ABSTRACT
Here I examine the impact of the therapist’s whiteness on the experience of an African American patient in treatment, taking off from a 2004 study in which groups of African Americans revealed their attitudes towards and experiences with mental health services and white therapists. We then view the history of African American mistrust of health care institutions following generations of betrayals and mistreatment by those institutions, exemplified by the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study and the effects on African Americans after its story was revealed and also Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I relate stories of my patients in their experiences with health care professionals. The findings of a 2001 Surgeon General’s report on the mental health treatment of African Americans, in addition to reports by my patients of their experiences with other white mental health professionals are also presented. African American psychologist, Dr. A, describes his experiences in treatment with various white therapists. I review clinical literature and literary critic Anne Cheng’s The Melancholy of Race to explore the idea of whiteness and challenge the myth of “color blindness.”
