Cultural competence or Racial Equality

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Cultural competence or Racial Equality

• Philomena Harrison
• University of Salford
• JSWEC
• July 2007

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Aims

• Use a piece of research to illustrate the need to
  address issues arising out of the concepts of
  race, ethnicity, culture and identity.
• Demonstrate the complexity of its application to
  social work practice.
• Offer some ideas/frameworks for ways forward
  THROUGH looking at some principles of
  Anti-oppressive practice.
• To engender a critical reflection of social work
  education/practice with regard to race,
  ethnicity, culture and ethnicity.

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Identity definition/s

• Identity is about belonging, about what you have
  in common with some people and what
  differentiates you from others. At its most
  basic, it gives you a sense of personal location,
  the stable core to your individuality. But is
  also about your social relationships, your
  complex involvement with others, and in the
  modern world these have become ever more complex
  and confusing. (D. Weeks in Mizra,H.S Black
  British Feminism, 1997, Routledge)

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Ethnicity

• An ethnic group may be broadly defined as a group
  made up of individuals who see themselves
  belonging together because of commonalities such
  as language, genetically inherited differences
  (racial uniqueness), economic power or
  powerlessness, aesthetic cultural patterns,
  religion and territoriality (at some point in
  time). The focus being on self-identification.

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Ethnicity contd.

• The ethnic identity of a group consists of its
  subjective, symbolic and emblematic use of any
  aspect of culture, or a perceived separate origin
  and continuity in order to differentiate
  themselves from other groups. In time, these
  emblems can be imposed from outside or embraced
  from within. (De Vos, in Romanucci-Ross L., De
  Vos (eds.) Ethnic identity, Creation, conflict,
  and Accommodation 3rd ed,1995, Altamira Press)

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De Vos suggests 3 orientations

• a present-oriented concept of membership as a
  citizen in a particular state or as a member of a
  specific occupational group.
• A future-oriented membership in a transcendent,
  more universal religious or political sense.
• A past-oriented concept of the self as defined by
  ones ethnic identity, that is, based on ancestry
  and origin.
• (this last form of identity is as powerful a
  force as a present or future allegiance in
  shaping human social history.)

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CULTURE

• Culture is the distinctive way of life of the
  group, race, class community or nation to which
  the individual belongs. It is the first and most
  important frame of reference from which ones
  sense of identity evolves.
• (Cultural competence in the caring professions,
  Kieran OHagan, 2001 Jessica Kingsley.

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Race

• Race is a word which has been used in an
  essentialist way as a biological, social and
  cultural construct to classify and distinguish
  one group of people from another, by using
  criteria such as skin colour, language and
  customary behaviour it has also been used to
  denote status, lineage, type and sub-species.
  History has shown that process of categorization
  has resulted in the separation, marginalization
  and oppression of individuals and communities.
• (Burke, B., Harrison, P., in The Blackwell
  Encyclopaedia of Social Work, Ed. Martin Davies,
  2000, Blackwell)

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Culture, Race, ethnicity, identity

• Sense of sameness and belonging.
• It may vary according to values etc of different
  groups and expressions of cultures.
• Culture, ethnicity, and identity are dynamic
  concepts subject to influence and change.
• We cannot make assumptions about the individuals
  commitment to any aspect of culture, ethnicity,
  race or identity.

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Methodology

• Qualitative life story/narrative approach/oral
  history
• Individual and group narratives mother and
  daughters
• Analysis themes extracted from transcripts
  using overarching framework of ANTI-OPPRESSIVE
  PRACTICE PRINCIPLES
• SOCIAL DIFFERENCE
• POWER
• SOCIAL SYSTEMS
• HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SPECIFICITY/LOCATION
• REFLEXIVITY
• Clifford, D., Social Assessment theory and
  practice, 1998, Ashgate, and Clifford, C.,
  Burke, B., Developing Anti-oppressive Ethics in
  the New Curriculum, Social Work Education,
  Vol.24, No.6, 2005. pp.677-692.

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Questions I wished to address

• Is it sufficient to view racial identity as a
  set of cultural or ethnic traits and social
  beliefs which are transmitted from one generation
  to another, especially by mothers?
• What is the process by which children of mixed
  race develop a sense of racial identity, and
  what is the impact of this process on the
  individual?
• What is it that mothers are most aware of their
  own conscious attitudes/beliefs about race and
  racism, their own identities or ethnicity, or a
  need to protect their children from the impact of
  racism?
• How is this process negotiated over time and
  space geographical dis/location?

