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2

Critical Reflection
A Starting Place for Understanding Difference,
Oppression, and Privilege

Denial is the heartbeat of racism.

—Ibram X. Kendi (2019)

Overview
In Chapter 2 we introduce the first core process of Just Practice—critical reflec-
tion. As social justice workers, it is essential that we grasp the significance of criti-
cal reflection as an ongoing facet of practice. As critically reflective practitioners,
we commit to an ongoing practice of problematizing social work, of continually
questioning embedded assumptions about social problems, interventions, and
ourselves as social workers. Through critical reflection we gain deeper insights
into ourselves, our relationships with those with whom we work, our contexts of
social work practice, and the broader societal structures and forces that shape us.
Readers will then be able to apply the knowledge and skills of critical reflection
while exploring social work history, values, ethics, and theories in Chapters 3 to
5. Critical reflection is also a practice continually brought to bear throughout the
processes of engagement, teaching-learning, action, accompaniment, and evalua-
tion and in the celebration of our work.
We begin this chapter by considering the daunting realities of injustice and the
implications for social justice work. We then turn our attention to the meaning,
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

practice, and skills of critical reflection and consider ways to build capacity for
self-awareness. The process of critical reflection takes us beyond ourselves as well.
It demands sustained attention to questions of difference and diversity and to
the dynamics of oppression, discrimination, and domination in shaping people’s
everyday lives and our thinking about difference. Given the deep embeddedness
of racism in U.S. history and contemporary reality, we pay particular attention to
its meaning and power and to the ways in which racism is manifest in contexts of
social work practice. Critical reflection on racism requires careful consideration of

the ways in which white-dominant world views and ways of knowing and being
have infiltrated social work knowledge and practice. It requires us to think not
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only about whiteness and privilege, but also to interrogate the underlying logic
and power of white supremacy that permeates social life in the U.S. For white
people, naming white supremacy is likely to trigger discomfort and perhaps resis-
tance. And yet by naming it we open the space for critical reflection on ways that
social work, and social workers, may be complicit in supporting harmful assump-
tions and practices despite best intentions.
We consider how our lived experiences in the world shape our positionalities, or
social locations in the world, and how, in turn, our positionalities influence our
world views, meaning-making, and perceived and actual power. We introduce the
concept of intersectionality as a means of understanding the interplay among mul-
tiple facets of our identities that shape us as social actors and social workers. An
intersectional lens helps us discern ways in which multiple forms of oppression
and discrimination, including racism, gender oppression, homo/transphobia,
ageism, and ableism, interact in people’s lived experience to produce and exac-
erbate harm. We conclude Chapter 2 by making the case for social work practice
grounded in cultural humility, structural competence, and anti-racism and outline
possibilities for building our capacities as critically reflective practitioners.

The Daunting Realities of Injustice

We do not need to look far to see that injustice persists in the world. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights is more than seven decades old, yet violations of
human rights and struggles to recognize and realize these rights continue on
many fronts. Those struggles force us to ask what conditions of humanity are
necessary for people to claim the most basic of human rights—“the right to have
rights” (Arendt, 1973, p. 296). Let’s consider the reach of injustice that compro-
mises human rights for so many. Poverty is ubiquitous and economic inequality is
growing both nationally and globally. Oxfam (2020), an international confedera-
tion of organizations dedicated to fighting poverty, reports:

Economic inequality is out of control. In 2019 the world’s billionaires,

only 2,153 people, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. The richest
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

22 men in the world own more wealth than all of the women in Africa.
These extremes of wealth exist alongside great poverty. New World Bank
estimates show that almost half of the world’s population lives on less
than $5.50 a day, and the rate of poverty reduction has halved since
2013. (p. 9)

Further, Oxfam, notes, the richest 1% now have more than twice as much wealth
as 6.9 billion people, or 90% of the world’s population. Extreme economic

inequality has profound costs and consequences. It is economically inefficient,

politically corrosive, socially divisive, environmentally destructive, and funda-
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mentally unethical (Oxfam America, 2014). But it is not inevitable.

Struggles for women’s rights continue globally in the face of persistent gender
inequality, oppression, and violence. While women and girls around the world lack
equal access to education, nutrition, and health care, their paid and unpaid labors
have a monetary value of more than 10 trillion dollars annually (Oxfam, 2020).
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations in
1989, but children throughout the world continue to be viewed as less than full
citizens and are exploited in families, factories, sex trades, and armed conflict
(Finn, Nybell, & Shook, 2010). The distance between the principles of children’s
rights and their translation into practice has been exposed in the policies of fam-
ily separation at the U.S. Mexico border, (National Immigration Forum, 2018).
In 2018, the United Nations verified more than 24,000 grave violations against
children, including killing, maiming, sexual violence, abductions, recruitment to
military and sex trades, and attacks on schools and hospitals. This number is more
than two-and-a-half times higher than that recorded in 2010 (UNICEF, 2019).
The rights associated with citizenship and home are denied to seventy-one mil-
lion people displaced by war, persecution, and other forms of social, political, eco-
nomic, and environmental devastation (Keaten, 2019). Millions more are caught
in the push and pull of labor migration in response to economic globalization (Ho
& Loucky, 2012). How can we speak of universal human rights when nearly 2 bil-
lion people live in poverty, 821 million suffer from chronic hunger, 775 million
adults are illiterate, and 2 billion people lack access to basic sanitation (Bread for
the World, 2020; UNESCO, 2020; UNICEF/WHO, 2019)?
Injustice and inequality persist at the national level as well, as evidenced in
the rates of child poverty, particularly among children of color; violence against
women; erosion of social safety nets; and deep inequalities in the U.S. justice sys-
tem. The income gap in the United States in 2018 was its highest in 50 years,
with the median income for white families nearly double that for black and Latinx
families (Schneider, 2019). The wealth gap is exponentially worse. Wealth consid-
ers people’s assets and net worth in addition to earned income The median net
worth of white families in the United States is almost 11 times greater than that
of black families and seven times greater than that of Latinx families (Children’s
Defense Fund, 2020).
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Health disparities in the United States are also glaring indicators of racial
and economic inequality. According to the National Academy of Sciences
(2017), African American men are 30% more likely than white men to die pre-
maturely from heart disease and twice as likely to die from stroke. American
Indian/Alaska Natives are two times more likely than whites to die from dia-
betes. African American women have maternal mortality rates three to four
times higher than white women, and African American infant mortality is
twice that of infants born to white mothers (Taylor, Novoa, Hamm, & Phadke,

