Manitoba College of Social Workers – Self Awareness: The first step to Anti-Racism Part 2 (Heather O’Neale, MSW, RSW)

Self Awareness: The First Step to Anti-racism (Part 2)

The following notes are part two of Heather O’Neale’s second part of the “Self Awareness: The First Step to Anti-Racism,” a joint webinar between Heather O’Neale, the Manitoba College of Social Workers, and the Canadian Association of Social Workers.  Given the current world circumstances, I felt this was an important topic to explore, and highly valued the insights gained from O’Neale’s first part of this webinar.  If you are interested in watching this webinar, you can find it here.

Brain schemas are viewed as malleable.  It is safe to acknowledge differences in race/ethnicity out loud with clients respectfully for their impacts on inequality and schemas, but also recognize them as social constructions.  Seeing clients with a shared understanding of a common form of oppression removes barriers to the understanding of the lived experience within a facet of oppression (such as racism).  We need to look at the phenomenological experience of the client – we need to bring up the possibility of collaborative inquiry on race/ethnicity and see if the client is okay exploring its impacts.  We need to become okay with talking about race/ethnicity in practice.  We should also be aware of our own competency in this domain.

By discussing race through open-ended questions shows our consideration and competency in recognizing racism as a social problem that can safely be addressed in the worker-client relationship.  Labels surrounding BIPOC individuals are labels that emerged as a result of white dominance.  We should consider how these labels can be oppressive and act in ways that dominant cultures subordinate others.

When working with the impacts of racism on a client, we need to be very cognizant of micro-aggressions that can take place, so that we can be reflexive.  When practicing, we may want to consider incorporating trauma-informed practice — recognizing that repeated experiences of racism are traumatic.  Practitioners need to continue to develop competency in responding to racism by educating themselves about racism and inadvertent actions that are racist.  We need to consider the individual’s perceived ability to cope with racially motivated aggressions in their life, and how that impacts their overall wellbeing (thereby establishing what the client would experience as traumatic).

*Note: Look at post-traumatic slavery syndrome*

*Note: Racial prejudice is different from racism*

“Reverse racism,” as a term, did not exist before the civil rights movement.  The usage increased from the implementation of employment equity programs.  Similarly, “All lives matter” did not exist before “Black lives matter.”  Another discourse, “what about white history month,” did not exist before the emergence of “Black history month.”  These counter-narratives to BIPOC movements only emerged once white culture was not the central consideration in society.  This highlights how engrained the focus on white privilege is within our society.  There is a significant disparity between the power of BIPOC individuals and White Europeans.  It is unjust to consider historical oppression of white Europeans to be similar to BIPOC — it is nowhere near the experiences of racism.  Highlight oppression for hundreds of years to hurt feelings – compare the contrast between the two.  Accountability feels like an attack when we do not acknowledge the harm done to others.

** When individuals bring up reverse-racism arguments, one could consider sincerely asking if they would feel advantaged to trade places with BIPOC? **

** For employment practices, see “Employment Equity in Canada.” **

** For public sector jobs, see the Public Service Employment Act. **

Race is a social construct!  It classifies individuals into groups and gives power to white people.  The power-over that emerges when groups of individuals become categorized by race legitimizes the dominance of white people over others.  This dominance forges a way for the divided groups do become subordinates to the political and economic gains of the dominant group.

** Consider the argument in the 1500s that persons of colour were considered to not have a soul — being classified as sub-human **

The Catholic church was an institution that was early in recognizing that BIPOC had would and were thus human.  One could not kill a slave in this religion without reason.  We need to consider why this history is not at the forefront of our educational systems (religion creating a basis for recognizing BIPOC as “humans”).

Biological and zoological explanations emerged as a means to justify slavery — a counter-discourse.  Increased colonization led to disease outbreaks in colonized geographical regions.  Undeveloped immunity to the diseases (previously limited to Europe) legitimized colonizer arguments that the BIPOC individuals were “weak.”  This was compounded by the rise of Darwinism, specifically “Social Darwinism,” that asserted non-European races cannot be saved due to their weaknesses.  This created the basis for the justifications for institutional racism.

Frederick Farrer classified the “races” (as cited by O’Neale, 2020).  Africans were lowest on the hierarchy, with Chinese next on the hierarchy, and Europeans at the top of the hierarchy.  This concept of racial hierarchy, as it applies to our current society, is well-reflected in Mensah and Williams’ (2017) book “Boomerang Ethics: How Racism Affects Us All.”  O’Neale (2020) makes a note of the “races” that Farrar constructed — Savage, Semi-Civilized, and Civilized.  Racism was further compounded by Robert Knox, who believed race was fundamentally linked with intelligence (O’Neale, 2020).  We need to consider how these messages get passed down through multiple generations.

