Anti-Racist Social Work: A Challenge for White Practitioners and Educators PDF
Preview Anti-Racist Social Work: A Challenge for White Practitioners and Educators
PRACTICAL SOCIAL WORK Series Editor: Jo Campling IBASW I EditorialAdvisory Board: RobertAdams, Terry Bamford, Charles Barker, Lena Dominelli, Malcolm Payne, Michael Preston-Shoot, Daphne Statham andJaneTunstill Socialwork isatanimportantstageinitsdevelopment. Allprofes sions must be responsive to changing social and economic conditions if they are to meet the needs of those they serve. This series focuses on sound practice and the specific contribution which social workers can make tothe well-being ofour society. The British Association of Social Workers has always been conscious of its role in setting guidelines for practice and in seeking to raise professional standards. The conception of the Practical Social Work series arose from a survey of BASW members to discover where they, the practitioners in social work, felt there was the most need for new literature. The response was overwhelming and enthusiastic, and the result is a carefully planned, coherent series of books. The emphasis is firmly on practice, set in a theoretical framework. The books will inform, stimulate and promote discussion, thus adding to the further development of skills and high professional standards. All the authors are practitioners and teachers ofsocial workrepresenting a wide variety of experience. JO CAMPLING A list ofpublishedtitles inthisseriesfollows overleaf PRACTICALSOCIALWORK SocialWorkandEmpowerment WomenandSocialWork RobertAdams JainaHanmerandDaphneStatham SocialWorkandMentalHandicap YouthWork DavidAnderson TonyJeffsandMarkSmith(eds) BeyondCasework ProblemsofChildhoodandAdolescence JamesG.Barber MichaelKerfootandAlanButler SocialWorkwithAddictions CommunicationinSocialWork JamesG.Barber JoyceLishman CitizenInvolvement WorkingwithViolence PeterBeresfordandSuzyCroft CarolLuptonandTerryGillespie(eds) PractisingSocialWorkLaw SocialWorkwithOlderPeople SuzyBrayeandMichaelPreston-Shoot MaryMarshallandMaryDixon SocialWorkersatRisk AppliedPsychology/orSocialWorkers RobertBrown.StanleyButeandPeterFord PaulaNicolsonandRowanBayne SocialWorkersandMentalJ/lness CrisisInterventioninSocialServices AlanButlerandColinPritchard KieranO'Hagan SocialWorkandEurope SocialWorkwithDisabledPeople CrescyCannan.LynnBerryandKarenLyons MichaelOliver ResidentialWork CareManagement RogerClough JoanOrmeandBryanGlastonbury SocialWorkandChildAbuse SocialCareintheCommunity DavidM.CooperandDavidBall MalcolmPayne ManagementinSocialWork WorkinginTeams VeronicaCoulshed Malcolm Payne SocialWorkPractice WorkingwithYoungOffenders VeronicaCOllished JohnPitts SocialWorkandLocalPolitics EffectiveGroupwork PaulDanielandJohnWheeler MichaelPreston-Shoot SociologyinSocialWorkPractice EffectiveProbationPractice PeterR.Day PeterRaynor.DavidSmithandMauriceVanstone Anti-RacistSocialWork(2ndedn) PracticeLearningandTeaching LenaDominelli StevenShardlowandMarkDoel WorkingwithAbusedChildren SocialWorkwiththeDyingandBereaved CeliaDoyle CaroleR.Smith Evaluating/orGoodPractice ChildCareandtheCourts AngelaEverittandPaulineHardiker CaroleR.Smith.MaryT.LaneandTerryWalsh AppliedResearch/orBellerPractice CriminologyforSocialWork AngelaEveritt.PaulineHardiker,JaneLittlewoodand DavidSmith AudreyMullender SocialWorkandHousing StudentSupervisioninSocialWork GilStewartandJohnStewart KathyFordandAlanJones FocusonFamilies WorkingwithRuralCommunities ChristineStones DavidFrancisandPaulHenderson Anti-DiscriminatoryPractice Children,theirFamiliesandtheLaw NeilThompson MichaelD.A.Freeman DealingwithStress FamilyWorkwithElderlyPeople NeilThompson.MichaelMurphyandSteveStradling AlisonFroggatt Workingwith.MentalJ/lness ChildSexualAbuse DerekTilbury DanyaGlaserandStephenFrosh CommunityWork ComputersinSocialWork AlanTwelvetrees BryanGlastonbury WorkingwithOffenders WorkingwithFamilies HilaryWalkerandBillBeaumont(eds) GillGorenBames Women,ManagementandCare CordeliaGrimwoodandRuthPopplestone Anti-Racist Social Work A Challenge for White Practitioners and Educators Lena Dominelli Forewordby John Small -- MACMILLAN ©BritishAssociationofSocial Workers 1997 Foreword ©John Small 1997 Allrightsreserved. Noreproduction,copy ortransmissionof thispublication maybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noparagraph ofthis publicationmay bereproduced,copied ortransmittedsave with written permissionorinaccordance withtheprovisionsoftheCopyright,Designsand PatentsAct 1988,orunderthetermsofanylicencepermittinglimited copyingissued bytheCopyrightLicensingAgency,90 TottenhamCourt Road,London WIP9HE. Anypersonwhodoes anyunauthorisedactinrelationtothis publication maybeliable tocriminalprosecutionand civil claims fordamages. The authorhasassertedher rights tobe identified asthe author ofthis work inaccordancewith theCopyright,Designs andPatentsAct 1988. Firstpublished 1997by MACMILLANPRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireR021 6XS andLondon Companies andrepresentatives throughout theworld ISBN978-0-333-68719-2 ISBN 978-1-349-14381-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-14381-8 Acatalogue record forthisbook isavailable fromtheBritish Library. This bookisprinted onpaper suitablefor recyclingand made from fullymanagedandsustained forestsources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 06 05 04 03 02 0I 00 99 98 97 Editing andoriginationby Aardvark Editorial, Mendham,Suffolk Contents Forewordto SecondEdition byJohn Small VII Dedication xiv Preface to SecondEdition xv Acknowledgements xvi Introduction: Anti-Racist Social Work - ACriticalIssue for White People 1 Defining racism? 