ACA applauds the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision's statement and its focus on the role professional counselors, counselor educators and supervisors play in being “aware and active in influencing the evolving social, cultural, and political landscape that counters our professional commitment to anti-oppression and anti-racism and harms the communities counselors seek to serve.”
ACA applauds the statement and its focus on the role professional counselors, counselor educators and supervisors play in being “aware and active in influencing the evolving social, cultural, and political landscape that counters our professional commitment to anti-oppression and anti-racism and harms the communities counselors seek to serve.”
ACES Statement: Drafted by the ACES Human Rights and Social Justice Committee under the leadership of Dr. Harvey Peters
We, the community of professional counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors, must be aware and active in influencing the evolving social, cultural, and political landscape that counters our professional commitment to anti-oppression and anti-racism and harms the communities counselors seek to serve. Within the last two weeks, a new series of bills, bans, and declarations (i.e., bans and restrictions on Critical Race Theory [CRT], the “don’t say gay” bill, and the declaration of pediatric gender-affirming treatment as child abuse) have gained visibility and traction. CRT focuses on addressing racism, white supremacy, and white hegemony through social, structural, and legal systems. These bills and bans target Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gender Expansive, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTGEQ+) communities, and those who live at the intersections of these communities. These bills and bans are not new. They devalue, decenter, and dehumanize BIPOC and LGBTGEQ+ communities, while attacking their safety, liberation, wellness, and education. Accordingly, professional counselors and counselor educators must act against the harmful impact of these bills on the BIPOC and LGBTGEQ+ communities. Our ethical imperative is to advocate for social justice across the domains of client/student empowerment, client/student advocacy, community collaboration, systems advocacy, collective action, and social/political advocacy.
These political acts of aggression, which are occurring across multiple k-12 and higher education systemic levels, actively limit how race, racism, bias, oppression, identity, and related truths are discussed and taught. These political acts of aggression intend to silence, erase, and suppress BIPOC and LGBTGEQ+ history and experiences within classrooms and, ultimately, the United States. In their intent and effect, these bans are antithetical to our professional imperative to counter oppression in all forms, including the bans’ foci of racism, homophobia, genderism, and their intersections. To meet our imperative roles and responsibilities, professional counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors must seek information on current and historic anti-BIPOC and anti-LGBTGEQ+ legislation and rhetoric. We must be clear about the roles counselors have in disrupting political aggression and harm against these communities. The collective professional action of professional counselors and counselor educators should act to center and protect the biopsychosocial safety, liberation, wellness, and resilience of BIPOC and LGBTGEQ+ communities. Such actions require the inclusion and protection of BIPOC and LGBTGEQ+ knowledge.
Once again, ACES calls on its members to act. Prioritize your personal and professional development related to current and historic anti-BIPOC and anti-LGBTGEQ+ rhetoric and legislation. Continue to recenter your commitment to anti-oppression and anti-racism across counseling practice, teaching, service, and advocacy. Social justice advocacy will serve a vital role for counselor educators and supervisors in addressing these bans, bills, and decelerations’ impact on our anti-oppressive and anti-racist teaching and supervision. Such issues include teaching multicultural and social justice content consistent with our ethical, professional, and accreditation standards and serving as gatekeepers to the profession and the profession’s values. Moreover, these political acts of aggression limit our ability to support developing counselors in providing life-saving, anti-racist and anti-oppressive, and liberatory counseling services with students, clients, and community members, thereby furthering an environment of oppression and harm. Last, these political acts of aggression suppress our academic freedom and responsibilities to teach courses, conduct research, and facilitate necessary and long overdue conversations around racism, homophobia, genderism, and all forms of violence and structural oppression. Below, members can find resources that can support the continued learning and action strategies to better serve and advocate with and on behalf of BIPOC and LGBTGEQ+ persons and communities. With that, we encourage ACES members to engage with the materials and develop additional acts of disruptions across the domains of counseling practice, teaching, service, and advocacy.