I self-identify as a straight, white, mostly-able-bodied, atheist, cisgender man of upper-middle class socioeconomic status. As a person and counseling psychologist, I believe that our cultural identities have a powerful influence on how we see ourselves, relate to each other, and experience the world. Systems of oppression (e.g., White Supremacy/racism, nativism, sexism, cissesism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, sizeism, ageism) permeate all spaces, including academia, operating at the individual and systemic level. It is my ethical obligation to continue to learn about myself as a cultural being, work toward relational repair when I unintentionally microaggress, engage in difficult but necessary conversations about power/privilege/oppression with those in my personal and professional life, and work alongside others to promote a more socially just world through my teaching, scholarship, and service. Among other forms of public service, I engage in activism alongside other members of Showing Up for Racial Justice.
Below are some of the resources that I have found useful as I’ve sought to increase my critical consciousness. You’ll notice that many focus on privilege and power tied to race; this is intentional, as many of us tend to struggle the most with conversations around racism and White Supremacy. Likewise, many of these resources are geared toward people who hold power and privilege due to their social location; we are often the ones who need to do the most self-education about these systems of oppression and our role in supporting/dismantling theses systems.
Power, Privilege, Oppression, Allyship
- Power and Identity 101 – nice intro to some of these concepts.
- Why it’s important to think about privilege – and why it’s hard
- Privilege 101: A Quick and Dirty Guide
- How to Respond Effectively When You Mess Up, a TEDx Talk
- The Rules of the Diversity and Inclusion Racket (higher education focused)
- An Instructor’s Guide to Understanding Privilege
White Supremacy, Whiteness, Race, Racism
- Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person
- On Racism and White Privilege
- Tim Wise’s (Antiracist Author) Frequently Asked Questions Page
- Code of Ethics for Antiracist White Allies
- Dear White People, Please Stop Pretending Reverse Racism Is Real
- White People Challenging Racism: Moving from Talk to Action FAQs Page
- How I Talk to White People About Racism
- 7 Reasons Why Reverse Racism Doesn’t Exist
- How to Talk about Race, a brief article
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People about Racism
- White Fragility: Video of Dr. DiAngelo Explaining the Concept In-Depth
- Kyle Korver, White NBA Player, Talks about White Privilege
- White Homework: Good workbooks, books, podcasts, and articles for white people
- No. You Cannot Touch My Hair! – Mena Fombo TEDx Talk
- Yo, Is This Racist? The Dear Abby for Racists podcast
- 4 Ways White People Can Process Their Emotions Without Hijacking the Conversation on Racial Justice
- How White People Can Support People Of Color Now
- Resources for Accountability and Actions for Black Lives
- Actionable Steps for Therapists and All Human Beings in Response to the Racial Pandemic, Society for Psychotherapy
- Scaffolding Anti-Racist Resources
- Talking to Children and Teens about Racism, Resource List
- What Educators Should—and Should Not Do—in Response to George Floyd’s Death
- You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument
- ‘Rednecks for Black Lives’ Urges Southerners to Fight for Racial Justice
- Academics 4 Black Survival and Wellness – for educators who want to deepen their ability to be an anti-racist instructors in the classroom and university.
- Coping with Racism, SPOKENproject
Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
- Nancy with Tobin Low and Kathy Tu podcast – Stories and conversations about the queer experience today
- NB (Non-Binary) Podcast with BBC Producer Caitlin Benedict
- Queersplaining with Callie Wright. I really like their episode about how to be a nondefensive ally, among others.
- Even a Grammar Geezer Like Me Can Get Used to Gender Neutral Pronouns – On the use of “they” when referring to a single person
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Gender-Neutral Pronouns
- Trans Pronoun FAQ + More Pronoun Advice
- Being Multigender
- COVID-19 and the Queer Community (scroll down to section II)
- Supporting Trans and Non-Binary People’s Resilience in Healthcare Settings
- Bi+ Affirmative Psychotherapy: Supporting Bisexual, Pansexual, and Non-Monosexual Youth
- Avoiding Transphobic Language
- Supporting Trans and GNC Students, GLSEN
- State of Emergency: Violence Against Trans Women
- Brené with Laverne Cox on Transgender Representation, Advocacy + the Power of Love
Intersectionality
Personal Reflections
The below videos are from my Culture, Diversity, and Social Justice YouTube series. They reflect my understanding of myself and the world, as a person and professional, at different points in my journey. Videos recorded earlier in my life naturally reflect a less sophisticated understanding of how power operates in our world. For example, one of my growth edges has been learning to think and act from an intersectional frame. My hope is that these videos can be useful, particularly for psychologists in training who are trying to navigate their own journeys of growth during graduate school.
- No Progress without Discomfort and Loss – I reflect on how my speaking out has challenged me to develop a willingness to tolerate discomfort (e.g., difficult dialogues create difficult emotions) and loss (e.g., of certain relationships).
- Cultural Appropriate or Appreciation – I share a list of Filter Questions to facilitate critical thinking about what it means to appropriate vs. appreciate cultural artifacts (e.g., dress, mannerisms, behaviors) as people living in an inequitable society with a history of oppression against various marginalized groups of people.
- Masculine Gender Role Socialization, Stoicism, & Doing Therapy – I talk about how my socialization (as a white, cisgender man) related to the importance of being stoic has influenced my personal and professional development.
- How the Personal is Professional in Counseling Psychology – I talk about how my personal life have influenced my professional life, touching on emotion, privilege, and implicit bias in therapy.
- Interpersonal Patterns, Cultural Socialization, Personal/Professional Growth Edges – I reflect on how my cultural socialization, particularly related to traditional western masculine gender role norms, influenced the development of my emotional and interpersonal style over time, and in turn my professional development during graduate school. My struggles connected to growth edges fueled by my cultural socialization are the specific focus, including how I conceptualize them from an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) perspective, and how I have engaged in intentional personal/professional growth to address these growth edges over time. I openly discuss these things in the hope that counseling psychology graduate students who are working on their own personal/professional growth edges can learn more about how one can productively approach this difficult work.