilities did not have access, nor did they have equal access to an education. Youth with disabilities did not always receive their full measure of learning literacy, personal autonomy, economic self-sufficiency, personal fulfillment, and citizenship. Our schools often did not prepare all students to gain knowledge and apply what they learned in order to be productive workers and citizens (McLaughlin, Shepard, & O’Day, 1995). Full participation for everyone, regardless of race, cultural background, socioeconomic status, physical disability, or mental limitation, should be the goal for all students. Sadly, in the United States, it has taken more than two centuries to render this value into actual practice in educating students with disabilities.

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THE INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT In 1975, the U.S. Congress saw the need to bring together the various pieces of state and federal legislation into one comprehensive national law. Public Law 94-142 (PL 94-142) made available a free and appropriate public education to nearly 4 million school-age students with disabilities in the United States between the ages of six and twenty-one. The law was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990 (see Table 3.2). In 1986, Congress amended IDEA to include provisions for preschool-age students. Public Law 99-457 (PL 99-457) established a new mandate extending all the rights and protection of school-age children (ages six to twenty-one) to preschool (ages three to five) children with disabilities and mandated that they receive a free and appropriate public education. Another provision of PL 99-457 was the establishment of a state grant program for infants and toddlers up through two years old. Infants and toddlers who were developmentally delayed (as defined by each state) are eligible for services that include a multidisciplinary assessment and an individualized family service plan (IFSP). Although this provision did not mandate that states provide services to all infants and toddlers who were developmentally delayed, it did establish financial incentives for state participation.

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) The struggles for civil rights for people with disabilities started with less visibility and became very visible when it was clear that these basic rights were at risk of not becoming law. Demonstrations were held, lawsuits were filed, and new organizations sprang up. Some of the names associated with the disability rights movement were Judith E. Heumann, Patrisha Wright, Wade Blank, Michael Auberger, and Justin Dart, and attorneys like Sidney Wolinsky and Stephen Gold. These leaders brought a revolution to disability rights. In 1973, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the Vocational Rehabilitation Act that included a provision prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities in federally assisted programs and activities. Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act set the stage for passage of the most sweeping civil rights legislation in the United States since the Civil Rights Act of 1964: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed

Table 3.2 Models of Disability Model

Description

Moral

Disability brings shame to the person with disability because disability is a defect. This defect is caused by sins or moral lapse (Hahn, 1985). This disability represents the reification of sin, failure of faith, or evil. In cultures that emphasize family and group over individuals, the shame spreads to the group. The person and/or the family carries the blame for causing the disability (Florian, 1982). This model is prominent in many developing countries. To illustrate, the first author has a brother who was born deaf in Southeast Asia forty years ago. To this day, this author’s mother believes that an act she committed caused her son to be born deaf, and that this deafness was given as a punishment from the gods. The mother has given many offerings to the gods asking to be forgiven for her past sin, so that her son can be given his ability to hear. Although the moral model is the oldest view of disability, it still very much exists and weaves through our language, culture, and ideology. In some cultures, the moral model is the most prevalent view (Chan, Lam, Wong, Leung, & Fang, 1988).

Medical

Main model accepted in the United States. This model takes the moral or sin out of disability. Disability is seen as a medical problem inside the person. The problem is that the body system has failed; disability is considered to be a pathology. Persons with disabilities are expected to be in the role of patient, being helped by the professionals. Cure is the ultimate goal of treatment.

Minority

Persons with disabilities, political scientists, and lawyers prefer to look at disability as the minority model (also called the “social model”). It views disability as social construction. The problems are not within the persons with disabilities but in the environment that fails to adapt to the persons with disabilities. The problems also lie in the negative attitudes of people without disabilities. Persons with disabilities are seen as a minority group in the same way that blacks are a minority group—they have been denied their civil rights, equal access, and protection. Key obstacles for any minority group are prejudice and discrimination, inferior housing, economic dependence, social isolation, disparate treatment, economic dependence, high unemployment, and a higher rate of institutionalization (Fleischer & Zames, 2001).

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into law in 1990 (see Table 3.3). The purpose of the ADA is to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, programs, and services provided by state and local governments, goods and services provided by private companies, and commercial facilities. The ADA charged the federal government with the responsibility of ensuring that these provisions be enforced on behalf of all people with disabilities (National Council on Disability, 1999). The intent of the ADA is to create a “fair and level playing field” for eligible persons with disabilities. To do so, the law specifies that reasonable accommodations need to be made to take into account each person’s Table 3.3 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1990 (IDEA) Item Criteria for receiving specialized services under IDEA

Description The individual must be identified as having one of the twelve disability conditions identified in federal law or their counterparts in the state’s special education law: these conditions are mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, serious emotional disturbances (behavior disorders), speech or language impairments, vision loss (including blindness), hearing loss (including deafness), orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, deafness–blindness, multiple disabilities, autism, and traumatic brain injury. The individual must have a demonstrated need for specialized instruction and related service in order to receive an appropriate education.

Tenets that drive Nondiscriminatory and multidisciplinary determination of assessment of educational needs. eligibility for services, Parental safeguards and involvement in design of instructional developing each child’s educational programs, and education program. placement A free and appropriate public education. An individualized education program. Education in the least restrictive environment.

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needs resulting from his or her disabilities. As defined in law, the principal test for a reasonable accommodation is its effectiveness: does the accommodation provide an opportunity for a person with a disability to achieve the same level of performance and to enjoy benefits equal to those of an average, similarly situated person without a disability? The ADA in Education The ADA has been important to parents and students with disabilities in helping them exercise their rights so they can have all of the resources they need to get a good and fair start in their lives, such as quality education. Today’s schools must provide supports and services to two groups of students with disabilities. One group qualifies for special education services under the IDEA, based upon educational need. Another group, while not eligible for special education, meets the definition of disability under Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act that was incorporated into the 1990 ADA (see Table 3.4). Students eligible under ADA are entitled to reasonable accommodations or modifications as a means to “create a fair and level playing field” in their educational programs. A plan for individually designed instruction must be developed for each student qualified under the ADA. Numerous accommodations or modifications can be made for students, depending on identified need. Some examples include untimed tests, extra time to complete assignments, a change in seating arrangement to accommodate vision or hearing loss or distractibility, the opportunity to respond orally on assignments and tests, taped textbooks, access to peer tutoring, access to study carrels for independent work, and use of supplementary materials such as visual or auditory aids. The ADA definition of disability encompasses a broader group of students than those eligible under IDEA. There are several perspectives or models and issues that are important to address in order to understand the experience of prejudice and discrimination for persons with disabilities (see Table 3.5). In addition to the historical (moral) perspective already covered, there are the medical perspectives and the minority perspectives. MEDICAL ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES The most common model of looking at disabilities in United States is the medical model (also known as the disease model) and is worth

Table 3.4 Major Provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Term

Definition

Employment

ADA mandates that employers may not discriminate in any employment practices, including job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. It applies to recruitment, advertising, tenure, layoff, leave, fringe benefits, and all other employment-related activities. The law applies to any business with fifteen or more employees.

Transportation

ADA requires that all new public transit buses, bus and train stations, and rail systems must be accessible to people with disabilities. Transit authorities must provide transportation services to individuals with disabilities who cannot use fixed-route bus services. All Amtrak stations must be accessible to people with disabilities by the year 2010. Discrimination by air carriers in areas other than employment is not covered by the ADA but rather by the Air Carrier Access Act (49 U.S.C. 1374 [c]).

Public accommodations

Restaurants, hotels, and retail stores may not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. Physical barriers in existing facilities must be removed, if removal is readily achievable. If not, alternative methods of providing the services must be offered. All new construction and alterations of facilities must be accessible.

Government

State and local agencies may not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities. All government facilities, services, and communications must be accessible to people with disabilities. continued

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Table 3.4 (continued) Term Telecommunications

Definition The ADA requires that all companies offering telephone service to the general public must offer telephone relay services to individuals with hearing loss who use telecommunication devices or similar equipment.

discussing due to its prevalence. The medical model states that organisms have two dimensions: normalcy and pathology. The distinction between the two is that normalcy is defined as the absence of a biological problem, and pathology is defined as change in an organism caused by disease, which results in illness that destroys or disrupts the integrity of the organism. The premise accepted in many cultures is that being healthy is better than being sick. The person who has a biological problem is labeled the patient, and the deficits are then described as the patient’s disease (Hardman et al., 2002). The medical model came to being in the mid-1800s and took the morality and sin causalities out of disabilities. Since then, medical services for people with disabilities have evolved a great deal. Treatment used to be in a hospital or institutional setting. Today the medical professions work directly with the individual in the family and community settings. Physicians are often the first professionals with whom parents have contact concerning their child’s disability. Parents are seeking to communicate with and receive advice from the physician about treatment, prognosis, and help learning how to deal with life after the discovery of the disabilities. Unfortunately, many physicians are not aware and do not know how to connect families with the resources they need. Therefore it is essential that physicians and families themselves learn about relevant community resources. These resources include support groups, other parents, social workers, and possibly other mental health professionals (Hardman et al., 2002). Historically, the disability community has had a sensitive relationship with medical professionals. Frequently, individuals with disabilities view medical professionals as mainly concerned with reducing the numbers of people with disabilities by working on prevention or cure. The message received by persons with disabilities is “let’s prevent people like us” from existing. There is a fear among the disability

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community that the medical model may resemble the earlier moral model of looking at disability (Silvers, 1998). The authors brought up this model in this chapter not to “stereotype” medical professionals as unresponsive to the needs of persons Table 3.5 Utilizing Both the ADA and IDEA IDEA Eligibility

IDEA identifies twelve categories of qualifying conditions.

ADA ADA identifies students as disabled if they meet the definition of qualified handicapped [disabled] person (that is, student has or has had a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, or student is regarded as disabled by others).

Responsibility to provide a free and appropriate public education (FAPE)

Both require the provision of a free and appropriate education, including individually designed instruction, to students covered under specific eligibility criteria.

Special education or general education

A student is eligible to An eligible student receive IDEA services meets the definition of only if the child-study qualified person with team determines that a disability: one who the student is disabled currently has or has under one of the had a physical or twelve qualifying mental impairment conditions and that substantially requires special limits a major life education. Eligible activity or who is students receive regarded as disabled special education and by others. The related services. student is not required to need special education in order to be protected. continued

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Table 3.5 (continued) IDEA

ADA

Accessibility

IDEA requires that modifications be made, if necessary, to provide access to a free and appropriate education.

ADA includes regulations regarding building and program accessibility.

Enforcement

IDEA is enforced by the ADA is enforced by the Office of Special Office for Civil Rights Education Programs in the Department of in the Department of Justice. Education.

with disabilities, but to bring awareness of the experience from the disabled persons’ point of view when interacting with medical professionals. This awareness must be addressed and must be included in curricula addressing cultural awareness and sensitivity. In an effort to describe functioning and disability, the World Health Organization approved the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in May 2001. In their briefing, the ICF defines disability as “an impairment of body structure or function, a limitation in activities, or a restriction in participation.” The scope of disabilities is wide, ranging from congenital birth defects to disabilities acquired after a debilitating trauma. Prejudice and discrimination differ among and between different types of disabilities. Individuals with obvious birth defects may face a greater challenge than individuals whose disability is less noticeable. In this section, we will look at the medical aspects of children with disabilities and the effects on the children and their families. Though no two children are the same, most children grow and develop at an expected rate and sequence (see Table 3.6). For children born with physical defects, there often is no predictable pattern or sequence. Growth is often disrupted and milestones are often delayed (Molnar, 1992, p. 120). Physical defects influence and change the way a child interacts with the outside world. Objects will not feel the same, voices will sound different, exploration and learning will be limited, and the child’s growth and development will be altered (Molnar, 1992). As a result, the child may face discrimination. There is also the risk that there will be a secondary lack of social skills. There is an expectation in

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society that a child with disabilities will be less socially adept. Interestingly, studies show that children with less-pronounced physical deficits are often more socially withdrawn than children with more pronounced impairments. It has been suggested that this is due to the higher expectations that are placed on them to perform and function as equals to their non-handicapped peers (Jellinek & Murphy, 1988). Table 3.6 Examples of Medical Conditions with Potential for Prejudice/Discrimination Medical condition

Description

Cerebral palsy

Prevalence estimated to be 1.5–2.5 per 1,000 among school-age children in the United States. Cerebral palsy results from a known or unknown insult to the brain during its early development, mainly before or sometime during birth. The condition is characterized by increased muscle tone, difficulties with movements, communication problems, and various orthopedic problems. Some individuals with cerebral palsy may have other medical problems including recurrent respiratory infections, hearing and vision problems, seizures, and developmental delay.

Meningomyelocele and other neural tube defects (NTD)

The prevalence of NTDs in the United States is estimated to be 1–2 per 1,000 births. Neural tube defects result from failure of the closure of the spine and/or the neural tube during development. Depending on what level of the spine is affected, such defects can result in paralysis of leg muscles. NTDs are also associated with other medical problems including various orthopedic deformities, hydrocephalus, seizures, growth failure, difficulties with bowel movements and bladder function, vision problems, learning difficulties and other cognitive difficulties, and sexual dysfunction. continued

Table 3.6 (continued) Medical condition

Description

Anomalies of the head and face

Congenital defects of the face and head can occur because of failure of normal development. Such defects may occur as isolated defects, a major example being cleft lip and palate; or they can be associated with other defects as part of a clinical genetic syndrome. Children with clefts of the lip and palate can have difficulties with feeding and swallowing, recurrent respiratory and ear infections, and problems with proper tooth development. These defects require multiple surgical procedures over time through the teenage years.

Severe skin disease

Many medical conditions are associated with skin rash or other lesions. Severe acne and various degrees of eczema are very common conditions. Although these may not result in specific disability, they are quite visible and are a cause of significant distress for the individual.

Cystic fibrosis

Chronic disease affecting many systems in the body. It is a genetically inherited condition characterized by thickened respiratory and other secretions that block normal clearance and result in multiple infections. Lung disease and intestinal disease cause many problems for individuals with cystic fibrosis. They may have foul-smelling breath, abdominal or intestinal bloating, recurrent diarrhea, decreased capacity for certain physical tasks, and males can have sexual problems.

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Table 3.6 Medical condition Asthma

Description Asthma is a common medical condition affecting 15 percent of children, adolescents, and young adults. Depending on the severity of the condition, these individuals may face physical limitations and may at times have difficulties keeping up with peers. Some of them may become socially isolated. Stress can also trigger asthma attacks and make the condition worse. Individuals with asthma have to carry their medications with them and use them in the form of inhalers, often posing difficulties in social situations.

Children with mental disabilities face a different challenge. Children with intellectual impairment often suffer from more emotional and behavioral problems. A recent study by Dekker, Koot, van der Ende, and Verhulst (2002) evaluated children with and without intellectual disabilities. In a population of almost 3,000 children, it was shown that 50 percent of children with mental disabilities had a total score in the deviant range, compared to 18 percent of children without any mental impairment. The children with intellectual impairment suffered from higher incidence of attention problems, social problems, and aggressive behavior. The manifestation of some disabilities may be subtle but can still have a significant impact on the quality of life for an individual with such a disability. A recent study by Witt, Riley, and Coiro (2003) showed that children with disabilities were more likely to be in poor health and have activity limitations. Divorce and separation were seen at higher rates in mothers of children with disabilities. Stress and poor health were also prevalent in mothers of children with disabilities. Families of children with disabilities experienced higher incidences of work, sleep, and financial difficulties. Besides discrimination and prejudice, children with disabilities often have limited access to services, including education, health care, and entertainment. In addition to federally mandated laws like the

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IDEA, resources such as the Internet have allowed individuals with disabilities to access to the world in unprecedented ways. Individuals can now participate in and navigate through the world without regard to physical, social, or emotional barriers. They can see other parts of the world and meet other people without moving farther than their computer screens. Furthermore, they can often bypass any social stigma associated with their disability. In virtual chatrooms and programs for instant messaging, the only identifying characteristic of a person is the login identity. Minority Issues and Perspectives Among persons with disabilities, the minority model is the perspective that most matches their daily living experiences. The central part of experiences faced by racial or gender minority groups is also the foundation of the societal experiences of persons with disabilities, such as the inferior status assigned to them based on negative stigmas held by the “able-bodied majority.” The persons with disabilities are also expected to take in and accept the majority culture. They often become the targets of hate crimes and violence (it is sad that persons with disabilities are the only group not included in the Hate Crimes Act of 1999). Other issues include a lack of services appropriate for the persons with disabilities, such as mental health services with professionals trained to work with this population; higher rates of unemployment, dropping out of school, and substance abuse; a lack of representation in the political arena (to raise issues such as funding that are specific to the group); and insufficient assessment tools that have been appropriately standardized for persons with disabilities. There are also more negative than positive role models in media portrayals of persons with disabilities. Finally, there is an expectation that certain emotions, especially anger, are not acceptable. These emotions are used to further support the stigma assigned by the majority world. The minority model (see Table 3.2) contends that disability is an experience created by the society and the environment. The minority view believes that humans can manipulate and alter their environment to make it welcoming for all people, regardless of impairments. The common issue of isolation for persons with disabilities is seen as something that can be avoided. Most outcomes (having impairments) can be corrected and are produced by stigmas and social environments (Silvers, 1998).

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SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Theories To date, there are several theories about the origins of prejudicial attitudes that have been supported by considerable research. Most theorists agree that prejudice is determined by many factors. Prejudice needs to be looked at on multiple levels: physiological, emotional, social, and cultural. Theories from social psychology contend that prejudice and discrimination serve several functions for the individual: they provide a context within which to organize information, and they allow for adaptation, classification, and the prevention of information overload in social contexts. The prominent theories of why prejudice exists and why prejudice persists are presented in Tables 3.7 and 3.8. Each society has different values, expectations, and evaluations of what is acceptable and unacceptable in their groups. We need to look at the individual because society varies greatly in terms of its overall levels of acceptance of violence, yet the ability to refrain from aggressive actions begins at the individual level (Baron & Byrne, 2003). People who are prejudiced toward specific groups tend to process information about these groups differently from the way they process information about groups to which they are not prejudiced. In their minds (cognition), there are mental pictures or categories for different groups, some negative and some positive. They form negative pictures (categories) of the groups to whom they are prejudiced. Additionally, information relating to or supporting the prejudice is often given more attention, or processed more carefully than information that may contradict the negative view. Human beings more accurately remember things that capture their attention. For example, imagine that the prejudiced person notices that a person who is leaving an auditorium in a wheelchair has difficulty opening a door. However, that person will not notice that the person in the wheelchair has just finished giving a lecture on his new invention. He or she will lend no importance to the fact that the person in the wheelchair has invented cars that do not use gasoline. The person misses that this invention will stop our dependence on oil and decrease our air pollution significantly! The prejudiced person is more likely to think, “Oh . . . that poor person in the wheelchair is not even capable of opening the door without help.” As a result of such effects, prejudice becomes a kind of closed cognitive loop within a person and tends to become stronger over time.

Table 3.7 Prominent Social Theories of Why Prejudice Exists Theory

Description

Social categorization

Gordon Allport (1954) suggested that the categorization of people into groups was necessary for adaptive functioning. Orderly living depends on it. It is necessary for us to categorize and file objects according to how they function and how they look so that we can reduce the complexity and difficulty of the physical world. It is also necessary for us to use social categorization (social filing system) to reduce the complexity of the social world. If we have to process and think about every single detail and aspect of all persons as individuals, we would quickly become overwhelmed and overload our cognitive processing and storage capacities.

Social learning: early experience

Prejudice is learned and developed in much the same way and through the same basic process as other attitudes. Children acquire negative attitudes toward various social groups the same way they acquire taste for different foods or traditions. They hear and experience such views expressed by parents, friends, teachers, and others, and because they are directly rewarded (with love, praise, and approval) for adopting these views. In addition to learning these attitudes by direct observation of others in their environment, children also learn the social norms/rules within their own group. These norms tell them what actions or attitudes are appropriate and important. Most persons choose to conform to most social norms of groups to which they belong.

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Table 3.7 Theory

Description

Direct intergroup conflict: competition as a source of prejudice

Prejudice comes from competition among social groups over cherished and valued commodities or opportunities. Prejudice develops because of the struggle over jobs, adequate housing, good schools, and other desirable outcomes. Because of these struggles, competition continues, and the members of the groups involved come to see each other in increasingly negative terms. They label each other “enemies,” view their own group as morally superior, and draw the boundaries between themselves and their opponents more and more tightly in negative ways.

Social identity theory

Prejudice develops when individuals enhance their self-esteem through identifying with positive attributes of specific social groups by devaluing other social groups. The individual views himself or herself as different from—and better than—his or her rivals, and prejudice arises out of this clash of social perceptions. People are motivated to create and uphold their self-esteem, and their different group memberships are connected to their self-esteem. To enhance our self-esteem, we can affiliate with social groups that already are considered attractive and successful, and/or try to view our social group memberships as positively as possible.

Even more potent is the fact that an attitude (prejudice) also involves negative feelings or emotions on the part of the prejudiced persons when they are in the presence of, or even think about, members of the groups they dislike (Vanman, Paul, Ito, & Miller, 1997). Prejudice can be automatic and can influence our behavior even when we are not aware that we have such views, and we might even vigorously deny that we hold them (Fazio & Hilden, 2001). Like other attitudes, prejudice also includes beliefs and expectations about

Table 3.8 Prominent Social Theories of Why Prejudice Persists Theory

Description

Enhancing self-concept

We hold prejudiced views because doing so allows us to bolster our own self-image. When we put down a group toward whom we hold negative views, we affirm our own self-worth and feel superior in various ways. In other words, for some of us, prejudice may play an important role in protecting or enhancing our self-concept (Fein & Spencer, 1997).

Shortcuts

We hold prejudiced views to save us considerable cognitive effort. Stereotypes, in particular, seem to serve this function. Once stereotypes are formed, we don’t have to bother engaging in careful, systematic processing; after all, because we “know” what members of this group are like, we can rely on quicker, shortcut processing and these preconceived beliefs. So our strong tendency to save mental effort seems to be another reason why prejudices are formed and persist.

Outgroup homogeneity

Members of the majority group view the groups that do not fit—or that are different and all exhibit the same (homogeneous) characteristics—in their characteristics, opinions, and behaviors as the “outgroup.” The members of the majority or “ingroup” tend to recognize and appreciate their own ingroup diversity but do not recognize or appreciate differences within or among the outgroup members. They use phrases like “they are all alike” to discount diversity among outgroup members (Quattrone, 1986). Sadly, one implication of this process is that people tend to perceive a person with disabilities as just another anonymous group member rather than perceiving him or her as individual.

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Table 3.8 Theory

Description As human beings, we tend to be prejudiced or discriminate against persons with disabilities because we have limited or no social exposure with them. As we interact with and have positive contacts with persons with disabilities, the level and nature of our prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes toward them change. This includes social categories such as men, women, blacks, the elderly, Latinos, gays, librarians, and waitresses.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Our expectations about others may influence how we interact with them. Research on self-fulfilling prophecies suggests that the ways in which we interact with persons with disabilities may draw out our behaviors that confirm our preconceived negative expectations and stereotypes (Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid, 1977). For example, if we expect someone with a severe physical disability to be hostile, we may interact with that person in a cold or distant fashion. This person may respond in kind—also behaving in a rather hostile fashion, thus confirming the original expectation. The person doesn’t have to have a hostile personality or tendency for this prophecy to be fulfilled. It is only necessary that others expect the person to be hostile.

members of various groups—for instance, beliefs that all members of these groups show certain characteristics and traits. When we think about a person with disabilities, it is important for us to link the personal experience of impairment with the social factors that create disability. It is argued that the community is the place where disability is constructed and experienced (Olkin & Howson, 1994). Disability is frequently called a social construct, meaning that the disability is best understood in terms of how society perceives

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disability. It is important for us to understand the perspective of persons with disabilities. Olkin (1999) notes that in the disabled community, there is an accepted understanding of what impairment and disability are: • Impairment is the physical, sensory, cognitive, or systemic condition that directly imposes a reduction in certain functions; the locus of difficulty resides in the person. • Disability is those barriers and reductions in function imposed by the physical and psychosocial environments; the locus of difficulty resides in the sociopolitical environment.

Working with persons with disabilities is the same as working with people who are from another culture. Persons with disabilities are bicultural, living in both a disability minority world and an “ablebodied majority” world. There is commonality of experience among people with different types of disabilities. Being devalued for having a disability and learning to accept all aspects of the disability is shared by all. Having a disability does not mean that one will have psychological problems. However, for those persons with disabilities who experience psychological problems, devaluation and non-acceptance seem to be the primary causes of their difficulties. The natural solution to most of the specific psychological problems associated with disability will logically be personal validation and acceptance. Psychological problems experienced are not due to the mental disabilities per se, but to such abnormal stimuli as being devaluated in the eyes of others. Another psychologically damaging consequence of having a disability is the oppression that happens daily. That involves being regarded as a lesser being, inferior, not very capable, not very useful, possibly burdensome, unaesthetic, and (generally) one down. Devaluation and oppression by others (and themselves) are daily experiences for persons with disabilities. Many authors on disability topics who themselves have disabilities have written that, given a level playing field, almost all persons with disabilities are capable of building a quality life (Vash, 1981; Olkin, 1999). The problems they encounter are the “able-bodied” people. Some examples of these are: • The counselor who tells the parents that they have to grieve over the child they “did not have” before they can love their disabled child. • The physicians who worked on the child’s hands and legs as if the limbs were not attached to a whole person.

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• The encouraging parents who assured their children that they could grow up to be anything they wanted to be, even when the children wanted to be ballerinas or football players (in spite of their wheelchairs). • The colleges that told the person with a disability that he or she could not be accepted because he or she would not be able to “cut it” with the rest of the able-bodied on campus. • The mother who did not want her son to marry a “disabled woman,” or the father who didn’t want the man with a disability to marry his daughter. • The therapist who told the clients that they were in denial of their disabilities. (Olkin, 1999)

Each of these examples reflects efforts of professionals to “help” ease pain and suffering and to give hope; however, the impact on persons with disabilities or their families may not have been viewed so positively. It is important to clarify some myths about persons with disabilities. First, research shows that the personalities of persons with disabilities are not different from personalities of persons without disabilities (Yuker, 1994). Second, the severity of the physical disability does not determine the severity of the individual’s psychological problems (Olkin & Howson, 1994; Nosek, Fuhrer, & Potter, 1995). It is possible to have a severe physical disability in the absence of psychological problems. Olkin (1999) contends that persons with disabilities are often told that the disabilities are in their heads: things they should deny or pretend do not exist. However, just imagine the effects of repeated devaluation of a person by those around that person and the impact of these experiences on the self-image and self-identity. Understanding the development of prejudicial attitudes and discrimination is important to helping the affected individuals survive such treatment. That understanding is also important for others who are not disabled to see how their behaviors affect the self-identity and behaviors of persons with disabilities. Overcoming the commonly held notions of what it means to be disabled is not easily accomplished. According to theories in social psychology (see Table 8), one basis for making judgments about others is what is known as “central traits,” such as a person’s attractiveness and position in society (Asch, 1946). A person’s perceived level of disability is a central trait. For example, most people have specific perceptions about persons in wheelchairs, and all of their future references about these persons will always revolve around the

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“wheelchairs” (that is, the disability). Research shows that most disabled people do not perceive their disability as the most important thing in their lives; however, others (non-disabled persons) perceive the disability as a defining aspect of the person with disabilities (Yuker, 1994). People who are physically attractive (see Appendix, Case Example 2) are often assumed to be more competent, have more socially desirable personalities, and have happier and more successful lives than those of less-attractive peers (Collins & Zebrowitz, 1995). Individuals who are athletic, thin, and have physical features or characteristics valued by the majority culture are generally viewed as attractive. If such a person should suffer a physical disfigurement or become physically disabled, he or she will no longer be seen as attractive. Rarely are individuals in wheelchairs depicted as attractive or sexy in the mainstream media. Does disability in some way interfere with beauty? The answer, based on images of disabled people portrayed in the movies and other media, is yes! This is because disability is often used in the media as a metaphor for underlying character flaws or undesirable traits (Cahill & Norden, 2003). It is the perspective of most persons with disabilities that ablebodied society has set up behavioral and affective norms that persons with disabilities must follow. For example, they are expected to be cheery, to not show any anger, and to be in mourning. They must be in full control of their emotions. If they show anger, they are said to be having adjustment problems. The message learned by persons with disabilities at a very early age is that the able-bodied group teaches that “you can live and work among us, as long as you are cheerful, and keep your disability away from our awareness; you must shield us from your difficulties” (Olkin, 1999, p. 96). There is also the expectation that persons with disabilities should be grateful for what they have and all of the help they have received. If they present as cheerful, well adjusted, humble, and accepting, they are often embraced by members of the majority culture. This expectation is an added burden to the person with disability. Also, it would be nice if all of us could present with these behaviors and moods (grateful, cheerful, well adjusted) every day, but it is not realistic to expect such behaviors, and it is not fair to expect them from persons with disabilities. It is common knowledge that many helping professionals view disability as a loss: a loss of the healthy or undamaged body, loss of function, or loss of the wished-for perfect child. Parents are often told to

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“mourn this loss” so that they can begin the processes of “adjustment” and acceptance of the child with disability. The authors are not saying that the mourning does not or should not occur. Wright (1983) makes a useful distinction between the “requirement of mourning” and the “period of mourning.” In many instances, persons who sustain a disability may well experience a period of mourning, with its components of sadness, loss, and grieving. But this is not inevitable or universal (Olkin, 1999). Another issue is that persons with disabilities are frequently told that they must be “brave,” or “they must go on”; in the process, their challenges are often minimized. Individuals who do not conform to these very conflicting and contradictory “requirements” are seen as being in “denial” or having adjustment problems. It is understandable that they experience continuous frustrations when interacting with professionals who are supposed to help them. The person with the disability is being made to perform several cognitively conflicting tasks: to learn to cognitively and physically accept and manage the disability while simultaneously pretending the disability does not exist (“it’s all in your head”), and to mourn the loss of a fully functioning body and at the same time show enthusiasm toward the rehabilitation process. Cognitive dissonance and emotional confusion then occur when a person is asked to perform competing cognitive processes (Baron & Byrne, 2003). Persons with disabilities are asked to deal with the debilitating powers of daily prejudice, stigma, and discrimination. As we learned in the previous section, the cognitive self-identities of people with disabilities can be shaped by their experiences with prejudice and discrimination, because they have the disabilities. This brings back the idea that the disability is much a social creation. We as a society can change the experience of persons with disabilities by providing equal playing fields, and the persons with disabilities can and will break the stigmas that the able-bodied use to negatively evaluate them. The Disability Community People born with deafness or hearing impairment have had to fight long and hard to prove to the hearing world that there is a deaf community and deaf culture. Other persons with disabilities also consider themselves to belong to respective communities, for example, communities where the members have a sense of identity and are proud, and communities where members have their own language, history,

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priorities, humor, and norms. Persons with disabilities form a community with some features in common with other outgroups and many features specific to their community. The members of the disability community do not emphasize their diagnoses or medical conditions; instead they focus on their collective experiences. Social activism for disability rights and independent living are the focus of their attention, not rehabilitation. They also emphasize their rights to live and function in the majority communities. Hardman et al. (2002) suggest that one way to measure the success of community services is to look at whether and how the services make a difference in one’s life. Therefore, the quality of community services for person with disabilities can be evaluated by looking at the following four factors: • Do service and supports promote personal autonomy? • Do opportunities for social interaction and integration exist? • Does the individual have a choice of lifestyle? • Do opportunities for economic self-sufficiency exist?

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS If one takes a visit to the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, one will see a place where society has decided to respect a person’s “impairment” (reduction in functions imposed by physical, sensory, cognitive, or systemic condition) and reduce or eliminate the experience of prejudice and discrimination due to a person’s “disability” (reduction in functions imposed by the physical and psychosocial environment). One will see students in wheelchairs attending advanced biology classes where they can get to the buildings, enter the classrooms, and then find their choice of seats without any physical barriers or negative perceptions from others they pass. Persons born with deafness attend doctoral-level psychology classes with other hearing classmates. One may also see a professor giving a lecture on sociology or political science, where the professor has an interpreter using tactile sign language so he or she may understand students’ questions, and the professor himself/herself has blindness and deafness. It is common to see students with cerebral palsy giving a presentation in the student government in which they are members, laboriously using American Sign Language to express themselves, while fellow students respectfully and patiently wait, while on the “white board” the PowerPoint slides of their presentations are displayed for

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all to follow. One will also see a student with a learning disability taking a test in a separate room with extra time permitted. A place where every classroom is equipped with technologies that provide equal access to persons of all walks of life, even if they cannot walk physically. There are interpreters for persons who cannot speak, persons who cannot hear, and for the able-bodied who cannot communicate using sign language. The philosophy is equal access for all. Gallaudet is a place where the playing field is leveled so that higher education and jobs (on campus) are available to all individuals. Interestingly, large companies such as IBM and Apple Computer have recognized the potential consumers whom the students of Gallaudet will be in the future. They have wisely invested in technologies to support independence for the students in a variety of ways. Does prejudice exist at Gallaudet University? The authors are sure that some forms of prejudice exist. However, people are not defined by their disabilities; they are defined as college students seeking higher education. It is possible to change the social systems, attitudes, and behaviors to eliminate the experience of prejudice and discrimination toward persons with disabilities. Knowing this possibility allows us to take a look at how prejudice and discrimination can be eliminated. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, disability is experienced physiologically, emotionally, socially, and culturally by the person with the disability (see Appendix). However, in this chapter we focused on the social construction of disability and the psychology of prejudice and discrimination toward persons with disabilities. In this concluding section, we would like to reflect on what we can do individually to change, using what we have learned, so as to reduce the experiences of prejudice and discrimination by persons with disabilities. We are interested both in why prejudice exists and why it persists. We have looked at prejudice from a social-problem perspective. According to this perspective, prejudice is regarded as a problem with harmful consequences. The authors feel that prejudice needs to be eliminated in order that society may advance. Central to the strategies to reduce prejudice was the assumption that majority group members’ negative attitudes toward minority group members were the main obstacle to well-balanced intergroup relations. Therefore, all the strategies to reduce prejudice must have, as their main goal, techniques to change the negative attitudes of majority group members. However, most recent studies are showing that it is more important to change the majority group behaviors than it is important to change the

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attitudes. It seems that attitudes sometimes influence behaviors, but behaviors always influence attitudes. The authors suggest that we address prejudice and discrimination toward persons with disabilities from both the attitude and behavior change strategies. The best research finding so far about prejudice and discrimination is the significant role that the “ingroup versus outgroup” perception has in creating and maintaining prejudiced attitudes. The intergroup bias fuels the prejudiced attitude. It makes sense to address the problems of prejudice by using the information social psychologists have provided us. There are seven factors we have learned that can be acted on immediately: 1. Reducing intergroup bias using the “contact theory.” 2. Showing the strengths and skills (not asking for pity or sympathy). 3. Getting the neighbors and community to behave more positively. 4. Getting professionals to reduce the “superior versus inferior” attitude. 5. Positively changing the effects of public education and the mass media on people with disabilities. 6. Political involvement. 7. Celebrating our sameness before pointing out our differences.

These factors are discussed below. Reducing Intergroup Bias Using the “Contact Theory” The most convincing strategy for reducing intergroup hostilities comes from the “contact theory.” Social psychologists suggest that negative attitudes toward minority groups are at least partially due to ignorance of other groups in general. This ignorance is created and maintained by persistent segregation. One way to improve intergroup relations is to reduce ignorance between the groups about their members. Creating opportunities or contact between members of the different groups can do this. What is really important here is that the contact must be equal status contact between the majority and minority group members while working on common goals (Allport, 1954). For example, the common beliefs that able-bodied persons have about persons with disabilities are usually negative. The more contact that able-bodied persons have with the persons with disabilities, the more they will get to experience other aspects of them and not just the disabilities.

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When the contact between the able-bodied person and the person with a disability involves them cooperating on a goal, and the cooperation is supported by the important people in their lives (boss, parents, etc.), the attitude toward disability improves. It makes sense that repeated contacts lead to the able-bodied person learning more information about the person with the disability (family, values, aspirations, joyful experiences, sense of humor, etc.) as a “whole” person. This leads to a reduction of negative feelings and thoughts about the disability. Showing the Strengths and Skills (Not Asking for Pity or Sympathy) When a person with a disability is seen as competent, others show a positive attitude toward him or her. This is especially true if the person is competent in areas that the able-bodied majority see as valuable (jobs, education, parenting, socializing). This is a catch-22 situation for the person with the disability. For example, the person cannot get an advanced education or a good job because he or she is seen as incompetent for not having an advanced education or a good job. We need to work at using our individual influence at the policymaking level to allow more access to education and jobs for persons with disabilities so all of us can benefit. Quality education and quality jobs should be basic rights for persons with disabilities. Think of the economic benefits possible if we reduce dependence on social welfare for persons with disabilities when we, the majority able-bodied, insist on equal access to all persons living in America. Getting the Community and Neighbors to Behave More Positively We tend to behave more positively toward people who are friendly and have strong social skills. This is true of the community’s and the neighbor’s behavior toward persons with disabilities; they tend to behave more positively toward a person with a disability when the person is friendly and has strong social skills. This is another catch22 situation. It is difficult to behave in a friendly, sociable manner when you sense that others are awkward around you, and it is difficult to have a pleasant smile on your face when others are looking down on you or treating you as if you were inferior. Yet, many people think that a person with a disability is unfriendly, awkward, and inferior, and therefore they do not take the time to approach, invite, or relax around the person, and so the negative perception cycle goes on. It

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is true that we like to be with others who are pleasant to be around. However, the automatic prejudice attitude leads people with disabilities to feel an extra burden to deal with (“God forbid you should have a bad day”) (Olkin, 1999). Getting Professionals to Reduce the “Superior versus Inferior” Attitude Researchers have found that professionals in all disciplines have more positive attitudes toward the client with a disability if the client is able to put the professional at ease. One of the factors that can help is perceiving the client as a person who can communicate effectively. Another factor is the client showing that he or she is comfortable or has accepted the disability; then professionals tend to have a more positive attitude. Also, if the client is more willing to discuss the disability, the professional will be more positive. All of these are factors that make professionals more comfortable and at ease—they are the ones who are supposed to be doing the comforting and the easing. So, professionals should be aware of who is getting paid to provide the support and services. Positively Changing the Effects of Public Education and the Mass Media on Ordinary People Public education is needed to help with the problems of prejudice toward persons with disabilities. The mass media have begun to report on the efforts of persons with disabilities to obtain their civil and human rights. They also have devised feature stories about the experiences of these persons. What is still missing is the ordinary portrayal of people who just happen to have disabilities going about the business of ordinary living in very nearly ordinary world. For example, they are rarely seen in bit parts or crowd scenes in fictional film and television presentations. When a person with a disability is shown in a main role, the disability is always a main theme, rather than the background concern it is in real life. These stereotypes lead to the harmful “us versus them” distinctions. Needed in the future are more images of disabled people as “plain folks,” without over-dramatized attention to a single aspect of their disability. Political Involvement We need more persons with disabilities in public office. The majority group is afraid to vote for such people who are publicly active because they fear the people with disabilities will not be able to

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represent majority “able-bodied” views. The establishment of the League of Disabled Voters in Washington, DC may change the collective power of persons with disabilities and open the door for future candidates in public office. This also ties into the fundraising campaign using sympathy to get donation. This old strategy needs to be replaced with a political force that demands equity and more public dollars to level the playing field for persons with disabilities when it comes to basic human rights (education, jobs, social activities, etc.). Celebrate Our Sameness before Pointing Out Our Differences It is politically correct at this time to say “celebrate our differences.” We know that all the research is showing that prejudice stems from focusing on our differences. We try to find what is different about the outgroup even if the group is made up for pointless games or training purposes. If group boundaries maintain and perpetuate intergroup biases, a reasonable strategy for reducing such biases would be to decrease the importance of group boundaries. The main goal is to decrease reliance on category-based, or “we” versus “they,” processing. For example, showing that the outgroup members have diverse opinions is helpful in reducing prejudice. Another example is encouraging ingroup members to respond to outgroup members as individuals rather than as a group. This encouragement leads to reductions in intergroup bias (Langer, Bashner, & Chanowitz, 1985). When new subgroups are formed using both people who used to be in the ingroup and people who used to be in the outgroup, the new group members seem to pay less attention or have less need for categorization, and intergroup bias is reduced. When people from the outgroup and people from the ingroup are put together in situations where they have to cooperate and work on a common goal that is rewarding to both groups, this cooperation has the effect of reducing intergroup biases (Worchel, 1986). What happens in these two situations is that the members of the ingroup and the outgroup get to experience personal interactions with each other. The false negative perceptions give way to more real, personal experiences. CONCLUSION In the end, we seem to be faced with two conflicting goals. First, we know that we need to reduce the use of categories for intergroup

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perception because they lead to biased or prejudiced attitudes. Second, we want to encourage a multicultural society and celebrate diversity. We are struggling to find ways to make these two goals work. Even social scientists are puzzled about which path is best for us to take. Based on what we know about outgroup perception research, we feel it is important to be careful about deciding how to decrease prejudice. We need first to find and emphasize how we are more alike and what we have in common. If we were to encourage celebration of our differences in the absence of celebrating our similarities first, we could have the effect of heightening or sharpening the perception that our groups are really different from each other (that is, by making intergroup boundaries more important). Social psychologists have pointed out some of the potential dangers of encouraging the perception that we are different. It is not the authors’ intention to say that we should not celebrate our differences. The authors are only saying that society needs to use the information we have learned and to use it objectively. In order to celebrate differences, society must first find and celebrate commonality (similarities) and encourage inclusion between groups and individuals (Devine, 1995). Finally, there is hope, because people in the United States generally show more favorable attitudes toward disability than do people in other countries (Westbrook, Legge, & Pennay, 1993). Nationality is an important determinant of attitudes toward disability. It suggests that broad social movements and political factors can have a substantial effect on the lives of persons with disabilities by affecting the attitudes of the populace toward them. We still have a lot of work to do, and we can look forward to a lot more humanity. Daily technological advances are making the world much more accessible to persons with disabilities (for example, text and instant messaging, the Internet, universal designs, accessible taxis, and “smart classrooms”). Again, a visit to Gallaudet University campus will be sure to inspire artists, engineers, parents, and children with a barrier-free environment and its possibilities for the society at large. Most of all, all visitors will notice that impairment does not mean disabilities. The prejudice and discrimination experienced by persons with disabilities outside of the campus disappears on campus. Society can alter and build physical environments that are welcoming. People can learn and adjust their social values. The man who doesn’t make up his mind to cultivate the habit of thinking misses the greatest pleasures in life. —Thomas A. Edison

Toolbox for Change For Individuals

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

“Us versus them.” “Those Reduce intergroup bias using people are all alike.” the contact theory. Invite Persons with disabilities are your neighbor with a depressed, grouchy, and disability to come over for not friendly. tea or go over for a visit Persons with disabilities are and chat. too consumed with their Organize a block party and disabilities to be make it accessible for all interested in friendships your neighbors (including and socializing. the person with a disability). Imagine what the children can learn.

Community/ Persons with disabilities society must rely on charity and social welfare to survive in society. Persons with disabilities can’t do important work or benefit from higher education. “They are not like us.” “They are very different from us. They cannot possibly represent us in political office.” “They don’t vote, so their opinions don’t matter.” “They are all alike.”

Showcase the strengths and skills (don’t ask for pity and sympathy). Show persons with disabilities doing important jobs, contributing to society, being tax-paying citizens with a civil right to funding (decrease or eliminate the need to showcase disabilities as pity inducers to solicit donation money). Reduce intergroup bias using the contact theory – Churches, schools, and neighborhood organizations can arrange for social or volunteer interactions between the outgroups. Political involvement: League of Disabled Voters is gaining strength in political and voting force. Encourage and support political involvement of students with disabilities so they can become active in political roles in the future. continued

Toolbox for Change (continued) For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change Celebrate sameness before pointing out our differences. Create celebrations of humanities, commonalities, inclusions along with celebration of diversities.

Practitioners/ Persons with disabilities are Set examples by behaving educators depressed, grouchy, and positively and not friendly. nonjudgmental toward Persons with disabilities are persons with disabilities. too consumed with their Show persons with disabilities disabilities to be doing important jobs, interested in friendships contributing to society, and socializing. being tax-paying citizens You are the client; with a civil right to funding therefore, you are (decrease or eliminate the inferior. I am the need to showcase professional; therefore, I disabilities as pity inducers am superior. to solicit donation money). Persons with disabilities are Get professionals to reduce scary, mentally unstable, the “superior versus and cognitively inferior” attitude. Do not impaired. insist on the response you They will be overcome think should be, or what with magical cures. you think it would be like if you had a disability. Respect the person with a disability as a consumer of your services, not as an inferior being in need of your help. In public education and the mass media, show that persons with disabilities do, enjoy, and suffer from ordinary things in life. Be humane and be humble.

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APPENDIX: CASE EXAMPLES FOR DISCUSSION OF PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION ISSUES Case Example 1 Roger is a seventeen-year-old male who attends a school for deaf students. He has cerebral palsy and a severe hearing impairment. Roger lives in two worlds. One world is where young men his age hang out at the mall, lift weights to impress the teenage girls, and drive using their newly obtained driving permits. His other world is where he and his school friends swerve back and forth without his awareness at times, comparing wheelchairs to others who pass by him and to peers who live in sweat pants, not for the sloppy look but for the convenience of not having zippers. The typical hairstyle is a very close buzz cut, not for the hair fashion but for the lack of mobility to style his own hair. He lives in a bicultural world. One is the majority able-bodied world and the other the minority world of the disabled community. When Roger goes out to eat at restaurants with his family, he is often faced with the limitations of the eating environments. Sometimes his parents have jokingly remarked that they would just rather stay in and be sure that they got to eat before hunger made the whole family cranky and ruined the whole outing experience. For example, many restaurants do not have barrier-free access; seating is limited to a few tables, meaning that the family often has to endure long waits to get a table that accommodates a wheel chair. Roger is very worried about his disabilities and how they will affect his health. But these don’t seem to wear him down as much as his worries about his interpersonal relationships (or lack of them). Roger dreams about having a girlfriend, desires sexual experiences, and is afraid of growing old alone. He is worried about the financial costs of his independence when he cannot even get a part-time job to give him pocket money. He is exhausted and frustrated from his experience of not having access to buildings and events. For a very long time, Roger was taught to look and behave like his non-disabled friends. He was trained to deny his disabilities. Roger did not have any friends in his neighborhood who also had disabilities. Roger had never met another person who had cerebral palsy and/or deafness and happened to live a successful, happy life. Roger has been told numerous times that his disabilities are problems only if he lets them become problems.

