While taking the Privilege exercise I had learned that having people who are the same race and gender is considered a privilege. I was able to be taught by Caucasian teachers, have Caucasian bosses and co-workers it would be considered to have an advantage over others. I was fortunate enough not to be able much oppression in my life. I was afforded the opportunity through my father to volunteer at a hospital to gain more knowledge and a new paying position from it. Cultural influences can have either good and/or bad effects on the development of an …show more content…
On one side of the sword is theses cultural influences can lead to the misunderstanding other cultures and values. On the other side of the sword is it can give new points of views or fresh perspectives to a problem. In Sue’s analysis of multicultural in social work practice (2005) a social worker needs to be culturally competent and follow four principles. These principles are meant to guide the social worker into being aware of their own identity, being aware of their client’s identity, setting up an intervention based upon their clients needs, and helping around the outside forces of the institutes or polices. Lacking the knowledge of other cultures and values can lead to violating the client’s culture or beliefs. If one is not aware or understanding of their own identities, then their basis can cause microaggressions towards the client. As we know microaggressions lead to the break down of the client and social worker helping relationship. The article Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life mentions how people are unwilling to talk about microaggressions and their origins from the person’s basis. He also mentions a way to reduce this is to incorporate education and training for anyone working in the mental health fields (Sue 2007). This is another example of people not understanding themselves and causing a fracture in the helping