The View From Here

Last night I attended the first class for my internship course. At the start of the class, we all meet as a large group then split into our individual groups with our faculty supervisor. Now, more often than not I don't think too much about being the only person of color in a class (or at least what I'm able to discern) or in a smaller group setting. By now I've gotten used to that experience having grown up in a majority White suburb west of Boston and worked at majority White companies and colleges for the past 30 years. However...I always find myself taken off guard in settings like last night's large group gathering for which I am truly the Only One among forty students in their last year of graduate studies with all White faculty. I must admit that I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach and had to gather myself to stay focused. It didn't help that some of my classmates described a diversity exercise they experienced as being "racist." I know that ex...

In the ACA Code of Ethics and the CACREP standards , there is an expectation that counselors are to be trained for cultural competence at some level. Surprisingly and thankfully, they include addressing identity and privilege of the counselor and the effect on clients. Unfortunately, from what I'm hearing from White classmates who have taken the cross-cultural counseling class in my program, these expectations are certainly not being fulfilled. For one student, she talked about how her White privilege was being pushed into her face and how she was very uncomfortable. I'm sorry but I have little sympathy for the fact that she was uncomfortable for a semester three hours a week whereas people of color since childhood have had to live not only with discomfort but danger for being who they based on what they look like. Another student stated that he actually wished his class had more dialogue about race and privilege especially since this was so new to him. However when I delv...