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It is understandable that Roger wants to avoid people who are just like him; he often tries to point out how he is “not like them”—other people with physical disabilities. He is not like them except for his wheelchair, crutches, limp, fatigue, and negative reaction of others. In his neighborhood, Roger is usually the only person with a disability. What he sees reflected back to him is the picture of non-disabled people. Roger often catches himself having negative attitudes toward other people with disabilities. He sees how others view disability, and thus he has absorbed and learned how to view disability just like any non-disabled teenager in his “majority” world. Roger’s selfidentity has been shaped by his environment. His own attitude and prejudices hurt him and make him reject himself. Case Example 2 Mark has a subtle disability that, nonetheless, has had profound effects on him. Mark is blind in one eye. Though at first this seems like a minor handicap, its sequellae are more far-reaching than one might expect. Each eye sees a slightly different image. As with most human beings, Mark’s brain uses the two images seen by each eye and the distance between the eyes to measure depth. This is known as stereoscopic or binocular vision. Because Mark can see with only one eye, he cannot perceive depth. Simple tasks such as playing catch, shaking hands, or picking up objects are very difficult for a person with no depth perception. This disability prevented Mark from playing sports like softball, tennis, and football. He always felt he had to explain to those who questioned his lack of athletic endeavors why he did not play sports. Sometimes he found himself making up elaborate stories to explain his “lack” of participation rather than tell another person— especially a male peer—the truth. Even as an adult, Mark is cautious about making such a disclosure. He does not want to be different— he does not want to expose himself to rejection or ridicule. Mark was an excellent student in school and excelled academically, and he is a very successful adult. Yet he too still worries about the issues of prejudice and discrimination against persons with disabilities. Case Example 3 Audrey was diagnosed with eczema when she was three months old. Her skin was often scaly, cracked, red, and oozed yellow drainage. Her mother was the only person who could tolerate cuddling

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her and loving her. No matter how many medications were prescribed and interventions employed, Audrey’s appearance was not pleasant. Audrey had a beautiful smile and bright eyes, and was a happy baby when she was not suffering discomfort from her dermatological condition. As Audrey grew, her family learned ways to keep her condition under better control. She seldom was a mass of ugly scales, red patches, and sores. Most of the time her outbreaks were in less-visible places (such as behind her knees, under her arms, inside the bend of her elbows, on her neck, or on the backs of her hands). Unfortunately, when her peers or strangers did see places where her eczema was showing, they did not want to touch Audrey. They often recoiled and stared at her darkened or scaly skin. As Audrey became a teenager, she was often isolated and unable to establish a steady group of friends. Audrey often cried about this but developed healthy coping strategies because she had a loving set of parents, siblings, and relatives. She did have people who loved her and accepted her as she was. Audrey grew up engrossed in books and learned to write beautiful stories. She became a very successful researcher and often talks to youth about the importance of self-acceptance and learning to manage the negative reactions of others. Case Example 4 Harry, a nine-year-old black male, stuttered severely. He often refused to talk in front of other people in order to avoid being laughed or to avoid having others focus on him and his speech. Harry hated being pulled out of class to go to speech therapy. He would often cry before school and attempt to stay home on the days he had speech therapy. With his parents’ insistence, Harry did go to school. His speech therapist was able to help him learn to control his stuttering in therapy sessions. He also learned to control his speech at home and with close friends; however, he was so nervous in class that he refused to read out loud. He often refused to talk in front of classmates. He could not tolerate their reactions to his struggles. By the time Harry entered the fourth grade, he was placed in a classroom with a teacher who was patient, supportive, and empathetic. This teacher had a son who also stuttered as a child and understood Harry’s issues. She talked to the class about helping Harry feel safe enough to practice his talking out loud. She would ask Harry to read in reading group. She would allow him to struggle with a word until he could pronounce it without interference from his stuttering. She had the

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class listen and be patient, too. Within the first six months of Harry’s fourth grade year, Harry no longer stuttered. This teacher, the therapist, and his classmates created a “safe” environment for Harry to gain confidence and practice and to overcome his disability. Case Example 5 Alice is an individual who suffered a traumatic injury and became disabled. She now faces discrimination and prejudice on a daily basis. This young woman was in a tragic automobile accident. Prior to the accident, she was a healthy, attractive young woman with no medical problems. She was popular and enjoyed the benefits of being young, intelligent, and pretty. Though she was very fortunate to survive the initial insult of the accident, she sustained major injuries to her face that left her permanently disfigured. She also shattered her pelvis, leaving her wheelchair-bound for several years while she underwent numerous surgeries and physical therapy. Throughout her reconstructive surgery and physical rehabilitation, she was subject to prejudice and discrimination on several levels. The most painful for her was the change in the way people responded and reacted to alterations in her face, body, and person. Simple things that she once enjoyed, such as shopping, turned into heartbreaking experiences filled with fingerpointing and sideways glances. She often could not get anyone to help her with her purchases. She became invisible. The salespeople who once flocked to the young woman to show her beautiful dresses, various shades of lipstick, and other merchandise now frequently ignored her attempts to buy their goods.

REFERENCES Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley. Asch, S. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258–290. Baron, R. A., & Byrne, D. (2003). Social psychology: Attitudes, evaluating the social world. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Berry, J., & Hardman, M. L. (1998). Lifespan perspectives on the family and disability. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Cahill, M. A., & Norden, M. F. (2003). Hollywood’s portrayals of disabled women. In A. Hans & A. Patri (Eds.), Women, disability, and identity (pp. 56–75). New Delhi, India: SAGE Publications, Pvt. Ltd.

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Chan, F., Lam, C., Wong, K. D., Leung, P., & Fang, X. F. (1988). Counseling Chinese-Americans with disabilities. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling, 19, 21–25. Collins, M. A., & Zebrowitz, L. A. (1995). The contributions of appearance to occupational outcomes in civilian and military settings. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 129–163. Dekker, M. C., Koot, H. M., van der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2002). Emotional and behavioral problems in children and adolescents with and without intellectual disability. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(8), 1087–1098. Devine, P. G. (1995). Prejudice and out-group perception. In A. Tesser (Ed.), Advanced social psychology (pp. 467–524). Boston: McGrawHill. Fazio, R. H., & Hilden, L. E. (2001). Emotional reactions to a seemingly prejudiced response: The role of automatically activated racial attitudes and motivation to control prejudice reactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 538–549. Fein, S., & Spencer, S. J. (1997). Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 31–44. Fleischer, D. Z., & Zames, F. (2001). The disability rights movement: From charity to confrontation. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Florian, V. (1982). Cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards disabled persons: A study of Jewish and Arab youth in Israel. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 6, 291–299. Hahn, H. (1985). Changing perception of disability and the future of rehabilitation. In L. G. Perlman & G. F. Austin (Eds.), Social influences in rehabilitation planning: Blueprint for the 21st century [A report of the ninth Mary E. Switzer Memorial Seminar] (pp. 53–64). Alexandria, VA: National Rehabilitation Association. Hardman, M. L., Drew, C. J., & Egan, M. W. (2002). Human exceptionality: Society, school, and family. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Jellinek, M. S., & Murphy, J. M. (1988). Screening for psychosocial disorders in pediatric practice. American Journal of Disabled Children, 142, 1153. Langer, E. J., Bashner, R. S., & Chanowitz, B. (1985). Decreasing prejudice by increasing discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 113–120. McLaughlin, M. W., Shepard, L. A., & O’ Day, J. A. (1995). Improving education through standards-based reform: A report by the National Academy of Education Panel on Standards-Based Education Reform. Stanford, CA: The National Academy of Education. Molnar, G. E. (1992). Pediatric rehabilitation. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.

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National Council on Disability. (1999). National disability policy: A progress report, November, 1997–October, 1998. Washington, DC: National Council on Disability. Nosek, M., Fuhrer, M., & Potter, C. (1995). Life satisfaction of people with physical disabilities: Relationship to personal assistance, disability status, and handicap. Rehabilitation Psychology, 40, 191–202. Olkin, R. (1999). What psychotherapists should know about disability. New York: Guilford Press. Olkin, R., & Howson, L. (1994). Attitudes toward and images of physical disability. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 9, 81–96. Petty, R. E. (1995). Attitude change. In A. Tesser (Ed.), Advanced Social Psychology (pp. 195–255). New York. McGraw-Hill. Quattrone, G. A. (1986). On the perception of a group’s variability. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed.). Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Shelton, J. N. (2000). A reconceptualization of how we study issues of racial prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 374–390. Silvers, A. (1998) Formal justice. In A. Silvers, D. Wasserman, & M. B. Mahowald (Eds.), Disability, difference, discrimination: Perspectives on justice in bioethics and public policy. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield. Snyder, M., Tanke, E. D., & Berscheid, E. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 656–666. Szymanski, E. M., & Trueba, H. T. (1999) Castification of people with disabilities: Potential disempowering aspects of classification in disability services. In R. P. Marinelli & A. E. Dell Orto (Eds.), The psychological and social impact of disability (4th ed., pp. 195–209). New York: Springer. Vanman, E. J., Paul, B. Y., Ito, T. A., & Miller, N. (1997). The modern face of prejudice and structure features that moderate the effect of cooperation on affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 941–959. Vash, C. L. (1981). The psychology of disability. New York: Springer. Westbrook, M. T., Legge, V., & Pennay, M. (1993). Attitudes towards disabilities in a multicultural society. Social Science Medicine, 36, 615– 623. Witt, W. P., Riley, A. W., & Coiro, M. J. (2003). Childhood functional status, family stressors, and psychosocial adjustment among schoolaged children with disabilities in the United States. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 157(7), 687–695. Worchel, S. (1986). The role of cooperation in reducing intergroup conflict. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed., pp. 288–304). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

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Wright, B. A. (1983). Physical disability: A psychosocial approach (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row. Yuker, H. E. (1994). Variables that influence attitudes toward persons with disabilities: Conclusions from the data [Special issue]. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 9, 3–22.

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CHAPTER 4

Beyond the “Triple Whammy”: Considering Social Class as One Factor in Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities Martha E. Banks Catherine A. Marshall

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or more than twenty years, researchers have documented the double discrimination that women with disabilities face in society and in the workplace (Banks, 2003a, 2003b; Banks & Ackerman, 2003; Crawford & Ostrove, 2003; Feldman & Tegart, 2003; Lesh & Marshall, 1984; Williams & Upadhyay, 2003). Women continue to face unsupportive workplace environments and unrealistic workplace expectations (Neal-Barnett & Mendelson, 2003; Vande Kemp, Chen, Erickson, & Friesen, 2003). As only one example, the Arizona Job Service advises via a handout given to those registering for their services as a requirement of receiving unemployment insurance that “there are some responses that present a more positive image than others. . . . DO NOT use ‘Child-care’” (n.d., p. 9) as a reason for having left a previous job. In the recent experience of one of the authors (CAM), a university administrator asserted in a staff meeting, “Child care is a woman’s personal problem.” Thus we are left to posit that not only might disability status, but also a woman’s children, still be seen as personal “problems” that women (and certainly some men) must “overcome” in order to fully participate in education and the workplace, including professional positions (Wilson, 2003). Payment for quality childcare is generally understood to be a costly component of one’s budget and also challenging for low-income families. In addition to the “double whammy” of being female and disabled is a third level of discrimination that people of color with disabilities

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experience (Corbett, 2003; Feist-Price & Wright, 2003; Feldman & Tegart, 2003; Mukherjee, Reis, & Heller, 2003; Nabors & Pettee, 2003; Neal-Barnett & Mendelson, 2003; Vande Kemp, Chen, Erickson, & Friesen, 2003; Vernon, 1999; Yee, Nguyen, & Ha, 2003). Such discrimination, a “triple whammy” based on culture, can be expected to be particularly damaging for persons whose cultural values do not mesh with the individualistic, capitalistic values of mainstream America. An example is taken from the Arizona Job Service’s onepage flyer entitled Job Search Tips, which includes “Go alone (Job search is not teamwork)” (n.d., italics added). Such advice might be deemed necessary for successful employment in Arizona, but it is not consistent with the values of some Native people. As one former state of Arizona vocational rehabilitation counselor reported (Marshall, Longie, Du Bois, & Flamand, 2003) in regard to his tribe: When we’re talking about [our] tribally enrolled members, I think we have always been—I hate to use the word—isolated; we’ve always been our little community where a lot of our people never go out of the parameters of the community. So when they go to Phoenix Indian Hospital, they see other Native Americans. There’s an adjustment even though it’s Native Americans. They [the trainees] were so used to living in their community, with the exception of one who is very outgoing, for the rest of them it was like a culture shock. Just the travel in itself—because a lot of them are afraid to leave the community. . . . I think about two of them, that it was very difficult for them to go to a new place away from their community. . . . I guess the best way I can answer that is when I was growing up, if I went on a job search I needed to take my friend with me, somebody. . . . What a lot of the people in the community do—say there’s a landscaping job, “Hey, so and so, come with me. There is a job opening.” They will never want to do it by themselves—they need that somebody to go apply with them. And sometimes it works against them because the other person might be hired and the guy that knew about the job would not be hired. But the idea is that for a lot of people, with these kind of things, they buddy up to somebody. It’s another support system that they have. I did it. I went down there, went to school; I needed to go with somebody. I don’t do it anymore, but a long time ago I used to. (p. 26)

WHICH COMES FIRST: LOW INCOME OR DISABILITY? Former U.S. Senator Paul Simon recently noted that “today, there are more young African American males in prison than in college. If

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we provided greater assistance to those wanting to go to trade school or college, we could dramatically reduce our crime rate . . .” (Simon, 2003, p. B16). We understand that many of these young men may have learning disabilities or other developmental disabilities. Further, we understand that men from middle-class and upper-class backgrounds typically do not go to prison, even if they have committed crimes. Thus in terms of discrimination, one formula for incarceration in the United States would be: African American male plus a disability plus a low-income background. Such incarceration is an example of the class distancing described by Lott (2002). Adelman (2003) and Wise (2003) each provide a brief overview of the history that has led to racial disparities in socioeconomic status (Moon & Rolison, 1998; St. Jean & Feagin, 1998). Past overt discrimination has provided financial foundations for European Americans; those foundations took forms that allowed intergenerational transfer of wealth not available to people of color, resulting in continued financial inequities. European Americans continue to utilize stereotypical thinking, albeit subconsciously, to evaluate people of color for training and employment (Dovidio, Gaertner, Kawakami, & Hodson, 2002; Lott & Saxon, 2002), thereby limiting current access to financial power. Similar discrimination has occurred, with relative impunity, regarding ability status. Until the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it was difficult for people with disabilities to obtain gainful employment consistent with their abilities. In individual situations, people with disabilities, especially people of color, encounter barriers in their attempts to gain employment and relevant training. Group data, however, reveal continuing ethnic, gender, age, geographic (urban– rural), and ability disparities in employment and income (Dunham et al., 1998; Fujiura, 2000; McNeil, 2001; Szalda-Petree, Seekins, & Innes, 1999; Wray, 1996). This is particularly troubling as there are significant ethnic and gender disparities in the prevalence of disabilities (Bradsher, 1996; Jans & Stoddard, 1999; Johnson & Marshall, 2001; Stoddard, Jans, Ripple, & Kraus, 1998). Significant differences have also been found in Canada in regard to disabling conditions, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; for example, “chronic diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, diabetes, heart problems, cancer, and hypertension are much more common, often twice as common, for Aboriginal persons, who also have generally much lower socioeconomic status (SES) than non-Aboriginals. For instance, Aboriginal men have a rate of diabetes three times the rate of

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non-Aboriginal men; for women, the ratio is 5 to 1” (Phipps, 2003, p. 11). Overall, researchers found the following: Disability or activity limitation is much more common among individuals with incomes in the bottom 30% of the income distribution (32% for men; 28% for women) compared to those at the top of the income distribution (12% for men; 16% for women). The direction of causality, however, is particularly unclear. That is, it is possible that low income leads to activity limitation, but it is also possible that activity limitation, by limiting paid work possibilities, leads to low income.

It might be expected that as people become increasingly aware of past discrimination that special efforts would be made to provide opportunities for those who have been historical victims of discrimination; such progress has been slow. For example, although psychologists are guided by ethical principles informed, in part, by the ADA and civil rights legislation, it is still difficult for psychology graduate students to receive accommodation needed for education in the field (Vande Kemp et al., 2003). In advocating for increased federal grant (not loan) assistance for education, Simon (2003) referred to the historic success of the GI Bill and how the educational opportunities provided to returning veterans after Word War II produced professionals such as engineers, accountants, teachers, scientists, physicians, and others whose work “lifted the standard of living of the nation and raised the educational expectations of their children and future generations.” He noted that “as the average educational level went up, income also rose” (p. B16). Issues of poverty and disability have historically been raised in terms of “which comes first?” Is it that low-income, low-wage occupations result in higher rates of disability; or is it that given a disability, the high cost of living results in poverty? From the field of public health we know that “there is considerable evidence that social position is an over-arching determinant of health status. . . . Social class affects lifestyle, environment, and the utilization of services; it remains an important predictor of good and poor health in our society” (Turnock, 1997, p. 39). One solution at least in regard to increasing socioeconomic status is that public vocational rehabilitation programs should ensure the highest possible level of education and training in rehabilitation plans in order to optimize incomes and quality of life for persons with disabilities (Marshall, Sanderson, Johnson, & Kvedar, 2003). Clearly,

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we are not in agreement with Thomas and Weinrach (2002), who “encourage future VR counselors to help their clients make realistic appraisals of likely [educational and vocational] outcomes in view of their own social context” (pp. 88–89), thereby countenancing “lower expectations” as being both reasonable and desirable. These authors wrote, for example, that since “[b]lacks, as a group, are more likely to have incomes below the poverty level,” it might be best to consider the “social context” and focus on “achieving realistic vocational rehabilitation goals” (pp. 82–83). In terms of environmental barriers, money can make the difference of whether or not a barrier results in a handicapping condition for the person with a disability. Clearly, if defined only in terms of environmental barriers as some disability advocates suggest, a low-income individual may not be able to purchase those services or material goods that can make access possible and therefore might not be able to “buy out” his/her disability status. To the extent such a “buy out” of disability status is possible, identifying as having a disability or not may become a choice open only to those of economic means. HEALTH, DISABILITY, AND SOCIAL CLASS You call it my ill health; I would call it a part of my strength. Not that I really want illnesses. —Lauraine Barlow (In press)

Understandably, disability advocates have worked to dissociate definitions and concepts of disability from definitions and concepts of health. In a recent textbook serving to educate professionals in public health, the authors of Dimensions of Community Health (Miller & Price, 1998) provide a diagram of the consequences of the lack of adequate health care and/or appropriate intervention. At the bottom of the diagram, the student is confronted with two apparently equal calamities from the authors’ perspective: death and disability. We know that disability does not equate with death; we know that disability can be a source of pride, of well-being, and of community. We know that for some individuals with a disability, life is not something to be avoided or prevented. Yet, we also know that from a human rights and social justice perspective, those individuals and cultural groups whose health has been compromised due to racist or classist denial of appropriate access to medical information and health care, may not choose to be affiliated with the disability community and may not “really want

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illnesses.” The recent commentary of Aboriginal woman Lauraine Barlow, who has several chronic illnesses and depression, and who believes that she and her family were denied important medical information and intervention because of their race (and one might argue class as well), illustrates this point. Interviewer: Do you see yourself as having a disability? Lauraine Barlow: No, I don’t. But there would be a lot of people who would argue against that because I can’t work—that’s a disability—they can’t work so they don’t contribute to society, that’s a disability. Lauraine’s husband, Edward: Society in general—others, automatically put you in that category. Like colour is a disability in society, straight up. . . . Being different also is making the person work extra harder. See, you can have a brilliant brain, but if you are a coloured person, they’re going to keep putting you under the microscope. First little mistake and they’ll be pointing the finger. It is like that anywhere. Lauraine: If you had asked me what’s normal, I would say, having a lot of people around and everybody just accepting each other for what they are and learning from one another. Interviewer: We talked about whether or not you considered your health to be a disability. Lauraine: You call it my ill health, I would call it a part of my strength. Not that I really want illnesses. . . . Makes me more determined and he [Edward] can tell you about that. . . . My eldest son is always saying, mum, slow down, what am I going do with you old girl? And I say, but I’m not ready to slow down. My body may be deteriorating, but my mind is still very much alive. As long as I can talk—I may not be able to run fast, but I still can talk fast. (Barlow, In press)

Liu et al. (2004) reported an extensive review of the literature, motivated by their observation that “along with race and gender, social class is regarded as one of the three important cultural cornerstones in multicultural theory and research” (p. 3). These investigators reviewed 3,915 articles and found 710 that referred to social class, using an amazing “448 different words to describe social class” (p. 3). While it is important to note their conclusion that “the use of 448 key words to describe social class and social class-related constructs might be related to the confusion and infrequent use of social class in counseling research” (p. 16), it is equally important to note several outcomes of their review that were associated with measures of social class. For example, regarding physical health concerns that might lead to disability, they reported that “not only do lower social class individuals have less access to health resources, but lower class women are at a higher

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risk for depression, obesity, and diabetes than are higher social class women. Lower social class individuals also have a higher tendency for coronary heart disease and tend toward higher alcohol use when compared with higher social class individuals” (p. 7). The review of Liu et al. (2004) also found social class differences based on race and gender. They reported that “[b]lacks were three times more likely to be living in poverty than [w]hites (24% vs. 8%, respectively), and for Hispanics, the poverty rate was 23%. . . . Additionally, women made about 72 cents for every dollar men made, down from 74 cents in 1996” (p. 3). Further, these researchers found that, for women, because divorce so often affected their socio-economic status, “social class identity was fluid rather than static [and] regardless of their objective social class, as determined by income, education, and occupation, the women had to contend with their own internal sense of social class identity, which sometimes was congruent with the objective social class but sometimes was incongruent and in conflict” (p. 6). Conley (1999) described the intergenerational effects of racial discrimination on differences in accumulated wealth, which are more reflective of social class than income. In 2001, the average wealth or net worth of African American families was about one-sixth that of European American families (Kennickell, 2003). “In 2001, the typical Black household had a net worth of just $19,000 (including home equity), compared with $121,000 for whites. Blacks had 16% of the median wealth of whites, up from 5% in 1989. At this rate it will take until 2099 to reach parity in median wealth” (Muhammad, Davis, Lui, & Leondar-Wright, 2004, p. 1). In considering the relationships between health and poverty status, we know, for example, that “more than half (55%) of American Indians/Alaskan Natives have incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level” and this is correlated with “a higher burden of illness, injury and premature mortality than non-Hispanic [w]hites” (Katz, 2004, p. 13). What is less clear are intervening variables that may differentiate factors exclusively related to socioeconomic status and those also associated with social class. Again we note the extensive review by Liu et al. (2004), who concluded that “the definition and measurement of social class have been inconsistent and confusing” (p. 8), yet who also argued for the importance of considering this construct as “people regarded as not part of a particular social class group may be targets of prejudice and discrimination (i.e., classism) as a means for people in the social class group to maintain their position or group

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coherence and identity” (p. 8). They argue for a measure of social class that is subjective and that “allows people to determine their own social position rather than being placed into a category and position” (p. 7) rather than have class based, for instance, on the socioeconomic status of the moment; such a measure of social class then would allow researchers to use “social class in intentional and meaningful ways” (p. 16) to explore and understand the intersections of people’s lives as they navigate health, education, work, and economic stability. ACCESS TO EDUCATION, WORK, AND ECONOMIC STABILITY As discussed earlier in this chapter, issues of social justice and people with disabilities are intertwined with issues of access to education, work, and the hope in most people’s lives for economic stability. Blustein et al. (2002) explored the role of social class in the transition from school to work under the premise that “social class is a major factor in the work lives of people, reflecting a significant source of marginalization in our culture for those who are from poor and working-class backgrounds” (p. 311). They noted the need for further research into “the complex relationship between race and class” and called for a “serious study of the role of social class in the work lives of youth and adults across diverse cultural contexts” (p. 321). These researchers noted that “wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated in the upper strata of society, which is impacting the vocational trajectories of many poor and working class individuals” and, as only one example given here, cited the 1992 research of Timothy J. Owens, who “concluded that individuals from the upper social classes were more likely to attend college, whereas members of the lower social classes were more likely to transition directly to work or enter the military” (p. 311) after leaving high school. (This research finding brings to mind the experience of a Chicano graduate student in rehabilitation counseling who reported this during the U.S. conflict in Vietnam. He noted fellow high school students looking at college options, and he recalled his school counselor suggesting a school-to-work transition option between branches of the armed forces.) Blustein et al. (2002) concluded from their research that “the lack of access to financial resources, coupled with the difficulties posed by poor housing and inadequate health care, may leave individuals from LSES [lower socioeconomic status] backgrounds feeling more fragmented emotionally and, at times, overwhelmed by their life circumstances. . . . Our findings suggest that individuals from

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poor and working-class backgrounds may be attempting to resolve various vocational development tasks with a clear disadvantage” (pp. 320, 322). Consider the possibility that an LSES individual approaching “vocational development tasks with a clear disadvantage” also has a cognitive disability, an emotional disability, or a physical disability. Consider the possibility that this individual with a cognitive disability is also a person of color or a woman whose vocational choice may well lead her to earn “about 72 cents for every dollar” a man would make. In considering concerns beyond the triple whammy, “the pervasive role of social class in creating a different starting gate for the development and implementation of a meaningful work life” is clear (Blustein et al., 2002, p. 320). Yet, Lee and Dean (2004) have written of the “invisibility of immigrants and people of color from social class discourse” (p. 19) and that “generations of working-class people, who constitute the largest working population in the country, as well as those people living in poverty (approximately 10 percent of the U.S. population), remain relatively silent from the social class discourse (i.e., underemphasized and understudied)” (p. 20). In their critique of the work of Liu et al. (2004), Lee and Dean noted the “powerful effects of social class disparities on mental health” and concluded, “clearly, the stakes are high if researchers overlook the needs and concerns of people across the wide spectrum of social classes” (p. 23). Lee and Dean urged us to “[t]hink more thoroughly about the complexity of modern life in the United States for the growing majority of Americans—workingclass immigrants and their families. . . . Many uneducated, unskilled immigrants with few resources remain encumbered by low paying, labor-intensive working-class jobs offering scant job security and limited opportunities for growth. . . . For many of these immigrant families of color, the American dream is simply unattainable—a myth” (pp. 21–22). In the end, perhaps we know more about the intersections of low income, access to education, work, and death than we know about the same factors and disability. When low-income jobs result in disability, we are not always informed. For example, how many women indeed suffer from preventable carpal tunnel syndrome from long days at the keyboard or swiping item after item in groceries, drugstores, and superstores of all types over the United States? Yet, we can find almost daily accounts of the death of immigrants from Mexico, in attempts to walk across deserts to “low-wage manual jobs that most American workers won’t do” (Diamond, 2004, 1D). Diamond also reported a

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finding by Washington-based research group The Urban Institute that “immigrants today hold 20 percent of the nation’s low-wage jobs, even though they comprise 11 percent of the population” (p. 3D). To what extent do these low-wage jobs, most likely labor intensive, result in disability? Again, we can assume that these jobs, apart from the “disability equals death” formula so deplorable from a public health perspective, might well result in disability, if not death. The history of arduous labor leading to disability and lack of provision for health service or work relief for members of lower socioeconomic classes has been demonstrated in archeological studies of American slaves of African descent. Examination of the bodies of Africans buried in New York revealed that adolescents and many adults (male and female) showed exaggerated development of lifting muscles (deltoid and pectoral crests of the humeri) and early degeneration of the vertebral column and shoulder. Evidence of trauma to the skull as well as “parry” fractures of the lower arm suggest an unusually high incidence of accidents and violence (Blakey, 2001, p. 405). Today, poor immigrants endure terrible work conditions and are vulnerable to poor nutrition and infection without adequate health care, similar to the situation of African slaves in the United States. Based on an Associated Press investigation, Pritchard (2004) reported that “the jobs that lure Mexican workers to the United States are killing them in a worsening epidemic that is now claiming a victim a day. . . . These accidental deaths are almost always preventable and often gruesome: Workers are impaled, shredded in machinery, buried alive” (p. A5). Prichard gave examples of jobs where Mexicans have been killed and wrote that what’s happening to Mexicans is exceptional in scope and scale. Mexicans are nearly twice as likely as the rest of the immigrant population to die at work. Mexicans died cutting North Carolina tobacco and Nebraska beef, felling trees in Colorado and welding a balcony in Florida, trimming grass at a Las Vegas golf course and falling from scaffolding in Georgia. . . . Two brothers . . . died building a suburban high school that at 15 and 16, they might have attended. They were buried in a trench when the walls of sandy soil collapsed. (p. A5)

A representative from the Centers for Disease Control was quoted as saying, “They’re considered disposable” (Pritchard, 2004, A5).

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SUMMARY This chapter has only begun to look at issues beyond the “triple whammy”—issues of discrimination and prejudice when disability, gender, and culture are considered within the context of a fourth dimension, social class. The implications of disability status and the disability experience, given a low-income environment, need to be further explored and understood. We need to understand how individuals from low-income environments both identify as having a disability and make choices regarding education and career goals—most importantly, the extent to which these choices might be restricted by class, by gender, or by mainstream expectations associated with People of Color. Definitions of disability are understood to be culturally specific, and as we move to a definition of disability that might also be environmentally specific, we need to ensure that such definitions do not also become class-specific. Much of the research that has been useful for understanding the complexity of class as a critical variable in the understanding of the lives of people with disabilities has been conducted outside of the United States. Albers et al. (1999) examined economic consequences of disability. Sociodemographic predictors of treatment success and failure for people with disabilities was addressed by Becker, Hojsted, Sjogren, and Eriksen (1998); Bhandari, Louw, and Reddy (1999); Frumkin, Walker, and Friedman-Jimenez (1999); Mayer et al. (1998); and Stronks, van de Mheen, van den Bos, and Mackenbach (1995). Those are excellent models for the study of class status as both a contributor and consequence of disability.

NOTE The authors contributed equally to this chapter.

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CHAPTER 5

Coping with Prejudice and Discrimination Based on Weight Anna M. Myers Esther D. Rothblum

I

magine the following scenarios:

• Some friends of yours are going out for the evening. They ask you not to come, explaining that you are likely to “scare away potential dates.” • You go to the doctor’s office with your spouse, only to discover that there is no seat that will accommodate her size. Your doctor admonishes her to lose weight, even though she is not his patient. Then the nurse draws you aside and asks in a kind voice, “Is it really fair to bring your wife out in public—where people can see her?” • In a job interview, your would-be boss remarks, “My men need a pretty face and figure to look at, not a pig like you.” • A stranger comes up to you and says, “You’re really gross! I can’t believe how fat you are. I’d kill myself if I looked like you.”

The above are actual experiences reported by people who are significantly above average weight—that is, people who are visibly “fat.” At the office, on the street, and in the home, fat people are the targets of stares, rude remarks, discrimination, and ridicule. For fat people, weight-related stigmatization and discrimination are sad facts of life. Consider the following newspaper account of a twelve-year-old Black boy who committed suicide in Florida: “Jacqueline Graham still can’t bring herself to show her son’s room to strangers, but you don’t need to look past the photos in the living room to see who he

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was: He was the fat kid who didn’t have any friends. The easy target. The mark. . . . In the social hierarchy of fifth grade . . . that put him squarely at the bottom” (“Life and Death,” 1997). Unlike other forms of prejudice such as racism, sexism, or ageism, prejudice against fat people is freely expressed in western nations. In a society that glorifies youth, beauty, and a narrowly defined “healthy” appearance, people stereotype and harass those whose bodies do not conform to this ideal. Body weight is seen as being controllable—and fatness, therefore, is seen as a voluntary condition. Perhaps for this reason, people feel free to express their prejudicial attitudes without fear of social censure. Negative stereotypes of fat people include the views that they are ugly, morally and emotionally impaired, asexual, discontented, weak-willed, and unlikable. Ironically, fat people are just as likely as average-weight people to hold these prejudiced attitudes (Crandall, 1994). Individuals who share the stigma of obesity quickly find that weight-related stigmatization affects nearly every aspect of their lives. Fat people report job discrimination, social exclusion, exploitation by the diet and fitness industries, denial of health benefits, trouble finding clothing, mistreatment by doctors, and public ridicule (Allon, 1982; Hutchinson, 1994; Millman, 1980; Rand & MacGregor, 1990; Rothblum, Brand, Miller, & Oetjen, 1990). Fat people are less likely to be admitted to elite colleges (Canning & Mayer, 1966) or to have their education funded (Crandall, 1991). Fat people are also more likely to be of lower socioeconomic status (Sobal & Stunkard, 1989) and to lose socioeconomic status over time (Gortmaker, Must, Perrin, Sobol, & Dietz, 1993). THE LANGUAGE OF WEIGHT Terms used to describe body weight can be quite confusing. The term overweight is most often defined in relation to tables of desirable weight, such as those published by life insurance companies. People whose weight is above the weight range deemed “ideal” according to life insurance height and weight charts are called “overweight.” The term obesity, on the other hand, refers to an increase in percent body fat relative to lean tissue (Bray, 1992). A common way of measuring obesity that takes into account the effects of height on weight is the body mass index, or BMI. BMI is body weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. Unfortunately, the United States is one of the few remaining countries that have not

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moved to a metric system, so this formula is difficult for the general U.S. public to use. Because fatness is so stigmatized, words commonly used to describe it sound pejorative. Obese, fat, hefty, overweight, massive, and morbidly obese sound equally unflattering. Fat acceptance organizations, such as the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, or NAAFA, have therefore advocated a strategy for destigmatizing fatness. Such organizations propose to reclaim the term fat, making it merely descriptive rather than pejorative. This strategy is similar to the strategy of reclaiming words such as dyke or queer by gay and lesbian activists. It is thought that with increased use of these terms in positive or neutral contexts, they lose their pejorative power. Throughout this chapter, then, we will use the word fat to describe people with high body weights, unless we are citing a direct quote. FACTS AND MYTHS ABOUT BODY WEIGHT Two assumptions about body weight seem to underlie prejudice and discrimination against fat people. The first is that if fat people would just eat less and exercise more, they would lose weight and thus no longer be part of a stigmatized group. The second belief is that large body size causes health problems. In 1958, Stunkard wrote, “Most obese persons will not stay in treatment of obesity. Of those who stay in treatment most will not lose weight, and of those who do lose weight, most will regain it” (p. 79). This statement is still true nearly half a century later. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, the rate of dieting doubled among women. In 1987, a study by Rosen and Gross (1987) found that 63 percent of high school girls were on diets, compared with 16.2 percent of boys. While dieting was becoming more prevalent, however, the average U.S. citizen’s body weight was also increasing. This finding leads some researchers to believe that there is something about dieting that actually increases weight gain. In fact, dieting does seem to precede fatness, rather than the other way around. People who diet do lose some weight; however, rigorous follow-up studies find that nearly everyone regains the lost weight over the course of several months (Cogan & Rothblum, 1993). Fewer than 3 percent of people maintain weight loss over the long run, and after four to five years, many dieters weigh more than they did before they started dieting (Szwarc, 2003a).

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There is a popular belief that Americans are more sedentary than ever before due to labor-saving devices, increased numbers of automobiles, and general lack of exercise. According to Szwarc (2003b), this is not true. Realistically, lifestyles for middle-class American adults haven’t changed in line with bulging weights. Back in the 1960s, most Dads (or Grandpas, for younger readers) still drove to an office job each day and mowed the lawn on the weekend; Moms took care of the house with much the same appliances and modern conveniences we enjoy today. . . . Who remembers their parents donning sneakers (hardly ever called athletic shoes back then) and heading to the gym every day or putting in an hour on the treadmill? Among lower socioeconomic classes where obesity rates are the highest, manual labor remains the primary employment. (p. 2)

Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that exercise activity from the mid-1960s through the 1990s did not change, while other studies have shown increasing levels of physical exercise from the 1960s to the 1980s (Szwarc, 2003b). Regarding fatness and health risks, there are three major confounds in the studies that examine the relationship between weight and health (Rothblum, 1990, 1999). First, studies that examine whole communities for weight and health problems do not control for income. However, income is strongly related to weight in the United States. Statistics indicate that fat people are much poorer than thin people. In addition, income in the United States is strongly associated with access to good healthcare. Thus, comparing fat to thin people without controlling for income is equivalent to comparing poor to rich people. Second, health-risk studies do not control for frequency of dieting, and, as mentioned above, fat people have dieted more than thin people. Diets, even ones considered “healthy,” are associated with many of the same risk factors that we associate with weight, such as cravings for fat, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, heart attacks, kidney disease, diabetes, and lower mortality. Finally, researchers do not (and could not easily) control for negative physiological effects of stress among fat people, who live as members of an oppressed minority group. In fact, stress has also been shown to cause many of the health problems associated with weight. Even if one accepts the majority opinion that obesity is unhealthy, however, the health risk posed by high body weight is no justification for fat stigmatization, which is the main focus of this chapter. Eating

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“junk food” and consuming alcohol are also practices generally considered to be unhealthy, yet people drinking beer or eating hot dogs are not routinely subjected to harassment, public ridicule, and peer pressure to change these habits. Fat stigmatization therefore appears to be a problem independent of the purported health risks of body weight. RESEARCH ON FAT STIGMA The negative stigma of being fat has been extensively documented. Much of this research has emphasized how people perceive those who are fat, rather than on how fat people perceive and cope with discrimination. Existing studies have focused on attitudes toward fat people, the effects of obesity on other life experiences (such as going to college or getting a job), and social difficulties faced by fat people. Experimental as well as survey research supports the existence of extensive discrimination and prejudice against fat people. For example, a study of stereotyping (Larkin & Pines, 1979) asked twenty male and twenty female undergraduates to use thirty-eight descriptive scales to “form a first impression” of three fictitious people, one “overweight,” one of “average weight,” and one “underweight.” Participants rated these people on scales measuring traits such as “decisive versus indecisive,” “neat versus untidy,” “relaxed versus nervous,” and so forth. On twenty-two of the thirty-eight variables, the fat person was rated negatively. Specifically, the fat person was seen as incompetent, unproductive, less industrious, disorganized, indecisive, inactive, less successful, more mentally lazy, and more lacking in self-discipline. Negative stereotypes about fat people may lead others to dislike or ostracize those who are visibly fat. This effect has been demonstrated in several studies of children, adults, and health professionals. For instance, in a classic study of children’s attitudes toward fat people (Richardson, Goodman, Hastorf, & Dornbusch, 1961), researchers asked six groups of children to rank-order six drawings according to how much they liked the child depicted in each. The drawings included a child with no handicap, a child with crutches and a brace, a child in a wheelchair, a child missing a left hand, a child with a facial distinction, and a fat child. Participants included 277 underprivileged, disabled, and non-disabled children attending a summer camp, 104 non-disabled children at a different camp, 42 low-income city schoolchildren, 113 rural schoolchildren, and 104 schoolchildren

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of middle to high socioeconomic status. All six groups of children rated the drawings in precisely the same order, with the fat child least preferred. These same negative attitudes against fat people have been demonstrated by physicians, medical students (Blumberg & Mellis, 1985; Maddox & Liederman, 1969), nutritionists (Maiman, Wang, Becker, Finlay, & Simonson, 1979), and mental health professionals (Agell & Rothblum, 1991; Young & Powell, 1985)—in other words, by the very people whom fat individuals might go to for help and support. Crandall (1994) has suggested that weight bias derives in part from the belief that fat people are responsible for their weight, and that this belief leads to fewer sanctions against fat prejudice. Crandall argues that prejudicial attitudes toward obesity today are “overt, expressible, and widely-held,” similar to racist attitudes fifty years ago. He suggests that anti-fat attitudes derive from a “Puritanical morality” that values self-discipline, self-control, and self-reliance—qualities that fat people are assumed to lack. He further notes that fat people are just as likely as average-weight people to hold negative attitudes about fatness. Providing evidence in support of the above idea, Crandall and Biernat (1990) surveyed 478 male and 594 female undergraduates on anti-fat attitudes, political conservatism, symbolic racism, sexual attitudes, religiosity, self-esteem, and miscellaneous social attitudes. They found that bias toward obesity was associated with racism, conservative attitudes toward other social issues, and authoritarianism. Being fat, in and of itself, was not associated with anti-fat attitudes, suggesting that beliefs about fatness are more related to one’s ideology than to one’s personal weight. Predictably, fat respondents who did hold anti-fat attitudes tended to have lower self-esteem than fat respondents who did not. The authors conclude that anti-fat bias is in general associated with a conservative, authoritarian outlook on the world—an outlook that posits that “people deserve what they get.” In other words, people will discriminate against fat people because of a naive perception that they choose to be fat. Attitudes toward Fat People in Other Countries While negative bias against fat people certainly exists in western nations, there is some evidence that such bias is “culture bound.” For example, Cogan, Bhalla, Sefa-Dedeh, and Rothblum (1996) compared 219 U.S. college students to 349 college students in Ghana on

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measures of weight, dieting and restrained eating, disordered eating, and attitudes toward fatness. Between-group comparisons revealed that African students preferred a heavier body size, with Ghanaian males preferring the largest body size and U.S. females the smallest. Additionally, U.S. women were most likely to report that their weight interfered with social activities. The U.S. sample also rated thin people more positively than Ghanaians did, attributing to them qualities such as happiness, self-confidence, self-discipline, and attractiveness. A study by Crandall and Martinez (1996) looked at anti-fat attitudes in 236 Mexican and 170 U.S. university students, who were also surveyed about their beliefs in a “just world” and political beliefs. Mexican students were found to be less concerned about their weight and more accepting of fat people than U.S. students. In the U.S. sample, anti-fat attitudes were associated with “just world” beliefs, political conservatism, and a tendency to blame the poor for their poverty. In contrast, among the Mexican students, there was no relation of anti-fat attitudes and social ideology. The results of these cross-cultural studies provide support for Crandall’s (1994) assertion that antipathy toward fat people is related to U.S. cultural values. Crandall and Martinez (1996) point to three reasons why fatness is particularly stigmatized in the United States. First, they argue that U.S. beliefs reflect negative stereotyping of fat people. Second, because fatness is naively associated with personal control and self-discipline, they posit that fatness will be less stigmatized in cultures that do not value these attributes highly. Finally, they say, the U.S. emphasis on self-control and self-determination serves a “central organizing function” around which citizens form opinions about issues. Thus, body weight and other traits that are believed to result from a lack of self-control will be negatively valued in the United States and not as much in cultures that do not value selfcontrol as highly. Fat People’s Own Experiences of Stigmatizing Situations and Attempts to Cope with Fat Stigma Little research has asked fat people directly about how they deal with fat stigma on an everyday basis. Furthermore, because body weight in the United States is inversely related to income, research that focuses on middle-class populations, such as college students or employees, is unlikely to come across many people who are extremely fat. Myers and Rosen (1999) sampled severely fat people who were

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trying to lose weight via clinical means (weight loss surgery or medication). They found that the heavier these people were, the more they reported stigmatizing experiences and the more they employed a variety of coping devices. A greater number of reported stigmatizing experiences were associated with more mental health symptoms, more negative body image, and more negative self-esteem. The authors also identified eleven types of stigmatizing situations and twenty-one ways of coping with stigma reported by fat people. Three of these coping strategies—negative self-talk, isolation, and avoidance—were related to poorer psychological adjustment. None were associated with better adjustment (Myers & Rosen, 1999). In this chapter, we want to present evidence for the relation between stigmatization, coping attempts, and psychological distress in two groups of fat people—one a group of “fat acceptance” advocates, and another a group of subscribers to a weight loss magazine. Thus, we will be describing the perceptions of two non-clinical samples— NAAFA members and readers of a national publication targeting dieters. These groups are both examples of “voluntary associations” created to assist people in coping with fat stigma. Yet, their approaches differ. NAAFA members purportedly favor “fat acceptance,” whereas the magazine subscribers are more likely interested in losing weight. We wanted to investigate how members of these two groups combated the effects of fat stigma, and whether their coping efforts were associated in any way with their levels of psychological distress. As in the study with clinical samples (Myers & Rosen, 1999), we expected that for both magazine subscribers and NAAFA members, reports of stigmatization and coping attempts would increase in direct proportion to body size. Likewise, we expected that stigmatizing experiences would be related to more mental health symptoms, more negative body image, and lower self-esteem. In comparing the two groups, we expected that NAAFA members would report using more “fat acceptance” coping strategies, while magazine subscribers would more frequently report using “weight loss” strategies. Our final hypothesis was that “fat acceptance” strategies would be associated with less distress than weight loss strategies. This final finding was expected for two reasons. First, dieting comprises only one response to stigmatization, and it is one that is slow to take effect and usually futile in the long run. Even for fat people who lose some weight, they will not move from clinical to non-clinical levels of “obesity,” and so they will have to continue to cope with

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the stigma of their weight. In contrast, “fat acceptance” involves several discrete cognitive and behavioral responses. Thus, we believed that a wider range of approaches to the problem of fat stigmatization was likely to be associated with better psychological functioning. Second, weight loss is seldom maintained over time (Bennet & Gurin, 1982). Thus, any beneficial effects of weight loss upon body image, self-esteem, and general mental health are likely to be temporary. Dieters who use weight loss as their only strategy for coping with fat stigma likely feel disappointed and frustrated when they cannot maintain their weight loss. In contrast, “fat acceptance” is not dependent upon a person’s weight. Self-acceptance coping strategies can be used at any time, in a variety of situations, and therefore might be associated with better psychological functioning. Participants in Our Study Respondents were solicited by a direct mailing to 450 readers of a national weight-loss magazine and to 300 members of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. A total of 167 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 22 percent. Significantly more NAAFA members (N ⫽ 112, 37 percent) than magazine subscribers (N ⫽ 55, 12 percent) returned questionnaires (X 2 ⫽ 65.6, p ⬍ .001). Respondents were included if they met objective BMI criteria for “overweight” (BMI ≥ 27 kg/m2) within the previous twelve months. Thirteen surveys—ten from magazine subscribers and three from NAAFA members—were thus excluded. The resulting sample included 154 respondents: 109 NAAFA members and 45 subscribers. The overall sample was overwhelmingly female (80 percent female, 20 percent male; NAAFA: 79 percent female; subscribers: 82 percent female; difference not significant) and white (90 percent white; 3 percent black; 2 percent Latino/a; 5 percent other; NAAFA: 88 percent white; subscribers: 93 percent white, n.s.), with a mean age of 43.3 years (SD ⫽ 11.3, NAAFA mean ⫽ 42.0, subscriber mean ⫽ 40.0, n.s.). NAAFA respondents were more likely to be single (35 percent versus 16 percent; X2 ⫽ 15.02, p ⬍ .05), better educated (60 percent college graduates versus 31 percent; X2 ⫽ 19.77, p ⬍ .01), and of higher socioeconomic status (mean ⫽ 46.2, SD ⫽ 13.6; versus mean ⫽ 31.59, SD ⫽ 13.7; F [1,142] ⫽ 5.18, p ⬍ .05). Weights in the NAAFA group ranged from 160–600 pounds (median ⫽ 285 lbs., median BMI ⫽ 46.0, mean ⫽ 46.2, SD ⫽ 10.4), as compared to 134–339 pounds in the subscriber group (median ⫽ 198 lbs.;

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median BMI ⫽ 32.0, mean ⫽ 33.3, SD ⫽ 6.8). NAAFA members were significantly heavier than magazine subscribers, (F [1,142] ⫽ 52.08, p ⬍ .001), but average weights for both groups were high and thus ideal for our study. TYPES OF VARIABLES MEASURED Demographic Information Participants were asked to report gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, education, current occupation, partner’s education and current occupation, current weight and height, highest and lowest weight in the past year, and whether they were currently trying to lose weight. Stigmatizing Situations and Coping Responses These questionnaires were developed by Myers and Rosen (1999) and consist of fifty stigmatizing situations divided into eleven categories, and ninety-nine coping responses divided into twenty-one categories. Instructions to the respondent for stigmatizing situations read, “Below is a list of situations that some people encounter because of their weight. Indicate whether, and how often, each of these situations happens to you.” For coping responses, the instructions read, “The following are some strategies people use in order to deal with negative situations related to their weight. For example, someone who hears an insult about her appearance may make herself feel better by insulting the person back. Using the scale below, please indicate whether, and how often, you have used each of the following strategies to cope with the sorts of situations listed [in the previous inventory].” A ten-point ordinal scale with descriptive anchor points is used (0 ⫽ “never,” 1 ⫽ “once in your life,” 2 ⫽ “several times in your life,” 3 ⫽ “about once/year,” 4 ⫽ “several times/year,” 5 ⫽ “about once a month,” 6 ⫽ “several times/month,” 7 ⫽ “about once/week,” 8 ⫽ “several times/week,” 9 ⫽ “daily”). Stigma and coping categories are listed in Tables 5.1 and 5.2. Mental Health The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) is a fifty-three-item self-report measure of mental health symptoms (Derogatis & Spencer, 1982).

