Reflective Label for Voice Photo

COUNSELING

Counseling: Personal Cultural Analysis- PhotoVoice

Reflective Label/Caption to Each Photo Voice Photo

“Parents are next to God.”

Question 1

The individual who provided core support during my formative years was my grandfather since my parents divorced when I was very young, and I lived with my mother and grandparents at their house. My grandmother left us early as well, and soon after, I saw my mother’s demise. I was left with my grandfather, who took my education and upbringing’s responsibility. I was deeply attached to him as I used to talk and discuss every single matter of my life. We used to eat together where most of the time, I used to cook for him when I was old enough to deal with kitchen chores. It was I who then took care of his medicines as well. It seemed as if we were both dependent on each other and were at the phase of life where one could not live without the other’s support.

“Grandparents are some of the affectionate creatures that help make beautiful memories.”

“Showing the right path and where to look for what the person is finding is the best gift given by teachers.”

The individuals and attitudes that were different from my grandfather were those I saw in my school and college life. Even teachers belonged to diverse races, mostly African Americans that comprise the second largest diverse ethnic community in the US (Rosenthal et al., 2005). These teachers seemed closer to the family as they talked about their extended family and their assistance in home and life matters and had strong religious affiliations (Nguyen, Chatters & Taylor, 2016). This attitude appeared closer to my bond with my grandfather as we had close family ties and believed strongly in our spirituality. Whites were less likely to be dependent on their family ties as most of them lived separately after a certain age and went to Churches at a lower rate than African Americans (Pew Research Center, 2015). Being a White myself, I saw more connection with my African American teachers who had strong family ties and closed religious connections compared to my race.

Question 2

I did not align with the underserved populations since my family had access to every basic necessity of life, including education, healthcare, food security, etc. Research has shown that Whites have been privileged in these categories since Blacks and African Americans have been deprived of basic citizen rights due to their slavery background. In times of current modernism and technological advancement, the US still has not let go of the slightest racial discrimination that I see towards African Americans and Blacks. Being a White myself, I was not kept away from the healthcare, education, or job opportunities that I have seen in my surroundings for the ethnically diverse communities. Doctors are more available to Whites than the Blacks, and they are even seen paying more visits to emergency centers, displaying the fact that they are devoid of the healthcare access or healthy food that leads them to more illnesses (Moiduddin & Moore, 2008). Moreover, certain studies also suggest that underserved populations like lesbian, gay, bisexual, and any form of transgender have been victims of more chronic illness and disability symptoms along with substance abuse problems (Dispenza & Hunter, 2015), which I did not see in alignment with my community.

Question 3

My attitudes and values have changed towards the marginalized groups since I feel that they have an equal right over the citizen’s benefits that a government of any country should give. The stigma they feel from the marginalization from economic, educational, social, and cultural life existence is unmatched by the types of hardships they face all their lives (Sevelius et al., 2020). During my college days, one of the physically disabled students changed my perception towards the government’s facilitation for this underserved segment of the population as I had seen closely that the student belonged to the low, middle class and had very little access to the fine doctors who could help with his disability. He frequently discussed his problems with me as I was the only one close to him since the rest of the class students sided with him. Again, as I belonged to the White community, I never felt the need to act my White community members and disregard him. Rather, I went to him, sat with and understood his problems in which I felt that employment problems in his daily and less income caused him to suffer from getting a sound treatment for his disability (Wilkerson & Penn, 1938).

It is mandatory to reach such communities with an open approach and communication from the participants assigned to address their issues. Now is the high time when people who are suffering from traditional mindsets of slavery and marginalization had deep-rooted those attitudes and behaviors within our society to be changed so that acceptance of such underserved communities should be normalized. For this purpose, our schools and educational institutes should be the trendsetters so that small minds of our children should be given a seed of acceptance towards these communities and keep growing with an environment of freedom that should be provided to the ethnically diverse people along with segments of the populations that are not talked about publicly.