7 The parameters of anti-racist social work 15 Notes 21 1 Racism PermeatesSocial Work Ideologyand Practice 23 Racism in British society and social work: a theoretical and practical understanding 24 Racism insocial work practice 31 Racism in social work: a social issue 40 2 Social WorkTraining isImbued with Racism 42 The social work curriculum: ananalysisofthe racism permeating the social work literature 43 Examining the racism inherent incurrent definitions of social work 49 Respectingautonomous black organisations 57 Changing directions inthe social workcurriculum 61 The employment ofteaching staffwithablackperspective 62 Anti-racist practice placements: theanti-racist apprenticeship model 66 Black students and social work training 68 Guidelines for white educationalists 69 3 Deconstructing Racism: Anti-RacismAwareness Trainingand Social Workers 71 Barriers to anti-racist practice: avoidance strategies 72 Anti-racismawareness training 74 Exercises aimed atexamining personal awarenessofracism 84 Anti-racismawareness training andorganisational v vi Anti-RacistSocial Work change: changing employmentpolicies 89 Anti-racism awareness training and trainers 92 4 Social Working Black Families 94 Problematisingblackfamilies 94 The myth ofthe 'blackfamily' 95 White social workers' intervention with black children 99 . The use of interpreters 106 Theconvergenceof white sexism and racism insocial work practice 107 Multiple oppression: the case ofa First Nations woman 113 White social work intervention with blackyouth 115 Whitesocial work intervention with olderblackpeople 120 Countering white social workers' racism 124 5 TacklingRacism at the Organisational Level: Workingon Agency Policies and Practices 129 Ending the conspiracy ofsilence about racism in social work 130 Establishing anequal opportunities policy: setting theclimatefor anti-racist social work 138 Blockages toequal opportunities 139 Endorsing an equal opportunities policy requires additional resources 140 Theexploitationofblackworkers through Section 11posts 142 Collective strategies and methods in implementingorganisational change 145 6 Campaigningfor theTransformation of Social Work: the WhiteSocialWorkeras anAnti-RacistAdvocate 148 Campaigns againstinstitutionalisedracism andthe denial ofblack people's rights 150 Anti-racist social work practice is good practice 158 Equalising action, not 'positive discrimination' 161 7 Conclusions: DevelopingAnti-Racist/Non-Racist Social Work 165 Anti-racist social work guidelines 166 UsefulAddresses 168 Bibliography 169 Index 182 Foreword to second edition Within the eight years since this book was published there have been significant changes which have been amplified bythepolitical transfor mation in Eastern Europe. These changes have resulted in hope and optimism in some quarters. However, behind this hope and optimism lurks fear and anxiety about the reactivation of the far right ideology which ismanifestingitselfthrough attackson 'migrants'orblackpeople. This has brought into focus the forces in society that are supporting attitudes that are adverse to the welfare of the black population. Social work and socialservicesare key playersintheprocess.The freemarket philosophy andprivatisation haveresultedinthetrimmingofthewelfare stateandarolling backofthegainsofblackpeoplewhichwereachieved through hard struggles. Againstthisbackground,Anti-RacistSocialWorkisrevisedinorderto take account of these developments. These developments have caused consequential shifts in the social, political and economic landscape. Social work and social services must therefore be seenand analysed as politicalphenomena;notinthe narrowpartysensebutwithinthecontext of thedistribution and theuse ofpowertoreward orpunishonthebasis ofrace andcolour.Itis within thiscontextthatLenaDominellianalyses social work and social services, by putting the discipline under the microscope and demonstrating how the 'purchaser', 'provider', 'community care', 'care management' and 'value for money', as the guiding principles of the new social work, have worked against the welfare of the majority of black people inBritain.Outof thisprocessis emerging a new form of specialism in social work. This is being anchored in traditional socialwork,withoutanyregardtothevitalroles of racism within the structure of ideas that underpinsthe method. This revised edition of Anti-Racist Social Work forces us to recognise the political nature of socialwork and socialservices. It shows how social work can influence ideas, structures, values, institutions, behaviour and also determine the types ofrelationship that exist between individuals within the client-worker relationship. In this regard,the challengesfacing black people are notonlythose todowith separation from the familiar and attachment to the unfamiliar but vii Vlll Anti-RacistSocial Work confronting the multi-dimensional characteristics of racism as they go about their daily lives. It is sad