Table 5.1 Stigmatizing Situation Categories Category

Item

Mean (SD)

1. Comments from children 2. Others making assumptions about you 3. Loved ones embarrassed by your size 4. Physical barriers 5. Being stared at 6. Nasty comments from others 7. Inappropriate comments from doctors 8. Nasty comments from family 9. Being avoided, excluded, ignored 10. Job discrimination 11. Being physically attacked

2.63 2.50 2.06 1.95 1.76 1.66 1.58 1.57 1.55 0.85 0.35

(1.9) (1.9) (2.0) (1.6) (1.5) (1.1) (1.0) (1.1) (1.5) (1.1) (0.9)

Table 5.2 Coping Responses Categories Category

Item

Mean (SD)

1. Self-love, self-acceptance 2. “Heading off” negative remarks 3. Positive self-talk 4. Refuse to diet 5. See the situation as the other person’s problem 6. Using faith, religion, prayer 7. Refuse to hide; be visible 8. Social support from not-fat people 9. Humor, witty comebacks, or joking 10. Responding positively, being “nice” 11. Social support from other fat people 12. Ignoring situation, making no response 13. Eating 14. Educate self or others about fat stigma 15. Negative self-talk 16. Cry, isolate myself 17. Responding negatively, insulting back 18. Avoid or leave situation 19. Seeking therapy 20. Physical violence 21. Lose weight

5.07 5.05 4.93 4.69 4.68 4.23 4.19 3.76 3.30 3.11 3.07 3.01 2.98 2.82 2.77 2.36 1.54 1.52 1.19 0.86 0.85

(2.2) (2.5) (2.0) (2.1) (2.4) (2.6) (1.7) (2.0) (2.2) (1.7) (1.7) (1.6) (2.7) (1.8) (2.3) (2.0) (1.3) (1.2) (1.8) (1.3) (0.9)

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This study used the Global Severity Index, which is the average severity of all fifty-three symptoms experienced over the past week, as an overall indication of psychological distress. Test–retest reliability for the BSI is r ⫽ .90, and internal consistency, as measured by Chronbach’s alpha, ranges from .71 to .85. Body Image The Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) is a thirty-four-item scale measuring desire to lose weight, body dissatisfaction, feelings of low self-worth in connection with weight, feelings of fatness after eating, self-consciousness in public, and distressing thoughts about weighing too much or being too big in certain body regions. The total score on this measure serves as an index of overall body image distress, with higher scores indicating more negative body image. The BSQ has been shown to correlate with other measures of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in clinical and non-clinical samples (Cooper, Taylor, Cooper, & Fairburn, 1987). Self-Esteem The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) is a ten-item questionnaire measuring attitudes of general self-worth, positive self-esteem, and global self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965). Higher scores represent higher self-esteem. Rosenberg normed this instrument on a sample of over 5,000 high school students in the Northeast and reported an alpha coefficient of .92 for this measure, indicating good internal consistency. Test–retest reliability was found to be r ⫽ .82. Demo has demonstrated that the RSE correlates significantly (r ⫽ .32) with peer ratings. RESULTS Frequency of Stigmatizing Situations and Coping Responses The overall mean score for each of the fifty stigmatizing situation items was 1.75 (SD ⫽ 1.1), which corresponds to a reported frequency between “once” and “several times in my life.” In other words, participants reported experiencing each of the fifty stigmatizing situations, on average, between once and several times in their

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lives. The overall mean score for each of the ninety-nine coping responses items was 3.26 (SD ⫽ 1.2), which corresponds to a reported frequency of more than “once a year.” In Tables 5.1 and 5.2, the mean score for each category of stigmatizing situation and coping response is presented in descending order for the full sample of 154 respondents. Scores given reflect the mean score across items in each category, thus controlling for the unequal number of items in each category. The most frequent stigmatizing situations respondents faced were hurtful comments from children, other people making unflattering assumptions, loved ones feeling embarrassed to be seen with the fat person, and physical barriers (such as chairs that were too small). Respondents reported facing these situations between “once a year” and “several times in my life.” Being stared at and being subjected to unsolicited negative comments also were frequent. Infrequent experiences included job discrimination and physical assault, which occurred on average less than “once in my life.” The most frequent coping responses reported by these respondents were practicing self-acceptance, attempting to head off negative remarks by socially disarming people who might otherwise be critical, and making positive self-statements. Respondents reported that they used these strategies from “once a month” to “several times a year.” Relation of Demographic Variables to Stigma, Coping, and Adjustment There was a significant correlation between stigmatizing situations and BMI (r ⫽ .39, p ⬍ .001), indicating that the number of stigmatizing experiences reported increased with higher weights. Additionally, after controlling for the effects of weight and group membership, the partial correlation (r ⫽ .27, p ⬍ .001) between stigmatizing situations and coping responses indicated that coping attempts also increased in direct proportion to stigmatizing experiences. In these samples, body weight was unrelated to psychological distress. That is, fatter people were neither more nor less distressed than less-fat people. Unexpectedly, however, people of lower socioeconomic status reported more distress overall. Partial correlations controlling for the confounding effects of group and stigmatizing situations found that socioeconomic status (SES) was correlated with scores on the BSI (r ⫽ ⫺.35, p ⬍ .001), BSQ (r ⫽ ⫺.28, p ⬍ .001), and RSE (r ⫽ .33, p ⬍ .001), such that higher SES was associated

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with fewer mental health symptoms, less body dissatisfaction, and higher self-esteem. Relation of Stigma, Coping, and Psychological Distress Stigmatizing situations were significantly correlated with each measure of psychological adjustment, independent of the confounding effects of group and weight. That is, more stigmatizing experiences were associated with increased mental health symptoms (r ⫽ .30, p ⬍ .001), more negative body image (r ⫽ .29, p ⬍ .001), and more negative self-esteem (r ⫽ ⫺.19, p ⬍ .05). After controlling for the confounding effects of group, SES, weight, and number of stigmatizing situations reported, the overall number of coping attempts reported was still significantly correlated with self-esteem (r ⫽ .22, p ⬍ .01), indicating that more frequent coping attempts were related to better self-esteem. There was no significant relation between coping attempts and either body image or mental health symptoms. Examining the overall number of coping attempts people reported was not the purpose of this study, however. Rather, this study attempted to identify specific coping responses associated with psychological adjustment. Partial correlations controlling for the frequency of stigmatization experiences, group membership, SES, and weight identified three types of apparently maladaptive coping strategies: “Negative selftalk,” “Cry, isolate myself” and “Avoid or leave situation” (see Table 5.3). “Eating [more]” and “Losing weight” were also significantly related to body dissatisfaction and self-esteem, but not to mental health symptoms. It was thought that adaptive coping strategies would be associated with fewer mental health symptoms, more negative body image, and more positive self-esteem. Again after controlling for group, number of stigmatizing situations reported, SES, and weight, two coping categories met this description: “Self-love/self-acceptance” and “Educating self and others about weight control and stigma.” That is, people who reported using the above strategies to cope with weight stigma also reported less distress. Three other coping strategies—“Seeing the situation as the other person’s problem,” “Refusing to diet,” and “Being visible despite stigma”—were associated with more positive self-esteem and less body dissatisfaction, with no

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Table 5.3 Relation between Form of Coping and Psychological Distress Partial correlation†† (r) with: Category Negative self-talk Cry, isolate myself Avoid or leave situation Eat Diet Seek therapy Ignore situation Use faith, religion, prayer Humor Seek social support Seek support of fat people Head off negative remarks Fight back physically Respond negatively Respond positively Positive self-talk See situation as others’ problem Refuse to diet Refuse to hide body, be visible Self-love, self acceptance Educate others/self

BSI

BSQ

RSE

.51*** .49*** .31*** .22 .14 .23† .06 .07 .12 .09 .08 .02 .02 .07 .15 ⫺.05 ⫺.14 ⫺.18 ⫺.16 ⫺.23† ⫺.24†

.66*** .49*** .36*** .49*** .29*** .08 .05 .05 .03 .03 .04 .04 ⫺.16 ⫺.06 ⫺.05 ⫺.03 ⫺.19 ⫺.29*** ⫺.28** ⫺.23† ⫺.37***

⫺.63*** ⫺.50*** ⫺.27*** ⫺.32*** ⫺.27** ⫺.22 ⫺.06 .16 .11 .10 .14 .24† .08 .11 .20 .24† .30*** .26† .37*** .48*** .50***

†

p⬍ .01 **p ⬍ .005 ***p ⬍ .001 †† Controls for effects of stigmatizing situations, group, SES, and BMI.

relation to overall mental health symptoms. Finally, “Positive selftalk” was associated with higher self-esteem only (see Table 5.3). While one cannot infer that these forms of coping cause better adjustment, these data do indicate that certain types of coping are related to less distress overall. Examination of group differences between NAAFA members and magazine subscribers was more difficult than expected, given the greatly unequal sample sizes. However, analyses of covariance controlling for weight, marital status, SES, and educational level found that NAAFA members were more likely to report stigmatizing experiences (see Table 5.4) than were magazine subscribers. The groups did

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Table 5.4 Group Differences† between NAAFA Members and Magazine Subscribers on Stigmatizing Situations, Coping Responses, and Mental Health NAAFA members (N ⴝ 109) Measure

Magazine subscribers (N ⴝ 45)

Mean (SD)

Mean (SD)

Stigmatizing situations 2.09 (1.1) 0.94 (0.7)** Coping responses 3.47 (1.2) 2.68 (0.9) Brief Symptom Inventory 0.75 (0.6) 0.73 (0.6) Body shape questionnaire 81.01 (35.3) 96.09 (38.4)* Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale 31.37 (6.5) 30.80 (6.1) *p ⬍ .05 **p ⬍ .01 † ANCOVAs control for BMI, education, marital status, and SES.

not differ with regard to the number of coping attempts they made. On the clinical measures, magazine subscribers reported significantly greater body dissatisfaction. Magazine subscribers and NAAFA members had similar levels of psychological symptoms and self-esteem. These results are reported in Table 5.4. Another difference between these samples was their approach to dieting. Predictably, magazine subscribers were about twice as likely to report being on a diet currently as were NAAFA members (62 percent versus 33 percent, respectively; X 2 ⫽ 17.59, p ⬍ .001). Analyses of covariance controlling for stigmatizing situations, BMI, SES, education, and marital status found that magazine subscribers also reported more overall attempts to lose weight (mean ⫽ 1.13, SD ⫽ 1.1) than NAAFA members (mean ⫽ 0.75, SD ⫽ 0.8). This difference was also statistically significant (F [5, 132] ⫽ 18.59, p ⬍ .001). These results are detailed in Table 5.5. Unexpectedly, NAAFA members were not more likely to practice fat acceptance strategies as a whole. Summing the reported frequency of the eight hypothesized fat acceptance strategies yielded no overall difference between the frequency with which these strategies were reported by NAAFA members and magazine subscribers (F [5, 132] ⫽ 3.00, n.s.). Each of the eight fat acceptance coping strategies was

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Table 5.5 Group Differences in Forms of Coping between NAAFA Members and Magazine Subscribers†† NAAFA members (N ⴝ 109)

Magazine subscribers (N ⴝ 45)

Measure

Mean (SD)

Mean (SD)

Positive self-talk Self acceptance Refuse to diet See situation as others’ problem Humor Be visible Fat support group Education about stigma Total fat acceptance Lose weight

5.08 (2.0) 5.42 (2.2) 5.09 (2.0) 3.44 (1.7) 5.02 (2.4) 3.45 (2.3) 4.46 (1.7) 3.37 (1.8) 35.24 (11.7) 0.75 (0.8)

4.53 (2.0) 4.13 (2.1) 3.62 (1.8)† 2.10 (1.4) 3.79 (2.3) 2.93 (2.0) 3.48 (1.6)* 1.34 (1.1)*** 25.91 (9.9) 1.13 (1.1)***

p ⬍ .06 *p ⬍ .05 ***p ⬍ .001 †† ANCOVAs control for BMI, education, marital status, and SES. †

therefore analyzed individually. The resulting analyses of covariance controlling for weight, SES, educational level, marital status, and number of stigmatizing situations found that NAAFA members were more likely to report attempts to educate themselves and others about fat stigma and weight control and were also more likely to seek social support from other fat people (see Table 5.5). IMPLICATIONS OF STIGMATIZING SITUATIONS AND COPING RESPONSES FOR FAT PEOPLE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among stigmatization, coping efforts, and mental health in two non-clinical samples. This study also investigated whether “fat acceptance”—an approach that has been gaining popularity as a way to combat fat stigma, is associated with better psychological adjustment. We found that stigmatization is a nearly universal experience among people who are visibly fat. As in our prior study with clinical samples (Myers & Rosen, 1999), increased stigmatization was associated with more symptoms, more body dissatisfaction, and lower self-esteem.

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As with fat clinical samples, stigmatization among fat people in non-clinical settings apparently triggers a great deal of coping effort, with certain coping strategies being associated with worse adjustment. Coping strategies that appear to be particularly maladaptive include self-deprecation, isolation, avoidance of stigmatizing situations, overeating, and—somewhat paradoxically—dieting. The first three of these strategies were significantly associated with more mental health symptoms, more body dissatisfaction, and lower self-esteem. Overeating and dieting in response to fat stigmatization were both associated with more body dissatisfaction and lower self-esteem. The findings of this research mirror those of coping studies (Tobin, Holroyd, Reynolds, & Wigal, 1989), which found that self-criticism, avoidance, and social withdrawal are associated with worse psychological adjustment. Surprisingly, the current study also found that dieting was associated with worse adjustment. Given that dieting is the most common approach to dealing with weight stigmatization, this finding is particularly important. This study also found that certain coping strategies were associated with better psychological adjustment, particularly with regard to body image and self-esteem. Of eight strategies recommended by fat acceptance proponents, five were found to be associated with less body dissatisfaction and more positive self-esteem. Two of these eight strategies were also associated with fewer mental health symptoms. As in prior research on coping (Tobin et al., 1989), the forms of coping associated with the best adjustment involved cognitive restructuring, active problem-solving (such as educating oneself about stigma and weight control), and eschewing isolation and avoidance as a means of coping (such as refusing to hide one’s body). It is unclear why this study of fat people in non-clinical samples found coping strategies associated with better adjustment while a study of patients (Myers & Rosen, 1999) did not. One explanation is that patients in the clinical sample were so fat and so frequently stigmatized that their coping strategies were relatively less effective. This hypothesis seems unlikely, however, since a high number of respondents in the current, non-clinical sample weighed just as much as the patients in our prior study. Another explanation, then, is that non-patients do not present for treatment because they are not as distressed by their weight. Presumably, they are not as distressed because their coping attempts are more effective. The most likely explanation for why this sample reported coping strategies associated with better adjustment, though, has to do with

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the particular population sampled. In this study, the overwhelming majority of respondents were members of NAAFA, an organization that espouses and teaches fat acceptance. In this select group, members may be particularly adept at countering social stigma because they have been taught and have had the opportunity to practice particular stigma-management techniques. Additionally, this is a population composed in large part of non-dieters, who by definition have had to adopt other strategies for coping with fat stigma. Finally, NAAFA members may benefit from the self-esteem-buffering properties of group affiliation (Crocker & Major, 1989). This study thus lends credence to fat activists’ assertion that acceptance of one’s body protects self-image against the negative effects of weight stigma. Surprisingly, though, members of NAAFA were no more likely to employ these strategies than were readers of a national weight-loss publication. Interestingly, NAAFA members also reported significantly more stigmatization than subscribers, even after controlling for their higher weight. This finding could be due to NAAFA members being more sensitized to stigma and therefore noticing more prejudice. This hypothesis may also explain why more NAAFA members were willing to participate in this study. An unexpected finding of this research was that higher socioeconomic status appears to protect against psychological distress. It may be that fat people who are better educated and who have higherpaying jobs have more resources to draw from as they combat the negative internal effects of stigmatization. Conversely, poorer people with less education may have fewer resources with which to buffer self-image. In fact, it appears that SES has more of an impact on psychological adjustment than weight, which has not been shown to negatively impact mental health (Stunkard & Wadden, 1992). Thus, despite popular belief, there is no evidence to suggest that fatness is either caused by or leads to unhappiness. In fact, this study provides some support for the reverse idea: that weight loss attempts are either caused by or contribute to unhappiness. It is important to note that due to the cross-sectional, correlational method of this study, no conclusions can be made about the direction of the relation between these variables. For instance, more stigmatization may lead to more distress, but it is just as likely that more distressed people report more stigmatization. Similarly, more distressed persons might be more likely to report certain (maladaptive) coping responses. This research is further limited by the fact that participants were overwhelmingly members of NAAFA. While attempts were made

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to obtain equal samples of subscribers and NAAFA members, the response rate was much greater in the NAAFA group. This finding probably illustrates that the study was of more interest to NAAFA members, and their reports thus bias the results in their favor. It is therefore inappropriate to generalize the findings of this research to other, less-specialized populations of fat people. Limitations notwithstanding, this study provides a useful extension of previous research. Clearly, weight-related stigmatization is a frequent and distressing experience that requires considerable coping effort, even in non-patient samples. Verbal harassment and abuse, public ridicule, intrusive remarks, and geographic barriers such as seats and clothing that are too small are among the various types of events frequently reported by fat respondents in our study. Additionally, while it has often been assumed that weight stigma contributes to low self-esteem and poor body image among fat people, this is the first empirical study to provide support for this conclusion. Our findings suggest that more frequent reports of stigmatizing experiences are associated with more mental health symptoms, more negative body image, and lower self-esteem. In contrast, weight alone was unrelated to psychological adjustment. Sadly, although we read almost daily about the health risks and social problems associated with “obesity,” never are we provided with effective ways of losing weight. In the absence of effective methods for weight reduction, millions of people are left to cope with health and social problems on their own. Too often, these people engage in repeated, fruitless attempts to diet—diets that most often result in no weight loss and, perhaps, in a decrease in self-esteem and body image. Our research adds to the body of evidence that suggests that weight loss—this culture’s traditional remedy for stigmatization—is ineffective and associated with worse psychological adjustment among fat people. Fortunately, our findings also suggest that at least one population of fat people has discovered ways of coping with stigmatization that are associated with lower levels of distress—among them the same forms of coping associated with better adjustment to other stressors. “Fat acceptance” as an approach to weight stigmatization therefore appears to have at least some validity and is worth further study. In the absence of a way to make fat people’s bodies conform to socially acceptable norms, these findings are welcome news, indeed. Suggestions for combating prejudice and discrimination against fat people appear in the Toolbox for Change below.

Toolbox for Change For Individuals

Images/perceptions Fat people are stereotyped and harassed. People believe that fatness is easily remedied by dieting or exercise. Fat people are socially excluded. Fat people are blamed for their weight. As a result, fat people (as well as everyone who feels fat) have poor self-esteem and poor psychological adjustment.

Strategies for change Stop dieting. Join fat-affirmative group or form one. Protest dieting posters, companies, and media. Teach children to love their bodies in all sizes. State fat-affirmative views. Inform people about the risks and failures of diets. Model self-acceptance of body weight. Correct disparaging remarks about weight in all people. Seek out people with similar views for social support. Regardless of your size, make friends with fat people.

Community/ Beauty is narrowly defined society as thinness. All people are exploited by the diet and fitness industries. Fat people are believed to lack self-discipline and willpower.

Protest dieting posters, companies, and media. Teach children to love their bodies in all sizes. Add size discrimination to non-discrimination policies. Encourage physical activity in all people, and do not link it to weight loss. Profile community leaders of all sizes. Practitioners/ Fat people are not hired or State fat-affirmative views. educators are denied benefits. Inform people about the risks Fat people are told to lose and failures of diets. Model weight. Fat people are self-acceptance of body mistreated by health weight. and mental health practitioners. continued

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Toolbox for Change (continued) For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Educators do not protect Correct disparaging remarks children from harassment about weight in all people. based on weight in Have office chairs that fit all schools. sizes. Distribute resources of fat-affirmative books, magazines, children’s books, videos, web sites, etc. Refer people to fat-affirmative healthcare providers, therapists, etc.

REFERENCES Agell, G., & Rothblum, E. D. (1991). Effects of clients’ obesity and gender on the therapy judgments of psychologists. Professional Psychology: Theory and Practice, 22, 223–229. Allon, N. (1982). The stigma of overweight in everyday life. In B. B. Wolman (Ed.), Psychological aspects of obesity: A handbook. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. Bennet, W., & Gurin, J. (1982). The dieter’s dilemma. New York: Basic Books. Blumberg, P., & Mellis, L. P. (1985). Medical students’ attitudes toward the obese and the morbidly obese. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 4, 169–175. Bray, G. A. (1992). Pathophysiology of obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 55 (Supplement), 488S–494S. Canning, H., & Mayer, J. (1966). Obesity—its possible effect on college admissions. New England Journal of Medicine, 275, 1172–1174. Cogan, J. C., Bhalla, S. K., Sefa-Dedeh, A., & Rothblum, E. D. (1996). A comparison study of United States and African students on perceptions of obesity and thinness. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 98–113. Cogan, J. C., & Rothblum, E. D. (1993). Outcomes of weight-loss programs. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 118, 385–415. Cooper, P., Taylor, M. J., Cooper, Z., & Fairburn, C. G. (1987). The development and validation of the Body Shape Questionnaire. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 6, 485–494.

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Crandall, C. S. (1991). Do heavy-weight students have more difficulty paying for college? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 606–611. Crandall, C. S. (1994). Prejudice against fat people: Ideology and selfinterest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 882–894. Crandall, C. S., & Biernat, M. (1990). The ideology of anti-fat attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20, 227–243. Crandall, C. S., & Martinez, R. (1996). Culture, ideology and antifat attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 1165–1176. Crocker, J., & Major, N. (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The selfprotective properties of stigma. Psychological Review, 96, 608–630. Derogatis, L. R., & Spencer, P. M. (1982). The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI): Administration, scoring and procedures manual—I. Boston: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Gortmaker, S. L., Must, A., Perrin, J. M., Sobol, A. M., & Dietz, W. H. (1993). Social and economic consequences of overweight in adolescence and young adulthood. New England Journal of Medicine, 329, 1008–1012. Hutchinson, M.G. (1994). Imagining ourselves whole: A feminist approach to treating body image disorders. In P. Fallon, M. A. Katzman, & S. C. Wooley (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on eating disorders (pp. 152– 168). New York: Guilford Press. Larkin, J. C., & Pines, H. A. (1979). No fat persons need apply. Sociology of Work and Occupations, 6, 312–327. Life and death of “miracle boy” leave scars. (1997, March 23). The Burlington Free Press, p. 6A. Maddox, G. L., & Liederman, V. (1969). Overweight as social desirability with medical implications. Journal of Medical Education, 44, 214–220. Maiman, L. A., Wang, V. L., Becker, M. H., Finlay, J., & Simonson, M. (1979). Attitudes toward obesity and the obese among professionals. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 74, 331–336. Millman, M. (1980). Such a pretty face. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. Myers, A. M., & Rosen, J. (1999). Obesity stigmatization and coping: Relation to mental health symptoms, body image, and self-esteem. International Journal of Obesity, 23, 221–230. Rand, C. W., & MacGregor, A. M. C. (1990). Morbidly obese patients’ perceptions of social discrimination before and after surgery for obesity. Southern Medical Journal, 83, 1391–1395. Richardson, S. A., Goodman, N., Hastorf, A. H., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1961). Cultural uniformity in reaction to physical disabilities. American Sociological Review, 26, 241–247. Rosen, J. C., & Gross, J. (1987). Prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in adolescent girls and boys. Health Psychology, 6, 131–147. Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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Rothblum, E. D. (1990). Women and weight: Fad and fiction. Journal of Psychology, 124(1), 5–24. Rothblum, E. D. (1999). Contradictions and confounds in coverage of obesity: Psychology journals, textbooks, and the media. Journal of Social Issues, 55(2), 355–369. Rothblum, E. D., Brand, P. A., Miller, C. T., & Oetjen, H. A. (1990). The relationship between obesity, employment discrimination, and employment-related victimization. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 37, 251–266. Sobal, J., & Stunkard, A. J. (1989). Socioeconomic status and obesity: A review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 260–275. Stunkard, A. J. (1958). The results of treatment for obesity. New York State Journal of Medicine, 58, 79–87. Stunkard, A. J., & Wadden, T. A. (1992). Psychological aspects of severe obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 55 (Supplement), 524S–532S. Szwarc, S. (2003a, July 31). The diet problem. Retrieved on November 1, 2003, from www.techcentralstation.com Szwarc, S. (2003b, July 31). The truth about obesity. Retrieved on November 1, 2003, from www.techcentralstation.com Tobin, D. L., Holroyd, K. A., Reynolds, R. V., & Wigal, J. K. (1989). The hierarchical factor structure of the Coping Strategies Inventory. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 13, 343–361. Young, L. M., & Powell, B. (1985). The effects of obesity on the clinical judgments of mental health professionals. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 26, 233–246.

CHAPTER 6

Prejudice in an Era of Economic Globalization and International Interdependence Teru L. Morton

T

he world is getting smaller. Internet communication allows all parts of the planet access to the other parts. Transportation advances permit cross-border travel for an ever-growing portion of the planet’s population. Business is going global. Now the United States has declared a war on terrorism worldwide. The explosion in contacts with different “others” exponentially heightens the likelihood of prejudice and discrimination. In addition, our interdependencies are increasing in complex ways as we and the institutions we support are no longer just “here” but “there” in countries around the world. This chapter will focus on the deleterious effects of economic globalization and its backlash and the need for addressing prejudices that contribute to mounting tensions globally. Then it will discuss core prejudice clusters and perceptions and strategies that individuals, communities, and practitioners/educators can use to provide checks and balances, help avert wars, and guide us safely through this era of globalization toward a more harmonious and peaceful coexistence on this small planet. Because the chapter topic is relatively new, it is important first to note what it does and does not presume with respect to perspectives it builds on. This chapter is written from the U.S. perspective, in the expectation that most readers will be fellow Americans. “America(n)” where used in this chapter means the United States, although the term most

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properly refers to countries in all of the Americas, as their citizens rightfully point out. The literature on prejudice is rich. Much has already been written about prejudice, its relationship to behavior, and how it develops and changes. It is generally agreed that personal and institutionalized prejudice and discrimination are linked in a mutually causative manner. Remedial action on one front furthers synergistic remediation on the other, although institutionalized prejudice may be more evasive and difficult to change. It is also generally agreed that changing prejudicial attitudes and beliefs can change behavior, and also that changing behavior can change attitudes and beliefs. The value of laws in guiding behavior and subsequently attitude change is noted accordingly. Finally, it is generally agreed that prejudice functions to distort perceptions and limit the reception of information that might loosen the prejudice, so that prejudice can create self-fulfilling prophecies and be quite resistant to change. The dynamics of prejudice will not be further covered here, except at the margin, that is, as they apply in international and global issues. The literature on multiculturalism is likewise quite rich, with most of our attention to date focused on addressing prejudice and discrimination and restoring social justice within our own rapidly diversifying society. Markedly less attention has been paid to prejudice and discrimination internationally. This is in part due to our desire to tend to business at home first. It is also attributable in part to the generally deep well of ignorance and unfamiliarity about other countries that most U.S. citizens have. We as a nation are isolated in the main from the rest of the world by vast oceans, so relatively few of us have spent much time outside our borders or interacted extensively with international sojourners here, who typically operate from enclaves. We are a relatively young country still absorbed in self-definition. Our land mass is vast with marked regional and ethnocultural variegation, so we are still preoccupied with discovering and experiencing our own heterogeneity, which may be a larger task than for other countries. We have also been, in recent times, the most financially healthy and militarily mighty country in the world. While less rich and powerful nations could not afford to know about us, we have felt we could afford our relative ignorance about them. In many ways, then, an international or global perspective is quite a new proposition for many Americans. Area studies, foreign language programs, and study abroad experiences were more prevalent in American higher education a quarter of

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a century ago than they are now. As we grew richer, more complacent with the end of the Cold War, and more absorbed in fueling our booming economy and attending to our unfinished domestic business in social justice and diversification, we abandoned earlier efforts to globalize education and the American mind-set. A relatively recent series of staccato wakeup calls such as the rioting protestors at the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle, the 9/11 attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center towers, and sporadic reports of backlashes against globalization occurring around the world, have rekindled internationalization efforts, particularly in higher education. As we as a country ran to atlases to learn where Afghanistan was and scrambled for crash courses to understand Islam, as our president concluded a domestic speech with the plea for anyone knowing Arabic to step forth and help out, our country recognized with alarm that it had been quite asleep at the wheel. Presently there is urgent consensus that we must extend our attention to the larger world arena and accept the responsibilities as well as rights of being citizens of the world. For some years the multiculturalism movement in this country has gained strength in the counseling and health professions, in academia at all levels, and in private and public sector organizations striving to become inclusive and user-friendly for the diverse members of the American population. The multicultural and international perspectives are complementary and synergistic, with the multicultural perspective necessary but not sufficient for a properly internationalized or global perspective. Multiculturalism is generally addressed within national boundaries, as in discussion of diversity and social justice issues within this or some other country or a given organization within a given country. Many key parameters or common grounds of the field are fixed and taken for granted, such as citizenship and shared laws. Internationalism assumes these fields but adds the dimension of boundary sets, such as different nations, trading blocks, and environmental systems. An internationalized perspective thus recognizes the importance of population heterogeneity and the degree, type, and distribution of social justice within any given nation but also entails understanding the laws, policies and practices, and economic and geophysical environments, etc., in each country. It also recognizes issues of international law and commerce, shared environments, shared institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and breaches of justice in nation-to-nation interfaces and in multinational organizations of commerce and government. In that

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sense, the international perspective described here requires a broader and deeper knowledge base—multiculturalism’s values and content and then some. This relationship is reflected in the substantial presence of multicultural perspectives and material in international courses and the relative paucity of international content and perspectives in multicultural ones. If global thinking were an edifice, then, multiculturalism would be one of its supporting pillars. This chapter presumes the multicultural perspective covered elsewhere and will only add at the margin to emphasize extension to the international arena. ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND ITS BACKLASH Economic globalization is the competitive extension of commerce from the local to the global arena, the emergence of global megacorporations, and the redistribution and consolidation of power it brings on the world stage—within countries and between countries, in commerce, and between governments and commerce. Global corporations can throw their weight around in imperialistic fashion, colonizing new territories worldwide for cheaper goods and labor and for new consumers. Economic globalization promotes hegemonic domination and interchangeability at the cultural and psychological levels—the economic, cultural, and psychological subjugation of lesspowerful groups and organizations. The United States has spawned a disproportionate share of the global corporations, has led the global effort to nurture them by tearing down trade barriers, and has spearheaded the unfettered free market capitalism sweeping the planet in an inexorable march toward what Hardt and Negri (2001) call “Empire.” It is an era of accelerating economic globalization and of “manic” expansion of free market capitalism (Greider, 1996), with the United States at the forefront. Momentum is intense, and stockholders in the extraordinarily powerful global corporations are celebrating. But not everyone else is. In this country, we are seeing increasingly vehement protests against the effects of economic globalization from an amalgam of organizations representing labor, environmentalism, nativism, feminism, isolationism, and human rights. Elsewhere in countries around the world, there are even more fervent, passionate, and violent responses to economic globalization and its cultural subjugation—ethno-nationalist, pan-nationalist, regionalist, environmentalist, feminist, and religious

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movements that assume emphatically anti-imperialist positions. These are likely to assume the form of “indigenization”—puzzling and threatening to those accepting of hegemonic globalization—but they have been occurring and are expected to continue in this new era (Huntington, 1996; Jameson & Miyoshi, 1999). Al Qaida, a Muslim fundamentalist religious group, has resorted to aggressive terrorism against what it perceives as imperialistic capitalism dead-set on wiping out its core values and beliefs. The Sendero Luminoso activists of Peru also resorted to terrorism, their Maoism appealing to indigenous peoples deprived of their agrarian, subsistence-based lives by global economic forces. The Zapatistas, a long-deprived group in southern Mexico, used a mix of guerilla warfare and peaceful negotiation to protest their treatment by the wealthier classes, made worse by the press of globalization. Nativist movements in this country and around the world continue despite centuries of subjugation, in some cases gaining strength in the face of the new pressures for hegemony. Nationalism breeds nationalism, regionalism breeds regionalism, religious organization breeds heightened organizational activity in alternative religions, and various value and belief systems fiercely resistant to subjugation by economic globalism seek broader and broader world networks. The currently inexorable march of economic globalization will be met with continued backlashes as tensions mount. Dangers of erupting conflict with disastrous human tolls will build until we have reached a new balance of power at the global level. In the last decade, respectable futurists from a wide range of persuasions have warned of the mounting tension, conflict, and indeed clash of civilizations being driven by economic globalization. Economic empire-building has been portrayed as a competitive colonization of the world market, bringing with it a major threat to the basic values of an open society (Soros, 1997). The exploitation of the planet’s natural resources by global corporations is unprecedented and threatens the future of human life (McKibben, 1998). Indeed, participants in the snare of economic globalization, irrespective of their witting or unwitting role, are increasingly unable to access the accurate and reliable information needed to guide an appropriately alarmed but also informed response, since global communication corporations are managing opinions of the world’s masses and threatening free thought with orchestrated information control and packaging (Vidal, 1996). Breakdowns in the old sovereign nationbased world order brought about by such unprecedented and massive

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changes are predicted to lead to world anarchy (Kaplan, 1994) or to a clash of civilizations and their values and worldviews. Indeed, Huntington (1996) predicts a congealing and head-on collision of eastern, western, and Arabic cultures and organizations. Either hegemonic domination or multilateral agreements and multicultural understandings will result. As the world gets ever smaller, our global village (McLuhan, 1989) becomes more interdependent and complex. It becomes interdependent in that an event on one political, social, economic, and environmental level’s causes and effects are increasingly played out at worldwide levels. It becomes complex in that the massive migrations of groups, consequent diversification of once relatively homogenous groups, and the hybridizing of races, cultures, and value/belief systems makes this world multiethnic, multicultural, multinational, and multireligious. One country may be composed of many ethnic and cultural groups. Individuals may have more than one race, nationality, ethnicity, culture, and spiritual system. Effective response to global trends will require successful multicultural understandings and multilateral agreements rather than simple hegemonic domination and brute unilateral reaction. In the United States, the melting pot metaphor has been replaced with those of quilt, mosaic, smorgasbord, and chop suey to acknowledge the differences in the whole. Global adoption of multilateral agreements and multicultural understandings has been slower because of the historical precedents of imperialism and colonialism worldwide and the current implicit and widespread acceptance of free market capitalism. The United Nations and its evolving scope of activities are our best collective attempt so far at a vehicle for mediating multilateral, multicultural understanding at the global foreign affairs level. In global business, truly successful multicultural and multilateral understandings occur only in partnerships and conglomerate organizations where power is shared as evenly and widely as possible, ample occasions are taken to solicit feedback from all parties affected, and stakes in possible outcomes are equitably shared in win–win agreements. At present, the tensions between empire and isolationism, unilateralism and multilateralism, and hegemony and diversity in our new global interdependence intertwine in international commerce and foreign affairs. Resolution comes only through the setting aside of prejudice and immediate selfinterest in order to gain, in the longer term, a better world for all involved.

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If our own corporations have been contributing to the growing hostility and chaos on the global stage, enabled by our own government, why have we not yet as a people moved in an orchestrated and expedited manner to weigh in? Because we have not fully comprehended the problems the world is struggling with, recognized our role in them, and accepted our responsibility for working collaboratively in the world community to solve them. In equal parts, this is a function of rank ignorance, self-absorption, and self-protective dysfunctional prejudices that prevent us from receiving the ample information available to us all along, a topic we turn to next. PREJUDICE CLUSTERS THAT INHIBIT PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION Prejudice truncates information received from the environment and prevents accurate assessment of the situation and one’s relationship to it. On the global playing field, the United States has been a major player in creating world problems and will of necessity be a major player in solving them. Until some key prejudice clusters are acknowledged and diminished, however, it will be difficult to engage in optimal public discourse regarding the nature of any problems, our relationship to them, and the best approaches to their solutions. Four clusters of self-serving and limiting prejudices—ethnocentrism, nationalism, xenophobia, and noble-savage myths—will be commented on briefly here. Ethnocentrism For Americans, and “Americentrism,” this involves the tacit assumption that our American values and beliefs are universal, rather than probably quite unique to the United States. It is the single most limiting blind spot in our thinking, pervading many of the disciplines and professions spawned in this country, and manifesting in our international business and governmental foreign affairs with regularity. It is manifest in thoughtless presumptions that ours is the only form— or if not, the best form—of democracy, feminism, freedom, family values, work ethic, leisure, etc. Our national leaders and the rarity of information sources in this country without an Americentric bent perpetuate it. Ethnocentrism is reflected in the insular claim that we don’t need to leave this country to experience the world, since it comes to us. It is closely related to a more specific prejudicial

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belief that we are the world’s ideal, a topic taken up later in this chapter. Nationalism Nationalism for Americans—or patriotism—is in need of redefinition if we are to love our country without unnecessary prejudice against others. The “love it or leave it” mentality by which we signal devoted patriotism and deny dissension in effect forces a blind prejudice for the United States and against anything or anyone alleged to be against it. We must reframe nationalism and patriotism in ways that allow continued pride and commitment to our country and also a healthy scrutiny of alternative policies and practices domestically and internationally. This prejudice cluster was in part responsible for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and also for McCarthyism, for example. Correctly framed national pride would allow us to love our country and appreciate our military personnel while still allowing disagreement with our foreign affairs policies to be expressed. It would support multiperspective discourse and not just the dominant “party line”—because it strengthens, not diminishes, us. Xenophobia Xenophobia, or fear of strangers, may be in part responsible for our obsession with classifying and categorizing people, as if a label makes them more known. It can contribute to the difficulties in distinguishing race, culture, and nationality that many Americans experience. It also feeds discomfort about multiracial, multicultural, and multinational individuals and institutions. The xenophobe’s obsession with distinguishing “us” versus “them” is taxed when the world is complex and highly interdependent, and xenophobia may undergird the mix of nihilistic and white supremacist thinking of some of our population who opt for “head for the hills “ isolationism. Noble-Savage Myths These myths presume that people are either an endangered species of untainted aboriginals, residual from an earlier epoch, or they are just like us, or at least “wannabes.” Superficially appreciative of culturally different peoples, these myths assume that culture is static and not changing, they idealize the native group while dismissing or

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demonizing their surrounding “conquering” group, and they promote patronizing protectionism that handicaps the groups’ viability in their larger society. Many countries have indigenous peoples. In transnational exchanges, the population heterogeneity and issues of social justice within that country may well involve issues of environmental and economic sustainability and careful attention to the proposals and plans indigenous leaders have for restoring financial selfsufficiency, developing culturally appropriate forms of education, law, social services, etc., and other culture-centered mechanisms for building community empowerment and collective self-respect. In dealing with multicultural complexities of other countries we engage with, it is important to recognize indigenous and other minority groups and their specific needs with respect to their surrounding environments, without dismissing the rest of that nation as “just like us” except poorer. PREJUDICE OF THE “HAVES” AND “HAVE NOTS” In the battle against prejudice and discrimination, we have focused most on the prejudice of the powerful and dominant hegemony, the “haves,” who oppress and discriminate against the disenfranchised and underprivileged “have nots.” But “have not” minority groups hold reciprocally negative views of their oppressors. Post-colonial scarification and emergent anti-imperialist positions reflect their own share of prejudices held by the “have nots.” Many subjugated people on this planet harbor quite negative opinions about the selfish and self-serving United States, in that Americans are (in their view) hypocrites and imperialistic capitalist pigs, cultural invaders, enemies of traditional values, environment destroyers, self-proclaimed but uninvited world police, etc. In the same way, many members of exploited minority groups have biases against the dominant group in any country. However, in a socially unjust and economically inequitable world, it is up to the “haves” and not the “have nots” to make the big changes—not out of philanthropic motive but because a short-term loss of power permits long-term gain and because the “haves” indeed have more resources to bear in establishing a socially just balance of power and harmonious coexistence. Just as the citizens of a rich and powerful nation like the United States can afford their prejudice and ignorance of circumstances in other countries—for at least the short term—so can the United States as a nation, with its reserves of money and military might, mount

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unilateral and aggressive interventions without first seeking world approval—but again only for the short term. At a larger, longer-term level, the dense interdependencies the United States has with all other countries of the world make unilateralism nonviable. The United States needs the support of the world community on both economic and military fronts. Short-term concessions to consult world opinion and develop more widespread consensus afford the United States more viable solutions in the long term. Similarly, the historically dominant institutions of this country are finally now striving to be more inclusive—again, not out of charity but because the burgeoning diverse groups constitute significant voting and buying power, and it is prudent and in the best interests of our institutions’ long-term viability that they be courted and power shared with them. An example of a dominant group willing to share power with a lessempowered one is occurring in Hawaii. Native Hawaiians, heavily outnumbered by newcomers and relegated to the bottom tier of society since the illegal overthrow of their monarchy, are seeking restoration of their sovereign rights. The “Akaka Bill,” at the time of this writing before the U.S. Congress, calls for the U.S. government to recognize the Hawaiian race as an indigenous Native American group, and for the United States to develop a political relationship with this group— one sovereign entity to another—that is, a political and not judicial remedy. Importantly, the non-Hawaiian dominant population is in very strong support. The majority “haves” recognize that rectifying past injustice and restoring morality to the life of the land are in the long-term interests of the interdependent island residents and the visitors they host—“It wouldn’t be Hawaii without the Hawaiians.” Because of the breadth, depth, and complexities of our global interdependencies, the social and economic inequities extant on this planet are likely to be addressed by the richer and most powerful nations— for sheer self-preservation. Remediation of prejudice and discrimination at the international or global level will require the same recognition of interdependence, commitment to social justice, and significant personal and institutional action that it does and has at the more parochial level. IMPORTANCE OF ENLIGHTENED LEADERS AND MULTIPERSPECTIVE DISCOURSE The influence of enlightened leaders in this regard cannot be overstated. Just as the malevolent prejudices and malicious discriminatory

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aggressions of leaders like Adolf Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic ignited and fueled horrendous genocidal campaigns, so can leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi ignite a collective vision of a world without prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Bigotry in any form can be transformed majestically by charismatic leaders focused on its eradication. It is important that only politicians demonstrating enlightened plans to move us toward a world without prejudice be elected, and that only enlightened corporate boards and executives be granted the funds and power to conduct our business. Equally important in identifying and eliminating prejudice and discrimination at the national or global level is ample and ongoing dialogue, discourse, and debate in the public arena. This optimizes input from all possible perspectives and participative engagement and “buy in” by all possible parties, and reminds all involved of the diversity of viewpoints and values. Decision-making teams are slower to get going when they comprise heterogeneous members rather than homogenous teams, because they face more points of potential conflict and impass and cannot resort to simple “groupthink” processes. Once they get going, however, they can be markedly more creative in their problem solving (Adler, 1991; Maznevski, 1994; McLeod & Lobel, 1992). At the interdependent world level, it is at the surface much easier for a country or corporation to operate at a unilateral level, but the multilateral form of agreement maximizes the longterm gains for all involved and minimizes unforeseen and costly backlashes of many kinds. IMAGES AND PERCEPTIONS THAT FUEL PREJUDICE In today’s environment of rapid globalization and escalating imbalance and danger, full and accurate information and precise communication that have their intended effect and no more become crucial. But prejudice blocks information transfer and distorts accuracy of information that is both sent and received in communication. More, and more complex, interdependence makes prejudices more actively dangerous, and efforts to identify and eliminate destructive prejudices and use engagement and change strategies better suited to our multicultural and shrinking world become increasingly important. Four fallacious and damaging core images or perceptions sustaining prejudice at the international level are identified here.

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We Are the Ideal “We are the ideal” is a core ethnocentric belief that pervades our society. Our freedoms, wealth, luxuries, form of democracy, morality, style of marriage and family, knowledge—this is as good as it gets, we tell ourselves. All the rest of the world is to be judged against us as an ideal and will always be found wanting. When we encounter antiAmerican sentiment, we dismiss it as pure jealousy: the rest of the world covets what we have, we are sure. They are motivated by the same things we are, but we simply have more of what all of them value. This perception is shaken when we review our cross-border missteps in hindsight. In the United States, overtime pay is a great incentive, but when American managers offer much more pay to Mexican maquilladora workers to work more hours, they walk off the job— family time is valued much more than money there. Similarly, creating friendly competition spurs productivity in American factories, but it is offensive in a maquilladora, where competing against peers to benefit American management violates friendships (Lane, DiStefano, & Maznevski, 2000). The initial attempt to replicate Disneyland in Paris was a near-fatal failure because of the marked offense the French took at such Americanisms as the “snaking roped line” method of crowd control, the constant-smile requirement for park attendants, and the ban on wine (Hodgett & Luthans, 2001). Americans seem puzzled by the rationing of American films and television shows in France, and by the recent concerns expressed in Mexico that an overload of U.S.-made movies would erode their culture with unwanted values and perspectives. Current problems in Iraq have shaken the “we are the ideal” prejudice, and there is a rash of public discussion regarding whether or not there is more than one kind of democracy, whether democracy can exist without JudeoChristianity, and whether ours is not surely the best. A particularly blinding iteration of this ethnocentric belief is that “they see us as we see us.” This reflects what Lane et al. (2000) call lack of cultural empathy. Cultural empathy is the recognition that other groups have their own values and ideals, and may likely see us in a different light. One way to counteract this ethnocentric narcissism is immersion in the literature of comparative values on the global stage. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998), Hall and Hall (1995), Hofstede (1980), Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961), and Ronen and Shenkar

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(1985) are among those who have modeled cultural differences in values based on extensive empirical investigations. Examining issues of collectivism, power distance, materialism, contextual communication, tolerance for uncertainty, and so forth, as these issues differentiate cultures around the world, can help loosen the “we are the ideal” or “they see us as we see ourselves” beliefs to sufficiently allow better information processing and problem solving. The more accurately we can assess their perceptions of us, the more effective and mutually beneficial our actions will become. Another approach to counteracting this ethnocentricity is to review some of the ways in which we are not the best (for example, gunrelated deaths, abuse of children and elderly, vacation days or retirement security, workaholism and workplace violence, health insurance or mental health profiles, safety nets for the poor, academic achievement of children) and question why. A complementary approach is to review some of the ways in which the worldviews and lifestyles of people in other countries may set higher standards in certain areas (for example, Chinese elders get more respect, Europeans walk more than we do and have a wider selection of cheeses, family relationships are stronger in Latin countries) and again ask why. This usually leads to a more balanced and suitably modest self-assessment. Probably the best approach to counteracting ethnocentricity is seeing Americans as people from other countries might. Glimpses are possible in living abroad or travel abroad immersion experiences, through coverage of the United States by the news media of other nations, and in some of the American culture books designed for sojourners and students of English as a second language (Nussbaum, 1998), or those sources for Americans that poke fun at us (Moore, 2001). It is endlessly entertaining and instructive to see the different “takes” people in other countries may have of our foreign policy, lifestyle, management of diversity, approach to religion, business management, and folksy ways. Might Is Right The view that “might is right” and the corresponding perception that “it’s a dog eat dog world” also fuel prejudice and discrimination at the global level. They suggest threat and the need for reflexive, pre-emptive aggression—pressures allowing little room for contemplative analysis and extended information-getting. As such,

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they reflect a primitive approach founded in uninformed prejudice that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy—the more a country throws its weight around, the more offended groups fight back, leading to renewed aggression and further confirmation that it is indeed a zero sum field of conflict, with only winners and losers. These dynamics can be seen in the current unilateral interventions of the United States in its war on terrorism. The economic, cultural, and psychological imperialisms associated with economic globalization are more insidious, but the core premise of imperialism is “might is right,” and the fiercely competitive “dog eat dog world” of international business at present can have wide ripple effects. The World Is Quite Simple Another primitive cluster of perceptions is that “the world is quite simple—it’s just us and them.” Such simplicity permits ample prejudice development because it presumes there is only one version of “us” and one version of “them.” Every country has some diversity in terms of demographics, politics, religion, values, wealth and power, etc., and most of its citizens may well be quite multicultural. Furthermore, religions, races, ethnicities, political leanings, and other values frameworks are generally distributed across numerous countries and even continents. On certain issues, the world’s women, Catholics, indigenous peoples, or teenagers may find more in common with one another than they do with fellow citizens of their countries. In short, it is not so easy to determine who is “us” and who is “them.” Prejudices based in this perception are often seen in isolationist perspectives, which can tend toward xenophobia. They are also typically a part of genocidal fascism, as was seen in the Nazi Party, and of racial supremacy movements, like the Aryan Brotherhood. They were manifest in improper actions against Arab Americans—many of whom were third-generation Americans—subsequent to 9/11. They are often found when a country’s leader and its citizens are seen as the same, when generalizations about national character are overblown, and when ethnicity and nationality are equated. Another version of this perceptual system is “the world is quite simple—people are the same everywhere.” The more insulated and less worldly the individual or group, the more its universal model will tilt toward its own uniqueness. The assumption that the world is quite simple permits rampant prejudice development because it tilts

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the perceiver away from close observation and information seeking and forces premature closure of ambiguity. With a paucity of information and premature judgment, prejudice can bloom unfettered. Antidotes for both versions involve delving for more complexity and heterogeneity in oneself, one’s country, and the world; recognizing that there are not many pure types in this hybridized, morphing multicultural world; and that increasingly people can and will hold allegiances to previously separate identities and groups. The World Is Just Too Complicated Another core perception feeding prejudice at the global level is that “the world is just too complicated for me to understand and improve.” Like not exercising one’s voting rights, this functions as a “cop out” from social responsibilities and perpetuates ignorance and complacency. It is a dangerous premise that permits the surmise that others are more qualified to operate on the world, and it permits the abdication of responsibility to monitor the efficacy and moral good of those others, allowing a vacuum that could be filled by unenlightened or even detrimental leadership. While most of us take at least some responsibility for understanding and acting to improve things within our own country, fewer Americans pay as much attention to foreign affairs. The canvas seems so much broader and more irrelevant to our well-being. It is commonly observed that many people in other countries follow U.S. politics more than U.S. citizens do; that Americans’ knowledge of basic geography is lower and its insularity and self-absorption higher than that of its trading partners; that Americans mistake their own diversity for that of the world; and that while American government and business interests have a major presence and aggressive impact around the world, Americans as a people are not very worldly. Yes, the world is indeed complicated, but not so much that we should avoid the responsibility of learning about its issues and acting to protect or improve it. As the world shrinks and we become increasingly interdependent, we also become increasingly citizens of the world. Just as we teach our children about our nation’s history and government and urge each other onward toward social and political activism in our home country, we will be wanting to teach our children about the world and its issues and move ourselves toward increased agency in addressing prejudice and social injustice on the world stage.

