“Emotional Roadblocks on the Road to Cultural Competence”

Program Transcript

NARRATOR: The roundtable participants continue their discussion in this program, by speaking to the issue of emotional roadblocks. That is, feelings and emotions that serve as barriers or road blocks on the road to cultural competence.

DERALD WING SUE: If we’re to change the nature of how mental health is practiced, we’ve got to overcome emotional role blocks that many people seem to engage in when we present our research findings or ideas.

When I’m teaching a course on multicultural psychology, or one on awareness of racial, sexist, homophobic, students get angry at me sometimes. And my student evaluations decrease as a result of talking about this. But the worst thing that I think, is that the emotive reactions block them from seeing what is going on. What are some of the emotional roadblocks that you’ve experienced?

THOMAS A. PARHAM: I think one of the things I see is a profound sense of defensiveness. Because an assault on any kind of traditional theory is oftentimes perceived as an assault on them and their culture– the them, the students.

But I also see it mixed with a level of tension. Because to the degree that you have a multicultural class, you can have different pockets, where in one pocket it’ll be like, hmm, with the resistance. And another pocket will be the validation, like, yes, that’s what I’ve been meaning to say. But I just couldn’t find the words the way you just articulated, Dr. Sue.

MARIE L. MIVILLE: I have to say, I really like that phrase “emotional roadblocks” because I think all students are on a path to learning. And when they experience those emotional road blocks– I still remember my very first year teaching a multicultural counseling class. And I was out in the Midwest in mostly white classes, and students felt free to share all sorts of beliefs that still shocked me that they still believed these things.

And I had a wonderful colleague who was something of a mentor to me. And she was like, well, Marie, when students are that open about racist beliefs and thoughts, use that. Utilize that. Because that’s what you call a teachable moment. It’s better than if they feel not free to say those things, hide them. Because that road block is even that much more difficult to uncover and get through.

So it’s a learning process for me as a teacher, actually, to listen to things that students today. And to put them in the developmental perspective. And that’s why I really like that term, emotional roadblock. Because it reflects more that

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developmental approach that I think is important to think about. And that, it’s not just the students that are on a developmental path. It’s teachers as well.

And how we handle those moments, wherever we are in our own development, is so critical to whether or not those students find a way through, around, and so on, those roadblocks.

TERESA LAFROMBOISE: I also think, with it being from a developmental perspective, it takes a long time. And having also taught in the Midwest a multicultural course that was required– that was the first time I’d ever taught it when it was required. And that was really very difficult. Because students were there that didn’t want to be there, necessarily.

And I would sometimes have a student call me before class and say, it’s getting time for class, and my headache is starting again. And because–

DERALD WING SUE: I’ve heard that too.

TERESA LAFROMBOISE: But, that’s only one course. And then I would hear from other faculty, because we had this sort of emphasis within the program. And so this would be woven throughout other courses. And I’d here two or three semesters down the line, that student who was suffering with migraines, is now one of the strongest advocates. But it took more than one course, more than one faculty, and also looking at it from so many different points of view.

MARIE L. MIVILLE: That’s right. It’s going to be way more than one course that can really facilitate these road blocks to be moved. I think one course can be absolutely critical in opening up a lot of things. And even to acknowledge, gee, I think I might have these roadblocks. We come up with roadblocks in a variety of ways. Things happen to us that are important for us to process. And so that’s what makes it so life-long.

DERALD WING SUE: Yeah. And it’s really– I think all four of us have taught these courses on multiculturalism. And so, in some ways, we have a commitment to it. We’ve learned from our experience how to deal with the emotional reactions to the content and the process of what we’re delivering. It’s what we call, facilitating difficult dialogues on race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Why is it so difficult for people to honestly dialogue about race? That has been the question that we’ve asked and looked at in terms of the literature. And what we have found, in terms of research, is that people have difficulty dialoguing on race. And it brings up all these strong feelings of anger, defensiveness, guilt, feelings of hopelessness, the whole gamut impairs them.

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But what I find, is that a lot of people in training are fearful of dialoguing on race. Because whatever they say or do, it’s going to be seen as being racist by either the professor or other people in class.

But I think it goes even deeper than that. I think the fear that’s so well defended– and these emotions serve to ward it off– is at the level that at some point they realize that they are racist. That they do have biases.

Now I know students and trainees will get real upset when I say something like, all people have biases, prejudices. All white people are racist. But I think that the level below appearing racist is, it is so hard to acknowledge that you are. Because it shatters the image– the self-esteem, the self-concept of you– as a good moral, decent individual.

And then the third level I think happening with a lot of people, is that if you do get to the point where you acknowledge the biases, then the question is, what do you do about it? Doing something about it may alter the very nature of how you interact and relate to people.

If you hear a racist joke by a family member, are you going to– the threat is to keep you in place by, in some sense, family members saying, you’re no longer the Derald that I know. Why can’t you keep family harmony? After all, this is your Uncle Jim that said it. You should be more– all of those things keep a lot of people from really doing something about it.

THOMAS A. PARHAM: When you talk about emotional barriers, I think that clearly is a more complex one. Because it relies so much on social validation. And if the social context does not change enough that allows them to get proper feedback, to get reinforced, to get affirmed about confronting the racist, the sexist, the homophobe, the classist, then they’re much more comfortable sitting in their silo, comfortable in the idea that, I know this exists, but less willing to step out there. Because now it’s not just a function of their own personal comfort zone. It really is an assault on their particular comfortable space. And I think students really run through that too.

But it also parallels, really, why it is I think the students even feel some of the emotional barriers that you talked about earlier. One of those I see them experience is a sense of loss. And the loss for students, to me, is quite pronounced. Some of them experienced a loss of place like, what is my position in this space? And so now we’re learning theories that don’t somehow look like me.

So now the white students in the room begin to think like the one black student, and the one Latino student, and the 1/2 of– an American Indian student you can find in the demographic, and the five women and the other folks who’ve been hanging out on the margins all the time when they’re the only person in class.

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I think they also lose a sense of position, in the sense that the dominant theories have always been the positions that are in control. And when you start putting together counter theories to say, well, let me set this aside a minute and reintroduce or introduce different conceptual paradigms. That’s a loss of position about being the dominant theme.

MARIE L. MIVILLE: And I think that’s precisely what makes it so challenging for a lot of white students, or if you have some kind of majority status, to give it up. Because what is there to gain if you lose your position? So I think that is truly the struggle that students are– any of us looking at our isms– sexism, racism, sexism– need to look at is, what are we willing to give up?

There’s a lot to gain. Everyone around this table knows that. But there’s also people– the roadblock that they face is, what am I going to lose? What am I going to sound like at my next family reunion? And where do I get the support in society for that?

THOMAS A. PARHAM: Part of what is, I think, also incumbent upon us to teach them, however, is the emotional struggle that they move through in bouncing off both their own newly found insights against the social context that includes family and programs and jobs, et cetera, is exactly what it is they’re going to have to navigate for their clients, and help their clients when they struggle with that as well.

And so, if we can get them to the other side– you both talked about in terms of the development process. I think we have a chance. But I don’t necessarily get as bugged out as I used to be about the initial reactions the students have, because I know that that’s a normal part of the disrupt in me.

My job as an educator is to take a student, to take a client, and to disrupt them from that comfortable category of intellectual, emotional, and behavioral, and spiritual apathy. And if, in the process they have to struggle and be uncomfortable with it, I think that’s part of the journey that you’ve got to be able to move through in order to get to be, I think, an effective healer.

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