Racism, anti-racist practice and social work: articulating the teaching and learning experiences of Black social workers

In the mid 1990s a Black practice teacher programme was established in Manchester and Merseyside with the primary aim to increase the number of Black practice teachers in social work organisations, and in turn provide a supportive and encouraging learning environment for Black student social workers whilst on placement. In the north‐west of England research has been undertaken, to establish the quality of the practice teaching and student learning taking place with Black practice teachers and students. This paper is an exploration of the ideas generated within the placement process that particularly focused on the discourse of racism and ant‐racist practice. Black students and practice teachers explain their understanding of racism and anti‐racist practice within social work. From the research, the paper will critique some of the ideas concerning anti‐racism. In particular, it will question whether anti‐racist social work practice needs to be re‐evaluated in the light of a context with new migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. It will concluded, by arguing that whilst the terms anti‐racism, Black and Minority Ethnic have resonance as a form of political strategic essentialism, it is important to develop more positive representations in the future

The Black Experience and Responses to Anti-Black Racism

In this dissertation, I focus on aspects of the Black experience concerning African American responses to anti-Black racism in the United States. The ideas I examine allow me to further the dialogue concerning quintessential questions pertaining to anti-Black racism that arise from the Black experience in America that are now reformulated to help African Americans respond to current forms of anti-Black racism. Have Black intellectuals historically accepted shared responsibility for racism? Do contemporary shared responsibility models hold African Americans responsible for anti-Black racism? Is national minority status a viable response to anti-Black racism? In each chapter, I enter the respective discourse on the Black experience by examining philosophical models that have specifically addressed the Black experience and some aspect of racism, which is relevant to discussions of anti-Black racism. In the first chapter, I analyze the work of Alain Locke, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Alexander Crummell, who all contribute to a discussion of shared responsibility for dismantling racism within their work. In the second chapter, I interrogate the work of Larry May to discuss whether his arguments claim that Black people share responsibility for racism by virtue of community membership or shared attitudes. In the third chapter, I evaluate the work of Will Kymlicka for a discussion of the merits of national minority status. I interrogate this concept to ascertain whether it deserves to be included as a viable response to anti-Black racism. Finally, I conclude by explaining how each model is relevant for current discussions pertaining to the Black experience and anti-Black racism in America. I show that accepting shared responsibility to dismantle racism was an aspect of some nineteenth and twentieth theories of racial uplift, but I argue that African Americans cannot be assigned shared responsibility for racism within Larry Mays shared responsibility model. I claim that African Americans can only self-assign shared responsibility for racism, or to dismantle racism, which is voluntary and not obligatory. I argue that African Americans could qualify as a national minority and should have the right to consider it as one of many available responses to anti-Black racism

Womanists Leading White People in Intergroup Dialogue to End Anti-Black Racism: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

Womanism is a term curated by Alice Walker (2004) that centers Black women’s lived experiences, past and present, encouraging Black women to no longer look to others for their liberation (Floyd-Thomas, 2006). Soul 2 Soul Sister’s Facing Racism program is facilitated by Womanist instructors, who work with groups of mostly white people to address anti-Black racism. This qualitative study explored the experiences of white participants who took part in this program, Facing Racism, which holds Womanism as its central guiding principle. Although pre- and post-surveys were routinely conducted over the years about participants’ experiences with Facing Racism, this study sought to take a deep dive using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to understand how the white participants made sense of the Facing Racism experience and the longer-term outcomes it promoted in addressing and ending anti-Black racism. The interpretive phenomenological analysis explored the experiences of white people who completed the Facing Racism program. Eight white participants were interviewed using open-ended questions. The key findings of the study included: a) indications of the transforming impact of Womanist and intergroup dialogue in anti-racism work, b) revelations of the preconceptions and biases antithetical to ending anti-Black racism that participants brought with them, c) an affirmation of anti-racism work that works beyond the intellect and the importance of heart and gut/soul work, and d) the identification of racial justice work as life-long work. The key contributions include: a) the verification of a Womanist epistemology as an effective means to address anti-Black racism, b) the value of Womanist ethos in conducting anti-Black racism work centering Black women and Black experiences, c) the introduction and nomenclature of a love-based revolution to address and eradicate anti-Black racism, d) identification of ways for white people to dismantle white supremacy/privilege/thought for the liberation of the historically oppressed and the oppressor and e) a way for white people to commit to address and end anti- Black racism in the long run. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu ) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)

Strengthening Black‐Brown Solidarity: Latino/a Race, Unauthorized Blacks, and the Roots of Anti‐Brown Violence