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STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE In significant ways, prevalent unconscious and unquestioned prejudices hinder the development of an informed international or global perspective. As with the early days of feminism and multiculturalism, we must focus on making the unconscious conscious and the unquestioned questioned; on reworking relevant language as needed; on leaning into the discomfort that confronting prejudice in oneself or others brings; on accepting the responsibility of changing dangerous prejudices at the international level proactively; and on building bench strength in organizers and “bridge people” who are able to bring disparate groups together for common aims. Just as developing awareness, knowledge, and skill is necessary to the development of multicultural competence (Sue & Sue, 1999), so too is it necessary to the development of international competence. Awareness Awareness can be heightened in many ways at the individual level and later at the larger community and institutional levels. International news reporting of current events via the Internet, Manchester Guardian, Le Monde, BBC, and so on can be obtained, and international students or sojourners can be interviewed to give a different perspective on ourselves than we hold. Instances of “we are the ideal” ethnocentrism are everywhere in our classrooms, news media, and casual discussion. We can ask ourselves how news could be delivered without this implicit bias, and what difference that would make in its effect. We can identify the “might is right” and “dog eat dog world” motifs in nearly all discussions having to do with economic inequity and political power, and ask what other values and approaches might be introduced in counterpoint. We can engage colleagues and friends in discussion of world events, identify the “world is quite simple” and “it’s just too complicated” themes, and take delight in the insights and “aha” experiences that growing awareness and consciousnessraising provide. Some of our biases are contained unwittingly in our language itself, and over time some language changes may occur as vested parties work through their assorted attributions and meanings and arrive at more precise and less offensive terminology. In the history of race relations in this country, we have witnessed the progression of labels, for example, Negro to black to African American, etc. Similar grappling for different terminology occurred with the women’s movement

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and the evolution of other oppressed groups as the objects of labels protested the pejorative baggage of words and proposed their own terms. This will undoubtedly occur for some time to come as global thinking capacity is expanded. We have already discussed the problems attached to U.S. citizens appropriating the term American when it belongs technically to people throughout the Americas. Another currently contentious term in some circles is global. For some, this has a positive valence—as in joining the world family, having a cosmopolitan perspective, or business strength and health—but for others it reeks of imperialistic exploitation of the weak and poor and needs alternative language. The terms alien and illegal alien have a pejorative ring and may at some time be up for revisiting. Foreign and foreigner sound negative and distancing to some who prefer terms like international or visiting. Pre-emptive strike and developing countries may be up for future review. Examining our labels and terms and clarifying our meanings will be time- and effort-intensive and frustrating, but will help raise consciousness as the different attributions and aspirations of disparate stakeholders are recognized. Knowledge Knowledge is a major need for moving us from a position of ignorance and complacency to one of informed and effective agency in global issues. The vast majority of American parents want their children to receive a globalized education, and most college entrants in this country want a study abroad experience, although both remain extremely rare for U.S. higher education students. Basic requirements for international competence would be some understanding of geography; the ways in which geophysical environment, economy, religion, government, law, social structure, and culture vary worldwide; some unbiased understanding of how one’s own country is the same and different from other countries; and objective perspectives on our country’s foreign policies and on how our country and its policies are perceived by various scrutineers outside our borders. To become proactive about aggregating tensions and misunderstandings occurring worldwide in this era of economic globalization, special emphasis should be given to new information regarding the effects of our country’s actions on others around the world, and from their perspective and not ours—to receive accurate and sufficient feedback in communication or general systems terms. This lack of selfawareness at the national level may be almost a national characteristic

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at this point for the United States, but it can be corrected, and relatively quickly, with concerted effort and vigilance—provided it is not simply delegated to a government branch or service, such as the State Department or the Central Intelligence Agency, but rather monitored by enlightened and vigilant citizens at large. Among other things, this calls for us to demand more and better from our press— which can be quite nationalistic and parochial as it selects and spins its stories. In the main, we hear much more about what is happening to “us” than to “them,” more about how “we” feel than how “they” do. Our news is also from a very Americentric perspective that reinforces already existent biases. We must insist on answers to questions like, “What are they like, what do they want, how do they see it, and how do we know?” It is this kind of knowledge that will best help build more cultural empathy, understanding, and responsiveness as a more internationally competent people. Our country’s insufficient sense of its effect on the world around it is supported by all of the core prejudicial perceptions. If we are the ideal, we don’t need to worry about how we’re coming across. It is treason to question our foreign policy, particularly in a time of war, and in any case might is right—the rest of the world just has to go along with us. Things are quite simple, and our papers and television channels tell it just like it is. It would be too complicated to process multiple views—that’s someone else’s job. Information about the ways in which people, cultures, and governments are linked through resource transfer, the finiteness of environmental and human resources, and pathways to long-term global sustainability is particularly needed at this time. Skill Skill, or measurable outcome behavior, is the necessary goal of any efforts to change prejudice or increase awareness and knowledge. If we are to develop greater global competence in our citizens and institutions, if we are to become better citizens of the world at the individual and national levels, there are a number of competencies we might focus on. Effectively soliciting, interpreting, and responding to feedback are perhaps the most important skill sets. In general, these skills are better developed in those low in power than in those high in power for obvious reasons—they are critical for survival of the vulnerable and less necessary for the powerful and well defended, who can afford

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to throw their weight around less cautiously. Because conditions change, however, even the most powerful will want to have antennae out as they interact with the larger environment. Particularly when awareness and knowledge are low, feedback about one’s impact on the environment helps improve competence, that is, it furthers awareness, knowledge, and other skill development. Other skills particularly valuable in reducing individual and group prejudice at the international level include those associated with changing public opinion on a large scale, for example, through use of media campaigns, influential advocates, artful educational venues, etc. Another related skill set uses the political system, such as community development and empowerment, advocacy, and activism regarding policies and practices from the local to the federal and international levels (United Nations, World Health Organization, the Catholic Church, global corporations, etc.). Still another skill set involves abilities to effectively lead change in teams and larger organizations in all respects—mission and goals, strategic planning, climate and culture, structure and process, etc. “Bridge person” skills are critically needed as globalization’s march demands increasing numbers of effective liaising, coordinating, mediating, negotiating and brokering agents to manage or solve conflict, and facilitating partnerships and increasingly complex multilateral, multinational agreements. Because cultures and nations can vary quite dramatically in approaches to conflict and consensus, such bridge persons will require cross-culturally effective skill repertoires. Reducing prejudices that hinder optimized peacemaking and harmonious coexistence on this shrinking planet will then require largescale efforts to increase awareness, knowledge, and skills. These efforts can and must be made at the individual, community, and educator/ practitioner levels as we work to increase our bench strength in international competence. Individual Change Individual change is needed whether the individual seeks to be an enlightened leader or enlightened community member, stockholder, worker, consumer, or voter. Given the historical newness of globalism, consciousness-raising for individuals in any roles must and will occur to increase awareness of the ways in which we are increasingly interconnected, the ways in which we unintentionally choose the less desirable course of action, and the ways in which we blindly ignore

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or misread our feedback regarding international and global involvements. Individuals’ knowledge bases can and should be expanded regarding ways that action or practice by their government, the corporation in which they own stock, the company they work for, the company whose shoes or food they buy, and the religious organization they affiliate with have social, economic, and moral consequences for people outside our borders. Individuals armed with sufficient awareness and knowledge can and should boycott corporations behaving in socially irresponsible ways, lobby for improved social justice on the world stage, and protest stridently against socially irresponsible actions of their employers, churches, and elected and appointed government officials. Community Community changes are also much needed in changing collective prejudices and their pernicious and damaging consequences. At the local level, developing a sister relationship with a school, parish, city, or company overseas facilitates mutual learning about differences and common grounds. Groups with established internationalist issues and agendas can affiliate around specific projects with shared concerns and attendant strategies to increase their influence. New groups can be created. Witness the Internet-based burgeoning of virtual penpals, chatrooms, news reporting, and special interest organizations allowing people around the world to exchange information and perspectives, and find common grounds and concerns. The speed of virtual community development cannot be underestimated, nor can its powers for either good or bad. People are organizational, and organizations are nested within other organizations and families of organizations. So, in most cases people find they have, through such organizational chaining, an international interface, a world affairs task force, or a global strategy unit of their employer, investment company, church, etc. This group, or an independently established one, can be organized and charged as an international watchdog to monitor and publicize social responsibilities of the organization worldwide, so that affiliated individuals can take informed ownership, supporting social responsibility or sanctioning bad practice and leveraging change where needed. While there are periodic and sporadic disclosures of graft and corruption, child labor, unhealthy workplaces, sexual harassment and coercion, and so forth in some arm or another of our government or corporate organizations,

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much of their overseas behavior is still largely unmonitored and unregulated by the public, contributing to our widespread and continuing complacency, ignorance, and prejudices. Standards are still quite low, with the United Nations not yet very evolved and international business law and ethics still embryonic, uneven, and biased. The bars for social responsibility in the global arena must thus be ever reset at higher levels if economic globalization is to have the appropriate checks and balances. When the United States passed the Foreign Corrupt Powers Act (Graham, 1983) that made it illegal for our companies to use bribery in their overseas dealings, the companies protested that it would make them noncompetitive because bribery was how international business was conducted. In fact, host country governments worldwide were grateful—the Act helped their own anticorruption efforts—and our companies actually prospered more. In short, the individual person, community, or nation can, and should, strive to make a positive difference in business and government affairs at the global level. Educators/Practitioners Educators and practitioners are, of course, individuals and members and leaders of groups and communities, but they also have areas of specialty that they can internationalize and direct toward pressing global concerns. Educators have the critical task of preparing informed and responsible citizens of the world and of grooming the much-needed “bridge persons” who will have special roles in guiding us safely through this era of globalization. Globalizing higher education in the post-9/11 United States has been declared urgent, with more languages, area studies, study abroad, and exchange programs being called for. At least as importantly, consensually, is meeting the marked need of our students for more information about countries other than ours and frameworks that permit them to make comparative and informed analyses about the wide range of physical, political, and socioeconomic conditions elsewhere. Most existing educational material has been developed by American writers, showing sometimes-alarming levels of Americentrism and perpetuating blissful lack of self-awareness and related prejudices. Educators must then make a point of presenting information from alternative perspectives to the Americentric one. Use of texts and other materials written by non-American authors can challenge Americentrism with alternative voices. Use of sojourning international faculty more routinely can

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help our students understand and accept alternative perspectives. Confronting unacknowledged prejudices and misconceptions, and exposure to sometimes unflattering views of ourselves, can produce emotional reactions and resistance. Instructors also need additional skills to manage the painful dialogues associated with meaningful attitude change and enlightenment. In addition, as more international student and faculty visitors join our classrooms and bring with them their assets of divergent perspectives, learning styles, and knowledge bases, instructors will need training and support in optimizing their priceless contributions to their classrooms, as well as in providing them with an education optimally useful to them in returning to their very different home countries. The United States has a great comparative resource in its higher education. Given the phenomenal educational needs in developing countries, the greatest market for our higher education is outside our borders, and U.S. educational institutions are competing for shares of the world market and the privilege of training leaders and professionals necessary for world development. The speed of economic globalization has exponentially increased this worldwide need for an educated technical, professional, and managerial workforce. The sheer economic practicalities indicate that the training must and will occur overseas and in those countries, via new arrangements and partnerships supported by virtual distance learning. Education has long been held as a vehicle for economic, social, political, and even moral enlightenment around the world, so this is a case where U.S. educators may perchance do well by doing good. It is vitally important, however, that the export of American-style education be culturally appropriate, requiring considerable overhaul and the need to develop more information about the host country or region and from that perspective. Incenting research and scholarship in less-developed countries, partnering with overseas educators in new and mutually rewarding approaches, and reworking both the content and delivery format (language included) poses an important challenge if we are to avoid cultural imperialism and respond effectively to the task of developing “bridge persons” for the new environment. Finally, some of our disciplines and professions are distinctly western or American, and therefore culturally encapsulated in ways unseen to Americentric scholars, teachers, and students. If they are to be adopted and utilized in nations around the world, their content and form may need major overhaul. Marsella (1998) has described the need to overhaul western psychology and develop a meta-discipline of

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“global community psychology” if the field is to be relevant and useful in addressing the needs of our changing world. Practitioners of all stripes can work on remedying issues of prejudice, ignorance, and incompetence at the global level. They can partner with colleagues or sponsors outside our borders to develop and disseminate knowledge about needs, best solutions, and practices for particular countries and regions, providing culturally appropriate and needed services in host countries while helping to expand and globalize the knowledge base of their discipline, profession, or trade. Physicians can investigate indigenous healing methods and delivery systems while offering their services as needed to effect bilateral and mutually rewarding exchanges. Managers can seek ways to improve short-and long-term business yields through multinational teams, multilateral agreements about workforce issues, and corporate responsibilities. They can host communities and develop and broadcast improved forms of feedback mechanisms for globalizing entities. Researchers can participate in internationally collaborative research and demonstration projects for the problems facing impoverished countries around the world—water treatment, urban planning, agricultural productivity, worker health, etc., and thereby extend our existing knowledge base for solving problems in living. Information technology and communications specialists can sponsor developed forms of global communication and information transfer, attending to the wide range of data sources and heterogeneity of communication environments worldwide. They can also possibly do well by doing good if they remain conscious (and conscientious) that in today’s world, information and control of communication are power. Lawyers have an almost open field in terms of international law. Behavioral health practitioners can expand their targets, addressing with overseas partners the many problems of economically developing countries, such as illiteracy, poverty, civil war, minority group disenfranchisement, workforce development, and child exploitation. In addition, they can apply their understanding of prejudice, attitude change, group decision-making, cooperative conflict resolution, and social justice dynamics to social groups larger than individuals and families and in culturally different contexts, seeking approaches to change in more collectivist environments as increasing interdependence makes all problem solutions increasingly multilateral. Individuals, groups, and educators/practitioners face enormous challenges in overcoming prejudices and developing our international competence—but also the prospects of exciting new solutions and

Toolbox for Change Strategies for change* Images/ perceptions We are ideal

Individual Use values/ perspectives of other groups to frame how others perceive Americans.

Community

Practitioners/ educators

Create true Import/apply reciprocity in collectivist a transnational problem-solving activity, avoiding tactics/skill sets power imbalance learned elsewhere, and ensuring for example, a mutually high-context satisfactory communication, feedback face-saving system. strategies, and consensual decision-making.

Might is right Reframe Develop/enforce patriotism, international seek standards of enlightened social leadership, responsibility and engage for global with social corporations to responsibility, follow within not the local imperialism communities in issues. which they operate.

Participate in solving a problem of another country’s disenfranchised group with a focus on a process to better share power.

Simple world Practice cultural Appropriately Address cultural relativism, compose heterogeneity cultural multinational within individuals, empathy, teams, optimize communities, and understanding input from countries, and and all possible address the acceptance of perspectives, and complex differences. use a process of interdependencies consensual on a worldwide problem-solving. level.

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Toolbox for Change Strategies for change* Image/ perception Complex world

Individual

Community

Study economic Participate actively and in an environmental international sustainability. organization concerned with social justice abuse.

Educators/ practitioners Utilize systemic, ecological, and contextual models of organizational change.

*This is only one set of examples from a very large number of possible ones.

the satisfactions of addressing problems in living worldwide. Economic globalization and increasing international interdependence heighten danger but afford new opportunities. Expanding our battle against prejudice and discrimination to the world stage is critical if we are to contribute to helping solve world problems in meaningful ways. It is a moral call, and a practical one, too. If not us, who? If not now, when? As we begin to make the unconscious conscious and the unquestioned questioned, we will find creative and proactive ways as an enlightened and empowered population to make our contributions conscientiously and collaboratively with the rest of the world community toward our shared goals of achieving peace, prosperity, and balance globally. REFERENCES Adler, N. J. (1991). International dimensions of organizational behavior. Boston: PWS-Kent Publishing. Graham, J. (1983, Fall). Foreign corruption practices act: A manager’s guide. Columbia Journal of World Business, 93. Greider, W. (1996). One world, ready or not: The manic logic of global capitalism. New York: Simon and Schuster. Hall, E. T., & Hall, M. R. (1995). Understanding cultural differences. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press. Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2001). Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hodgett, R., & Luthans, F. (2001). International management. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work related values. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Jameson, F., & Miyoshi, M. (1999). The cultures of globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Kaplan, R. (1994, February). The coming anarchy. The Atlantic Monthly, 273, 44–76. Kluckhohn, F. R., & Strodtbeck, F. L. (1961). Variations in value orientations. New York: Row, Peterson, and Co. Lane, H. W., DiStefano, J. J., & Maznevski, M. L. (2000). International management behavior. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Marsella, A. J. (1998). Towards a “global-community psychology.” American Psychologist, 53, 1282–1291. Maznevski, M. L. (1994). Understanding our differences: Performance in decision-making groups with diverse members. Human Relations, 47, 531–552. McKibben, B. (1998, May). The future of population: A special moment in history. The Atlantic Monthly, 281, 55–78. McLeod, P. L., & Lobel, S. A. (1992). The effects of ethnic diversity on idea generation in small groups (pp. 227–231). Academy of Management Annual Meeting Best Papers Proceeding. McLuhan, M. (1989). The global village: Transformation in world life and media in the 21st century. New York: Oxford Press. Moore, M. (2001). Stupid white men. New York: HarperCollins. Nussbaum, S. (1998). The ABCs of American culture. Colorado Springs, CO: Global Mapping International. Ronen, S., & Shenkar, O. (1985). Clustering countries on attitudinal dimensions: A review and synthesis. Academy of Management Journal, 9, 435–454. Soros, G. (1997, February). The capitalist threat. The Atlantic Monthly, 279, 45–58. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1999). Counseling the culturally different. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Trompenaars, F., & Hampden-Turner, C. (1998). Riding the waves of culture. New York: McGraw-Hill. Vidal, G. (1996, September). The end of history. The Nation, 11–18.

CHAPTER 7

The Sociocultural Abuse of Power: A Model for Shared Power BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. —Audre Lorde, 1934–1992 (as quoted in Lloyd, 1997)

T

he constructs of prejudice and discrimination are not only interpersonal but sociocultural in nature. It is through sociocultural practices that institutional prejudices are erected and maintained. Systems, by nature, are therefore designed to perpetuate themselves and maintain homeostasis (Bowen, 1978; Minuchin & Fishman, 1990). When those systems have an inequitable distribution of power, the tendency to abuse power is inexplicably enhanced (McIntosh, 1988; Heylighen, 1992). Prejudicial attitudes and beliefs develop and can negatively impact behaviors and create pain for those who are its targets (L. Comas-Diaz, as quoted in McGuire, 1999). An extreme example of this negative behavior is hate crimes. In an FBI report (2001), it was noted that blacks were the largest group targeted for hate crimes and experienced a level that was over three times higher than that of other groups. This chapter explores abuses of power by utilizing a model of sociocultural abuse of power/control that identifies eight elements of abuse that occur within a social context. A discussion will ensue

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regarding how abusive systems contribute to the development of what the author calls “oppression reactive syndromes.” The chapter will conclude with the introduction of a model of shared power and control that leads to the healing of individuals and systems. The model will be contrasted against incidences of power abuse and will provide an exploration of how power can be shared when eight core aspects of empowerment are present. Throughout this chapter, the author will illustrate principles and elements of each aspect of the models discussed (abuse of power versus shared power) by referring to research, data, and/or case examples derived from her twenty-four years of clinical experience in providing consultation, training, supervision, and clinical services to diverse individuals. While many references will be made to blacks, the reader is challenged to consider how these incidences apply to other groups as well. THE SOCIOCULTURAL MODEL OF ABUSE OF POWER AND CONTROL The current model of sociocultural abuse of power and control originated one day during a therapy session with a black female who had left a physically abusive relationship one year earlier. During the session, the client began to describe problems at her worksite, including experiences of isolation, sexual harassment, and lack of economic opportunities. During the previous course of therapy, the therapist had introduced the client to the power and control wheel created through the Domestic Containment Program in Duluth, Minnesota (Pense & Paymar, 1993). In that model, the power and control wheel describes eight forms of psychological abuse consisting of specific behaviors associated with domestic violence. It then occurred to the author that people of color who live in America have also experienced domestic (as compared to international) violence. Consequently, America, as the domicile of many “minority” groups, has resulted in sociocultural disparities in the ways in which majority versus minority cultures are treated. Over the course of time, the treatment endured by many groups of minority status can be easily described as violent and abusive in nature. Lenore Walker (1994) has highlighted the similarities that exist between sociocultural abuse and domestic violence. She suggests that domestic violence researchers and practitioners incorporate the definitions of psychological violence or terrorism endorsed by Amnesty

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International, as they closely resemble the ways that male batterers control and intimidate their female partners. Thus, in order to capture the constructs of psychological violence, the current sociocultural model of abuse of power and control is characterized by eight oppressive elements that contribute to the development and maintenance of discrimination and prejudice: (1) isolation; (2) emotional abuse; (3) economic abuse; (4) sexual abuse; (5) using children; (6) using threats; (7) using intimidation; and (8) using white, male, or American privilege. Because oppression is institutionalized in our society, members of marginalized groups often believe and internalize the oppressive messages created about them. Thus, oppression incorporates the development of multiple “isms,” including externalized and internalized biases such as homophobia, able-ism, classism, sexism, racism, size-ism, ageism, and religious oppression (Public Agenda, 2004b). In the face of marginalization, subjugated groups develop oppressive reactive syndromes. Oppression Reactive Syndromes Authors have defined the nature of oppression (Winters, 1996; Wendell, 1990). Kammer (2002), for example, contends that the major source of oppression and sickness in our society is unresolved, unhealed personal trauma. He surmises that it is unresolved individual trauma that becomes institutionalized as oppressive forces that propagate more personal trauma. Van der Kolk (1987) also attests to the deleterious social impact of personal trauma. Miller (1990) attempts to address the formation of the oppressive reactive syndromes by her reference to the “cultural relational paradox.” In her model, the cultural relational paradox is applied to marginalized groups within the dominant culture. Specifically, she posits that people from non-dominant groups long to be in connection to the dominant culture but experience repeated violations and disconnections within the dominant culture. In response, members of the non-dominant group consciously keep parts of their experience “away from” their interactions with the dominant group, or unconsciously distance themselves from their own cultural and ethnic experiences. Within each perspective from which it is explained, oppression is distilled to a definition that incorporates the systematic abuse of power by one group over another in order to maintain social benefits, power, and control. Oppression, by definition, also includes a systematic

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mistreatment of one group by another group within a context of “socially oppressive” imbalances that must be expressed through the governmental and societal systems that sustain them. An oppressive reactive syndrome is operationalized as a group of signs and symptoms that occur concurrently to characterize a particular reaction to an oppressive condition or state. Oppressive reactive syndromes comprise identifiable patterns of symptoms including the following: Lowered self-esteem Lowered sense of self-worth Loss of own self-identity Reduced self-confidence in abilities Decreased sense of competence Restricted sense of possible life options Increased self-doubt Lack of trust in others Hyper-vigilance Feelings of loneliness and social isolation Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness Embarrassment, humiliation, shame Guilt Depression Anxiety Rage, anger Blocking (or difficulty concentrating or processing information) Fear of abandonment Fear of serious physical, economic, or social harm to oneself, one’s children, or other family members Emotional paralysis Poverty of spirit and spiritual depletion

The “fly in the buttermilk” syndrome comes from an exposure to discriminatory and oppressive behaviors by the mainstream culture that overmagnifies the presence of the “minority group” members. This is evidenced by the experience of being “singled out” by practices such as racial profiling at airports, in cars, and in other venues of import. It is also seen in the workplace, where people of color report that their employers and white peers overemphasize and magnify their mistakes or differences, while minimizing their successes or similarities.

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The fly in the buttermilk syndrome is the opposite of the invisibility syndrome. The “invisibility syndrome” (Franklin, 1993) was originally used to describe the experience of blacks in reaction to the dominant culture ignoring, minimizing, or marginalizing the existence, contributions, and needs of blacks in America. The phenomenon of invisibility is also evident when individuals go shopping and are ignored by clerks who “did not see them.” It is also noted in employment situations where many organizations find it much easier to hire or promote white employees than to recognize the talent or contributions of culturally different individuals. People with the “dangerous minds” syndrome complain that they are perceived as being “too hostile, too outspoken, too confident, too aggressive, too knowledgeable, and too intimidating with their knowledge.” Because of the ethnic belief that being “twice as good” will lead to getting “half as much,” many individuals who are not affiliated with mainstream cultures believe mainstream authority figures perceive them as threats. Within this realm of logic, if one wishes to “get ahead” (as opposed to simply “getting half as much”), then it is necessary not only to be “twice as good” but to be “three or four” times as good. For this reason, it is not unusual for individuals who have characteristics of the “dangerous mind” syndrome to seek extra degrees, training/experience, or expertise as a means of leveling the playing field or seizing new opportunities. They also tend to assess the goal of others as “bringing them down a notch or two and keeping them in their places.” Similar to people with the dangerous minds syndrome, individuals with the “man enough” or “woman enough” syndrome have an element of super-achievement and pressure to perform. This syndrome is a direct reaction to economic abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. The individuals’ behavior is self-destructive, and they become addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping, eating, gambling, or other means of achieving immediate gratification. Children have impulse control problems and are belligerent and susceptible to gang activity. The primary aspect of this syndrome is that the person becomes excessive, fights a lot (either physically or verbally), and seeks material wealth to compensate for internal feelings of inadequacy. In essence, people who experience the syndrome feel as if they are never good enough and often mistake who they are with what they do or how much they possess. “Stereotyped threat syndrome” is described by the research of Claude Steele (1997) and is a reaction to circumstances involving a

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negative cultural bias about one’s group. Individuals with the syndrome internalize those biases and modify their behavior because of them. Specifically, individuals may “live up to what is expected” of them and do less well because they are “being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype.” Successful inclusion in a predominately white society may often translate into the practice of “culture swapping,” during which a culturally different person perceives that she is expected to discard her cultural values, practices, and identity. Some members of ethnic minority groups complain that they are asked to “sell themselves out” by relinquishing their cultural integrity in order to assimilate—until they are no longer recognizable to themselves or others. This practice results in alienation or disconnection from their cultural communities, and it leads to what Na’aim Akbar (1981) calls an “alien self disorder.” Lillian Comas-Diaz (McGuire, 1999) offers a similar framework in her reference to the identity formation of immigrants, called the “post-colonization stress disorder.” The process of developing post-colonization stress disorder is one in which individuals are relegated to enduring the stress of moving into a mainstream culture that does not embrace their cultural values or practices, but instead attempts to erase their systems of existence in order to force the new immigrant to fit into the mainstream. Finally, “aversive racism reaction” syndrome is based on the work of John Dovidio, who studied a process of modern-day pro-racist behaviors, which suggests that negative attitudes toward minority groups are acquired early in life, resulting from immersion in a society with a long history of racial bias (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1991). Yet, because pressures exist against overt expression of negative attitudes toward minority group members, dominant culture members only demonstrate their racist attitudes covertly when acting on their biases can be attributed to factors other than race. People of color who experience aversive racism reactions tend to question their competence and worth. They demonstrate self-doubt, lack of trust, and a restricted sense of possible life options. They also complain that the “rules keep changing or shifting” and they eventually experience feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and shame (about never being accepted). Survivors of power abuses face numerous barriers that may leave them believing that their minority group status implies that they must be long-suffering. Despite their experiences, however, many marginalized groups are resilient; and their stories, songs, and poems often

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speak to their strengths. Within the cultural fabric of these communities are messages that they must “hold on,” “wait and/or fight for change,” and “keep hope alive.” Hope can only be realized when there is a context of shared power. THE SOCIOCULTURAL MODEL OF SHARED POWER AND CONTROL Power is often addressed in the context of its abuse, and few studies actually evaluate the impact of sharing power (Ng, 1980; Bourhis, Sachdev, & Gagnon, 1994). Yet, when power is shared, sociocultural barriers are minimized, avenues for solving problems are enhanced, and outcomes improve (Wilson, 1996; Speer & Hughey, 1995). The distribution of power is often up to those who hold it. For example, Tajfel and Turner (1986) proposed that unstable intergroup situations contributed to insecure social identity and could trigger group members’ attempts to change their positions in the social structure. Other studies looking at power differentials between groups concluded that “dominant group” members discriminated more than “subordinate group members” while “no power” group members did not discriminate at all against people placed in “outgroups” (Bourhis, 1994; Sachdev & Bourhis, 1985, 1991). Proponents of social dominance theory (Sidanius and Pratto, 1999) hold that societies are inherently hierarchical such that some groups control the majority of power and resources to the exclusion of other social groups. The maintenance of this inequality is achieved, at least in part, by system-legitimizing beliefs that serve to intellectually and morally justify the relative differences in group status. Legitimizing beliefs such as racism and sexism casts ethnic minorities and women as less capable and therefore less apt for high-status positions in society. Thus, the dominant group has a general sense of superiority associated with a proprietary claim over material as well as immaterial resources in the society. The bottom line is that those in power often have difficulty giving it up. Sharing power requires that those who are in power recognize and become receptive to those who are not. In other words, within the sociocultural model of shared power and control, being connected is the key to wellness, and wellness is a fundamental right of each individual. Finally, a tenet of this model is that healthy connections yield healthy individuals, families, and societies. Thus, from this perspective, it is unnatural for people to be disconnected because,

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biologically, we are similar in more ways than not. Mutuality and equality are our natural states. Therefore, when we discover the gift of cultural differences in each other, those gifts are to be celebrated, and our common human conditions are to be honored through processes that nurture and sustain mutually healthy connections. Jean Baker Miller (1986), in her relational cultural model, agrees that mutuality is a core condition for healthy human connections. She contends that healthy relationships must be characterized by mutual influences and mutual responsiveness within a context of empathy. Empathy is the highly developed, complex ability to join with another at a cognitive and affective level without losing connection to one’s own self. Thus, one needs to have the capacity to be authentic in relationships while also being able to see and understand the needs of others. Mutuality and empathy result in a growth-fostering relationship, which in turn, both facilitates and relies on the ability of each party to connect. Therefore, healthy connections are mutual, empathic, creative, energy-releasing, and empowering in nature. Miller (1986) describes the impact of healthy connections as yielding (1) an increased zest and vitality, (2) empowerment to act, (3) knowledge of self and others, (4) value for self/self-worth, and (5) a desire to create and sustain connections. Conversely, unhealthy connections (Miller, 1990) yield abusive relationships that result in a “depressive spiral” characterized by (1) diminished zest or vitality, (2) disempowerment, (3) confusion and lack of clarity, (4) decreased sense of self-worth, and (5) withdrawal and turning away from other relationships. The remainder of this chapter will use the sociocultural model of shared power and control to explore disconnections within the context of power abuse and how they could have been remedied if power had been shared. Likewise, oppressive reactive syndromes will be highlighted as the natural responses of diverse people to the unnatural condition of experiencing prejudice and discrimination. The components to be discussed in the context of this model include the following: • • • •

Community inclusion (versus isolation) Emotional affirmation/respect for diversity (versus emotional abuse) Economic empowerment (versus economic abuse) Honesty and accountability/restorative justice and restitution (versus intimidation) • Respect for physical health/sexuality (versus physical/sexual abuse) • Shared value and responsibility for all children (versus using children)

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• Non-threatening behavior/creating safety for challenge and risks (versus use of threats) • Equal opportunity/dismantling privilege through fairness (versus using white, male, or American privilege)

Community Inclusion (versus Isolation) as an Element of Shared Power Isolation as an efficacious strategy for gaining dominance is not a new one to man or beast. We have all seen the multiple animal documentaries narrating the plight of some lone gazelle (with a limp) that falls victim to a predatory cheetah. Once the lone or weak animal is separated from the pack, it is doomed. Likewise, in human conditions, it is not uncommon for people who are different to describe being “singled out” in multiple settings. Creating a victim requires isolation (whether real or imagined) in order for that individual to lose power, while group affiliations and attachments create power, facilitate problem-solving, enhance resource availability, and provide buffers in the face of potential adversity (Bowlby, 1988). In contrast to community connections/inclusion, social isolation serves as a stressor (House, 2001). Isolation is difficult to manage because it is not only physical in nature but intellectual. In abusive relationships, perpetrators control what victims do, whom they see and to whom they speak, where they go, and what they read. Such relationships are characterized by the abuser’s tendency to limit or cut off the victim’s access to friends or relatives and by stalking the victim and assuring that the victim does not go anywhere that she/he does not have permission to go. Thus, for culturally different groups in our society, being “the only one” or the “first one” is not always a positive experience; these factors represent isolation and vulnerability—as the story of Janice illustrates. Case Example: Janice Prominent Syndromes: Dangerous Minds, Fly in the Buttermilk, Invisibility Syndrome, Stereotyped Threat Janice was the first black female to be hired at a Fortune 500 company as an executive vice president of corporate finance. She had also been in the top of her class at a prestigious MBA program, had over fifteen years of experience, and was known in the industry as “someone who could get the job done.” As a new corporate executive,

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Janice found herself being not just the only woman, but the only black. During meetings, Janice’s colleagues made negative comments about the competence of other black or female employees. Janice stated that she experienced the difficulties alone until a white woman, Margaret, joined the management team. It was not long, however, until she and Margaret were treated with the same level of disrespect. For example, the men would go to lunch and exclude both Margaret and her. One day the company president gave Margaret a highly visible project and advised her to select her work team. Janice said that Margaret selected “everyone” except her for the team. When Janice questioned Margaret, she was told that upper management had “advised” Margaret that it would be in her best interest to “avoid” using Janice for the project. It was on that day that Janice said that she felt the most isolated. A shared model of power would have included numerous safeguards to protect Janice from isolation. For example, Margaret would have been empowered to defray the “divide and conquer” move put on her by the system in which she worked. She would have been able to engage honestly with Janice and create with her the best strategy to confront systems issues in a way that reframed the project as inclusive of all team members. Also, the work environment may have invested in mentoring programs for women or minorities. On her own, Janice may have affiliated with identity-specific professional organizations such as the National Black MBA Association or groups for women, such as the National Association for Female Executives. The key to building community is to recognize that the individual is part of a larger system that can be nurtured to sustain the connections necessary to facilitate growth. Other community-inclusion ideas could comprise social and professional functions such as book clubs, networking groups, seminars, or forums. Emotional Affirmation and Respect for Diversity (versus Emotional Abuse) as Elements of Shared Power Perpetrators who abuse emotionally tend to make light of their abuse or do not take the victims’ concerns about it seriously. They also shift responsibility for their abusive behavior to the victim or other situations. Emotional abuse also entails demeaning, devaluing, marginalizing, or putting a person down. Individuals who experience emotional abuse often state that they feel “spiritually depleted.”

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On a sociocultural level, emotional abuse also includes negative stereotyping, or name-calling, and dates back to the origination of ethnic/racial slurs. Other abusive practices include blaming individuals for things outside their control, creating systems in which they do not gain power, questioning the competence or intelligence of ethnic minorities, and/or making them think that they are “crazy” or that they are “imagining things.” Moreover, sociocultural forms of emotional abuse include a lack of cultural competence and forcing individuals and/or communities to follow mainstream rules of behavior, dress, and conduct. Perpetrators perceive victims’ cultural practices and beliefs as barbaric, sinful, inadequate, or flawed. Basically, emotional abuse means leaving individuals with a sense of systemic disfavor of their cultural, racial, and/or ethnic group. An example of an emotionally abusive situation is the case of Tomas. Case Example: Tomas Prominent Syndromes: Stereotyped Threat, Alien Self Disorder Tomas was an attractive, athletically built, conservative, brilliant gay Latino who was finding it difficult to “come out” because he realized that those around him assumed that a Latino male would be “macho” and heterosexual. Because he enjoyed playing sports of all types (including football, baseball, tennis, and hockey), he was often called a “man’s man” and was subjected to hearing “gay jokes.” His visit to counseling was precipitated by a company party to which he invited his partner, Bill (a local sportscaster), to attend. Throughout the evening, Tomas related that he needed to “find a woman and get laid!” After the party, Tomas found himself withdrawing from Bill and his colleagues. He also noted that he would tell “off the cuff” gay jokes himself. He even made sexually inappropriate statements about having sex with women. One day in a meeting, Tomas stated that the work environment was perpetuating both ethnic and sexual orientation stereotypes. As he spoke, he began to tear. Afterward, rather than matters getting better, Tomas related that they got worse. People began to question his sexuality and make jokes about him being “sensitive.” Others made racist/sexist remarks by calling him a “Latina.” From those experiences, Tomas described an emotionally unsafe environment in which he was free neither to be gay nor Latino.

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In an emotionally affirming environment, Tomas would have experienced value for his opinions, his sexuality, and his race/ethnicity. In reaction to Tomas’ statements, colleagues would have seized an opportunity to reflect and make appropriate adjustments in the stereotypes and biases that were being supported by the environment. Some companies utilize staff retreats, set aside times to engage in difficult dialogues around issues of diversity, and offer “you’re your mind” forums, which are open forums for staff to complain and cocreate solutions to organizational problems. These are strategies for respectful dialogues about diversity. Affirming environments are defined by mutual appreciation and respect for diversity in all areas— including opinions. Finally, boundary-setting within a cultural context is taught (and accepted) while assertiveness and openness are encouraged and rewarded. Economic Empowerment (versus Economic Abuse) as an Element of Shared Power Economic abuse as a source of disempowerment and victimization involves placing the less-powerful partner in the position of having to ask for money, obtaining a set allowance, or having resources taken away. Partners may use money for personal pleasure or gain rather than for necessary expenses and may put the less-powerful partner in financial risk (running up large debts, not paying taxes, etc.). Finally, perpetrators try to keep the victims from getting or keeping jobs. Economic abuse within the sociocultural context is characterized by a tendency of systems to victimize by forming economic dependencies; failing to create equitable access to wealth, opportunity, and education; and by making decisions that may not be in the best interests of minority populations. For example, for every dollar earned by a white man, white women earned 71.9 cents, black men earned 75.1 cents, black women earned 62.6 cents, Latino men earned 61.4 cents, and Latinas earned 53.9 cents, comparatively (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1997). At that time, the median income of full-time male workers with a professional degree was approximately $70,284, while for women with the same credentials, it was only $42,602. There is also a disproportionate impact of poverty on ethnic minorities (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001b). The most blatant examples of economic abuse occur within the workplace. Despite stereotypes of blacks, who are often depicted as “shiftless and lazy,” a recent study (Economic Policy Institute, 2002)

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revealed that black employees spent more time at work than did white employees. From 1989 to 1998, black middle-class families logged an average of 4,278 hours of work per year—almost 500 more hours per year than white families. Although they are spending more time at work, the report noted that blacks were still finding it difficult to catch up to their white counterparts in earnings. The story of Kunle highlights these disparities. Case Example: Kunle Prominent Syndromes: Dangerous Minds, Aversive Racism Reaction, Fly in the Buttermilk, Invisibility Syndrome, Post-Colonization Stress Disorder Kunle was an African immigrant with three master’s degrees, who taught at the local college. He came to the United States with the dream of starting his own development company. He had an American mentor, Marcus, who advised him to change his name to “Ken” and exposed him to the process of getting subsidies and bidding for government land and grants. Eventually, Kunle obtained a contractor’s license, a real estate license, and a broker’s license and had amassed enough money from his savings at the university to start his own business. Despite his attempts to “learn the ropes,” Kunle stated that building specifications and requirements would be inexplicably changed for his projects and were often based on ambiguously and subjectively determined criteria. He reported that it felt as if the “rules kept changing,” and he threatened to sue the development council if they continued to subject him to “double standards.” Immediately, the development council voted to create a new policy of “not doing business” with people who threatened to sue—which automatically blocked him from building homes in one particular neighborhood. In turn, Kunle became even more tenacious about building homes in other communities, and as business picked up, city inspectors began dropping in to take photographs of any mistakes that his construction crew made. The last straw for Kunle was when he went before the city council to finalize a subsidized land purchase only to discover that the development council had recommended that the city give the land to another company headed by a white person. After much debate, the city council approved the sale of land to Kunle, stating that they needed to support a minority-owned builder (he was the only one in the community).

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Within two months, the development council told Kunle that they were not going to give the $30,000 subsidy to him (despite an affirmative city council vote) because the appraiser he had used was not a “city approved” appraiser. Consequently, the council gave the subsidy to the white builder to whom they had originally wanted to render support. Although legally Kunle had the basis for a lawsuit, he quickly discovered that “you can’t fight City Hall”—especially when he didn’t have the money or energy to sue and there loomed the possibility that he might not be able to “do business again” if he sued them. Economic empowerment would translate into the building of supports rather than barriers for people like Kunle. His belief in the American dream of education and hard work was met with deleterious systemic processes designed to maintain an abuse of economic power. Kunle demonstrated personal empowerment by setting a financial goal for himself and following through with the course of action. While shared economic power existed through the support of his American mentor, cultural disempowerment simultaneously occurred in the mentor’s advice to change his name to Ken. Also, a viable model of sociocultural power-sharing would have meant that government agencies would equitably apply rules and go the extra mile to provide mentorship/support in nurturing the development of new minority-owned businesses. Other elements of economic empowerment include having incentives and economic packages that attract and retain diverse participants in projects and on staffs. The creation of economic empowerment also includes developing strategies such as cooperatives, which help groups pool resources to obtain common goals. Minimally, systems should invest in the creation of clearly defined processes that provide fair and equal opportunities for communities of color to compete for resources. Honesty and Accountability (Restorative Justice and Restitution) (versus Intimidation) as Elements of Shared Power Within the context of domestic violence, intimidation involves making one’s partner frightened or fearful by the perpetrator’s behaviors or words. Intimidation does not necessarily require the direct use of threat but instead relies on the historical threat/abuse experiences of the individual or group being threatened. Within the sociocultural context, intimidation takes the form of racial profiling

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(such as “driving while black”); following individuals in stores; and publicly mistreating, firing, laying off, or demeaning others who come from a specific group. The purpose of this profiling is to instill fear in them and to “keep them in their places.” Historically, multicultural communities have experienced intimidation as an abuse of power by organized groups such as children’s protection services, education systems, law enforcement, the U.S. immigration department, and renegade groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Today, “driving while black” and “shopping while black” in stores have replaced previously socially sanctioned acts of intimidation. Because abusive relationships are often characterized by stalking, it is not surprising that people of color may feel intimidated when they are followed by police officers or followed in department stores. They may also feel intimidated when they are being “watched” in the work environment so that any error will be monitored and magnified (fly in the buttermilk syndrome). As an example, perpetrators of socially based abused frequently create a lack of safety by “making an example” of someone who is vulnerable. Blacks are considered ready targets. A survey conducted by researchers at the Public Agenda Institute suggests that blacks are more likely than whites or Latinos to say they have been treated like potential shoplifters. About 44 percent of the blacks surveyed stated that they had been followed around in a store by an employee because they were suspected of shoplifting. Conversely, 30 percent of the whites who participated in the study stated that they had been followed. Interestingly, only 10 percent of the Latinos related that they had been exposed to similar circumstances (Public Agenda, 2004a). Comparable trends were also noted in a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization (1999a, 1999b), in which 40 percent of the white Americans thought that there was police brutality in their areas, while 66 percent of the blacks thought that brutality existed in their areas. Similarly, only 6 percent of the white Americans stated that they felt police had stopped them just because of their race or ethnic backgrounds, while 42 percent of blacks said that they felt they had been stopped just because of their race or ethnic backgrounds. The subtle nature of intimidation is not only in the behavior of the oppressor but also in the oppressor’s past actions. For example, victims of sociocultural abuse of power note that intimidation works best when, by history, reputation, or previously witnessed deeds, the behaviors of the perpetrator are known. The case of Lisa illustrates this phenomenon.

