S0W 3222
Working Across Difference
Lecture Three
Working Across ‘Race’ and Racism
Challenging Oppressive Beliefs
When thinking and talking about difference, human beings are
prone to making inappropriate assumptions, to holding negative
beliefs and to using stereotypes.
A common notion within anti - oppressive discourse is that of
challenging oppressive beliefs.
What does it mean to challenge oppressive beliefs?
The dictionary may not be of much help, where “to challenge” is
to accuse, to charge, to reproach, to object or to call to account.
Is challenging more of a process, that starts with “drawing to the
attention of?”
Should a person who is talking about a group in an oppressive
way be challenged?
If so, how should such challenging be done?
Effective Challenging
Thompson, 1998 p.217 states that,
“…crude, unskilled or poorly thought-through forms of
challenge can do more harm than good by creating
unnecessary tensions and defensiveness.
If challenging is to be an effective part of an
emancipatory strategy, it needs to be elegant
challenging.
(Thompson, 1998 p.217)
Sensitive Challenging
be tactful and constructive, rather than a personal attack;
avoid ‘cornering’ people and allow them to save face;
pay attention to the appropriate time and place – a
carefully chosen moment can be much more influential
than an immediate challenge;
Don’t be punitive – the aim is to promote equality and
not to create unnecessary tensions and hostilities;
acknowledge explicitly or implicitly the vulnerability of the
challenger to similar bad practice;
be undertaken in a genuine spirit of compassion and a
commitment to social justice, rather than in one of taking
the moral high ground.”
(Thompson, 1998 p.217)
Use of the term ‘race’
Different people use the term ‘race’ in different ways.
We will be using the term ‘race’ in a restricted way to denote
an idea constructed within racist theory that there are different
races of human being.
Racism centres on the mistaken belief that the human race
can be divided into distinct biological groups called races,
which vary in ability and aptitude.
An anti-essentialist, anti-racist position is that there is only
one race, the human race, and that any biological differences
between groups of human beings are surface features - not
deep features.
Definition of Racism
The definition of racism is a problematic and
contested area. One definition is:
A set of beliefs and practices that identifies a
group of people on the basis of some physical or
supposed biological feature or attribute;
And…….
The attribution to the group so identified of
negatively evaluated characteristics
Racist Beliefs
 the human race can be divided into a number of distinct
biological groups (‘races’),
 there are ‘deep’ as opposed to ‘surface’ differences
between these different ‘races’,
 the different ‘races’ can be compared with each other in
terms of superiority and inferiority,
 all members of a "racial group" can be blanketed together
without distinction between different ethnic groups,
 people with non-white colour of skin are regarded as
inferior to people with white colour of skin.
The Endurance of the Concept of
‘Race’
Despite being subject to much criticism and being
exposed as lacking any substance the use of the
term race endures.
"No matter how often the concept is exposed as
vacuous, 'race' still acts as an apparently
ineradicable marker of social difference" (Brah,
1992 p126)
Brah, A. (1992) 'Difference, Diversity and Differentiation' in Donald J. and Rattani
A. (eds) 'Race', Culture and Difference (London : Sage/Open University)
“Black’ as a Positive Political Identity
“The African-Caribbean and South Asian people who migrated to Britain
in the port-war period found themselves occupying a broadly similar
structural position within British society - as workers performing
predominantly unskilled or semi-skilled jobs on the lowest rungs of the
economy. Their 'non-whiteness' was a common referent within the
racism confronting them. ..."
"The term 'black' was adopted by the emerging coalitions amongst
African-Caribbean and South Asian organisations and activists in the
late 1960s and 1970s. They were influenced by the way the Black
Power movement in the USA, which had turned the concept of Black on
its head, divested it of its pejorative connotations in radicalised
discourses, and transformed it into a confident expression of an
assertive group identity. ..."
(Brah, 1992 p127)
The Political Use of “Black” in the British Context’
One criticism is that the political use of the term "Black” specifically refers to the
historical experiences of black Americans of sub-Saharan African descent.
When used in relation to South Asians the concept is emptied of its cultural
meaning. Many British South Asians do not define themselves as black, and
many British African-Caribbeans do not recognise them as such.
Brah’s counter arguments are:
Its political meaning does not deny the cultural differences between African,
Caribbean and South Asian people.
Brah (1992 p129) found that South Asians will frequently describe themselves
as 'kale' (black) when discussing issues of racism.
