Developing Multicultural Counseling Competence: A Systems Approach

This book doesn't take sides very much, which is probably my favorite part. It paints a picture of diversity in many facets and how the many identities carried by every human in society give all of us a host of different privileges and setbacks that is different for every person.I was confused when reading many of the negative reviews for this book. Maybe if you only read the first paragraph of every chapter you may think "oh, white privilege is a thing" and you'd be correct to assume as much? Maybe you could argue "hey, I'm white and I'm still poor and marginalized" and you'd still be correct because this book does incorporate socio-economic status and disability into its framework.Overall, this book is an insightful synopsis on the nature of identity in society and how it is complex and interwoven in many beautiful and sometimes difficult ways. It doesn't touch on social justice nor does it push a political agenda, don't let the negative comments dissuade you!

Liked this book on my iPad for school. Enabled me to highlight texts and easily navigate back and forth through chapters.

I will start by saying that, even though I agree with some of the biases of this book, I still found it absurdly biased, factually inaccurate, poorly written, and in dire need of more information. I was on the fence about giving this one or two stars, but I decided that this is the worst textbook I have ever read - and I am currently getting a Master's degree, so I've read a lot!I was a bit worried when I saw the reviews for this book, but I did notice that many came from people who disagreed with the politics of these authors, so I took them with a grain of salt. However, I was more concerned that many of the positive reviews seem to be about how well the Kindle app works, rather than the book. Those reviews artificially increase the average score and don't really belong here.Let's talk about the problems:This book has an entire section on gender and sex, which is a great idea, particularly in a mental health book. Men have worse mental health outcomes, so I was looking forward to learning about the sexism women face and the challenges men face. However, this book never mentions male suicide rates or addiction rates. Not even in some context that blames patriarchy or something like that. Men are 3-4 times as likely as women to commit suicide. How do you not mention wildly disproportionate suicide rates in a MENTAL HEALTH book??? Men are significantly more likely to suffer from addiction. It is negligent to leave these facts out, and negligent not to talk about why these discrepancies exist. It feels like there is some bias that motivated them to leave this crucial information out of the book.There are some very dubious statements in this text. In regards to identifying race on forms the author claims that: "some individuals fail to acknowledge their ethnicity because of the salient, privileged status of their racial category (e.g., White)."I don't think I've ever heard that given as a reason. When I've heard white people say they choose not to self-report race, it is generally more to avoid affirmative action.When it comes to white people in general, the book claims that "They lack an accurate awareness as a racial being and experience intellectual deficits because they are unable to develop a full range of knowledge of racial issues and culture in general."This statement is really overly broad, and perpetuates a negative stereotype about most of the country.They get basic 7th grade biology wrong when it comes to what the sex chromosomes are. They actually get them backwards:"People who are intersex are those who have variations of reproductive or sexual anatomy that do not fit into the socially constructed definitions of male (XX chromosomes) and female (XY chromosomes)."In reality XX is female, and XY is male. This is the THIRD addition of this book - how has this not been fixed yet?!?The authors appear to believe that marriage is a way for men to own women. This is obviously not true, and women are often more interested in getting married, and the process of a wedding, than men are:"Because patriarchy has overstayed its initial purpose of assisting in human survival, it has also become a system of ownership, in which women have become property of men in institutions such as marriage"This book also uses terribly outdated stats - claims that 24% of LGB people are non-religious citing a study from 2010. As of 2019 it was 41% according to Pew. This information can be found with a quick Google search.The book is also terribly written - it has lots of run-on sentences, and sentences that are just incredibly hard to read. For example: "The components of the system are individuals who are actively (e.g., lobbying to eliminate affirmative action policies) and passively (e.g., ignoring racist comments by a colleague) complicit in the reinforcement of racial worldview structures (e.g., prejudices, discrimination, racial inequities) through intentional (e.g., voting, gentrification, employment practices) and unintentional (e.g., obliviousness to the absence of workplace diversity) actions."Surely there is a better way to write that! In fact, this book should be improved in almost every aspect. I highly recommend using another text if at all possible.

Like new and just what I needed for my class. Saw many reviews about the content of the book and they weren’t good however I just need it for a class. Not taking the information to heart. Fast shipper.

The binding is terrible. I’m just reading chapter 1 and the pages are falling out. Not what I expect when paying a pretty penny for a schoolbook.

This book is very informative but has a pro feminist, radical left view on social justice advocacy. It is quick to vilify the white Anglo Saxon Protestant male and turns a blind eye to obvious factors which do not support the radical left narrative such as SES and relation to single parent households as contributing factors for continued poverty/low self esteem.

I am currently reading this book for a Master’s level course in developing multicultural counseling competencies at a Christian university. I am extremely disheartened by the contents of this book and the extremely biased, one-sided opinion it provides only. I absolutely dread reading this book each week. I decided to read the reviews of this book to see if anyone else felt similarly to me. I am very relieved to see that others, even those who may not share the same belief systems as myself, share the same opinion of this book. I will be looking in to what can be done at my university, aside from leaving a negative review at the end of course on this book, to get this required textbook changed. There has got to be a better textbook out here that educates on facts and provides well-rounded views that represent all people, and doesn’t just push the agenda of one, extremely closed minded group that is doing nothing but furthering divide in our country.If I could give this book no stars, I would.

Its wokeness 501, not 101 because this takes graduate level professor lingo and over explains their views of racism, classism, sex, and other multicultural topics. Very bloated textbook.As a graduate student with my undergraduate degree in psychology, I have been exposed to and read many modern views of race, sex, and other topics of multicultural competencies. However, this is by far the worst interpretation of society there is. If there is a view or stance that could be seen as anti-conservative or even anti-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. style antiracism, this book takes it. There is no comparing different views on race in a good faith argument. Only arrogant claims that the authors are correct and anyone who disagrees with them is morally evil. Ironically, in trying to teach multiculturalism the authors only take one view of culture. The lack of self-awareness will astound you.You probably will have to read this in order to pass a class that will provide you with evidence of multicultural competencies to be licensed by your state board. Just be prepared to for non-stop bias.