This essay analyzes intersecting experiences of racism and U.S. state violence, black-brown tensions, and future possibilities for anti-racist solidarity. Its race analysis and moral evaluation proceed from a Chicano perspective and through the theoretical lens of transnationalism, thinking about anti-black racism as a global imperial project. The author argues that sustained analysis of Latino/a racialization (and racism), of the precariousness of black citizenship, and of the genesis of anti-brown racist practices within and alongside antiblackness can all function to strengthen black-brown solidarity

Racism and anti-racism in Europe: a critical analysis of concepts and frameworks

The targets and expressions of racism vary across Europe. This article discusses the relevance of different descriptions and analyses of racism despite the different terms used in different countries such as ‘ethnic minority’, ‘foreigner’ or ‘black’ and different interpretations of which differences matter. It shows the significance of a cross-national European perspective on racism. There are important convergences across European countries in the discourses and practices of racism, particularly the distinction between ‘useful’ and ‘abusive’ migrants. A cross-European perspective can be an important inspiration for anti-racist struggles

Understanding The Problem Of People Of Color: Does Systemic Racism Explain The Protest Frequency Across The United States?

Abstract: Since the 2020 killing of George Floyd, an African American, police brutality against unarmed Black males and females has achieved sustained attention around the problem of racial disparities. The Black Lives Matter Movement 2020, expressed in anti-racism civil rights protests, has become a response to racial injustice. The core goal of this paper is to test whether the frequency of protests against racial oppression is driven by structural racism at the state level within the United States between 2017 and 2020, while shedding some light on the Trump administration. In this study, the quantitative research analysis is being used to run a multiple linear regression that looks at the anti- racism protest activity in 50 American states. I argue that structural racism is an autonomous grievance that accumulates institutionalized racial disparities and, in addition to grievances from different domains, significantly affects the frequency of occurring anti-racism protests.Key words: systemic racism, contentious political tactics, racial oppression, anti-racism protestsAbstract: Since the 2020 killing of George Floyd, an African American, police brutality against unarmed Black males and females has achieved sustained attention around the problem of racial disparities. The Black Lives Matter Movement 2020, expressed in anti-racism civil rights protests, has become a response to racial injustice. The core goal of this paper is to test whether the frequency of protests against racial oppression is driven by structural racism at the state level within the United States between 2017 and 2020, while shedding some light on the Trump administration. In this study, the quantitative research analysis is being used to run a multiple linear regression that looks at the anti- racism protest activity in 50 American states. I argue that structural racism is an autonomous grievance that accumulates institutionalized racial disparities and, in addition to grievances from different domains, significantly affects the frequency of occurring anti-racism protests.Abstract: Since the 2020 killing of George Floyd, an African American, police brutality against unarmed Black males and females has achieved sustained attention around the problem of racial disparities. The Black Lives Matter Movement 2020, expressed in anti-racism civil rights protests, has become a response to racial injustice. The core goal of this paper is to test whether the frequency of protests against racial oppression is driven by structural racism at the state level within the United States between 2017 and 2020, while shedding some light on the Trump administration. In this study, the quantitative research analysis is being used to run a multiple linear regression that looks at the anti- racism protest activity in 50 American states. I argue that structural racism is an autonomous grievance that accumulates institutionalized racial disparities and, in addition to grievances from different domains, significantly affects the frequency of occurring anti-racism protests

Issue 1: Anti-Black Racism, Bio-Power, and Governmentality: Deconstructing the Suffering of Black Families Involved with Child Welfare

This article focuses on how colonialism, anti-Black racism and white supremacy are embodied by Ontario’s child welfare system in relation to narratives of suffering experienced by Black families involved with this sector. We discuss how these experiences are an embodiment of the Foucauldian concepts of bio-power and governmentality. Understanding this embodiment is crucial for deconstructing how anti-Black racism, colonialism, and white supremacy are manifested in the day-to-day policies and practices of child welfare. To explicate these policies and practices we discuss three inter-related factors: 1) the historical rise of the welfare state, 2) anti-Black racism, and 3) bio-power and governmentality

What Are We Listening For? (Participatory Action) Research and Embodied Social Listening to the Permanence of Anti-Black Racism in Education

Drawing on critical bodies studies, the author conceptualizes “embodied social listening” as a senses-driven engagement with the structures and ideologies of anti-Black racism and how these mark and reshape human life.  The author argues that it is through embodied social listening that education researchers can strengthen their intentionalities to documenting materially and discursively absorbed racism in the social spaces of Black lives.  Connecting embodied social listening to participatory action research (PAR) suggests that its purpose is not be treated as an activity separate from the PAR process, but rather to be exercised as a central anticipatory type of action that implicates individual co-researcher with anti-Black racism, with each other, and with the research process. The author concludes with a few points of deliberation that apply Chela Sandoval’s notion of radical love to listening in PAR to fight anti-Black racism with political education and social mobilization