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Case Example: Lisa Prominent Syndromes: Dangerous Minds, Aversive Racism Reaction, Fly in the Buttermilk, Invisibility Syndrome, Stereotyped Threat Reaction Lisa was one of five managers at a local training institute and was one of only two blacks until an organizational restructuring process changed the team from five managers to nine. Throughout the course of the year, the newer managers formed alliances and asked Lisa to go along without inviting the other black peer, John, to join them. It was not long before the white team members tried to get Lisa to “help” John because he was not as “competent” as she. The white team members created rumors that John was not qualified to do his job and, during meetings, the managers became increasingly confrontational and disrespectful to John. Lisa reported that she felt paralyzed with fear at work and experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression. She related that after John endured months of emotional abuse, he quit. Thereafter, they began to collude against her and question her competence. In response, she started to work later and harder in order to avoid appearing incompetent or inept. She even enrolled in additional training courses so that she could “stay ahead of the game.” She lost so much sleep that inevitably her work did begin to falter. The others expressed a desire to do a team-building retreat (in an isolated wooded area) where they could engage in a “ropes” challenge course activity. Lisa said that she had an immediate negative and visceral reaction to the plan and admitted she was afraid to go on the retreat because of the vicious nature of her colleagues. She feared that she could be physically harmed (she might be pushed or even hung) while doing the “team building activity.” Lisa jokingly conveyed that if something happened to her, her peers would tell the world that she “fell down.” Lisa concluded by highlighting that as a southern-raised black female, she was always taught to “never go to the woods with a bunch of white people carrying rope!” In Lisa’s case, shared power would have required mutuality with all group members, even John. For example, including some group members and not others promoted distrust. One strategy for sharing power in the situation of intimidation is to first recognize that the intimidation exists. Then those in power must focus on the need for honesty and accountability. If John honestly were having problems on the job, being accountable to him (rather than getting someone to

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“help him out”) would have been the optimal solution. Honesty and accountability also mean that when systems (or individuals) are intimidating, the organization takes the necessary action to make reparations for any damage done. Thus, to regain balance and mutuality in their relationships, the treatments of Lisa and John would have possibly required that team members (and especially management staff) offer an apology in front of the group and/or financial reparations to them. Sharing power also dictates that consensus-based, outcome-driven strategies for shared communication and decision-making be used. Using shared governance and consensus-driven models requires that an agreement (at least in principle) be shared by each group member, or the decision does not pass. Also, systems could purport the use of management “safe zones.” Safe zones allow staff an opportunity to identify problems and seek solutions with managers who are skilled in conflict negotiations and bias-reduction strategies. Such models empower each person to comment in a safe manner (without fear of retaliation). Shared power solutions dictate responsive systems that will allow their members to honestly and safely complain about the intimidating and hurtful outcomes of discriminatory behaviors. Another institutional strategy for sharing power and reducing intimidation is to create evaluations and complaint-investigatory systems that do not leave individuals and groups vulnerable. Following these suggested techniques will give oppressed groups a chance to be heard without fear of retaliation. Respect for Physical Health and Sexuality (versus Physical/Sexual Abuse) as an Element of Shared Power Many relationships involve acts of physical harm, such as using weapons, denying access to health/medical care resources, or forcing the individual to use drugs or alcohol. Physical abuse also includes violence perpetrated on vulnerable communities via disparate treatment by society or its agents, such as law enforcement, courts, or healthcare systems. Within the context of physical health, health disparities are an example of systemic abuse. A health disparity is a populationspecific difference in the presence of disease, health outcomes, or access to care (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). One example is the variance in the life expectancies between blacks and whites. Specifically, black men live an average of 7.4 years less than white men (64.9 years to 72.3 years), black women live an average of 5.5

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years less than white women (73.4 years to 78.9 years), and the black infant mortality rate is double that of whites. Also, the U.S. Census Bureau (2001a) reported that of those without public or private health insurance, Latinos represented the highest group (32 percent). This figure was followed by blacks (18.5 percent) and Asian/Pacific Islanders (18 percent). Comparatively, only 12.9 percent of whites were without public or private health insurance. This disparate access to medical care/insurance is a core indicator of discrimination in sociocultural health practices. Additional concerns are noted in the area of mental health. Data (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001) suggest that people of color are disproportionately impacted by disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health concerns. Specifically, these populations wait until their conditions are more severe before seeking treatment. Yet, when they do access treatment, the treatment quality and procedures that they receive are poor compared to the services provided to the dominant culture. Another issue involves barriers faced by ethnically diverse clients in locating providers from culturally similar backgrounds. This area is impacted by industry barriers (such as low graduate school/internship admissions of minority candidates) as well as managed care barriers, such as requiring practitioners to be licensed for five years before they are eligible to apply for reimbursement of services as network providers. Finally, the recidivism associated with drug-related crimes (due to limited treatment options) suggests that society is economically invested in the “prison industrial complex” as a means of obtaining financial gain through the continued perpetration of drug-related criminal behavior. Likewise, unchecked violence results in higher rates of homicide and crime victimization among black and other multicultural communities (Bachman, 1994). Sexual abuse also constitutes a problem and involves acts of harassment, assault, and even practices around reproductive rights. According to a study conducted by the National Victim Center (1992), 1.3 women (age eighteen and over) in the United States are forcibly raped each minute. Vulnerable populations such as developmentally disabled adults and youth are the most frequent victims of sexual assault (Disabled Women’s Network, 1991). Women of color are disproportionately impacted by sexual assault and other violent crimes (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2001). Most important, when women report crimes of sexual assault, the veracity of their claims is often questioned and victims are portrayed as “asking for it.”

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In turn, sexual harassment is the experience of unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, performance, or safety within a specified environment. Studies (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1994) suggest anywhere between 40 and 70 percent of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Finally, the incidence of sexual harassment appears to be impacting children at younger ages (U.S. Department of Justice, 1998), such that four out of five students (81 percent) have experienced some form of sexual harassment during their school years, with teachers being the primary perpetrators (Timmerman, 2003). Thus, women (and especially young women of color) grow up with an experience of marginalization of their bodies, physical health, and a minimization of their sexual vulnerabilities within a sociocultural context that is patriarchal, race-biased, and often predatory in nature. Sexual harassment is highlighted in the case of Brandi, whose organizational culture “set up” its female employees by emphasizing that “the customer is always right.”

Case Example: Brandi Prominent Syndromes: Stereotyped Threat, Alien Self Disorder Brandi was a young, attractive, ambitious, and married black female claims adjuster at a leading insurance company. Brandi prided herself on being a “customer focused” insurance adjuster and, in fact, was often commended for her expertise and company loyalty. She worked at a “conservative company” and consequently went through multiple gyrations to make sure that she “fit in.” For example, when some of the black employees wanted to celebrate Black History Month by wearing African clothes and wearing braids, Brandi was among the first to say that the company would “frown” on their efforts. She even refused to eat fried chicken or watermelon (her favorite food) at work for fear of being stereotyped. Brandi’s visit to counseling was precipitated by an incident that involved one of her customers, a middle-aged white male, who had been in a serious car accident. Brandi related that she had visited the customer at the hospital and had rendered an estimate of damages for his automobile, but because of the physical nature of his injuries, the

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claim could not be settled. Meanwhile, the customer called her several times a day asking her to meet him for “lunch or dinner” in order to discuss the processing of his claim. Brandi approached her supervisor and requested permission to give the claim to someone else, although she had already completed a majority of the work. Her male supervisor defined her request as an attempt to “pass the buck” to someone else. After a few days, Brandi completed processing the claim and invited the man into the office to pick up his check early the next morning. When he arrived, however, it was close to noon and there were only a few employees in the work area. Brandi related that the office had open cubicles, so she invited him to sit at her desk to complete the paperwork. When she turned around, he grabbed her, said “I’ve always liked brown sugar,” pinned her against the wall, and kissed her on the mouth. Brandi stated that she immediately pushed him away and told him that if he wanted his check, he would have to wait for it in the lobby. Brandi described feeling shocked, disgusted, angry, and terrified at the same time. She described feeling betrayed by her company— which gave its clients more power than its employees. Brandi informed her supervisor about the incident, but nothing was done. Her supervisor told her that he was sorry that such a thing had happened to her, but suggested that she should not have met “the insured” at the lunch hour. Brandi felt that she was being blamed for the incident and believed that if she were to pursue any further discussion of the matter, she might run the risk of losing her job or receiving a poor rating on her annual evaluation. After the incident, she missed several days of work with symptoms of insomnia, anxiety attacks, depression, and flashbacks of the situation. Brandi’s story is not an isolated one. The U.S. Bureau of Labor (1997) has estimated that American business loses about $1 billion annually from absenteeism, low morale, and new employee training and replacement costs due to sexual harassment. This figure does not include judgments in civil court cases. These statistics also reveal that 31 percent of the female workers claimed to have been harassed at work, yet 62 percent of those women, like Brandi, took no action. Shared power assures that people, especially women, do not have to endure sexual harassment/abuse/assault. In situations such as Brandi’s, organizations should have policies that protect employees and assist them (rather than blaming them) in seeking legal remedies for sexual harassment by clients as well as co-workers or supervisory staff. In an environment that respected sexuality and physical

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health, it would be demonstrated through policies and practices that provided individuals and groups with equal access to safety and physical/mental health services, especially culturally competent and culturally specific services, if requested. Shared social power would also promote physical and sexual health through system-based incentives for creating wellness and safety. For example, a strategy for shared power may be for tax incentives to be given to any agency or system that provides reduced insurance premiums for persons who participate in safety and wellness programs (such as self-defense, HIV awareness programs, assertiveness training, weight loss/stress management, exercise club memberships, etc.). Shared Value and Responsibility for All Children (versus Using Children) as an Element of Shared Power Children are among the most vulnerable of populations when it comes to abusive relationships. The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information (2003) revealed that approximately 903,000 children were found to be victims of child maltreatment, including various forms of neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological maltreatment. Half of all victims were white (50 percent), one quarter (25 percent) were black, and 15 percent were Latino. Native Americans and Alaska Natives accounted for 2 percent of victims, and Asian/Pacific Islanders accounted for 1 percent of victims—a majority of whom were abused by their parents. Evidence (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002) supports the contention that our society is simply not taking care of its children in the manner that it once did. A larger group of our children are being raised by others (such as grandparents, relatives, or social service systems, including foster care or residential facilities). In 1960, only 3.2 percent of children were being raised by “others”; by 2000, an alarming 22.4 percent of children were. Children of color are particularly vulnerable, as they are also disproportionately represented in special education, juvenile justice, and foster care systems (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001). Specifically, they spend longer times in those systems with the least amount of support. The author refers to this course of failure as the “jail track” and views it as a sociocultural conditioning process to prepare children, especially black males, to be institutionalized. Other scholars agree (Kunjufu, 1990; Akbar, 1981). On a sociocultural level, children of color are

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marginalized and devalued. Their risks, worth, and needs become invisible to the systems around them, and consequently they become vulnerable to predatory adults. This was the case of Justin and Latisha.

Case Example: Justin and Latisha Prominent Syndromes: Invisibility Syndrome, (Young) Man Enough The story of nine-year-old Justin and his seven-year-old sister Latisha describes the process of systemically using children for the service of financial gain. The black children got into the foster care system because their mother’s parental rights had been terminated due to her continued use of drugs. Their father was incarcerated for possession of crack cocaine. Justin was belligerent, depressed, and often uncontrollable. His sister had been sexually abused on at least three occasions at two different foster care placements and was prone to acting out sexually. After going through many residential treatment and placement facilities, Justin and Latisha were placed together in the home of white foster parents and their children. During the initial months after the children had been placed with the foster parents, numerous incidents of impulsive outbursts, violence, and sexual acting out were heaped upon the biological children of the foster parents. This supports the notion that foster care can have not only a negative impact on the children being placed, but it can also have a deleterious effect on the children already in the home. Nonetheless, after almost one year in the residence, the foster children began to display decreased incidents of misbehavior. Problems were noted when, despite the fact that the children had been improving in their display of problems, the parents approached the mental health provider to seek documentation that the foster children had developed “higher needs than expected” so that the family could receive additional funding for their care. When the provider questioned their request, the family terminated therapy and went to see another therapist, who gave them the documentation. Within two months of receiving the increased funds, the family (without the foster children) took a two-week trip to Disneyland and placed Justin and Latisha in respite care. Within a model of shared power, the foster parents would have treated the foster children as if they were their own children. Reasonably, respite

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may have been needed for the family, but to go to Disneyland and leave a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old in a respite facility was indicative of emotional abuse. Co-perpetrators were the mental health workers, who supported the abuse of power without argument. In the case of children, suggestions for sharing power would include support groups, training, and guidelines for biological and foster parents as well as forming advisory boards of parents, foster parents, and children who are/were formerly “products” of those systems. Asking these individuals to participate in focus groups, form advisory boards, and set new policies can create opportunities for system improvement and client empowerment. Also, children like Justin and Latisha could have benefited from community engagement, such as the use of community elders through church programs, mentor programs, and black community connections that would facilitate the development of cultural influences and values for cross-cultural families. Further, shared-power models would see the mutual value of all children, and adult participants and systems of care would commit equally to outcomes that would benefit them. Strategies such as family group conferencing models would be used to empower families in formulating their own solutions (Robinson, 1996). Non-Threatening Behavior and Creating Safety for Challenge and Risks (versus Using Coercion and Threats) as an Element of Shared Power Threats always contain an element of psychological violence and are characterized as implying intent to inflict harm and fear in order to control the other person (Burman, Margolin, & John, 1993). Abusive dominance in domestic violence situations can also involve forcing the subordinate party to drop legal charges or perform illegal acts, stalking, threatening to stop economic support, leaving, taking the children, threatening to commit suicide, and reporting the person to an authority whom they may fear (such as a children’s protection agency, or a welfare or immigration bureau). Threats often involve “if-then” contingencies, ultimatums, and sanctions. They may also involve the physical removal of a valued item, person, resource, or opportunity. On a sociocultural level, groups of individuals may experience similar oppressive acts by the society in which they live. Oppressive systems are designed to sustain socially sanctioned threats. Often these systems are devoted to controlling the availability of resources (such

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as student financial aid, Social Security, or welfare-to-work programs) or persons (such as the criminal justice system or child protection/ foster care). For example, an if-then contingency statement may work as follows: “If you are drug-addicted and get caught using drugs, your children will be removed and placed in foster care—and you may never see them again.” As an example, Minnesota parents with children under six years old have only six months to get their children back before parental rights are terminated and the children are put up by the state for adoption. Therefore, if an isolated parent is drugaddicted and treatment takes more than six months (and it usually does), then she/he is bound to lose custody of a child. Other sociocultural sectors (such as schools, police, social services, medical, and mental health) appear threatening to children and their parents because of their legal mandates to report to an authority whom the parent or child may fear. As an example, immigrants become afraid of deportation when they hear questions such as, “How many people live in the house and what are their names?” This question appears on most forms and elicits apprehension when clients are unsure of the legal status of their friends or family members. The contingency statement for this issue is, “If I, as a provider, even suspect that you have an illegal immigrant in your home, then I will have to report you.” Therefore, it is important to know that there is a high potential for abuse among institutions that provide support to persons from vulnerable populations. When describing the use of threats and coercion, few case illustrations can be as clearly articulated as the case of Jackie, her husband Jonathan, and her son, Darius. Case Example: Darius Prominent Syndromes: Invisibility Syndrome, (Young) Man Enough, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Darius was an eleven-year-old black boy with a contagious laughter and beautiful smile. He had a younger brother, Michael, who was eight. Darius’s schoolteachers often commented on how mannerly, soft-spoken, and hardworking he was. Jonathan, his father, had recently secured a job as a mail handler. His wife, Jackie, worked (at $18 per hour) as a personal care attendant for an elderly woman who lived down the street from the family’s home. One day, Darius and his father were driving to the mall when two men started shooting at each other (in an apparent a gang fight).

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Darius’s father reached over to grab his son to press him lower into the seat. About that time, a gunshot hit Jonathan in the head and he died instantly. Within three to six months after his father’s death, Darius began to show marked behavior changes in school, including poor concentration, angry outbursts, and “talking back.” He rarely completed his homework, began to get into fights, and was even expelled one day for carrying a sharpened potato peeler to school. While school authorities seemed to be concerned, at no point did anyone refer Darius for therapy or counseling. It was not until one night when the police picked him up (because he was in the park after curfew) that Darius and his family were even approached about getting mental health support. The evening the officers took Darius home, they informed his mother that if they caught him that late in the park again, he would be arrested. She brought Darius to therapy immediately, but within two weeks, he had slipped out of the house through the window and was at the park again. The police picked him up, called children’s protective services, and Darius’s mother was placed on a “case plan.” Part of the case plan was for the case manager to make home visits. Consequently, Jackie asked the case manager to schedule the visits after she got home from or work (she worked from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. each day). Yet, the case manager repeatedly scheduled appointments during the times that Jackie was supposed to be at work, and when the case manager did come to the house, she was consistently one to two hours late. Eventually, Jackie began to leave for work even if she knew that she had an appointment with the caseworker. The case manager told Jackie that if she missed another appointment, then she would remove Darius and Michael (her other son) from the home. Jackie then began to call in “late” at her job in order to wait for the social worker—instead of risking the loss of her children. This pattern of calling in late continued until Jackie was fired. Afterward, she couldn’t find another job, went on welfare, and never missed another appointment with the caseworker. Shared social power in this instance would have consisted of creating a non-threatening environment that was safe for challenge and risk. Shared power would have meant that Jackie was in a partnership with the social worker for the benefit of the parent. There would have been no need for threats, and there would have been a mutual respect for the client’s time as well as the empathic awareness of the family’s trauma around the death of the father. Further, school personnel, police, and social service agencies would have worked collaboratively

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when the crime was committed to proactively set up culturally competent trauma support and follow-up services for the family. Finally, shared power in this case would have meant that participants in each system rallied around supporting Darius and his family.

Equal Opportunity (Dismantling Privilege through Fairness versus Using White, Male, or American Privilege) as an Element of Shared Power In an abusive intimate relationship, male privilege involves treating the female partner like a servant. In these situations, the male partner makes all the big decisions without respect for input from the female partner. Such relationships are characterized by communication patterns of commands and directives. Women who participate in these relationships often state that their partners tell them what they must do and that they are expected to comply without question. Within these contexts, the dominant partner has the authority to define the balance of power in the relationship as well as the roles that each partner will assume. On a more systemic level, however, the use of privilege both includes and supersedes gender. From a sociocultural perspective, the impact of privilege is extended to gender (male dominated), race (white dominated), and nationality (American dominated). In her article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1988), Peggy McIntosh eloquently describes her experience of white privilege by saying that “white skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us.” White privileges exist in many systems and are most notable in the ways in which individuals and groups access those systems for support or inclusion. An excellent example of the continued existence of white and male privilege is eloquently presented in an analysis conducted by University of Cincinnati sociologist David J. Maume (1999). Maume confirmed in his study that white males enjoyed the benefits of a so-called “glass escalator” that enhanced their career mobility in female-dominated professions. David J. Maume Jr. (Maume, 1999) analyzed work histories in female-dominated fields (1981–1987) and found that 44 percent of men had been promoted after twelve years on the job, in contrast to just 15 percent of white women, 7 percent of black women, and 17 percent of black men.

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While most Americans are familiar with “white” and “male” privilege as sources of power abuses, being able to recognize the sociocultural component of power abuse in terms of “American privilege” requires a paradigm shift for most Americans. Americans rarely recognize how they abuse power internationally through their practices and assumptions. Take, for example, the tendency of Americans to travel abroad and boldly ask (in any country) whether anybody speaks English. We take for granted that the rest of the world has to learn our language, our customs, and our geography in order to conduct business with us. We also make the assumption that people will accommodate our tastes in food, clothing, and other commercial products. As an illustration, note that it is highly unlikely that an American will visit France, Germany, Italy, or Hong Kong and not be able to locate a McDonald’s in order to get a “decent burger and some fries.” Some individuals, such as Senator Joseph Biden (Preston, 2003), contend that American privilege is demonstrated by our government’s policy of “pre-emption” when it comes to invading a country that “could” have had weapons of mass destruction. America has had the privilege of possessing the most resources and largest military arsenal in the world. Consequently, when world events that impact our national interests are out of kilter, we have the “privilege” of doing something about them. American privilege is also seen in our responses to immigrants who come to our country. Besides expecting immigrants to engage in “culture swapping,” we also expect them to speak without “foreign accents,” and we become frustrated with people whose primary language is not English. At times, Americans do not even attempt to pronounce foreign names, and they probably feel much more comfortable when immigrants change their names from Juan to Joe, Po-Chu to Polly, etc. In a report titled Now That I’m Here: What America’s Immigrants Have to Say about Life in the U.S. Today (Farkas, Duffett, Johnson, Moye, & Vine, 2003), the authors describe the sentiments of American immigrants based on a survey funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. In the survey, about 60 percent of the immigrants said that there was at least some anti-immigrant discrimination in the United States, while approximately 30 percent of the immigrants conveyed that they had personally experienced discrimination themselves. Moreover, all Americans share American privilege—a construct that is especially notable for people of color. As an example, this

Toolbox for Change I For

Images/perceptions

Individuals

Isolation

Community

Isolation

188

Practitioners/ Isolation educators

Individuals

Emotional abuse

Community

Emotional abuse

Strategies for change Develop shared power through community inclusion processes: Avoid “divide and conquer” tactics. Focus on team-based projects. Get mentors. Join professional organizations. Use family, friends, and colleagues outside the office. Join social and professional organizations (book clubs, and so forth). Develop shared power through community inclusion processes: Sewing circles. Elder boards. Mentoring programs. Professional networking meetings (first Fridays). Community seminars of corporate survival. Develop shared power through community inclusion processes: Support groups. Relationship-building skills. Corporate support and team building. Minority professionals support group. Self-care groups/workshops. Develop shared power through emotional affirmation and respect for diversity: Learn boundary-setting skills. Use assertiveness skills. Keep journals (work and personal). Develop shared power through emotional affirmation and respect for diversity: Show respect for diversity in all areas including opinions.

Celebrate culture-awareness days. Offer “free your mind” forums. Offer “Set-aside” times to discuss cultural issues. Provide cultural sensitivity training and policy development support through community based agencies.

189

Practitioners/ Emotional abuse educators

Develop shared power through emotional affirmation and respect for diversity: Teach affirmation skills. Perform affirmation rituals. Offer seminars on personal talents/gifts. Provide anger management support. Provide stress management support. Assertiveness skills support. Conflict management support.

Individuals

Intimidation

Develop shared power through Honesty and accountability (restorative justice and restitution): Don’t buy into “divide and conquer” strategies. Be prepared to be “cautiously optimistic” when attempts are made at reconciliation. Seek support from counselors or others who have lived through similar circumstances. Be assertive.

Community

Intimidation

Develop shared power through Honesty and accountability (restorative justice and restitution): Do not leave individuals vulnerable. Restorative justice (apologize, pay restitution and reparations). Evaluation systems that share feedback. Oversight committees. Be honest and accountable for past and perpetuation of abuses. continued

Toolbox for Change I (continued) For

Images/perceptions

Practitioners/ Intimidation educators

Strategies for change Establish “safe zones.” Use shared governance and consensus. Create evaluation and complaint systems. Develop shared power through Honesty and accountability (restorative justice and restitution): Teach communication skills. Teach consensus-building skills. Provide anger management support.

Sexual and physical abuse

Develop shared power through Respect for physical health and respect for sexuality: Get educated on sexuality and disease prevention. Educate on self-defense and crime prevention. Learn assertiveness and communication skills. Learn stress management. Create a healthy lifestyle for yourself. Get counseling if victimized or to assist with physical management of diseases.

Community

Sexual and physical abuse

Develop shared power through Respect for physical health and respect for sexuality: Provide women’s support groups. Rites of passage for girls and boys. Sexual harassment/abuse prevention services. Public service announcements on wellness. Provide system-based incentives for wellness. Provide forums on health and wellness. Provide forums on sexuality and gender issues.

190

Individuals

Develop shared power through Respect for physical health and respect for sexuality: Groups and workshops on sexuality and sexual health. Sexual harassment/abuse counseling. Counseling for families (married or not, straight or not). Provide support for physical illnesses and behavior change.

Individuals

Threats

Develop shared power through Non-threatening environments and creating safety for challenge and risks. Learn communication skills (especially assertiveness skills). Learn conflict mediation and negotiation skills. Engage in self-care. Join social support groups. Volunteer to advocate for systems change. Don’t be afraid to be political. Learn stress-management skills.

Community

Threats

Develop shared power through Non-threatening environments and creating safety for challenge and risks. Create non-threatening environments safe for challenge and risks. Be aware of high potential for power abuses. Partner with non-dominant community members through a mutually determined agenda. Proactively support communities in cross-cultural ways. Create community-run oversight committees and advisory boards. Keep data on offenses by group (race, gender, ethnicity, and so forth). Provide community issues forums. Create administrative safe zones for complaints. Reward courage by acknowledging risks.

191

Practitioners/ Sexual and physical educators abuse

continued

Toolbox for Change I (continued) For

Images/perceptions

Practitioners/ Threats educators

Strategies for change Resolve issues and provide feedback openly to the individual, community, or group offended. Rally around victims. Develop shared power through Non-threatening environments and creating safety for challenge and risks. Teach alliance-building skills. Teach cultural competence. Teach cultural sensitivity. Develop trauma response teams to assist children and families when deaths or injuries occur due to violence.

192

Individuals

Economic abuse

Develop shared power through economic empowerment: Set financial and business goals (that is, getting rid of debts). Seek money management and financial planning support. Seek mentorship; don’t give up. Set aside funds for legal and technical assistance. Seek strategies to support your business (grants, subsidies, loans, and fellowships). Partner with others to pool resources.

Community

Economic abuse

Develop shared power through economic empowerment: Small business mentorship programs. Provide legal services and seminars for individuals and groups on advocacy and fair wage support issues. Provide legal support to small businesses. Establish clear, consistently applied rules for engagement. Financial/business planning courses.

Community oversight and accountability groups for business processes/contracts. Economic packages to attract and retain minority staff and program participants. Development of cooperatives. Pay people the same for the same work offended. Rally around victims. Provide free credit and debt counseling to community members. Provide free money management semiars and support services to families seeking support. Develop shared power through economic empowerment by providing therapeutic support and training in the following areas: Business etiquette and social skills. Negotiations. Money management. Stress/anger management skills. Emotional support for economically abused individuals and communities.

Individuals

Develop shared power through shared value and responsibility for children: Participate in mentor programs. Focus on the development of pro-social, character-based skills. Develop coping and self-responsibility skills. Develop hobbies (arts, sciences, and so forth). Focus on school success. Learn about wellness and safety. Become a peer counselor. Join local activities (rites of passage, drumming, dance, scouts, and so forth). Learn refusal skills.

193

Practitioners/ Economic abuse educators

Using children

continued

Toolbox for Change I (continued) For

Images/perceptions

Community

Using children

194

Practitioners/ Using children educators

Individuals

Strategies for change Partner with others to pool resources: Develop shared power through shared value and responsibility for children. Adopt community values for placing children within the cultural contexts of families and relations. Use community-based supports such as respite and family group conferencing, church elders, and so forth. Treat all children as if they were your children. Provide respite support and counseling services for families impacted by foster care. Create user-based advisory boards and oversight committees. Offer community focus groups on child-based needs. Provide support for foster parents. Create safe zones for children. Develop shared power through shared value and responsibility for children: Provide in-school counseling and life skill education/support. Address grief/loss issues. Provide culturally competent interventions in outreach and therapeutic support. Provide outreach to systems to assure developmentally appropriate interventions. Teach emotional regulation. Teach children and caregivers about safety. Teach conflict mediation.

Using white, male, or Develop shared power by dismantling privilege through fairness and equal access to American privilege opportunity:

Make a commitment to be an advocate for change. Personally invest in looking at personal (and changing) biases and behaviors. Speak against abuses of power when you can (be assertive). Do the right thing; become aware of privilege and its abuses in your environment. Seek cultural guides to assist you in navigating through the issues of white, male, or American privilege. Community

195

Using white, male, or Develop shared power by dismantling privilege through fairness and equal access to American privilege opportunity: Establish ways to share power on domestic and international levels (through such common agendas as the universal rights of children). Increase accountability and access by looking at systemic disparities in health, education, arrests, service delivery, and so forth. Share power by within-group methods such as consensus and shared governance. Advertise job openings and avoid promotions based on “rearrangements of existing staff.” Create an affirmative hiring and promotions plan to prepare under-represented staff for leadership. Address issues of political advocacy and systems change. Dismantle privilege through fair and equal access.

Practitioners/ Using white, male, or Teach individuals and groups how to “undo racism.” educators American privilege Teach cultural diversity and sensitivity. Teach and practice culturally competent strategies of intervention, including empowerment strategies, positive self-talk, and problem-solving skill-building.

Toolbox for Change II Abuse of power

Shared power strategies for

Individual strategies

Community-based strategies

Practitioner/educator strategies

Community inclusion

Avoid “divide and conquer” tactics. Focus on team-based projects. Get mentors. Join professional organizations. Use family, friends, and colleagues outside the office. Join social and professional organizations (book clubs, and so forth).

Sewing circles. Elder boards. Mentoring programs. Professional networking meetings (first Fridays). Community seminars of corporate survival.

Support groups. Relationship-building skills. Corporate support and team building. Minority professionals support group. Self-care groups/ workshops.

Emotional abuse

Emotional affirmation and respect for diversity

Learn boundary-setting skills. Use assertiveness skills. Keep journals (work and personal).

Respect for diversity in all areas including opinions. Celebrate culture-awareness days Free your mind forums. Set-aside times. Cultural sensitivity training and policies.

Teaching affirmation skills. Affirmation rituals. Seminars on personal talents/gifts. Anger management. Stress management. Assertiveness skills. Conflict management.

196

Isolation

Intimidation

Honesty and Don’t buy into “divide accountability and conquer” strate(restorative gies. justice and Be prepared to be restitution) “cautiously optimistic” when attempts are made at reconciliation. Seek support from counselors or others who have lived through similar circumstances. Be assertive.

197

Sexual abuses Respect for physical health and respect for sexuality

Get educated on sexuality and disease prevention. Educate on self-defense and crime prevention. Learn assertiveness and communication skills. Learn stress management. Create a healthy lifestyle for yourself. Get counseling if victimized or to assist with physical management of diseases.

Do not leave individuals vulnerable. Restorative justice (apologize, pay restitution and reparations). Evaluation systems that share feedback. Oversight committees. Be honest and accountable for past and perpetuation of abuses. Establish “safe zones.” Use shared governance and consensus. Create evaluation and complaint systems.

Teach communication skills. Teach consensusbuilding skills. Provide anger management support.

Women’s groups. Rites of passage for girls and boys Sexual harassment/abuse. Public service announcements on wellness. Provide system-based incentives for wellness. Provide forums on health and wellness. Provide forums on sexuality and gender issues.

Groups and workshops on sexuality and sexual health. Sexual harassment/ abuse counseling. Counseling for families (married or not, straight or not). Provide support for physical illnesses and behavior change.

continued

Toolbox for Change II (continued) Abuse of power Threats

Shared power strategies for

Individual strategies

198

NonLearn communication threatening skills (especially environments assertiveness skills). Creating safety Learn conflict mediation for challenge and negotiation skills. and risks Engage in self-care. Join social support groups. Volunteer to advocate for systems change. Don’t be afraid to be political. Learn stress-management skills.

Community-based strategies Create non-threatening environments safe for challenge and risks. Be aware of high potential for power abuses. Partner with non-dominant community members through a mutually determined agenda. Proactively support communities in cross-cultural ways. Create community-run oversight committees and advisory boards. Keep data on offenses by group (race, gender, ethnicity, and so forth). Provide community issues forums. Create administrative safe zones for complaints. Reward courage by acknowledging risks. Resolve issues and provide feedback openly to the individual, community, or group offended. Rally around victims.

Practitioner/educator strategies Teach alliance-building skills. Teach cultural competence. Teach cultural sensitivity. Develop trauma response teams to assist children and families when deaths or injuries occur due to violence.

Economic abuse

199

Economic Set financial and empowerment business goals. Seek money management and financial planning support. Seek mentorship. Don’t give up. Set aside funds for legal and technical assistance. Seek strategies to support your business (grants, subsidies, loans, and fellowships). Partner with others to pool resources.

Small business mentorship programs. Legal services for small businesses. Establish clear, consistently applied rules for engagement. Financial/business planning courses. Community oversight and accountability groups for business processes/contracts. Economic packages to attract and retain minority staff and program participants. Development of cooperatives. Pay people the same for the same work.

Business etiquette and social skills. Negotiations. Money management Provide stress/anger management skills. Provide emotional support for economically abused individuals and communities.

continued

Toolbox for Change II (continued) Abuse of power Using children

Shared power strategies for

Individual strategies

200

Shared value Participate in mentor and programs. responsibility Focus on the for children development of prosocial, character-based skills. Develop coping and selfresponsibility skills. Develop hobbies (arts, sciences, and so forth). Focus on school success. Learn about wellness and safety. Become a peer counselor. Join local activities (rites of passage, drumming, dance, scouts, etc.). Learn refusal skills.

Community-based strategies Adopt community values for placing children within the cultural contexts of families and relations. Use community-based supports such as respite and family group conferencing, church elders, and so forth. Treat all children as if they were your children. Provide respite support and counseling services for families impacted by foster care. Create user-based advisory boards and oversight committees. Offer community focus groups on child-based needs. Provide support for foster parents. Create safe zones for children.

Practitioner/educator strategies Provide in-school counseling and life skill education/ support. Address grief/loss issues. Provide culturally competent interventions in outreach and therapeutic support. Provide outreach to systems to assure developmentally appropriate interventions. Teach emotional regulation. Teach children and caregivers about safety. Teach conflict mediation.

Using white, male, or American privilege

Dismantling privilege through fairness

201

Make a commitment to be an advocate for change. Personally invest in looking at personal (and changing) biases and behaviors. Speak against abuses of power when you can (be assertive). Do the right thing. Become aware of privilege and its abuses in your environment. Seek cultural guides to assist you in navigating through the issues of white, male, or American privilege.

Establish ways to share power on domestic and international levels (through such common agendas as the universal rights of children). Increase accountability and access by looking at systemic disparities in health, education, arrests, service delivery, and so forth. Share power by within-group methods such as consensus and shared governance. Advertise job openings and avoid promotions based on “rearrangements of existing staff.” Create an affirmative hiring and promotions plan to prepare under-represented staff for leadership. Address issues of political advocacy and systems change. Dismantle privilege through fair and equal access.

Teach individuals and groups how to “undo racism.” Teach cultural diversity and sensitivity. Teach and practice culturally competent strategies of intervention, including empowerment strategies, positive self-talk, and problem-solving skillbuilding.

202

Disability, Religion, Physique, and Other Traits

author never thought of herself as “American” in terms of her primary identity until the September 11 bombing of the World Trade Center towers. It was after that event that the author realized that privilege was an experience of power that was unconscious and unearned, yet bestowed upon an individual or group of individuals simply because of their group affiliation. More important, privilege is not recognized until it is lost or threatened. The construct of American privilege firmly places people of color who have traditionally been outside the group (on a domestic level) in a position within the group when the perspective is an international/global one. It was not until 9/11 that it became clear to most individuals who possessed American passports that regardless of one’s race, creed, color, religion, sexual orientation, or gender, it is now primarily one’s nationality and place of residence that can elicit worldwide biases—an experience to which we had never been subjected in modern times. Americans can no longer enjoy the privilege of traveling or living without fear. Therefore, efforts to share power must occur both in domestic and international policymaking arenas. We are challenged to eradicate racist, sexist, self-serving policies in exchange for mutuality, empathy, courage, and connection. Sharing power on an international level will require that we first learn to share power with each other as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. Models of sharing on a national level may dictate that groups assure that they have equal access to policymakers via campaign finance reform. Other power-sharing strategies on national and international levels will require the creation and maintenance of common national and international agendas such as signing (and adhering to) practices that limit the exploitation of children (such as the document on the universal rights of children). Power-sharing requires responsibility. It also requires that individuals have equal access to opportunities so that rates of promotion, pay, arrests, etc. do not disproportionately impact specific groups. Thus, whether we are white, male, or American, “doing the right thing” requires that we open systems up so that everyone has access and opportunity to participate. Systems such as education, health care, child care, etc. will require that we dismantle privilege through fairness. CONCLUSION This chapter compared domestic violence/abuse to the experience of people of color in terms of the sociocultural abuse that they have

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experienced in the United States of America. Using a sociocultural model of abuse of power and control to illustrate systems-based abuses, the chapter introduced readers to eight elements of abuse of power within a social context (isolation; emotional abuse; economic abuse; intimidation; sexual abuse; using children; use of threats; and using white, male, or American privilege). Further, this chapter explored multiple models of “oppressive reactive syndromes.” It introduced the concept of developing a model of shared power and control that relied upon mutuality, empathy, and empowerment through the implementation of eight core elements (community inclusion; emotional affirmation and respect for diversity; economic empowerment; honesty and accountability/restorative justice and restitution; respect for physical health and sexuality; shared value and responsibility for children; creating safety for challenge and risks; and equal opportunity/dismantling privilege through fairness and access). It is hoped that through the practice of shared power and control, connections can be strengthened and the harmful impacts of discrimination and prejudice can be minimized.

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CHAPTER 8

From Prejudice and Discrimination to Awareness and Acceptance Marie L. Miville Jill M. Rohrbacker Angela B. Kim

B

eginning with Allport (1954), scholars have written extensively on the nature of prejudice and discrimination. For many decades, psychologists have studied social attitudes resulting from the harsh realities of the social world, concluding that prejudice is almost inevitable for most people, particularly in social settings that promote and reward these attitudes. Once developed, prejudice seems to become psychologically entrenched and difficult to change. Indeed, as Allport (1954) wrote many years ago, “It is easier . . . to smash an atom than a prejudice” (as quoted in Tal-Or, Boninger, & Gleicher, 2002, p. xvii). So, what are the possibilities of developing positive social attitudes that focus on awareness, understanding, and acceptance of others? Can such attitudes realistically be fostered in children and adults across a variety of settings? What mechanisms, psychological and otherwise, need to be involved in the successful development of positive social attitudes? What conditions are necessary to create successful interventions that reduce prejudice and foster more accepting social attitudes? Miville et al. (1999) recently defined the construct of universaldiverse orientation (UDO) as “an attitude toward other persons that is inclusive yet differentiating in that similarities and differences are both recognized and accepted . . . [T]he shared experience of being

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human results in a sense of connectedness with people and is associated with a plurality or diversity of interactions with others” (p. 292). UDO represents a social attitude marked by awareness and acceptance of how people are both similar and different. Similarities (that is, universal) are those aspects of being human that are perceived as common between oneself and others, while differences (i.e., diverse) refer to aspects that are meaningfully unique among people, as based on social group memberships (such as race, gender, age, sexual orientation) and individual/personal factors (such as personality traits). UDO is a social attitude that is a hopeful alternative to prejudice and is characterized by a unique understanding of the important ways in which people are similar and different at the same time. FOSTERING UDO: IMPORTANT INGREDIENTS How can UDO be fostered or developed? What are important ingredients? Anderson and Miville (2002a) examined developmental aspects of UDO, using Dabrowski’s (1967, in Anderson & Miville, 2002b) theory of positive disintegration. The theory states that people develop across a number of levels, the most sophisticated being group-oriented (communionistic) levels that emphasize common or universal qualities among people. Movement across levels is necessarily accompanied by anxiety and the “disintegration” of the previous developmental level. This translates into shifting away from old thoughts and feelings about oneself and others, perhaps marked by fear and/or hostility, into new, and qualitatively different, ways of thinking and feeling about oneself and others, marked by openness and acceptance. As important, previous identities based, for example, on family, race, or religion may not necessarily be at odds with identifying with an ever-widening group (that is, humanity). Indeed, Anderson and Miville (2002b) propose that as people develop a more group-oriented perspective, social group boundaries become more permeable. For example, people may become more comfortable interacting with others from different racial/cultural backgrounds because they also perceive a larger group boundary based on common humanity. A limitation of Dabrowski’s framework appears to be the western presumption of an individualistic worldview; those with collectivistic worldviews might be presumed to begin at a more advanced level developmentally. Anderson and Miville (2002b) found that spirituality, openness, and emotional intelligence were significant predictors of UDO attitudes. In short, people with a spiritual

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outlook, a personality characterized by openness, and the ability to accurately sense one’s and others’ feelings were more likely to express UDO attitudes. Recent social psychology theory also has suggested ways of reducing prejudice and developing UDO. For example, the cognitive process of social categorization has driven much research on prejudice, particularly among different social groups (Brown, 1995; Dovidio & Gaertner, 1986). Social categorization occurs in people’s attempt to understand, order, and simplify the social world. People place themselves and others in a variety of categories, for example, based on social group features (race, gender, size, etc.). Resulting favorable attitudes toward one’s own group (ingroup) and negative attitudes toward other groups (outgroups) thus are believed to be a major cause of prejudice. Social psychologists have begun to ask how inevitable or entrenched social categorization is. Can people decategorize (minimize the importance of social categories) or recategorize (create new inclusive categories) both themselves and others? Research now suggests that under certain conditions, people can develop a common ingroup identity (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1999; Gaertner, Dovidio, Anastasio, Bachman, & Rust, 1993). This identity “involves change [to] people’s conceptions of groups, so that they think of membership not in terms of several different groups, but in terms of one, more inclusive group” (1999, p. 103). In doing so, negative attitudes toward outgroups become more positive, ideally because outgroup members become ingroup members (“they” become “we”). Dovidio and Gaertner also proposed the possibility of “dual identities” in which people simultaneously see themselves as members of a smaller ingroup (as based on race or gender) as well as a superordinate group (see Figure 8.1). Brewer (2000) has alternately suggested that prejudice reduction occurs in conditions where people cross-categorize themselves and others. That is, people come to perceive that they and others belong to several social groups at the same time; thus people are placed in multiple, simultaneous categories. Research suggests that crosscategorization reduces prejudice (and potentially increases UDO), because other people can be seen as similar to oneself in one dimension (universal) while being different in other dimensions (diverse). Pettigrew (1998) and others have written about how cognitive processes might work together, building upon each other to reduce prejudice and foster UDO (Tal-Or et al., 2002). For example, a first step

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Figure 8.1. Dimensions of group membership/identity (adapted from Sue & Sue, 2003; Turner, 1987)

toward reducing prejudice and developing UDO might be to decategorize other people (de-emphasize the outgroup to which others presumably belong). The next step is to recategorize others as members of one’s own group (presumably a larger superordinate group). A third step is marked by cross-categorization and developing a more complex perception of oneself and others within social categories. That is, one comes to perceive the simultaneous and multiple groups to which each person belongs (Sue & Sue, 2003; Turner, 1987); for example, as Figure 8.1 shows, a person is seen as an individual as well as both a racial being and a human being. Steps two and three lay the groundwork for developing UDO by creating the cognitive complexity necessary for perceiving that both similarities and differences exist among oneself and others. Similarities are perceived because of common group membership (being human or, perhaps for

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younger people, being in the same grade), while differences are perceived based either on membership in a different group or acceptance of the diversity of one’s own ingroup (current evidence appears to better support the former) (Brown, 1995). Social psychology processes described above likely affect one’s social identity, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes one has toward one’s group memberships (Tajfel & Turner, 2001). Social identity is another variable that has received much attention in research on prejudice, providing motivation to favor one’s own group, often at the cost of viewing other groups negatively, as a means of feeling good about one’s own groups. The construct of social or collective identity also has been a focus of much research in multicultural psychology, resulting in the development of identity models based on social group memberships, such as race (Cross, 1971; Cross & Phagen-Smith, 1995), gender (Downing & Roush, 1985; Ossana, Helms, & Leonard, 1992), and sexual orientation (Cass, 1979). Social/collective identities, particularly for oppressed groups, are believed to be a critical aspect of one’s self-concept, providing essential grounding and buffering in the face of prejudice and discrimination (Helms, 1990). More sophisticated social/collective identity attitudes have been linked to low prejudice and high UDO for both white and black participants (Miville et al., 1999). Thus, a critical aspect of fostering UDO and reducing prejudice is developing more sophisticated or mature social or collective identities; such maturity would parallel the sophisticated understanding of the social world that underlies UDO, “in which existing social group boundaries are viewed, depending on the time and circumstances, as potentially permeable and traversable” (Miville et al., 1999, p. 305). The social context in which people interact is critical in changing how they think about themselves and others. Simply put, the social context can reinforce how people perceive themselves and others as individuals, as social group members, and as members of a larger superordinate group. Allport (1954) noted four key ingredients needed for the social context to enable positive intergroup contact: equal status, common goals, cooperative relations, and institutional support. Pettigrew (1998) recently updated the intergroup contact theory originally proposed by Allport (1954) by describing processes that help bring about more positive attitudes toward others. These include learning about the outgroup (getting more accurate information), changing behavior to approach and interact with diverse others (leading to dissonance that must be reduced by creating

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more positive attitudes), generating emotional attachments (particularly through friendship), and reappraising one’s ingroup (as not having the only acceptable worldview). The essence of successful intergroup contact is that it must be repeated and sustained in ultimately positive ways. One-shot interventions thus are not as likely to be successful as those that are ongoing. FOSTERING UDO: CRITICAL CONDITIONS, ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS From the previous section, it is possible to outline important conditions necessary to reduce prejudice and develop UDO. Settings or interventions with these goals in mind need to incorporate the following: • Sustained and positive contact among demographically diverse participants characterized by 䊊

Equal status.

䊊

Common goals.

䊊

Cooperative relations.

䊊

Institutional support.

• Accurate knowledge of social groups • An increase in the psychological complexity of perceptions of self and others such that participants 䊊

Develop common ingroup or universal identity.

䊊

Perceive multiple social group memberships/identities.

• Being emotionally evocative. This will 䊊

Allow for anxiety, dissonance, and/or emotional discomfort to be felt and openly expressed.

䊊

Allow for friendships/positive emotional attachments to develop.

• Emphasis/recognition of both group and individual factors/processes 䊊

Change can occur collectively through group processes and experiences.

䊊

Change can be facilitated or hindered by individual factors (such as different levels of openness, emotional intelligence, ability to process information, right-wing authoritarianism). (Levy, 1999)

To be sure, it is doubtful that many settings that might foster UDO actually do so, because the above conditions do not exist in consistent and sustained ways. Nevertheless, there is tremendous potential that UDO can be fostered in a variety of settings and for many different

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people if resources and political will are directed toward this goal. The first step toward making the potential of UDO a reality is to think about creating interventions that include the above conditions. Of course, it is hoped that many settings will eventually take on these conditions without a need for specialized programs. The goals of interventions designed to help participants develop UDO might focus on enhancing the following characteristics in people: • willingness to tolerate and learn from ambiguity and anxiety, • openness to and experience with interacting with diverse others, • feelings of connectedness with others, • accurate knowledge of social groups, • cognitive flexibility and complexity, • more sophisticated social identities based on existing social groups, as based on race and gender, and • social identity based on membership in the human race.

