span >Developing
span> Cultural Humility: Em
acing Race, Privilege and Powe
SAGE Books
Developing Cultural Humility: Em
acing
Race, Privilege and Power
An Invitation to Dialogue … and Reflection
Author:Miguel E. Gallardo
Edited by: Miguel E. Gallardo
Book Title: Developing Cultural Humility: Em
acing Race, Privilege and Power
Chapter Title: "An Invitation to Dialogue … and Reflection"
Pub. Date: 2014
Access Date: Fe
uary 10, 2022
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks
Print ISBN: XXXXXXXXXX
Online ISBN: XXXXXXXXXX
DOI: https:
dx.doi.org/10.4135/ XXXXXXXXXXn1
Print pages: 1-26
© 2014 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online
version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
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An Invitation to Dialogue … and Reflection
An invitation to dialogue … and reflection
Miguel E.Gallardo
Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.
RosaLuxemburg
How Far Have We Really Come?
I am deeply concerned. I am concerned when I read that after Obama's election in 2008, websites hosting
White supremacist hate groups crashed because of the volume of activity in support of their cause (Anti-
Defamation League, XXXXXXXXXXI am concerned that the number of active hate groups operating in the United
States has continued to rise, from 602 in 2000 to 1, 018 in 2011 (Leadership Council on Civil and Human
Rights, 2009; Southern Poverty Law Center, XXXXXXXXXXI am also concerned when I read that after Obama's
election, mainstream media and journalists across the country applaud a post racist society, implying that we
can all achieve and move on, but fail to recognize the racial and social structures in society that have not
even been acknowledged. I am concerned, as is Winant (2006), who states:
The link between racism and empire was wrongly considered terminated; instead it has been reinvented,
principally through US neoconservatism. In fact none of the “posts”—post-civil rights, post-apartheid, post-
coloniality—is sufficiently “post”; none denotes a full
eak with the conditions their very names contain;
all necessitate uneasy and continuous adjustments, both on the level of policy and politics, and on that of
personal experience and identity, to the ongoing operation of racial conflicts. (p. 9)
I am deeply concerned that ba
ios and ghettos around the country continue to be war zones, where the
powerless are killing the powerless through channels of internalized racism, thereby keeping systems of
oppression in place, while the rest of the world has become desensitized to these realities. I am deeply
concerned that nearly all of the Latina/o community members I work with, clinically, are suffering from anxiety,
miedo (fear), and symptoms consistent with panic. When I think about the context in which they live—a world
where we are anti-immigrant—their reactions seem very normal to me, but nonetheless of deep concern. I
am also deeply concerned that my own community continues to make note of the morena/o (darker skinned)
individuals in their lives, whether they be children, partners, and friends, implying indirectly that it is not the
“norm” and that lighter skin is still more normal and desirable.
I am deeply concerned that “Almost everybody uses the word multiculturalism but very few people actually
know what is meant by it” (Moodley, 2007, p. 5). I am concerned that multiculturalism, in its present form,
has continued to keep nonprefe
ed racial groups from being understood, to the point where traumas and
anxieties are pervasive, while also simultaneously relegating European, “White” individuals and communities
to one category, unintentionally rendering them invisible and dominant. Dominance remains dominant when it
goes unexamined: “The inclusion of white people as clients will challenge the very nature of multiculturalism
y
inging to consciousness the varied and numerous European (white) ethnicities and cultures, making
them and even the category ‘white’ itself visible in the therapy process” (Moodley, 2007, p. 12). One of my
mentors commented on this very issue close to twenty years ago. A
edondo XXXXXXXXXXexpressed deep concern
that if the field of mul-ticulturalism did not include White people, the field would eventually create the exact
process it has been attempting to combat for years—being relegated to the borders, rather than remaining
central to all that we do.
I am deeply concerned when I hear my “White” students each year in both my doctoral and master's level
courses tell me they have no culture, or provide me with a response that they are “American,” or “I don't know,
I have not thought about that before.” This is of particular concern to me with students on the doctoral level.
