To think my racist SIL should consider another profession?

[Adventcalendargobbler]

I’ve known my SIL (35) for just over 10 years. She’s currently at the tail end of her psychology degree, and is aiming for a career as a psychologist.

She’s a very self absorbed, braggy person anyway, and constantly use unnecessary vocabulary when talking - e.g. using really obscure scientific/medical names for things in a casual conversation.

She’s adamant that she’s going to go on to earn 80k+ as a psychologist, however she is extremely racist, homophobic, and slut shames other women.

I don’t understand how it’s possible or ethical for someone to work in that field while having such awful views of people? It’s a common occurrence for her to make awful racist slurs about people!

Do people in this field have to be assessed before being let out into the wild to do their job? I’d be devastated if I knew my therapist (or whatever it is that she’ll end up doing) was not only judging me for my race/sexual orientation, but didn’t like me because of it.

I’ve told her before that her views and comments are bang out of line, but she just calls me a bore who can’t take a joke, and “obviously” she wouldn’t say this in front of people.

AIBU to think this, or am I being a bore who should keep her nose out?

If I’m a bigot than most of the world is bigoted with me. Cope and seethe

@Feelallright @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g fair enough, I'm a troglodyte that doesn't know the difference between psychology and psychiatry.

Now I do (thanks Google), swap one for the other and my point still stands.

racism and homophobia makes someone a poor candidate for the job.

however, your criticism of her use of precise language makes me doubt your ability to evaluate the situation. A good vocabulary is not a negative character trait.

From the OPs update-

When discussing the murder of a black man, SIL said “good, one less to worry about”

regular use of racial slurs, N word (and P word for Asian people)

stereotyping, one of her friends didn’t want to pay for something so SIL called her jewish

holocaust jokes, slavery jokes, reference to “cotton picking”

Thinks that LGBTQ+ relationships are immoral, unnatural and disgusting
stereotyping again based off looks, if a woman is masc then SIL says she’s a De, or if a man is feminine he is a Ft

any woman that uploads promiscuous pictures to social media is a “whore”, and those on onlyfans “are asking for it”

@YukioMishimaCore How would you describe someone who not only thinks but openly says such things?

It doesn’t really. Psychology is a general undergraduate degree, like geography. It doesn’t qualify you for anything particular at all, though it may be a starting-off point for becoming a clinical psychologist (many years of studying later). Competition for getting on a clinical psychologist course is fierce, nothing like getting on a psychology degree course.

I don’t agree with it personally but people can say no no words If they want

Clinical Psychologists have to gain a 2:1 or above in their undergraduate degree, gain experience to then get onto the highly competitive Doctoral courses, which are a mix of supervised placements in the NHS and academic work. It takes most people at least 7 years in total.

During that time supervisors should spot these dodgy views. Those views are against the core philosophy and purpose of being a clinical psychologist. Her undergrad degree should have taught her about bias, stigma and stereotypes but perhaps she missed those bits!!

If by some chance she manages to hide her views well enough and she works hard enough to qualify then she won’t start on that salary. A third of that would be more like it. To get up to that level of salary would take many years.

I would be surprised if she has the sticking power to become a Clinical Psychologist to be honest.

Would you agree that someone who thought and said these things was a bigot?

You can’t see inside that person’s head, a lot of the people say stuff like that to bait the over sensitive.

Avoiding the question in PMQs style then.

“Bait the over-sensitive”? And that’s someone who wants to be a “psychologist”?

This

Yes, if you like, they’re a bigot. But I think being a bigot isn’t a crime.

There's a time and a place for using jargon you've picked up in your job and/or studies. Posting on Facebook saying your child's good school report shows their frontal lobes are developing well might be a joke, or it might be a case of a little learning is a dangerous thing. I'm not a psychology graduate but I don't have the impression that the amount of neuroscience she might have picked up in the course of a degree would qualify her to pontificate about brain development.

Being a bigot is not a crime but acting out those thoughts can and do cause unnecessary pain to the very people they don’t like especially when in position of authority and power who have done nothing to them but simply exist.

They can say those things. And it makes them racist sexist homophobic cunts.

Interestingly enough that thread has been deleted.

Which is I imagine part of the reason people have aired concerns on this one.

Bottom line is sil is not anywhere near professional status and probably will never be with those extreme attitudes.

However it is a very slippery slope to expect purity from health professionals regardless of field. I was talking to a nurse the other day who clearly has religious views about abortion. As a pro choicer I changed the subject, and made a mental note not to raise it with her again.

But I think the NHS would be in a lot of trouble if all pro lifers were barred from working for them.

And seeing as the NHS is overwhelmingly staffed by women if those that don't believe men can be women were also barred from working for them they would be up shit creek indeed(pop over to women's rights sex and gender and have a look at some of the NHS threads to see this is already happening).

In the case of the sil someone who thinks and says all those things would have almost zero chance of completing training, getting appropriate qualifications etc with those views intact. They might with more grey area views like concerns about immigration in general, surrogacy, misogyny and certain practices under the LGBTQ+ community (particularly the.plus and maps who are doing their best to shelter under the umbrella) and I'm reluctant to set a bar of have a misguided thought, joke or view and barred from working as a professional, without any opportunity to change your mind or mature, whatever.
If that's the case only the purest of the pure can hold those positions and to be frank the people that qualify for that show alarming amounts of problematic views on same sex attracted, race and women themselves.

Op is actually better off addressing the immediate concern of whether she addresses sil or goes non contact.

I'm surprised it got deleted. Given many things on here get classified as racist which are not and legally held views. It's like being accused of being far right that has changed massively over the years. You should never discriminate positively or negatively on the basis of race.

I know two people who trained, qualified and practice as psychotherapists. Both have obvious, unmanaged mental health issues themselves and are not very nice people. It happens.

Anyway I still believe people should be able to think what they want the moment it turns into actions that affect someone either physically or verbally then it becomes a problem.

There are many people around the world who don't accept homosexuality (I do before the wokerati jump down my neck) for religious reasons. Are we suggesting they would be unsuitable for employment because of views that the don't actually act upon?

Should someone who enjoys baiting others be working with people who already have mental health problems?

But finding sexual offence crimes abhorrent is a TOTALLY different concept from finding other races & homosexuality abhorrent @Fuwari

Surely you see that?