I was naïve in much of my early career in thinking that fit only encapsulated a mutual level of passion for working with college students between myself and my colleagues. I thought we were all cut from the same cloth. I had a strong desire to support all students in learning about and supporting diverse gender identities and sexualities because of the hardships I faced as an undergraduate student at a small, historically Black college in Mississippi. I overcame the discrimination, microaggressions, and bullying to be able to stand in my truth without bitterness towards those in my past, and I brought myself to each of my roles. I never knew that the same battles I had been fighting for students would face me again in my career. My parents …show more content…
I had big plans for programs, policy changes, community builders, and networking. I started to discuss my ideas with my colleagues and supervisor, but I quickly noticed that although my supervisor sang praises for me she would give me a "oh, that's cute" look when I would discuss the queer and trans communities. Things quickly started to deteriorate as I challenged some of the customs in the office in regards to language used when discussing White people or senior leaders on campus. I never would co-sign on these comments, especially noting that we had White staff members who were equally part of our office. Less than six months into my role, I found myself struggling for my values of inclusion, social justice, and intersectionality to match those of the other members in my office. Things continued to become strained as a colleague came to me to discuss how I felt I was fitting into the office dynamics and the need for our office to focus more attention on students of color exclusively versus queer and trans students. I knew my supervisor had put my colleague up to this, and she would soon make her voice heard. During one of our one-on-one meetings, she specifically said, "Devin, when you walk into a room, people don't see you as queer. People see you as Black. So I want you to focus more on supporting Black students and students of color." I was dumbfounded because these demands were not articulated in my job description or interview process, and I had created my department to focus on gender and sexuality inclusive of the other social and personal intersections of identity. Although I am Black and queer and equally proud of my identities, I realized that I could not be a Black queer man in this environment. My queerness was not welcomed, and I had to learn to fight for visibility. More unfortunate situations arose, and I reached my
Throughout history, there have been various perspectives of multicultural differences. According to Meriam Webster (n.d.), culture is “the beliefs, customs, arts, institutions, and the thoughts or products of a particular society or group.” Unfortunately, African Americans, Native Americans, Italians, Irish, Jews as well as various other cultural groups have been profoundly discriminated against and negatively stereotyped (Good Therapy org.). With the frequent mingling of cultures in educational settings, the workplace, and in the social arena, we are bound to encounter cultural differences.
In this article, Byars-Winston and Fouad, seeks to assess the importance of cultural factors and their impact on multicultural value of career counseling from the perspective of a counselor. The authors further examine the Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling Model and offer an expansion of the model through incorporating metacognitive processes. Culture is believed to play a significant role in one’s career decision making but the extent to which it does remains unknown. It is therefore imperative that career counselors try to understand
There is arguably no group that has faced more discrimination in modern society than queer people of color. Although often pushed together into a single minority category, these individuals actually embrace multiple racial and sexual identities. However, they suffer from oppression for being a part of both the ethnic minority and queer communities. As a result, members are abused, harassed, and deprived of equal civil rights in social and economic conditions (Gossett). In response to the multiple levels of discrimination they face in today’s society, queer people of color have turned to the establishment and active participation of support organizations, resources, and policies to advocate for overall equality.
an experience I had earlier this year in a diversity seminar that was held on my job. We had a
Briefly describe your previous experiences/interactions in multicultural environments, both in schools (as a K-12 student or as a visitor) and personally (other experiences). How have your previous experiences helped to prepare you for working with students from multicultural backgrounds?
In its simplest definitions, the concept of multiculturalism having its roots in theories of cultural pluralism and diversity, can be defined as a normative response to manage the challenges arising from the ever growing multicultural make up of urban population caused by immigration or de facto plurality of cultures in both plural and mono cultural societies. The challenges of multicultural urban societies have been attributed to the politics of cultural differences characterized by the difference in value system of dominant mono cultural groups and specific communities containing multiple ethnicities and, also finding possible ways to co-exist among such differences. The politics of difference is largely reflected in sharing and constitution
Working in an oppressed work environment is challenging not only subjective to oppression by the dominant white workers but witnessed co-workers being victimized. These incidents happened in a health care environment. The staff complement consists of twelve nurses including one Aboriginal native nurse, one black nurse myself, and one male French Canadian nurse. A white female manager completes the complement. The manager who has worked for this heath care for twenty years brought the facility ways how to manage staff and coordinate the facility. One of my manager’s mandates is to have a diverse staff complement.
