The Role of Social Work Through A Systemic Racism Lens

Over the past decade, the Women’s Council of the CA Chapter of the NASW has

interrogated the fundamental conflicts between legal requirements and our ethical

responsibilities as social workers. We have asked ” Is Legal Always Ethical?” and

promoted in-depth discussion with experts in the areas of drug policy, crime and

punishment and the helping professions, oppression and resistance, and trauma

informed systems through the lens of critical race theory.

Through these and other forums we have concluded that while laws are designed

to serve the interests of those with power and property, the ethics of the social work

profession are designed to advance social justice, and the two are in fundamental

conflict . We find that we are asked to help our clients change, to modify criminogenic

thinking, to gain self-esteem, to get sober, to deal with past trauma, to express remorse,

to demonstrate rehabilitation while remaining embedded in a system that continues to

inflict trauma, oppression, violence and injustice.

We are dismayed at recent suggestions that social workers serve together with

police as full participants in a system based on establishing blame and punishment. For

too long we as social workers have been handmaidens to an institution created to

enforce property rights by catching enslaved people, people who were considered

property. As social workers we have supported the idea that police and policing are

necessary to ensure public safety and have responded to police violence and brutality

with suggestions for modifications (training, regulations, civilian oversight) rather than

concluding that a system based on violence, punishment and retribution is incapable of

promoting public safety.

We endorse another vision of community care and safety based on community

self-determination and self-care, the Breathe Act . This proposed legislation (developed

by the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives), offers a radical

reimagining of public safety, community care and the ways in which we spend money as

a society.  The 128 page bill (the breathe act) may be found here, https://breatheact.org/wp-

content/uploads/2020/09/The-BREATHE-Act-V.16_.pdf

The Women’s Council is in full support of reimaging of society and the role of

social workers with in it. We embrace the notion that it is not enough to just say Black

Lives Matter – we need to live it.

To learn more about or join with the Women’s Council and our ongoing efforts to

resist implementation of misogynistic, racist and discriminatory practices and to use our

privileged status more effectively in the service of principled resistance contact Brenda

Wiewel, Chairperson at  bwfranken@verizon.net or (213) 465-0053.