Transcript Social Change and Social Justice

Power, Privilege, Intersectionality, and
Action in Social Work Education and
Practice
Michael S. Spencer, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Educational Programs and
Professor
University of Michigan
School of Social Work
Why is Carl Scott’s legacy still
important?
 We have greater equity and opportunity
 We have more representation in leadership
 We have laws and policies in place that protect
underrepresented individuals from discrimination
Why is Carl Scott’s legacy still
important?
 BUT:
 We still see evidence of interpersonal and structural
inequality
 Discrimination has evolved from overt to implicit forms
 Disparities continue to exist in health and access to
resources
 Underrepresentation continues to exist even in our
profession
“I’ve been called the N-word so many times
this year. One guy told me I was the N-word
and said I know N’words can’t play
quarterback. And I was like, aren’t we past
this? Say what you want about my skill, but
come on”
Devin Gardner, QB, University of Michigan
Ferguson, Missouri
"I'm not a racist I love people"
Donald Sterling
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Michigan
Figure 1: Differences, Disparities, and Discrimination:
Populations with Equal Access to Health Care
Clinical Appropriateness
and Need
Patient Preferences
The Operation of Healthcare
Systems and the Legal and
Regulatory Climate
Disparity
Minority
Non-Minority
Difference
Populations with Equal Access to Health Care
Discrimination: Biases and
Prejudice, Stereotyping, and
Uncertainty
Discrimination as a
sociocultural stressor
 Exposure to discrimination is a major life stressor and
has implications for health and mental health.
 Studies show evidence for association between
discrimination and mental health for both African
Americans, Latinos, and Asians.
Implicit or Everyday
discrimination
 Studies also show that overt discrimination tends to
have a less consistent effect as a stressor compared to
implicit discrimination
 Examples:
 Microagressions
 Color blindness
 Post racial attitudes
Microagressions
 “Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or
environmental indignities, whether intentional or
unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or
negative racial slights and insults towards people of
color.” Sue et al. (2007)
Microagressions
 “Often when I have dinner at people’s houses, they
ask me if I would prefer chopsticks, regardless of the
meal!”
 “Are you sure you have the right room number? This
is the *honors* section.”
 “Can’t wait to show all my friends my ghetto-fabulous
ride. She needs a name…something like….Laquisha”
Colorblindness
 Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the
best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals
as equally as possible without regard to race, culture,
or ethnicity.
 Modern occurrences of racism are seen as rare
aberrations committed by the last few racists in society.
Bonilla-Silva (2006)
Colorblindness
 “We are all human beings”
 “It’s not race, it’s economics. Classism is the new
racism.”
 “America is the land of opportunity where everyone can
succeed if they work hard enough.”
Post-Racial America
A theoretical environment where the United States is
devoid of racial preference, discrimination and prejudice.
Post-Racial Attitudes
 “We have a black President, we can’t be that racists in
the US anymore.”
 Pew Research Center found that 8.4 percent of all
current US marriages are interracial, up from 3.2
percent in 1980.
 "What? He called you the n-word? I'm sure he didn't
mean it in a bad way”
It’s not just race!
 “How much money would you put on the Boston
bombers being Muslim?”
 “Are you alright driving a stick shift?”
 “Your gay? I have the perfect person for you!”
 “I wish I could bring my dog to eat with me!”
What perpetuates this?
Defining Power and Privilege
 Social Power: Access to resources that enhance
one’s chance of getting what one needs or
influencing others in order to lead a safe,
productive, and fulfilling life.
 Privilege: Unearned access to resources only
readily available to some people as a result of
their social group membership.
How power and privilege work
 We assume change for the better, rational, efficient,
scientific--make them more like us. We use our reality, our
world view, as the basis for this assumption
 We unconsciously assume that others share this world
view--that the costs and benefits of attitudes and behaviors
are the same
 We don’t need to think about it because we are
surrounded by others who share this same world view--we
assume it is universally available and normal.
So what can we do?
 Diversity and social justice education should focus on
values, attitudes, knowledge, and skills in building
awareness and effective communication strategies to
our students and practitioners.
Social justice education
values
 Support—professional and personal support to
discuss, challenge, and commiserate
 Passion—commitment, vision, belief in social justice
and social change
 Awareness—learning is lifelong, excitement and
humility, self-reflection on identity, access to privilege
and prejudice/bias
 Knowledge—staying current on different
manifestations of oppression and models for social
justice
Social Justice Education
Values
 Responsibility—each person is responsible for




participation
Cooperation—work cooperatively to achieve
collective goals
Honesty—set the tone for expectations of honesty
Egalitarianism—each member has something to
contribute and is provided a fair opportunity to do
so.
Skills—leadership, comfort with conflict, listening
through the discomfort, modeling behaviors,
comfort with disclosure
Non-violent Action or
Resistance
 Not a technique, but a philosophy
 Ahimsa—I will not harm you and you will not harm the
truth that exists within me
 Historically from religious and stoic teachings, but
these do not give us a way to deal with injustice, except
endurance
 Not merely pacifism or the refusal to kill or hit—clear
that this was not good enough
 It’s about action
Basic assumptions
 Each statement is true - as a part of the truth.
None of the statements is true of the whole.
 We are, each of us, finite beings in a universe which, so
far as we can know, is infinite.
 There is a limit to the time during which we can learn
things - and there are far too many things to learn for any
of us ever to be sure we are an authority except - at best in small and limited ways.
 Our reality are filled with partial truths (partial and
incomplete) and thus our opponents also see a part of
true reality
Truth is Common Ground
 Truth can come through observation, listening,
dialogue, and research
 Listen with respect to those with whom you
deeply disagree, not as a tactic but because
you hope to catch in their remarks some truth
that you may have both missed.
 Nonviolence is many things, but if it is not a
search for truth - a search that is never ended it will fail.
Listening with Ting!
Transforming the battle
 Gandhi saw nonviolence as the path of loving
resistance, of “soul force,” the search or application
of truth- as the way out of the pain of engaging in
the slaughter of his people.
 Yes, he would accept his duty as a warrior, but he
would transform the very nature of battle itself
 For Gandhi, the hope was that if each conflict
could be resolved through nonviolence, the next
conflict would occur at a “higher level”
Values of Non-violent Action
 Humility; admitting error can be embarrassing and
painful, but can give you credibility
 Overcome your fears. Be courageous.
 We do not demonize opponents, we try to see
them as human beings (the light within everyone)
 Our goal is a new society, and that must include
those who were yesterday our enemies. The goal
of a successful revolution is a reconciliation after
the social change.
 Nonviolence empowers the whole community — it
can be used by old and young, weak and strong,
educated and those still illiterate
Summary
 Nonviolence is a theory of managing social
conflict in order to achieve social change. It is
an effort to bring the full community within the
framework of compassion.
 Nonviolence is a search for truth - not a search
for ways to prove your opponent wrong. If you
are not ready, as you examine the facts, to
realize you may be wrong and your opponent
right, you aren’t ready for nonviolence.
 It is a movement of ordinary people who,
sometimes, can behave in extraordinary ways.
 We need to see ourselves in those we hate.
So what can I do?
 We need to promote greater awareness of our
potential biases, bring them into our consciousness.
 The contradiction between espoused social
principles and lived experience offer one place to
begin.
“Activism is not just for heroic
individuals, but are embodied in
the often overlooked everyday
individuals who make a difference
in the context of her or his
everyday life (Anderson & Hill
Collins, 1998).”