Prof.

Ebanks
Nasiba Mahmuthodjaeva
Multicultural Issues in Supervision
I am Uzbek. The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia.
Anthropologically it is the nation of mixed ethnogeny with Caucasoid and Mongoloid
components. Even though my mother had different nationality I was considered as such
because of my father. My mother is Tatar- a Turkic ethnic group of Eastern Europe and
Northern Asia. My father was coming out from a wealthy Muslim family; however, my
mothers family was struggling during that economical period. Therefore, her social
status was always reminded to her by the relatives of my father, whenever there was a
conflict between my parents. My mother was Muslim too. Even though both nationalities
were the part of Turkic group and believed in Muslim religion, the cultural background,
traditions and language were different. Muslim traditions were very religiously held in
our family. Because my mother was Muslim and married a Muslim man she had to accept
the family and the traditions of that person in order to become a part of his family. In our
culture male dominate the female and the last has to obey her husband. So, our women
mainly stay at home and raise children and our men are the ones who support family and
go to work.
Because I was born in a different country rather than Uzbekistan the traditions
were not that harsh and there were some exceptions. The place where my family resided
was Bishkek a capital of Kyrgyzstan. During that period Kyrgyzstan was a part of Soviet
Union and we had a big influence of Russian Culture on our Country. Our first language
was Russian and this language was taught in all schools. The Kyrgyz was a second

language and I also knew my native Uzbek language because it was spoken at home. Our
Country was very multicultural as well as my family. My father had Korean, Russian,
Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uygur and other friends who all spoke Russian language coming to our
house that was almost every day full of people. Therefore, we were supporting our own
traditions and respected the views of others. However, since childhood I was taught to
marry an Uzbek man and prepare to be a good wife before marriage.
Ironically, life turned another direction and my parents had to migrate to USA for
life in Kyrgyzstan was getting worse economically every day. I was left with my little
brother with our grandmother for another five years growing without parental support and
waiting for them to take us away from our Country. In five years miracle happened when
my parents received a green card and my brother and I were able to come and reunite
with our family. I just turned seventeen and had already graduated from high school but
had to learn English before getting into College. Everything was new. At the arrival, at
the airport, I had to fill out the forms in order to get my resident card. In the form area
where one had to choose ones race there was nothing being written about Middle Asian.
So, what I did, I put Asian in the blank where it said: others. Then I identified my
language as Russian. When I received my documents, US put me as white, probably
when realized that my language was Russian. I guess they assumed I misunderstood the
question or was not familiar with it.
So, when I came to college I was white. Did it help me to get into College? I do
not think so. I think mainly what helped me was my evaluated High School Diploma with
mainly A grades and me being part of minority. I was taken as an ESL student. In
College, I never met people of the same heritage as mine and mainly had friends who

were either Russian or Ukrainian. I also very rare met people of my heritage in my
neighborhood and even when I saw them; because of the hospitality of our Culture, we
usually talked and helped each other even by an advice. So I never felt judged or
detached from my own culture. From the beginning my family settled in the Russian
neighborhood and people were aware of our nationality and I felt pretty much accepted. I
was always confident sharing my background and whenever had a chance tried to inform
people about the little country I was coming from. Majority of those whom I met in
college and who were a different culture from mine thought that I was Chinese,
Philippine or Japanese because either of my physical appearance or little knowledge
about other existing Cultures. I never felt offended; I just felt that as much as I did not
know about all people in America, the same they did not know about what was happening
in other parts of the planet. It was the matter of learning and educating each other and that
is what we did.
Even though from the beginning I felt in love with New York and its people life
here was not easy. So, when I came to US everything was new. We did not have relatives
and support in New York. Unfortunately when my brother and I arrived, because there
was no such strong cultural influence anymore and no family support in addition to all
difficulties that any immigrant had to go through in New York, my parents got divorced.
My mom tried to support both of us and be compliant with all cultural traditions but with
years we abided them less and less. Probably, because of the American Culture my
perception of our culture and marriage has changed and I could choose the husband for
myself on my own.

I got married to a Russian Jewish person, which was a shock for my family, and in
a year we had a child. We did not have a traditional Jewish marriage ceremony because
we had different religions. But I was still compliant with all the rules and traditions of
Jewish Culture and supported them because of my husband and my child. The same way
as my mom did back in the days for my father. Therefore, I was always open to a new
culture and never had any biases or being judgmental about others understanding that
every person is unique no matter what his/her heritage or culture was concentrating
mainly on a personality of a person.
I have not realized about the existence of the white privilege and the hidden war
between Whites and Blacks till the time I came to the clinic I worked at and was told
about all that by my clients. I had to accept the existence of it in order to understand what
my clients go through. I was blessed to have a Black individual supervisor at that time
who explained to me how to address that and what to say to clients during this moment. I
remember she taught me to validate the clients feelings and say: Yes, racism does exist,
but we have to move on, so what do you think you might do in your situation?
I would be honest when I came to US for me it was a surprise that such a developed
country as US is facing such problems. Because of my not clear back ground and
physical appearance all clients were open to me and I could here the thoughts of all sides
whether it was White, Black or Latino. It was a good learning experience, even though, it
was sad to realize that people do not like each other based on color, heritage, race,
gender, orientation, etc. I, personally, always believed in one race Human Race and I
felt that if one-day people would wake up and understand that it would be easier to live.

But I also understood that the reality is different and in order to help our clients we have
to accept it and respect their cultural views and problems they go through.
I had different supervisors and I never had a feeling that they treat me based on my
heritage. They were always open to me in discussions about their culture. Therefore, I
figured that if I have a chance to become a supervisor I would be aware of the existence
of stereotypes, biases, racism and be open with my supervisee to address this issue if that
issue appears in our relationship or in the relationship between supervisee and his/her
client.
The class where we learned about the cultural differences helped me to be more sensitive
and empathic to each individual. I still felt that it was a little bit stereotypical and was
providing a general information about characteristics of each culture but it was good to
get informed what approach to use with whom and what to be aware of while talking to
an individual. I guess these approaches can also be well used in supervision. Otherwise, I
just think that it is important to be yourself and honest whenever the topic touches the
culture.