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Combating editorial racism

Threshold, 432 Antrim Road, Belfast BT15 5GB, Northern Ireland. E-mail: loretta{at}thresholdservices.com

EDITED BY KIRIAKOS XENITIDIS and KHALIDA ISMAIL

I was delighted to see the editorial on ‘Combating editorial racism in psychiatric publications’ (Tyrer, 2005). You liken this to those from the world's poorest countries always playing uphill and into a howling gale. How about taking away their football boots!

I applaud Professor Tyrer for addressing this problem and want to reciprocate with this contribution. Black and minority ethnic groups within the wealthy 10% of the world's population have a responsibility to engage and link with those in the remaining 90% to ensure that knowledge and research are disseminated as widely as possible and, importantly, to ensure that this has an effect on those receiving psychiatric services. An example of this two-way synergy is work my (White) colleague and I have completed on the emotional effects of the troubles in Northern Ireland (Kapur & Campbell, 2004). In applying a psychoanalytic model to the conflict we have attempted to highlight the emotional traumas suffered in everyday life. This suffering is universal. Archbishop Tutu kindly agreed to write the foreword to our book and here we have an example of a synergy that has facilitated ideas from psychoanalysis, which has struggled with cultural diversity (Littlewood, 1988; Littlewood & Lipsedge, 1997), being shared and validated by a nation, South Africa, which like Northern Ireland has suffered its own experiences of political oppression with the consequent infliction of trauma.

The problem with playing the ‘race card’, as you note, is that it can be seen as an excuse for work that may not reach the standards of a particular journal. Or, vice versa, the work might be of too high a standard and thus ‘show up’ lesser publications of the other 10%, mainly White contributors! The problem with not protesting is that there is an institutional collusion with racism which opposes merit and excellence and only leaves feelings of injustice which we suggest (Kapur & Campbell, 2004) is a major cause of terrorism. Maybe Archbishop Tutu agreed to write the foreword because he knew, half-way across the world, that we had one particular experience in common: playing uphill against a howling gale in our football socks.

But there is hope; as long as people continue to speak out we can make good use of recent research findings which suggest that prejudice is not ‘hard wired’ in the amygdala (Wheeler & Fiske, 2005). If you change the context in which people are seen, prejudice can lessen. For example, contributors from Black and minority ethnic groups are part of a professional community first, rather than part of a particular race. I will now prepare my next paper for submission to the Journal (it has been 17 years since my last one; Kapur et al, 1988).

REFERENCES

Kapur, R. & Campbell, J. (2004) The Troubled Mind of Northern Ireland: An Analysis of the Emotional Effects of the Troubles. London: Karnac.

Kapur, R., Miller, K. & Mitchell, E. (1988) Therapeutic factors within in-patient and out-patient psychotherapy groups. Implications for therapeutic techniques. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 229 -233.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Littlewood, R. (1988) Towards an intercultural therapy. Journal of Social Work Practice, 3, 8-19.

Littlewood, R. & Lipsedge, M. (1997) Aliens and Alienists: Ethnic Minorities and Psychiatry (3rd edn). London: Routledge.

Tyrer, P. (2005) Combating editorial racism in psychiatric publications. British Journal of Psychiatry, 186, 1 -3.[Free Full Text]

Wheeler, M. & Fiske, S. (2005) Controlling racial prejudice: social - cognitive goals affect amygdala and stereotype activation. Psychological Science, 16, 56-63.[CrossRef][Medline]

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