Confronting Racism

Racism is something that effects people everyday. Whether you are black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, etc., there are things that people will stereotype you with. People will act a certain way to avoid being the typical person of their race. When you think of counseling psychology, racism isn't the first thing that pops into your mind but it is something that is very important. People like to pretend that it isn't as prominent problem anymore but in fact it is. The only difference is that it is better hidden today. While researching counseling psychology, i came across an article called New Study Shows Confronting Racism Raises Self-Esteem. The article talks about how confronting racist actions or talking about racism as a whole helps raise self-esteem.

This study focused on Filipino Americans. The study wasn't focusing on hate crimes extreme racist actions, but more so on the everyday racism that people encounter on a regular basis. This includes things like ridicule, being ignored, and being treated differently than others. This study was conducted by Alvin Alvarez. He surveyed 199 Filipino American adults, both men and women, in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that 99 percent of participants had experienced at least one incident of everyday racism in the last year (Philippine News). For men, dealing with racism in an active way, such as reporting incidents to authorities or challenging the perpetrator, was associated with decreased distress and increased self esteem. "Some coping methods are healthier than others for dealing with everyday racism," says Alvarez . "We found that when people deny or trivialize racist encounters, they can actually make themselves feel worse, amplifying the distress caused by the incident."

It makes sense that if you have a problem, keeping it inside will not be helpful. It would get you thinking and make you feel bad about yourself even though you have done nothing wrong. Talking about issues, confronting them, and realizing that you are not alone make a person feel more comfortable in their skin. You don't have to feel like there is something wrong with you. It brings the problem up for discussion and people can help each other out. This is the whole idea behind counseling psychology, talking it out. Racism is a touchy subject that people don't like to think about, but it needs to be touched upon more often. That is how it is going to be solved, not by avoiding it.