2019). American Indian/Alaska Native infant mortality is 60% higher than that
of whites (National Academy of Science, 2017). And, as COVID-19 ravages the
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United States and the world in the spring of 2020, profound racial disparities
are revealed once again: As of April 2020 emerging data revealed that black and
Latinx people were dying at a rate twice that of white people (Elving, 2020).
These data speak to cumulative histories of racial inequity evidenced in housing
and employment discrimination, lack of access to health care and food security,
and disparate exposure to environmental toxins that produce systemic health
risks for people of color.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch have taken the
United States to task for having the world’s highest incarceration rate, further
marked by the disproportionate imprisonment of people of color, the systematic
sexual abuse of women prisoners, and the growing overrepresentation of the
poor and people diagnosed with serious mental illness being held in jails and pris-
ons around the country (American Civil Liberties Union, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c;
Human Rights Watch, 2004). Mass incarceration in the United States increased
from 200,000 to 2.3 million in two decades. The funneling of young people of
color starts early, as evidenced in the school-to-prison pipeline, wherein black,
Native American, and Latinx youth and young people with disabilities are dis-
proportionately subjected to harsh punishments, including suspensions and
expulsions for noncriminal offenses (McCarter, 2017). In a single year, 11 million
instructional days were lost due to out-of-school suspensions (Losen & Whitaker,
2018). Further, we have witnessed the systematic violation of political rights, dis-
proportionately of people of color, that has eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of
1965, through racial gerrymandering, loss of access to polling places, and other
forms of voter suppression (Fair Fight, 2020).
These realities create the context for people’s everyday struggles. They contrib-
ute to life stresses that become embodied and manifest in physical and emotional
suffering. These realities produce the social and personal struggles to which social
workers respond. As we bear witness to the profundity of these issues, we are
likely to feel an urgent desire to do something. However, justice-oriented action
first requires critical reflection on both ourselves and that which we witness. It
requires what Paulo Freire terms an ongoing praxis, the practice of witnessing,
reflecting, and engaging in critical dialogue about causes of dehumanization cou-
pled with action to change structured inequalities (Burnette & Figley, 2016). We
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

turn now to the process of critical reflection.

Meanings of Critical Reflection

Critical reflection may be described as a practice of “unsettling” and examin-
ing dominant, taken-for-granted assumptions about the social world (Fook &
Gardner, 2007, p. 21). In addition, critical reflection calls attention to power

and how power operates (Fook, 2015). It calls for the ability to step back and
reflect on our own internalized ways of thinking and to critically examine the
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larger contexts of our practice. Critical reflection also requires reflexivity, the
ability to consider oneself in relation to social context and to develop conscious-
ness of the interplay between ourselves and the broader contexts shaping us
and shaped by us (Watts, 2019). Let’s consider first the reflective part of critical
reflection.

THE REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER

Mezirow (1998, pp. 185–186) defines reflection as a “turning back” on experience,
which may include both self-awareness and awareness of events or states of being.
Schon (1983) describes two complementary facets—“reflection in action” wherein
we are consciously mindful of our practice while engaging in it, and “reflection on
action” wherein we examine our practice after the fact. According to Howe (2009),
“reflective practice demands that you learn from experience. It requires you to be
self-critical. It expects you to analyse what you think, feel, and do, and then learn
from the analysis” (Howe, 2009, p. 171; emphasis in original).
John Dewey (1910, 1933), an early twentieth-century educator and philoso-
pher, emphasized the importance of reflection and understood it as both an intel-
lectual and an emotional endeavor. Dewey (1910) describes:

Reflective thinking is always more or less troublesome because it involves

overcoming the inertia that inclines one to accept suggestions at their
face value; it involves willingness to endure a condition of mental unrest
and disturbance. Reflective thinking, in short, means judgment sus-
pended during further inquiry; and suspense is likely to be somewhat
painful. . . . To maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and
protracted inquiry—these are the essentials of thinking. (p. 13)

As Dewey suggests, we must be prepared to deal with the discomfort that

comes from having our long-held assumptions open for question. Dewey (1933)
identified three characteristics reflective thinkers need to navigate the “mental
unrest and disturbance” resulting from the contradictions between old and new
ways of thinking: (1) open-mindedness, (2) responsibility, and (3) wholeheart-
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

edness. Open-mindedness is the desire to hear more than one side of an issue,
listen to alternative perspectives, and recognize that even the most engrained
beliefs are open to question. Responsibility connotes the desire to seek out the
truth and apply new knowledge to troublesome situations. Wholeheartedness
encompasses the emotional aspect of reflective thinking. It implies that,
through commitment, one can overcome fear and uncertainty to make mean-
ingful change and marshal the capacity to critically evaluate self, others, and
society.

