Social Work Policy Institute and Racial Equity

In May 2014, the NASW's Social Work Policy Institute released a report from a think tank symposium named Achieving Racial Equity: Calling the Social Work Profession to Action. The report defines color-blind racism, how to undo racism, and provides examples of schools, programs and organizations that engage in anti-racist efforts. It is followed by guidelines on achieving racial equity and developing an action agenda.

Below is the official synopsis from NASW:

A think tank symposium, Achieving Racial Equity: Calling the Social Work Profession to Action , was convened under the auspices of the NASW Social Work Policy Institute (SWPI) on November 17-18, 2013 in Washington, DC. The interdisciplinary group of participants, including social work stakeholders and race equity experts, worked together to more fully understand the roots and manifestations of institutional and structural racism; and to identify principles, practices, and analysis that can be effective for undoing institutional and structural racism. The Action Brief highlights the strategic actions and targeted recommendations that were developed to move this important work to address the many manifestations of institutional and structural racism forward. The full report includes summaries of all of the presentations, the recommendations, biographies of the speakers and an appendix with useful resources that can be helpful in undertaking efforts in agencies, in professions and in communities to address institutional racism.

HigherEdJobs: How Segregation Contributes to Opportunity Hoarding in Access to Higher Education

Sheryll Cashin is Professor of Law at Georgetown University and Scholar-in-Residence at HigherEdJobs. She writes about race relations, government and inequality in America. Over the next three months, she will focus discussions on placed-based affirmative action and higher education, segregation and opportunity hoarding in higher education as well as how to create and promote multicultural coalitions for fairness and investment in K-16 education. The excerpt below is from her seminal book, Place Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America, in which she argues that race-based and/or class-based affirmative action as currently practiced does little to help students in disadvantaged communities. She offers a new framework for true inclusion that focuses on place-based affirmative action, where colleges should admit students based on the average income level of the community they reside -- giving more consideration to students from low-income neighborhoods and school districts.

...only 42 percent of all Americans now live in a middle-class neighborhood, down from 65 percent in 1970. Because of the increasing separation of the affluent and the highly educated from everyone else, place, where one lives, often determines who has access to high-quality K-12 education and, in turn, selective higher education. Today there are only 17 counties in the United States in which more than half the population are college educated -- counties that selective college recruiters flock to, including Marin County north of San Francisco; Orange County in North Carolina's research triangle; Boulder County, Colorado; and affluent suburbs bordering Washington D.C. and New York City. In the vast majority of U.S. counties, however, college graduates are a small minority. College graduates used to be more evenly distributed, but segregation between them and high school graduates has nearly tripled since 1940.

Highly educated people are drawn to metro centers where other people like themselves live, and within the metropolis they gravitate to neighborhoods of their own kind. This is a phenomenon that transcends race. College graduates living in America's most highly educated metro areas are more residentially isolated than African Americans.

Everyday Sociology: Who Is a Low-Wage Earner?

Everyday Sociology blogger Karen Sternheimer posted an entry that defines what is a low-wage earner in American society. Contrary to popular opinion, most low-wage earners in America are adults over 20 years of age and people of color.

The report provides a demographic profile on these low-wage workers. They comprise 37 percent of those earning wages in the private sector; 39 percent of women and 35 percent of men. The vast majority—83 percent—are persons of color.

Despite the widespread belief that most low-wage workers are teens earning extra spending money while attending school, in Los Angeles few of them are teens; 38 percent of low wage workers are in their twenties, nearly 22 percent are in their thirties, and 37 percent are over forty. The majority work full time, and 36 percent have children.

The bulk of these workers are employed in restaurants, retail, health services, and administrative and waste management services. Right now, their median income is $16,000; in 2014, the federal poverty level for a two-person household is $15,730

Social Work@Simmons: The Evolution of Social Work

The Social Work@Simmons Blog released an interactive slideshow on the evolution of social work. It includes a photographic portrayal of important milestones in the history of social work in the United States from the Civil War to the present. It also includes links to the image sources from university archives and philanthropic associations. I highly recommend the slideshow for its educational value.

Useful Social Work Articles for Macro Students at The Social Work Helper

Several years ago, I posted four problems why the social work profession fails to meet its mission, particularly for macro students and students of color. In addition, I made another post about the strengths and weaknesses of social work today. Not surprisingly, social work leaders were absent on the national conversation of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri. Social workers are supposed to be advocates for the poor and oppressed, yet social workers are rarely invited to speak as a collective voice on the news media. The "experts" are non-social workers--elected officials, journalists, lawyers, and social scientists--who are far removed from issues affecting the community at the ground-level. This trend is very disturbing and disappointing.

The contributors at The Social Work Helper has since published more recent articles that highlighted what I discussed in greater detail. I hope you enjoy what these authors have to offer because I share the same sentiments regarding the social work profession: too much focus on title protection / clinical casework and not enough focus on serving the people most in need through advocacy / policy-making. Social work pioneers such as Jane Addams, Frances Perkins, Dorothy Height, and Whitney Young would be ashamed to see how the social work profession lost sight of its mission.

• Top Five Reasons Why Social Worker Is Failing (August 2014)
• The Struggles of Being a Macro Student and How We Can All Be Supportive (July 2014)
• Licensed Social Workers Don't Mean More Qualified (February 2014)

Stay tune for further updates to this post.