that even after such a long history of blackpeopleresiding inBritain and thecontributionthatthey have made to the development of the economy and society, nevertheless they are still regarded as aliens and are cut off from the main stream of British societyanditsinstitutions. Anti-Racist Social Work shows that the major obstacle confronting blackpeopleinBritaintodaycontinuestobeinstitutionalisedoppression. Asapartofthisprocess,racismisstillthefundamental barrier preventing accesstoopportunity,privilege, power and socialjusticeforthe majority of the black population. It is against this background that the book is written. It is designed to bring to the foreground the effect of racism in social workeducation and training and to demonstrate how the various elementsofracistpracticearestitched intothefabric ofsocial work. It has been said that the teacher today is teaching what has been learned at least two generations ago from textbooks that were written several decades before. In the field of social work this is certainly the case and in relation to social work with black people the problem is multiplied in that social work theoreticians have largely ignored the presence of the black population, and so in their theory-building little attention hasbeen paid to the effects of racism on the black population. The immediate and central task of the discipline must therefore be to reorientatethevalue baseofsocial work inareal way toconfrontracism initsvariousforms. Thisbookrecognises theurgent need fortransformationinthefield of social work. Without work of this nature, stereotyping and the reinforcingofracist practices is likely tocontinue into the distantfuture without being challenged.The first task is to acknowledge differences and identify similarities but the danger, of course, is that often differ ences becomegeneralised into stereotypes, and this we must constantly guard against. Lena Dominelli's work demonstrates that generalisation performs an important function in terms of making sense.of new situations.However, assheshows, generalisation should notbeasubsti tute for accurate description of new situations, of observation, analysis andlogicaldeduction basedonthelevelofcurrentknowledge.This book illustrates how the process of generalisation can be transformed into stereotyping and then fed back into the structure of ideas, thereby reinforcingracism. Dominelli shows that racist ideas have survived the past, exist in the present andwillcontinue into the future, not as areuslt of theconserva tive nature of the society but because of the essential function that is Forewordto second edition ix servedbythephenomenon.Infact,racistideasareoftenreactivatedfrom the past to serve the same function in the present.Through a thorough analysis of racism she shows that although certain symbols of racism have changed asaresponse totheanti-racist onslaughtothershavetaken their place, thereby articulating the old and bringing to the surface the adaptive nature of the phenomenon. Withthis analysisshe shows that a change in symbolic form does not necessarily result in a concomitant change in symbolic function, inthat thesamefunctionisserved bynew symbolic forms. It is therefore of critical importance that anti-racist strategies are brought into the social work profession to safeguard its value base. This work shows that racism is a dynamic force, with the inherent nature to change over time and that it is profoundly influenced by the political, economic and socialforces thatareinoperationataparticular period of time. It can be articulated through the medium of culture 'culturalracism'.Forexample,wherecertainculturalfeaturesareseenas British and desirable, or 'black' and undesirableandtherefore 'superior' or 'inferior'. It is also used to explain the poverty of black people in Britain or the existence of poverty in former colonial countries. In this way the underdevelopment and poverty inthecountriesfrom which the black population descend are not seen as due to imperialism and colonialismbutasaresult ofcultural andgeneticinferiority. Dominelli shows that racism is inherently exclusionary and is embeddedwithinthestructureofthesociety.Consequently,itisvitalthat the variables be isolated and analysed in order to bring into focus its exclusionary characteristics, the elements within, its articulation, its persistence and the process of its operation through a dialectic of inclusionary and exclusionary representations. In this regard Dominelli conceives it as being of primary importance that individualand institu tional racism are to be studied simultaneously in order to discover the interrelationship between them and the impact on individuals and society.Todootherwisewould betooperateatalevelofdescriptionand toleave her work unfinished. In arriving at this position, Dominelli avoids the usual analytical problem of applying different meanings anddifferent termstothe same phenomenon. In this work, racism is seen not only as discriminatory treatment onthebasisofraceandcolourbutalsoanideologywhichfuels institutions by the use of power within a class society with conflicts permeating every level of the social structure. The exclusionary and inclusionary nature of the phenomenon together with its collective
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