Whiteness, as a construct, emerged in the 1700s once Europeans began to immigrate to the New World.  These Europeans, to maintain the power structures in place, had a lot of pressure on them to have power over slaves and indigenous people.  Thus, white became individuals who did not have any ancestry other than Europeans.  The approach to the “white” construct united individuals of different European nationalities.  The individuals who fit within this construct benefited from the privileges of being white — along with legitimization of their use of power to exploit and commit acts of violence against others who were not “white.”

It is crucial in modern social work practice (especially within the facets of social justice and inherent dignity and worth of persons) to challenge discourses of genetic superiority of any race based on genetics.  Remember that all humans are 99.9% alike in their genes (as cited in O’Neale, 2020).

O’Neale’s (2020) discussion of race as a construct to reinforce privilege fits well with what Anne Bishop (2015) discusses in her book on understanding how oppression develops within a society.  The assignment of value based on the perceived worth of characteristics within groups, as discussed by O’Neale (2020), highlights to me the significance of speaking out in anti-racist practice.  In personal practice, I believe this is especially the case in the “education argument” for BIPOC.  That is, people of privilege tend to only consider reappraising their value of individuals if they try to become more like the dominant group.  This is not only elitist but does not consider the additional barriers placed on BIPOC if they decide to assimilate.  Genuine worth of persons should not depend on cultural imperialism.

Our beliefs, be it assimilation or cultural imperialism, can come from a variety of sources.  As noted by O’Neale (2020), these can arise from the Media (past, present, news, movies, and tv shows), familial experiences and messages, peers, educational institutions, social media/the internet, our language and culture, and social and medical services.  It is valuable to consider what messaging children are exposed to in these messages.  We also should consider the (lack of) diversity within groups, and how these can impact our own or a client’s schemas and exposure to microaggressions.

Workers need to consider the inter-generational messaging that exists throughout the family of origin histories.  O’Neale (2020) uses the example of starting with a message and assigning between multiple persons and seeing how the end message compares to the original message.  We need to look at de-humanizing messages of non-white persons and how that shaped our (great) grandparent’s perceptions that later influence those who have had an influence on us.  We need to speak out against the racist history that exists in Canada.  We can point out the many examples of past leaderships.

There were 206 years where slavery was legal in Canada.  Both black and indigenous people were slaves.  The Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1834 – only 29 years before the United States (as cited in O’Neale).

We need to also consider the language used when we aspire to be anti-racist.  As identified by O’Neale (2020), social workers need to move away from the “us” and “them” types of language.  If non-white individuals are referred to by perceived nationality and country they are living in (such as African-Canadian), then individuals of European ancestry should also be referred to as “European-Canadian.”  Similarly, if we want to be multi-cultural, we should also consider recognizing more than just Christian-based statutory holidays.  Non-Christian holidays should hold the same stature as Christian-based ones, and not become token symbols of “inclusivity” by having their significance being primarily attached to the other religions they are associated with.

Equality celebrations (such as women’s suffrage) also need to consider who was left out — while recognizing the human rights gains as a success.  Celebration of rights, such as all women getting the right to vote, while important, miss segments of the population who were non-white and had not yet retained those privileges (such as non-white women).  We should also consider the paternalism that can exist in the token provision of services to oppressed persons, and the degree of scientific rigour in statements made about individuals of colour.

** Racism in Canada is not discussed explicitly, and this results in a false belief that there is less or no racism in our communities. The cover of being in a helper profession requires active challenging of schemas — This is where the work begins **

Privileged social workers need to:

• acknowledge structural aspects of racism
• Acknowledge the oppression of BIPOC clients and acknowledging the intentions of the systems as they currently stand.
• Have the courage to bring up race and systemic racism into the conversation
• Allowing clients to act or speak in ways congruent with their experiences (not enforcing mono-cultural beliefs)
• Allowing clients to speak for themselves — empowered.
• Acknowledging the historical and present colonization and systemic racism.
• Accepting the experiences of BIPOC clients with their perception of racism and/or privilege.
• Not comparing our hardships with the realities that exist because of skin colour.  Acknowledge the compounding effects of race and normal life struggles.
• Always question our own privilege!  Be conscious of how it impacts our interactions.

We should openly discuss with clients that race can impact the life experiences of an individual and how we may dismiss our own privilege.  Do not use the “I don’t see colour” statements with clients!

** A decolonized approach to practice is valuable here because it looks at the stories of our clients, our lives, and society. **

 

References

Bishop, A. (2015). Becoming an ally: Breaking the cycle of oppression in people (3rd ed). Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing.

Mensah, J., & Williams, C. J. (2017). Boomerang ethics: How racism affects us all. Halifax: Fernwood.

O’Neale, H. (2020). Self Awareness: The First Step to Anti-racism (Part 2) [Webinar].  Retrieved from https://onlinexperiences.com/scripts/Server.nxp?LASCmd=L:0&AI=1&ShowKey=99961&LoginType=0&InitialDisplay=1&ClientBrowser=0&DisplayItem=NULL&LangLocaleID=0&SSO=1&RFR=https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/Event.htm?ShowKey=99961