Changing Our Reflections

Sue Examines Racism in America

Working from the premise that "all of us have biases, stereotypes and misinformation about certain groups in our society," Derald Wing Sue said he wrote Overcoming Our Racism: The Journey to Liberation to help people of all races or ethnicities take an honest look at themselves and make some changes.

"The damage to people of color does not come from the skinheads and the white supremacists, it comes from ordinary, good, moral citizens who are unaware of their unconscious biases and how they are enacted in everyday interactions with people and through the social policies that we as a society pass," added Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education at TC. While adults can learn to become more culturally sensitive, Sue believes the most powerful way to prevent the development of racism is to include multicultural awareness in the classroom. "The K-12 curriculum needs to become multicultural-not just in content but through experiential activities."

Sue's journey to bring multicultural awareness and social justice to the counseling profession will be featured in the Journal of Counseling and Development. Sue, who is President of the Society of Counseling Psychology, also completed a series of instructional tapes on the psychology of racism and antiracism.

Overcoming Our Racism: The Journey to Liberation
Derald Wing Sue
(Jossey-Bass, 2003)

FOR MORE: "The Color Blind Society: Whiteness as the Default Standard" with Multimedia (TC Newsbureau Op-Ed, September 10, 2003)
"Professor Derald Wing Sue Looks at Racism in America" with Multimedia (Inside TC Newsletter, September 30, 2003)

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Allegrante Anthologizes Derryberry

Nearly everyone today recognizes the impact of public health education campaigns. Messages to quit smoking, use seat belts and reduce cholesterol change behavior and save lives. But few outside the field know who pioneered many modern concepts of public health education.

John Allegrante wants to ensure that the next generation of health education scientists and practitioners doesn't forget TC alumnus Mayhew Derryberry, the first chief of health education for the U.S. Public Health Service and the first public health expert to apply behavioral science to the field. "He is a legend, a giant on whose shoulders we stand," said Allegrante, Professor of Health Education at TC and President of the National Center for Health Education.

With David A. Sleet of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Allegrante edited a new anthology of Derryberry's ground-breaking writings, Derryberry's Educating for Health: A Foundation for Contemporary Health Education Practice. Before Derryberry, health education was mainly concerned with preventing contagious diseases. He saw that the most pressing health problems of the future would be chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, where prevention requires behavioral change." He was really the first to understand this," Allegrante said.

Derryberry's Educating for Health: A Foundation for Contemporary Health Education Practice
John Allegrante and David A. Sleet
(Jossey-Bass, 2004)

FOR MORE: "Mayhew Derryberry Revisited'" with Multimedia (Inside TC Newsletter, March 2004)

Published Friday, Jan. 14, 2005