Laszloffy and Hardy (2000) have written an article devoted to the problems of addressing racism in family therapy. The article discusses in detail the classifications of discrimination which are three in number.
The authors of the article are sure that the awareness of the type of the racism people suffer from may help in solving some problems concerning discrimination. Trying to help people in their discrimination problems, Laszloffy and Hardy (2000) recommend to check racial awareness of a person and racial sensitivity.
Racial awareness should deal with understanding the fact that races exist and it is a norm. Racial sensitivity at the individual level is an opportunity to be able to restrict from the opinion of the society and to consider race without prejudice and discrimination.
Covert or overt discrimination presents an attitude to the races, either hidden or open. Individual or institutional discrimination show the number of people (either selected personalities or ethnical groups in general) are under the discrimination. And intentional and unintentional types of discrimination show human desire either to treat people differently or not.
These three classifications are really important for family therapy as being aware of the source of the problem and the ways how people treat other races, discrimination may be easily eliminated. The author of the article pointed at the most frequent problems (marriage of people of different races) and their desire to have a strong family.
Such people usually have covert unintentional discrimination which is easily solved by means of reading specific publications of the similar cases which have been successfully considered or attending cross racial cultural event which is really useful in the problem. Laszloffy and Hardy (2000) also referred to the possibility to shape between the reality and the imagined world with racial issues.
Akintunde (2006) points to the changes which have occurred in the modern world with the technology development. The author states that the problem of racial education is important even in the world where equal relationships are a norm.
The spread of the distance learning online has created the necessity to create the courses of racial learning through World Wide Web. Akintunde (2006) dwells upon overt and covert, individual and institutional, intentional and unintentional types of discrimination and the ways how teachers may helps students understand the material online.
The main technique the author of the article proposes to use is the reflection on the situation. Having explained the types of discrimination (where overt and covert one points to the open or hidden racism, individual and institutional show either a person considers biased just a particular person or a group of people, and intentional/unintentional type of racism where racial discrimination either depends on the desire of a human being or not), the author recommends to describe the case study and help students identify the types of discrimination and explain the types of racism presented.
Students are not only identifying the types of racism but also reflect on the case study trying to express their opinion. In this case a teacher will see the attitude to racism of students and will be able to act in accordance with the situation. The article is a good source of information for those who want to teach students the types of discrimination in the modern world and the way how the data should be presented.
Reference List
Akintunde, O. (2006). Diversity.Com: Teaching an Online Course on White Racism and Multiculturalism. Multicultural Perspectives, 8(2), 35-45.
Laszloffy, T. A., & Hardy, K.V. (2000). Uncommon strategies for a common problem: addressing racism in family therapy. Family Process, 39(1), 35-50.