Advantages And Disadvantages Of Being African American Woman

There are so many stigmatized statuses that are presented in the world that they start to become normal in everyday life. By normal, I mean that stigmas such of race, gender, and sexuality are generalized in ways that people forget the hurt behind these oppressed groups. Being an African American woman, I have two stigmas against me from the beginning. Without even getting to know who I am as a person, I am judged by the stereotypes that have been presented towards my race and gender from the past. The population that I am going to be serving is white males. As an African American woman counselor, I feel that I will face certain challenges such as having a racial bias and also having to prove myself to my client that I am capable of doing
Not only am I African American, I am also a woman. I feel that because of my race and gender my client may not be fully receptive and have doubt in my abilities. In an article, Coker (2003b) stated that the struggle of African American women counselors experience is because of the intersection of being both black and female in a society that has had troubles with racial and gender discrimination in the past. Women normally do not have power roles, but in the counseling field it is predominately a woman’s occupation. There have been times where I have felt that people discredit me because I am African American and a woman. It is hard trying to prove to others your worth and that you are capable of doing a job just as well as any other person. “Blacks have historically been characterized as less intelligent than whites, and women have been viewed as less emotionally stable than men” (Tatum, p.23). With this statement I have to take my abilities into consideration and the education that I have received has prepared me for these situations and that I will be able to handle it and back it with
In terms of the population that I am working with which is white males, I could help them by offering a different outlook on the world that they have never thought of. I also feel that being an African American, counseling white males can slowly change the pseudo-independent portion of Helm’s white racial identity model. It all starts with social change and knowing where you stand and what you want to stand for. A quote that stuck out to me in the book The Meaning of Difference was, “we make the road by walking” (Rosenblum, K.E., & Travis, T-M.C., 2015, p. 484). The authors continue onto