These characteristics might be thought of as important precursors or correlates of UDO that foster UDO’s dual components: attitudes that acknowledge and accept the common or shared aspects of people (universal), and attitudes that understand and accept people’s unique aspects as based on group membership or individual characteristics (diverse). These dual aspects of UDO are believed to be orthogonal (see Figure 8.2). That is, they may not necessarily be believed or expressed simultaneously. For example, a person may believe that people share common qualities, but the person may not recognize important differences (that is, people are people and differences do not matter); or a person may believe that people are very different from each other, indeed so different that it is impossible to perceive important or meaningful commonalities. However, in order to achieve a genuine reduction of prejudice and to develop a universaldiverse orientation, people must have accepting attitudes about both universal and diverse qualities of others. The characteristics listed above support the adoption of the dual aspects of UDO, rather than one or another component. Given that individual differences might exist in the above characteristics within a group of potential program participants, it is important to look at both individual and group needs for fostering UDO. It is also reasonable to expect that differing levels of success will be achieved within the same program among the participants. Thus, it

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Figure 8.2. Orthogonal components of universal-diverse orientation. Universal-diverse orientation is located in the quadrant made of accepting attitudes of both universally oriented attitudes and diverse-oriented attitudes.

is important to consider assessing the needs and abilities of potential participants in order to establish minimum conditions leading to UDO for all participants. FOSTERING UDO: EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS Interventions aimed at reducing prejudice and increasing positive social attitudes have existed for some time (Brown, 1995; Khmelkov & Hallinan, 1999). Multicultural education or diversity programming also may be placed into this category, given the general aim of increasing knowledge and more positive relations among various social groups (Banks, 1995). A number of settings already have initiated these interventions, including schools, universities/college, and the workplace. As well, clinical settings have been a recent area targeted for reducing bias, increasing understanding, and creating more effective strategies among mental health practitioners for the diverse clientele they serve. With some adjustments, it is possible for these existing interventions to focus not only on reducing prejudice but also on replacing these negative attitudes with UDO (akin to

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the “positive disintegration” mentioned earlier that replaces fear and hostility among participants with openness and understanding). Unfortunately, due to space concerns, it is not possible to fully review here applications of the conditions described above for each setting. Instead, the following sections will describe specific considerations for interventions centered on fostering UDO for each specific setting. School Settings Without a doubt, many scholars view childhood and adolescence as key time periods in which prejudice develops (Brown, 1995). Given a different set of circumstances or conditions, childhood is a period during which more positive social attitudes instead might develop. According to Carter and Rice (1997), a child begins to understand that she or he belongs to a particular group by as early as age five and to distinguish differences between groups by age ten. A primary socializing agent for children in shaping and influencing social attitudes are schools (Byrnes, 1988; Wotorson, 2001). Children are required to spend much of the day in school, and it is likely their main social milieu. In addition, school experiences occur at a time in children’s lives when they begin to understand social group membership and develop attitudes regarding these memberships. School experiences also occur when children are most open to new information and experiences, socialization, character development, and attitude change (Khmelkov & Hallinan, 1999). Schools can thus play a critical role in shaping how children think and feel about the world and their social reality, and it represents a critical time and space for promoting the development of UDO and systemically reducing prejudice and discrimination. When thinking about how to intervene in reducing prejudice and foster UDO, it is important to have a sense of how a child’s development might affect his or her beliefs and actions. Byrnes (1988) states that the elementary school years constitute a developmental period during which children’s attitudes toward various social groups and their distinguishing characteristics are elaborated upon and crystallized. In addition, experiences (group and otherwise) children have and do not have during these years are important determinants of later attitudes and feelings. Byrnes suggests that unless children are placed in situations in which they are required to rethink their beliefs about group differences, it is unlikely they will do so of their own accord. Wotorson (2001) further states that elementary school years are a

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time of great transition for children and are marked by the following shifts: • There is a shift in focus from family to peers. • Friendships and finding a place in a group become increasingly more important. • There is an increased ability to consider someone else’s point of view. • Older siblings and acquaintances become more influential in their lives. • Television and other media become a strong influence, especially in the very early grades when children tend to believe what they see. • Abstractions are difficult to comprehend for the early elementary age child; older elementary age children begin to develop the ability to move from the concrete to the abstract. • Children in kindergarten or first grade may still believe in the power of wishes and magical thinking; by second and third grades, children understand the difference between fantasy and reality. • Differences among people are apparent, and children are beginning to absorb societal judgments about these differences. (p. 86)

In considering the above, it is critical that schools realize the tremendous impact they have on children’s development of their identities, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. Schools, thus, have the responsibility to provide a safe, nurturing environment with teachers and peers of diverse social group memberships with whom the children can share, learn, model, and gain appreciation and respect for similarities and differences among each other (Bigler, 1999; Stephan, 1999). In this way, schools can effectively facilitate the conditions for reducing prejudice and promoting UDO with children. The following are suggestions for classroom activities that help children focus cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally on developing and displaying an awareness and appreciation of similarities (universal) and differences (diverse) among themselves and others (Aboud & Fenwick, 1999; Bigler, 1999; Byrnes, 1988; Lynch, 1987; Pate, 1995; Schofield, 1995; Slavin, 1995; Stephan, 1999; Wotorson, 2001): • Provide an opportunity for children/students to appreciate and identify with the ethnic/cultural similarities and differences of their classmates by role-playing. Have the students actively participate in the dance, music, and crafts of, for example, Korean culture and have them discuss the meanings and significance of activities performed in these situations. In addition, discuss how the values reflected in the customs and traditions of a

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particular culture might be related to similar values in the students’ own culture and in other parts of the world. • Whenever teaching the topics related to various group memberships/ identities (racial, ethnic, gender, age, sexual orientation, religious, socioeconomic), discuss the common or universal elements shared by all the groups as well as acknowledging and discussing unique differences. Programs for older children and adolescents might also include discussion of resulting social experiences based on differences (both positive and negative). • Provide students the opportunity to interact with members of other social groups in academic learning teams. Assign a project in which they have to band together in completing the task. Working together toward a collective goal promotes a greater sense of identification with one another and realization of their similarities as students despite their differences in their social, cultural, and personal traits. • To increase their dialogue, awareness, and empathy for members of other groups, have the children/students write and act out their own plays, skits, or short stories that characterize individuals who are confronted with discrimination and prejudice. Discuss the children’s similar and different experiences as a result of their social group memberships. • Provide a forum for the parents of the children of diverse social group memberships to interact with one another. Invite parents into one of the discussions with the children about the various social group memberships and identifying their understanding and awareness of similarities and differences. In this way, children and parents can both learn to develop and model UDO from each other.

These activities will help children develop UDO by helping them absorb beliefs about themselves and others that highlight similarities common to all people as well as unique differences that set oneself and others apart, ideally in positive ways. Such activities also help lay the groundwork for identity development in adolescence based on more accurate knowledge of social groups as well as acceptance of others as part of the larger group of humanity. Direct experiences with diverse others are key to establishing friendships and developing a genuine understanding of how people are both similar and different from each other. School is a time for learning and socialization. Children learn from watching and interacting with their teachers and peers. They acquire attitudes from the absence as well as the presence of diversity in the student body and staff, in the curriculum, and in the physical environment. The above interventions can be effective only in a school setting whose administrators and teachers also express positive social

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attitudes and are trained to promote multiculturalism and UDO. It is further assumed that the children in the setting have diverse social group memberships. Schools with less diverse school populations must make efforts to create diverse group contact, for example, by developing sustained interventions across schools or districts. Finally, although schools are one of the major socializing agents of children, they cannot be alone in eradicating prejudice and discrimination. The active support of policymakers, the media, and family members is needed to combat prejudice and develop UDO. Higher Education Settings Another ideal period during which to foster UDO is late adolescence, particularly in higher education settings. Today’s college students are the most diverse of any generation in terms of race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and so on. Despite this fact, or because of it, more tension on campus regarding diversity issues exists today than previously. Indeed, research shows that students are more willing to talk about the intimate details of their sex lives than to talk about race relations on campus (Levine & Cureton, 1998). Thus, UDO interventions may be critical to helping not only foster positive social attitudes among individual students but also promote a more positive campus climate. The college years are an important time for the crystallization of identity. Identity development is generally associated with decisions and commitments regarding career, relationships, lifestyle, values, and sexual identity (White & Porterfield, 1993). Healthy identity involves two important elements: a persistent sense of sameness within oneself and a persistent sharing with others. Erikson (1968) theorized that identity develops best when students are given a psychosocial moratorium—a time and a place in which they can experiment with different social roles before making permanent commitments to an occupation, intimate relationships, social and political groups and ideas, and a philosophy of life (Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, & Gurin, 2002). For students of color, issues of racial/ethnic identity are particularly relevant, and it is important that all students see themselves represented in the environment around them to avoid feelings of invisibility or marginality that can undermine positive identity development and genuine UDO (Tatum, Calhoun, Brown, & Ayvazian, 2000). Thus, UDO interventions in higher education should relate to enhancing identity development and building healthy relationships among college students.

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To help deal with the psychosocial development of college students, many universities have departments or divisions of student affairs (SA). SA departments are generally responsible for developing interventions through programming that enhances student development, particularly around identity issues and positive social attitudes (Howard-Hamilton, Phelps, & Torres, 1998). The American College Personnel Association and the National Association for Student Personnel Administrators developed seven core principles for student development on which interventions should be based. Interestingly, the seventh principle states that “student learning occurs best in communities that value diversity, promote social responsibility, encourage discussion and debate, recognize accomplishments, and foster a sense of belonging among their members” (Howard-Hamilton, 2000). Thus, the conceptual framework for promoting UDO in higher education settings already exists. In recent years, many SA interventions have focused on multicultural education and diversity awareness, including reducing prejudice and increasing positive social attitudes. However, while many SA departments wish to be perceived as promoting more positive attitudes and raising awareness about multicultural issues, few actually have developed a unified and sustained vision within the department of what positive and accepting attitudes among college students truly entail. Many units within SA departments create diversity programming, but little communication or planning across these units seems to exist on many campuses. Thus, better communication across units would help create a more coherent framework for changing attitudes and ultimately lead to longer-lasting results. As well, some existing programs are more successful than others in reducing prejudice and fostering positive social attitudes. Critical factors for success include incorporating any number of the conditions previously described, such as level of sustained contact with diverse others and the ongoing nature of the program. Programs also vary according to their intentionality. Some programs clearly articulate and plan prejudice reduction as a goal for participants, while other programs exist whose consequences might include reducing prejudice and developing UDO, but were not recognized as such by program planners. Intramural sports are one of the most salient examples on most campuses of this latter type of programming. Large and diverse numbers of students are drawn annually to this activity; a common enjoyment of sports and friendly competition provide a formal way of bringing students of all backgrounds together with the goal of

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exercise and perhaps to create a winning team. These activities meet many of the conditions outlined for developing UDO: particularly positive intergroup contact, the opportunity to develop friendships, the possibilities of activating both recategorization (as members of a common team) and cross-categorization (team members plus other social group members) processes, and the enhancement of social identity development. A goal of many SA programs is to assist students in feeling a sense of connectedness through shared experiences, another characteristic of UDO. Such programs begin with freshman, minority, and transfer student orientations, and continue with residence hall floor meetings and activities. Also, specific diversity programming focusing on various social groups (for example, Hispanic Heritage month) is a component of many SA programs, emphasizing meaningful differences among university students. Both types of interventions seem to foster aspects of UDO, although this goal could be more clearly stipulated and integrated into program activities. On-campus housing provides one of the best environments for fostering long-lasting positive social attitudes and behaviors. Close intergroup contacts based on race and gender occur every day in campus housing. Students also are afforded the opportunity to interact with members of other social groups through “theme” housing such as a Native American floor, African American floor, or “foreign language” floor. Students from any cultural or ethnic background may reside on the floor; the only requirement is that each individual be interested in learning about the highlighted opportunity. Whether these contacts in campus housing are positive, however, depends on the degree to which the conditions of positive intergroup contact exist (Bennett, 1993). Well-trained staff and student leaders should be available to aid in the necessary discourse associated with negative contacts that are a natural component of any community. Ideally, a faculty member is also assigned as an advisor to the floor. Intentional multicultural programming nationwide ranges from single program approaches to semester-long or even lengthier programs. Examples of offering opportunities to explore similarities and differences among ethnic and cultural environments include such programs as “focus nights,” in which students from various countries present an educational program on their country followed by a variety of homemade “home” foods. Still other SA programs directly challenge underlying prejudices based on race, gender, and sexual orientation and include more confrontative elements. Discussions on

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hate crimes and male/female differences as well as stereotype awareness activities (for example, a “Racism 101” course) are common examples of these interventions. The goals of these programs are to increase awareness of one’s own stereotypes and prejudices and to provide more accurate information and understanding of different social groups. These programs influence social identity development of participants by increasing the cognitive complexity surrounding social group perceptions. These latter activities likely need to be led by a professional. With some adjustments, many existing multicultural programs can include fostering UDO more directly as a goal. Ultimately, participants of UDO programs will be able to develop more complex social identities that allow oneself and others to be seen as part of many and simultaneous groups; participants also might come to see that some groups converge with each other regarding similar values or purposes, while others do not and may even conflict. As well, the opportunity to interact with diverse others, particularly to confront tough issues of oppression and privilege and to participate in dialogue necessary to express feelings of anxiety and discomfort in a safe setting, will bring about the ability to withstand anxiety and ambiguity and even to learn from these experiences. To devote time to facilitating knowledge of one another in conversation is to create shared values of respect, trust, and dignity (Healy & Liddell, 1998). The key to creating effective UDO interventions in higher education is creating situations that allow for the deceptively simple task of facilitating common discourse. Finally, instructors can develop UDO in the classroom. Anderson and Miville (2002a) conducted research on the effectiveness of organizing a multicultural education course using UDO as the conceptual framework. Beginning with the first class, students were oriented to learning about multicultural issues from the framework of shared commonalities and unique and meaningful differences. Course themes and discussions facilitated by the study’s first author utilized this emphasis throughout the semester. Results demonstrated that by the end of the semester, students expressed stronger UDO attitudes, greater multicultural awareness, and lower prejudice. Organizational Settings The workplace is another seemingly ideal setting in which to apply interventions that reduce prejudice and foster UDO. By adopting a

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more socially accepting approach, both within the workforce as well as in marketing products, organizations stand to reap greater profits economically as well as psychologically. Workplaces have attempted to enhance the psychological functioning of their workers for some time, particularly with social attitudes. The growth of so-called “diversity training” programs in the last three decades has been documented in numerous studies. By the mid-1990s, it was estimated that 60 percent of Fortune 500 corporations had initiated some kind of diversity training program. The general effectiveness of these interventions on workers appears to be mixed, however, with rising harassment and discrimination lawsuits and the appearance of “backlash” attitudes among many white male employees, viewed by some as pointing to failure (Combs, 2002). Reasons cited for the mixed effectiveness of current approaches range from too minimal an intervention (the classic one-shot approach), too little administrative support for genuine changes in organizational culture (Bendick, Egan, & Lofhjelm, 2001), too much glossing over or over-generalizing of significant differences among people (Zhu & Kleiner, 2000), and too little emphases on teaching concomitant behavioral/skill-based changes along with increased awareness (Arai, Wanca-Thibault, & Shockley-Zalabak, 2001). Indeed, “mishandled training . . . [can serve] to exacerbate low morale and a negative diversity climate” (Gilbert & Ivancevich, 1999, p. 31) for both majority and minority workers. A recent study found that 64 percent of black women felt that diversity programs were not effective in addressing subtle racism (Grossman, 2000). Most experts agree that a key condition for the success of such interventions is support from top management: “Organizations can develop rationales for training that recognize [that] nurturing the potential of a diverse employee workforce can help in adapting their products and services to diverse market groups” (Lindsley, 1998, p. 304). Without the support of top management, most diversity training programs are doomed to fail, or worse, to exacerbate existing tensions in the work climate. UDO provides an ideal framework for organizations to couch prejudice-reduction interventions and increase social attitudes of awareness and acceptance of diverse others. A focus on similarities among people is likely to be embraced by administrators and many workers because of the lower likelihood of creating negative and defensive reactions from the start. As well, the emphasis on commonalities, if conducted in a genuine and meaningful manner, can bring people together in ways that create emotional bonds and attachments.

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Because workplaces typically employ adults, developmental interventions previously described as utilizing emerging cognitive processes or social identities are not likely to be as effective here. Instead it is important to presume that adults already have various social attitudes that are deeply held and social identities that are salient and central to their self-concepts. UDO interventions must therefore allow for these attitudes and identities to be meaningfully involved and expressed. Indeed, adults are ideally suited for UDO interventions, since part of the process necessarily involves grappling with ambiguities and anxieties that emerge when focusing on social attitudes and identities present in a diverse work group. Such strong emotions are likely to emerge when confronting important differences (of opinions and beliefs, of behaviors and customs, of emotional reactions to events): After all, learning about diversity is tough business. It tangles with issues that are deeply emotional, uniquely personal, powerfully systemic, and firmly rooted in our psyches and institutions. It asks us to engage in an uncomfortable struggle with life’s paradoxes and to live contentedly with contradictions. Valuing diversity requires learning to hold tenaciously onto core beliefs while freely letting go of rigid views of self and world. It demands the ability to see differences and similarities at the same time. It requires complex developmental capacities and a worldview [often] at odds with Western thinking. Diversity is steeped in ambiguity and challenge. (Gallos, 1997, p. 153)

Thus, fostering UDO in the workplace must include adequate processing of emotional reactions in ways that encourage honesty and comfort with ambiguity and change. There need to be both “feel good” experiences (such as enjoying music and food from other groups) and “feel not so good” experiences (such as feeling angry, sad, and confused) that are processed openly and with few repercussions in the workplace. The presence of a professional in these latter activities is essential for success. As has been suggested by Loden and Rosener (1991, in Lindsley, 1998), organizations that utilize a multilayered identity model also are more apt to effectively change workers than those that focus on single identities. This model promotes cross-categorization processes and helps create the cognitive complexity necessary for developing genuinely accepting social attitudes. A multilayered identity model also allows for diversity among the workforce not only in terms of the type of social group identifications but also of the quality of these

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identifications. Workers will differ in the importance and salience of their various identities. Interventions emphasizing the development of common ingroup (or universal) identity typically involve activities that utilize cooperative techniques (Slavin & Cooper, 1999). Such interventions can be “special” programs or experiential activities whose express purpose is developing such an identity. More long-lasting results, however, will come from weaving cooperative techniques into the actual work of the organization so that rewards of employment are given based on collective efforts that cut across pre-existing social groups. These interventions create cognitive dissonance from having positive social interactions across social groups, leading to changes in attitudes toward both one’s own groups and other groups (Pettigrew, 1998). The primary challenge of developing organizational interventions that foster UDO is to simultaneously focus on critical similarities and differences among people in genuine and sustained ways, a task that often can be derailed for many reasons (such as diminishing resources that drive up competitive motivations within the organization and lead to outgroup denigration). The greater the extent to which workers perceive diversity programs are due to genuine belief in change by top administrators, rather than cynical avoidance of legal troubles, the more likely workers will buy into the approach (Bendick et al., 2001). Counseling/Clinical Settings Fostering UDO in counseling/clinical settings can be approached from at least two levels: attitudes of the counselor/clinician and attitudes of the clients. Sue and Sue (2003) have presented a model for understanding culturally different clients (and counselors) that incorporates three dimensions of identity: individual, group, and universal. Training programs that emphasize the development of UDO might utilize a multidimensional view to help lay the cognitive basis for developing sophisticated and genuine positive social attitudes of awareness and acceptance. A multidimensional model helps provide the cognitive framework that allows for both cross-categorization and recategorization of group memberships of oneself and others. This approach creates the language and the cognitive categories that allow counselors/clinicians to perceive how people may be both similar and different from each other. As well, the need to interact with diverse others as part of the training program is essential to promoting UDO. Contact with people in a

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variety of social statuses including faculty, peers, and clients enables counselors/clinicians to develop multiple emotional bonds/attachments, create necessary dissonance and anxiety, and develop interpersonal attraction for a more profound change of not only attitudes but also of one’s identity. Current efforts in many graduate training programs have emphasized the importance of meaningfully examining worldviews, cultures, and so on that are different from one’s own (Sue & Sue, 2003). Emphasizing commonalities adds complexity to this understanding as well as allowing bridging to occur across people and communities (however, the limits of such bridging efforts must also be addressed). As with previous settings, the more sustained these training efforts are, the deeper the change in social attitudes. Fostering UDO among clients at both individual and group levels also might be potentially helpful goals in therapy. Some research already exists to show that UDO is linked with well-functioning variables such as openness, self-efficacy, coping, and positive thinking (Miville, Romans, Johnson, & Lone, 1998; Thompson, Brossard, Carlozzi, & Miville, 2002). Universality has long been recognized as an important variable in establishing group process (Yalom, 1995). Fostering UDO would be in line with therapeutic foci of developing a more positive social/collective identity or in preparing clients to deal more effectively with an increasingly diverse social world. CONCLUSION The current chapter has described a hopeful alternative to prejudice: universal-diverse orientation that represents a social attitude characterized by awareness and acceptance of the similarities and differences that exist among people. A number of conditions have been described that are believed to be critical for prejudice reduction and the development of UDO. Suggestions for fostering UDO were made for a number of settings, including schools, higher education, organizations, and counseling/clinical settings. Evaluation of the success of UDO interventions can be conducted in several ways. Pre- and post-assessment of UDO among individuals can be measured using the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale (M-GUDS) (Miville et al., 1999). Given the social desirability possible in responses to using paper-and-pencil measures, more indirect or covert assessment might be conducted as well. These include behavioral measures, such as observing participant interactions preand post-intervention (for example, examining social interactions in

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less formal settings, such as the lunchroom, or assessing the number of diversity-based conflicts) as well as qualitative approaches in which participants are asked in a variety of ways (interviews, journals) about their experiences with the intervention. Qualitative approaches are ideal for describing the process of change and what stood out to participants as aiding or interfering with the development of UDO. The background of individuals (age, race, gender, etc.) as well as type of existing conflict should guide UDO interventions. For example, if homophobia or racist jokes regarding Latinos/as have been a concern in a setting, interventions should be targeted to deal directly with these specific issues, versus a generic “we are all different” message. Such a focus does not disallow for emphasis on identifying similarities among participants but only creates a context for genuinely doing so. The experiences of participants who are from culturally different or oppressed group experiences must be recognized in fostering UDO. People of color and other minority group members (such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered persons, or persons with disabilities) are often numerical minorities, and are sometimes, disastrously, called upon to “speak” for their communities. It is important to use activities that prevent rather than encourage such incidences, allowing for more equalized opportunities to learn among the participants. It is also important to recognize the centrality and salience of social identities based on group memberships for minority participants. Indeed, as Miville et al. (1999) noted: The overall experience of oppression may . . . affect the expression of UDO in that there are times when it is realistic and adaptive to perceive social group boundaries as existent and impermeable, as in the instance of overt hostile and discriminatory behavior or in the establishment of identity and acceptance based on one’s group memberships. That is, there may be times or circumstances when UDO simply is not psychologically adaptive or salient. (p. 305)

Thus, fostering UDO must be approached from a perspective that recognizes the importance of social identities (and differences), rather than minimizing them. An effective approach is to focus on enhancing social identities based on true commonalities of the participants— work setting, age, gender, etc.—thus building in opportunities to recognize a larger superordinate group of common humanity.

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Indeed, fostering UDO can be highly positive for minority or oppressed group members: It may . . . be healing for a person in the face of hostile social group behavior to realize that whereas members of other social groups (e.g., based on race or gender), particularly those that are nonoppressed, may hold different or even contradictory values, these individuals also may strongly reject hostile, discriminatory behaviors. As well, members of oppressed social groups may appreciate bridging with others from differing social groups, particularly with individuals who genuinely attempt to understand their perspective (e.g., nonracist Whites, nonsexist men, or nonhomophobic heterosexuals). (Miville et al., 1999, p. 305)

UDO interventions need to include activities that blend well with the values, customs, and general worldview of the participants. For example, not all cultures utilize effectively a small group approach where everyone must talk. A part of processing the intervention might involve learning how activities did or did not blend well with participants’ backgrounds. Toolbox for Change For Individuals

Images/perceptions Understand multiple social group memberships of self and others. Perceive self and others as part of common group.

Community/ Celebrate diverse and society common group memberships of community members.

Strategies for change Own areas of growth. Have opportunities for positive interactions/contact with diverse others (see section on critical conditions). Use of multiple settings (school, work, social agencies). Provide social context, rewards to reinforce UDO.

Practitioners/ Understand cognitive Allow for sufficient time. educators complexity of multiple Allow expression of variety social group of emotional reactions, memberships. both positive and negative. Understand complexity of Emphasize both individual the process of developing and group approaches. UDO. Understand developmental processes of participants.

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Finally, it is important to be realistic about the impact of programs that are created to foster UDO. As has been noted, the more sustained the program, the more hope for long-lasting change in attitudes. As well, institutional support is essential for creating genuine attitude change (for example, giving concrete rewards for expressing more positive attitudes). Clear goals help to maintain realism of what can be accomplished via UDO interventions. For example, one setting may wish to develop more cordial or courteous interactions of participants to replace overt hostility (even a minimal “agreement to disagree”). Other settings may wish to delve deeper emotionally and psychologically and foster understanding and acceptance. Interventions for these latter settings must include adequate processing of thoughts and feelings, and at the same time, focus on commonalities viewed as important by participants. Effects of such interventions include a broadening of one’s identity (via both recategorization and cross-categorization) along with friendships across prescribed social lines. These latter interventions have better chances of effecting truly felt social attitude change among their participants. It is simply not realistic to establish as a goal of UDO interventions eliminating all tension and conflict regarding prejudice. Instead, a more achievable goal is to create a social context that allows for a coming together of participants when there is tension and hostility, in order to have open and healthy dialogue (such as ownership of feelings and behaviors); and where relevant, to create strategies that promote continuing dialogue and acceptance of others. At the same time, settings may wish to establish policy that specifies concrete behavioral criteria of what harmful or discriminatory behaviors are unacceptable under any conditions and will be sanctioned (Grossman, 2000). As well, it is important to be realistic about what “acceptance” of others entails in UDO. Acceptance does not necessarily mean adopting the same worldview or customs, though, at a minimum, it describes understanding and accepting that another person has a worldview that, while different from one’s own, is valid. REFERENCES Aboud, F. E., & Fenwick, V. (1999). Exploring and evaluating school-based interventions to reduce prejudice. The Journal of Social Issues, 55(4), 767–785. Allport, G. W. (1948). Psychology, in college reading and religion: A survey of college reading materials (pp. 80–114). New Haven, CT: Yale University.

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Anderson, A. L., & Miville, M. L. (August, 2002a). UDO in the classroom: A framework for teaching multiculturalism. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Anderson, A. L., & Miville, M. L. (August, 2002b). Developmental correlates of universal-diverse orientation using a Dabrowski framework. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Arai, M., Wanca-Thibault, M., & Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2001). Communication theory and training approaches for multiculturally diverse organizations: Have academics and practitioners missed the connection? Public Personnel Management, 30(4), 445–466. Banks, J. A. (1995). Multicultural education: Its effects on students’ racial and gender role attitudes. In J. A. Banks & C. A. McGee Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 617– 627). New York: Macmillan. Bendick, M., Egan, M. L., & Lofhjelm, S. M. (2001). Workforce diversity training: From anti-discrimination compliance to organizational development. Human Resource Planning, 24(2), 10–26. Bennett, C. (1993). Issues of race and culture on the college campus. In G. Bliming (Ed.), The experienced resident assistant (pp. 17–41). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Bigler, R. S. (1999). The use of multicultural curricula and materials to counter racism in children. The Journal of Social Issues, 55(4), 687–705. Brewer, M. B. (2000). Reducing prejudice through cross-categorization: Effects on multiple social identities. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 165–184). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Brown, R. (1995). Prejudice: Its social psychology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Byrnes, D. A. (1988, April/May). Children and prejudice. Social Education, 52(4), 267–271. Carter, C., & Rice, C. L. (1997). Acquisition and manifestation of prejudice in children. Journal of Multicultural Counseling Development, 25, 185–194. Cass, V. C. (1979). Homosexual identity formation: A theoretical model. Journal of Homosexuality, 4, 219–235. Combs, G. M. (2002). Meeting the leadership challenge of a diverse and pluralistic workplace: Implications of self-efficacy for diversity training. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 8(4), 1–16. Cross, W. E. (1971). The Negro-to-black conversion experience: Towards a psychology of black liberation. Black World, 20(9), 13–27. Cross, W. E., & Phagen-Smith, P. (1995). Nigrescence and ego identity development: Accounting for differential black identity patterns. In P. B. Pedersen, J. G. Draguns, W. J. Lonner, & J. E. Trimble (Eds.),

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Miville, M. L., Gelso, C. G., Liu, W., Pannu, R., Holloway, P., & Fuertes, J. (1999). Appreciating similarities and valuing differences: The MivilleGuzman Universality-Diversity Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46, 291–307. Miville, M. L., Romans, J. S. C., Johnson, D., & Lone, R. (1998, August). Exploring correlates of well-functioning using the Universality-Diversity Scale. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA. Ossana, S. M., Helms, J. E., & Leonard, M. M. (1992). Do “womanist” identity attitudes influence college women’s self-esteem and perceptions of environmental bias? Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, 402–408. Pate, G. S. (1995). Prejudice reduction and the findings of research. East Lansing, MI: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED383803) Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65–85. Schofield, J. W. (1995). Improving intergroup relations among students. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook on multicultural education (pp. 628–634). New York: Macmillan Publishing. Slavin, R. E. (1995). Cooperative learning and intergroup relations. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook on multicultural education (pp. 628–634). New York: Macmillan Publishing. Slavin, R. E., & Cooper, R. (1999). Improving intergroup relations: Lessons learned from cooperative learning programs. Journal of Social Issues, 55(4), 647–663. Stephan, W. G. (1999). Reducing prejudice and stereotyping in schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice (4th ed.). New York: Wiley. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (2001). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In M. A. Hogg & D. Abrams (Eds.), Intergroup relations: Essential readings (pp. 94–109). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Tal-Or, N., Boninger, D., & Gleicher, F. (2002). Understanding the conditions and processes necessary for intergroup contact to reduce prejudice. In G. Salomon & B. Nevo (Eds.), Peace education: The concept, principles, and practices around the world (pp. 89–107). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Tatum, B., Calhoun, W., Brown, S., & Ayvazian, A. (2000). Implementation strategies for creating an environment of achievement. Liberal Education, 86(2), 18–25. Thompson, R., Brossard, D., Carlozzi, A. F., & Miville, M. L. (2002). Fivefactor model (big five) and universal-diverse orientation in counselor trainees. Journal of Psychology, 136(5), 561–572.

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Turner, J. C. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. White, D., & Porterfield, W. (1993). Psychosocial development in college. In R. Winston & S. Anchors (Eds.), Student housing and residential life (pp. 65–94). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Wotorson, M. (2001). Partners against hate program activity guide: Helping children resist bias and hate. Washington, DC: Partners against Hate. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED464966) Yalom, I. (1995). Theory and practice of group psychotherapy (4th ed.). New York: Basic Books. Zhu, J., & Kleiner, B. (2000, May/June). The failure of diversity programs. Nonprofit World, 18(3), 12–14.

CHAPTER 9

The Chicago Dinners: A Model for Community Engagement and Social Change Dietra Hawkins Terri Johnson Josefina Alvarez

The problems signified by prejudice and racism in the United States are not new, not simple, and certainly not gone. . . . Race is a subject of emotional, volatile, vexing, and frustrating dimensions in this society. It seems that no matter how much things change, the problem of race remains. (Jones, 1997, p. 2)

S

ocial psychologist James Jones (1997) summarized the vast amount of research and theory written about prejudice and racism. He began by describing how the “problem of the color line” as first noted by W. E. B. Du Bois in 1903 could be applied to the period from the sixteenth century through the twenty-first century. Jones stated, “The problem of the color line endures—in stark defiance of all our efforts to contradict its reality or destroy the problem” (p. 23). As America embraces this new millennium, the issue of race has indisputably remained embedded in the threads of our culture despite the tremendous technological and economic advancements of the twentieth century. This chapter presents some of our ideas about why this conversation is so difficult. We also talk about the Chicago Dinners program, which has succeeded in building connections and creating a setting for uncomfortable questions and experiences with racism to be

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expressed. We begin this chapter by focusing on the evolution of the race problem, and we describe past and current attempts at rectifying the effects of racism. The history and evolution of the Chicago Dinners project are then presented before we conclude with some practical lessons learned from this program’s unique approach toward racial healing. THE CONCEPT OF RACE One can only address racism when the concept of race is first understood. The race concept, according to Jones (1997), comes from two perspectives: biological and social. Originally the concept of race provided an explanation for the human diversity that Europeans encountered, and it served to create distance between the oppressor and the oppressed. The biologic or genetic basis for race was meant to introduce a “rationale” for the hierarchical value judgments. The concept was used to justify the exploitation and dispossession of theoretically inferior peoples (Akintunde, 1999; Smedley, 1993). The socially constructed concept of race only gained biological support during the eighteenth century. At this time, a Swiss botanist named Carolus Linnaeus wrote the first recorded instance of scientifically categorizing racial characteristics. His 1735 work Systems of Nature originally grouped humans with higher primates such as monkeys and sloths without subdividing humans. In the second edition, five years later, he divided Homo Sapiens into four geographic regions: the Americas (americanus), Europe (europaeus), Asia (asiaticus), and Africa (afer) (D’Souza, 1995). His description of each set a clear hierarchical arrangement where whites were at the top, blacks at the bottom, and Asians and Americans in between (Akintunde, 1999). Johann Blumenbach, a prote´ge´ of Linnaeus and one of the most honored scientists of his time, altered the four-race classification scheme in his doctoral dissertation. Blumenbach identified five races of man: Caucasoid, Ethiopian, Mongoloid, American, and Malay, based on the study of human skulls. His classification scheme breaks down into the familiar colors white, black, yellow, red, and brown, which have likely contributed to the ongoing popularity of his terms. Blumenbach and Linnaeus both used the biblical account of a single creation and of the unity of man to reason that if God had created humans in His image, he would have chosen Europeans as the variant. His mistaken belief that Europeans were the original humans,

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who evolved from the region of the Caucasus Mountains in Russia, led him to name this “variety” of people Caucasians. Any observed defects in other human types were blamed on “degeneration” caused by climate and circumstances (D’Souza, 1995). Blumenbach’s five groups were ranked along a gradient of superior to inferior based on their closeness to the alleged epicenter of the original human being; Caucasian was unquestionably first (Akintunde, 1999; Cameron & Wycoff, 1998; Smedley, 1993). These early attempts at racial taxonomy to support the notion that one group was superior to another led researchers to seek biological differences between the African and the Caucasian. They created these distinctions by observing the “other’s” history, manners, temperament, and morals; we now use the word “culture” to make these distinctions (Jones, 1997). In summary, the concept of race is based on the assumption of biological differences that are unique to a group, attached to observable temperament and character traits, and believed to be relatively stable or fixed. Ironically, rigorous research has shown that the concept is based on false beliefs (Jones, 1997). Why does the concept persist? Jones suggests that: 1. Race is a way of valuing one’s own group over others. 2. Race is a handy way to encapsulate and rationalize social conflict. 3. Race is useful as a means of talking about group differences, values, social hierarchy, and competition. 4. Race is bound up in our worldview. It gives meaning and value to our culture and preserves a social hierarchy that accords privilege and dominance to those in power. (1997, p. 352)

Despite abundant scientific evidence to debunk the concept of race, it persists on the social and cultural levels because it is a habit and it preserves the power of those who traditionally benefited from racial categorizations. In addition, the concepts of “culture” and “ethnicity” confuse us. These concepts are new, unfamiliar, complex, and hold little social meaning. In contrast, the social construct of race more easily distinguishes “us” from “them” (Jones, 1997). Therefore, racism is derived from a flawed concept of race now instituted into the framework of our society. DEFINITION OF RACISM Jones distinguishes three levels of racism: individual, institutional, and cultural. He notes that to define racism as a singular concept is

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difficult and likely the “wrong approach” due to the many ways the concept of race has become salient in our country (Jones, 1997, p. 12). Therefore, he continues, there may be many “racisms” and not a singular definition. Jones extrapolates the main elements of racism as the following: 1. Belief in racial superiority-inferiority, based implicitly or explicitly in biological differences 2. Strong ingroup preference, solidarity, and the rejection of people, ideas, and customs that diverge from the ingroup’s customs and beliefs 3. Doctrine (or cultural or national system) that conveys privilege or advantage to those in power 4. Elements of human thought and behavior that follow from the abstract properties, social structure, and cultural mechanisms of racialism 5. Systematic attempts to prove the rationality of beliefs about racial differences and the validity of policies that are based on such beliefs. (p. 373)

Racism is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon in our society. It cannot be taken lightly. As Feagin and Sikes also note, the term racism in the broad sense extends beyond the prejudices and discriminatory actions of particular “white bigots” but also includes institutionalized discrimination and the recurring far-reaching ways in which white people dominate people of color in this society. The notion of power cannot be left out of the definition, for it is this ability to maintain a social structure that endorses those in power, either consciously or unconsciously. They control legal, cultural, religious, educational, economic, political, environmental, and military institutions (Feagin & Sikes, 1994; Jones, 1997). The definitions offered by these authors help clarify the type of racism that now exists in our society. In addition, their perspective speaks to a new racism that may not be fully recognized, nor easily addressed or healed. They draw a distinction between “old-fashioned racists” who hold negative stereotypes of others and support open acts of discrimination, and “modern racists” who see their beliefs as factual and feel that they do not hold old-fashioned racist views. This new racism is generally subtler but nevertheless preserves the power status quo. Essentially, there is a “profound undercurrent of racial animosity not only in those overt bigots but among more friendly people,” who nevertheless believe in the dominant ideology of opportunity and personal responsibility (Jones, 1997, p. 130).

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This new racism is less about the devaluing of a racial or ethnic group and more about the ingroup’s values and morals and an unconscious or conscious need to maintain power. Therefore, anything that is antiracism, such as multiculturalism and cultural diversity, challenges the heart of what it means to be American (Jones, 1997). Historically, we have tried to address racism as if a singular law or decree could right this embedded problem. Jones notes that it will take more than tolerance, education, or sympathy to address this multifaceted phenomenon that must be attacked on multiple levels. For many people, racism is like murder: the concept exists but someone has to commit it in order for it to happen (Akintunde, 1999). When it is simply conceived as the conscious employment of certain taboo “racist” acts, then one can ignore its true essence. Racism conceptualized from this limited perspective ignores the societal, systemic, institutional, and political institutions that protect and maintain white racism, white privilege, and the construction of “other” (Akintunde, 1999). Most people see racism as only individual acts of meanness, not “invisible systems” conferring power to certain groups. Peggy McIntosh (1988) describes white privilege as “an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, amps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks” (p. 1). White privilege is the package of benefits granted to people in society who have white skin. The privileges allow them certain benefits that are not easily available to people of color. INITIATIVES FOR ENDING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION The resurgence of the affirmative action and reparations debates are strong indicators that the problem of the color line persists. Ironically, the current debate for reparations actually began in 1854 with Sojourner Truth (Allen, 1998). It emerged again in the 1890s with Callie House and the support of Frederick Douglass, who challenged Congress to pay black Americans for past wrongs. According to author Derrick Bell, it appears that the plight of blacks is no better now than it was in 1866 when Thaddeus Stevens recognized that his “bright hope of forty acres and a mule for every freedman had vanished” (as quoted in “The Debt,” 2000, p. 76). Historically, some movement occurred in 1875 when the Civil Rights Act was enacted and gave blacks the right to equal treatment in public inns, theaters, and public amusement places (Jones, 1997). However, 1877 brought

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a compromise and 1883 brought the Jim Crow Supreme Court ruling, which supported the mass discrimination and continued oppression of blacks. Then the 1896 doctrine of “separate but equal” was set by the case Plessy v. Ferguson. Unfortunately, in an effort to right another wrong, the 1954 reversal of this ruling in Brown v. Board of Education seemed to create more racial conflict and antagonism. Civil rights activists once again pushed for justice and, in the 1960s, things started to change. The 1964 civil rights movement addressed the overt expression of racism in society, preventing overt institutional discrimination in schools, restaurants, and other public places. Governments, educational institutions, and corporations developed affirmative action programs to address institutionalized racism and required institutions to diversify their employees. Many instituted quota systems, which have given rise to feelings that discrimination in any case is unconstitutional. Affirmative action is now a bigger public issue than it has ever been, mainly because it has been intensely under attack for the past several years, most recently in the Supreme Court cases involving the University of Michigan. On the surface it appears that we as a nation have steadily addressed the problem of the color line. Yet, when we take a broader look at the complexity and history of racism, there are ever-present disparities that indicate that race-based differences persist. Jones suggests that our nation needs to understand how racism is maintained in the culture and that it needs to approach the inherent diversity of our country from a perspective that does not categorize and create polarization. He gives a compelling plea that we learn to decategorize by breaking down barriers, recategorize by creating a “we,” and move toward unity, and he emphasizes the importance of generalizing from an interpersonal experience with an individual from a different group (Jones, 1997). These suggestions lead us to the central focus of this chapter. How do we as individuals in our society begin to interact with someone different from ourselves? How do we have a conversation about this race issue and begin to address its complexity? Is conflict resolution the answer? What about diversity training? According to the multifaceted definition of the problem, neither of these is a sufficient solution to these complex problems. However, through meaningful dialogue, we can take the first step toward racial healing by moving toward an appreciation of diversity and diminishing the notion of the “other.”

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NEED FOR CONVERSATIONS ON RACE The National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) conducted a survey that uncovered a “central willingness on the part of a sizable majority of the American people to give racial, religious, and ethnic matters a front and center place in the priorities of the nation” (McCoy & Sherman, 1994, p. 112). The people surveyed also noted a lack of opportunity and little encouragement to pursue this interest in their everyday lives. It seems that a large majority of our society would like to have better relationships with their diverse neighbors and that there is a need for opportunities to be created. If we can approach this sensitive issue of race with the perspective that we are engaging in a dialogue and not a debate, maybe the customary resistance can be lowered and a common ground found. Shelly Berman (2003) prepared a list of distinctions between dialogue and debate from discussions with the Dialogue Group, the Boston chapter of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR). Some particularly relevant points about racial dialogue are highlighted in Berman’s contrasting definitions. Dialogue is collaborative, where two or more sides work together toward common understanding; a debate is oppositional, where two sides oppose each other and attempt to prove each other wrong. In dialogue, the goal is to find common ground. People sit down and listen to each other in order to understand and find meaning and agreement. Additionally, dialogue encourages introspection by the participants. There are many positive and empowering aspects to dialogue that may help people find answers to the conflicts in our society. For example, despite the critical commentary about former President Bill Clinton’s call for a “national dialogue,” some described positive outcomes and examples of conversations that have led to change. The following author’s remarkable experience highlights the important distinction between dialogue and other forms of verbal exchange while also indicating the potential for healing: The Conversation taught me that blacks and whites in America cannot know each other without knowing what part race plays in the life of the other. . . . The Conversation was personal. We sat together, looked at each other, read each others’ eyes, body language, tones of voice. The stories and feelings were our own. It was voluntary. No one made us do it: We were there because our hearts were there. The group controlled what the group did. We had no leader and no agenda. . . . And

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so, more than any book or history class, its lessons have stayed with me, because they are not lessons at all, but people who were seen, felt, known in explicitly racial ways. (Franklin, 1996)

Many other groups have been working to create dialogue and promote understanding between groups by creating opportunities for better race relations (Hawkins, 1997). Several of these groups have found successful models for creating dialogues that have led to social action, greater awareness, and mutual understanding. MODELS FOR DIALOGUES ON DIVERSITY Programs such as The Study Circle’s “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” (Niedergang & McCoy, 1992), Kramer and Weiner’s (1994) Dialogue on Diversity, Capowski’s (1996) Guidelines for Managing Diversity, Norman’s (1994) Cultural Model for Mixed Group Dialogue, and Sanford’s (1983) approach to beginning a dialogue in South Africa have noted several suggestions that should be incorporated and found to be effective. These models emphasize the need to have open communication through focus groups, study circles, or among community leaders. Common themes suggested in these programs exemplify the needed social exchange and a space for stereotypes to be explored and mutual understanding to be achieved, as suggested by Jones (1997). Successful dialogue coordinators do the following: 1. Stress the differences between a dialogue and a debate and encourage participants to speak from their own experiences, without resorting to expert opinion. 2. Help participants recognize that the process of dialoguing is not easy and that they must commit to the difficult, emotional work of engaging their own biases. 3. Stress the necessity of a safe and open environment where participants can speak honestly and candidly. Facilitators help the process by monitoring the group, not allowing any one person’s biases to dominate the conversation, while stimulating deeper exploration of the topic and ensuring that everyone’s views are respected. 4. Explain that the purpose of a dialogue on race is not to end racism. Nevertheless, the process of dialoguing is a beginning. Through sharing and mutual understanding, the establishment of common ground can lead to racial healing. 5. Recognize the role and importance of a neutral facilitator who can keep all members present during the conversation and not allow his/her views to dominate the conversation.

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6. Engage a balanced group of participants. If the group is not well balanced with diverse people and opinions, the facilitator may use additional materials to challenge the group by presenting diverse views. 7. Incorporate an educational piece. The topic of race has different historical significance for different groups. For example, if two groups are unaware of the other’s historical struggles, education could help them see how they have been alienated and oppressed and struggled and survived. Hopefully this education will instill a new appreciation for the other group as well as highlight their common struggles. 8. Use flexible materials and schedules. Different formats may be interchanged throughout a session, such as personal stories, expert presentations, or current articles and editorials. 9. Prepare the participants for the process; all the basics such as time, place, and a basic format should be addressed before beginning the conversation. 10. Allow participants to express their concerns about the process before beginning. This opportunity to express their pessimism or anxiety is often cathartic. Participants may also share why they came and what they hope to gain from the experience. The process of sharing helps normalize the experience and allows the facilitator to know where people may want to begin. 11. Establish ground rules or guidelines. The use of ground rules helps keep discussions on track and fair. For example, the facilitator can refer to a specific ground rule to refocus a domineering participant. 12. Acknowledge that feelings of anger and fear are natural because the topic of race is difficult to discuss.

Hawkins (1997) offers four principles that are appropriate for any program that addresses the emotional race problems of America. Rule 1: There is a commitment to work hard. Rule 2: There is a commitment to the long term, not the short term. Rule 3: The race dialogue requires the proper historical context. Rule 4: Talking eventually means doing.

In addition, it is helpful for dialogue coordinators to also learn from the mistakes others have made. Frost (1999) discusses ten traps to be avoided when dealing with the issue of race in a business environment. Many of these traps apply to other environments. For example: 5. Expanding the dialogue focus to include all “individual differences” when race, gender, and sexual orientation have yet to be resolved.

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6. Using euphemisms such as “ethnic” or “culture” when you mean “race.” Direct language indicates comfort with the topic. 7. Arguing that diversity and efforts to embrace it are the “right thing to do.” Resistance is not due to a lack of education or exposure but to a reaction to dismantling old prejudices. 8. Focusing on excluded non-majority groups. Programs must engage the dominant group by aiming to change group behavior and organizational values and norms that ultimately excluded the minority groups. 9. Believing that this work can be done without making people uncomfortable. 10. Assuming that dialogues and trainings automatically change behavior, while research continues to show that raising awareness alone will not shift behavior.

THE CHICAGO DINNERS CONCEPT In November 1995, to ameliorate local intergroup tensions in the midst of a growing national racial divide, the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago and its parent organization, The Chicago Community Trust, created The Chicago Dinners: A Night of Unity. The Chicago Dinners, as the project is now known, brings together civic, business, and community leaders from a variety of racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds to discuss race and racism. Nearly 11,000 people have participated in the Dinners dialogue process throughout metropolitan Chicago and the nation. The concept was co-developed by Clarence N. Wood, then the president of the Human Relations Foundation, and Bruce Newman, then the CEO of the Chicago Community Trust. They developed it to (1) support the work of the Human Relations Foundation to eradicate racism, bigotry, and prejudice by creating sustainable dialogue opportunities; (2) provide safe spaces for people to gather in an informal, normalized setting to “break bread”; and (3) challenge myths and stereotypes by creating an intentional dialogue among peers of different groups, making it harder to label people as exceptions to stereotypical rules. The Chicago metropolitan area is profoundly segregated, with a majority-minority city surrounded by majority white suburbs; there is very little interaction across the color lines. The creators of the Chicago Dinners model understood that for the model to work, it would have to make what was abnormal, normal. To that end, they determined that a meal would be the centerpiece of the process.

