People with whom I have worked (Part 1)

I have completed several different internships at several different clinics and hospitals. Sometimes my supervisor was batty as a loon and sometimes my fellow interns were even more bizarre.  

My most memorable internship was one I completed in my last year of graduate school....


The setting was an inpatient psychiatric hospital on the East coast.  The hospital housed civil and forensic severely mentally ill patients with psychiatric diagnoses ranging from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, to those dually diagnosed with a substance abuse/dependence issue coupled with another psychiatric disorder.  (I know, more technical jargon...blah, blah, blah)


So in my internship year there were 10 total interns, and 4 post-graduate fellows. 5 interns were in the forensic track and 5 civil, though 2 civil interns were lucky enough to receive a placement in the neuropsychology track and were able to see forensic patient's. (I happened to be 1 of those lucky ones).


During this intern year, we were required to attend weekly training meetings.  These trainings ranged from assessment to group therapy to multi-cultural and diversity training.  (This was my most favorite-ist.....note the sarcasm).


In this so-called multicultural and diversity training meetings, our facilitator (I will call him Dr M) was an African-American male who was the first in his family to earn a doctorate (though his parents both held Master's degree).  He emphasized his "expertise" in knowing and understanding the hardships of his fellow African-Americans in the United States.  Though I never could understand how he could personally identify with the experiences of other African-Americans (as he so often reminded us and stressed) given that he grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood, never wanted for anything, and never had to worry where his next month's rent money would come from, let alone how he was going to put food on the table.


Now, don't get me wrong, I do not personally know what it is like to grow up as an African-American in the United States, but at the same time, I do not pretend to know what it's like, nor do I pretend to know what it's like to walk in the shoes of another person who comes from a similar background as mine.  I just don't understand how a person can say they "know what it's like" to be a person from a certain racial/ethnic/cultural background when they actually haven't even lived a day like it.  Perhaps they think they are talking about empathy, but in this case, I seriously doubt it.  


Dr M had a chip on his shoulder.  He felt he was robbed from certain experiences due to the color of skin (did I mention he was quite fair skinned).  He felt he was discriminated against while walking in certain neighborhoods (the man lived in what was equivalent to Beverly Hills).  He felt he would never hold top positions in corporate America (did I mention that he was Director of something or other and Assistant Dean at the local university...which was almost an Ivy League in that area).


Long story short, his preaching and prattling on and on about recognizing diversity and appreciating it would've been received better had he not attempted to reinforce that he was such an expert at knowing what it's like to be discriminated against when it seemed he was capitalizing on the very thing he said not to do.  

Whatever happened to practice what you preach?  Or is this a perfect example of those who can't do, teach?