Given that we are a post-master's doctoral program, the fact that these students do not know what culture
means to them implies that they have attended a master's program and not addressed this issue. I don't
lame them; I try to support them. Culture is learned behavior. Smedley XXXXXXXXXXargues, “None of us have
the cultures of any of our ancestors two centuries ago because all cultures, including American culture, have
changed, some of them drastically, during that time. Cultures constantly change without any co
esponding
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© 2014 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
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SAGE Books - An Invitation to Dialogue … and Reflection
changes in biological features” (p. 53). Racially determined behaviors or assuming individuals from certain
acial groups automatically manifest certain behaviors (see examples below) are consistently reinforced in
our educational, institutional, and governmental systems nationwide, despite the fact that there is evidence to
state otherwise. These are but a few examples; there are plenty more.
The idea of this book was, in part, a result of twelve years of teaching undergraduate and graduate students
and each year continuing to hear the same messages over and over again. As you read the chapters in this
ook, you will see that my colleagues have also experienced the same processes in their own lives and with
the students they teach. Let me also add that there are many colleagues of mine who similarly say things
such as, “Do we still really need to talk about multiculturalism?” It is dispiriting when I see a job listing go out
on a professionally run, public listserv seeking a bilingual Spanish-speaking therapist, and other mental health
professionals and students on the listserv make derogatory comments about the job listing. More importantly,
when a Latino colleague replies that he is offended and that the comments are racist, people on the listserv
attack his interpretation, minimize the importance of his comments, and assume that he—like many of us
who have no choice but to live and
eathe issues of race, ethnicity, and limited privilege and power—is
simply being i
ational and too sensitive. I am also deeply concerned when I sit in admissions committee
meetings (like those which take place all over the country) and hear my colleagues continue to highly value
and use “achievement tests” as the bar by which to measure a student's potential. I always wonder what
the admissions committees thought about my GRE scores? If our standard oppressive practices are truly
accurate, then I am not supposed to be where I am today. Do these tests accurately portray a student's
academic potential? Helms, Jernigan, and Mascher XXXXXXXXXXargue that they do not:
In lay society, imputing behavior to a person solely on the basis of the person's ascribed racial category is
called racial profiling. It is a practice that increasingly is being recognized as unjust. Yet in psychology, entire
content areas (e.g., high-stakes testing) rest on the belief that it is acceptable to use membership in a
itrary
acial categories to explain individualS' behaviors (e.g., test performance). A harmful consequence to society
of this practice is that scores on intellectual tests, for example, are used to make decisions about selection
and placement even though it is known that the test scores differentially favor or disfavor test takers assigned
to one racial category rather than another. Such usage strengthens racial stereotyping. (p. 35)
This practice deeply concerns me because I know many students from my own community are what I would
call academic hustlers. We may not have had the same educational background as many of our White peers,
ut we have learned how to survive and thrive in systems that continuously challenge the very core of who
we are intellectually, spiritually, and physically.
As I reflected on the intent of this book, it was clear to me that my intent was not to point the finger in any
one direction or talk extensively about what we are not doing. In fact, it was, and still is, quite the contrary
to these sentiments. I am deeply passionate about finding ways to heal pain, hurt, and misunderstanding,
and to collaboratively engage in creative and loving dialogue. This book is my effort to continue to push
our discussions, recenter our dialogues, and hopefully to build stronger, more respectful relationships in our
efforts to achieve a more just society for all. I am hoping that this book models dialogue that we can create
in our offices and classrooms, with family and friends, and, in particular, with those who challenge us the
most. I would like to see us walk hand in hand with one another more often. I chose the term cultural humility
simply because it fits with my worldview and who I am as an individual. It also reflects my own journey and
story, which I will share momentarily. I em
ace a critical consciousness and pedagogical lens in my work,
and it would not be fair for me to ask my colleagues and friends to tell their stories without my own willingness
to do the same. After all, we are learners in this journey toward cultural humility, in both theory and praxis.
Cultural humility has been defined as a lifelong process of self-reflection, self-critique, continual assessment
of power imbalances, and the development of mutually respectful relationships and partnerships (Tervalon
& Mu
ay-Garcia, XXXXXXXXXXWhile I value the essence of this definition, the decision to choose cultural humility
was much more personal. It not only captures a value that I think needs to be incorporated more in our
multicultural discussions, it also stems from my familial, cultural, religious, and spiritual identifications as a
Mexican American Catholic. Like several of my colleagueS'