As I’m reviewing and editing the CI text, I’m running across topics and content that may be of more general interest and will post them here as a means of (a) distracting myself, (b) procrastinating and, if anyone is interested, (c) getting feedback. Below is an adaptation of a “Putting It In Practice” activity we cover in the text:

Talking About Skin Color

No one we know over the age of 12 is very comfortable talking about skin color. Nevertheless, because research shows that many individuals have unconscious skin color biases, we believe some discussion of this potentially emotionally charged topic should take place within the context of various educational settings, including graduate education in counseling or psychotherapy. This is why we recommend the following websites.

1.  Go to HTTPS://IMPLICIT.HARVARD.EDU/IMPLICIT/ and take some form of the Implicit Association Test. This test is designed to evaluate your underlying, possibly unconscious, attitudes toward people with various skin colors. We recommend that you take the test and then discuss your reactions to the test (and to your results) with friends, family, or colleagues.

2.  Teaching Tolerance.org has a nice website on multicultural equality. One part of this website lists a video titled “Starting Small” that shows young children with divergent racial and ethnic backgrounds comparing their skin colors (thanks to Midge Elander for pointing this out to me; go to http://www.tolerance.org/kit/starting-small for the video). Watching the video and then engaging in the small group skin color activity is an appropriate way for adults to open a conversation about skin color.

Although it’s important to potentially be able to discuss skin color and other racial, ethnic, and cultural issues directly with clients, family, and friends, we recommend that doing so with caution and sensitivity. Skin color isn’t typically a topic that should be brought up by white people—because white people should work out their own skin color issues rather than dragging people of color into the issues with them. Instead, skin color, culture, and race are issues to discuss openly within safe and secure individual or group settings or when people of color show an interest in such discussions. The point is to get more comfortable at communicating directly if needed and in the appropriate time and place. The other point is to move past unconscious negative or positive stereotyping biases like those identified in the implicit association test.