Deconstructing Politically Correct Practice Literature: The American Indian Case

Abstract

Social work theory on practice with people of color contains unevaluated assumptions that render it problematic for these ideas to genuinely account for the life experiences of people of color in ways that can be meaningfully applied to the development of practice skills. The literature on social work practice with Americen Indians is an example (Blanchard & Barsch, 1980; Brown, 1978; Cross, 1986; Devore & Schlesinger, 1989; Edwards & Edwards, 1980; Farris, 1976; Goodtracks, 1973; Green, 1982; Kumabe, Nishida, & Hepworth, 1985; Lewis & Deer, 1980; Lewis & Ho, 1975; Lockyear, 1972; Lum, 1986; Morales & Sheafor, 1980; Morey & Gilliam, 1974; RedHorse, 1980; RedHorse, Lewis, Felt, & Decker, 1978; Unger, 1977). The literature constructs generalizations about American Indian cultures and worldviews that create the impression of one unified American Indian reality (Berkhofer, 1978; Houts & Bahr, 1972) by stating or implying that cultural values are similarly regarded across Indian tribes, communities, and cultures; by designating the authors who are American Indians themselves as credible and authoritative simply by virtue of their ethnicity; and by promulgating the view that American Indian values as defined are not only immutable but also essential for any true affiliation with a state of Indianness. Thus, real American Indians are those whose attitudes and behaviors are closest to traditionalist (pre-modern) cultural orientations. The result of this correct practice literature has been to foster the impression that American Indian realities are only one and mono-lithic. (In this article, political correctness is defined as standpoints that unconditionally value descriptions of American Indian life that romanticize or glamorize traditional belief systems and practices.) This impression hinders the development of reform strategies and interventions that take into account the realities rather than the mythologized views of Indianness (Berkhofer, 1978; Svensson, 1973). In this article I argue that although there were valid reasons for using a political approach to writing the practice literature, the need now is for a fairer representation of the diversity that characterizes American Indian communities. In this way, more accurate helping strategies can be used with American Indians. Background My interest in American Indian representation in the social work practice literature stems from more than 20 years of involvement with American Indian community development, educational research, and teaching projects. My perceptions about how the literature has helped construct politically correct, and therefore acceptable, images of American Indian life derive from personal experience as well as a close reading of the subliterature about American Indian values, perhaps the most discussed of all American Indian topics in the social work literature. Movement and Political Correctness Those who wrote during or immediately after the Red Power events of the late 1960s and early 1970s were impelled as much by the need to present American Indians in a favorable light as by the requirement to be scholarly in reporting. Scholars' mission was to change then-prevailing views of American Indians as helpless, hopeless, and doomed to inevitable destinies of drunkenness and poverty. Along these lines, both the and countercultural movements drew heavily on romanticized conceptions of American Indian imagery, many of them already deeply ingrained in American popular culture. Resurrecting the idea of American Indians as noble (if savage) and perfectly in tune with nature seemed very much in keeping with the social activist ideal of empowering American Indians and tribes (Berkhofer, 1978; Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989; Svensson, 1973). For example, not only did hippies adorn themselves with American Indian paraphernalia, but young members of Indian and non-Indian alternative cultures also adopted American Indian myths, rituals, dances, art, and spiritual practices. …