CRITIC AL REFLECTION AND CRITIC AL CONSCIOUSNESS

Critical reflection, then, merges reflective capacity, reflexivity, and critical ques-
tioning of implicit beliefs and power relations. It is the process of asking why and
developing critical consciousness. According to Valerie Miller and Lisa VeneKlasen
(2012), critical consciousness “involves learning to question and challenge the
explanations for why things are the way they are and what is ‘normal,’ perpetually
seeking a deeper understanding of power and inequality from the intimate and
personal to the more public realms of decision making” (p. 3). It entails ongoing
questioning of our certainties, those dearly held assumptions that we accept as
truths. Drawing insight from an indigenous social work perspective, we must take
up the hard work of decolonizing our ways of knowing, being, and doing. Think for
a minute of a belief that you once held firm but have come to question. Think of
the reasons you used to bolster your faith in this belief. Now recall the process or
events that made you question this long-held assumption. Did you struggle with
resistance in this process? What emotions did you experience? What alternative
possibilities came to light as your certainties were disrupted?
VeneKlasen and Miller (2007; cited in Hardina, 2013, p. 119) describe the key
components of critical consciousness as

• Knowledge about how political and economic systems function.

• Sense of history and current events.
• Lens for analyzing why and how imbalances of power operate.
• Concern about how these things destroy human potential and dignity.
• Sense of rights, responsibilities, and solidarity with excluded groups.

Each party to the process brings knowledge grounded in personal experience

and cultural history. Together we begin to map out what we know, consider what
we need to learn more about, seek out knowledge, consider underlying forces and
patterns that shape experiences, and bring our collective wisdom to bear in trans-
lating shifts in consciousness into guides for action and further reflection.
Critical reflection, then, is a structured, analytic, and emotional process
that helps us examine the ways in which we make meaning of circumstances,
events, and situations. Critical reflection pushes us to interpret experience,
question our taken-for-granted assumptions of how things ought to work,
probe workings of power, and reframe our inquiry to open up new possibili-
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

ties for thought and action. Posing critical questions is key to critical reflec-
tion. For example, whose knowledge, world view, or “truth” is privileged and
whose discounted? Whose stories are heard and whose are silenced? How do
we make the ethical, social, and political dimensions of the situation and their
impacts on those involved explicit? The critical reflection process leads not only
to deeper awareness but also to change in our practices informed by that aware-
ness (Fook, 2015).

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2 C r itica l Re f l e ctio n 39
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See
(notice; bear
witness; consider
outcomes of
actions)

Reflect
Act
(question posing;
(action informed examining
by critical meaning, context,
reflection) history & power)

Figure 2.1 Praxis of consciousness raising. Adapted from

Nicotera (2019).

Anthony Nicotera (2019) describes this praxis of consciousness raising in terms

of a “circle of insight,” a cyclical process of critical question posing and reflection
to inform action. He frames this as a trialectical process of seeing, reflecting, and
acting. Figure 2.1 illustrates this cyclical process.

WHY ENGAGE IN CRITIC AL REFLECTION?

There are a number of reasons why we include critical reflection as a core process
of justice-oriented social work practice. The following list is far from inclusive;
what are other reasons you might add?

• Critical reflection promotes continuous self- assessment. Posing questions

about our own performance is key to social work practice that takes social jus-
tice seriously. Assessing personal, emotional, and intellectual challenges and
successes and addressing them through augmenting or changing the ways in
which we work increases personal and professional competence and integrity
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(Moch, 2009).
• Critical reflection fosters connections and linkages between personal and
social concerns. The dominant mode of thought in U.S. culture is based on
individualism. The tendency is to look only within ourselves for causes of our
concerns. Critical reflection demands that we look at the linkages between per-
sonal issues and the ways these are influenced and shaped by systems much
larger than ourselves.

• Critical reflection invites questioning of dominant explanations and observa-

tions. Engaging with issues in a critical way means questioning the structur-
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ing of power embedded in the definitions attributed to social problems and

concerns. Think of some unquestioned myths you adhered to, later discovering
that you simply lacked sufficient information for an informed opinion. How
were these myths perpetuated?
• Critical reflection opens up and strengthens spaces of possibility. Binary logic
or the logic of either/or is the dominant social logic in U.S. culture (Kelly &
Sewell, 1988). The primary limitation of this particular mode of thinking is that
it narrows choices. For example, something is either right or wrong—there are
no shades of gray. Kelly and Sewell remind us that trialectic logic or the logic
of wholeness provides a space to “grasp the wholeness which emerges” (p. 22–
23) when we consider relationship among factors in terms of threes instead
of twos.
• Critical reflection links to problematizing. Through question posing we are
able to “problematize the ordinary” and examine how particular circumstances
came to be (Freire, 1974). We are engaged in an ongoing process of examining
the conditions of our lives, identifying concerns, asking the why questions,
and looking for themes and patterns that connect. These become the founda-
tions for developing action plans.

Skills and Practices of Critical Reflection

Characteristics of the critically reflective thinker are not innate attributes
bestowed on some of us and not on others. In fact, these characteristics and the
skills of critical reflection can be developed. Here are some suggestions for fine
tuning your critical reflection skills:

• Dialogue. Engaging in dialogue is the primary way we develop critical reflection

capacity. Discussing our ideas, thoughts, and feelings with others externalizes
our thinking and helps us engage with others and work on open mindedness.
It is also one of the most viable ways we learn. True dialogue occurs when
we open ourselves to new learning, challenge ourselves, and change in the
process. For example, social work supervision provides an important context
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for critical reflection and dialogue about practice. We explore supervision for
social justice further in Chapter 8.
• Critical friend dyads. Hatton and Smith (1995) describe the use of critical
friend dyads and how these critical relationships help to develop higher levels
of thinking. A critical friend is someone who is not afraid to disagree, who will
challenge your viewpoint and question your assumptions about reality. Think
for a moment what it might be like if the expectation of the critical friend
were part of your work in a community organization. How might the notion

of critical friend change the ways in which we think about our work and how
might this notion of continual critique provide permission for altering struc-
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tures toward more just and equitable arrangements?

