Commentary: Australian psychological society position paper on racism and prejudice

Abstract

People who work with a multicultural clientele and who are trained in psychology sometimes wonder about the applicability of theories and techniques developed and normed over many years for homogeneous white Anglo-Saxon middle-class populations, and subsequently applied to people of other ethnic origins. Racism and prejudice as matters of political and social context are not part of the life experience (as victim) of most individuals within middle-class Anglo-Saxon populations. On the other hand, for many people belonging to identifiable minorities this may be a daily occurrence, with a range of psychological consequences for mental health and wellbeing. However, a focus on the affects of racism and prejudice for individuals is not generally undertaken in the mainstream training of psychologists, nor are these topics prominent in general psychological theory. This commentary on “Racism and Prejudice: An Australian Psychological Society Position Paper” (Sanson et al., 1998) supports the view that it is incumbent on psychology as a discipline to have a leading role in examining racism and prejudice, the perpetrators and the victims. However this approach needs to extend further to make issues surrounding ethnicity, culture, and minority experience central to the training of all psychologists practicing and researching in a multicultural community.