Before you move on to the next chapter and dive into examining your own cultural identity, I encourage you to spend time learning more about the sociohistorical context of the communities you serve.  While it would be impossible to include every available resource, we’ve curated a linked resource list to help you begin .  As you engage with a new resource, take time to stop and reflect on the ways that the new information you are taking in shifts your thinking or furthers your understanding of the families with whom you work.

Reflective Questions

1. What information from this chapter is new to you?
   1. How did learning this new information feel? Why do you think that was your reaction?
   2. Based on what you’ve learned about power and structural racism, why do you think that you didn’t learn this information in public school?
   3. How do you think that your racial and ethnic background impacts when you learned these concepts?
2. Now that you have a foundational understanding of the socio-historical context of race in the United States, how will that change your work with families of color or those who have other marginalized identities?
3. The layers of racism model also works to explain sexism, ableism, classism, anti-sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and any other identity-based prejudice that results in structural discrimination.  If you have an identity outside the dominant American culture, use the layers of racism to explain how this -ism came to be and manifests itself in American society.  If all your identities fit into the dominant American culture, complete this exercise with the -ism of your choice.
4. Center yourself in your racial, ethnic, and cultural identity.
   1. What parts of your identity are represented in the dominant American culture?
   2. What parts of your identity are marginalized?
   3. How has being either part of the dominant culture or outside of the dominant culture impacted your experiences with the legal, educational, and medical systems?
   4. Based on these experiences, how would you feel having an early intervention provider come into your home to work with your family? How do you think that your racial, ethnic, and cultural identity shaped these feelings?
5. Review cultural racism. Think critically about the media you’ve consumed this week or most recently. If you have read, watched, or listened to fictional stories, ask yourself these questions:

5. 1. Who is represented in the storytelling? What are the main characters’ identities? What are the identities of the villains? Who are the side characters?
   2. How do you think that ideological and institutional racism and other -isms impacted the way each character was portrayed?
   3. Who is the identity of the person or people who created this work? How do you think the creator’s identity shaped the way the story was told and how the characters were represented?
   4. What is this story saying about people with marginalized identities? How might these messages lodge in your brain to contribute to implicit biases?
   5. If there were not any characters with marginalized identities in the media you consumed, what does their absence teach you?
6. Think about the community in which you provide early intervention services.
   1.  What are the racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, and social identities of the people in your community?
   2. What do you know about their socio-historical contexts?
   3. What research about the sociohistoric context of your community do you need to do to understand better the context in which you are providing services?