• Research. Critical reflection demands a willingness to continually open our-
selves to new learning, which requires research skills. When dominant assump-
tions are disrupted, the experience can be very unsettling. We are faced with
“unlearning” some deeply held beliefs and opening ourselves to new learn-
ing. Systematic research into the contexts, histories, and power relations that
shape belief systems, social arrangements, and social suffering thus becomes
part of our ongoing ethical responsibilities as social workers. In turn, research
nurtures reflective practice and critical reflection skills. In Chapter 3, for exam-
ple, we research social work history and further hone critical reflection skills.
• Writing experiences. Journaling and other forms of reflective writing are ways
to keep a record of personal growth and changing perceptions. There are a
number of approaches to journal writing that range from unstructured narra-
tive to focused writing on specific topics with specific intent. Journals can be
used to catalogue and reflect upon critical perplexing incidents or to examine
particular case studies in depth. Journals can also provide the means for link-
ing theory and practice.
• Artistic reflection. Photos, artwork, and theater can be used to stimulate criti-
cal reflection in their production and presentation. We present examples of
the use of photography, visual art, and theater in consciousness raising for
change in later chapters. For more in-depth explorations of the place of art and
performance in critical reflection we refer readers to Ann Rall’s case study on
the struggle for water as a human right in Detroit and Erin and Sarah Butts’s
chapter on theater as a vehicle for community consciousness raising in The Just
Practice Framework in Action: Contemporary Case Studies (Finn, 2021).

Difference, Oppression, and Privilege

BEYOND DIVERSIT Y
The practice of social justice work calls on us to engage in ongoing critical reflec-
tion on questions of difference, oppression, domination, and privilege. We will
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

do so throughout this book, and we encourage readers to do so in their everyday

lives. We question superficial, celebratory notions of human diversity and address
the historical, political, and cultural processes through which differences and our
ideas about difference are produced. In addressing the concept of cultural diver-
sity specifically, Flavio Francisco Marsiglia and Stephen Kulis (2015) note that
the way we approach diversity has very real consequences: “When difference is
defined broadly to encompass every imaginable factor that distinguishes one per-
son from another, there is a risk of diluting key differences, overlooking their

societal implications, and overemphasizing less critical factors” (p. 33). As Beth
Glover Reed and colleagues (1997) argue,
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Recognizing and building on people’s differences is important and neces-

sary, but not sufficient for a practice that has social justice as a primary
goal. For social justice work both difference and dominance dimensions
must be recognized and addressed. Developing and using individual and
collective critical consciousness are primary tools for understanding dif-
ferences, recognizing injustice, and beginning to envision a more just
society. (Emphasis in original, p. 46)

We have to look not only at differences, but also at the ways in which differences
are produced and their relationship to the production, maintenance, and justifi-
cation of inequality. We are challenged to recognize and respect difference at the
same time that we question how certain differences are given meaning and value.
We need to work collectively to critically examine connections among forms of
difference, relations of power, and practices of devaluation.

DIFFERENCE
Let’s think for a moment about the concept of difference. How do we categorize
human difference? What are the differences that make a difference, so to speak?
What meanings do we give to particular forms of difference in particular contexts?
What meanings do we give to the categories through which social differences are
named and marked? How do we construct images of and assumptions about the
other—a person or group different from ourselves? Too often, the marking of dif-
ference also involves a devaluing of difference, as we have witnessed historically
and continue to see today, for example, in the social construction of race, gender,
or sexual orientation.
Author H. G. Wells (1911) presents a classic example of difference and devalu-
ation in his short story “The Country of the Blind.” Nuñez, an explorer and the
story’s protagonist, falls into an isolated mountain valley and is rescued by the
valley’s curious inhabitants. Once Nuñez realizes that all of the residents are
blind and have no conception of sight, he muses, “in the country of the blind the
one-eyed man is king.” He assumes that, by virtue of his sight, he is superior to
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the valley’s residents. The residents, in turn, find Nuñez unable to respond to the
most basic rhythms and rules of their society. They see him as slow and child-
like, and they interpret his nonsensical ramblings about this thing called sight as
another sign of his unsound mind. Wells skillfully illustrates the ways in which
constructions and (mis)understandings of difference are linked to assumptions
about worth, superiority, and inferiority and ways in which they inform relations
of domination and subordination.

In our social work practice we are called upon to be constantly vigilant about
the ways in which ahistorical understandings of diversity and difference—or calls
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for appreciating the sameness of our underlying humanity—may prevent us from

recognizing the ways in which unjust structural arrangements and histories of
exclusion and oppression shape the meaning and power of difference. For exam-
ple, consider what happens when poverty is framed as a “cultural” problem. It
labels those living in poverty as “other” and uses culture as an explanation for
poverty among “those people.” This framing fails to account for histories and
structures of racial, economic, and gender inequality that produce conditions of
poverty for some and wealth for others.
In writing about the shortcomings of traditional social work models in the
Australasian and Pacific region, Ingrid Burkett and Catherine McDonald (2005)
argue that these models tend to bracket out the legacies of a “colonial past in
which racism and intolerance for difference figure highly” (p. 181). They contend
that a political rhetoric of multiculturalism contributes to a superficial under-
standing of diversity that may constrict rather than expand honest exploration
of difference. Similarly, Monique Constance-Huggins (2012) contends that a mul-
ticultural approach may encourage practitioner self-awareness and awareness of
cultural differences of “others,” but it neglects attention to the structural arrange-
ments, historical forces, and dynamics of power that produce notions of differ-
ence among social groups.