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Setting the context

• Living in the shadow of Englishness, even in our
  postcolonial moment, demands that one begins to
  come to terms with not only the legacy of empire
  but also the present-ness of the culture of
  colonialism even in the discourses and political
  practices that negate it. It also demands that we
  recognize the mutual imbrications of both the
  colonizer and colonized in the making of modern
  social and cultural formations.
• (Gikandi, S., Maps of Englishness, Writing
  identity in the Culture of Colonialism, 1996,
  Columbia University Press, New York)

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The Williams Family-1994
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Anglo-Indians definition

• Government of India Act 1919
• Every person, being a British subject and
  resident in British India, of
• (a) European descent in the male line who is not
  comprised in the above definition
• (b) mixed Asiatic descent, whose father,
  grandfather or remote ancestor in the male line
  was born in the continent of Europe, Canada,
  Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, the Union
  of South Africa or the United States of America,
  and who is not entered in the European electoral
  roll.

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Dolls from around the world Nigger dolls - 1966
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Sports Day 1966 Maypole dance
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Outcomes/Results

• Mothering and supporting identity development.
• Strategies Protection, Prevention, Preparation
  everyday racism
• Social difference class, skin colour race
• Historical Geographical issues colonial
  post colonial issues
• Power powerlessness and the impact of
  individual and institutional racism on the child.

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Voices - Mother

• We knew the English always kept us out. Out of
  their clubs, outside. They looked down on us,
  because we were what they called Cheechees, and
  so we got on with our own lives in our own
  society, with our own people. We were stateless,
  absolutely stateless, but we were always true to
  the British Crown. Always.

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Mother

• We never classed ourselves as Indian. We were
  brought up in the English way. English history
  was rammed down our throats. Indian history was
  second or third. If you were of English
  parentage you were called Anglos.
• We must not adopt any Indian ways at all. Thats
  what was impressed on us.
• It did annoy me tremendously, when they pointed
  out to me that I am not of their race.

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Mother

• It annoyed me that I had come all the way from
  India, and I considered myself English, to come
  to England to be told that you are not English.
  They do not accept me now in this very club.
  Well, as Ive said, the only ones that have
  brought my identity to me are the people here.
  The ignorant people. I have seen myself
  different from them. Colour and accent as well.

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Voices Group - Did you think you were
parenting a mixed race child?

• Im parenting a mixed race child, definitely.
• Well learn as we go along.
• Not until N went to nursery and started asking me
  why am I black or why am I brown, and why is
  daddy white?
• The family .all said Think of the children.

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Voices Daughters

• But when I discovered the slavery thing I just
  wanted to put it to the back of my mind at that
  time, I felt I cant possibly descend from that.
  But then as you get older you know that that is a
  fact, particularly when I did my degree, it is a
  fact, it is quite an interesting fact. Now I can
  totally handle my mixed identity.
• I think I am more at heart Indian now than I was
  when I came (to England).

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Voices Daughters

• Mummy never made us aware. I didnt think she
  made us aware. I think her attitude is, you are
  who you are. We were her children. That was it.
  I never drew myself with a black face. I drew
  mummy and daddy, but never did a black man. I
  agree with you that colonialism has influenced
  the fact that being born in India not really
  knowing where I come from. Blue mascara and red
  cheeks, and black skin underneath it, looking
  like a clown.

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Voices daughters

• I think its basically it is the preparation for
  them and the protection and I think that you
  have to let them find themselves as well.mummy
  could only give us so much. On the identification
  thing I would like her to see herself as a black
  women one day, eventually and say Yeah I am a
  black women. I get that feeling now. Ill
  announce it one day when I get my degree. Yeah
  Im a black women!! I think thats it. Alright.
• I think I have come to the peak of I know who I
  am, and whether Im different to look at, Im
  still who I am. Im just another person in the
  big wide world.

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Questions Culturally sensitive practice? Is
that enough?

• How do you/team define ethnicity, race, culture,
  identity?
• How is it made explicit/included in the
  curriculum module development, assessment,
  content, course materials.
• Are you aware of your organisations
  systems/protocols/policies REIA?
• What is the framework you/team use to respond to
  race and difference?
• How does your team learn from BME communities
  and how are they included in curriculum planning
  and course delivery?
• Need to identify ways in which your practice
  addresses issues that may arise out of inequality
  with regard to race and racism.
• How do you define your own race, cultural
  identity or ethnicity?
• Is having explicit cultural knowledge enough?
• How do you identify your training needs?
• How are you supported when making challenges to
  inappropriate practice? How do you/we challenge?

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Tan Your Hide

• A black identity may meet black names,
• And black identity may have black pride,
• But black has nothing black that is the same,
• No mind, no heart, no womb and no black hide
• The mingled genes inheritance confers
• Begin a personality unique,
• A mind to think as humans think, infer,
• Experience emotions, love and pique
• As humans think, but not to be confined
• By category, used as herders welt
• To press, across diverse communal lines,
• The unalike, alone defined by pelt.
• Add gender, age, and take away the tinct
• No category stands, but each distinct!
• BERNARD HARRISON -unpublished

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Thank you for listening to my voice!

• Philomena Harrison
• July 2007
• University of Salford
• P.Harrison_at_salford.ac.uk