Promoters and Barriers within the Occupational Therapy Discipline 6.1 Introduction
6.2 Promoters and Barriers
6.2.2 In the Work Place
106 having keen awareness of this need. The discipline has assessment and other standards with procedures and documents in place to ensure consistency.
107 growing up in a democratic country the participant is still uncomfortable with treating clients cross racially. It is unclear whether he uses the ‘black to white’, ‘black to Indian’ in that order intentionally. This would imply the stereotypes are emanating from himself. He also alludes to language discomfort which has been discussed earlier. Thuli (below) is more direct in terms of discomfort of distancing herself from racial prejudice from a client.
Thuli (A): When you come in you are there to treat the patient, right, but I am still having problems with detaching myself with who I am, leaving that person at the door and coming to hear a white woman telling me: “Don’t touch me, don’t touch me.” It is going to affect you. I don’t care if your heart is a brick, it will affect you.
Zanele (below) starts by giving an example of racial discrimination by clients in a hospital in her home province (not shown). She then discusses the occupational therapy team in the hospital who are all ‘white’ and Afrikaans speaking. This and the fact that she felt excluded from them has left her deeply worried about returning to work there post completion of her degree (not shown).
Zanele (A): Now there is only one black therapist in that dept. and another 6 therapists who come from Stellenbosch, UCT, UP32, most of them from UP. So you can see from the very first start that inside the dept. there is no colleague relationship thing, because of that. There is only like one black person, like I say, an OTA is black and the OTT is also black. But the rest of them from Head to Chief to the 6 other therapists they are all white. And they speak in Afrikaans and to make sure you don’t get what they saying or whatever, they don’t keep that relationship. They don’t mix together, they don’t even attach you, wherever you are is wherever you are…
These examples display negative affect that ensues from experience in the field as a result of racial discrimination as well as feelings of being marginalised by race, language and attitude.
This links with the theme Mentality of the Oppressed as well as seeing oneself as part of the outgroup created by the Other.
The foci below describe particular role model deficits in terms of students and clinical staff.
Thabo resonates with a male occupational therapist at a local Hospital who has a separate
32 UP- reference to University of Pretoria
108 office to the other occupational therapists and does not mingle with them. Thabo foresees that this is himself in the future, while Jabulani reports that students that are weaker in the course are ‘black’. This led to the following exclamation: “It’s not nice not having a black person with a 90 there on the top. It is not nice, it is not.” A lengthy discussion on the reasons for ‘black’
students doing poorly in the course followed and indicated this was a profound issue for the group.
Thabo (A): There is a black guy, in Hospital X. He is a qualified OT. He doesn’t mix with the others, the other two Indians and the white, so I think, that’s what I will end. I will be like him.
This example supports avoidance of peers of different race groups through “self-segregation and selective contact” (Erasmus, 2010, p. 388).
Jabulani (A): you find a situation whereby you accepted all those students according to their percentages and their marks were academic excellence, but you’ll find it is always a problem that you find that all the struggling students are black.
Research on the academic outcomes of ‘black’ students has two perspectives that are reported, one in which ‘black’ racial identity “impedes” success and a second where the converse occurs (Harper & Tuckman, 2006, p. 387). The former explains Jabulani’s comment who has noticed a pattern that ‘black’ students are not top of the class, which is an accurate reflection of the student cohort researched. This phenomenon, research informs us, might create disengagement from occupations that are unsuccessful, to prevent self-esteem loss especially amongst African American males (Osbourne in Harper et al, 2006, p.387). It appears that ‘black’
participants resonated with this as it prompted consensus comments and means that these participants are cogniscent of systemic barriers that exist within the academy.
Erasmus (2010) reported on research with students from the University of Cape Town, related incidences where ‘black’ students did the “race work” meaning they had to work towards social +cohesion and challenge negative perceptions at the same time holding “the feelings related to this burden of race”(p. 392). Jabulani is holding his ‘blackness’ up to the light that is indicating low competence in terms of academic results while at the same time internalising the ‘black’
ingroup achievements and challenging the stereotype. This acknowledgement is viewed as a promoter as it can lead to breaking through “stereotype threat” and becoming a student that in spite of boundaries continues to strive.
109 Professional limitations are evidenced in the subtle restrictions which remain within student’s perceptions of the practice of occupational therapy. Zai reminds the reader here, that a “person of colour” would not open a private practice in a predominantly ‘white’ area as it would not be supported. This indicates that the “born frees” continue to reflect on racial inequities and discrimination which affects their practice. The racialising of space is seen to extend into the practice area of occupational therapy as a result of segregated space in society as well as prejudice and outgrouping of therapists from a different race group public that chooses to continue to categorise albeit on race or practitioner experience.
Zai (C): I know I am not going to go and open up a private practice in the middle of Hillcrest, which I know is a predominant white area, not just predominant white area, but predominant white area from apartheid type whites.