review

Discrimination in the Workplace

In this case study, the discrimination factor is present when it comes to sexuality and race in the workplace from patients.

OVERVIEW

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

RELEVANT BIASES

BEST PRACTICES

As a psychologist with a specialization in the clinical aspect, proceeding in counseling is common. Encountering people of different races, cultural backgrounds, ages, etc., is bound to occur. In a session with a male, white, middle aged client, he begins to express how he despises his coworker for getting praised at work. He continues to state “you Mexicans are always showing off with the bare minimum.” He continues to mention his weekend and how he went to a bar and was trying to hit on a woman, but he stated she told him she was a lesbian. He began proclaiming that “America is just filled with gays and she probably isn’t a real lesbian because she looks feminine.” Unbeknownst to him, I am bisexual and dress “feminine.”

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Cultural Differences
GENDER AGE ETHNICITY SEXUALITY
Me Female Late 20s Mexican Bisexual
Client Male Middle Aged (50s) Caucasian Heterosexual

As a bisexual Mexican, my view differs from his privileged upbringing because I saw how hard my parents worked to acclimate to the United States’ culture by trying to find a new job and learn a new language; they were experiencing culture shock. So in my eyes, no one works harder than immigrants. Growing up, I had friends who were gay and who were in the closet for such a long time and some people knew, and others could not even tell. So, because of my upbringing and experiences, I would not consider a feminine male to be gay or a masculine female to be a lesbian. That to me is just based on your own preferences and upbringing. But for him, he expressed discrimination against Mexicans (ethnicity) and a lesbian (sexuality). His perception of Mexicans being “lazy” is probably derived from his misconstrued societal expectation of white Americans being “supreme” compared to any other race. This thought has been indoctrinated in white Americans (and non-white) since the 17th century with slavery (Harris, 1993) and even today where white males get paid more than any other race (Renzulli, 2006). With his perception of lesbians, that again is based on societies view on how gay males tend to be feminine and lesbians tend to be more masculine. This is when obstructed views cause discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes.

Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review, 106, 1709-1791.
Renzulli, L. A., Grant, L., & Kathuria, S. (2006). Race, Gender, and the Wage Gap: Comparing Faculty Salaries in Predominately White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Gender & Society, 20(4), 491–510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206287130

Relevant Biases
BIAS 2
Just because this client falls into the category of the “prvileged” person in America, does not mean that he is automatically ignorant on that behalf because he fits into that category (Liu et al., 2007).
BIAS 1
In order to promote cultural competency, there needs to be a willingness to learn, understand and adapt. Learning about cultural difference gives one more insight into the cultivation in each culture. That then creates an understanding of why/how people of said culture can be. Afterwards, it is just adpating to the cultural knowledge that has been gained to avoid discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes.
All white, middle aged, males are ignorant.
Immigrants are the most hard-working people.
A citizen can be just as hardworking as an immigrant and vice versa. That is based on each person’s ethic towards their desires.

Liu, W. M., Pickett, T.,Jr, & Ivey, A. E. (2007). White middle-class privilege: Social class bias and implications for training and practice. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 35(4), 194-206. Retrieved from http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fwhite-middle-class-privilege-social-bias%2Fdocview%2F235925213%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D27965

Best Practice
In this therapy session, we can determine that the judgment against myself for being Mexican comes from using these misconstrued concepts and generalizing them to all Mexicans (Viruell-Fuentes, 2007) as an excuse to conceivably not getting the promotion he wanted at work. We can educate the client on the harms of stereotyping people as well as considering where these judgments come from.
Although the client was inadvertently stereotyping myself based on sexuality, his response may have been based on rejection. It is not to say he may be homophobic, but he already has preconceived judgments about women and their sexual orientation. It unfortunately a common judgment against lesbian women (Salvati et al., 2018). Again, education and letting him know how these judgments can be harmful and how it is important to be open-minded to the likeliness of someone’s appearance. Because sexuality is so broad, this one will take time to understand, but acknowledging the actions that may affect the person can make all the difference.
The best practice to use on this client who is using his personal judgement is to educate. It is important to remain ethical and not take anything personal. Educating someone primarily could solve an issue like stereotyping because from his perspective, he may have had an upbringing where these judgments were taught, or he had one negative experience and is projecting towards others. Being able to ask the client to mention their own cultural identity can perhaps make him understand others’ as well as let me understand him and educate him (Owen et al., 2016).
Lesbian/Bisexual
SEXUALITY
Education
SOLUTIONS
Mexican
ETHNICITY

Viruell-Fuentes, Edna A. (2007). Beyond acculturation: Immigration, discrimination, and health research among Mexicans in the United States Social Science & Medicine, Volume 65, Issue 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.05.010.
Owen, J., Tao, K. W., Drinane, J. M., Hook, J., Davis, D. E., & Kune, N. F. (2016). Client perceptions of therapists’ multicultural orientation: Cultural (missed) opportunities and cultural humility. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 47(1), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000046
Salvati, M., Pistella, J., Giacomantonio, M., & Baiocco, R. (2018). Lesbians’ Negative Affect toward Sexual Minority People with Stereotypical Masculine and Feminine Characteristics. International Journal of Sexual Health, 30(2), 162–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2018.1472705

Best Practice (cont.)
UNDERSTANDING

Integration
Don’t neglect your own culture, but instead incorporate it with the dominant one.
Acculturation
Commit to consider learning about new cultures and teach your own as well.
Intercultural Communication
Communicating with people from different cultures can make one aware of the differences without creating a barrier.
When conducting research, immersing onself into the culture can provide insight.
Ethnography

Carter. (2016). Reflecting Humanity: Biological, Psychological, and Sociological Perspectives – Capella University. [Capella]. Retrieved from https://capella.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781465298072/

References
Carter. (2016). Reflecting Humanity: Biological, Psychological, and Sociological Perspectives – Capella University. [Capella]. Retrieved from https://capella.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781465298072/
Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review, 106, 1709-1791.
Liu, W. M., Pickett, T.,Jr, & Ivey, A. E. (2007). White middle-class privilege: Social class bias and implications for training and practice. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 35(4), 194-206. Retrieved from http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fwhite-middle-class-privilege-social-bias%2Fdocview%2F235925213%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D27965
Owen, J., Tao, K. W., Drinane, J. M., Hook, J., Davis, D. E., & Kune, N. F. (2016). Client perceptions of therapists’ multicultural orientation: Cultural (missed) opportunities and cultural humility. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 47(1), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000046
Renzulli, L. A., Grant, L., & Kathuria, S. (2006). Race, Gender, and the Wage Gap: Comparing Faculty Salaries in Predominately White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Gender & Society, 20(4), 491–510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206287130
Salvati, M., Pistella, J., Giacomantonio, M., & Baiocco, R. (2018). Lesbians’ Negative Affect toward Sexual Minority People with Stereotypical Masculine and Feminine Characteristics. International Journal of Sexual Health, 30(2), 162–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2018.1472705
Viruell-Fuentes, Edna A. (2007). Beyond acculturation: Immigration, discrimination, and health research among Mexicans in the United States Social Science & Medicine, Volume 65, Issue 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.05.010.