How Does Racism Affect Social Work

Racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare represents a multifaceted phenomenon originating from historical, theoretical socioeconomic and policy trends that has shaped this service over the past decades. There are many theories that have been proposed to explain why racial disproportionality and disparity exists in child welfare. It has been recognized the underlying roots of racial disproportionality and disparity are intricate and often coincides. Racial disproportionate in child welfare will be the focus of this research. I will focus on Racial Bias and Discrimination of the child welfare agencies, particularly the child protective services. The research suggests the one of the reasons for the over representation of minority(colored) children in child welfare come from the different treatment of race or due to racial biases (Chung, 1998). This theory also suggests this treatment can be external or internal in the welfare system; however I will focus only on the implication of internal welfare agencies (i.e. child protective specialist). Child protective specialists’ culture and policies may lead to unbalanced treatment of families of color. CPS workers may have biases towards families of color which could affect the decision making at any point of the investigation. This may not have occurred intentionally by the worker, however, due to institutional racism, which may stem from policies and practices has posited to contribute to

In Essence, Beegle’s article encompasses all concepts of human diversity and differential treatment as described in our textbook (Kirst-Ashman, 2016). Based on this Beegle’s study, children and youth raised in poverty suffered discrimination, they were treated differently because of their appearance, and economic

Many Americans pretend that the days of racism are far behind; however it is clear that institutional racism still exists in this country. One way of viewing this institutional racism is looking at our nation’s prison system and how the incarceration rates are skewed towards African American men. The reasons for the incarceration rate disparity are argued and different between races, but history points out and starts to show the reason of why the disparity began. Families and children of the incarcerated are adversely affected due to the discrimination as well as the discrimination against African American students and their likelihood of going to prison compared to the white student. African American women are also affected by the

Anti-racist practice consists of being able to actively and honestly explore who you are, what you stand for and where you are situated in terms of social location, what has advantaged and disadvantaged you and how you found the strength to overcome those challenges (Heinonen and Spearman, 2010, pp. 133). To further explain, our “social location further gives us an understanding of ourselves in terms of our ethno culture, gender, age, socioeconomic, class, ability and other characteristics and critically examine how these have advantages or disadvantaged us in our needs and life chances” (Heinonen and Spearman, 2010, pp. 132). It is important to ask ourselves these questions as social workers so we can uncover any unresolved biases we have in ourselves. The anti-racist approach to social work involves how social workers deal with attitudes and practices that promote prejudice and discrimination. Thus, an anti-racist

Even in places where the minority population is small the amount of children removed from their families was still large, in fact about three times as high as their proportion in the general population. “Bremner (1974) states, “Although the rate of child welfare services to Negro children was higher…behavioral and emotional problems were reported for a considerably smaller proportion of Negro children… This raised the question for some professionals that whether placement of minority-group children is precipitated by poverty and lack of supportive resources, rather than disruptive family relationships or perceived habits of the child” (p. 8). The removal rate of Native American children was high as well. Like African American children there were obvious overlaps between removal from the home and poverty. As well during that time most social workers were Caucasian and tended to have different cultural standards in terms of family life therefore creating convolution. Like the circumstances of Native American children being taken from their home in the turn of the century, Native American children, when taken from their home often lost their culture and

Moreover, another limitation as it pertains to population was the failure of the literature to make strong connection about paternal incarceration impacting African American families and children. Most publications focused on maternal incarceration and its impacts on African American families and children. However, this research study isn’t geared toward maternal incarceration. The researcher had to utilize several different databases and keywords to find relevant and valid information on this topic. This process was time consuming but necessary to provide accurate research on this

In a study that was reviewed by Deitch and her colleagues (2003), blacks were interviewed at work about whether the felt they were being discriminated. Most participants had difficulty answering because they were not sure whether discrimination was linked to their race or different factors like gender. Such inconclusive research only adds to the haziness of work related issues defined as ones of “racial discrimination” (Deitch, Barsky, Butz, Chan, Brief & Bradley).