The whole social being of South Asian and African-Caribbean peoples is not
constituted only by their experience of racism: indeed they have many other
identifications based on, for example, religion, language and political affiliation.
Black activism had aimed to generate solidarity; it had not necessarily assumed
that all members of the diverse black communities inevitably identify with the
concept." (Brah, 1992 p129)
Social construction of ‘White‘ an
invisible category (1)
Dyer states that:
“as long as race is something only applied to non-white people, as long
as white people are not racially seen and named, they/we function as a
human norm. Other people are ‘raced’, we are just people. There is no
more powerful position than that of being just human.” (Dyer, 1997 p. 1)
Bonnett writes:
"how obvious is it that this book has been written be a white person? I
have left it until now to admit. Many readers will, no doubt, 'have worked
it out' some time ago. But how could that have been done? And what
exactly am I confessing to? Whiteness is, after all, a peculiar identity. It
appears to be both everywhere and nowhere. Largely undiscussed,
absent. As Judith Levine (1994, p. 11) notes, whiteness is 'the standard
against which the Other is inferior, like the moon from a moving car - it
remains ever the same, untouchable, yet right outside the window'."
(Bonnett, 2000: 138)
Social construction of white as an
‘invisible’ category (2)
"The focus of the new area of race scholarship known
as white studies' is upon the racialisation process that
produces whiteness. The political problematic of writers
and activists within this, mainly North American group,
is how this process may be simultaneously identified
and challenged." (Bonnett, 2000: 139)
"The editors of Race Traitor explain their project in the
following terms: 'Two points define the position of Race
Traitor, first that the "white race" in not a natural but
historical category; second, that what was historically
constructed can be undone' (Allen, 1994, p. 108)"
(Bonnett, 2000: 140)
The Reconstruction of ‘Race’ Categories
The reconstruction of what is to be 'black’
The reconstruction of 'black' into a positive political
identity.
The reconstruction of what is to be 'white’
“White” (European descent) people becoming aware of
the construction of ‘whiteness’ as a superior category in
relation to non-white peoples of the world and its
deconstruction and intermediate reconstruction into
being equal but different, until white-on-black racism is
eradicated.
Issues when white social workers
work with black clients
 Will black clients think all white social workers are racist
no matter how non-racist and anti-racist they are?
 Will racism creep in despite my best efforts?
 In the context of racism can white and black people
work together on an equal basis and effectively
communicate with each other?
 How can I avoid coming over as patronising when
endeavouring to understand the situation from a black
perspective?
Anti racism for ‘white’ practitioners
 confront your internalised racism that you will have learnt by virtue of being
brought up within a culture imbued with racism,
 monitor your own practice and practice knowledge in relation to the potential for
racism to either creep in or be endemic,
 work within your agencies to counteract any racism that has been
institutionalised within policies, procedures and established ways of doing
things,
 recognise and be sensitive to black people having a different ethnicity to white
people and to other black people of a different ethnicity,
 recognise and counteract the dominance of white culture and white ways of
looking at things and value other perspectives including black perspectives,
 be sensitive to and take into account the fact that black people can experience
racism on a day to day basis and be proactive in endeavouring to counteract
this racism.
(O’Sullivan, 1999 p. 120)
Issues for Black Social Workers
Working with White Clients
 If subjected to racism by white clients, will I be supported by
agency management and colleagues?
 Will I feel disempowered by covert racism from colleagues
and managers?
 Will I be subjected to racial abuse from white clients?
 Will I be discriminated against by my agency?
 Will white clients request a white social worker?
Anti Racism for Black Practitioners
critically reflect on your own beliefs about white people, including
stereotypes of white people;
learn ways to respond to white clients who make racist comments that
includes gaining the support of colleagues and agency management;
work with black and white colleagues to counteract any racism that
has been institutionalised within agency policies, procedures and
established ways of doing things;
recognise and be sensitive to ethnicity and ways of life of all clients
whether black or white;
recognise the dominance of white culture and “white ways” of looking
at things and value other perspectives including black perspectives.
Working Across ‘Race’
I have argued that:
Ideas of there being different ‘races’ of human being has been
constructed within racism.
Racism constructs different skin colours as signifying membership of
distinct racial groups with particular characteristics.
Social workers may reject the ideas of racism but they still work within
a society in which overt and covert racism still exists.
When white and black people have contact with each other, as clients
and social workers, it is in the context of a society in which racism exists.
It is for this reason that social workers, whatever their colour of skin,
need to take into account the potential impact that racism can have on
their attempts to communicate with clients of a different skin colour.