Transcript Institutional “Isms” and Internalized Oppression

Addressing Diversity Related Issues
with Management
Institutional “Isms” and Internalized
Oppression
Dr. Willie C. Fleming, Facilitator
Focus on Diversity
• From UNC-TV
– NC has grown beyond its historical legacy of Blacks and
Whites who were either Baptist or Southern Baptist
– Today any main street in the state bursts with a mosaic of
cultures, peoples and languages
– Southerners, northerners and people from hundreds of
countries live amongst native North Carolinians, all
claiming North Carolina as their home.
Appropriate Interactions Within
Culturally Diverse Populations
• One must consider:
– Race
– Ethnicity
– Culture
– Values
Historical Perspective
• Discrimination, Prejudice & Racism At The
Office And Workplace / Historic Film / Movie
Video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chwgMlS9
Qqk&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=
PLB6298B95A94C3517
Historical Mistrust of Majority Culture
• Historically, cultural injustices have mitigated
access to good mental health care for women
and other minority groups in the work place.
• It is important, that managers monitor their
own cultural biases and emotional responses
by staying focused on the employee, using
support systems as needed.
Professional Responsibility
• Professionals have professional, legal and ethical
responsibilities to ensure equity (justice and fair
play) regarding diversity and multicultural issues
in the workplace, to the best of their ability.
• If one does not possess “self-cultural awareness”
(i.e. biases, prejudices, impositions of cultural
values and discrimination) it is possible to do
damage, to the detriment of their employee’s
professional aspirations.
What Is EAP?
• An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a
worksite resource for organizations designed
to enhance employee health and productivity
through prevention, identification, and
resolution of personal and family problems
that might interfere with work.
• “Interfere with work”
• How would cultural and diversity issues
“interfere with one’s work?”
What Is EAP?
• EAPs provide employees with access to
confidential and professional assistance when
they need it. When employees recognize a
concern and access their EAP, the EAP can help
resolve concerns and prevent problems in the
workplace.
• When problems do appear on the job, EAPs help
supervisors and managers work with employees
to address the problems, seek and receive
appropriate counseling or treatment, and return
to work with renewed productivity.
Issues Related To:
• Race, ethnicity, gender, and religion
Concerns for employees
• EAP offers services that help individuals resolve
problems that can interfere with health and
productivity on the job.
• Emotional (Stress, Depression, Anxiety)
• Couples and Relationships
• Alcohol and Drug Problems
• Family Difficulties
• Eldercare
• Financial and Legal
• Health
Diversity Concern
• What are some concerns “The New Girl” will
probably encounter?
• Place this in modern day society.
Diversity Concerns
• There are different levels of racism that the
New Girl will encounter.
– Personal, Interpersonal, institutional, cultural and
modern racism (today)
More about all of these later in the presentation
(second half)
Appropriate Interactions Within
Culturally Diverse Populations
• RACE
– Defined differently in different places (tribe,
religion, caste, height, etc.
– In the USA: biological and anatomical attributes
and functions such as skin color, facial features,
and hair texture
– A flawed definition!
Race
a) Differential sociopolitical and economic
socialization.
b) Biogenetic psychological characteristics
inferred from the presence of observable
“signs” commonly assumed to be racial
c) Differential cultural socialization.
–
–
the practice of racial classification by biological
characteristics is practically impossible.
has been used to denote geno-typical
homogenous human groupings
Nichols Philosophical Aspects of
Cultural Differences
Ethnic Group/World View
• European/Euro American
• African, Afro-American,
Native American,
Hispanics, Arabs
• Asian, Asian American,
Polynesian
• Native American
Axiology-the highest value
• Member –Object, the
acquisition of the object
• Member-Member, value
in interpersonal
relationship
• Member Group, value in
cohesive group
• Member-Great Spirit,
oneness with the Great
Spirit
Nichols Philosophical Aspects of
Cultural Differences
Ethnic Group/World View
• European/Euro
American
• African, Afro-American,
Native American,
Hispanics, Arabs
• Asian, Asian American,
Polynesian
• Native American
Espitemology
• Cognition, one knows
through counting
• Affective, One knows
through symbolic
imagery and rhythm
• Conative, One knows
through striving toward
the transcendence
Nichols Philosophical Aspects of
Cultural Differences
Ethnic Group/World View
• European/Euro American
• African, Afro-American,
Native American,
Hispanics, Arabs
• Asian, Asian American,
Polynesian
• Native American
Logic
• Dichotomous, Either/Or
• Diunital, the union of
opposites
• Nyaya, the objective
world is conceived
independent of thought
and mind. (It is what it is)
Ethnicity
• Ethnicity is about race, origin, characteristics,
and institutions (customs, language, etc.)