African-Americans are more likely than others to have social histories that include poverty, exposure to neighborhood violence, and exposure to crime-prone role models. For example, African-American children with no prior admissions to the juvenile justice system were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a public facility than white children with the same background that were charged with the same offense. A major study sponsored by the Department of Justice in the early 1980s noted that juvenile justice system processing appears to be counterproductive, placing minority children at a disproportionately greater risk of subsequent incarceration (Deadly Statistics: A Survey of Crime and Punishment, 2000). This writer?s grandmother retired after more than thirty years as a welfare social worker for Los Angeles County. She has stated on more than occasion that the government is the main reason that most black men are in jail awaiting the death penalty today. In the sixties and early seventies, she says that women on welfare were not allowed to have men in the home, even the father of the children. These fatherless generations of men seem more prone to crime,

To the thousands of children in foster care, adoption means being part of a family. Adoption signifies a chance to be loved, wanted, and cared for properly. Every year thousands of children enter the foster care system. In the year 2010 alone, 245,375 children entered foster care, of that number over 61,000 were black. An astounding 30,812 black children were waiting for adoption in 2010 (AFCARS). With so many children needing homes, it would seem their adoption would be open to any and all loving families, yet this is not the necessarily the case. Transracial adoption, which traditionally alludes to black children placed with white families, is riddled with difficulties. While transracial adoption can be a successful solution, many

Latino and Native American children are also in the system in disproportionate numbers. Also, she states that, “If you come with no preconceptions about the purpose of the child welfare system, you would have to conclude that it is an institution designed to monitor, regulate and punish poor families of color,” meaning that women of color are being oppressed because they are considered “bad mother.” Even though they are working hard and are trying to give their kids the best living situation they can, the government does not see it that way, which leads to seeing their kids in the child welfare

The purpose of one quantitative study, Involvement of African American Father in Kinship Foster Care Services (O’Donnell, 1999), was to gauge the degree of interaction between child welfare agencies and birth fathers of children in kinship foster care. This study was designed as a secondary data analysis involving structured interviews with caseworkers in two private child welfare agencies that had been in business for several decades. Qualifications for involvement in the study initially only included the caveat that the child be in kinship foster care placement for over a year. However, after the first stage of sampling yielded only thirteen percent placement in paternal kinship foster homes, the second stage of sampling consciously aimed to capture a higher representation of this population. Although agency administrators advised that this percentage was an accurate reflection of the proportion of the paternal kinship placements in their agencies, the low number of paternal family placements in the first stage of sampling did not support an adequate analysis of casework practice in these types of placements. This disproportionate oversampling of paternal kinship foster homes was a major limitation in this study as was the lack of generalizability as only two agencies were part of the study. Greater detail regarding the exact methodology can be found within the article.

Racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare represents a complex phenomenon emanating from historical theoretical socioeconomic and policy trends that has shaped this service over the past several decades. There are many theories that have been proposed explain why racial disproportionality and disparity exists in child welfare. It has been recognized the underlying roots of racial disproportionality and disparity are complex and often coexists. Racial disproportionate in child welfare will be the focus of this research. I will focus on is Racial Bias and Discrimination of child welfare agencies, particularly the child protective services.

Abstract- Racial discrimination happens all the time and most of us are unaware of it. The most common place for this to happen is in the workplace. Now people can be discriminated against because of their race, religion, or any other numerous things. Also, discrimination can occur during the job interview or even after you got the job. This paper will shoe the effects of racial discrimination and how it can be prevented. In addition there are some very important laws that deal specifically with discrimination, like the NAACP or Affirmative Action. These both will be discussed.

Gender, ethnicity, and race inequalities and the issues surrounding them in the workplace have been on the forefront of society’s mind for decades. The problem of inequality in the workplace has become one of the most important and vital issues in our society today. In order to understand fully the reasons for these inequalities, one must try to understand the factors that cause gender, ethnicity, and racial issues within the workplace, yet in this case, we will tend to focus mostly towards gender inequality in the workplace. One typically thinks locally

In a perfect world, people would be equal in rights, opportunities, and responsibilities, despite their race or gender. In the world we live in, however, we always face all kinds of neglect based on different attributes. All over the United States, certain people treat others with prejudice because of particular features they possess. Unfortunately, prejudice and discrimination occur even in places which, by definition, should be free of all personal prejudices – specifically, in offices and other business surroundings. This tragedy is called workplace discrimination; not every unfair behavior at work, however, can be assessed as discrimination. Discrimination in the workplace happens when an employee experiences unfair treatment due to their race, gender, age, religion, marital status, national origin, disability or veteran status, or other characteristics. Discrimination is one of the largest issues people face in the workplace and it must be dealt with. The U.S. have laws and regulations on discrimination but it still often occurs. Workplace discrimination appears in hiring, training, promotion, firing, and other institutional or interpersonal treatment. Discrimination sometimes causes an employee to leave or quit the workplace, resign from a position, or in more severe cases, to commit suicide or act violently against the discriminators. Discrimination is one of the largest issues many people face in the workplace.