Editor's Eye

Hello --

 

 

Until next time,

Linda Grobman, ACSW, LSW

Publisher/Editor

THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER®

 

 

 

• Domestic Violence Awareness Month
• National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• National Bullying Prevention Month
• National Down Syndrome Awareness Month
• Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct. 2-8)

 

 

 

 

 

     Heeding the NASW call to action on structural racism, our columns have discussed the principles of Undoing Racism® outlined by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB). We do this because racial disparities persist in areas touched by social work: child welfare, criminal justice, education, health, and wealth distribution, where outcomes for people of color are consistently worse than for White people. We have explored some of the complex reasons for this, and we now consider a factor that is often ignored or misunderstood: internalized racial oppression.

 

    Internalized racial oppression is a multigenerational process of accepting social messaging about one’s standing in society and one’s comparative value. Unless there are conscious, rigorous, and well-informed efforts to challenge them, social messages become internalized and, thus, invisible. Once invisible, the legacies of privilege and oppression become part of what is handed down through generations as social, cultural, and institutional norms and practices. Therefore, to understand structural racism, we must understand internalized racial oppression.

 

    Success for any person ultimately depends on the efforts of the individual, but until the barriers of racism are acknowledged and addressed, people of color must strive for achievement without the foundation provided to White people through imbedded systems of White privilege. White privilege includes historical and structural components that allow greater access to education, wealth, and power; it also includes cultural messages around race. White people can see themselves represented throughout American society, and can go through life without needing to consider their race when navigating social systems. White people do not need to consider race as a factor in their success or failure. Thus, White people can focus on their own skills, talents, and work ethics as keys to achievement, with cultural messages reinforcing the idea that they are deserving and capable of success.

 

    In contrast, people of color face daily challenges imposed by structural and institutional racism that are often invisible to White people. As they put energy and talent into efforts to achieve, people of color must respond, react, and filter through multiple factors related to their race: interpersonal microaggressions, cultural norms that inhibit expression, and structural barriers. These cultural messages reinforce the idea that people of color are suspect and only capable of success if they distance themselves from their culture: as individuals they may be deserving, but their group is associated with failure.

 

    Internalized racial oppression is not individual race bias; the focus is still on structural racism. We define racism as race prejudice plus power. Power is held by social, economic, and political institutions. Collective attitudes inform culture and institutions, and assumptions based on those attitudes become part of the structural norm. The norm becomes accepted and its history forgotten, and this forms the core of structural racism.

 

    The concept of internalized racial oppression includes internalized racial superiority (IRS) and internalized racial inferiority (IRI): two sides of the same coin, where IRS is designated as an oppression, not a privilege. As noted by Martin Luther King and others, people cannot be truly free if they participate in the subjugation of others, regardless of whether participation is intentional or if it is an unwitting consequence of maintaining the status quo through failure to oppose injustice.

 

 

 

 

 

• Struggles, Strategies, and Successes in Self-Care
• Organizational Accountability and Practitioner Self-Care: NOT an Either/Or Option

 

 

 

Job Corner

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Find jobs for new grads and experienced social work practitioners at http://www.socialworkjobbank.com, THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER’s online job board and career center.

 

News & Resources

Have you registered to vote? Is your registration up-to-date? Check your voter registration status at https://www.iwillvote.com/

 

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In Print

White Hat Communications, publisher of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine and the Social Work E-News, has published several books about social work. These books make great gifts (for graduation, holidays, or other occasions) for yourself, or for your friends, students, and colleagues in social work!

 

We also publish books on nonprofit management. Want to start your own agency? We have a book for that.

 

 

All of our books are available through our secure online store at:

 

Most are also available at Amazon.com.

 

You can also view and download our catalog in PDF format.

 

Reminders

VISIT OUR SITES

www.socialworker.com