REFLECTION MOMENT: Sameness and Difference

What might be an example of a rhetoric of sameness or diversity that masks
complex dynamics of difference? For example, consider a white social worker
who states, “I don’t see color. I treat everyone with whom I work the same.”
What assumptions are embedded in this statement? What is this social
worker missing? What happens if this same social worker, challenged to see
difference, requests cookbook-style instructions about how to best work
with people who are racially, ethnically, or socially “different” than she, but
does not consider her own social and cultural identity as a factor? What hap-
pens when questions of power and privilege are left out of our understanding
of diversity?

U.S. or applicable copyright law.

POSITIONALIT Y
We construct human difference in terms of cultural practices, gender identity and
expression, sexuality and sexual orientation, racial/ethnic identification, social
class, citizenship, ability, age, livelihood, education, religion, and other forms of
identification. Our positionality, or location in the social world, is shaped in terms

of these multiple identifications. Our positionality is thus multidimensional, and

it is a determinant of our relative power in a given social context (Perry & Kim,
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2013, p. 128). It configures the angle from which we gain our partial view of the
world. For some, that is a position of relative privilege. Privilege refers to “the sum
of unearned advantages of special group membership” (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2015,
p. 23). For others, it is a position of subordination and oppression. As Bertha
Capen Reynolds (1951) reminds us, it is the mission of social justice workers to
align themselves with those who have experienced the world from positions of
oppression and to work to challenge the language, practices, and conditions that
reproduce and justify inequality and oppression. To do so we must recognize and
learn from our own positionality, consider how we see and experience the world
from our positioning in it, and open ourselves to learning about the world from
the perspectives of those differently positioned. As Reed and colleagues (1997)
contend,

Although some people suffer a great deal more than others, positional-
ity implies that each and every one of us, in our varied positions and
identities as privileged and oppressed, are both implicated in and nega-
tively affected by racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, classism,
and other oppressive dynamics. The recognition of positionality, and of
one’s partial and distorted knowledge, is crucial for individuals of both
dominant and subordinate groups, or we all contribute to perpetuating
oppression. (p. 59)

Positionality is an unfamiliar word in our vocabulary. We hope you will find it to be

a useful concept in thinking about the ways in which our understanding and world
views are shaped by our various locations in the social world.

C Y C L E S O F S O C I A L I Z AT I O N
Our positionalities are shaped over time through our experiences of socializa-
tion. Some facets of our positionality may be relatively fixed from birth and other
aspects emerging and evolving over time. Bobbie Harro (2000b) suggests that
our social identities are shaped through pervasive, consistent, circular, and self-
perpetuating socialization processes that play out in unconscious and often invis-
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

ible ways. Members of dominant groups, Harro argues, are socialized to see their
experiences as the norm, while members of subordinate groups are exposed to
socializing experiences that are marginalizing, devaluing, and dehumanizing. We
are born into a world where forms and mechanism of oppression are already in
place. Our early socialization in the context of families shape our self-perceptions,
our ideas about the value of facets of our positionalities, and our sense of roles
and expectations. We may find some facets of our positionalities valued in the
context of family and other facets devalued, evoking a sense of confusion.

Our social identities are also shaped in a broader context of institutional and
cultural socialization where we are bombarded by dominant expectations regard-
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ing what is deemed “normal,” acceptable, and valuable. These institutional and
cultural norms, Harro suggests, are persistently enforced through systems of
rewards and punishments to maintain conformity to an existing social order, and
those who resist or whose social identities do not align with dominant concep-
tions of the norm pay a price. They face hostility and oppression from others and
may be at risk for internalizing that oppression (Harro, 2000b).
This cycle is not inevitable, however. Harro (2000a) also suggests that we
have the capacity for critical, oppositional consciousness that may be sparked by
a sense of cognitive dissonance between the messages we receive and our lived
experiences. For some that sense of oppositional consciousness may emerge over
time through cumulative experiences of marginalization and devaluation; for oth-
ers it may be sparked by a critical incident or event that sheds light on the work-
ings of power seeking to normalize and naturalize inequalities. Thus starts a new
process of awakening, introspection, questioning, and consciousness raising that
open the possibilities for a new cycle, one of liberation (Harro, 2000a).

INDIVIDUAL LEARNING ACTIVITY:

Exploring Positionality
This activity is designed to help readers gain deeper self-awareness and
understanding of the varied facets of social identity and how they may shape
our sense of ourselves as social workers and how we perceive and interact
with other. Positionality reflects many dimensions of social identity. For the
purposes of this activity, consider the following dimensions:

1. Race/skin color/ethnicity/nationality/first language

2. Gender and gender expression
3. Socioeconomic class
4. Age
5. Sexual orientation
6. Religion/spiritual belief system
7. Ability
8. Sense of place
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In a reflection essay, explore each of these dimensions to gain an under-

standing of what they mean to you personally. How have these meanings
developed? How has your life been shaped by larger social interpretations of
these dimensions? How have these facets of identity changed over time or
across context for you? How do these meanings impact your understanding
of difference? In sum, the purpose is to answer the questions “Who am I?”

and “How might this affect how I relate to others who are different from me?”
How might my positionality influence my practice of social work? There are
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four components for this activity. The first component is a brief (1–2 para-
graphs) reflection on seven of the categories. The second component is a more
in-depth (2–3 pages) consideration of the remaining category. The choice of
which category to focus on in more depth should be based on what you feel
has been the most important influence on your personal and/or professional
development or the dimension that has been the most “invisible” and thus
perhaps the most taken-for-granted. The third component is to describe how
these dimensions interlock in your lived experience. The final component is
a brief description of any new insights you gained from this reflection and
implications for your social work practice.

