Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins Research Assignment (Research Paper Sample)

Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
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Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
Colourblindness and Black Female social workers
Many philosophers, however, are exceedingly censorious of colourblindness as an ideology. They have argued that a mechanism that replicates racial inequality has become more furtive and hidden than they were during the era of legal segregation, open, the language of direct racism had given way to a debate of colourblindness (Sleeter, 2017). The acceptable definition of colourblindness by most people is that it describes an ideal society where racial classifications do not restrain individual’s opportunities, as well as it provides neutral –race government policies that promote racial equality in society. This idea of colourblindness was important during civil right movement on the last half of 20th century.
In the first half of 20th, it was legal correctly to deny any access to African Americans to jobs, voting, housing and other rights in American based on this apparently on race but civil rights reforms of 1960s, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. which rendered the racial discrimination into illegal practices and from then, law bar anyone who maintained any racial inequality like openly refuse to sell or rent real estate to black African-Americans, redlining or segregation (Ladson and Tate, 2016). Nevertheless, the racial discrimination continues, operating through a combination of economic, institutional and social practices. Consequently, it is no longer acceptable in various part of America to identify oneself as racist. Alternatively, numberless Americans pretend not to see colour. Although, their colourblindness come at expenses. “By claiming that they do not see race, they also can avert their eyes from the ways in which well-meaning people engage practices that reproduces segregation, that is ways that disadvantage racial minorities in job market, and hoard opportunities in ways that reserve access to better jobs for white’s peers” (Ladson and Tate,2016), and this is definition that social worker define colorblindness.
Although black women social workers have emerged to be self-reliant and self-defined individuals confronting race, gender, and class oppression, there is still a problem with colourblindness. Black women and other women of colour are continuously rendered invisible beneath the “women” banner. The default definition for women is white women, those with the most systemic power and the issues of the most privileged of use precedence over trials and tribulations of the least privileged of us. For instance, during the recent Oscar award white women used #askHerMore to bring awareness to and combat exist reporting on the red carpet, women of colour were bringing attention to #OscarSoWhite, created by movie critic April Reign, to protest the lack racial diversity in Oscar nomination. While white women experience the repercussions of sexism, colourblindness is not one of barrier that they have to come up against. Furthermore, another problem with colourblindness to black women social workers are not considered in any most social interactions as individuals; whites get to be seen as individuals. Whites, by and large, enjoy the luxury of promoting the importance of the individual, because they benefit from living in a racially stratified society where whiteness is normalised (Sleeter, 2017).
The colour-blindness approach can also be observed outside of face to face dyadic interactions. In recent year, social workers have argued that colourblindness has become manifest itself at various levels of U.S. educational system. Colourblindness is reflected by how districts are permitted to regulate the diversity of their schools, strengthen by standards school curricula that portray generalised cultural identity but leave group difference unaddressed. The presence of social workers is in schools to advocate and support marginalised students. To achieve the goal of social justice in multicultural society, social work educators have primarily sought to teach students to be culturally competent. Thus, social work education plays an important role in position to make an impact on issues of colourblindness corning individual student, the classroom, the school and the community. As education, as well as social work program, became more formalised, thus, the national association workers and the council of social work education have established policies that are designed to combat and eliminate racism as it strengthens colourblindness in the education system.
Like any professional work, social work has written guidelines issued by an organisation to social workers and management to help them to conduct their actions accordance with its primary values and ethical standard. The primary mission of social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empower of the people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. Colourblindness is one of the society needs to facilitate equality as well provide opportunities to all people equally (Few-Demo and Glass, 2016). Therefore, for any social work to perform this work of promoting colourblindness and awareness to individual, schools, and society, the following code of ethics has been provided by NASW: firstly, Social workers should elevate her/his service of providing awareness of the importance of colourblindness to others above self-interest. Social workers draw on their knowledge, skills, and value to help people in need and to address a social problem such as racism, discrimination, poverty and other social issues.
Moreover, social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Thus, their activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity so that he/she can address using the teaching of colourblindness. Social workers strive to ensure needed information, services, and resources, equality of opportunity and meaning participation in decision making for all people. Thirdly, social workers should treat each person in caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual difference and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers must work vigorously toward ending racial and ethnic discrimination and advance social justice. Profession social work education is committed to preparing social work students to understand and appreciate cultural and social diversity.
The Black female social workers that I interviewed felt as though colourblindness was denying the person heritage. They didn’t feel as though it needed to be taught in the social work. However, the others felt like colourblindness had a place because they were linking the wording or meaning of colourblindness to treating everybody equal. One issue that I notice from interviews is Black female social workers don’t have a clear and concise definition of the meaning of colourblindness. By failing to take account of systems of oppression, colourblindness ignores the structure of race, class and gender relations together posit colour as a deficit. On the other hand, while Black Feminist theory approach recognized social structures of race, class, and gender, it also portrays black women solely as passive, unfortunate recipients of racial and sexual abuse stifles notions that black women can actively work to change our circumstances and bring about changes in our lives (Collins, 2012).
Cultural Competence and Black Female Social Workers
Cultural competency allows social workers to become more attuned with and sensitive to individual, family, and groups specific needs, values, beliefs and attitudes to provide more culturally competent interventions, services and supports (Hays, 2016). Thus, the most accepted definition of cultural competence by social worker refers to the process by which individuals and system respond respectfully and effectively to people of all languages, culture, ethnic, races, religions, background and other diversity factors in manner that affirms, recognizes and values the worth of families, communities and even individuals and reserve and protects the dignity of each. Competency is an essential element that a social worker should attend to their own opinion about cultural identity and how her/his clients may view the culture. Thus, they need for a social worker to assess all aspects of client’s values, beliefs and how they consider their religion is crucial as evaluating their whole bio-psychosocial history (Betancourt and Owusu, 2016).
Human dignity and social justice are core elements of social work ethics and principles; thus social work curriculum must tend to practice socially. Social worker’s ability to practice in socially just manner depend on significantly on their capabilities to review the impact of their professional and individual socialisation and the basis of inequalities that affect the lives of services users. To realise a broad perception of social justice, Council of Social Worker Education provides that social work students must be educated to be responsive, critical practitioners who can ask questions, observe and fight against injustice in community and state at large. Education is means of developing reflective and essential abilities of social work students to supplement their procedural competencies and contributes to their professional and personal socialisation (Dunn and Andrews, 2015). Contemplative social work training has the potential to prepare social work students to understand the inequalities locked up in these structural arrangements and as results their professional relationships. Th...