Multicultural Psychology. Jennifer T. Pedrotti
your racial identity, or does the combination mean something different? Instead of just belonging to one group in one facet, we all have multiple cultural identity facets, and the combinations of these also lead to different life experiences and attitudes. For example, someone who identifies as a lower-socioeconomic, White, gay man may have a very different day-to-day experience from a heterosexual, African American, wealthy woman. Consider the following excerpt from “Theresa,” who is talking about her experience as an Asian American woman in a business environment.
Some of my colleagues expect me to be quieter than the men sometimes, and I was trying to explain this to my male friend who is also Asian. I’m not a very quiet person and so I think sometimes people look surprised when I speak up so quickly. He said, “But I’ve never had that reaction to me when I speak, and I hear Helen speak up fairly often and it doesn’t seem like the men have the same reaction to her when she is louder. So it can’t really be race or gender then, right? Maybe it’s your personal issue?” I had to explain that as an Asian American woman, there are different stereotypes about me being passive or quiet in general, and that this is different from Helen who is African American, though also a woman. They seem to accept that she will be loud, and I think a lot of that is based on stereotypes. And my friend, as a man who is also Asian, gets a different reception as well. They don’t seem to expect him to be as quiet. It’s complicated when it’s all mixed up. I have to act differently to be heard the same way.
—Theresa, age 43
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In the vignette above, Theresa is trying to explain that it’s a combination of gender and race that dictates at least in part how her colleagues are responding to her. As someone who is Asian and also female, Theresa’s experience is different from the experiences of those who share just her race or just her gender. Identity is complex. Therefore, understanding the different facets and pieces of identity is also a complex process. Knowing someone’s identity statuses in some of the areas Hays discusses may help us to begin to understand some parts of another person who is different from us in some way. This is by no means an exhaustive list or description, but this model helps us to identify and organize understanding of some identity facets and sets the stage for us to begin to talk about intersections between these identities as well.
It is important for us to rely on accurate information, however, in beginning to think about various identities and their intersections. Stereotyping, which has often happened to disenfranchised or historically underrepresented individuals in the past, can create unidimensional understandings of others who are unlike us in some way, and this can too easily lead to labeling and negative judgement about differences.
Your Journey Into Multicultural Psychology
We invite you, as you begin to read these pages, to take on what might be a different perspective for you: the realization that almost all of what you experience, think, and believe is a function of your cultural beliefs and identities. It can be daunting to realize that all you know is subjective, but it can also be exciting.
Some of you are embarking on a new journey right now—this may feel like uncharted territory for you. Perhaps you’re someone who hasn’t been exposed to very many people who are different from you or whose family didn’t talk about race or culture much growing up. Sometimes people who have had these types of experiences have a hard time hearing about race in general or find it difficult to understand some of the experiences had by those from different cultures. Knowing this now and trying to move past these obstacles will be important for you. For others of you, you’ve had many experiences with people who are different from you, or maybe you’ve experienced some issues related to race, ethnicity, or other cultural facets yourself. The information in this book may not be as new to you, but it may provide you some different insights or some terms and theory to explain things you or people you know have experienced in the past. The study of multicultural psychology is rich, nuanced, and vast. There is something new for all of you to learn regardless of where you are now. At the end of this chapter, we’ll help you to assess your current levels of awareness, knowledge, and skills and give you some ideas of where to start using the new knowledge you are accruing. This may help you to get the most out of this book.
We encourage you to open your mind wide as you read these pages. Turn the ideas presented here over (and over) in your mind. Look at them critically, and expand your understanding. This willingness to work toward true competence and understanding in this area is the key to becoming a more culturally aware individual. There are many benefits to becoming more culturally aware, as you will learn in the following chapters, but perhaps the best reason of all is that it opens your life to a broader overall experience. Being able to understand things from multiple perspectives in addition to your own vantage point, and broadening your knowledge and skills of all different groups of people, makes for a rich life.
A Brief Overview of the Book’s Organization
We have broken this textbook into several sections. We’ve started with Section I: “What Is Multicultural Psychology?” in this chapter, and in the rest of this section we will cover where multicultural psychology is as a field and how our current climate both influences and is influenced by the study of multiculturalism. We’ll also take a look backward to our history to allow us to see how we have arrived at the conclusions and ideas we support today. Section II: “Individuals and Their Contexts” will ask you to take a look at yourself and others through the lenses you use to view the world. We’ll start by talking about culture and worldview and the impact these concepts can have on what we view as “normal” or “abnormal.” Next we will discuss identity development with regard to race, sexuality, and other social facets. Models will be presented to help explicate the ways in which our various identity facets, and their intersections, influence our interactions, our day-to-day experiences, and our understandings of ourselves and others. Following this we will start to address the impact context has on us as individuals. Concepts such as racism, oppression, power, privilege, and stereotyping influence our lives in different ways depending on our identities and our place in the world. One strong influence on context, and how we see it, is our media, and unpacking the impact of differing images and prototypes will start out Section III: “Lived Experiences and Social Influences.” Following this contextual piece, we will detail experiences and issues commonly shared by those who identify as people of color, and those who identify as biracial or multiracial. In Section IV, “Moving Ahead: Emerging Issues and Goals,” we will detail how some of the concepts learned might be utilized and experienced in different settings. Here, too, we will take some time to dream a bit, looking toward the future and encouraging you to do the same.
Conclusion
It is our belief, and one we share with many others in the field of psychology today, that culture counts. It must be taken into consideration in any discussion where we are talking about people, and as psychology is the study of people, it is particularly important in our field. In reading this book, we hope you will gain new perspectives and new understandings that will help you to shake the field’s pillars and begin to see the world through different eyes.
We would now like to talk with you about how to use this book in general. Reading helps us to develop knowledge and understanding, but by itself it can only produce internal change. We are looking to help you to make actual change in your life and in the lives of others around you, to assist you in taking steps toward making your world a more socially just environment. Therefore, we finish each chapter with a series of self-reflection opportunities and make suggestions as to actions you might try to carry out each week. In the following pages you will find additional material that will help you to process some of the information you learned in this chapter. We hope you will take advantage of the media clips, self-tests, and activities we suggest.
As we said before, you are about to embark upon a journey. Thinking critically about your own experiences and how they might differ from the experiences of others will be crucial to having a greater understanding of the theories, facts, and