colleagues across many modalities that this is often off ered in a tokenistic way, if at all, in training. If you are someone for whom this was missing within your training, isn’t it ethical to go and fi nd out more? I say, tongue in cheek, to people I train, that the internet might not be such a bad place to start listening to young people’s experiences from the trans and black and minority ethnic communities as there are plenty of their experiences written and blogged about out there – crying out in pain sometimes, yes, and at other times educating skilfully with the assistance of various charitable and blogging initiatives. A few useful links to start to explore are:
• Trans 101 –
https://youtu.be/-3ZzpTxjgRw • 5 Things to Know if You’re QPOC – LGBTQ, black, person of color –
https://youtu.be/yqMYRGOnUys
• Trans Youth Bust Myths –
https://youtu.be/Di4zIt6CTRI • LGBTQIA Discrimination Project –
https://youtu.be/ SDzFL6TyxDg
• Facts about LGBTQ+ Youth of Color –
https://youtu.be/ NPzFEu8URDw
•
https://everydayfeminism.com/search-articles/ •
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/fi les/stw-vision-for- change-2017.pdf My pet peeve it that clients should not be encountering a lack
of awareness of their intersectional issues within the fi eld of therapy. Generally speaking, there is an appalling lack of training or awareness about working with racialised communities on the receiving end of xen- ophobia and racism, and very little understanding about what happens when these issues intersect with gender and sexual diversity issues, class and disability. I have had some useful encounters with theory about issues aff ect-
ing racialised communities – and there are many well-written tomes which might be a useful place to start to signpost. I am a fan of the work of Isha Mackenzie-Mavinga, from her doctorate studies on black issues in training (2009) – not least because it off ers useful therapeutic insights into how all therapists and counsellors might work with issues concern- ing race and racism, starting from the premise that we are all harmed by it, regardless of whether we are perpetrators or on the receiving end. She also off ers useful insights into supervision of therapeutic work in her second volume (2016). I fi nd it ironic that many writers on cultural and anti-oppressive practice have been calling for these approaches to be integrated into all modalities of training for a few years now, whilst contemporary trainees and newly-qualifi ed therapists are still reporting a lack of this. See, for an example of this, the date of Colin Lago’s Hand- book on Intercultural Therapy: it’s 2011. Some frustration abounds in trying to signpost to theorists writing
from an intersectional perspective about the intersections of race, class, disability and trans issues. Much less appears to have been written about the specifi c experience of trans, including non-binary youth who are from communities impacted by xenophobia and racism. A really useful document for those of us working at a service level, entitled Inclusivity – Supporting BAME Trans People, has been authored by Sabah Choudry (2016) – I recommend it highly as a 101 for those who are new to intersectionality as it relates to trans and racialised experiences and issues, and no it isn’t written by a therapist. Why is this important to me? It’s important because many thera-
peutic professionals who work with children and young people still do not seem to know what they should have been trained to think about when it comes to issues concerning power and prejudice such as race, racism, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia, classism and able-bod- ied chauvinism. A stance that might help per se is to adopt a position
4
that is less about obtaining the mythical tick box of cultural competence and seek instead to think more about operating from a place of cultural humility. According to Earl Green, the approach of cultural humility goes beyond the concept of cultural competence to encourage individuals to identify their own biases and to acknowledge that those biases must be recognised. Cultural competency implies one can function with a thor- ough knowledge of the mores and beliefs of another culture; cultural humility acknowledges it is impossible to be adequately knowledge- able about cultures other than one’s own. Humility has traditionally connoted a kind of meekness or humbleness, but it can also be used to denote a willingness to accurately assess oneself and one’s limitations, the ability to acknowledge gaps in one’s knowledge, and openness to new ideas, contradictory information, and advice –
http://www.cadca. org/cultural-humility-vs-cultural-competence-do-you-know-me – un- derstanding fundamentally that it is not useful to approach every client or family with stereotypical thinking because racialised communities are not homogenous, and neither are young people with emergent trans and non-binary identities from families within those communities. I certainly have met no two alike – regardless of what is shared in terms of culture, faith, skin colour that makes common ground exist, there are also huge diff erences. It would be a failing to even try to outline in 1000 words the many
diff erent experiences that trans youths might encounter, and outline all of the permutations from diff erent cultural and religious communities, as well as the diff erences encountered as a result of diff erent forms of racial prejudice. Within communities of colour, we are often taught by our families to keep our heads down in the face of discrimination and prejudice; it is similar for other communities with racialised identities. The broader trans and lesbian, gay, bisexual communities are often seen as ‘other’, or ‘white’ identities that cause complex protective factors to come into play for youth born into families which have been racialised and therefore aff ected by discrimination and prejudice from the wider culture. Sometimes, it is these factors that are not understood by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people (LGBT) from the dominant culture or by subcultures within the dominant culture. It is sometimes harder for people from racialised and religious minorities to explain to the broader communities why the issues are diff erent for communities with intersectional identities – why we often do not ‘come out’ as easily, or why some of us choose to live in ‘stealth’– another form of being “shot at by both sides” is being accused of not conforming to the norms of the dominant cultures expression of LGBT+ identity. Trying to traverse the complications of ignorance and prejudice from within the family and community one is born into, and then to fi nd a diff erent kind of ignorance and prejudice within the communities we aspire to live within, love within and become a part of, can impact resilience, exacer- bate isolation and cause additional pain and anxiety – thus compound- ing ‘minority stress’. I have also worked with many youths who have encountered
confusion, prejudice and ignorance within their families and who have felt pushed closer to the edge of existence when attempting to fi nd support and help in the outside world, only to fi nd similar levels of confusion, prejudice and ignorance from services and sometimes from therapy professionals providing services. We all need to recognise that trans and non-binary identities can be found within people from all communities, and LGBA sexualities can also – regardless of the lack of positive images and role models, these are not solely western phe- nomena located only in middle-class white cultures. Understanding the nuances and additional issues of invisibility for young people for whom it is assumed these issues do not exist because of skin colour,
Context 155, February 2018
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