Cultural Humility and Forbes’ Columbus and Other Cannibals: Why Humility Is Hard and Lessons from Wetiko
10 min read Discussion: Cultural humility and Forbes’ Columbus and Other Cannibals
Why is it so challenging to cultivate and maintain cultural humility?
What lessons could we glean from Forbes’ text, Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism, regarding cultural humility?
Parameters
- Identify one major point from the readings that was a new learning point for you
- Retrieve one article/citation on cultural humility in psychology
- Apply what you learned from reading this additional article
- Address how reading this additional article built upon the major point(s) from the readings
- Discuss contradictory information from the article to the readings’ main point(s)
What is cultural humility?
The term cultural humility was introduced by Tervalon and Murray-García (1998) as an alternative to “cultural competence.” Rather than suggesting that a professional can master knowledge of another culture, cultural humility is a lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and self-critique, to redressing power imbalances between provider and client, and to building respectful partnerships with communities and institutions. In psychology, Hook and colleagues (2013) define it as an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented rather than self-focused, marked by respect and a lack of superiority toward another person’s cultural background and experience.
Lifelong examination of one’s own biases, privilege and assumptions
Curiosity about the client’s worldview; the client is the expert on their culture
Recognizing and reducing power imbalances in relationships and systems
Admitting what one does not know; learning from mistakes
Working with clients and communities, not on them
Changing policies and systems, not only individual attitudes
Why is cultural humility so challenging to cultivate and maintain?
- It is never “finished.” Unlike a skill that is mastered after training, humility requires ongoing self-reflection. Professionals may complete a diversity course and assume the work is done.
- Ego and the expert role: clinicians are trained to be experts who diagnose and advise. Humility asks them to admit what they do not know and to let clients be the experts on their own cultures, which can feel threatening to professional identity.
- Implicit bias: many biases operate outside awareness, so people can sincerely believe they are unbiased while acting on stereotypes.
- Ethnocentrism: we tend to see our own cultural values, such as individualism, Western science or a particular view of time, family or illness, as “normal” and others as deviations.
- Privilege and power: people with more social power often do not see the advantages they hold, and acknowledging privilege can provoke guilt or defensiveness.
- Discomfort and fear of mistakes: conversations about race, religion, colonization or oppression are uncomfortable, so people avoid them; this avoidance creates “missed cultural opportunities.”
- Time pressure and systems: productivity demands, short appointments and institutional cultures leave little room for reflection and relationship-building.
- Stress and depletion: under stress, people rely more on mental shortcuts and stereotypes.
Lessons from Forbes’ Columbus and Other Cannibals
Jack D. Forbes (1934–2011) was a Powhatan-Renapé and Lenape scholar and a founder of Native American Studies. In Columbus and Other Cannibals, first published in the late 1970s and revised in 2008, Forbes examines the history of contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples, a history marked by fear, hatred and genocide, and offers a radical critique of modern civilization (Forbes, 2008).
Forbes borrows the Cree concept of wetiko (related to windigo in other Algonquian languages), a cannibal spirit or sickness. He uses it to describe a “disease” of the mind and spirit: the drive to consume the lives, lands, labor and resources of others for one’s own gain. In his analysis, colonization, imperialism, slavery, exploitation and terrorism are expressions of this sickness, which spreads from person to person and from culture to culture. Greed, materialism and the belief that one has the right to dominate others are its symptoms. Forbes contrasts this with Indigenous worldviews that emphasize respect, reciprocity and the sacredness and interconnection of all life.
Lessons for cultural humility
| Forbes’ idea | Lesson for cultural humility |
|---|---|
| Wetiko is driven by arrogance and a sense of superiority | Humility is the “antidote”: the opposite of approaching another culture as something to judge, own or control |
| Colonizers judged Indigenous peoples as “savage” or “cannibal,” while their own behavior was the truly consuming one | Turn the lens on ourselves first; examine our own culture’s harms before labeling others |
| Wetiko spreads and becomes normal, so those affected may not recognize it | Bias and exploitation can be built into “normal” systems; humility requires questioning what feels normal |
| Indigenous values of respect, reciprocity and connection | Relationships with clients should be reciprocal partnerships, not extraction of information for the professional’s benefit |
| Historical trauma persists across generations | Clients from colonized or oppressed groups may carry historical trauma and justified mistrust of institutions, including psychology |
Applying the parameters: a sample response
The sections below model a complete response. Use your own “new learning point” and reflections.
1. One major new learning point
A major new learning point for me was Forbes’ (2008) reversal of who is labeled the “cannibal.” European colonizers described Indigenous peoples as savages and cannibals, yet Forbes argues that the true cannibalism was the colonizers’ consumption of other people’s lives, lands and cultures for profit and power. This showed me how a dominant group can project its own failings onto others while seeing itself as civilized and superior. For cultural humility, the lesson is that the greatest danger is not ignorance of other cultures but unexamined arrogance about one’s own.
