By Carmen Ortiz Hendricks, DSW, ACSW

(February/March 1997)

In his recent State of the Union address, President Clinton stated, "We must never ever believe that diversity is a weakness--it is our greatest strength," powerful words even if they do not always ring true for all Americans. As a woman born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, I can identify more with W. E. B. DuBois' statement, "How does it feel to be the problem?" Throughout my career as a social worker, I have become very familiar with the benefits and limitations of a strong cultural identity. I can attest to how far we have come, and how far we still need to go towards cross-cultural harmony and healing.

After migrating to New York City when I was four years old, my matriarchal, working class family struggled daily to provide the best opportunities possible to help me make something of myself. My grandmother, mother, godmother, and aunt worked hard to nurture my talents and my sense of self worth. My family taught me to mistrust "the stranger," meaning anyone outside the family, and to be proud of my Puerto Rican roots, never forgetting my bicultural and bilingual background. Education was their golden road to self-reliance and success in this society. They were right on several levels.

As a practitioner, my bilingual/bicultural skills help me gain instant rapport with Latino clients, and to feel highly effective as a social worker. But I burn out easily when I am the only Latina social worker serving all Latino clients in an agency. As a social work educator, I am generally the first Puerto Rican instructor students have encountered in a classroom. I sense that they expect a great deal more from "minority" faculty than they do of mainstream, white professors. Classroom tensions run high when white students expect to learn about "Hispanicness" or "colorhood" from personal testimonials by classmates or this professor of color.

I have seen the numbers of Latinos and African Americans entering the profession increase significantly, and more racially and ethnically diverse faculty members are teaching in what could still be classified as predominantly white institutions. Yet I was the only Latina in my masters and doctoral programs, and all too often I chair or participate in meetings in which I am the only Latina or woman of color in attendance.

I never feel as conscious of my cultural background as when I stand in front of a classroom or chair a meeting of diverse women and men of different ages, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, religious or spiritual beliefs, disabilities, or social classes. Recently I chaired the Chapter's all-day "Think Tank" attended by over 40 Chapter Board Members, officers, staff, and committee chairs. This diverse group of people worked diligently and well together from 9:30 am until 4:00 pm planning Chapter priorities for the immediate and long-range future. I am genuinely impressed by how generous, committed, and brave my colleagues are on behalf of the profession. They are eager to have their own views challenged, changed, or enriched. I try to meet them wherever they are and I am willing to guide them to places they might not have imagined. Their enthusiasm and patience sustains me, although I cannot for one moment forget my "otherness."

My dual identity compels me to question what is expected of me as President of the Chapter, and what is expected of me as the Latina President of this Chapter. With age, experience, wisdom, and professional training I am better able to handle the emotions and conflicts which arise from a multicultural existence. I may not have discovered the most effective strategies for dealing with diversity, but the more we have frank discussions about our individual backgrounds and experiences, the more we can hope for harmony, peace and understanding.

"Racial and Ethnic Harmony" is the theme of the 1997 NASW Public Service Campaign for this year's Social Work Month. Our new Code of Ethics includes cultural competence and social diversity as an ethical responsibility to clients and to the broader society. These are not new themes for our Chapter. We have expanded the active participation of an increasingly diverse membership in all aspects of Chapter activities and leadership. We take pride in our diversity and turn this sentiment into constructive actions for ourselves and our consumers. We need to continue to work together to make this the NADSW or "National Association of Diverse Social Workers," with diversity as our middle name!