2020 is plagued by two pandemics: COVID-19 & anti-racist uprisings as a result of the murders of Mr. George Floyd and many other African Americans and other people of color due to police violence. While these two pandemics appear to be different in nature, both pandemics attest to the fact that systemic racism continues to be a grand challenge in our society. It is appalling to see how COVID-19 differentially affects communities and people of color as well as socially disadvantaged groups. Systemic racism and police brutality are related to the unacceptable violation of human rights of diverse groups in the US and globally.
The present moment provides distinct challenges and opportunities for the promise of the social work profession. Social work has long distinguished itself as a profession ethically bound to stand for social justice. Generations of emerging social workers matriculate in accredited social work programs to uphold this value in service to and with those populations regulated to the margins who have disproportionately suffered from the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and police violence. With years of experience as social work researchers and educators, the editorial board views the special issue as representing the profession’s values of confronting systemic racism. The articles are timely from social work scholars and educators in a time where the threat, at least in one state of the proposed legislation would fire tenured faculty for teaching tenets of critical race theory. Knowledge becomes politicized in the context of the dual pandemics. There has been intense tension across state legislation and schools on whether discrimination and bias should be addressed in education. Many states across the United States have proposed bills to control CRT in schools: https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/map-where-critical-race-theory-is-under-attack/2021/06.
Refusing to be deterred, the authors of special issue articles offer intellectually sound examination, conceptualization, and rigor in providing viable, socially just, responsive paths forward. This Special Issue includes articles that focus on anti-racist pedagogy in social work education, conceptual discussion contributing to refining a shared understanding of constructs relevant to anti-racist social work, and micro, mezzo, and macro social work practice that aims to prevent or eliminate the negative impact of racism as well as promote racial justice, equity, and inclusion among individuals, families, groups, organizations, or communities. Mental, physical health, and safety should not be considered utopian values. nor dignity and grace of all individuals.
Part I – anti-racist pedagogy in social work education
The special issue includes five articles that refine the constructs and examine the practice of anti-racist pedagogy in social work education. “Dual pandemics awaken urgent call to advance anti-racism education in social work: Pedagogical illustrations” describes the efforts by members of the CSWE Task Force for Anti-racism. The discussion describes a path that promotes racial justice, dismantles systemic racism, and eliminates white supremacy within social work education. This article interrogates social work’s complicity in white supremacy, provides examples of social work anti-racism pedagogy, and calls for centering BIPOC voices to move social work toward its anti-racism future.
“Advancing critical race pedagogical approaches in social work education” addresses the lack of research-informed transformative learning models in social work that has resulted in the persistent centering of Western ways of knowing in Canada and globally. The authors propose critical race pedagogy as an essential framework to promote and enrich social work learning environments where students can engage in courageous conversations about race, racism, power, and oppression.
Reflecting on the dual pandemics, COVID-19 and racism in the United States and the fact that typical pedagogical practices tend to center on Whiteness when teaching about issues of race, racism, and racial justice, “Coloniality of Power, Critical Realism and Critical Consciousness” further expands the discussion and proposes a framework that de-centers the White frame using three C’s: the coloniality of power, critical realism, and critical consciousness. This framework intentionally promotes a pedagogical foundation that highlights accountability, agency, and self-emancipation.
To provide a picture of what has been done in social work pedagogy, “Anti-Racism and Equity-Mindedness in Social Work Field Education: A Systematic Review” synthesizes the literature over the last ten years to examine field education programs and critically examines anti-racist and equity-mindedness in field education, which is the signature pedagogy in social work education.
“Lift Ev’ry Voice: Social Work Educators’ Experiences Teaching Race and Racism” explores the experiences of undergraduate social work educators who taught the required diversity courses. This qualitative study highlights the primary challenges of teaching about race and racism, including (1) faculty racial identity and lack of credibility and (2) the emotional toll of teaching about race. Study findings have important implications concerning educators’ preparation to engage in anti-racist and equitable pedagogy in undergraduate social work education programs.
Part II – conceptualizing anti-racist social work practice and research
Five articles focus on conceptual discussions that contribute to refining or expanding a shared understanding of constructs relevant to anti-racist social work. The article, “Dual pandemics or a syndemic? Racism, COVID-19, and opportunities for antiracist social work,” critically examines the conceptualization of racism as a pandemic and the limitations of medicalizing racism. The authors introduce the term syndemic and discuss how the language of syndemics might accurately characterize the synergism and interconnectedness of racism and COVID-19 and the potential of a syndemic theory in offering insights and opportunities for social work research, practice, and policy from a racial justice lens.
“Visualizing Structural Competency: Moving Beyond Cultural Competence/ Humility Toward Eliminating Racism” is another conceptual discussion that examines racism from a macro, structural perspective. Building on structural violence as a theoretical framework and the need for social work to explicitly build structural competency to effectively respond to structural racism and respond to the Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism, this article presents a “structuragram” as a heuristic to assess, analyze, and intervene at the structural level factors that influence the individual and community realities in addition to including a case example and recommendations for structural competency-based practice.
In the article, “From Social Justice to Abolition: Living Up to Social Work’s Grand Challenge of Eliminating Racism,” the authors argue for the replacement of the predominant social justice paradigm with a framework for anti-racist social work praxis informed by abolitionist principles that emphasize the building of power in Black, Indigenous, or Brown and poor communities. The discussion shares concrete anti-racist praxis tools and defines praxis principles that include engaging with critical theories, advancing macro-approaches, targeting racism at the source, and developing interventions to eliminate and address the effects of racism.
