Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice
Social workers understand how racism and oppression shape human experiences and how these two constructs influence practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community levels and in policy and research. Social workers understand the pervasive impact of White supremacy
and privilege and use their knowledge, awareness, and skills to engage in anti-racist practice. Social workers understand how diversity and intersectionality shape human experiences and identity development and affect equity and inclusion. The dimensions of diversity are understood as the intersectionality of factors including but not limited to age, caste, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, generational status, immigration status, legal status, marital status, political ideology, race, nationality, religion and spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status. Social workers understand that this intersectionality means that a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege and power. Social workers understand the societal and historical roots of social and racial injustices and the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination. Social workers understand cultural humility and recognize the extent to which a culture’s structures and values, including social, economic, political, racial, technological, and cultural exclusions, may create privilege and power resulting in systemic oppression.
Social workers:
a. demonstrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research, and policy levels; and
b. demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self- regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with clients and constituencies, acknowledging them as experts of their own lived experiences.
This competency is one that entails social workers to understand the impact and power that privilege, White supremacy, and oppression of marginalized individuals and communities has had. Once understood, social workers can begin interacting with and/ or creating inclusive spaces that combat racism and oppression. This competency engages me to be intentional in any work that I embark on as a social worker that should include diverse backgrounds and diversity of thought. This competency challenges me to include clients and individuals alike, that may differ from my own experience. I will remain committed to this competency by remaining culturally competent and confronting my biases as a practitioner as much as I engage with this competency.
Evidences
Coursework:
This was an assignment that my fellow classmate Kilah Runnels and I completed in our SWIP (Social Welfare Issues and Policies) class last semester. This was a debate that entailed Kilah and I presenting the reason why local and state governments should not enact needle assistance programs in primarily US cities. We debate the opposing view that local and state governments should enact these programs.
I learned how to present a topic in a stance that I do not agree with personally. However, being tasked with presenting a side that I do not agree with forced me to engage in research that presented both views and how to filter what was opinion and what was statistically factual. I also acquired knowledge about this topic specifically that will help me be a better practitioner and practitioner that is concerned with public policy.
I chose this assignment as evidence for this competency because this was a way that addresses an issue that touches minority populations and this demonstrated the process of addressing inequity in our localities and states.
Field:
Cultural Club and Student Development Strategy
Here, the Office of the President facilitated creating a solution focused plan for cultural club leaders to have when meeting with the Student Development Office concerning diversity and the dancing ban. We met with cultural club leaders of BCU, LAC, Asian Club, and Middle Eastern Club. We allowed them to express their frustrations as to how the ban this year has limited what they can and cannot do. We brought these concerns to Student Development that enacted the ban and facilitated another conversation between the cultural club leaders and Student Development being solution focused throughout.
This assignment helped me develop active listening skills in order to accurately depict what to advocate for and it also developed my values of having the student voices of cultural club presidents at the table for decisions pertaining to them.
I chose this because I am developing a plan for the cultural club leaders to have and to advocate for more inclusion when the Student Development Office makes a decision concerning culture and culture nights. This experience relates directly to DEI in that it is focused on including more diversity for culture clubs to showcase their respective culture in a more representative way.
Further Evidence:
D.E.E.P (Diversity & Equity Exchange Program) Retreat, Montgomery, AL
This was a retreat that I attended where Southern student leaders met with student leaders from Oakwood University in Montgomery, AL for four days. I participated in the planning and facilitation of the retreat. We toured museums and had conversations about building bridges to better recognize each other and uplift each other in the context of race and worth of a person. We viewed the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum, the slave quarters that Montgomery housed during the 19th century, and the National Lynching Museum.
This retreat developed my knowledge of not only being keenly aware of racism in its many fashions but how to be actively anti-racist by interacting and learning with students and faculty from Oakwood. I developed a sense of how my privilege as a white male is crucial in providing others the opportunity to have seats at many tables they have not had access to before.
I chose this for this competency because this was an active event that was anti-racist and is looking in the current times to better assist what future generations of college students of color will face. I took the insights from this to implement in my own life to push for equity.