Abstract
Although multiculturalism has come to have a place of prominence in psychology in recent years, it was not until the late 1960s that explicit discussions of culture began to appear in the literature. It was another 20 years before issues of culture began to be included in educational, training, and research programs. The legacy of culture’s late arrival to psychology persists in the difficulties many majority and minority students, professors, and professionals have in effectively educating and dialoguing with one another about ultural matters.
Developing Cultural Humility: Embracing Race, Privilege, and Power seeks to help fill this gap by offering an invitation for the reader to engage in the practice of cultural humility, defined as a lifelong commitment to self-evaluation, self-critique, addressing imbalances in power, and working toward mutually beneficial partnerships (Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998). Gallardo’s book includes 10 essays from authors who self-identify as White as well as a commentary on each essay by an author who self-identifies as a Person of Color. Essay authors discuss their own histories with identifying and confronting their Whiteness; the discovery of their power and privilege afforded to them by virtue of their Whiteness; explorations beyond the bounds of their Whiteness to discover their true cultural selves; and the ways in which their Whiteness helped and hindered their multiculturally focused work.
Several aspects of this book set it apart from similarly themed works. First, the authors showed significant bravery as they charted their journeys through both their own identity development and growing multicultural awareness. They did not shy away from sharing embarrassing and sometimes painful missteps, and the honesty with which they recounted these transgressions, as well as their efforts at relational reparation, is instructive. The personal, confessional nature of the essays makes the material easy to connect with, likely even for reluctant students. It is not often that readers get to see a journey similar to their own reflected on the page in such a nonjudgmental manner, particularly with the importance placed on multiculturalism today.
Second, many of the authors spoke of cultural competence not as something they have achieved, but as something for which they will always be striving. This cultural humility stands in contrast to the idea that multicultural competence is a fixed set of skills that can be learned and deployed only when necessary. Reading of seasoned professionals’ ongoing struggles to enact their multicultural values highlights this point effectively.
Third, both the essays and the commentaries help to humanize those who may have committed micro/macroaggressions, and they remind the reader that a transgressor is not always an Other, but may be one of Us. This approach results in a unique opportunity for students and Professionals of Color to practice empathy at a safe distance.
Themes of power and privilege are addressed in depth by each author, although the role and importance of feminism are often more implied than explicitly discussed. Of particular note, however, is Jason Platt’s essay. Platt, who has spent much of his career in Mexico City, provides a critical look at the types of discussions about diversity that occur in the United States, questions the assumptions about underlying social and power structures that shape these discussions and asks uncomfortable but necessary questions about the current educational status quo. His essay is a bright example of many of third-wave feminism’s tenets (Delamont, 2003) in action.
Although it would have been illuminating to include a more diverse body of authors (those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT], differently abled, etc.) to have a richer understanding of the intersectionalities of privilege and power, Gallardo’s book achieves its intended goal. In doing so, it provides a work that provides rich content for small group discussions or personal reflection.