2. Article on cultural humility in psychology
Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., Owen, J., Worthington, E. L., Jr., & Utsey, S. O. (2013). Cultural humility: Measuring openness to culturally diverse clients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(3), 353–366.
Across four studies, Hook and colleagues developed and tested the Cultural Humility Scale, a client-rated measure of how culturally humble clients perceive their therapist to be. They found that the scale was reliable and valid, that clients who saw their therapists as more culturally humble reported a stronger working alliance, and that perceived cultural humility was linked to greater improvement in therapy, with the working alliance helping explain that link.
3. Applying what I learned from the article
Hook et al. (2013) show that cultural humility is something the client experiences, not something the therapist can simply claim. In practice, I would invite clients to share what their cultural identity means to them, ask how their background shapes their view of their problem and of therapy, acknowledge openly when I don’t understand something, and regularly check whether the client feels respected and understood. When I make a cultural mistake, I would acknowledge it and repair the relationship rather than becoming defensive. Because humility strengthens the working alliance, these behaviors are not just ethical; they also improve outcomes.
4. How the article builds on the readings
Forbes (2008) diagnoses the problem: a worldview of superiority and domination that harms others. Hook et al. (2013) describe part of the remedy at the level of the individual relationship: an other-oriented stance without superiority. The article’s definition of humility directly counters the arrogance Forbes describes. It also shows, with evidence, that when professionals set aside superiority, clients feel safer and improve more. Forbes’ history explains why clients from colonized and marginalized groups may enter therapy with mistrust; Hook’s research shows that humility helps build the trust needed for healing.
5. Contradictory information
There are also tensions between the article and the readings:
- Individual versus systemic focus: Forbes describes wetiko as a collective, civilizational sickness embedded in economic and political systems. Hook et al. (2013) measure humility as an individual therapist trait within a single relationship. From Forbes’ perspective, a humble therapist working inside an exploitative system may change little; individual humility without structural change could even mask deeper injustice. Tervalon and Murray-García (1998) partly bridge this gap by including institutional accountability in their definition.
- Ways of knowing: Forbes critiques the Western worldview that separates, measures and controls. Hook et al. use quantitative scales and statistical models, tools of Western psychology, to study humility. Forbes might question whether a spiritual and relational quality can be captured by a questionnaire.
- Judgment versus non-judgment: cultural humility emphasizes non-judgment and openness, while Forbes makes a strong moral judgment, labeling exploitation a disease. This suggests that humility does not mean moral neutrality; respecting others may require naming and opposing oppression.
- Optimism about change: Hook et al. suggest humility can be measured, trained and improved within existing practice. Forbes suggests that healing wetiko requires deep spiritual and cultural transformation, a much larger task.
Sample discussion post
Cultural humility is challenging because it is never finished. It requires lifelong self-reflection, admitting the limits of our knowledge, and confronting implicit biases and privilege that often operate outside our awareness. Forbes (2008) deepened my understanding of why this is so difficult. His concept of wetiko, a sickness of consuming other people’s lives and resources for one’s own gain, shows how arrogance and a sense of superiority can become normal within a whole culture. My major new learning point was Forbes’ reversal of who is the “cannibal”: colonizers labeled Indigenous peoples as savages while their own exploitation was the true consumption of others. This taught me that cultural humility must begin with examining my own culture and assumptions. Hook et al. (2013) found that clients who perceived their therapists as culturally humble formed stronger working alliances and improved more in therapy. I will apply this by asking clients what their culture means to them, acknowledging what I don’t know, and repairing cultural ruptures. This research builds on Forbes by offering a practical antidote to superiority in the therapy room. However, it also contrasts with Forbes: Hook et al. focus on individual therapist traits measured by questionnaires, while Forbes views exploitation as a collective, systemic and spiritual problem requiring much deeper transformation. Together, they suggest that cultural humility must operate at both the personal and the structural level.
Related reading: confronting bias in healthcare (ageism), multicultural considerations in a counseling case and Person-Centered Therapy.
Conclusion
Cultural humility is difficult because it asks professionals to give up the comfort of expertise and superiority and to keep examining themselves for a lifetime. Forbes’ account of wetiko shows the destructive consequences of the opposite stance: a worldview that consumes others while believing itself civilized. Research in psychology confirms that humility strengthens therapeutic relationships and outcomes, but Forbes reminds us that individual humility is only one part of the cure; addressing the systems and histories of exploitation is the other.
References
Forbes, J. D. (2008). Columbus and other cannibals: The wetiko disease of exploitation, imperialism, and terrorism (Rev. ed.). Seven Stories Press.
Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., Owen, J., Worthington, E. L., Jr., & Utsey, S. O. (2013). Cultural humility: Measuring openness to culturally diverse clients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(3), 353–366. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032595
Tervalon, M., & Murray-García, J. (1998). Cultural humility versus cultural competence: A critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 9(2), 117–125. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2010.0233
