My Ethnicity is Black and Dominican. I am a female and a Baptist. My sexual orientation is with males, and I tend to value my Independence. Further, I hold my family in high regards, and I am very private when it comes to my business. It is clear that I have a great self-esteem and I know my worth. I am very helpful and have a loving heart and will give someone the shirt off my back if I needed to. As Blacks, we are so diverse about our overall appearance, cultural expression, socioeconomic status, family composition and even sexual orientation (Hecht, Jackson & Ribeau, 2003) . The family members often assist each other in child care, counsel, finances and even emotional support. The family further often extends to other non-blood related relatives like friends, church families, neighbors and other bio-family members.
Growing up in a Black family, I was brought up never to share confidences or even admitting emotional pain to any outsider. Therefore, a social worker should be aware of specific personal disclosure and behavioural changes that are not embarrassing from the cultural point of view. The majority of the women from by culture often prefer to handle their own business rather than seeking outside help from a person they consider as a stranger (Hecht, Jackson & Ribeau, 2003) . Further, it is seen as embarrassing to the family and upbringing for an individual to confess that a given problem is very severe such that it can only be handled by a head doctor. Parents and the extended family members often exert considerable influence on any critical decision that their child would take among them including, the choice of partner to marry, career choice.
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As a social worker, one should maintain an open mind that issues like discrimination, intra-racial stressors and racisms exist among all the groups irrespective of the status (Hawkins, 2017) . The Cultural responsive social worker should develop an ethic of caring and understanding to build bridges between the children whose culture and background does not necessarily reflect the cultural dictates of the mainstream Black society. Arguably, culture and ethnicity are documented as fundamental factors within the psychotherapeutic process. Despite the fact that a social worker might be aware of the variations of the African diasporic cultures, they might be tempted to believe that an individual from such culture often prefers to be called “African American” (Hawkins, 2017).
A social worker must be aware that the black culture is so diverse and should thus be approached in a conservative strategy. Lack of cultural awareness on the social worker’s part will substantially delay and harm the therapeutic process of a social worker. The behaviour of a client labeled as resistant might be a lack of recognition of the client’s world view. Therefore, it is critical that a social worker makes efforts to deeply understand the culture and world view of the black client to the degree that they see their behaviour for what it is.
References
Hawkins, J. (2017). Why Develop a Culturally Sensitive Approach to Social Work With African American Clients? . SocialWorker.com . Retrieved from http://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/why-develop-a-culturally- sensitive-approach/
Hecht, M. L., Jackson, R. L., & Ribeau, S. A. (2003). African American communication: Exploring identity and culture . Routledge.
