Counseling African American Adolescents: The Impact of Race, Culture, and Middle Class Status.

Abstract

A substantial body of literature addresses the concerns of African American youngsters who experience social distress, academic difficulties, poverty, despair, and violence. This article focuses on issues of particular relevance to school counselors working with middle-class, African American youngsters whose lives may have little relationship to the above-mentioned stressors. The article begins with an overview of African American socioeconomic status, continues with a discussion of the complex interaction between race and class, addresses culturally competent counseling practice, explores African American cultural values, examines racial identity issues, considers intra-racial stressors, and addresses implications for counseling of middle-class African American adolescents. The authors present a case study to examine each of these issues. ********** A large corpus of literature documenting the social and educational experiences of African American adolescents usually focuses on economic despair, poverty, poor health, crime, violence, and inadequate education. Such portrayals often lead to inaccurate generalizations that fail to address the interaction of race and middle-class status for African American youngsters (Ford, 1997). Although middle-class status insulates African American youngsters from certain exigencies associated with Black life, these adolescents often confront challenging social circumstances that, without appropriate support and intervention, could potentially jeopardize their healthy social and emotional adjustment. In this article, the authors explore the complex interaction among race, culture, and social class, its impact on middle-class African American adolescents, and culturally responsive counseling. Although many issues addressed in this article reflect issues all African American adolescents confront, the nuances of race, culture, and class often operate differentially for middle-class African Americans. Simply put, middle-class status can serve as a protective mechanism against poverty, dilapidated housing, inferior education, and malnutrition, yet it does not shield young people from the manacles of racism and discrimination (hooks, 2000). So while some African American youngsters may have advantages based on their social class, they may still endure forms of racial oppression as well as inter- and intra-racial strife. The article opens with definitions of culturally responsive counseling and middle-class status, continues with a discussion of African American cultural values, explores identity issues and intra-racial stressors, and provides culturally responsive recommendations for working effectively with middle-class African American adolescents. We present a case study to examine each of these issues. The terms African American and Black are used interchangeably. DEFINING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE COUNSELING Culture is often viewed as incompatible from one cultural context to the next. That is, patterns of thought, behavior, and functioning may be deemed normative and acceptable in one cultural milieu yet construed as deficient or deviant in another cultural milieu. Culturally responsive counseling practice requires an ethic of caring and understanding in an effort to build bridges between children whose cultures and backgrounds do not necessarily mirror the cultural dictates of mainstream American society. Elsewhere Lee (2001) and Gay (2000) have articulated characteristics indicative of culturally responsive counseling practice. We proffer that culturally responsive counseling practice refers to the inclusion of diverse perspectives into the counseling process in a manner that validates and affirms children from marginalized groups and recognizes the contextual dimensions of race, culture, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and geography. In this article, we concentrate on the complex and dynamic interaction of race, culture, and class and discuss implications for delivering culturally responsive counseling services. …

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