"The profession of social work in the United States has a complex history of perpetuating White supremacy and racism alongside a professed goal to achieve social justice and equality for all. The paradox of being situated as a justice-oriented professionthat operates within structures of oppression and racial hierarchy has led to ongoing struggle over the definition and purpose of the profession itself. There are numerous discursive conflicts and actual harm that results from being actors in state sanctioned systems of unequal power while working toward a social justice ideal. Indeed, many scholars have discussed social work's paradoxical positions in relation to populations they purport to help: single women and mothers, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, and children and families struggling with poverty, oppression, and displacement (Abramovitz, 2017; Abrams & Curran, 2004; Thibeault & Spencer, 2019). Prior scholarship has centered around control and coercion with respect to the people that we profess to help (Fook, 2002); if social work is simply a tool to try to soften the blows of oppression, hence making oppressive conditions just slightly more "bearable" and thwarting resistance (Lundy, 2011). Other scholars have documented how social workers actively participate in state sanctioned racial violence (Roberts, 2002); and how the profession's social control function is in conflict with anti-oppression work (Abramowitz, 1998; Dominelli, 1996; Webb, 2006). This edited volume on Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice aspires to add context, insight and new ways of thinking to these critical conversations"--
The profession of social work in the United States has a complex history of upholding White supremacy alongside a goal of achieving racial justice. Moreover, the profession simultaneously practices within racist institutions and systems and works to dismantle them. While there are many ways that the profession of social work has improved quality of life for minoritized groups, there are numerous missed opportunities where we have failed to uphold our values. In the wake of national movements to stop state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism and the knowledge of persistent racial disparities in key social welfare institutions (i.e., child welfare, criminal justice, health, housing, and mental health), these paradoxes remain the forefront of discussion in academia, social media, and social work practice. The aftermath of these national efforts provided an opportunity to appraise our profession's relationship to White supremacy and racial justice in order to reimagine and work
to achieve an anti-racist future.
In this edited volume, the authors critically examine social work's history, values, and mission, offer innovative strategies for education and practice, and make a call-to-action for social work to eliminate structural racism in education, research, practice, and social service institutions and systems. A collection of 40 chapters using diverse voices, theories, and methods challenges us to conceptualize and enact an anti-racist future through reckoning with our past histories of oppression and resistance, de-centering whiteness, and forging new practices, policies, and pedagogies that can lead to an anti-racist future.
Lisainfo e-raamatute kohta