A
anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
I've seen this firsthand with a non-profit board I served on that deals with mental health:
fairforall.substack.com
"We are now told that we must deny our multifaceted nature as individuals and instead embrace the immutable characteristics bestowed upon us by group identity. All differences in any outcome of interest can only be understood through the explanation of racist bias and discrimination. A recent spotlight article on the psychology of American racism goes to extraordinary lengths to redefine the concept of racism as a “system of advantage” that only works in one direction (perpetuated by whites against non-whites). It is not that we all have an innate predisposition to favor members of our own group over others, or that we prefer the familiar to the unfamiliar, but that there is a particular problem with a particular group of people and it is in urgent need of remediation.
The message we are given is that to understand the complexity of the world, we must first put on our ideological goggles and view one another as avatars of our racial groups. Even recent explanations of trends in demographic shifts regarding newcomers to the field, for example, are interpreted through the pre-determined and professionally sanctioned filter of racial oppression. Despite the fact that psychology is becoming more diverse, the field itself, we are told, has a prominent diversity problem. While it is a worthwhile effort to attract and encourage more minorities to pursue careers in psychology, it would require an objective analysis of differences in interest and opportunity across all variables, which may or may not neatly be accounted for by simplistic theories about oppressive groups dominating disenfranchised groups to produce unequal outcomes.
The directive that we must deconstruct white supremacist influences too often ends up deconstructing what was once sacred within the mental health profession: the sanctity of the individual."
How ideological capture is hurting clinical psychology
America’s political polarization has eroded our ability to navigate complex issues. My own field of clinical psychology has failed to evade this problem, and now finds itself deeply steeped in a troubling narrative.
fairforall.substack.com
"We are now told that we must deny our multifaceted nature as individuals and instead embrace the immutable characteristics bestowed upon us by group identity. All differences in any outcome of interest can only be understood through the explanation of racist bias and discrimination. A recent spotlight article on the psychology of American racism goes to extraordinary lengths to redefine the concept of racism as a “system of advantage” that only works in one direction (perpetuated by whites against non-whites). It is not that we all have an innate predisposition to favor members of our own group over others, or that we prefer the familiar to the unfamiliar, but that there is a particular problem with a particular group of people and it is in urgent need of remediation.
The message we are given is that to understand the complexity of the world, we must first put on our ideological goggles and view one another as avatars of our racial groups. Even recent explanations of trends in demographic shifts regarding newcomers to the field, for example, are interpreted through the pre-determined and professionally sanctioned filter of racial oppression. Despite the fact that psychology is becoming more diverse, the field itself, we are told, has a prominent diversity problem. While it is a worthwhile effort to attract and encourage more minorities to pursue careers in psychology, it would require an objective analysis of differences in interest and opportunity across all variables, which may or may not neatly be accounted for by simplistic theories about oppressive groups dominating disenfranchised groups to produce unequal outcomes.
The directive that we must deconstruct white supremacist influences too often ends up deconstructing what was once sacred within the mental health profession: the sanctity of the individual."
