journal 11 (Lum text reading) Cultural Competence with African Americans

There is much diversity among the African American population in terms of origin, appearance, experiences with oppression, identity, demographic characteristics, residential patterns, social class, interpersonal styles, and patterns of functioning and lifestyles. It is essential to understand each of these aspects of diversity in order to effectively assess, intervene, and become involved in research and practice.

There is a continuum of competence proposed for practitioners of five ranges with African American people. 1. Cultural Destructiveness, refers to situations in which individuals exhibit attitudes and behaviors designed to crush or destroy a culture. This includes denying people who are often disempowered access to resources. 2. Culturally Incapacitated, in this practice you are not culturally destructive, yet may adhere to values and beliefs that perpetuate racist stereotypes of African Americans. This practitioner is likely to blame the victim. 3. Cultural Blindness; This refers to practitioners denying any differences between groups and assumes that practices used with the majority population, generally Whites, may work equally as well with African Americans. 4. Cultural Precompetence, recognizes their strengths as well as weaknesses in providing services to African Americans and seek to become more culturally sensitive and aware. 5. Culturally Competent Practitioner, openly expresses a commitment to diversity and obviously value diversity. For example, they recognize the impact of societal institutions and systemic factors that may lead to an increase in African American single-parent families rather than blaming the families or culture. This is my goal as a Social worker to be in this competence range of Culturally Competent.

There is a high poverty rate within the African American population mostly because there are a lot of single family homes run by mothers 35% who are poor and that would mean their children are poor as well. For over the last 5o years African American male unemployment rate has been over twice that of White males. They tend to start their own business for making money because they are unable to fit into the mainstream of employment with the dominant group.

There's also very negative attitudes towards homosexuality In the African American population causing many Lesbians and Gays to engage in self denial.

African Americans history is characterized by slavery and segregation and continued oppression. European Slave traders enslaved Africans to provide cheap labor to support the southern agricultural economy. They could not escape because they were very visible and could not blend in with their darker skin color. The women were also exploited sexually. Although some of them may have been freed from bondage they were never freed from oppression. The Emancipation Proclamation eventually freed the slaves in 1863, an estimated 20 million slaves lived in the United States at this time.

The abolition of slavery did little to alter the historically oppressive relationship between Blacks and Whites in the United States. The dehumanization of Blacks, justified by theories of inferiority and subhuman status, laid the groundwork for the economic, political, and social discrimination and oppression that characterized the post slavery era. The Jim Crow laws legalized segregation in such places as schools, restaurants, theaters, buses, cemeteries, funeral homes, water fountains, and restrooms. In the 1950's and 1960's were the civil rights movement to end discrimination and that led to the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Over the years , the struggle has continued for African Americans to be given equal access to housing , jobs, and educational opportunities. In recent years, efforts to redress past wrongs, such as affirmative action policies in higher education, have come under siege.

Skin color has played a huge form of oppression. Some African Americans have internalized this racist belief that characteristics associated with Whites are considered to be "good" as they are more "Whitelike" and thus may be more acceptable to Whites. Still today, those with more "Whitelike" characteristics are defined by many Blacks and Whites as more acceptable to Whites and therefore, may be given more opportunities.

Blacks were not only systematically oppressed during slavery, but they continue to suffer discrimination, Equal right for Blacks in the United States have always had to be fought for, and despite greater access and opportunities, Blacks still experience a great deal of discriminatory and oppressive attitudes and behaviors for the dominant White society. Legislative gains have been made, but it is impossible to legislate White attitudes.

Historically, many African Americans have been reluctant to seek help from social service agencies for a variety of reasons stemming from a distrust of society due to the history of institutional racism and discrimination. "Both consciously and unconsciously, racism is enforced and maintained by the legal, cultural, religious, educational, economic, political, environmental and military institutions of societies. Racism is more than just a personal attitude; it is the institutionalized form of that attitude."

One of the most blatant forms of oppression was the enslavement of African Americans in the United States, which was followed by legalized segregation. These racist practices have negatively impacted the economic and social lives of African Americans and therefore must be acknowledged in considering the social service needs of this population



.