Multicultural psychology: theories and applications

Multicultural Psychology

I grew up in a place where everyone looked like me. The predominant ethnicity was European-American and there were at times no other representation of another population -- ethnically speaking. When I finally moved away to go to college I was then introduced to many different types of people -- from different racial backgrounds, different socioeconomic levels, and different cultures, in general. As a child, I never had the ability to really form a perception of others that were different from me because I didn't see it. I grew up at a time when there was also very little on television representing something other than what was the norm for me -- white families -- with the exception of "The Cosby Show." This show represented an African-American family that was upper-middle class with the father as a doctor and the mother as a lawyer. In watching this show as a kid, I enjoyed the show and at times related to it, but usually not. I didn't relate to them because I didn't see myself in them. However, I did not judge them as human beings and I did not think that it represented African-Americans in a way that was different from white Americans. I just didn't think about it is the point. Because of this "not thinking about it," I may have been a bit sheltered in terms of not recognizing the issue of race in this country. I guess you could say that my earliest exposure to people who were different from me was on "The Cosby Show." Perhaps this is precisely what the show's creators were trying to achieve. Perhaps they were trying to say, "Look, we're no different from you. We have good families, good jobs, we work hard, and we love our lives."

My earliest thinking in about people, in general, was that I assumed that everyone had the same opportunities in this country, and that America was the "land of the free," the "home of the brave," and that anyone could achieve the "American Dream." I am realizing more and more, however, that the American Dream is a dream that is not available to all. In order to attain the American Dream, one has to have opportunities -- and privilege even -- and not everybody has that (far from it).

My belief about culturally different groups is that they are not all treated equally though we are all created equally. Race is a construct that we have created in order to compartmentalize people. There are stereotypes that go along with these constructs that, unfortunately, are what keeps certain groups oppressed. There are groups of people that are oppressed not because they are less than or because they are "lazy" (as some might want to believe), but because there is an oppressor -- the people with privilege. For those of us with privilege, it is important to understand that though we may not have asked for that privilege, we use these privileges every single day.

I am not the most knowledgeable about the values, practices, and experiences of individuals who are culturally different from myself, but I am trying to learn by opening myself up to new ways of thinking. Though I was not raised in an ethnically diverse environment, I can now choose to expose myself to experiences that will bring me into contact with individuals from other cultures. Because I am in a program that is all about exposing ourselves to people whom are different from us and confronting our own biases, I feel that I am quickly and readily becoming more and more knowledgeable -- not only of different values and practices but of the ways in which the majority chooses to close their eyes to these differences. In closing our eyes to these differences, we are saying that others should be like us, that we are blind to the uniqueness of another person. I don't like the term "color-blind" (though it is often used as a positive term) because it is "white-washing" everyone. It is saying that I don't care what you look like or what your personal characteristics say about you. I choose to not see you. "While the color-blind approach is based on an attempt to reduce inequities, social psychologists have provided evidence that a color-blind approach does not, in fact, lead to equitable treatment across groups" (AUTHOR, YEAR).