– Religion, nationality, and region
– A sharing of specific cultural patterns that over
time creates a common history
Culture
• Culture is about the behavior, beliefs, and
values of a group of people who are brought
together by their commonality.
• A set of beliefs, assumptions, and values,
widely shared by a group, that structures
behavior of group members from birth until
death.
Culture
– Ways in which people perceive experiences of the world so
as to give it structure.
– Beliefs by which people explain events
– Set of principles for dealing with people as well as for
accomplishing particular ends.
– Value systems for establishing purposes and keeping
themselves purposely oriented.
– Dynamic construct that includes the values, beliefs, and
behaviors of people who have lived together in particular
geographic areas for at least 3 or 4 generations.
Culture
• Cultural beliefs/actions are associated with
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Age
Gender
Family
Roles within the family
Child rearing practices
Religion and spiritual beliefs
SES
Life Experiences
Culture- sum total of ways of living,
including:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Values
Beliefs
Esthetic standards
Linguistic expression
Patterns of thinking
Behavioral norms
Styles of communication
which a group of people has developed to assure its
survival in a particular environment.
Values
• A standard that people use to assess themselves
and others. A widely held belief about what is
worthwhile, desirable, or important for wellbeing.
• Values that one culture views as positive may be
considered undesirable or threatening in another.
• Simply exposing clients to a new idea or practice
will not automatically result in adoption if that
idea or practice conflicts with their values.
Part Two
• Addressing Diversity Related Issues with
Management
Institutional “Isms” and Internalized
Oppression
Assumptions and Definitions
• Ethnicity: a group set apart from others
because of its national origin or distinctive
cultural patterns.
• Oppression:
Oppression=prejudice x power
Prejudice is maintaining incorrect conscious or
unconscious attitudes, feelings, and beliefs,
about members of a cultural group as inferior
or that a group’s cultural differences are
unacceptable
Assumptions
1) Oppression in this country has occurred historically
by the targeting of some groups as “less than”. In the
case of racial oppression, for example, whites have
been able to practice racism as they have had and
continue to have the economic, social, and political,
power to institutionalize this view relative to people
of color.
2) Sexism, ageism, and classism are examples of
additional forms of systemic oppression. That is,
specific groups are systematically “targeted” as less
than or different because of their gender, age,
sexual/affectional orientation, role, or job status.
Definitions
• World View- the way an individual perceives
his or her relationship to the world (i.e.,
nature, other people, animals, institutions,
objects, the cosmos, their creator). A person’s
world view is influenced by one’s memories,
expectations, assumptions, beliefs, attitudes,
values, interests, past experiences, strong
feelings, and prejudices.
Definitions, continued
• Discrimination- the behavioral manifestation of
prejudice involving the limitation of opportunities and
options based on a particular criterion (i.e., race, sex,
age, class).
• Modern Racism- suggests that the character of racial
prejudice in America has changed. Many people
currently use non-race related reasons to continue to
deny blacks equal access to opportunity.
• Internalized Oppression- the internalization of
conscious or unconscious attitudes regarding inferiority
or differences by the victims of systematic oppression.
Modern Racism
and
Internalized Oppression
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Modern Racism
Internalized Oppression
Dysfunctional Rescuing
Blaming the victim
Avoidance of differences
Denial of differences
Denial of the political
significance of differences
1. System beating
2. Blaming the system
3. Anti-white; avoidance of
contact
4. Denial of cultural
differences
5. Lack of understanding of
political significance of
racial oppression.
Mistrust Issues
• *Historically, racism, and injustice have mitigated
access to good mental health care for Black
people. The Black therapist may identify with the
marginalization her client’s experience.
• *The therapist may find it difficult to be apart of
the systems that do not always allow access for
Black clients. It is important, then to monitor her
own emotional responses and stay focused on
the client, using support systems as needed.