in these neighborhoods tend to be empty or lined with vacant buildings. The government may have put an end to the redlining policies that it created in the 1930s. However, it has yet to offer adequate resources to help neighborhoods recover from the damage these policies have caused and continue to inflict. Understanding these issues and how systemic racism contributes to such disparities is essential to antiracism. Antiracism Antiracism is a process of actively identifying and opposing racism. Antiracism aims to challenge racism and actively change the policies, behaviors, and beliefs perpetuating racist ideas and actions. Antiracism is rooted in action and is about eliminating racism at the individual, institutional, and structural levels. It is not a new concept, but the “Black Lives Matter” movement has helped increase the focus on the importance of antiracism. Today, antiracism is perhaps most closely associated with Ibram X. Kendi, the founding director of American University’s Anti-Racist Research Center and who is now moving to Boston University to open an antiracist center there, who popularized the concept with his 2019 book How to Be an Anti-Racist. In it, he wrote, “The only way to undo racism is to identify and describe it consistently, and then dismantle it consistently. To understand what an anti-racist is, one must also understand what an anti-racist is not: a non-racist.” There is no such thing as a nonracist, Kendi (2019) writes, because it signifies neutrality. “One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist or racial equality as an anti-racist,” he says. “One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist” (Kendi, 2019). One must strive to be actively antiracist instead through one’s thoughts, actions, and engagement with the world. Part of working toward being an antiracist individual is recognizing that we are all racist—it is part of the society in which we all live and participate. It takes conscious thought and engagement to work toward being an antiracist. “Anti-racism is an active and conscious effort to work against multidimensional aspects of racism,” says Georgetown African American studies professor Robert J. Patterson (2020). Patterson, the Georgetown professor, said that people “collapse identity and behavior” when they misconstrue not being racist as being antiracist. In the process, they underappreciate how action signals antiracism and underestimate their own
influence in dismantling the systems that support racism. Patterson said Kendi’s view of antiracism highlights the way racism is socialized into behaviors—how racial inequities and disparities are embedded in private and public life. We must unravel those behaviors by thinking about and pulling back assumptions we make about “the naturalness of things,” he said (Hoffower, 2020). If your default thinking is “I am not racist,” a more informed point of view would recognize how you are informed and influenced by the embeddedness of race and institutionalized racism. The problem with racism is that it is all around us. Racism is deeply embedded in our culture and communities, including our schools, the justice system, the government, and hospitals. It is so pervasive that people often do not notice how policies, institutions, and systems disproportionately favor some while disadvantaging others. People mistakenly believe that simply being “not racist” is enough to eliminate racial discrimination. The problem with this perspective is that White people are often unaware of their own unconscious biases. People often do not fully understand the institutional and structural issues that uphold White supremacy and contribute to racist behaviors, attitudes, and policies. Saying “but I’m not racist” also allows people to avoid participating in antiracism. It’s a way of saying “that’s not my problem” while failing to acknowledge that even people who are not racist still reap the benefits of a system that is biased against other people (Cherry, 2021). It would be best if you did not confuse racism with prejudice. Prejudice is universal. In other words, no one is entirely free of prejudice, and a person of color can have negative prejudices toward White people. In many cases, prejudices are based on stereotypes (and stereotypes are based on prejudices). A stereotype is a simplified assumption based on prior experiences or beliefs about a group. What elevates racial prejudice to racism, however, is the social and institutional power that allows one group to carry out systematic discrimination using the significant institutions of society. Because, in the U.S., these institutions were created and are still primarily controlled by White people, racism refers specifically to a system that advantages Whiteness and oppresses people of color and Indigenous people. Research has found that people who believe they are not racist are often much more prejudiced than they think.
COUNSELING WITH CULTURAL HUMILITY
The concept of cultural humility was first discussed in the medical world to understand better and address health inequities and disparities (Tervalon & Murray-García, 1998). However, the concept has evolved to include ideas related to creating a broader version of cultural competence. Cultural humility has several definitions. The overall defining premise of cultural humility is that humble individuals “have an accurate view of self” and “can maintain a stance that is other-oriented rather than self-focused, characterized by respect for others Self-Reflection and Self-Critique Practicing cultural humility requires counselors to practice self-reflection and self-critique. Self-reflection and critique are to understand and become aware of one’s own “cultural worldview, biases, and blind spots” (Hook, 2014, p. 279). Self- reflection and self-critique are ongoing, lifelong processes that allow counselors to continually refine their understanding of themselves and their actions and reactions within counseling contexts and to broaden and deepen their cultural knowledge through introspection (Foronda et al., 2016). Self-reflection and self-critique are best incorporated into practice on a reflexive basis. The ongoing process of self-reflection should result in an automatic process or reflection as an integral part of the practice. Minimally, every client interaction should be followed by self-reflection. Journaling regarding reviews and critiques may
and a lack of superiority” (Hook et al., 2013, pp. 353–354). Four essential elements of cultural humility are as follows: ● Self-reflection and self-critique ● Respectful partnerships ● Lifelong learning ● Institutional accountability (i.e., addressing and changing power imbalances and institutional practices that are not respectful to a diversity of clients and uphold current patterns of oppression) and marginalization (Schuessler, Wilder, & Byrd, 2012). Through ongoing self-reflection and critique, the counselor develops a better understanding of the dynamics within and outside the counseling arena and how these dynamics affect the client’s life, life, and the interactions between counselor and client. An awareness of the self is central to cultural humility, in which a person is informed about how they see other people. Awareness may stem from self-reflective questions such as the following: ● Which parts of my identity am I aware of? Which are most salient? assist the counselor in developing an understanding of self and others in the contexts of cultural aspects of privilege, oppression,
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