Disability service providers and the need for multicultural competency

Australia has become a multicultural society and in this is also reflected in the disability support workforce. Today, the disability sector has many support workers from many different nationalities, who all need to be respected, not only for their role as disability support workers but also for the multicultural diversity that they bring to the sector. We all benefit in surprising ways from this diversity. 

I currently live in shared supported accommodation, where we have a fantastic diversity of cultures, which makes it a very interesting place to live. However, I suspect that there is an unfortunate level of racism directed at this place of multicultural glory. That needs to be eliminated if this house is to retain its true glory. The disability sector will have to move beyond such problems if it is to make its contribution and gain its due respect. 

Stereotypes:

A stereotype is where you are grouping races or individuals together and making a judgment about them without actually engaging these people, without knowing them as “others” just like ourselves. Racial remarks are the biggest stereotypes. For example, one of the biggest stereotypes between clients and support workers in this shared supported accommodation deals with racist practice referring to African people. Some stereotype examples are given below:

All white Australians are obese, lazy.

All Africans outside of the United States are poor.

All Asians are good at math.

All Asians like to eat rice and drive slow.

All Muslims are terrorists.

All disabled people are in wheelchairs.

Australian Constitution Section 18c

Now let us recall what passed into law by the Federal Parliament in 1995. Section 18c makes conduct unlawful when it is done "because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin" of a person or group of persons, and it is reasonably likely to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" that person or group.

The intention of offensive behaviour itself is not what makes the conduct unlawful. In order to breach 18c the act prescribes that this illegal action must have been done to someone because they happen to have been born a certain way.

Racial vilification is more than just structured incitement to racial hatred. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "vilify" as "to lower or lessen in worth or value". There are two points that undermine the value of the members of an ethnic group: one is to lower their value in the opinion of others; and the other is to provoke them to feel as though they are useless and unwelcome.

These are the views of legal philosopher Jeremy Waldron as explained by Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz.

Waldron is a leading expert on hate speech. Hate speech is derogatory and it aims to make people feel ashamed of their race. It has both personal and community impacts. Such speech wants to make people suffer, defining them and others like them as less than full citizens, not deserving the rights to which others are entitled.

Can we have the empathy and the ability to imagine being a member of a racial minority and thinking through how difficult it must be to explain to one’s children why the family members are subjected to constant insults? Can we explain how hard it is for such parents when it happens only to them and not others? Such situations are nothing if not humiliating.

Of course, people with disabilities also need to show empathy. We need to believe ourselves and empathy is a common fact in respectful and respected people. People with disabilities also need to respect people of diverse backgrounds, to affirm multiculturalism, and in this way the culture that arises from among those who are helped along by the disability support workforce will also be respected.

Special thanks to Bruce Wearne, Cunxia Li and Amanda Gunawardena for all their help