Antiracist Counseling in Schools and Communities

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edited by

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy

American Counseling Association

2461 Eisenhower Avenue • Alexandria, VA 22331

www.counseling.org

Copyright © 2022 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

American Counseling Association

2461 Eisenhower Avenue • Alexandria, VA 22331

Associate Publisher • Carolyn C. Baker

Digital and Print Development Editor • Nancy Driver

Senior Production Manager • Bonny E. Gaston

Copy Editor • Beth Ciha

Cover and text design by Bonny E. Gaston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Holcomb-McCoy, Cheryl, editor. | American Counseling Association.

Title: Antiracist counseling in schools and communities / Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, editor.

Description: Alexandria, VA : American Counseling Association, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021033771 | ISBN 9781556204098 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Cross-cultural counseling—United States. | Anti-racism—United States. | Social justice—United States. | Racism—United States—Psychological aspects.

Classification: LCC BF636.7.C76 A55 2022 | DDC 158.3—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033771

I want to acknowledge and thank my father, Fred Holcomb, and my family, Alvin (husband), Niles (son), and Nia (daughter), for their endless love and support. I am because of them.

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.

—Amanda Gorman,“The Hill We Climb”

I watched and cried as 22-year-old Amanda Gorman recited the words above at the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, Joseph Biden, and the first Black/Asian woman vice president, Kamala Harris. Ms. Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” resonated with me as a middle-aged Black woman and self-pro-claimed social justice advocate. After 4 years of an administration that had stoked racial unrest, initiated sweeping anti-immigration policies, and openly devalued women, Amanda Gorman’s words summoned both pride and relief. Maybe, just maybe, we are now embarking on an era of harmony in which we can reckon with our country’s legacy of racism, sexism, and xenophobia and embrace the greatness of our collective good.

In so many ways, Amanda Gorman’s words also reflect our counseling profession’s long-standing promise to endear a more inclusive, equitable, and just society. I have always believed professional counselors play an essential role in our nation’s quest to be a more perfect union. My decision to become a counselor was based on this belief. For it is counselors who have the skills, awareness, and knowledge to produce social change, solve complex problems, and bring diverse people together; however, as Amanda Gorman implies, counselors have this power only if they are brave enough to act on it.

Although Amanda Gorman’s words inspired me, this book was conceptualized long before I knew who she was. The impetus for this book was the series of events that led up to the 2021 presidential inauguration. I could recount hundreds of years of racism and oppression placed on Black and Brown people, but it was the more recent angry white supremacist mob in Charlottesville and the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, that set this book in motion. For those who do not know, Mr. Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, after a convenience store employee called 911 and told the police that Mr. Floyd had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious, lifeless, and pinned beneath a police officer. Nine minutes and 29 seconds is the amount of time one officer knelt on the neck of Mr. Floyd, killing him in the street in front of local citizens who recorded the event with their phones. Derek Chauvin was subsequently found guilty of murder. However, on the day of his conviction, just a few miles from the courthouse, another young Black man was killed by a police officer.

Like millions of people around the world, I have watched the senseless murders of unarmed Black people like George Floyd repeatedly on the news. Obsessed with the cruelty of police violence, thousands of protesters marched in the summer of 2020 calling for justice and chanting “Black Lives Matter!” Another inspiration for this book was to call for change in the face of anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-Indigenous racism, and the brutality afforded not only George Floyd but also Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Daunte Wright, Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude, Atatiana Jefferson, the Atlanta spa workers, the congregants of Charleston’s Mother Emanuel Church, and the countless other Black and Brown persons killed by either the police, white supremacists, or hate-filled individuals. I came together with the authors of this book to evoke change, to rise up and speak up for justice. We believe counseling professionals are positioned to act ! Silence is not an option. This book documents a movement to ensure that counselors, in particular school counselors, take an antiracist stance in their everyday practice. Merely talking about cultural differences and race as a demographic variable is not enough.