OPPRESSION
Defining Oppression
Another facet of critical reflection entails reflection upon the forms and mech-
anisms of oppression that produce and maintain unjust social conditions.
Oppression may be defined as the unjust use of power and authority by one group
over another. It is a systemic form of domination that may entail the denial of dig-
nity, rights, and access to resources; silencing of voice; or the use of direct forms
of violence (Dominelli, 2008, p. 10; Young, 2011). According to Donna Baines
(2017), oppression occurs when one is treated unjustly because of their affilia-
tion to a specific group. Marsiglia and Kulis (2015) address the interdependence
of oppressor and oppressed. For oppression to exist there needs to be a group
or individual being oppressed and an oppressor who benefits. They point to the
key role of power relations in understanding how oppression shapes lives both
historically and currently (pp. 36–37). Bob Mullaly (2010) describes oppression
as a systematic process that is group based and perpetrated by dominant groups,
although not necessarily intentionally. It plays out through everyday activities
in which people contribute to maintaining systems of inequality without seeing
themselves or their actions as oppressive (Mullaly, 2010, p. 145).

Common Elements of Oppression

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Dorothy Van Soest and Betty Garcia (2003, p. 35) argue that there are common
elements in all forms of oppression, including the following:

• Oppression bestows power and advantage on certain people who are regarded
as the norm against whom others are judged (e.g., white, male, heterosexual).
• Oppression is maintained by ideologies of superiority or inferiority and by
threat (and reality) of both individual and institutional forms of violence.

• Oppression is institutionalized in societal norms, laws, policies, and

practices.
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• Oppression works to maintain the invisibility of those who are oppressed.

Their framing also speaks to what some call the “Four I’s of Oppression”: (1)
ideological, (2) institutional, (3) interpersonal, and (4) individual. Oppression
is embedded in dominant ideologies, enforced through institutional policies
and practices, enacted in interpersonal relations, and internalized in individual
experiences.

Racism as One Form of Oppression

Van Soest and Garcia (2003) describe racism as one form of oppression that is
deeply entrenched in the United States. Racism can be defined as a system of
advantage and oppression based on race wherein a dominant group has the
“power to carry out systematic discrimination through the institutional policies
and practices of the society and [shape] the cultural beliefs and values that sup-
port those racist policies and practices” (p. 32). Race, it should be noted, is a social,
as opposed to biological, construct, and it has very real, material consequences
in people’s lives. As Ijeoma Oluo (2019) describes, “race was not only created to
justify a racially exploitative economic system, it was invented to lock people of
color into the bottom of it” (p. 12). Racism works through the complex interplay
of psychological, sociopolitical, economic, interpersonal, and institutional pro-
cesses. Van Soest and Garcia (2003) argue that a critical awareness of racism is
the foundation for learning about experiences of oppression given the primacy of
racism in American life (p. 33).

Cycle of Oppression
Robin DiAngelo (2012) characterizes oppression as a cyclical process through
which the experiences of members of what she terms “minoritized” groups are
rendered silenced and invisible while misinformation about their lived realities
circulates. Misinformation is accepted as truth, which leads to and justifies sys-
tematic mistreatment, which is reinforced through institutional policies and prac-
tices, which in turn have real consequences in people’s lives. The process feeds
feelings of superiority for members of dominant groups while contributing to an
internalized sense of oppression for targeted groups. Figure 2.2 illustrates this
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process. Where do you encounter evidence of this cycle playing out? How might
it be relevant to understanding experiences of people served through your practi-
cum agency?

Faces of Oppression
Feminist philosopher Iris Marion Young (2011) identifies “five faces of oppres-
sion” to distinguish among various ways in which oppression is manifest in peo-
ple’s everyday experience (pp. 34–65). We summarize them here:

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Systematic
mistreatment of
targeted group

Misinformation Justification for

is generated mistreatment

Power and
control Institutions
Society accepts perpetuate and
and legitimizes enforce

Internalized Internalized
oppression dominance

Figure 2.2 Cycle of oppression. Adapted from DiAngelo (2012).

1. Exploitation: Steady process of the transfer of the results of the labor of one
group to benefit another group; denial of the social and economic value of
one’s paid and unpaid labor. Examples include unsafe working conditions,
unfair wages, and the failure to recognize the labors of whole sectors of a soci-
ety, such as women’s work as caregivers.
2. Marginalization: Creation of second-class citizens by means of the social, polit-
ical, and economic exclusion of people from full participation in society, often
resulting in their being subjected to severe material deprivation.
3. Powerlessness: Denial of access to resources and of the right to participate in
the decisions that affect one’s life and lack of power or authority even in a
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mediated sense to have a meaningful voice in decisions.

4. Cultural imperialism: Imposition of the dominant group’s meaning system
and world view onto another group such that the other group’s meaning sys-
tems are rendered invisible and other, thus marking them as different and
deviant.

5. Violence: Systematic violation, both physical and structural, leveled against

members of oppressed groups; unprovoked attacks, threats, reigns of terror,
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humiliation, often accompanied by a high degree of tolerance or indifference

on the part of the dominant society.

Where do you see examples of these forms of oppression in your community?

What are some ways in which you could interrupt and challenge these forms of
oppression?

CLASS LEARNING ACTIVITY:

Faces of Oppression
This activity provides an opportunity to apply Young’s (2011) concept of faces
of oppression. Divide into small groups and conduct a brief online search to
find a news article addressing a contemporary social justice issue, such as the
overrepresentation of people with mental illness in jails and prisons, the opioid
epidemic in the United States, racial disparities in child welfare, unequal access
to health care, or criminalization of homelessness. Each group selects an article
that all members of the group will read. In the following class meeting or in
online discussion, each group considers how the five faces of oppression are
manifest in the situation addressed in the article. What are one or more strate-
gies that might be used to address this face of oppression? After a 15-to 20-
minute conversation, each small group will give the class a brief summary of its
discussion. Close with a full group reflection on ways oppression is manifest in
people’s everyday lives and possibilities for interrupting and challenging them.

