I have written a few posts about the effects of prior, earlier American racism on African American psychology and how that interacts currently with White preconceptions resulting in a “game without end,” so that common ground is difficult to establish. I’ve been quite clear in saying that despite much progress, there is still a fair amount of both implicit and explicit racism in society, especially in the criminal justice system.
The usual
criticism I get when I write about racism from certain people is that as a
white person I have no business opining about such things because I haven’t had
the personal experiences that Black people have. (In some circles people also
say all whites are responsible for systemic racism, as if tribalism isn’t a
major influence all over the world on everyone, but that’s another story).
Well, while it’s
true I haven’t experienced certain things personally, such experiences as
personal observations, reading different black writers, seeing black patients
in psychotherapy, and gaining knowledge of common psychological processes such
as the intergenerational transfer of trauma do not count for nothing. If that
were true, therapists would never be able to help anyone who was not a personal clone who had never left their sides and were treated the same way by everyone
they came in contact with.
Janee M. Steele,
Ph.D a black author, wrote a book called Racism and African American
Mental Health: Using Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Empower Healing. She was
interviewed by Judith Beck, daughter of CBT founder Aaron Beck, and she said a
few things that are highly consistent with my viewpoint.
Steele is s a
cognitive behavioral therapist, so I would assume she doesn’t do genograms on
her patients to uncover the history of a patient's family's past family trauma. Therefore, she may not know all of
the implications of her ideas.
She describes a
Black woman patient of hers who had significant performance anxiety at work,
especially while being observed by her bosses and fellow (white) workers. She
told the author she was concerned about being falsely labeled with racist
stereotypes. Ms. Steele picked up on the fact that at least some of her anxiety
was that these concerns were being attributed to stereotype threat rather than
personal deficits.
Although Ms. Steele didn’t say this specifically, it sounded as if the patient had, as of yet, no actual experience with racist attitudes at the job. Furthermore, she was a good employee. While I agree with Ms. Steele that she should be cognizant of stereotype threats at work, and that a sense of powerlessness and internalized anti-Black attitudes may be a factor, I’m not certain the author knows some important ideas about how that may play out.
I have two questions. Why would
her patient ever consider any racist comments to be a valid description of her
abilities? She knows very well what she can do. Second, if she were to have
such an experience, why
couldn’t she just say in her mind to the offender (or even out loud
if there would probably be no other consequences), “f*** off, you ignorant
a-hole,” and then go about her business.
These issues are
relatively common in minority communities, but are particularly prevalent among
African Americans. It makes sense, however, that being overly anxious about
doing this may have come about because of fears of her family for several
generations of being “uppity,” which in the not-too-distant past could literally get you killed. Even
though lynching is not a big issue any more, children can be confused about how
much of their intrinsic abilities it would be wise to exhibit even now.
Furthermore, these feeling engender a sense of mistrust of other people that
may adversely affect their relationships.
The author goes
into detail about internalized racism and resultant self-hatred and the
devaluation of other Black people. These “core beliefs” result in feelings of
inadequacy, powerlessness, and self-blaming. With the above client, she asks
about her opinions about racial stereotypes. How did she learn them? Where did
they come from? She blamed them on her treatment during her elementary school experiences
and the portrayal of Black people on TV. But why should she start to seem to
believe some of the stereotypes when they were not true.
To further add
to my point, she apparently never mentioned what she learned about racism from her
parents and other family members, and their childhood experiences
and feeling ashamed of themselves. (They were often ashamed of their being
powerless, not of their inherent capabilities). The CBT approach to her was to
change the patient’s opinions about black people without invalidating her
experiences. A worthy goal indeed.
In the
interview, Steele talks about problems experienced by white therapists working
with black people. There can be discomfort due to the white folk’s apathy,
guilt, and vulnerability. But couldn’t plain old ignorance also be an
issue? The author does mention a fear of inadvertently saying something rude or
potentially offensive. And there is no mention of therapists who may have a
relative lack of understanding of race issues facing a patient who doesn’t
trust them to begin with – leading to the game without end mentioned in a
previous post.
The author then
goes on to talk about the underutilization of mental health services by Black
people. She mentions something one of my own black patients told me: people in
that patient’s church discouraging use of therapists and saying these folks
just need to pray harder.
As the author
correctly points out, there may very well be denial of racism by white people
who are covertly promoting anti-Black attitudes and discrimination. But it can
also be due to inexperience dealing with a variety of other cultures including
Blacks with no ulterior motives at all. Just ignorance. Certain sectors in
American society seemingly deny that there has been any racial progress at all,
even during and after the civil rights movement.
A patient should
try to keep an open mind about a therapist until they actually do or say
something overtly racist.