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Eating and fellowship with one another are cherished activities for all humanity. They also understood that since race and racism were such difficult topics, the dialogue would have to be as focused as possible. Other issues such as socioeconomic status, class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. are not the central theme of the dialogue process. This is made clear throughout the process. Finally, from its inception, the model has helped participants understand the complexity of the issue, making linkages between individual responsibility and systemic impact. FORMAT OF THE CHICAGO DINNERS Twice a year, the Night of Unity is held. On this night, dinner parties are sponsored throughout the metropolitan Chicago area. Dinner parties range in size from ten to fourteen people. Parties are as formal or informal as the hosts desire. Over the years, dinner parties have been in homes, church basements, rectories, community organizations, and restaurants and are catered using the finest china and linen napkins, or home-cooked using paper plates and paper napkins. Every dinner is unique, brimming with the potential for great insight and new relationships among people with diverse experiences and ideas for change. Hosts serve as facilitators for the dialogue and attend a briefing session to outline the goals of the dinner, share suggestions for how to manage the conversation, and share their concerns about the process. After each dinner, hosts attend another meeting to share their experiences with the process. In addition to the two Nights of Unity, throughout the year, the Chicago Dinners model is used by the Foundation to convene issue-specific community dialogues. Some examples of these efforts include examinations of the role of the arts and cultural institutions in challenging myths and stereotypes to create a new, inclusive vision of the world; the role of women of color in the women’s movement and the intersection of race, culture, and gender in the lives of all women; and the intersection of race, economics, and culture in the lives of immigrant communities (this effort was part of President Clinton’s One America initiative in 1998). Over the years, the Foundation has worked with other organizations and agencies that have found the model useful and adapted it for their own purposes. For example, the YWCA of metropolitan Chicago and the Cook County public defender’s office have used the model in-house with staff members. Another local organization,

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Public Allies Chicago, adapted the model to incorporate specific questions about leadership and young people, targeting all factions of the Public Allies family (staff, volunteer, donor, client, etc.) Other organizations and institutions throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, such as Governor’s State University, Queen of Peace High School, College of DuPage, Bartlett High School, North Park University, the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago, Lookingglass Theatre, Girl Scouts of Chicago, the Beverly Area Planning Association, the South Regional Leadership Center, Evanston Neighborhood Conference, Villages of Park Forest and Matteson, and the Chicago Park District have sponsored community-wide dialogues. Various churches in the area, such as St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, Fourth Presbyterian Church, St. Gertrude’s, Immanuel United Church of Christ, and Holy Name Cathedral, have worked within their congregations and surrounding communities to advance interracial dialogue. In addition to agencies within the Chicago metropolitan area who have adapted the model, Foundation staff have consulted with agencies throughout the nation about ways to use the model in places such as St. Louis, Ottawa Hills, Columbus, Miami, Racine, San Francisco, Flint, Milwaukee, New Haven, South Bend, and Prince George’s County. The House of Blues Foundation sponsored dinners in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Boston. During the most recent Society for Community Research and Action conference, a group of participants experienced the Chicago Dinners process on one night and later in the week participated in a session designed to debrief their experiences and discuss the format of the Dinners. Over the years, participants have been surveyed for their feedback about their experiences. This information has been used to modify the process. Assessments of the Dinners indicate that despite the challenges and tensions in the dialogue, participants enjoy the exchange. Many dinner participants return as guests or hosts every time the Dinners are scheduled. One reason for the success of the Dinners is that they incorporate the twelve key elements previously outlined in this chapter while avoiding the pitfalls outlined by Frost (1999). The four “rules of engagement” outlined by Hawkins (1997) to facilitate a conversation on race are also incorporated into the program. These rules also provide some insight into some of the challenges faced in the process of implementation. Hawkins’s first two rules of commitment—to working hard and in the long term, not just the short term—are difficult in a society that

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embraces the “quick fix” approach to problem-solving. Where instant gratification is valued, the complexity of working on racial issues can be overwhelming. Many Dinners participants have expressed feelings of “not knowing what to do next” and being confronted by the complexity of an issue that they thought was solved already. There is also a tendency for participants to limit the dialogue to issues of personal responsibility, ignoring the institutional and systemic impact of racism. To address this challenge, the Dinners have recently been restructured to address questions related to the institutional and structural nature of racism. Continuous efforts are made with the hosts/facilitators and guests to remind them of the complexity of the issue on both the individual and systemic levels. Hawkins’s (1997) rule for a historical context to the dialogue is challenging in a country that does not tell the truth about race and racism. Despite recent efforts to tell the stories of oppression of people of color in the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” the stories of the oppressed remain marginalized. The learning curve for many people is very high. One way that this challenge has been addressed in the Chicago Dinner model is to share essays and articles that have not just a historical context but a contemporary one as well. This helps participants to understand that the realities of racism, bigotry, and prejudice remain. Hawkins’s (1997) fourth rule, of talking leading to action, is the premise from which the Chicago Dinners began. The dialogue to find common ground is a process that supports real, sustainable efforts to solve our social problems. It is a way to develop genuine relationships that can weather the difficulties for the long haul. Many people suggest that either one talk or one do. Many people of color see talking by the majority community as an excuse not to do anything; they see it as something that makes them feel better. Often the willingness to talk does not translate into doing or into a willingness to do. As the team responsible for implementing the Chicago Dinners, we recognize that participants fall along different places in this continuum and must be valued wherever they find themselves. Open and honest dialogue is critical to the Dinners, but so is action. For that reason, we supply Dinners participants with suggestions of things they can do that will tear down racial barriers. For example, when the topic for the Dinners was the educational system, participants were given a list of agencies working to advocate for educational reform in metropolitan Chicago as well as volunteer opportunities for agencies working directly with students.

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Like the “either we are talking or we are doing” dichotomy, there are other dichotomy paradigms that challenge effective dialogues on race. Previously we have outlined the idea that dialogues about race must encompass both the system and the individual. There is also the tension between one’s identity as an individual and one’s group identity. Tension also exists in whether to focus on diversity or racial justice (Blackwell, Kwoh, & Pastor, 2002). Perhaps the most difficult of these paradigms to address is the tension between the black/white paradigm and one that embraces different cultures and communities. Racism has, for this nation, been embedded in the oppression of the descendents of African slaves over the centuries. The continued racial disparities between blacks and whites are reminders that racism is alive and well. The unfinished agenda of the civil rights movement, continued societal anti-black sentiment, and the continued violence against black people remain critical issues. However, oppression of communities of color has never been limited to that mistreatment and misuse of blacks. Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans have legitimate stories to tell about their abuse by the dominant culture. Immigration has increased the numbers of people of color who live at the bottom rungs of our society and may be trapped there. Their needs are both similar to and different from those of blacks who remain marginalized. These needs must also be addressed in a racial and social justice agenda. Therefore, when a table is appropriately set to include all of these races, colors, and ethnicities, the dialogue becomes more challenging. The impacts of color, culture, and language as experienced by Asians and Latinos place them in a parallel paradigm where there are many similarities but as many differences. The unique experience of Native Americans raises other issues. Latino and Asian participants and hosts tell us that they sometimes disconnect from the dialogue because they have difficulty finding their place in the black-white paradigm. In the “Oppression Olympics,” where people compare their pain to assess whose is most worthy, they often “lose” when there are blacks in the room. This behavior should be expected and should be addressed, as it is one of the tensions that arise when addressing the deep-seated reality of racism. Another dichotomy that has been raised recently in the Chicago Dinners dialogues is whether the issue is race or class. While acknowledging that some of the rationale for raising this question may be the denial of the insidious nature of race, we have chosen to add this dynamic to the dialogue not because we see it as a dichotomy, but

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because we see it as an intersection. In twenty-first-century America, class must also be considered as we shape a new racial dialogue. America is home to the best-educated, wealthiest group of black people in the world. The group identity of blacks erodes as growing numbers of them have adopted the principles of individualism and pursued the trappings of the American dream. The gap between haves and have-nots that grows within our nation grows among blacks as well. The impact of race can be ameliorated by class. Differences can also be seen when there is an intergenerational representation in the dinner dialogue. The elders in the room tell stories about oppression that younger people do not understand. When those who fought in the civil rights movement join together with those who benefited from the fight and know nothing else, the nature of racism is then questioned. Do the young white, Asian, and Latino who go to school with a diverse group of young people and listen to hip-hop see a racial divide? What is the role of the person who brings a multi-racial or bi-racial identity to the room? The challenge is to ensure the flexibility of the dialogue to gather the range of voices. One key issue that needs to be raised in effective racial dialogue is power and privilege. Most people, regardless of race, do not admit to having either power or privilege. The American myth tells us that we are equal, even in the face of our inequality. After all, any of us can make it if we try hard enough. Acknowledgment of a different reality, where life is not fair and where all that communities of privilege possess was not necessarily earned, requires a shift in self-image that can be very painful. How does one admit in front of members of other groups that he or she lives a better quality of life at the expense of those other groups? How does a woman who carries white skin privilege in the context of her gender oppression see herself as part of the problem? How easy is it for a black American to admit that he or she carries the same stereotypes about other communities of color and is in the position to make hiring decisions, give grades, and make other choices that negatively impact them? These are just a few natural questions that arise; it is not for us or the facilitator to always give answers to these questions but to facilitate a process in which answers can be sought. Perhaps the greatest challenge of effective racial dialogue is the pervasiveness of denial, not just of the magnitude of racism, but the role we may play in its survival. In each round of the Dinners, someone asks, “Aren’t we preaching to the choir?” There are several implications in this statement that reflect this denial. First, the person asking

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the question believes that his willingness to participate in the dialogue makes him a member of the choir—a good guy. Therefore, he believes he has little to learn. This often translates into a discomfort with information that might challenge his sense of good. Second, it diminishes the process by suggesting that the “real work” needs to be done with another group. This assumes that racists are those who live on the extremes—people who commit hate crimes and wear white hoods. It absolves the vast majority of people who do not participate in these activities but benefit from a system of white privilege and work to maintain those systems either actively or passively. The more important question to raise may be, What is the function of the choir? The Chicago Dinners process is, in fact, choir rehearsal. People with similar values choose to gather together to practice. In that process, they learn that even though they may have similar values, there are instances when they do not. They learn that even though they may all know the song, they sing it differently. They learn that getting it right takes a lot of time and commitment. They begin to recognize that they are not alone and have support systems in other groups. With practice, they begin to work better together.

CONCLUSION The Chicago Dinners experience confirms the theories of the social scientists outlined in this chapter. What these social scientists have learned about racial prejudice and discrimination, along with our work with the Chicago Dinners, has led us to the following conclusions: • Racism is a complex social problem created and sustained by individuals and organizations. There are no quick fixes. Efforts to end bigotry, prejudice, and racism are ongoing processes that require long-term investments. • Open and honest dialogue among diverse groups of people is critical. • Value and nurturing come from sharing a meal that tears down some of the barriers and discomfort inherent in this difficult discussion. • Discomfort, tension, and denial should be expected and acknowledged as a critical part of the process. It should not be avoided. Facilitators and participants can be prepared to handle this energy. • For some people, there will be great changes as a result of the dinner experience. For others, changes will take longer. For most of us, one dinner will not be enough, and the dialogue and self-reflection that the dinner process entail will be an ongoing endeavor.

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While racism is a complex and persistent problem, we believe that as individuals and as a society we have the tools to do away with the racial divisions that now more than ever threaten our society. The toolbox that follows summarizes some of the lessons learned from our experiences with the Chicago Dinners and presents the highlights of the vision that guides this innovative program. Individuals engaging in dialogues such as the Chicago Dinners will need to remember that participating in such a program requires honesty, ongoing selfawareness, and a commitment to moving away from race-based privilege. At the societal level, racial justice will require a vision for confronting a complex problem with no easy “quick fix” solutions, Toolbox for Change For

Images/perceptions

Strategies for change

Individuals

Raise awareness of issues related to prejudice and discrimination. Participate in dialogues, workshops, and forums related to the above. Seek more education and connections with people different from yourself. Acknowledge privilege based on skin color and learn to be an ally.

Introduce awareness into work, home, and community environments. Work within institutions (work, children’s school, religious institutions, etc.) to promote racial justice. Monitor media outlets. Contact your local papers when you see examples of racist or unfair reporting. Create “safe spaces” for dialogue.

Community/ society

Challenge “us/them” Sponsor dialogues and other thinking. Provide antiracism interventions. educational opportunities Provide support for social raising the issue of the action activities aimed at community impacts of racial justice. racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Create “safe spaces” for people of difference to gather.

Practitioners/ educators

Update (and develop where Support and evaluate missing) antiracist antiracism programs. curricula that emphasize privilege.

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and leadership for implementing a variety of efforts to eradicate racism. Creating settings where people can come together, eat, talk, and work with one another to move beyond “us” and “them” and to challenge privilege based on skin color provides a way to begin the process of change.

REFERENCES Akintunde, O. (1999). White racism, white supremacy, white privilege, and the social construction of race: moving from modernist to postmodernist multiculturalism. Multicultural Education, 7, 2–8. Allen, R. L. (1998). Past due: The African American quest for reparations. Black Scholar, 28, 2–17. Berman, S. (2003). Dialogue and debate: A comparison. Retrieved October 31, 2003, from http://64.89.140.177/ecw/dialogue_is_collaborative. htm Blackwell, A. G., Kwoh, S., & Pastor, M. (2002). Searching for the uncommon common ground: New dimensions on race in America. New York: W. W. Norton. Cameron, S. C., & Wycoff, S. M. (1998). The destructive nature of the term race: Growing beyond a false paradigm. Journal of Counseling and Development, 76, 277–285. Capowski, G. (1996). Managing diversity. Management Review, 85, 12–19. The debt: What America owes to blacks. (2000). Essence, 30(10), 76, 80, 159–160. D’Souza, D. (1995). The end of racism. New York: The Free Press. Feagin, J. R., & Sikes, M. P. (1994). Living with racism: The black middleclass experience. Boston: Beacon Press. Franklin, R. (1996, February 23). Conversation in black and white. Commonwealth, 123, 9–10. Frost, D. D. (1999). Review worst diversity practices to learn from others’ mistakes. HR Focus, 76, 11–12. Hawkins, J. A. (1997, October 22). Dialogue on race: The rules of engagement. Education Week, 28. Jones, J. (1997). Prejudice and racism (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kramer, M., & Weiner, S. S. (1994). Dialogues for diversity: Community and ethnicity on campus. Phoenix, AZ: ORYX Press. McCoy, M. L., & Sherman, R. F. (1994, Spring–Summer). Bridging the divides of race and ethnicity. National Civic Review, 111–119. McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. In White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies (Working Paper 189). Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Center for Research on Women.

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Niedergang, M., & McCoy, M. L. (1992). Can’t we all just get along? A manual for discussion programs on racism and race relations. Pomet, CT: Study Circle Resource Center, Topsfield Foundation. Norman, A. J. (1994). Black-Korean relations: From desperation to dialogue, or from shouting and shooting to sitting and talking. Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 3, 87–99. Sanford, R. (1983). The beginning of a dialogue in South Africa. The Counseling Psychologist, 12, 3–14. Smedley, A. (1993). Race in North America: Origin and evolution of a worldview. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

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CHAPTER 10

When Diversity Becomes the Norm Donald Daughtry Denise Twohey David H. Whitcomb Cindy Juntunen Michael Loewy

M

ulticulturalism can have the most positive social impact when it is used to promote change in organizations and institutions (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1995; Sue, 1995; Sue et al., 1998), in addition to increasing awareness and multicultural competency among individuals. The goal of this chapter is to illustrate the efforts of one academic department to change from an ethnocentric to a multicultural organization. We will be describing an evolution of organizational diversity and individual experiences in a department of counseling, which is home to a master of arts in counseling and a PhD in counseling psychology, and is staffed by six full-time faculty and two part-time faculty. In our department’s effort to evolve to an environment where diversity is the norm, we have chosen to explore how multicultural competency impacts our work as a group, as well as our work as individuals. The changes we have made over the last decade reflect the developmental stages of organizational multicultural development described by Sue (1995): monocultural, nondiscriminatory, and multicultural. A MONOCULTURAL ORGANIZATION: EARLY HISTORY Monocultural organizations are defined as primarily ethnocentric and Eurocentric. Minorities, women, and other oppressed groups are

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excluded, the dominant group is privileged, culture is not considered in decisions, and assimilation is expected (Sue, 1995). Up until the early 1990s, the composition of our department faculty (and to a lesser degree, students) reflected very limited attention to diversity or cultural differences of any type. The six-member faculty, for much of its history, had consisted of five men and one woman, all white and heterosexual. One woman hired in the mid-1980s was a lesbian, and one male faculty member in the early 1990s was Native American, but both stayed for only brief periods of time. Cultural diversity was inconsistently sought in the student admissions process, and no system was in place to support students of color in an overwhelmingly dominant-culture institution. Further, criteria favoring dominant culture applicants were generally upheld. Importantly, efforts to increase diversity were not integrated into department functioning, and isolated attempts that did occur were easily frustrated. These attitudes toward diversity reflected a lack of awareness, rather than intentional avoidance of multicultural representation or training. Nonetheless, the overall effect was the neglect of multiculturalism, limited advocacy for multicultural training, and minimal attention to multicultural competencies. Further, the department existed within a university setting that at times seemed to exhibit active neglect (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1995) of multiculturalism, demonstrating a lack of sensitivity or awareness to the needs of multicultural issues. Essentially, our department exhibited ethnocentric monoculturalism (Sue et al., 1998), relying on dominant-culture attitudes, strategies, and methods in our training and evaluation. However, due to increased attention to multiculturalism in the psychology and counseling professions and the need to meet student training demands, changes began to develop by the beginning of the 1990s, allowing the opportunity for significant evolution over the following decade. Transitions: Moving to Nondiscriminatory Practices In 1994, a critical change occurred in the department. Three men retired from the department, and three women were hired, resulting in a six-member faculty that consisted of four women, one of whom was Native American, and two men. Further, the newly hired faculty members had substantial training in multiculturalism and diversity issues and were focused on changing departmental policies and procedures to

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reflect their commitment. This resulted in the department’s transition to a nondiscriminatory organization (Sue, 1995). Several behaviors changed on an organizational level during this stage. Diversity considerations became the first level of discussion in admissions meetings, hiring decisions, and curriculum planning. Although we continued to offer separate courses in multicultural counseling and gender issues, diversity was also systematically integrated into each course in the curriculum. This period of departmental history represented several clear improvements from the previous stage, as we were actively struggling with ethnocentric attitudes and a monocultural training environment. However, we also exhibited those characteristics of a nondiscriminatory organization that maintained some barriers to true multiculturalism. As described by Sue (1995), nondiscriminatory organizations have inconsistent policies on multicultural issues and lack systematic policies to address issues of bias. Furthermore, changes to improve the organizational climate can be superficial, and affirmative action policies may be implemented without enthusiasm. In our case, several key indicators were present. Although we developed statements about our commitment to diversity, specific strategies to implement our goals were not systematically developed. We relied on a legalistic approach to multiculturalism, driven more by affirmative action than an inherent appreciation of diversity. Further, the process of becoming a multicultural group was not explicitly addressed. Importantly, values, background, and individual differences between faculty members were rarely acknowledged or discussed. Even though individual faculty members were authentically committed to multicultural values, we did not make a strong organizational commitment. Toward a More Multicultural Organization Fortunately, a second major shift in departmental functioning occurred over several semesters from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. During this time, several new hires occurred, and open positions were filled by two people with disabilities (one white man and one black woman) and two gay men, one of whom was fat and Jewish. In addition, one long-time faculty member developed a significant physical disability. This resulted in our present-day faculty, which consists of four women and four men, seven white persons and one black person, two gay faculty (one fat and Jewish), and three persons with

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disabilities. More important than demographics, however, each faculty member is a willing advocate for diversity, and our own individual experiences help the group to look at diversity broadly and consider how we function as a unit that is actively addressing multiple sources of diversity. This change in our faculty membership resulted in diverse group representation as the norm, but more was required in order to actually represent a multicultural organization. According to Sue (1995), multicultural organizations are developing a vision that reflects multiculturalism, views diversity as an asset, engages in planning and problem-solving that will lead to equal accesses to opportunity, does not confuse equal access with equal treatment, and works to consistently diversify the environment. In order to continue our organizational development, we needed to engage in several important processes. Specifically, we had to address our own inconsistencies and biases about sources of diversity that might not be salient to each of us individually, yet were of immediate importance to our functioning as a group. This became apparent the first time a faculty member with a disability was hired, necessitating several adaptive technology accommodations. Initially, this was an issue addressed almost exclusively by the faculty member, chair, and to a lesser extent the university’s affirmative action officer. However, over time, the entire faculty became involved in the discussion. Now, disability accommodation is an issue that is more routinely attended to by all faculty members when planning departmental activities or allocation of resources. With increased exposure and experience, accommodation has become salient for each of us, regardless of our individual ability status. This experience exemplifies how group recognition of the importance of diversity has resulted in both behavior and attitude changes. This recognition has been formalized in our department’s mission statement and strategic planning process. Recently, we have begun to discuss the ways in which various sources of diversity converge and diverge, and the impact that has on our curriculum development, research activities, and resource allocation decisions. In all hiring and admissions decisions, perspectives on the diversity of candidates are thoroughly discussed and treated with respect, moving away from the legalistic “quota based” discussion of the past. These behaviors, which build on the attitudes that we have developed through this transition, demonstrate our multicultural values to students and to colleagues throughout our college and university.

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Next Steps We continue to seek ways to increase our awareness of barriers that we are unknowingly supporting. Some conversations around multiculturalism can still be very difficult, and tender feelings emerge, so we struggle at times to find the right balance of support and confrontation with colleagues within our organization. Sometimes, competing values and perceived needs cause tension within our organization. For example, recently two of our top candidates for a job search were of sexual orientation and racial minority status, respectively. Although there seemed to be consensus that having a second faculty member of racial minority status would be an asset, there was an indirectly stated concern that hiring a third openly lesbian or gay faculty member would actually reduce the diversity within our department. The prospect of a minority group becoming a dominant group seemed to create discomfort among some members of our department. Our faculty had to re-establish what diversity meant to us and the academic climate we created for our students, a process that is still continuing as we seek to reinforce our advancement from a nondiscriminatory organization to a multicultural organization (Sue, 1995). Also, despite our overall diversity, ethnic and racial diversity is not readily apparent in our faculty or students, and the fact that we live in a very racially homogeneous region of the country makes this an on-going challenge for us. Finally, it is critical to note that our organizational multicultural development is also occurring within a larger organization, which is attempting to maintain nondiscriminatory practices, but still has several monocultural characteristics in place. This highlights for us the need for continued advocacy and change at even larger institutional levels (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1995; Sue et al., 1998), and provides context for the evolution within our own group’s history. The transition toward a multicultural organization is a profound experience in the life of our department. It is made possible, in large part, by the critical experiences of each individual member of the faculty, who together are motivated to foster and continue that transition. In the following sections of this chapter, individual stories will illustrate the personal and professional nature of these transitions. Several faculty members involved in this ongoing evolution share personal perspectives of their experience within the context of organizational change. Together, this overview and those individual stories are designed to illustrate how diversity can become the norm, to great

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benefit for individuals and organizations alike. We also discuss the ways in which conversations across various group identities can play out within an organization where diversity is normative. We conclude by providing our toolbox for change focusing on helpful strategies for developing a multicultural organization.

JOURNEY OF A BLIND PROFESSOR Disability: A Silent Voice I entered academia seven years ago and, since then, have held two faculty appointments in counseling psychology programs. I was surprised that, within these diversity-friendly climates, the voice of disability was silent. I gained this awareness through a variety of interactions with colleagues and students. I began noticing that a consideration of disability was absent in faculty conversations dealing with student recruitment and training issues. Although other diversity variables such as gender and ethnic origin came up frequently, any mention of disability issues was conspicuously absent. At the same time, it became apparent that faculty did not regard me as having minority status. This was best illustrated through a conversation with a female Asian American student who had noted to our program director that none of our training clinic material was in alternative format. The director responded that an alternative format was not appropriate, since that would be treating me differently. Obviously, the director was not familiar with the concept of “reasonable accommodation.” As we processed the interaction in terms of the need for greater awareness and inclusion, the student commented, “You should be an ethnic minority, then you would be treated much better” (Daughtry, in press). Disability issues are also frequently neglected in training. This was brought home during a doctoral practicum class I was supervising. A student was seeing a couple in which the female member was afflicted with a degenerative disease. As the disease progressed, she was losing stamina and the ability to perform daily activities. Yet, as we were conceptualizing the case after the second session, I had to introduce the disease as an issue meriting consideration. I was amazed that five doctoral students with previous clinical experience did not recognize the impact of the disease on this couple. I was more amazed that I had to point out the salience of the disease more than once, since most did not seem to get it the first time.

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These types of training issues lend substance to the claims made by various disability scholars (Vace & Clifford, 1995; Reeve, 2000). Reeve has argued that disability issues receive insufficient attention in training programs. She asserts that current diversity training focuses primarily around areas such as ethnicity and gender. Inattention to disability issues is counter-intuitive, since individuals with disabilities are one of America’s largest minorities, comprising about 14.3 percent of the total population (Hahn & Beaulaurier, 2001; Olkin, 2000). Yet, inattention to disability issues by training programs is well documented by other authors (Bluestone, Stokes, & Kuba, 1996). Olkin compared program application material for all APA-accredited graduate training programs for clinical and counseling psychology for the years 1989 and 1999. She found that the modal number of required courses on disability was zero. Only 11 percent of programs offered at least one course on disability. Even with the greater emphasis being given to diversity considerations, the voice of disability is relatively silent (Daughtry, in press). It is in this context of silence that my experiences with students and faculty are played out. Relationships with Students The silencing of disability contributes to students being ill prepared regarding interactions with disabled professionals. Subsequently, my interactions with students are often confusing and contradictory. Some interactions suggest appropriate and positive student perceptions, and my work with students as a teacher, advisor, and research supervisor is generally positive and productive. These types of mentoring opportunities are important in that they expose students to a professional disabled role model. However, a notable proportion of interactions indicate negative or mixed student perceptions, demonstrated primarily by avoidance and oversight of my professional role. For example, students have approached the department chair about questions regarding fieldwork placements, even though they know that I am the fieldwork coordinator. As the chair outlined the areas of student confusion, I could not help but wonder why the questions had not been directed to me. My chair also had the impression that students had not been attempting to contact me, despite being told to do so. A similar dynamic has occurred when I teach courses with graduate teaching assistants, who have reported being the recipients of questions that would typically be directed to faculty. On several occasions, assistants

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have told me that students were asking them questions about grading policy, assignment formats, or scheduling. The teaching assistants have generally replied that students need to talk with me. Sometimes, however, several weeks pass before students are finally willing to discuss it with me, despite my repeated efforts to address the questions in class (Daughtry, in press). Although these types of incidents can be attributed to causes other than disability-related avoidance, the pattern is noteworthy. The pattern also is consistent with what various authors have called the “invisibility of disability” (Olkin, 2000). Of course, I do not automatically assume that patterns of avoidance are always related to my disability. Separating student reactions that may be related to disability from those that may be related to personal attributes can be confusing. On more than one occasion, I have attempted to clarify this confusion by processing student reactions to my disability. However, such efforts are often frustrating. They are typically met with responses like “It does not bother me,” or “I forget you have a disability.” As noted by Olkin (2000), such comments serve to discount an individual’s disabled experience, redefining it as something that does not merit discussion. By redefining blindness, students can excuse themselves from any self-examination of their own discomfort or bias around disability. It sometimes angers and sometimes amuses me that this pattern of avoidance is so common in a profession where being immediate and genuine are supposedly core values. However, I do not mean to imply any hostility or resentment toward students. While specific interactions may be confusing, one advantage of my presence in the department is that it guarantees opportunities for disputing stereotypic images of disability. Relationships with University Faculty If relationships with students are confusing, those with university faculty are much more consistently marked by a message of “invisibility.” As noted in the chapter overview, the university is best described as an ethnocentric monocultural organization (Sue, 1995). Therefore, it is not surprising that interactions reflect that context, and multicultural differences are regularly overlooked. For example, during committee meetings, my presence is often ignored, and colleagues rarely initiate conversation on personal or professional matters. Never at a loss for words, I will often begin a conversation,

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which then flows along what would be considered socially appropriate lines. Yet, oddly, in subsequent meetings the same people rarely initiate dialogue. It is as if I am invisible and people do not notice my presence until I speak. During the course of a meeting, if I offer input it is acknowledged, but often brushed quickly aside. Of course, in some cases my ideas probably should be brushed aside. Even so, it is hard to believe that they are consistently bad. In cases where I feel my thoughts are particularly relevant, I am more persistent in asserting them. Frequently, colleagues seem surprised that I am disagreeing with them or perhaps are even surprised to hear an idea from a person with a disability. They seem more surprised that I am willing to assertively defend a position and not simply let it be dismissed. This can be best described as an example of “self-advocacy.” Individual self-advocacy is one key to advancing our department’s diversity message within the broader university. Self-Advocacy and Multicultural Development The capacity to act as a self-advocate is of particular importance for disabled individuals (Daughtry, in press). Self-advocacy is a necessary mechanism for giving increased voice to disability. There has been a reciprocal interaction between our department’s multicultural development and my capacity for self-advocacy. In other words, each has aided and facilitated the other. When first arriving at the University of North Dakota (UND), I would have described our department as a “friendly monocultural” organization relative to disability issues. It was evident that no thought had been given to accommodation concerns, and departmental faculty thought existing university mechanisms would naturally attend to them. I had considerable doubt, but took a wait-and-see attitude. When my doubts were confirmed, I became more persistent in presenting my needs. Early conversations with my chair centered largely on needs for adaptive equipment and reading assistance. While she was naive on such matters, she wanted to be supportive. These early conversations focused on educating her about the nature and importance of adaptive technology. This is an easy form of self-advocacy: interactions are typically not emotionally charged. However, raising accommodation matters set the stage for increasing departmental awareness of disability. It aided in reinforcing the reality that experiences of disabled people differ significantly from

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those of the mainstream. These differences were again made evident by taking advantage of opportunities to make comparisons between experiences related to disability and ethnic or women’s issues. Seizing opportunities to point out similarities such as differential economic or political power helped make the case for greater inclusion of disability in the department. Although slow at first, change began to occur. For example, the multicultural class began giving increased emphasis to disability. Conversations related to student admissions and faculty hires increasingly included disability issues. Conversations around disability issues became more common in the department, culminating in their prominent inclusion in our symposium submission to the 2003 Multicultural Summit. All of these types of interactions were playing out within the context of an organization evolving into a multicultural developmental phase. Upon reflection, I cannot say the increased awareness of disability was fraught with tense emotional conflict. While there were at times struggles that were more difficult, the road was relatively clear. The main implication of these interactions for self-advocacy was a sense of being accepted. The accepting environment provided by faculty acted as a support at times when interactions required more self-assertion. This self-assertion was particularly important at times when I needed to exercise authority in dealing with students. It has been key in preventing external faculty from dismissing my ideas, as if I did not exist. Self-advocacy is one mechanism that potentially allows disabled individuals to be perceived in non-stereotypic ways. Authors such as Olkin (2000) have commented on the socialization of individuals with disabilities. Olkin noted that emotions such as anger are not considered acceptable for the disabled. People’s expectations are that individuals with disabilities will not get angry or engage in assertive behavior. Instead we will be “cheerful overcomers,” happy in spite of disability and certainly not willing to rock any boats. We will be passive and willing to gladly accept any crumbs society hands us. Selfadvocating forces one to confront these types of internalized, selfdefeating messages. A supportive climate has been key in helping make the cognitive and emotional shifts needed to offset these types of “disabling attitudes.” To be certain, eliminating self-defeating messages is my responsibility. However, the opportunity to self-advocate within the context of a department that is becoming increasingly disabilityfriendly makes the process easier. The organization facilitates the reprogramming of messages such as “be reasonable” and “you can’t

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expect to be treated differently from anyone else.” It does this by reinforcing internal dialogue such as “you have a right to be heard” and “you don’t have to submit.” The capacity for self-advocacy is necessary for achieving what some authors have termed an “integrated disability identity” (Daughtry, in press; Gill, 1997). The cognitive and emotional re-programming needed to confront internalized prejudice parallel those needed to incorporate disability into a healthy self-concept. Gill (1997) has commented that advanced stages of disability identity development are characterized by a perception of disability as strength—a source of creativity and insight. Such attitudes have resulted in my increasingly incorporating the advocate role into my professional identity, through mentoring students with disabilities as well as increased self-advocacy. Not Always Accessible: Disability and Gender In 1982, the year I entered graduate school, there was no way to predict that in 1998 I would be diagnosed with oligoastrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. Although my work experience prior to graduate school included a stint as a rehabilitation counselor, I could have never anticipated the impact a physical disability and life-threatening illness would have on my career, and particularly my relationship with students. The Quotes I will begin with a discussion of student reactions to an article I wrote about having a life-threatening illness (Twohey, 2001). The article summarized my feelings about five important areas: relationships, boundaries, denial, sexuality, and existential issues. Below are the students’ actual reactions as written, followed by my responses to these reactions. I wrote my responses two years after the article was published. Reaction 1 I suspect that this piece may serve as a catalyst that will bring about closer examination of issues surrounding life-threatening illnesses. It seems odd that we are so ill prepared to deal with this when it is one thing that has been around since the beginning of time.

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My Response The irony of our “ill preparededness” in dealing with the angst that we feel when confronting our own mortality becomes the topic of this reader’s response. I heartily agree, and note that it parallels my colleague’s earlier comment about students’ lack of preparation to discuss issues of his disability. Mortality and disability have both been neglected in our training models, as well as professional literature. Student responses to my first-hand accounts reflect the lack of certainty they have for addressing these concerns with clients. Reaction 2 I agree with the idea that part of our discomfort lies in fear of death and mortality, but I think there might be more to it. . . . Our society puts so much value in youth; beauty and health that it seems each day we grow older we all lose some worth (as measured by society). Having a terminal illness seems to speed this factor up so that your worth is diminishing at a more rapid rate because so many feel you have nothing more to offer. . . . I am also wondering how you (Denise) fight for the social change when you have to continually fight a disease in your own body and also adjust the physical and cognitive changes post-illness? It reminds me of my 82-year-old grandmother who had broken almost every bone in her body at least once and was almost blind when she died. Most people thought she was just a housewife who had never written out a check before my grandpa died or obtained a drivers license, but underneath the quaint exterior was someone with more wisdom, courage, and faith than anyone else I have ever known. I did enjoy the article but thinking about these types of issues makes me sad. I feel helpless and am not sure how to help bring about change! Maybe that is another reason why people avoided you?

My Response This reader offers a fresh perspective on my situation, which at first I did not quite appreciate; but after multiple readings, and the passage of time, I have come to respect and even appreciate the reader’s sentiments. At first I resented being compared to the reader’s 82-year-old grandmother. But the weekend after returning from a professional conference, in early February 2003, I suffered a seizure

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that put me in the hospital, once again. I have not, to date, fully regained the use of my entire right side, despite the devoted efforts of both physical and occupational therapists. It took me a little while to “digest,” but I have come to believe that I might never regain this use. I perceive this turn of events as just one more loss. So, when I first read this reaction, I was quite defensive. After six months or so, I realized that I really could “go on fighting for social change” as this reader points out, in spite of having to fight with my body. However, I don’t like the metaphor of fighting. I would rather say, “go on working with my body, mind and soul.” Reaction 3 I wanted to comment that I thought that it was brave to discuss these personal things with the class. I think that although it may be uncomfortable as a class to hear about this, it is invaluable information. Sex is an important aspect of an adult’s life, and as counselors I think that we must be comfortable talking about it. People are socialized that sex should be a private thing and should not be talked about. This is not beneficial for some clients because some of their distress could be from sexual difficulties or concerns.

My Response This reader focused only on the sexual part of the article and ignored the other four strands. Once when I had shared this article with a previous class, two students threatened to report me to the APA for violation of the ethical code, although they did not say exactly how I had done so. However, it seems that they may have been responding with discomfort to my self-disclosure. Self-disclosure as a teacher may be understood as modeling how therapists would selfdisclose with their clients. However, these students may have been responding to the content of my self-disclosure—talking frankly about sex and, specifically, my personal feelings about my own sexuality as a woman with a disability. Frustrated by student response, I decided to consult the literature. In numerous articles I found that, contrary to what we teach, selfdisclosure often enhances the therapy relationship (Barrett & Berman, 2001; Hill & Knox, 2002). One article, written specifically for physically ill or dying therapists, examines the ethical issues embedded within the decision about whether or not to self-disclose (Bram,

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1995). The dilemmas the therapists face could be summarized as (1) precautions about abandoning clients, (2) self-disclosure to clients about the illness, and (3) decisions about returning to practice. Thankfully, I never had to face any of those issues, because I terminated my practice after discovering the cancer. However, the reactions of students suggest that similar considerations are relevant to teachers. Of course, I found articles arguing the other side. One such article, written from a psychoanalytic perspective, warned novice therapists not to attempt this higher-level task (self-disclosure) without “judicious execution” (Bishop & Lane, 2001). The issue of selfdisclosure is widely debated, but it is worth noting that, at one level, I have no choice but to self-disclose any time I am in a teaching situation. My physical disability is visibly apparent, and so students are always in a position of responding to something about my personal life whenever they interact with me. Maybe all of the readers are a bit uncomfortable with my selfdisclosures. After all, we train them not to disclose any secrets to their clients. But if we can believe the literature, there are both pros and cons to self-disclosure (Peterson, 2002). In a world of diversity, the pros of self-disclosure may be more important than the cons. GAY MAN ON CAMPUS: WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT Out on the Prairie The perspective I bring to this chapter is that of a middle-aged man who enjoys the privileges of being without a disability and who is of a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant background, but who struggles with issues of being openly gay in a conservative, rural region. For the first four years at my current position as a tenure-track assistant professor, I was the only openly gay male faculty member on campus. Being from the East Coast, I faced a different culture after moving to the northern plains region, and it took a few years to adjust to living in a small city lacking a strong gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered (GLBT) community. With a predominant “don’t ask, don’t tell” mentality, it is harder for GBLT persons to develop a strong sense of identity in rural communities than in major urban areas (Beard & Hissam, 2002), so my openness about my sexual orientation is often not welcomed by either heterosexual or GLBT persons. Fellows (1996), writing about life for gay men in rural and small-town

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midwestern settings, noted that being gay is often thought to be exclusively an urban experience. Since moving here, I have discovered that a reticent tolerance of GLBT people is the norm in this rural, conservative region, in contrast to the overt hostility that friends and family back home continually feared I would face. A recent national survey demonstrated that a favorable opinion of gay and lesbian persons is much less common in the Midwest than in the East or West (Pew Research Center for People and the Press, 2003). Tolerance seems to be the limit of my social integration among most men in the area, including the male faculty at my university. Among most women faculty on campus I have always felt accepted, but overall I still sense that I am an outsider here. Although my career is productive and rewarding, I am still somewhat socially isolated and professionally marginalized. This is a university where the non-discrimination statement includes sexual orientation, but where most gay male staff and faculty leave within several years of hire, often feeling cast aside, subtly or directly, due to their sexual orientation. This irony appears to be a consequence of the university’s surface level of commitment to diversity, whereas our department aspires to a deeper commitment (Banning, 2003). Consistent with this aim, I strive to increase awareness and acceptance of GLBT persons and causes on campus and in the community. I am fortunate, in this regard, to have the support of a diverse collegial faculty in our department. Out in the University There are certain professional advantages to being an openly gay man at the university. For example, ever since my first semester I have frequently been asked to present on GLBT issues on campus, at nearby campuses, and in the community. These presentations have increased local awareness, knowledge, and, I hope, acceptance of GLBT persons and have helped me develop my skills as a public speaker. The downside of these service activities is that they do not contribute nearly as much as research or teaching do to one’s tenure portfolio. Although I have not been able to find any data for GLBT faculty on this issue, a recent national survey reported that male faculty and white faculty spend a higher proportion of their time on research and less time on service than female, black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander faculty (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002). Similarly, becoming a spokesperson for GLBT issues

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also appears to interfere with the time commitment needed to complete the research one must do in order to advance in an academic career. A more unambiguously positive aspect to my minority status is that people look to me as a spokesperson on GLBT issues even when I would not claim myself as an expert. As a prime example, I have been awarded several state-funded HIV prevention grants and a university “seed money” grant on GLBT health issues, even though HIV/ AIDS and other areas of health psychology were only secondary interests of mine before moving to this relatively remote location. My expertise in these areas has developed and has led to two national presentations and one publication so far (Whitcomb & Pahl, 2002), but may not have if I were in an area where more experts were already working. Even within these advantages, however, there are disadvantages, such as never being able to be invisible. Although I recognize the importance of being a gay role model while in front of a classroom (in part to counter the presumption of heterosexuality) (Pobo, 1999), sometimes I am aware that I am being seen as a role model even when attending a social function. Even with a very small private practice and as a teacher of small graduate classes, clients and students sometimes attend the same social events that I do. While working within a newer ethical understanding of professional boundaries, I have learned that dual relationships are inevitable as a minority member in a small community. Out in My Department I turn now to reflecting upon my status as a gay man within my department, first considering relationships with colleagues. In applying to my current position, I came out as gay and felt comfortable presenting a colloquium on a LGB research area. The faculty were relatively diverse when I started the job and have become increasingly so since then, with the subsequent hire of faculty who are diverse by race, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. I did not feel like a junior faculty for long, as I became the director of our master’s program in my second year, the same time that I filled a position on the college’s tenure and promotion committee. Although I believe that being gay had nothing to do with assignment to these positions, even the fact that these assignments were offered to me demonstrates acceptance of my sexual orientation. That is, a homophobic department

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would not appoint an openly gay man as a program director in charge of student recruitment, and a homophobic college would not permit an openly gay man to vote on promotion decisions for fellow faculty. Regarding my research agenda, I have always felt that it has been supported within our department, but I have needed to be creative to initiate collaborative diversity-related projects with my colleagues. I know that this is not different from the experience of faculty everywhere whose specialization is not shared by colleagues, but sometimes most of them had a greater understanding of the opportunities and barriers involved in conducting GLBT-focused research. Writing this chapter and developing the presentation that preceded it, however, has created wonderful opportunities to discuss with colleagues the commonalities and differences across sexual orientation, gender, religion, disability status, and size that occurred only sporadically before. Having taken the risks to engage in these sometimes-difficult dialogues clarifies our mission as a department and what we strive to offer our students and the university. Out in the Classroom Often I recognize the impact of my sexual orientation on relationships with students. I come out to each of my regular classes, but whereas in my first couple of years I came out almost immediately, reacting in a compulsive manner to reduce my own discomfort with anticipated prejudice, I feel more relaxed now about mentioning it when it seems appropriate, and it always does at some point early in the semester. I sometimes wonder about the level of students’ comfort with my sexual orientation. Students have never publicly raised this issue, but they seem to test the issue in ways such as asking more questions about client sexual orientation issues than other important clinical issues. Recently published resources, such as the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines for Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients (Division 44/Committee, 2000) have facilitated my teaching, but speaking from personal experience as a gay clinician working with GLBT issues helps the issues come alive for my students. In addition to discussing my clinical work, experience has taught me how best to self-disclose anecdotes related to my sexual orientation and how to discuss in class my own perceptions of how students perceive sexual orientation issues. Occasional discussions with other GLBT faculty provide guidance, as does reading about how others

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use self-disclosure to create teachable moments regarding sexual orientation. Although many students appear interested in sexual orientation issues while others appear disinterested, our department chair has sometimes wondered whether homonegativity was a factor during semesters when one or two students appeared as outliers in their negative evaluations of my classes. Although I would not attempt to try to prove that student bias has affected my evaluations, a recent study supported such a notion (Russ, Simonds, & Hunt, 2002). In that experimental study of undergraduate students, participants who thought that their instructor was gay perceived him to be significantly less credible, both in terms of competence and character, than an instructor they thought was heterosexual. The students also felt that they learned less from the gay than from the heterosexual teacher. Given these results, it is plausible that a portion of the negative evaluations could be an indirect, perhaps even unconscious, way to express disapproval for a stigmatized way of being in the world. Researching GLBT Issues I will conclude this section with examples of collaborative projects in which my sexual orientation has played a role. Co-teaching a course entitled The Psychology of Women, Gender, and Development with a heterosexual woman with a disability (Twohey, 2001) was a rewarding experience. Students observed and benefited, we believe, from the interaction and complementary styles of a heterosexual woman with a disability and a gay man without a disability. This learning process has continued by my co-authoring, with a male student, a book chapter on male privilege and heterosexual privilege (Whitcomb & Cummings, in press). I have worked closely with three outstanding lesbian students, resulting in publications and presentations. Two of the students indicated, directly or indirectly, that my presence on the faculty as an openly gay person influenced their decision to attend our program. Seeking a supportive faculty relationship may be particularly important for GLBT students. One national survey of psychology graduate students (Pilkington & Cantor, 1996) and a campus climate study of undergraduate and graduate students at a large midwestern research university (Waldo, 1998) reported many instances of LGB students facing a less nurturing and sometimes hostile learning environment, pointing to the importance of LGB students having faculty they

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could trust concerning their sexual orientation and faculty who encouraged LGB students to work with them. In light of these data, I am encouraged to remain open about my sexual orientation as a faculty member and to promote GLBT-affirmative research and clinical practice in my work with students. Of course, students of any sexual orientation can benefit from involvement with GLBT academic projects. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, and unidentified students have contributed greatly to my HIV-prevention grants, including leadership in daylong workshops with intense levels of sexual self-disclosure among mostly gay men. Students who become involved in projects like these have made a shift from non-engagement to engagement with multiculturalism— they are prepared to challenge the status quo and work on issues of social justice (Cha´vez & O’Donnell, 1998).

THE CASE OF THE FAT, GAY JEW Judaism in Academia As a fat, gay, Jewish, white man in his early 50s, currently ablebodied (though less so than in the past), and recently relocated from a lifetime in urban, southwestern, U.S. cities to the rural Midwest, I have witnessed changes in prejudices and their manifestation. As a child, living in Jewish neighborhoods and attending Jewish parochial schools protected me from overt anti-Semitism, for the most part. My first conscious encounters with this prejudice (other than the internalized anti-Semitism in my family) were as an adult in the workforce. Even at its worst, however, it always occurred in isolated incidents, and I never had to look far for an ally to support me in confronting this type of bigotry. Certainly, Jews have been overrepresented in U.S. academia in my lifetime (not so in previous generations when quotas were in place), and though there are many negative stereotypes about Jews still prevalent, having so much contact with members of such a small minority group tends to mitigate the negative stereotyping (Loewy, 1995). The biggest problem I have faced in the academy in this regard is that of being cast in the role of “model minority”—mostly by Christians (in statements such as “I love your people,” “You people are so smart, learned, etc.,” “You are God’s chosen people”). It is difficult to integrate this rhetoric into my reality while simultaneously being shown no regard for scheduling important academic events on our

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holiest of days or just living with the daily assumption that everyone is Christian. Christmas is a national holiday, and still Christian privilege is invisible and unacknowledged in this country. I have had a graduate student ask me whether it is true that Jews are cheap. I have been asked whether my Judaism makes me antiChristian. I have felt obligated to participate in Christian ritual (often disguised as “holiday” ritual) or risk being cast as a “Scrooge” or “Shylock.” I am faced every year with decisions about whether to ask for release from classes during the Jewish holy times. Coming Out at the University However, these experiences of prejudice and discrimination pale in comparison to the experiences of growing up gay in the United States. Though I probably had it better than most gay boys, growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in a neighborhood that has since incorporated into a city that elected the first gay majority city council in the United States, the homophobia of the time did not escape me. Heterosexism and homophobia generally start in the family (Hunter & Mallon, 2000), and mine was no exception. Coming out was a long and difficult process for me. Upon entering academia, however, I found a forum for talking about the politics and psychology of homosexuality. I encountered many educated people who could see past their stereotypes and fears to the real issues that faced lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. I entered the field of psychology just as multiculturalism was becoming a force and was fortunate to find a graduate program that was leading the way in multicultural education in counseling psychology. For the first time, I felt valued as a gay man. My experience of openly dealing with my sexual orientation and coming to see homosexuality as a political issue made me a valuable resource to my colleagues and professors. I was respected for having the courage to be “out” in an academic environment that was just beginning to accept openly gay people and embrace diversity as a positive force in the academy. On the other hand, though my very private life has been a resource for the university, my relationships were not seen as valid then and still are not. My same-sex spouse cannot receive the same benefits as my heterosexual colleagues’ spouses. We could not live together in family student housing, and we still cannot live together in faculty housing.

