Decolonize Social Work

PART 1 OF 2!

Threatening to separate families that don’t conform to colonizer norms is as old as the United States itself. This threat and the actual removal of children from their families has been institutionalized in what is now known as the modern child welfare system.

Most social workers are familiar with some iteration of the child welfare system. In fact, popular opinion would probably have you (misguidedly) believe that social work IS child welfare. But really, what is this system that we call child welfare? Can the welfare of any and every child truly be determined by an entity founded on the norms of white middle-class heterosexual parenthood?

In this episode, we speak with our (first!) guest, CT, about their 20-year experience working in child welfare. They share some gripping accounts of how this system causes more harm than it prevents as well as how it disproportionately targets families of color - especially Black families - than white families. And not only is this a terrible system for families to get caught in, but it’s demoralizing, dangerous, and unsupportive for the social workers employed by this system as well.

Does your organization only value what's in writing? Do you or your coworkers have a habit of venting about each other or clients in the office? Do you have a coworker who doesn't know how to delegate?

If you answered yes to any of those, then... hate to break it to you, but those acts/behaviors may be white supremacy culture happening right where you work.

These characteristics, or norms, show up in every workplace; hospitals, medical clinics, nonprofit organizations, social service agencies, etc, and they merit evaluation as to where they came from. Our society, unfortunately, is so steeped in a culture of white supremacy, that sometimes we aren’t even aware that the things we do at work, really everyday things, are reinforcing that culture.

In this episode, Ondine and Drew will discuss how these common occurrences that we all take for granted actually stem from tenets of white supremacy culture and the responsibility that social workers have to recognize and resist them.

In any program that trains and prepares social works, you will no doubt encounter issues about objectivity, exploitation, and dual relationships. Usually, though, those concepts are taught to us in strictly binary terms. In this episode, Ondine and Drew look at an example of community-based social work in Cuba to deconstruct how we in the United States might do better to reconsider our attachment to objectivity as well as our total avoidance of dual relationships.

ALSO ALSO ALSO: We've uploaded a transcript for this episode! Check out this [link](http://decolonizesocialwork.org/episode/community-based-social-work-cuba-us), or go to decolonizesocialwork.org and click on the page for this episode (Episode 3)!

Many, many people are out there doing social work, but who gets to actually call themselves and be recognized as a social worker? In this episode, we take a brief look at the regulation policies around who gets to be a social worker, why the regulations exist, and find suggestions for how regulation policies can become more inclusive for people doing social work but aren't able to get recognition for their work.

Pilot: Is social work actually the social justice profession it claims to be? What are we getting right? In what ways might we be doing more harm than good?

Social work is an amazing field, but it also exists in a society driven by white supremacy culture and colonizer ideology. In this podcast, Ondine and Drew begin an ongoing conversation to explore social work and look at when it rejects those harmful social constructs, where it might need to still do better, and if social work can truly liberate us from oppression.