ASSIGNMENT ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Running Head: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY 1
Social and Cultural Diversity
Name
Institution

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY 2
Personal biases and how they may impact your counselling approach
I was brought up in a Christian family and up to date, I rely on the Bible for guidance.
My Christian background influence my thoughts, insights, opinion, viewpoints, and how I relate
and communicate with people. The Bible teaches that marriage is a holy union between a man
and woman. For this reason, I have bias against Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, and Transgender
(LGBT) family. This has affected my profession as counsellor because I find it so hard to interact
with such people since I consider them sinners.
Personal Experience with discrimination and it was impacted by cultural background
In one of companies I worked for, i was among few Christians among Muslims. Even
when I qualified for a promotion, I could not get it simply because most competitors were
Muslims and the CEO favored them. I remember there is a time my salary was not paid on time
but my Muslim colleagues were paid on time. The supervisor made a few Christian workers and
I work over time without pay. As a Christian, I was taught to be patient. This made me pull
through the experiences even though they caused me pain. My patience and hard work helped me
a great since my colleagues got to accept me with time.
Memories of contact with those who were culturally different that you, and your
experiences associated with these differences
As a Christian, i hold on to the ideology that the LGBT community are sinners and their
relationships are against the will of God. In my profession as a counsellor, I always try to advice
my patients to act according to the Biblical teachings. I was once faced with a case of Lesbian
who came into the office dressed in a very short dress. Interacting with her was quite different
considering her dressing code in my opinion portrayed a person without morals. Moreover, the
fact that the patient was a lesbian, she was against the Bible teachings. However, the Bible

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY 3
teaches that everyone is equal and should be treated as such. I patiently interacted with the client
and was able to identify and solve her problem.
Having faced discrimination earlier, I have learned to treat everyone equal. Regardless of a
person’s culture, region or race he/she can add value into your life in a way. I always try learning
from others and helping people regardless of who they are.
Subtle Racist definition and an example
According to Reid and Foels (2010), a subtle racist also known as an undercover racist is
a person has insinuated racial or hurtful opinions about other cultures. This is a type of racial
discrimination. Since the behaviors of a subtle racist are indirect, this form of racism is classified
as indefinite. Such racist could express their bias through attitude. The subtle racists are always
after causing harm to a person from a different cultural background. As an example, a white
supervisor may complain over everything a black employee does and even make the employee
repeat most of his tasks for no apparent reason. Even though the supervisor finds something to
complain about and mistreat the black employee, that is just a cover up. The hate is derived from
the fact that the employee is black.
Why could there be difference in perceptions and values of members within the same ethnic
group
People from the same ethnic group have different values and perception due to different
religious doctrines, geographical regions, their commitment level to their customs, socio-
economic status (Matsumoto, Yoo, & Nakagawa, 2008). These factors have great impacts on
how people from the same ethnic group perceive things. For instance, an African American of
the Northern part of United States may have different opinion with an African American from the
Southern part of United States. This is because these two people have been brought up in two