EchoHawk - 2007 An Unexpected Gift

This was a devotional given by Larry EchoHawk.  He is a BYU Law Professor.  I think the main thing that I thought we were suppose to get out of it was an understanding that education might be a given in our culture, but it definitely isn't in the native american culture.

He briefly gave a history of the way the Pawnee people have been mistreated by the American Government.  He went on to describe a time when he ran to the the attorney general for the state of Idaho.  A native american had never been elected to any statewide state constitutional office (such as governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, or attorney general).  The newspaper said he didn't have a chance, but he ended up winning.  He said when he won he felt the full promise of America.  He felt the possibility of the future.

His conversion story.  He was baptized at the age of 14, but he wasn't really converted.  It wasn't until he was in priests quorum and he met Brother Boren that things started to change.  Brother Boren told him he could become anything he wanted to become.  If he wanted to get good at something he needed to practice.  He set out to become a good football player.  He eventually became the starting quarterback, but he was hit in the eye a few days before the first game and he had to have bandages on his eyes for over a week.  He felt it was unfair, but as he sat in bed for a week and he couldn't look at anything because his eyes had bandages on them so he had nothing but time to think.  He thought about the things that Brother Boren had taught him.  He prayed and asked the Lord to heal his eye so he could read the Book of Mormon.  His eyesight came back.  He became a good football player and immediately started reading the Book of Mormon.  He gained a testimony and, after some time, was offered a football scholarship to BYU and New Mexico.  He attributes a freak accident to bringing about his humility and all of the subsequent blessings.

President Kimball - "This is my Vision"
President Kimball relayed a story where he saw native americans as lawyers taking care of their own people.  "Get an education and help your people."  He became an attorney and worked for the largest indian tribe in Idaho.  He saw the hand of the Lord as he worked with the Native Americans.

The Army
Army drill sergeant would yell at everyone.  The drill sergeant found his Book of Mormon and yelled at him asking him if he knew the Book of Mormon was true.  He yelled yes and the drill sergeant never yelled at him about it again.

Maker, 2005

-America’s war on terrorism has done irreparable damage from South Asia and the Middle East.

-Post 9/11 has included tons of discrimination  occurs and the media has created a super negative image of Islam. This target racism might even be compared to that targeted towards Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese after other wars.

This chapter hopes to highlight some of the author’s own encounters and interventions since 9/11 as a Muslim, Pakistani, female psychologist.

Using overt and proactive “combat” tactics in session with supervises can serve as an antidote to racism towards therapist of color and have a profound impact on clients and supervisees, this facilitating therapy in a more productive way.

Goals of chapter:

1. How cemented stereotypes of Muslim women (i.e., specific negative gender roles, calues, and cultural norm) emerge I the family therapy session
2. 2. The assumptions of differences between therapist and client based on race, religion, nationality, and culture.
3. the therapist’s use of the self and cultural process dialogue with ckients to confront racism and discuss race and ethnicity, culture, religious beliefs, and values.

The author give background about herself:

-first generation South Asian, Muslim, immigrant woman from Pakistan residing in the US.

-Doesn’t fit the stereotype you are thinking of

-she looks westernized and comes from a diverse background.

-her other is from East Africa and her father is from India

-Her parents studied in England and she went to British school

The author goes on to tell about how the cultural hoops she had to jump though in conjunction with being admitted to the University of Michigan. This included her having to take tests which assess for “integration knowledge of American culture, history, politics, values”.

After studying and practicing in America, she returned to Pakistan, she struggled to transfer her Western techniques to an enormously different psyche and community.

Literature Review

-The author did an extensive literature review and identified research focusing on the impact of race, ethnicity, and other cultural factors or the therapeutic relationship.

-few articles were found about racism directed toward therapist of color. The few studies that do focus on therapist of color strongly point in the direction of racism racism and discrimination that significantly interfere with the essence of healing.

-Urgent need to address racism towards therapist of color.

-research has indicated a huge bias towards therapists of color and a view that they are more incompetent except when working with clients that are ethnic minorities. Some therapists experience Clients’ refusal to be seen by them as well as racist stereotypes.

Case Study:

The author talks about a case she saw in which late into therapy the client brought up negative feelings and stereotypes about her Arab neighbors. Originally the therapist was validating and showed empathy, but the client continued to feel stuck on the topic. This is when the therapist realized she was communicating something and talking about her, the therapist.

It was the therapists ability to connect with her anger without using resentment that allowed her to be upfront with her client, discuss how her client felt working with her, dismiss incorrect assumptions, and aid in the therapeutic process. 