O P P R E S S I O N I N F I LT R AT E S P R A C T I C E
Social work is not immune to oppressive systems and practices. Oppression
creeps into social work organizations through the unacknowledged practices and
effects of privilege and the decontextualization and denial of racism, sexism, het-
erosexism, ableism, and classism embedded in interpersonal and institutional
practices. It creeps in through so-called color-blind policies and practices that
ignore structured inequalities (Forrest-Bank, 2019). It creeps in through everyday
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microaggressions, those “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or envi-

ronmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate
hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults to the target person or group”
(Sue et al., 2007, p. 273). It becomes embedded when dominant groups fail to see
privilege as a problem and when they deny or minimize oppression, blame the

victim, support the status quo, claim good intentions, or say that they are tired of
hearing about oppression (Mullaly, 2010, pp. 292–310). These practices and mes-
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sages affect not only service users but staff as well, with racial and sexual minori-
ties bearing the disproportionate burden.

D I S C R I M I N AT I O N
Discrimination is a constitutive part of systems of oppression. Discrimination
refers to unequal treatment of people based on their membership in a particular
group. It is the “expression of a system of social relations and beliefs” (Marsiglia &
Kulis, 2015, p. 48). Discrimination is manifest in use of derogatory language and
labels; in denial of access to social, political, and economic resources and oppor-
tunities; in organizational and institutional practices that constrain members of
some groups while privileging others; and in acts of direct violence. It may play
out at both individual and institutional levels. In the United States, for example,
racial discrimination has been linked to a host of negative health outcomes for
people of color and to continued health disparities between white people and
people of color (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2015, p. 127). As Van Soest and Garcia (2003)
describe,

discrimination represents an action intended to have a “differential and/

or harmful effect on members” of a group (Pincus, 2000, p. 31). It has
been characterized as responses that create distance, separation, exclu-
sion, and devaluation (Lott, 2002). Pincus (2000) suggests that indi-
vidual and institutional discrimination represent behavioral and policy
actions that are intended to have a harmful effect, whereas structural
discrimination refers to policies and behaviors that may be neutral in
intent yet have negative, harmful consequences on target groups. When
discrimination is buttressed by social power it represents racism and
oppression. When not backed by social power, biased behaviors repre-
sent individual discriminatory actions. (p. 33)

Insidious practices of discrimination, as evidenced in microaggressions, may

cause even more psychological distress than more blatant forms of discrimination
(Forrest-Banks, 2019). Microaggressive experiences can contribute to cumulative
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impacts of stress that contribute to chronic health problems such as hypertension

and depression. Experiences of racial microaggressions contribute to “racial battle
fatigue”—the emotional and physical exhaustion that stems from the relentless-
ness of racism and is marked by feelings of frustration, anger, disappointment,
resentment, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, and fear (Forrest-Banks, 2019;
Martin, 2015). Microaggressions also contribute to adverse effects in education,
mental health, and employment.

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REFLECTION MOMENT: Microaggressions

Think for a moment about the concept of microaggressions, these “every-
day interactions that perpetuate inequalities and stereotypes against peo-
ple who belong to marginalized communities” (Kattari, Olzman, & Hanna,
2018, p. 479). Identify examples from your personal experiences as target,
perpetrator, or witness. How did the incident make you feel? How did you
respond? How do you wish you had been able to respond in the moment?
What thoughts and feelings surface for you now in reflecting on these experi-
ences? We return to a discussion of microaggressions in Chapter 7 and con-
sider strategies for constructive action.

D O M I N AT I O N
Domination refers to the exercise of power or control over another individual or group.
Patricia Hill Collins (2000) uses the concept of a matrix of domination to describe the
complex interplay of positionalities in relations of privilege and oppression. Writing
from her positioning as a black feminist woman, Collins argues that we cannot think
of difference, oppression, and domination in additive terms. Instead, she challenges
us to critically examine interlocking systems of oppression, such as those of racism,
classism, and sexism; their systematic silencing of other voices and ways of knowing
the world; and their power in determining and (de)valuing difference:

Additive models of oppression are firmly rooted in the either/or dichoto-

mies of Eurocentric, masculinist thought. One must either be Black or
white in such thought systems—persons of ambiguous racial and ethnic
identity constantly battle with questions such as, “What are you, any-
way?” This emphasis on quantification and categorization occurs in con-
junction with the belief that either/or categories must be ranked. . . .
Replacing additive models of oppression with interlocking ones creates
possibilities for new paradigms. The significance of seeing race, class, and
gender as interlocking systems of oppression is that such an approach
fosters a paradigmatic shift of thinking inclusively about other oppres-
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sions, such as age, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity. (p. 224)

Collins asks us to think in terms of the matrix of domination:

In addition to being structured along axes such as race, gender, and social
class, the matrix of domination is structured on several levels. People
experience and resist oppression on three levels: the level of personal
biography; the group or community level of the cultural context created
by race, class, and gender; and the systemic level of social institutions.
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Black feminist thought emphasizes all three levels as sites of domination

and as potential sites of resistance. (p. 227)
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Collins challenges us to recognize the critical perspectives of those who have expe-
rienced the world from positions of oppression and to engage in dialogue and
action to challenge and change relations of power and domination that reproduce
social injustice. Collins’ discussion of matrices of domination resonates with the
groundbreaking work of attorney, civil rights activist, and social theorist Kimberlé
Crenshaw (1994) who developed a theory of “intersectionality” to describe the
ways in which structures of racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression interact
in the lived experiences of women of color. Figure 2.3 provides an illustration of
intersectionality, wherein one’s unique circumstances are shaped by diverse aspects
of identity, power, and privilege and by broader social structures and forces. We will
return to the concept of intersectionality in the discussion of theory in Chapter 5.