I conducted an interview with Barbara Schauland, MS, Rehabilitation Counselor, Branch Office Manager, regarding her experiences working with culturally diverse clients in the field of vocational rehabilitation. Ms. Schauland has been employed with the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services for five and a half years. During her time with the agency she has worked as a general field counselor serving adult population, as a specialized counselor working with the deaf and hard of hearing, and now is a branch office manager. Ms. Schauland supervises ten Rehabilitation Counselors, three Rehabilitation Service Associates (para-professionals) and one Office Assistant. During the interview Ms. Schauland was
The modern American workplace has become culturally diverse as different immigrant communities increased in size. According to the US Department of Immigration, 148,426 immigrants received their residency in 2011 in New York. Because of the increased workplace diversity, businesses have to deal with a variety of cultural awareness and multiple language issues. These are very pressing issues in New York City, the “melting pot” of cultures from all over the world. Each workplace in New York City has at least one employee of a non-American background or a bilingual employee.
As we go about our daily lives in the beautiful country of Canada which we have been blessed to live in, it has become normal to see a woman who wears the hijab walking down the street, or a Black family driving on the highway, or an Indian man wearing a suit and tie heading into the office. Canada’s cultural diversity is something which makes the country so special to live in, and instances where we see people of different cultures is increasing everyday. Many of the newcomers who arrive from overseas into Canada are families, with children and youth ready to begin their new life filled with opportunity here in Canada. However, youth who settle in Canada with their families aren’t exempted from the trials and tribulations youth face. In fact,
The term racism means inequity or injustice based on race. It can also be the principle that talks about the differences in human personality or capacity and that a specific race is absolute to others. This can be as a result of language, traditions and customs, or any feature that the person possesses. The idea of racism has been in existence in the history of humans for a very long time. For the past years, racism of westerners towards those who are not from that region has had more impact than any other type of racism. The most well-known instance of racism that occurred in the West was enslaving Africans. One vital feature of racism, particularly concerning the
Adapting a multicultural perspective includes maintaining a unique understanding of one’s own cultural background and biases, and continuously striving to work through them. In the article, “White Professors teaching About Racism: Challenges and Rewards,” Smith and colleagues sought to address the challenges that white educators face when instructing multicultural courses, and to provide them with useful techniques to incorporate into their educational pedagogies. These challenges stem from their racial class orientation and can be summarized as fitting into one of three categories: (a) multiculturalism perfectionism, (b) multicultural impostor syndrome, and (c) multicultural projections (Smith, Kashubeck-West, Payton1, & Adams, 2017). Together
The thing about multicultural education that surprised me the most was how much opposition there is to multicultural education. I would think, by now, people would be able to see how unbalanced the current educational curriculum is and welcome the inclusion of aspects from other cultures. I have read arguments ranging from, multicultural education is inherently racist to multicultural education promotes Islam and is indoctrinating our youth with terrorist ideas. Like most hot button issues in this country, people in positions of power will use everything possible, including fear-mongering, to further their agenda.
We need to be aware of the diversity in the classroom. Cultural diversity includes: bi-racial, adoptive, immigrant, gay, and step-families. It is a large majority of the students today even in my generation. Focusing on making a balanced curriculum that exposes the students to all of these different backgrounds is very important. I know that it is likely that a teacher will not be able to cater to every student, but it is important to involve each of them. There is a large percentage of students that have dropped out due to the lack of having a connection with the curriculum. It is frustrating that we are lacking progress in our schools to help these children connect when studies show that each cultural group will soon be equal in numbers. We need to form a better
...that school officials can be held responsible if they fail to take steps to protect gay and lesbian students from antigay harassment. The changing educational climate has created a need for school leaders to identify tools, and strategies and programs that will enhance the success of all students. The decision making process used by administration also impacts how other in the organization view them (Dalton, 2006).