Question
What is Cultural Blindness?
Answer
A lot of us will fall on the cultural blindness stage of the cultural competence continuum. Cultural blindness is when we actually think that we have addressed cultural differences and that we understand the differences. Although the reality of it is that we do not understand the differences. While we may have this philosophy of cultural competence, it goes very little beyond this whole idea of philosophy.
Blindness does not draw attention to differences. Blindness ignores differences. It does not embrace difference, it ignores it. So, at a cultural blindness stage, we might hear people say, for example, “I don't see color.” “I think that we're all the same.” “I think we should all be treated the same.” And the reality of it is that our clients and those that have less power than us have let us know through research that is indeed not true.
So this cultural blindness stage does not do much because there is a philosophy of equality and embracing difference, but when it actually comes down to acknowledging these experiences and these worldviews as valid, and just as important in setting aside our superiority, we have not quite gotten there yet, if we are at cultural blindness.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Embracing Inclusion: Beyond Cultural Competence to Cultural Humility, presented by Mindy Brooks-Eaves, DSW, MSW, CSW.
