2.4 Diversity and the Human Services Profession
The first two parts of this chapter focused on how an inaccurate past affects human services students, clients, and professionals, as well as ways to reinterpret the past to bring more truth about how communities of color impacted the field of human services. In this section, we describe some of the skills and understandings that have emerged as best practices.
To begin, let’s discuss the major dimensions of diversity, or the aspects of social identity that all of us possess. It is one step toward creating a more just future for all of those participating in human services and social welfare.
Dimensions of Diversity
Respect for diversity has been established as a core value in human services. In fact, the preamble of the Ethical Standards of Conduct refers to diversity twice in the opening paragraphs. Appreciating diversity includes understanding dimensions of diversity and how to work within a wide range of individual and community contexts. It also includes a consideration of how to work within systems of inequality.
Human services professionals must be mindful of diverse perspectives and experiences when working with clients, consulting with peers, conducting research, and designing interventions. At the same time, they must be aware of the macro-level problems that people face and work to combat oppression and promote justice.
Although it is impossible to discuss all of the dimensions of human diversity in this section, we present some common dimensions that are also aspects of each person’s social identities.
Culture
While numerous definitions for culture are available, key defining components include shared meanings and shared experiences by members in a group that are passed down over time with each generation. That is, cultures have shared beliefs, values, practices, definitions, and other elements that are expressed through family socialization, formal schooling, shared language, social roles, and norms for feeling, thinking, and acting (Cohen, 2009).
Culture in today’s society refers to more than just cultural and ethnic groups. It also includes groups who are connected via religion, sexuality, geography, or other characteristics. Culture can be examined on multiple ecological levels to understand its impact. This means that culture can influence the norms and practices of individuals, families, organizations, local communities, and the broader society. For example, cultural influences can have an impact on how members function and interact with one another. Culture should be understood within a broader context of power relationships, as well as how power is used and distributed (Trickett, 2011).
Race
While physical differences often are used to define race, there is no consensus for this term. Typically, race has been defined using observable physical or biological criteria, such as skin color, hair color or texture, facial features, etc. However, biologists, anthropologists, psychologist