Campaigning for the Transformation of Social Work: the White Social Worker as an Anti-Racist Advocate and Change Agent

Abstract

The major task of white anti-racist social work advocates and change agents is the transformation of existing social work practice and the social relations expressed through and within it. Working in this direction requires white anti-racist social work advocates and change agents to break their silence about the destruction that racism wreaks on black people’s lives. It also demands that they cease acting as ‘experts’ who can speak for and on behalf of black people. In implementing strategies predicated on challenging racism in both the personal and structural dimensions, white anti-racist social work advocates and change agents will have to work simultaneously along all three levels: the individual (or personal), the institutional and the cultural. This will require white anti-racist social work advocates and change agents both to work on their own and collectively to deal with individual distress and overcome the structural constraints through which racist practices are perpetuated. The following case studies examine how this work can be done in different contexts — divided families, situations combining sexism with racism, protecting civil liberties and endorsing various forms of kinship.