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I have had students call me a sinner. Often I am accused of “pushing my own agenda” by bringing issues of sexual orientation into my courses. Unlike Jews (who are only 1–2 percent of the U.S. population), lesbian, gay, and bisexual people make up a sizable minority in the United States. We are in all segments of society. It is safe to say that almost all psychologists will work with someone who is a sexual minority. Most students appreciate having a professor who is willing to share her or his own experiences as they relate to the material to be learned. Yet every year I have some students who complain that I talk too much about gay issues. I wonder how much is too much when it is a topic that has never been discussed in any class they have ever taken before. I face the decision every year about whether and when to come out to my students. I spent the first several years of my teaching experimenting with different ways and different times during the semester to come out to my classes. If I come out too soon, many students just see me as a stereotype and discount what I say because I’m the “gay professor.” If I wait too long, then students can feel betrayed, and I feel stifled by missing “teachable moments” because it is “too soon” to come out to the class yet and still maintain credibility. Ironically, many times it is out of my control anyway, since students will gossip with each other. Overcoming Fat Phobia As a gay Jew, I have had many barriers to overcome. However, none of the prejudice I have faced as a Jew, as a gay man, or as a gay Jew, has come close to affecting me as much as the oppression I have faced as a fat person. Unlike anti-Semitism and heterosexism, anti-fat bias is not abating in this culture, but getting worse. However, much like homophobia, sizism is rooted in fear and misinformation. This bias is one that I have found even my colleagues to be unaware of in themselves. Poor body image is so pervasive in our culture that most of us project our bad feelings about our own bodies onto fat people. Even colleagues who have been working in the area of multiculturalism have trivialized my work in this area. Much as racism, sexism, and heterosexism were not seen as legitimate areas of study until recently, sizism is still seen as not worthy of study by many, and for many of the same reasons. The cultural messages regarding fat bodies are so strong and overt that even after spending considerable time explaining both the health

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risks of obesity and the complete failure of any and all weight loss programs in the long term—short of surgery, which is often riskier than being fat—students still regularly want to challenge the credibility of my size-positive message by stating that being fat is unhealthy. They somehow cannot accept the idea that diet and exercise might make one healthier but will usually not result in permanent weight loss. Raising people’s awareness that one can be fat and fit does not seem to help them accept larger bodies. Shedding light on the fear and loathing that most of us feel about being fat and about fat people makes us feel uncomfortable in the same ways that pointing out personal and institutionalized racism, sexism, and heterosexism makes us uncomfortable when we have to look at ourselves. Many students (and professors) squirm in their chairs at the thought that it may be okay to be fat: that one can be fat and happy, healthy, and fulfilled. Multiple Group Identity Development Academic institutions, as agents of socialization, reinforce the status quo (Hall, Lopez, & Bansal, 2001). Western psychology has supported and promoted a rather narrow, Eurocentric view of mental and social health (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1991). As such, developing and maintaining a positive identity as a fat, gay Jew has presented many challenges. In fact, people are so uncomfortable with these identities that I am almost always met with nervous laughter when I identify myself this way. Finding a department that was more advanced in its understanding and appreciation of diversity was important to my development as a multicultural counselor as well as my personal group identity development. Rather than being seen in a problem-saturated way, my colleagues and I have been able to learn much from each other as we grapple with the issues that advocating for diversity brings to a small department in a very traditional academic environment. Identity development models do not take into account the complex multiple identities that we all have (Constantine, 2002). Though we are all certainly still evolving in our multicultural competence and group identity development, being in a work and learning environment where everyone is exploring the nuances and implications of our identity development establishes an environment wherein one is eager to do so. For example, recently I have begun to think about the connections and continua that fat people have with people who

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have certain physical disabilities or limitations. Many fat people require accommodations like elevators instead of stairs, or armless chairs. Yet even as we learn to embrace our fat identities, most fat people still reject the “disabled” label. The most current direction of identity development for the profession of multicultural counseling psychology is that of counselor/ psychologist as advocate. The need for this new role is a reflection of an increasing awareness of the complexity of the contextual variables that affect our mental health and growth (Toporek & Liu, 2001). The normative nature of multicultural values in the Department of Counseling at UND has fostered a commitment to social action that is inherent in the role of advocate. CONVERSATIONS ACROSS IDENTITIES In this section we will describe the ways in which our diverse identities and values form the foundation for collegial dialogue. Like any academic program, we are routinely faced with competing demands regarding resource and workload allocation. In addition, there exists the potential to encounter diversity-related conflicts. In the case of resource and workload allocation, as with our research foci, conversations dealing with how our energies are directed could easily become ultimatums on whose identity is most important. Instead, all five authors believe our experiences and values are reflective of Sue’s (1995) multicultural phase of organizational development—able to accommodate and support multiple diversities. Common Experiences Several commonalties exist among our diversity experiences. First, students and faculty have consistently identified us all in terms of our diversity identity, for example, blind professor or gay professor. Second, most of us have felt uncomfortable in being the central focus or “cause” of a lot of trouble, or even change for others. We don’t want to feel like others have to make adjustments “just for us.” These feelings tend to arise when requesting disability accommodations or considering the appropriateness of celebrating mainstream religious holidays and not others. My Jewish colleague and I (Daughtry) have drawn parallels between objecting to exclusive holiday traditions and advocating for accommodation measures. We feel strongly about the right to reasonable accommodation and religious parity in the workplace, but realize

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that others’ budget needs and long-held traditions are also impacted. Third, students have often judged many of us as “grinding a personal axe” when presenting class material. Two gay colleagues commented on challenges encountered when students perceived them as advocating personal views while presenting class material. Last, we each belong to a marginalized group that is valued less than the dominant group and often discriminated against. This marginalization extends to our research agendas. University hierarchies have traditionally regarded research areas such as disability, sexual orientation, body size discrimination, or women’s issues as less worthy of scientific study than research areas with a narrower view of human diversity. Historically, individual differences have been studied in terms of deviation from the (white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied) norm, rather than from a perspective that celebrates diversity and could advocate for a minority group (Sue & Sue, 1999). People choosing to conduct research with a social justice focus risk being considered less worthy of tenure or promotion. Common experiences form the core connections of our shared multicultural identity. We all are acquainted with experiences such as marginalization and discrimination. Shared understanding helps us realize that each others’ experiences of discrimination are real and must be taken seriously. Shared understandings also serve to promote a mutual respect and empathic buffering that aids in negotiating potential conflicts. Unique Experiences Our multicultural identity is also characterized by recognition of uniqueness. Our experiences of discrimination are not identical. For example, able-bodied, average-sized colleagues do not encounter physical barriers or other accommodation considerations. In a similar fashion, male colleagues do not have to cope with objectification, safety issues, or harassment to the extent that female colleagues might. Unique experiences help create an “awareness of not knowing.” At times, we each have had to assume the role of educator to help the rest understand our unique group experience. Hence a departmental norm has evolved that it is “okay” not to know, at least when “not knowing” is combined with a willingness to learn. Often discussions of our unique diversity experience lead to broader dialogues related to our uniqueness as human beings. This is valuable for

Toolbox for Change The following are strategies we believe can be used to reinforce the value of diversity as the norm, as well as to challenge group and individual preconceptions and biases. The first four strategies (real listening, believing in the experience, identification of similarity, and continual introspection) are processes that build on each other to develop a diversity-friendly environment. The last three strategies (discussion and modeling, publicizing, and increasing numbers) are more practical organizational tools that can be implemented once a safe and accepting environment exists. These latter three strategies represent institutional actions necessary to create more diverse work settings. 1. Real listening

Listening in a sincere and authentic fashion to facilitate dialogue and develop an atmosphere in which diversity is acknowledged and appreciated. Do not mentally tune out when colleagues present views you disagree with.

2. Believing in the experience

Believe the perspectives of others by assuming that their experiences are valid. Do not discount experiences just because they differ from ours and are therefore unfamiliar.

3. Continual introspection

Actively introspect about your own biases and prejudices to increase openness to individual differences. Increase self-awareness by having the courage to challenge personal biases and prejudices, thus defusing their power within the group.

4. Identification of similarity

Actively focus attention on similarities between differing diversity identities while continuing to appreciate the differences.

5. Discussion and modeling

Actively discuss issues of diversity and identify how they are affecting the group’s cohesion and productivity. Openly process diversity issues related to student admissions and faculty hiring. continued

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Toolbox for Change (continued) 6. Documenting and publicizing

Record diversity expectations in departmental documents and university or other outlets that perpetuate diversity awareness and codify multiculturalism. This practice increases the degree of departmental accountability while challenging the status quo. Accountability creates a platform for advocating for diversity needs and helps ensure that none are overlooked.

7. Increased representation

Increase the number of diverse members in the group. Critical mass facilitates change.

reminding us that no one can be defined solely by membership in a demographic category. It is the recognition of individual uniqueness, within a group context, that facilitates movement beyond simple nondiscrimination.

Practical Implications So how does this blend of diversity experiences and values become manifest in daily departmental interactions? Put another way, what are the practical implications of becoming a multicultural organization? This can be seen from our interactions around disability. We have recognized that disability has been given significantly less attention than other diversity considerations, such as race or gender. One area in which this was noted was student admissions. An abled colleague has candidly shared that reviewing applicant files does not bring the same “gut” reaction when reviewing an application from a student with a disability relative to other aspects of diversity. Another abled colleague has shared reactions related to practical issues. How does one accommodate in the classroom? How do I act with an interpreter in the classroom? Our commitment to diversity has helped us process such reactions in a respectful fashion. Beyond respectful, our conversations have been productive. Our norms and values helped create a climate where potentially problematic perceptions can be shared and worked through. Our “empathic glue” is grounded in the shared knowledge that we all have our learning curves.

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Fellows, W. (Ed.). (1996). Farm boys: Lives of gay men from the rural Midwest. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Gill, C. J. (1997). Four types of integration in disability identity development. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 9, 39–46. Hahn, H., & Beaulaurier, R. L. (2001). Attitudes toward disabilities: A research note on activists with disabilities. Journal of Disability Policy Journal, 12(1), 40–46. Hall, G. C. N., Lopez, I. R., & Bansal, A. (2001). Academic acculturation: Race, gender, and class issues. In D. B. Pope-Davis & H. L. K. Coleman (Eds.), The intersection of race, class, and gender in multicultural counseling (pp. 171–188). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Hill, C. E., & Knox, S. (2002). Self-disclosure. In J. Norcross (Ed.), Psychotherapy relationships that work: Therapist contributions and responsiveness to patients (pp. 255–265). London: Oxford University Press. Hunter, J., & Mallon, G. P. (2000). Lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescent development. In B. Greene & G. L. Croom (Eds.), Education, research, and practice in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender psychology (pp. 226–243). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Loewy, M. I. (1995). Size bias by mental health professionals: Use of the illusory correlation paradigm. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California–Santa Barbara, 1994). Dissertation Abstracts International, 56(3), 1704. National Center for Education Statistics. (2002, September 10). Gender and racial/ethnic differences in salary and other characteristics of postsecondary faculty: Fall 1998. (U.S. Department of Education Office of Education Research and Improvement, NCES, 2002-170). Retrieved February 1, 2004, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002170.pdf Olkin, R. (2000, August). What do we talk about when we talk about disability? Presentation at the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Washington, DC. Peterson, Z. D. (2002). More than a mirror: The ethics of therapist selfdisclosure. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 39, 21–31. Pew Research Center for People and the Press, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. (2003, November 18). Republicans unified, Democrats split on gay marriage: Religious beliefs underpin opposition to homosexuality. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved February 1, 2004, from http:// pewforum.org/publications/surveys/religion-homosexuality.pdf Pilkington, N. W., & Cantor, J. M. (1996). Perceptions of heterosexual bias in professional psychology programs: A survey of graduate students. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 27, 604–612. Pobo, K. (1999). The gay/lesbian teacher as role model. Humanist, 59(2), 26.

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Reeve, D. (2000). Oppression within the counseling room. Disability & Society, 15, 669–682. Russ, T. L., Simonds, C. J., & Hunt, S. K. (2002). Coming out in the classroom . . . An occupational hazard: The influence of sexual orientation on teacher credibility and perceived student learning. Communication Education, 51, 311–324. Sue, D. W. (1995). Multicultural organizational development: Implications for the counseling profession. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 474–492). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Sue, D. W., Carter, R. T., Casas, J. M., Fouad, N. A., Ivey, A. E., Jensen, M., et al. (1998). Multicultural aspects of counseling (Vol. 11). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1999). The politics of counseling and psychotherapy. In Counseling the culturally different (3rd ed., pp. 3–26). New York: Wiley. Toporek, R. L., & Liu, W. M. (2001). Advocacy in counseling: Addressing race, class, and gender oppression. In D. B. Pope-Davis & H. L. K. Coleman (Eds.), The intersection of race, class, and gender in multicultural counseling (pp. 385–413). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Twohey, D. (2001). Feminist therapy in cases of life-threatening illness. Women & Therapy, 23, 11–120. Vace, N. A., & Clifford, K. (1995). Individuals with a physical disability. In N. A. Vance, S. B. De Vaney, & J. Wittmer (Eds.), Experiencing and counseling multicultural and diverse populations (3rd ed., pp. 251–271). Bristol, PA: Accelerated Development. Waldo, C. R. (1998). Out on campus: Sexual orientation and academic climate in a university context. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26, 745–774. Whitcomb, D. H., & Cummings, J. (In press). Exploring male privilege: Journey of two white middle-class men. In S. K. Anderson & V. A. Middleton (Eds.), Explorations in oppression, diversity and privilege. Pacific Grove, CA: Books/Cole. Whitcomb, D. H., & Pahl, P. (2002). Safe connections: Planning, organizing, and running an HIV prevention workshop for MSM in a rural region. Journal of Rural Community Psychology, E5(2). Retrieved February 1, 2004, from www.marshall.edu/jrcp/JRCP%20Intro%20GLBT/JRCP% 20Safe%20Connections/safe_connections.htm

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Index

Accountability, 174–177, 197 Affirmative action, 237 African Americans, 96–97, 175 Akaka Bill, 144 “Alien self disorder” syndrome: case study of, 171–172; description of, 166 Allport, Gordon, 33 Americans with Disabilities Act: in education, 60; history of, 57, 59; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act vs., 63–64; provisions of, 61–62; purpose of, 59–60 Asthma, 67 “Aversive racism reaction” syndrome: case studies of, 173–174, 176–177; description of, 166 Avoidance, 260 Awareness, 150–151 Bias: intergroup, 80–81, 83–84; in language, 150–151 Blacks: intimidation against, 175; life expectancy of, 177–178; physical health of, 177–178;

racial profiling against, 174–175. See African Americans Body mass index, 112–113 Body weight: facts about, 113–115; lifestyle influences, 114; myths about, 113–115; negative stereotypes based on, 112; terminology associated with, 112–113; in western society, 112 Body weight–related discrimination: case study of, 271–275; examples of, 111–112; research regarding, 115–132 Buddhism, 41 Buddhist psychology, 39 Categories of disabilities, 53 Central traits, 75–76 Cerebral palsy, 65 Change: in attitudes, 79–80; by community, 154–155; by individuals, 153–154 Chicago Dinners: background of, 242–243; conclusions made after, 248–250; format of, 243–248;

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power-related discussions, 247; rules of engagement for, 244–245; success of, 244 Children: development of, 215–216; learning by, 217–218; school influences on, 215–217; shared value and responsibility for, 181–183, 193–194, 200; vulnerability of, 181 Children with disabilities: barriers to services for, 67–68; mental disabilities, 67; physical disabilities, 64–65; prejudice against, 64–65 Clinical settings, universal-diverse orientation in, 224–225 Cognitive dissonance, 77 Collective identity, 211 College, 218–221 Community change, 154–155 Community inclusion, 169–170, 196 Compassion, 42, 44 Contact theory, 80–81 Counseling settings, universaldiverse orientation in, 224–225 Crisis of meaning, 29, 33, 36 Cross-categorization, 209 Cultural diversity, 20 Cultural groups, 14–15 Cultural identity: description of, 2; dress as form of (see Dress); evolution of, 2–3 Cultural myths, 54–55 Cultural relational paradox, 163 Culture: definition of, 2; dress based on, 3, 16; subjective, 31 Culture swapping, 166 Cystic fibrosis, 66 “Dangerous minds” syndrome: case studies of, 169–170, 173–174, 176–177; description of, 165

Index

Decategorization, 210–211, 238; description of, 162 Dieting, 113 Direct intergroup conflict, 71 Disability: definition of, 52, 74; health and, 99; International Classification of Functioning definition of, 64; as a loss, 76–77; low-income jobs as cause of, 104; medical model of, 58, 60, 62–68; minority model of, 58, 68; models of, 58; moral model of, 58; people with (see Persons with disability); self-advocacy, 261–263; social construction of, 73–74, 79; training about, 258–259 Discrimination: ability status-based, 97; body weight–related, 111–112, 115–132; case studies of, 87–90; definition of, 52; examples of, 52–54; factors associated with, 54; history of, 54–56; images and perceptions that facilitate, 145–149; leaders’ influence on, 144–145; low-income background and, 96–97; racial, 237–238; social class-based, 101; universal-diverse orientation for (see Universal-diverse orientation); varied experiences of, 276 Diversity: commonality of experiences, 74, 275–276; dialogues on, 240–242; respect for, 170–172, 196; training programs regarding, 222 Domestic violence, 162–163 Dominance, 169–170 Douglass, Frederick, 237 Dress: changes in, 18; cultural differences reflected by, 8–9; cultural identity derived from, 3,

Index

14–18; cultural influences on, 3, 16; definition of, 3; description of, 1; ethnic, 16; ethnocultural context of, 9–11; European standards of, 4, 17, 24; heterogeneity in, 21; homogeneity of, 24; mute assimilation effects on, 17; personal narrative of, 5–8; professional identity and, 5–8; psychological resources and meaning derived from, 3–4; self-image and, 16; social visibility of, 21–24; in United States, 4 Economic abuse, 172–174, 192–193 Economic empowerment, 172–174 Economic globalization, 138–141 Education: access to, 56, 102–105; Americans with Disabilities Act in, 60; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 57 Educators, 155–157 Emotional abuse, 170–171, 188–189 Emotional affirmation, 170–172, 196 Empathy, 168 Employment, Americans with Disabilities Act provisions for, 61 Equal opportunity, 186–187, 199 Erikson, Erik, 32–33 Ethnic dress, 16 Ethnic identity, 2 Ethnocentric narcissism, 146–147 Ethnocentrism: description of, 141–142; methods to counteract, 147 Existential psychology, 37–38 Extrinsic spirituality, 33 “Fly in the buttermilk” syndrome: case studies of, 169–170,

285

173–174, 176–177; description of, 164–165 Fromm, Erich, 33 Gallaudet University, 78–79, 84 Gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender persons, 266–271 Genocidal fascism, 148 Globalization: backlash against, 138–141; description of, 135–136; economic, 138–141; educators’ role in, 155; hegemonic, 139; interdependencies created by, 140; nationalism and, 139; responses to, 140; spirituality affected by, 27–30 Government, 61 Groups: power differentials among, 16; surface markers used to differentiate, 15, 22 Hate crimes, 161 Head and face anomalies, 66 Hegemonic globalization, 139 Heterogeneity, 21 Higher education: on-campus housing, 220; student affairs, 219; in United States, 156; universal-diverse orientation in settings of, 218–221 Honesty, 174–177, 197 Identity development, 218 Immigrants: description of, 103–104; post-colonization stress disorder, 166 Impairment, 74 Incarceration, 97 Individual change, 153–154 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Americans with Disabilities Act vs., 63–64; description of, 57, 59

286

Institutions, 55 Intergroup bias, 80–81, 83–84 Intergroup differences, 14–15 International Classification of Functioning, 64 Internationalism, 136 Intimidation, 174–175, 189–190 Intrinsic spirituality, 33 “Invisibility” syndrome: case studies of, 169–170, 173–174, 176–177, 182–183, 184–186; description of, 165 Isolation, 169, 188 James, William, 32 Jones, James, 233 Jung, Carl, 32 Jungian psychology, 40–41 Knowledge, 151–152 Low-income background, 96–97, 104 Male privilege, 186, 194–195, 200 “Man enough” syndrome: case studies of, 182–183, 184–186; description of, 165 Maslow, Abraham, 33, 38–39 Meaning: crisis of, 29, 33, 36; in patients’ lives, 36; search for, 42 Medical model of disability, 58, 60, 62–68 Meditative state, 39 Meningomyelocele, 65 Mental health, 178; religion and, 33–34; spirituality and, 29–30 Mental impairment, 53 “Might is right” belief, 147–148 Minority model of disability, 58, 68 Monocultural organizations: definition of, 253–254; multicultural shift in, 255–258; transitions in, 254–255

Index

Moral model of disability, 58 Multiculturalism: description of, 8, 20; literature about, 136; social impact of, 253; in United States, 136 Multicultural organization: case studies of, 258–278; gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender case study, 266–271; monocultural organization transition to, 253–258 Multilayered identity model, 223 Multiunilateral agreements, 140 Mute assimilation, 17 Mutuality, 168 Narrative(s): cultural diversity and, 20; of ethnic dress, 5–8; purpose of, 20 Narrative identity model, 3 National Association for Retarded Children, 56 Nationalism, 139, 142 Negative stereotyping, 171 Neural tube defects, 65 Noble-savage myths, 142–143 Non-threatening behavior, 183–186, 198 Normalcy, 62 Obese people: coping by, 120, 122–124, 128; descriptive terminology associated with, 113; dieting by, 113; negative attitudes toward, 115–116; in non-Western countries, 116–117; research about, 115–132; stereotypes about, 115–116; stigmatization associated with, 115–132 Obesity: definition of, 112; demographics of, 114; dieting to reduce, 113; discrimination for, 112; income levels and, 114;

Index

lifestyle influences, 114; myths about, 113–115. See also Body weight–related discrimination; Obese people On-campus housing, 220 Oppression: definition of, 163–164; origins of, 163; personal trauma and, 163; of persons with disability, 74; racism and, 246 Oppression reactive syndromes: “alien self disorder,” 166, 171–172; “aversive racism reaction” syndrome, 166, 173–174, 176–177; “dangerous minds” syndrome, 165, 169–170, 173–174, 176–177; description of, 162; “fly in the buttermilk” syndrome, 164–165, 169–170, 173–174, 176–177; “invisibility” syndrome, 165, 169–170, 173–174, 176–177, 182–183, 184–186; “man enough” syndrome, 165, 182–183, 184–186; “post-colonization stress disorder,” 166, 173–174, 184–186; “stereotyped threat” syndrome, 165–166, 169–170, 171–172, 176–177; symptoms of, 164; “woman enough” syndrome, 165 Organizations: monocultural (see Monocultural organizations); multicultural (see Multicultural organizations); universal-diverse orientation in, 221–224 Outgroup homogeneity, 72–73 Overweight, definition of, 112 Pathology, 62 Persons with disability: access to education for, 56; affective norms for, 76; Americans with Disabilities Act (see Americans

287

with Disabilities Act); asthma, 67; barriers for, 97; behavioral norms for, 76; case studies of, 87–90, 258–266; celebrating our differences, 83; central traits of, 75–76; cerebral palsy, 65; children, 64–65; commonality of experience among, 74, 275–276; community formation by, 77–78; community response to, 81–82; contact theory for, 80–81; cystic fibrosis, 66; definition of, 52; devaluation of, 74; disability as defined by, 74; Gallaudet University for, 78–79, 84; grateful feelings by, 76; head and face anomalies, 66; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 57, 59; loss associated with, 76–77; mass media portrayal of, 82; medical advances for, 51–52; medical issues for, 60, 62–68; medical professionals’ relationship with, 62–64, 82; meningomyelocele, 65; models of, 58; myths about, 75; nationality effects on attitudes toward, 84; neighbors’ response to, 81–82; neural tube defects, 65; notions commonly held about, 75–76; oppression of, 74; physical defects, 64–65; political involvement by, 82–83; problems experienced by, 74–75; public education effects on, 82; self-identity of, 77; skin disease, 66; strengths and skills of, 81 Physical abuse, 178, 190 Physical health, 177–181, 197 Physical impairment, 53 Politics, persons with disability in, 82–83 “Post-colonization stress disorder”: case studies of, 173–174, 184–186; description of, 166

288

Power abuse, sociocultural model of: description of, 162–163; domestic violence similarities with, 162–163; oppression reactive syndromes caused by (see Oppression reactive syndromes); overview of, 161–162; survivors of, 166–167 Practitioners, 155–157 Prejudice: attitude changes and, 79–80; awareness and, 150–151; beliefs affected by, 71, 73; case studies of, 87–90; clusters of, 141–143; community change for reducing, 154–155; definition of, 52; educators role in reducing, 155–157; ethnocentrism and, 141–142; examples of, 51; expectations affected by, 71, 73; factors associated with, 54; of “haves” vs. “have-nots,” 143–144; history of, 54–56; images and perceptions that facilitate, 145–149; individual change for reducing, 153–154; institutionalized, 136; intergroup bias and, 80–81; knowledge for reducing, 151–152; leaders’ influence on, 144–145; literature about, 136; “might is right” belief and, 147–148; nationalism and, 139, 142; persistence of, 72–73; practitioners role in reducing, 155–157; public education to reduce, 82; reduction of, 79; skills for reducing, 152–153; social theories regarding, 69–77; strategies for combating, 150–157; universal-diverse orientation for (see Universal-diverse orientation); “we are the ideal” belief and, 146–147; “world is

Index

just too complicated” belief and, 149; “world is quite simple” belief and, 148–149; xenophobia and, 142 Prejudiced person, 52 Privilege, 186–187, 194–195, 200 Psychological violence, 183 Psychologists: religion as viewed by, 32–33; religious competency of, 34–37; spiritual competency of, 34–37, 41–44 Psychology: Buddhist, 39; existential, 37–38; Jungian, 40–41; religion and, 30–32; transpersonal, 38–39 Psychotherapy: Buddhist approach to, 39; existential psychology approach to, 37–38; Jungian approach to, 40–41; meditative state in, 39; spiritual approach to, 33, 37–41; spiritual attitude to, 41–44; transpersonal psychology approach to, 38–39 Public accommodations, Americans with Disabilities Act provisions for, 61 Race: assumptions of, 235; concept of, 234–235; conversations about, 239–240; dialogues on, 240–242; social construction of, 234 Racial animosity, 236 Racial discrimination, 237–238 Racial profiling, 174–175 Racism: definition of, 235–236; denial of, 247–248; elements of, 236; levels of, 235; oppression and, 246 Relational cultural model, 168 Religion: definition of, 31; demographics of, 28; importance of, 28–30; influences of, 28; mental health and, 33–34;

Index

psychologists’ view of, 32–33; psychology and, 30–32; societal perspective of, 30; spirituality vs., 31 Religious competency, 34–37 “Religious or spiritual problems,” 35 Religious practices, 32 Safety, 183–186, 198 School settings, universal-diverse orientation in, 215–218 Self-advocacy, 261–263 Self-concept, 72, 211 Self-fulfilling prophecy, 73 Self-identity, 42 Self-image: acceptance of, 129; ethnic dress and, 16 Sexual abuse, 178–179, 190 Sexual harassment, 179–180 Sexuality, 177–181, 197 Shared power: accountability, 174–177, 197; community inclusion, 169–170, 196; components of, 168–169; description of, 167; economic empowerment, 172–174; emotional affirmation, 170–172, 196; equal opportunity, 186–187, 199–200; honesty, 174–177, 197; non-threatening behavior, 183–186, 198; physical health, 177–181, 197; principles of, 167–168; respect for diversity, 170–172, 196; safety, 183–186, 198; sexuality, 177–181, 197; shared value and responsibility for all children, 181–183, 200 Skill, 152–153 Social categorization, 70, 209 Social class: access to education and, 102–105; access to work and, 102–105; discrimination

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based on, 101; economic stability and, 102–105 Social class identity, 101 Social context, 211–212 Social dominance theory, 167 Social identity, 211 Social identity theory, 71 Social isolation, 169 Social learning, 70 Sociocultural model of power abuse: description of, 162–163; domestic violence similarities with, 162–163; oppression reactive syndromes caused by (see Oppression reactive syndromes); overview of, 161–162; survivors of, 166–167 Sociocultural model of shared power and control: accountability, 174–177, 197; community inclusion, 169–170, 196; components of, 168–169; description of, 167; economic empowerment, 172–174; emotional affirmation, 170–172, 196; equal opportunity, 186–187, 199–200; honesty, 174–177, 197; non-threatening behavior, 183–186, 198; physical health, 177–181, 197; principles of, 167–168; respect for diversity, 170–172, 196; safety, 183–186, 198; sexuality, 177–181, 197; shared value and responsibility for all children, 181–183, 200 Spiritual competency: in clinical training of psychologists, 41–44; description of, 34–37 Spiritual diversity: description of, 27; impact of, 29 Spiritual history, 30 Spirituality: crises of, 27; definition of, 31–32; extrinsic, 33;

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globalization effects on, 27–30; intrinsic, 33; lack of, 29; mental health and, 29–30; practices associated with, 32; psychotherapy and, 33, 37–41; religion vs., 31 “Stereotyped threat” syndrome: case studies of, 169–170, 171–172, 176–177; description of, 165–166 Stigmatization of obese people: coping with, 120, 122–124, 128; mental health effects, 127; research regarding, 115–132 Student affairs, 219 Subjective culture, 31 Substantially limits, 53 Surface markers: cultural identity based on, 15, 22; group differentiation using, 15, 22; types of, 15 Telecommunications, 62 Threats, 183–184, 191–192 Transpersonal psychology, 38–39 Transportation, 61 United Cerebral Palsy Organization, 56 United States: dress in, 4; ethnocentrism by, 141–142; higher education in, 156; intergroup differences in, 14–15; “might is right” belief in, 147– 148; multiculturalism in, 136; mute assimilation in, 17; nationalism by, 139, 142; persons with disability in, 84; privilege in, 187, 194–195, 200; social influences in, 14; “we are the ideal” belief in, 146–147;

Index

“world is quite simple” belief in, 148–149 Universal-diverse orientation: characteristics necessary for, 212–214; in clinical settings, 224–225; conditions for, 212–214; in counseling settings, 224–225; decategorization for, 210–211; definition of, 207–208; evaluation of, 225–226; fostering of, 208–225; in higher education settings, 218–221; impact of, 228; ingredients for, 208–212; interventions for, 213–225; in organizational settings, 221–224; in school settings, 215–218; settings for, 213–225; summary of, 225–228; in workplace, 221–224 Vocational rehabilitation programs, 98–99 “We are the ideal” belief, 146–147 White privilege, 186–187, 237 “Woman enough” syndrome, 165 Women: discrimination against, 95; sexual abuse against, 178–179; social class identity of, 101 Workplace: diversity training programs in, 222; economic abuse in, 172–173; stereotypes in, 172–173; universal-diverse orientation in, 221–224 “World is just too complicated” belief, 149 “World is quite simple” belief, 148–149 Xenophobia, 142, 148

About the Series and the Series Editors

I

t is expected that nearly half of the entire U.S. population will be of nonwhite ethnic and racial minorities by the year 2050. With this growing diversity, clinicians, researchers, and, indeed, all Americans need to understand that the Eurocentric psychological views particular to Caucasians may or may not be relevant or adequate to address mental health issues in racial and ethnic minorities. This series addresses those issues, aiming to better understand how these factors affect mental health, and what needs to be done, or done differently, to heal disorders that may arise. JEAN LAU CHIN is a licensed psychologist and systemwide dean of the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. She is also president of CEO Services, which offers clinical, educational, and organizational development services emphasizing cultural competence and integrated systems of care. She holds a doctorate from Teacher’s College of Columbia University. Dr. Chin’s past positions include associate professor of psychiatry at the Center for Minority Training Program, Boston University School of Medicine; regional director of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership; executive director of the South Cove Community Health Center; and codirector of the Thom Child Guidance Clinic. She has authored, coauthored, or edited books including Relationships among Asian American Women (2000), Community Health Psychology

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About the Series and the Series Editors

(1998), and Diversity in Psychotherapy: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity and Gender (1993). VICTOR DE LA CANCELA is associate clinical professor of medical psychology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He is also deputy executive director of Tremont-Crotona Child Development Center, and a clinical psychologist serving with the United States Army Reserve. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at the College of Medicine and Hospital at Howard University. He is a fellow of Divisions 1, 12, 38, 44, 45, 49, 51, and 52 of the American Psychological Association. In 1998, he received a letter of commendation from the president of the United States for teaching excellence. Robinson is a distinguished visiting professor at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at the Tripler Army Medical Center. He earned his EdD in counseling psychology at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, completed a clinical psychology residency at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and earned an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health. Robinson worked earlier as chief of interdepartmental programs in the Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery at Howard University, and has also served as dean of the Division of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of the District of Columbia, clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and clinical attending faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University School of Medicine at the Cambridge Hospital.

About the Advisers

JESSICA HENDERSON DANIEL is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and both director of training in psychology and associate director of the LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) Training Program in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Boston. She is also an adjunct associate professor of psychology in the clinical psychology program at Boston University. Daniel is the past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35, APA; and is coeditor of The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women (2003). Her awards include the 1998 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School; the 2001 Education Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois; the 2002 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award from APA; and the 2003 Professional Award from the Boston & Vicinity Club, Inc., National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. JEFFERY SCOTT MIO is a professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at California State Polytechnic University–Pomona, where he also serves as the director of the master of science in psychology program. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois–Chicago in 1984. He taught at California State University–Fullerton in the counseling department from 1984–1986, then taught at Washington State University in the Department of Psychology from 1986 to 1994 before accepting his current position at CSPU–Pomona. His interests

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About the Advisers

are in the teaching of multicultural issues, the development of allies, and how metaphors are used in political persuasion. NATALIE PORTER is vice provost for academic affairs systemwide at Alliant International University. She is also an associate professor of psychology. She received her PhD from the University of Delaware. Porter’s research interests include feminist and anti-racist models of clinical training and supervision, cognitive and emotional developmental changes in individuals abused or traumatized as children, and feminist therapy supervision and ethics. JOHN D. ROBINSON is a coeditor of Race and Ethnicity in Psychology, a Praeger series. JOSEPH EVERETT TRIMBLE is a professor of psychology at the Center for Cross-Cultural Research at Western Washington University. Trimble was a fellow in the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2000 and 2001. He is a research associate for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in the Department of Psychiatry, National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research. He is also a scholar and adjunct professor of psychology for the Colorado State University Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research. In 1994, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, Division 45, American Psychological Association. In 2002, he was honored with the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the Washington State Psychological Association. He has authored eightytwo journal articles, chapters, and monographs, as well as authored or edited thirteen books, including the Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2002). MELBA J. T. VASQUEZ is in full-time independent practice in Austin, Texas. A past president of APA Divisions 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) and 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology), she has served in various other leadership positions. She is a fellow of the APA and a diplomate of the ABPP. She publishes in the areas of professional ethics, psychology of women, ethnic minority psychology, and training and supervision. She is coauthor, with Ken Pope, of Ethics in Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Practical Guide (1998, 2nd ed.). She is the recipient of several awards including Psychologist of the Year, Texas Psychological Association, 2003; Senior Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, APA, 2002; Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship,

About the Advisers

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Columbia University, 2002; John Black Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Practice of Counseling Psychology, Division 17, APA, 2000; and the Distinguished Leader for Women in Psychology Award, Committee of Women Psychology, APA, 2000. HERBERT Z. WONG has provided management consulting, diversity training, and organizational assessments to over 300 government agencies, businesses, and other organizations. He was the cofounder and president of the National Diversity Conference, Inc., which presented contemporary issues and future directions of workforce diversity. He was a consultant to the President’s Commission on Mental Health (1977), the White House Conference for a Drug Free America (1989), and the President’s Initiative on Race–White House Office of Science and Technology (2000). In the past twenty-five years, Wong has written extensively on multicultural leadership, cross-cultural communication, and diversity issues. Wong received his PhD in clinical and organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.

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About the Contributors

JOSEFINA ALVAREZ is a research associate at DePaul University’s Center for Community Research. She has been a visiting assistant professor at DePaul University and director of the Center for Intercultural Clinical Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Her professional training includes a predoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. Alvarez has, in practice and research, focused often on Latino mental health issues. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology at DePaul University. LEENA BANERJEE is an associate professor of multicultural community clinical psychology in the doctor of psychology program at Alliant International University. She is also in private practice as a consultant to the mental health program at Bienvenidos Children’s Center. She has authored or coauthored many journal articles or chapters, and is an editorial board member for the Journal of Research and Applications in Clinical Psychology. She earned her PhD in marriage and family therapy from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. MARTHA E. BANKS is an associate professor of black studies at the College of Wooster and a research neuropsychologist in the research and development division of ABackans DCP, Inc., in Akron, Ohio. She has been instrumental in developing the Ackerman-Banks Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Battery and the Post-Assault Traumatic Brain Injury Interview and Checklist. Banks has also served

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About the Contributors

as a clinical psychologist with the Brecksville Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and as associate professor of psychology at the College of Wooster. She has published widely in books and professional journals, including Women & Therapy, Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, and Social Science Computer Review. Banks is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, serving on its Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP), and the Council of Representatives. She has also been president of the Society for the Psychology of Women’s Section on Psychology of Black Women. In 2003, she received the American Psychological Association’s Sue Rosenberg Zalk Award for Distinguished Service from the Society for the Psychology of Women. Banks is the Ethics Member of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Human Development’s Expert Panel on Caregiving for People with Disabilities. She has a forthcoming book chapter, “Ethical Issues in Caregiving for People with Disabilities,” in Ms. Carter’s book series on caregiving. Banks’ recent publications include the book Women with Visible and Invisible Disabilities: Multiple Intersections, Multiple Issues, Multiple Therapies and “The Role of Neuropsychological Testing and Evaluation: When to Refer” in State of the Art Reviews: Adolescent Medicine. She is an associate editor for Women & Therapy. DONALD DAUGHTRY is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling at the University of North Dakota. He is a higher education representative to the North Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners and assistant director for the Global Rural Autism Information Network. He earned his PhD in counseling psychology from Texas Tech University. BRAVADA GARRETT-AKINSANYA is president of Brakins Consulting and Psychological Services in Plymouth, Minnesota. GarrettAkinsanya has served as board member for the Minnesota Psychological Association, board president for the Minnesota Association of Black Psychologists, and board president for the Multicultural Specialty Providers Mental Health Network. Garrett-Akinsanya’s BA in psychology, MA in counseling psychology, and PhD in clinical psychology are all from Texas Tech University. DONALD E. GREYDANUS is pediatrics program residency director at the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies at Michigan State University. He is also a professor of pediatrics and human development

About the Contributors

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at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine. He is co–editor in chief of State of the Art Reviews: Adolescent Medicine. He has authored or coauthored 103 journal articles, fifty-seven book chapters, and eight books. Greydanus is a diplomate for the American Board of Pediatrics and the National Board of Medical Examiners, as well as a fellow for the American Board of Pediatrics. DIETRA HAWKINS is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University School of Medicine. She works on policy development for Connecticut’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. She also consults with several community-based agencies in their development of programs to reduce the health disparities among ethnic and racial low-income populations. Her primary interests include health care disparities related to race, ethnicity, and income. She continues to address racism as a facilitator for the Middlesex County Institute for Healing Racism, and through her community presentation Black Hair and Slavery. She is a graduate of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where she received a PsyD in clinical psychology. She completed her predoctoral clinical internship at Yale University School of Medicine, with a placement at West Haven Mental Health Clinic and the Consultation Center, where she worked with children, families, and local community centers. Her dissertation, The Chicago Dinners: A Noble Affair, explored experiences with race dialogues from the perspectives of the facilitators. TERRI JOHNSON is the executive director of the Human Relations Foundation/Jane Addams Policy Initiative. A program of Jane Addams Hull House Association, this initiative works to eradicate racism and poverty in metropolitan Chicago using research, public education, community dialogue, organizational consultation, and social policy reform advocacy. She managed the initial development team for the Chicago Dinners model and has consulted with organizations throughout the metropolitan area and the nation on methods to adapt the model. She has consulted various organizations and agencies on inclusion and cultural competence. Johnson is an accomplished speaker and moderator on issues of race, inequality, and systemic change. She is a graduate of Northwestern University with a BA in political science. CINDY JUNTUNEN is chair of the Department of Counseling at the University of North Dakota. A licensed psychologist, her MA in precounseling psychology is from Ball State University, and her PhD in counseling psychology was earned at the University of California–Santa

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About the Contributors

Barbara. She coedited Counseling Across the Lifespan (2002) and has authored numerous journal articles. ANGELA B. KIM is a doctoral student in the counseling psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds an MA and an EdM. MICHAEL LOEWY is professor of counseling and counseling psychology at the University of North Dakota. He earned his master’s and PhD degrees in counseling psychology at the University of California– Santa Barbara. He has been a professor at San Diego State University and the University of Missouri–Columbia. Loewy’s primary interest and emphasis is multicultural competence. His recent research aims at understanding the components of competent multicultural clinical supervision, the campus social climate for underrepresented groups, factors making up unearned social privilege, motivation for individuals to participate in social/political action on behalf of their own groups, mental health and adjustment issues for immigrants and refugees, and the cultural influences on Native American resiliency. CATHERINE A. MARSHALL is a research professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Northern Arizona University (NAU), and has a joint appointment as professor with the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She holds an adjunct professor position at Griffith University near Brisbane, Australia. Marshall was the director of research and a professor at the American Indian Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she has worked since 1989. She cofounded the Work Group on American Indian Research and Program Evaluation Methodology and has been involved in rehabilitation research for twenty years, working as either a counselor or educator in rehabilitation for twenty-five years. Marshall’s research interests include the needs of persons with severe and persistent psychiatric disabilities, family and disability issues, the rehabilitation needs of indigenous people in Latin America, and women and disability. Marshall was selected for a Fulbright Scholar Research and Teaching Award in 1997. She has published more than twenty juried articles or chapters. She edited Rehabilitation and American Indians with Disabilities: A Handbook for Administrators, Practitioners, and Researchers (2001). She obtained her PhD at the University of Arizona–Tucson. Marshall is also a graduate of Berry College (1972) in Mt. Berry, Georgia, and of Boston University

About the Contributors

301

(1977). She is founder and president of a nonprofit organization, the Women’s International Leadership Institute (http://www.wili.org). ASIAH MASON is associate professor of psychology at Gallaudet University. His past positions include clinical psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, chief psychologist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation, and program director at Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Mason’s PhD, MA, and BA were all earned at Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo. MARIE L. MIVILLE is an associate professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also the program coordinator and director of training of counseling psychology programs at Teachers College. Miville received her doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland–College Park. Her doctoral research involved exploring the interrelations of collective identity (gender, cultural) and personal identity among Latinos and Latinas. She also developed the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale (M-GUDS), which measures social attitudes of awareness and acceptance of how people are both similar and different from each other. Miville is currently on the editorial boards of Journal of Counseling Psychology and Assessment. She is the co-coordinator of professional development of the National Latina/o Psychology Association. TERU L. MORTON is academic affairs associate for international education at Alliant International University. Morton is also a professor of psychology for the PhD program in clinical psychology, and also a feedback coach and facilitator at the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego. Morton is in independent practice in organizational consulting and executive coaching. Earlier positions held include founding faculty member and associate director for the International Center for Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, research fellow at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, visiting associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, and administrative officer of state relations and consultant to the Office of Professional Development for the American Psychological Association. Morton has also been an associate professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, as well as a consultant to the psychiatry residency program at Hawaii State Hospital. Morton has also contributed to a

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About the Contributors

number of volumes, including Practicing Multiculturalism (2002), The Clinical Psychology Handbook (1991), and Childhood Aggression and Violence (1987). ANNA M. MYERS is a licensed clinical psychologist practicing in northern Vermont. Currently, she provides intensive treatment and psychological assessment services in an acute mental health care setting. Her research and writing have focused on issues of women’s mental health as well as the psychology of prejudice and discrimination. DILIP R. PATEL is director of adolescent and sports medicine, professor of pediatrics and human development, and assistant program director at the Pediatric Residency Program at Michigan State University–Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies. He is board certified in pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and sports medicine. Patel attended medical school in India. He was a fellow at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Iowa Methodist Medical Center; Iowa Methodist Sports Medicine Center; Michigan State University–Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies; and Southwestern Michigan Sports Medicine Clinic. Patel has also been an attending staff in pediatrics or adolescent psychiatry at Bronson Methodist Hospital, Borgess Medical Center, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, and Elizabeth General Medical Center. Patel provides physician coverage for the Kalamazoo Central High School football program, and is an editorial board member of Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, and a reviewer for Pediatrics, the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Patel is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and he has coedited one book, Course Manual for Adolescent Health (2002). HELEN D. PRATT is director of the Behavioral Developmental Pediatrics Program and professor of pediatrics and human development at Michigan State University–Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies. She is a diplomate in clinical psychology for the American Board of Psychological Specialties, a licensed psychologist and certified domestic violence counselor, a cognitive behavioral therapist, and a behavioral therapist. She is on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Adolescent Health, and is also consultant and owner of Pratt & Associates. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology at Western Michigan University. JILL M. ROHRBACKER is coordinator of the Family Resource Center at Oklahoma State University. She is responsible for administration

About the Contributors

303

and program development for a clientele that is 70 percent ethnic minority and international. She has worked in a variety of positions with residential life and student affairs for over twenty years. ESTHER D. ROTHBLUM is a licensed psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Vermont, where she has also served as director of clinical training and chair of the Women’s Studies Committee. During sabbatical in 2003–2004, she was a visiting professor at the Lesbian Health Research Center at the University of California– San Francisco; is the Beatrice M. Bain Affiliated Scholar at the University of California–Berkeley, and is a visiting scholar at the Women’s Leadership Institute, Mills College, Oakland, California. She has also been visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University, visiting scholar at the Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Minnesota–Duluth, and visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University. She completed her PhD in clinical psychology at Rutgers University and held honorary and postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University. She is a founding mother of the women’s studies program at the University of Vermont. She is editor of the Journal of Lesbian Studies and an editorial board member of Body Image, the Journal of Homosexuality, the Journal of GLBT Family Studies, Women and Therapy, and Contemporary Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Psychology. ILENE SERLIN is a licensed clinical psychologist, a visiting professor at the Colorado School of Professional Psychology, and an adjunct faculty member at the Institute of Imaginal Studies in California. She has also taught at Lesley College in Boston, the University of California–Los Angeles, and Antioch University in San Francisco. A dance therapist, she started the movement therapy program at the University of California–San Francisco. She is a member of the Executive Board for Humanistic Psychology, Division 32 of the American Psychological Association. She is also an editorial board member for the American Journal of Dance Therapy, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, and the Moscow Psychotherapy Journal. She has written ten book chapters and numerous journal articles. Serlin has also served on managed care panels for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, HealthNet, Behavioral Health Systems, and other organizations. Her PhD is from the University of Texas–Dallas. DENISE TWOHEY holds an EdD in counseling psychology and is pursuing an academic career at the University of North Dakota. She

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About the Contributors

is completing an internship at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, where her focus was a qualitative study on women and depression. After her first year of teaching, the university sent her to Harvard for a week to study with Carol Gilligan. In 1990, she taught her first class, Psychological Development of Women. Also in 1990, Denise attended a meeting in Boston that was to become the future home of Division 51 of the American Psychological Association (The Society for the Study of Men and Masculinity), heralding a new twist in gender issues. The new twist was the beginning of the men’s movement. However, in 1998, Denise underwent treatment for a brain tumor, permanently altering her life course. Her research interests changed from gender to disability. She has authored sixteen refereed publications, ranging from book reviews to a book chapter. DAVID H. WHITCOMB is an assistant professor of counseling at the University of North Dakota, where he is also training director for the master of arts program. He is chair of the American Psychological Association Division 17 Section for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Awareness. KAREEM Z. YAHYA is in postgraduate training at the Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Combined Residency at Michigan State University– Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies.