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CHAPTER 2
Decolonizing the Counseling Canon
Ahmad R. Washington, Janice A. Byrd, and Joseph M. Williams
In the wake of the unrepentant dehumanization and gratuitous murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and others by members of law enforcement and rogue white vigilantes, the American Counseling Association (ACA) disseminated a position statement denouncing racism and professing its commitment to fighting white supremacy and anti-Black racism (ACA, 2020). Specifically, ACA reiterated its expectation that all counselors representing all subspecialties (e.g., school counseling, addictions, clinical mental health) embrace the ideal of social justice and engage in antiracist advocacy and reform efforts. In part, the statement read, “Racism, police brutality, systemic violence, and the dehumanizing forces of oppression, powerlessness, and White supremacy have eroded the very fabric of humanity which ideally binds our society together” (ACA, 2020, para. 2). Although ACA’s statement represents a promising step in the right direction, what cannot be overlooked is the counseling profession’s historical obliviousness and lack of meaningful and sustained attention to anti-Black racism (Washington & Henfield, 2019).
ACA’s effectiveness in achieving its ultimate mission depends, first and foremost, on how it theorizes the problem of anti-Blackness. The extant counseling literature reveals that the current discourse regarding social justice counseling evolved out of a clear need to name the ethnocentrism and cultural encapsulation throughout the profession writ large (Smith, 2015). Lance C. Smith and others (e.g., Holcomb-McCoy, 2004; Sue & Sue, 2019; Suite et al., 2007) have succinctly charted this evolution and emphasized the inherent limitations, blind spots, and shortcomings of previous iterations of cross-cultural considerations in counseling. As instrumental as these writings on the subject have been, we believe that virtually all dominant counseling ideologies and praxes (e.g., cognitive and behavioral therapies) and even theories of human/group subordination often considered radical (e.g., traditional