Unpack the history of social work.
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Yesterday, the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council effectively reversed a rule that allowed social workers to turn away clients who are LGBTQ or have a disability. Although many in the state are breathing a sigh of relief, it's indicative of a larger narrative of how the social work industry has helped and harmed throughout the years. Today, Deana shares their perspective on where the social work industry can improve and unpacks their racial roots.
Nicole
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After reading this article, reflect on the following: How does policing show up in different professions? What media / history informs a narrative that social workers are inherently good? How can we support our own communities *before* a social services intervention is needed?
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By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)
After a summer of protests and uprisings around anti-Blackness in America, many people are looking for solutions to police violence and killings. A popular suggestion is having social workers respond to a crisis instead of police (The Guardian). Because they are unarmed and trained in de-escalation and crisis management, social workers can seem like the perfect solution.
In theory, this makes sense, but propping up social workers as the solution to systemic racism ignores the past and present role of social workers as the implementers of racist policies in America (National Association of Social Workers). During my time in a Bachelor of Social Work program, I experienced firsthand how the profession focused on legality over morality. Conversations about reporting hypothetical undocumented immigrants to ICE revealed how many future social workers were willing to turn away those most in need. Beyond that, stereotypes about welfare queens and Black students with no drive to succeed ran rampant in the classroom. Social work students, professors, and practitioners create and perpetuate environments that overlook blatant racism every day.
To fully understand the extent of social workers participation in racist policies and programs, we need to look at the roots of the profession in America. What we think of as “social work” in the United States began with Jane Addams and her fellow wealthy white women providing charity via the Hull House, a home and community space provided for those in need (Jade Addams Papers Project). Despite the success social workers saw in providing housing, education, and social opportunities, there were gaps in what they achieved. For one, Hull House was racially (but not ethnically) segregated from the day doors opened in 1889 into the late 1930s (Jade Addams Papers Project). These social workers also failed to challenge the systems that created poverty and racial inequity. Instead, they focused on systems of charity that did not challenge their own social or financial statuses. As a result, their client’s needs were met but the root of the problems they faced are still plaguing us today.
This was the beginning of social workers partnering with federal, state, and local governments (GovLoop). Whether they are providing social welfare or enforcing social policing, social workers are part of the bureaucracy of government bodies on all levels. Too often, this has manifested in social workers perpetuating policies and actions that are racist and inhumane.
As early into the profession as the 1920s, social workers were involved in restricting the reproductive freedoms of marginalized communities. Even the mother of social work, Jane Addams, embraced eugenics as a policy solution to social problems (Affilia). Social workers and other medical professionals agreed that forced sterilization of Black people, poor people, those without an education, single mothers, and mentally disabled people was good for society. In North Carolina, this practice continued up into 1974, with at least 7,600 victims on the record (MSNBC).
And while social workers are largely responsible for child welfare policies and programs in America, that history is also rooted in racism and violence. In 1958, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a federal agency responsible for administration of Indigenous land (American Resources on the Net), created the Indian Adoption Project to break up Indigenous families. Predominantly white social workers would visit families on reservations and convince parents that it was in their children's best interests to sign away their parental rights (Upstander Project). When parents refused to allow their children to be adopted by white parents in eastern states, the coercion and manipulation began. Social workers showed up unannounced when children were in hospitals or being babysat to remove them without consent (MPR).
"We can't be afraid to use words like genocide," Anita Fineday, a former chief judge at White Earth Tribal Nation, told Indian Country Today. “The endgame [of the removals], the official federal policy, was that the tribes wouldn’t exist” (Indian Country Today).
Even today, the child welfare system is a tool that the government can use to surveil, regulate, and punish poor Black and Brown families. Black children make up nearly 25% of children in foster care (Administration for Children and Families), and Black parents are more likely to have their parental rights terminated than white parents (The Appeal). These statistics do not exist in a vacuum; like many systems in the United States, social work is designed to fail Black and Brown families..
Often, the social work profession is portrayed as completely heroic, progressive, or even effective. This is an example of white saviorism, the idea that white people can “rescue people of color from their own situation” (Medium). The history of this profession is barely touched upon in social work education. The seemingly positive influence of rich, racist white women like Jane Addams is prioritized over the harm they inflicted. Social workers are often used as the tools of racist governments, enacting that racism in their own work.
Luckily, today there are social work collectives that are acknowledging these problems and proposing solutions. Social Service Workers United-Chicago has called out the National Association of Social Workers for their history of racism. In July, SSWU drafted a petition demanding an investment in abolitionist and anti-racist practice, and a divestment from collaborating with racist government agencies like local police and ICE. The petition gained 1,700 individual signatures (Medium).
Social work has value—but it will never be the quick fix to systemic racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness that some people want it to be. Luckily, young Black and Brown people with social work degrees, like me, are stepping up to transform the profession. This has come in the form of recognizing Black organizers from history as social workers (Black Social Work History), lending our skills to liberation movements (Doin' The Work), and focusing on community education around the profession (University of Houston). As these actions and movements gain more support, social work could shift into a position of fighting oppression of all forms rather than enabling it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Texas legislators recently attempted to allow social workers to discriminate against their clients
The social work field was often used to carry out racist agendas by the government
Although social work has value, and efforts are being made to transform the industry, there's more to be done to align its efforts with its image
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