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Racism and Social Welfare Policy: Unit VIII
Juliana Benoliel
Silberman School of Social Work - Hunter College
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Race has no biological meaning, yet it does have considerable social and political
significance. Social scientists observe race as a social construct, meaning it was invented and
defined by people. Race is also historically constructed (Aspen Roundtable, 2004, p. 8). Racism
is used by human beings to separate each other according to who they believe to be superior or
inferior, and this is often based on physical attributes, most commonly, skin color (Kaufman,
2003). Prejudice, a form of overt racism, is negative thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes about an
entire group of people without full knowledge of this group or analysis of facts (NASW, 2007, p.
6). Another form of overt racism, racial discrimination, is outwardly acting on prejudices held
about a certain group of people (NASW, 2007, p. 6). Institutionalized, or structural, racism is
when a particular race of people is granted differential access to goods, services, and
opportunities, solely based on their race. Institutionalized racism can be legal, and many times
has undesirable impacts on races that are negatively targeted. Unfortunately, this form of racism
often presents itself as inaction when action is needed the most (Jones, 2000, p. 1212).
Social welfare policy can be impacted by racism. Two such areas that are affected by
racism are child welfare and income and wealth. Belonging to a race that may be considered
inferior in society can have detrimental effects on a person’s life experiences and well-being.
People can be treated vastly different merely because of the color of their skin. Child welfare is
impacted when it comes to race because the rate of children of color removed from their parents’
homes and placed into foster care is excessively higher than their white counterparts (Roberts).
Dorothy Roberts, author of "Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare", studies what she
refers to as the racial geography of child welfare and found that the system’s involvement is
continuously focused on poorer communities with people of color. Also, 1 in 10 children from
some African American and Native American communities are in foster care (Roberts). It seems
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clear that children of color are being targeted, while white children tend to be left alone, when it
comes to disrupting the family home by removing children.
Racism affects social welfare policy concerning income and wealth because people of
color as a whole tend to make less money than white people. This wealth gap became even large
during the recession and seems to be almost impossible to repair. Discriminatory lending
practices also made it difficult for people in communities of color to borrow money, because
their rates of subprime loans was twice what it is for the entire population (Lowrey, 2013).
Unfortunately, making changes in this area would need government intervention, but this idea is
not widely supported by most Americans. According to a recent Gallop poll, Americans do want
to solve the wealth inequality crisis, but the poll only asked about the gap between the rich and
the poor, and not about the gap between white people and people of color (Demby, 2013).
Racism does not seem to play a huge role in the agency where I practice my fieldwork, at
least not in an obvious way. The agency is an elder care facility comprising of an adult day
healthcare program, an enriched housing facility, and a nursing home. The participants in the
day program are mostly white, with a few African Americans, a couple Hispanic individuals, and
one Asian person. Although several different races are present, the population is
overwhelmingly white. I do not notice any different treatment toward the various ethnic groups
in this day program, concerning daily practices, programs, and policies. The staff is mostly all
African American and this has no impact on the way the participants are treated, regardless of
the color of their skin. The nursing home’s residents are almost all white, with the majority of
the staff being African American. The enriched housing facility is comprised of only white
residents. It is hard to determine if racism is being practiced at the nursing home, because I have
only personally noticed interaction between the white residents and African American nursing
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staff and aides, and sometimes it seems as though the aides do not want to be bothered with the
residents. I am not able to say this is racism; however there does seem to be some neglectful
treatment on behalf of the aides at certain times, when it comes to assisting the residents who are
calling out for help or clearly in need of assistance. This cannot be attributed to racism because I
have not seen any interaction between the nursing staff or aides and the few African American
residents.
When I think of the fact that almost all of the participants and residents of these particular
facilities are white, I cannot help but think of power and privilege. While a nursing home may
not be an ideal place where people would necessarily want to live when they become elderly, I
start to wonder where the elderly people of other races are living. This nursing home has several
self-pay residents, and the enriched housing facility is only self-pay. I think of the fact that these
white residents could afford to pay to live in these facilities while quite possibly, other races
were not able to be afforded the same option, due to not having the same types of jobs that the
white residents had or not receiving equal pay for doing the same duties.
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References
Aspen Roundtable (2004, June). Structural Racism and Community Building pp.8-22, 24-40
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/rcc/aspen_structural_racism
2.pdf (ER)
Demby, Gene (2013) What do we Do About America’s Racial Wealth Gap?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/30/179907029/what-do-we-do-aboutamericas-racial-wealth-gap
Jones, Camara Phyllis (2000.Aug) Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s
Tale. American Journal of Public Health. 90(8), pp. 1212 -1215) (ER)
Kaufman, Cynthia (2003). Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change. Boston: South
End Press,. Ch. 5, Theorizing and Fighting Racism, pp. 121-148. (ER)
Lowrey, Ann (2013) Wealth Gap Among Races Has Widened Since Recession
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/racialwealth-gap-widened-duringrecession.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
NASW (2007), Institutional Racism & and The Social Work Profession: A Call to Action
(pp.1-21) (ER) http://www.naswdc.org/diversity/InstitutionalRacism.pdf
Roberts, Dorothy (nd) Racism at The Root of Racial Imbalance In Child Welfare
http://www.oregon.gov/dhs/children/beyondfc/pages/news/2010 -0927.aspx