9/17/14 Hill and Torres

9/17/14 Hill and Torres

Negotiating the American Dream: The paradox of Aspirations and Achievement among Latino Students and Engagement between their families and Schools

The america dream is that one comes to american and they can achieve success and prosperity through determination, hard work and courage.  That there is an open system for mobility.

Latinos really emphasize education and have made great sacrifices to come to America.  However, despite all the sacrifice, hard work, desire to succeed, Latinos are lagging behind other immigrants.  

• Highest high school drop out rate, only 64% of Latinos age 18-24 have complete high school.
• Oddly enough, the longer Latinos are here the worse they perform.  So 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos are doing WORSE than the 1st generation.

Why is this happening?

High Expectations met with Harsh Realities: Experiences of Latinos in American Schools

• Latinos are currently the most segregated racial or ethic group in America.
• go to the most poor schools, with inadequate instruction.  Schools that do not promote success
• Not on track for college, rather they are set on course for vocational jobs.  Bachelor degrees are essential these days and not being on this track is detrimental.
• Teachers expect little from them and there are very few Latino teachers.  Teachers tend to praise Latino kids less, reprimand more.
• Latino students do not feel respected and valued.
• So it isn't surprising that by the 2nd generations, they have lower achievement motivation and reject school.

Parents' experiences engaging with Schools: Misunderstandings, Mistrust, and Frustration

• Many Latinos parents are expecting better schools with more rigor and standards.  Better schools with dress codes and high academic standards.  But they find school districts put Latinos last.
• Parent usually feel unwelcome and not trusted when working with school personnel
• no enough translators so it's difficult for parents to get involved.  
• Latinos are used to know and being involved with the teacher, but that's not how it works here.

Discontinuities and Incongruence between Home and School

• Latinos see education as encompassing more than just math and reading, but moral values and how to behave, etc.  
• Latinos believe the parents should teach these values and are hesitant to "team" up with teachers.  Part of their hesitation is that they don't fee as qualified as the teacher.
• Latinos are reluctant to express opinions because teachers have more education and are respected.
• because of the lack of familiarity with the school system, parents don't know how to get involved or even who to turn to.
• Latino parents don't know the culture of school and how to make their voices heard
• Values contradict.  US culture is too permissive. 
• Latino parents don't understand how kids could be so good at home and have teacher report behavior problems at school
• Latino youth acculturate faster, but still have difficulties understanding teachers.  They feel a lot of internalized shame and failure.
• Students feel marginalized at school

US School Culture, Latino Cultures, and the Theories and Policies that Shape Engagement

• Schools serve dual purpose, to educate academically and to help immigrants assimilate.
• US Schools promote the individual and individual achievement, very opposite from the community oriented Latinos.
• Schools promote the idea the Euro-America is the norm and the right way to do things.
• Attempts to endorse multicultural things is nice, but it's only a day or a month.
• Epstein's six factor model (bottom of page 103 if you want to know the six steps) promotes that schools and families are equal partners and must collaborate.
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is where this comes in.  Bringing the parent into the school

Latino Cultures and Practices Related to Achievement

• Latino culture is all about communalism and interdependence.  Respect for each other, getting along.  Conforming to the family or the culture or the community.
• Simpatia = willingness to conform to others to be agreeable, ability to share with others, empathize with others.
• Personalismo = reflects a desire to relate to and trust people, rather than insitiutions.  A genuine interest in people, in contrast to a professional distance.
• Respeto = means empathy, respect, intimacy in relationships.  
• dignidad = is reverence, venerability, and honor expressed between people.
• Parents try to instill values in their kids that would help them achieve.  
• Ganas = the drive to succeed
• empenos = the dedication and commitment to the task or goal
• estudios = diligent study and effort that will bring success
• Children are expected to make productive use of their time.
• however, for their efforts, much of what Latino parents try to teach their children gets lost.  Their achievement-related parenting strategies are not captured in models of family-school relationships.  Their parenting doesn't translate to success in school.

Applying knowledge about Latino Cultures and School Culture to Practice

• Latino immigrants, despite not having found much success so far, still want to help their children in school.
• Schools must consider their cultural biases.
• Getting more information to Latino families about how to support their children.
• Educate schools on what would be inconsistent with Lantino values so they can work to bridge the gap.

Building on Current Knowledge: Next Steps for Theory and Reasearch

• The Latino values, practices, are not included in the theories of parental involvement in education.
• More research needs to be done including Latino values.
• More studies need to be done on why Latino achievement gets worse with more time in the US, when 2nd and 3rd generations should be doing better.
• By 2050 or sooner, Latinos will be the largest ethnic minority.  We need to address these issues.

