Notes on Becoming an Anti-racist School Social worker
This post features a lecture I gave on July 17th as part of Day 2 of the 15th Annual Loyola SMHAPP Virtual Summer Institute. In the video, I get into a variety of excellent anti-racist education resources that have contributed to my own efforts to take actions as an anti-racist school social worker and educator. But even though my talk was titled “Becoming an Anti-racist SSW,” it’s clear that this is a lifelong, daily task, not a final goal that any of us can reach. As Dr. Ibram X. Kendi writes in his seminal work How to be an Anti-racist :
“Racist” and “antiracist” are like peelable name tags that are placed and replaced based on what someone is doing or not doing, supporting or expressing in each moment. These are not permanent tattoos. No one becomes a racist or antiracist. We can only strive to be one or the other. We can unknowingly strive to be a racist. We can knowingly strive to be an antiracist. Like fighting an addiction, being an antiracist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination.”
In many ways, my own recent thinking on these issues have been heavily informed by the notion of becoming a white “co-conspirator” or “accomplice” in this work as opposed to the more common idea of being a white ally. During my talk, I share a 6-minute clip of Dr. Bettina Love talking about Bree Newsome taking down the Confederate flag at the state capital in South Carolina in 2015, and the white man who stood at the base of the flag pole helping her do this action. Dr. Love’s story of this moment in 2015 has helped clarify for me the difference between showing up as an ally for Black lives vs. being a co-conspirator in making Black Lives Matter a central part of my school social work research and teaching. You can check out the clip at about the 41-minute mark where Dr. Love tells the story about Bree Newsome, the Confederate flag, and the white man who was a co-conspirator, and also feel free to pursue the selection of anti-racist resources I attach here. We plan to continue this conversation and this work over at our SSWNetwork site this Fall–join us at our always-free social media platform, where along with the other 4,700+ who have already joined, we can try to make this school year one where anti-racist school mental health practice can take root in our nation’s schools.
A selection of resources I reference in this talk:
How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Dr. Bettina Love (University of Georgia Professor and recent author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom in a short clip on C-Span Book TV on Being a White Co-Conspirator vs. Being a White Ally
Dr. King’s 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail“
Educator Jonathan Osler’s site on how to become a “white accomplice” in the fight for racial justice
The New York Times’ 1619 Project
