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Preface

When this book was still just an idea, two friends met at a luncheon on their university campus. It seems significant to note that the luncheon was to honor the African American feminist scholar bell hooks, who had come to our campus that week to give a keynote address. Dr. hooks was at a nearby table when talk of this book came up between the two authors. Maybe it was her many quotes about acting on one’s beliefs, recognizing one’s own power, fighting back against White supremacy, and the importance of dialogue that lingered in our ears that day, but it brought us to a place of being ready to write this book.

Though this is a book on multicultural psychology, and one of us is a psychologist (JTP), it is also steeped in theory and research from sociology and related cultural studies areas. We believed from the beginning that the context given by these associated fields (which are those to which DI belongs) would provide a meaningful backdrop essential to understanding this part of psychology. Though psychologists discuss environment and context in many parts of the discipline, these topics are often discussed in relation to the self. While we recognize this as important, we also understand that the self is embedded in context, and this is perhaps nowhere else so clear as in the parts of psychology related to culture, race, and other social identities.

As we began to write this text, the 2016 election occurred and brought with it a resurgence of long-lingering debates, ideas, and fears. On college campuses across the nation, students began to rise up and use their voices to call for a new culture of activism. This was the environment in which we wrote this first edition: while listening to our students begin to come alive as a new breed of activists working toward change, and needing guidance from history and scholarship as they did. These students asked different kinds of questions in the classes we were teaching at the time, including Multicultural Psychology, the Social Construction of Whiteness, Intergroup Dialogues, and Race, Culture, and Politics in the U.S. Within the midst of this, it seemed time for a different kind of book—one that would teach facts, figures, history, theory, and ideas, in addition to providing ways to channel this new knowledge toward action and social justice.

Organization

This book is divided into sections that introduce the field, starting with the question: “What is multicultural psychology?” In breaking things into sections, we hope you can see the progression with which you are moving through the material, and organize your thoughts based on the pieces in each. In teaching these topics over the years, we have found these sections mirror the best practices we use in helping students to understand and digest the material.

Section One

This section provides history, definitions, and social context to foreground the knowledge and information necessary to both understand and apply the concepts in multicultural psychology.

 Chapter 1: “What Is Multicultural Psychology?” gives an overview of the field and its situation in the field of psychology at large. We start with a discussion of the way in which nondominant groups have been pathologized in both the field of psychology and greater society, delving into a discussion of the sometimes subjective nature of “scientific” investigations. Next, we turn to general definitions and an explanation of how we can move forward, keeping context central in thinking about theory. We finish up with some information about the way in which we hope you’ll use this book and a starting assessment of where you are in your journey into multicultural psychology!

 Chapter 2: “Race: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Manifestations” begins with a discussion of contemporary racial segregation as a backdrop from which to examine the implications of our racial divide, from economic inequality to police killings of people of color. We then define race and discuss the mythology in the social narratives about race relations and racial difference. Last, the historical context for our racial divide is described for Native Americans, African Americans (including a brief description of the construction of Whiteness), Asian Americans, and Latinx.

Section Two

We next delve into a section called “Individuals and Their Contexts” that discusses worldviews, cultural identity, and racism.

 Chapter 3: “Culture and Worldview” starts this section with an overview of ways in which both cultural and unique experiences can impact the way in which we see the world. In this chapter we give you some theoretical models that help to explain the impact of self and society, as well as some specific sections that talk about distinct cultural identities.

 Chapter 4: “Cultural Identity Development” takes a step closer into your own identity and the identity of those around you by covering well-known theoretical models of identity development. In addition, a section about the importance of viewing ourselves and others with a “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” mindset takes us into an overview of intersectionality. Finally, this chapter closes by talking about some of the research that shows the benefit of understanding one’s own racial and ethnic identity.

 Chapter 5: “Our Racialized Social Context: Racism, Oppression, and Stereotyping” begins to dive deeper into the way in which race defines our experiences within social contexts. This chapter delineates the different types of racism and the impacts of racism, and it dives more deeply into how we might combat racism in our own lives.

