Abstract
Institutions that frame social work education and prepare future practitioners are firmly rooted in hegemonic philosophies and practices that perpetuate colonization, oppression, and white supremacy. In recognizing that white supremacy is a mechanism of social control, that our current social structure is grounded in liberal-patriarchal capitalism, and that social work conforms to prevailing social norms, we, as social workers, must acknowledge our complicity in perpetuating a white supremacist master narrative (Pewewardy & Almeida, 2014). The white supremacist ideology inherent within Western social work literature, teaching methodologies, and practice strategies only serves to perpetuate an oppressive system. This structure does not envision social workers as agents of change, but rather as essential cogs of the status quo who foster client dependence on a system that is inherently marginalizing. One mechanism for disrupting the white supremacy that has become a master narrative in social work is to create a counter-narrative (Pewewardy & Almeida, 2014). This paper creates a counter-narrative by using the pyramid of white supremacy framework (Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, 2008; Tuzzolo, 2016) to critique social work and deconstruct post-racial fallacies ascendant within the profession, and re-visualizes ecological systems framework as a mechanism for de-centering whiteness in social work scholarship, practice, and education.
Highlights
Institutions that frame social work education and prepare future practitioners are firmly rooted in hegemonic philosophies and practices that perpetuate colonization, oppression, and white supremacy
As a profession informed by such lofty values as service, social justice, dignity and worth of the individual, integrity, competence, and the importance of human relationships (National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2018), social workers often become so infatuated with the idea of helping or saving “people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty” (NASW, 2018) that we fail to acknowledge the ascendancy of white supremacist norms in our profession
As authors, acknowledge that we are part of a history and profession of social workers, who are collectively responsible for doing the work of decentering whiteness in social work education, practice, and scholarship
Summary
As an arm of colonization, social work has foundational roots of racism centering whiteness, maleness, elitism, and anti-immigrant ideals. The ecological systems model encompasses both processes and outcomes by placing an individual at the center or origin of development with nested systems surrounding the individual or couple, increasing in distance between the singular self and the self as a component of a much larger community (Stormshak & Dishion, 2002) This visual representation puts focus and responsibility on the individual to overcome years of historical trauma and social constructs created to prevent them from succeeding rather than a community's responsibility of supporting humanity. The Revised Ecological Systems Framework converts Crudup’s (2014) image that focused on understanding interracial couple identities to a visual that can be applied to the bullseye depiction of the ecological systems framework This illustration depicts the overlapping systems that have been influenced and constructed through historical and social constructs, while taking into account the strong implications of race and gender at every level and its impact on an individual moving within those systems. The process of moving from witness to action requires us to name and disrupt white supremacy and to craft a counter-narrative that intentionally and de-centers whiteness
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