9/15/14: Gladwell, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Ch. 3-The Warren Harding Error: Why we fall for tall, dark, and handsome men

The chapter opens by describing Warren Harding in a shoe-shining shop as a man of amazing proportions, handsome, jet black hair, tall, "roman"esque, with a bronze complexion, tipping generously to imply generosity and friendliness, kindly giving his seat up to the next person to suggest agreeableness of character, etc.  The superman.  The man describing him looked at him and thought, "Wouldn't that man make a great president?"

Now, Harding wasn't particularly intelligent.  He played poker, drank, and loved to chase women.  His speeches were never great because he was vague and ambivalent on important issues.  He didn't participate in the debates on women's suffrage and prohibition when he was in the senate in 1914, which were the two biggest issues.  But he kept advancing in politics because Harry Daugherty (the man in the shoe shop who described him) pushed him to and because as he got older he looked more and more distinguished.  He pushed him to run for the white house in 1920 against Harding's judgment because Daugherty thought he would be a "great-looking president".  He ended up actually getting elected because the Republican Party Bosses needed a candidate they could all agree on.  He served two years as President of the United States and then died of a stroke.  He was arguably one of the worst presidents in American history.  

1.  The Dark Side of Thin-Slicing

Gladwell goes on to explain that our snap judgments about things are usually correct--even if we have nothing to support them.  Once you "thin-slice" things, you can make sure that that judgment was correct.  But in the case of Warren Harding, that snap judgment was the end of the line of thinking, and no one thin-sliced long enough to realize he would be a terrible president.  This is at the root of prejudices today.  

2. Blink in Black and White

Explains the IAT (Implicit Association Test).  It pairs female with career, and male with family and you have to put the right words in the right category and it's hard.  He took the race IAT and found out he has a moderate immediate preference for whites.  He was mortified.  Took it like 4 times, but it didn't change.  This is important because these subconscious feelings are manifest in the way we act around black people.  We might be a little more closed, a little less friendly, etc.  People pick up on this and then act standoffish and the cycle goes on and on.  Same goes for Tall people.  We treat tall people more positively than short people.  Most CEO's of large companies are just short of 6', which is 3 in above the average american male height.  He says being short is as much of a handicap as being a woman or african-american.

3. Taking Care of the Customer

Bob Golomb is a car salesman virutoso, selling about 20 cars a month in his business.  He has to thin slice every customer who comes in to read their dynamic and mirror it to connect on their level.  His biggest rules are take care of the customer!!  He calls them the day after they stop by to thank them for coming, he checks in on people who bought cars to make sure they're satisfied, etc.  He never judges anyone on the basis of their appearance.  He treats everyone who walks in as if they have the same chance of buying a car that day.  

4.  Spotting the Sucker

Ian Ayres conducted a study where he sent white men, white women, black men, and black women who were all dressed the same, groomed equally, equally attractive, etc. into car shops to haggle a price down on the lowest car in the showroom.  It turned out that white males got the best deal and the black males got the worst deal (surprise).  The salesmen try to spot the sucker.  He thinks it's an unconscious association with blacks and women as "suckers", so the salesmen make a split decision and stop thinking after that, even though they hear that these people are college-educated and not suckers at all.  Golomb quotes everyone the same price, regardless of physical appearance, and it works for him.  

5.  Think about Dr. King

If you look at pictures of heroic black people, it will be a lot easier to associate good with blacks on the IAT.  That's how we change our first impressions.  We change the experiences we have that compromise those impressions.  Become familiar with the good in other cultures so you become more comfortable around them.  Change the way we thin-slice!

McIntosh, 2008 (While Privilege and Male Privilege)

Men are often (not always) unwilling to admit that they are over-privileged, even if they admit that women are disadvantaged.
Denial of the advantages men gain from women's disadvantages create a taboo that protects male privilege.

We are taught to recognize racism as being awful but are taught NOT to see white privilege. Whites are taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege.
This paper is all about what it's like to have white privilege.

White privilege is like having an invisible package of unearned assets that you can cash in each day that you try to remain oblivious about.

The author states: "After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive. I began to understand why we are justly seen as oppressive, even when we don't see ourselves that way."

She then lists 46 of her white privileges

She rambles for a bit and I couldn't find anything too important or not repetitive.

But then she talks about privilege, as we have it today doesn't help society and then talks about distinguishing earned strength and unearned power conferred systematically. "Power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or dominate." However, not all privileges are damaging, like the expectation that your neighbors will be nice to you.  But they aren't harmless either, like the privilege to ignore less powerful people, etc.

Even the author's ability and power to choose whether to broach this subject is privilege.

