Visible Racial/Ethnic Groups

DoneldaA. Cook

Visible racial/ethnic groups is a euphemism for racial/ethnic classification in the counseling profession when discussing American racial/ethnic groups that are non-Caucasian or not of European descent. This terminology, coined by Janet E. Helms and Donelda A. Cook, for African, Latino/a, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Native/Indigenous Americans, is an alternative to the term racial/ethnic minority groups . Identifying visible racial/ethnic groups as “minorities” in research and counseling implicitly compares these groups to Caucasians/European Americans as the standard, thereby disempowering them. Additionally, the term minorities connotes subordinate social status. The use of the terms minority for visible racial/ethnic groups and majority for Caucasian/European Americans reinforces the existing racial power differences in societal relations in the United States. The term visible racial/ethnic groups signifies two aspects of American racial socialization of peoples of African, Asian, Latin, and Indigenous North American descent. The first aspect focuses on common cultural characteristics, norms, values, visible ...

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