“Power Knowledge in Social Work: Educating Social Workers to Practice Racial Justice” analyzes and interrogates knowledge-production practices in contemporary social work research and practice through the lens of Michel Foucault’s concept of power-knowledge. As a regime of power, social work produces forms of knowledge that stratify human subjects along with the social fabric. To reconcile a contemporary social work professional logic saturated in white supremacy with a longstanding ethical mandate for social justice, this investigation concludes with practice and pedagogical recommendations informed by an anti-racist theoretical framework.
Integrating Beauchamp and Childress’s four ethical principles as an overarching framework with NASW’s code of ethics and the Grand Challenges for Social Work on eliminating racism, “Ethical Mental Health Practice in Diverse Cultures and Races” examines their intersection with cultural diversity and anti-racism and its implications for mental health services. This article highlights the importance of inclusivity beyond individual clients, revisiting the relevance of evidence-based practices in collaboration with clients as embedded in their culture. In addition, it urges practitioners to reduce biases, cultural ignorance, and microaggressions to avoid misdiagnosis and invalidation of client situations and ensure equitable access to culturally sensitive services for the marginalized communities.
Part III – impact of dual pandemics on special groups and populations
Dual pandemics assert differential and negative experience to vulnerable and racially diverse populations. Five articles highlight research and scholarship that centers race as a key variable and examine the impact of systemic racism and COVID-19 on different communities and groups. Two articles focus on the experience of two different groups of essential workers: Black women and migrant workers. Using a phenomenological research design, “Necessary, Yet Mistreated: The Lived Experiences of Black Women Essential Workers in Dual Pandemics of Racism and COVID-19” explores the experiences of 22 Black women essential workers navigating these dual pandemics. Findings of the study highlight their experiences related to their desire to and fear of protest; navigating extreme emotions; mixed levels of understanding from colleagues; and a rise in blatantly racist confrontations in the workplace. Another group of essential workers negatively affected by the dual pandemics is the migrant and immigrant workers. “Demanding Migrant/Immigrant Labor in the Coronavirus Crisis: Critical Perspectives for Social Work Practice” adopts a labor-focused framework as a critical perspective that complements the rights-based, participatory frameworks with immigrants to account for systemic racism, global and national inequality, and discrimination embedded in immigration and social policies and forms of practice.
Mask Mandates, Race, and Protests of Summer 2020 examined predictors to mask mandate support and racial justice protest participation across Asian (n = 103), Black (n = 102), white (n = 102) New York City residents, using binary logistic regressions. Participants with positive feelings about the racial justice movement were more likely to participate in the protests. White and Asian respondents were more likely to support the mask mandates than Black respondents. Asian respondents were less likely to participate in public protests than white respondents. Our findings offer a model for social workers to understand how race, political participation, and COVID-19 intersect to create racially just responses to health and justice matters.
Two articles examine anti-Asian racism during the dual pandemics in the United States and Canada, respectively. “Model Minority Mutiny: Addressing Anti-Asian Racism During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Social Work” critically examines the condition of Asians and Asian Americans in the United States with the goal of supporting inter-solidarity movements in social work to uplift the lived experiences of Asian Americans. The discussion introduces four recommendations pertaining to conceptualizing and positioning the Asian American identity, acknowledging the heterogeneity of the Asian American population, integrating Asian American history in the social work curriculum, and using research strategies to address anti-Asian racism.
“Conceptualizing Anti-Asian racism in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: A call for action to social workers” integrates Canadian postcolonialism, Canadian multiculturalism, and a framework of intergroup prejudice to conceptualize the covert anti-Asian racism that is entrenched in Canadian society. This conceptualization highlights social workers’ leading roles in combating anti-Asian racism through reforming and integrating client interventions, cultural policy, and social context, and offers directions that can guide future social work research and practice in improving social justice during this crisis.
This Special Issue also includes a review of the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. This book provides a description of the caste system that has been quietly infiltrating the United States since the emergence of our nation as well as a refreshing framework to ignite new understanding, conversations, and action toward reimagining the United States as a country that is equitable for all.
Concluding thoughts
As the COVID-19 pandemic makes fewer headlines and we see the potential for normalcy in our daily lives, systemic racism continues to rage unabated. The dual pandemics thus also demonstrate the responsiveness of society when all lives are at stake compared to the uneven and performative responses to racism when BIPOC lives are at stake. Will social work respond similarly, or will the profession rise to the challenge of systemic change for racial justice?
The articles in this special issue suggest that social work is prepared to respond and that the events of 2020 will continue to stand as a moment for opportunity and growth as a profession. Many white Americans were suddenly “waken” in 2020 and had new insight into why San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee and risked his lucrative football career years back. They also began to realize that “serve and protect” was not applied equally to all people. Following these events, the 13th Grand Challenge in Social Work to Eliminate Racism was established. It is uncertain if this would have occurred had the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd and others not happened. As we seek answers to how we move forward, social work must continue to critically challenge existing systems, including our own profession and the institutions we interact with and, in some cases, rely upon for resources. The articles presented in this special issue illustrate both the damage to BIPOC communities because of the dual pandemics, as well as ways we can make the dream of racial justice a reality.
As society stays vigilant during the current pandemic against new viral strains that put the most vulnerable at risk, social work must remain vigilant against existing forms of systemic racism as well as new mutations that will likely arise as systems work to maintain their power. This special issue serves as a call for the profession to go beyond cultural competency and develop structural competency through anti-racist research, pedagogy, policies, and practice. Consistent with systems of foundational change, we can expect our work to continue to evolve and respond to the changing dynamics of racism and oppression that will have tremendous impacts on social work research, practice, and education.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).