Abstract
Severe racial inequity has characterized the incorporation of ethnic minorities’ contributions to U.S. history and advancements (Sandoval et al., 2016). These disparities are inextricably connected to White Supremacist ideologies and practices, and are perpetuated in higher education through textbooks, pedagogy, and research. Social work, like many disciplines, teaches about its early roots with a whitewashed historical lens. Indeed, review of the social work literature reveals the scarcity of attributions to Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC). Without a more racially diverse perspective on social work’s history, social work scholars promote and sustain White Supremacy. The implications of this are crucial since social work education is predominantly populated by privileged White students who adopt this mentality, unaware of Black, Brown, Latino, Asian, Native or Other ethnic “Jane Addams” who have massively promoted the social welfare of communities for decades without historical recognition or the privileged positions of Addams and Richmond. Historical distortions also potentially discourage BIPOC social work students’ self-efficacy and future efforts to contribute and excel in the discipline. To properly address this issue, social work history must be refaced with a more equitable and just lens. This review seeks to address the gap in the literature pertaining to the need for a greater integration and infusion of racially diverse social work historical contributions in several ways. Recommendations will be made for future research in this area to dismantle racist perspectives in social work history, and strategies will be offered to help social work educators and researchers address this critical issue.
Highlights
Severe racial inequity has characterized the incorporation of ethnic minorities’ contributions to U.S history and advancements (Sandoval et al, 2016)
Symbols of White Supremacy are not just limited to the confederate flag and iconic statues of soldiers vehemently supporting the degradation of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC)
According to the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) 2019 annual report, 61.1% of full-time faculty and 58.3% of part-time faculty identify as White (CSWE, 2019)
Summary
An inaccurate view of the past always distorts efforts to make a more just future. Academic social work, like other academic disciplines, depends on history for training and equipping students. Failing to tell the stories of social work leaders who were persons of color creates an inaccurate view of history and reinforces White Supremacist ideologies These BIPOC historical leaders largely remain unnamed and have been barred access to professional recognition for their contributions to social welfare. The “racial sciences” that were disseminated by British and French scientists in the 1800s were used to proliferate the false notions that the “negroid” and other persons of color were inherently genetically inferior to Whites (Miles, 1997/2014), uphold racial slavery, place Western Europeans at the top of a human hierarchy, and exclude BIPOC leaders from participation in the official development of social welfare reforms (O’Connell, 2013) These racialist theories intersected with emerging social welfare policies at the time and established a racialization of poverty (O’Connell, 2010, 2013). Native peoples were seen as subservient to Europeans and their contributions to a new social system that was established by early settlers would have been unsurprisingly edited from history books and other documentation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