An analogy she makes with women's studies makes a lot of sense. She says that men don't have much (or anything) to lose by supporting women's studies, but they don't have anything to lose if they oppose it either. They will probably have few penalties no matter what choice they make. They aren't really at risk. It's the same with issues of privilege. 

Very few men get really upset about male advantage.. so are we going to follow that, or are we going to get distressed and outraged about unearned race advantage and dominance. And what will we do about that?

"We need more understanding of the ways in which white "privilege" damages white people." 

Many white people think that racism doesn't affect them and don't see whiteness as a race. Likewise, many men don't see women's studies as influencing their existence because they're male.

Race and sex aren't the only advantaging systems, there's also age, work ability, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, etc. There is recent talk on heterosexual privilege and it's even more taboo than race and privilege.

She has a second list of her heterosexual privilege:

Since racism, sexism, and heterosexism are not the same, the advantaging of them should not be seen as the same.

She then talks about just changing how you feel about race doesn't change the system. Like, man just treating women better doesn't change the advantages they have. Big macro changes need to occur with privilege.

So, now what will we do with this knowledge? (That's about how she ends it)

McGoldrick Chapter 3, Part 2

The Missionary System of Assimilation

• The goal was to Christianize the heathens.  The government seemed to support this by encouraging missions.
• Missionaries cost the government very little (the cost of a soldier to protect the missionary) and yet it gave a way to get rid of tribal language and tribal beliefs.  Missionary schools were used from around 1607 to 1783, but ultimately they were insufficient as a means to assimilate and annihilate the native american cultures.

The Boarding School Phenomenon

• Implemented towards the end of the 1800s.
• Their aim was 2 fold
• To remove all traces of Indian from the child
• To immerse the child totally in western culture, thought, and tradition
• Life in the boarding schools was traumatic
• "All-out warfare, with associated atrocities, was a much more humane method of dealing with native americans."
• Children were essentially taken away from their parents
• The Process of Assimilation
• English language immersion with punishment for speaking a tribal language
• Destruction of traditional garments and replaced with alien, western clothing
• Braids and traditional hairstyles were shaved and replaced with western style haircuts
• Buildings, dormitories, campuses, and furnishings of western design
• Forced physical labor in the kitchens, stables, gardens, and shops, necessary to run the schools
• Corporal punishment for the infraction of rules or for not following the work and school schedules.
• Immersion in western educational curriculum with associated alient goals and philosophy
• Regimented, time-bound schedules

Implications for Treatment

• These clients tend to have a pervasive sense of self-worth, powerlessness, depression, and alienation from the power and strength of cultural values.
• Treatment mud provide for cathartic release of affect during the initial process
• Treatment must provide an emotional container so that the client feels safe and competent to handle the feelings that emerge
• Timing is critical to ensuring that the client can cope with the feelings and knowledge associated with multigenerational trauma.
• Traditional ceremonies and healing processes provide a grounding for clients linked to their culture and history.

Numrich 2007

The US in the last decade in the twentieth century surpassed the first decade of the country in its admission of immigrants.

The country's ethnic roots are now more latin american and asian american than european american.

This means there is also a lot more religious diversity, with the Muslim religion being second only to Christianity in the country.

Conservative Immigrants

Many of the religious immigrants find the non-traditional views of America to be worrisome as their cultures and values are centered more on traditional family values.
Many immigrants worry that their children will fall away from their culture and religion and fall into American mainstream liberal culture (premarital sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, lack of respect for elders). Many immigrants also have more conservative, solid, and strict views on issues such as homosexual marriage, cohabitation, and divorce, etc.

This worries many cultures, and the Muslim Americans in Chicago even at one point in the 1970s had the idea to carve out a Muslim part of the city with a mosque, school, dorms, and everything else so as to preserve their culture and keep themselves apart to protect their children from the influence of modern America.

While 99% of immigrants believe that America is technologically advanced and ahead, and they can learn a lot from that... they also feel unsafe in the toxic culture. (This chapter says this a TON and just gives like a million examples of different people saying the same thing. It's really redundant)

The term "immigrant puritanism" is introduced as a biproduct of coming into a new culture that is SO different from your own and seeing the stark contrast and is a normal/typical reaction to the ethical and moral disorientation of immersion in a new culture.

The chapter then talks about this immigrant conservatism isn't new and how immigrants have had these fears ever since there were immigrants.

The chapter then talks about American Christianity becoming more diverse ethnically and doctrinally less moderate due to this trend in immigration. Also morally more conservative, especially regarding the family.

In summary, the chapter ends with some trends that are being seen, like the more time immigrants spend in America the more relaxed they get about some of these things. And then poses some hypothetical questions about where the trend will go from here and how everyone/thing will continue to influence each other.