 Chapter 6: “Whiteness” opens with a description of the ways in which Whiteness, as a racial identity, overtakes the various ethnic identities European immigrants arrived with in America. What follows is a discussion of the operational nature of Whiteness as an unraced, unseen, unspoken—invisible force. The chapter draws on conceptual essays as well as qualitative research to describe the ways that “invisibility” manifests in our racial discourse and ideology. Beginning with Bacon’s rebellion, the chapter then discusses how and why Whiteness was constructed and how, through economic and political policy, it became embedded in our social structure, with a particular emphasis on residential practices from the Homestead Act to redlining. We then shift to internalization and the impacts of Whiteness on the individual, through a discussion on White privilege, anger, shame, guilt, and White identity development.

Section Three

Section Three is titled “Lived Experiences and Social Influences.” It explicates some of the more powerful forces within our social world and their impacts on the development of our social selves.

 Chapter 7: “Popular Culture, Social Media, Technology, and Representation” describes the ways in which social inequality and racial representations are intertwined with current technological advancements. The chapter describes the role of representation (and absence of representation) in popular culture mediums (TV, movies, news, etc.) on social attitudes, beliefs, and sense of self. The discussion then turns to representation on new social media platforms and its implications in new technology, including algorithms, predictive analytics, and facial recognition. We then conclude with possible avenues for response (media literacy, etc.) to our technological world and the message delivery systems therein.

 Chapter 8: “Being a Person of Color” looks more deeply into experiences that many of people of color have on a daily basis. The chapter begins with an overview of some common experiences that people of color from a variety of backgrounds might encounter, and then moves into specific issues for African Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians, and Latinx individuals within the United States.

 Chapter 9: “Shades of Grey: Being a Biracial or Multiracial Person” takes a look at individuals who have racial backgrounds from more than one group. After delineating some definitions and talking about the history of experiences of biracial people in the United States, it next takes some time looking at a variety of theoretical models that focus on racial identity development when you are a person who “checks more than one box.” A section on common themes in the lives of biracial and multiracial individuals concludes this section.

Section Four

Finally, the book closes with the section, “Moving Ahead: Emerging Issues and Goals,” designed to take these ideas forward into multiple settings and future directions in the field and practice of psychology.

 Chapter 10: “Multicultural Psychology in Different Settings” looks at research supporting the import of talking about multiculturalism in relation to three different settings: schools, the workplace, and the therapy context.

 Chapter 11: “Looking to the Future: Becoming an Ally, Social Justice Work, and Emerging Issues” is the last chapter in this textbook. Covering topics from allyship to social justice, and talking about ways we can make change in the field and in our lives as individuals and members of different cultural groups, felt like a wonderful place to end. We also dream a bit in this chapter, talking about Afrofuturism and other theories, and submitting to you our ideas around the concept of “wholistic cultural reflexivity.”

Features

At the end of each chapter, you will note that we have included three sections to reinforce and inspire the further exploration of these important topics.

Assessment, Critical Thinking, and Taking Action

The end-of-chapter A.C.T. sections entail three important aspects of fully engaging in this work: assess your knowledge, critical thinking, and take part.

 Assess Your Knowledge: In these sections, you will see suggestions about how you might evaluate yourself after reading each chapter. There will be chapters that are more jarring to you or provide you with new information that may shift your thinking. Knowing where you “are” helps you to understand what is happening inside your mind.

 Critical Thinking: Here, we ask you to take the information you have just read in the text a step further, to push yourself beyond what you know to think of what you could become.

 Take Part: In these sections, we give some ideas of things to try, depending on where the first two steps of A.C.T. have led you. We make different suggestions for students at different stages of their learning about multicultural psychology.Participation: If you are someone who is new to the concepts presented in the chapter, look to the Participation section to find things to try that suit a novice in applying some of these concepts in real life.Initiation: Others of you will have come across some of these concepts before, though perhaps not in depth, and if you find yourself here, the section called Initiation might assist you in acting on some of these new ideas in ways that fit with your level of understanding.Activism: Finally, if you are ready to take larger steps, the section titled Activism provides a guide to taking on new challenges, developing new behaviors, and perhaps deepening the courage to make greater change in the world.

We hope you find these sections useful in your life as you learn this material, and we entrust this book to your hands to do with what you will. Our hope is that you will take this information and allow it to forge you into a stronger and more educated individual so that you, like our own students, can begin to make the kinds of changes that you and future generations deserve.