Racism
Disc
i sm rimi
Able nati
on

Age Education Occupation

He
ter

Indigeneity Gender Geographic

ose

Class Location
ia

Background Caste
phob

xis

Income
m

Social Status Life Experience

Hom

Unique
Spirituality Circumstances Skin Color
of Power,
m

Sexuality Privilege, and Family Status

Sexis

Identity
HIV Status Refugee Status
Ageis

Housing Situation Disability

Work History Experience of Radicalization

sm
ssi

Citizenship Status Religion

Cla

Transp
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hobia
entrism
Ethnoc

Figure 2.3 Intersectionality wheel. Adapted from CRIAW/ICREF.

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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING ACTIVITY:

Kimberlé Crenshaw and the Urgency of Intersectionality
To learn more about Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, view
her Ted Talk titled “Urgency of Intersectionality.” Crenshaw brings an inter-
sectional perspective to bear in critically examining police violence against
black women in America. Access the talk at https://www.ted.com/talks/kim-
berle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en. Take time
for critical reflection. What feelings are evoked for you? How does an inter-
sectional perspective challenge the marginalization and invisibility of black
women’s experiences?

PRIVILEGE
The concept of privilege too often “goes without saying” in examination of oppres-
sion. Therefore, we need to make privilege, as well as oppression and domination,
talkable subjects. As Bob Pease (2010) asserts, privilege goes hand in hand with
oppression. In conferring a sense of rightful place and positioning of superior-
ity upon members of dominant groups, privilege keeps people from recognizing
the realities of oppression and their complicity therein. Privilege, like oppression,
is reproduced at the individual, institutional, and cultural levels. It is embed-
ded in and plays out through everyday interactions, professional knowledge and
discourse, policies, laws, and institutional practices (Pease, 2010). Privilege is
insidious in that it becomes normalized and taken for granted. Its benefits are
attributed to personal capacity and wherewithal rather than to one’s place within
a complex web of inequality.
Privilege is not a binary concept. Multiple factors and forces intersect in the
structuring of systems of privilege and oppression. As part of our positionalities,
we may experience varying degrees of both privilege and oppression. However,
experiences of oppression may be more readily recognizable than the unspoken
benefits of privilege. Bob Pease (2010) cautions people with privilege to avoid a
“race to innocence” in terms of claiming their experiences of oppression while
ignoring the benefits of privilege (p. 173). Privilege itself can be a barrier to empa-
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

thy when those with privilege fail to recognize their role in systems and practice
of oppression (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2015, pp. 23–24). Fundamental challenges of
social justice work include recognizing the workings and benefits of privilege as
they variably play out in our own lives, in our organizations, and in our society
and taking responsibility for change through listening, dialogue, and allying with
those who have been denied these unearned advantages.

Those who enjoy the benefits of privileged positioning may acknowledge that
oppression exists and has real, material consequences in people’s lives. But they may
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not see themselves as privileged. Joseph Minarik (2017) suggests that it may be
helpful to speak of privileging as a process that is continually enacted in the context
of social relationships and everyday events and decisions (p. 55). Minarik defines
privileging as a “process where chances or odds of being offered an opportunity are
altered or skewed to the advantage of members of certain groups (and to the disad-
vantage of members of other groups) rather than as automatic events leading inevi-
tably to outcomes of individual success” (p. 55). Advantages include such things as
access to information, a sense of belonging, life chances, benefit of the doubt, access
to networks, and opportunities to be assigned challenging tasks. Disadvantages
that one can escape include having to prove one’s own competence, having to prove
one belongs, having to know about the other, and being automatically suspected (p.
56). Think for a moment about privileging as an active process rather than a sum of
unearned advantages. Which framing resonates more for you? Why?
Social justice work requires ongoing attention to the interplay of privilege and
oppression and the ways in which they may work in tandem to silence or devalue
individuals and groups of people based on perceived differences in terms of race,
class, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, age, and other
facets of social identity. It calls for ongoing critical reflection and dialogue in our
organizations and among social workers and service users to identify and disrupt
oppressive patterns of practice that become embedded in policies, routines, and
everyday interactions.

White Privilege, Racism, and White Supremacy

CO N S I D E R I N G W H I T E P R I V I L E G E
Thus far we have been talking about privilege in general as intimately connected
to systems of oppression. Let’s now consider the dynamics of white privilege and
its significance for social justice work. Brittany Alfarano (2018) defines white
privilege as “the collection of benefits based on belonging to a group perceived
to be white, when the same benefits are denied to members of other groups.”
Over 30 years ago feminist scholar Peggy McIntosh (1988) wrote an essay entitled
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” in which she grappled with
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her white racial identity and her privilege as a white woman. McIntosh states,

As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as some-

thing that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see
one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advan-
tage. I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege,
as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. (p. 2)

McIntosh went on to name specific privileges afforded her by virtue of being

white. Here are the first six items on her long list:
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1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of

the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who
have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing
in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or
pleasant to me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be
followed or harassed by store detectives.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see
people of my race widely and positively represented. (pp. 4–5)

Many readers may be familiar with this “invisible knapsack of white privilege.”
It provides a concrete way of naming whiteness as a racial identity and consid-
ering how white privilege is manifest in everyday practices and interactions.
Alfarano (2018) describes how learning about white privilege challenged her
thinking as a white social worker, pushing her to a place of discomfort and
at the same time enabling her to confront what she refers to as the “white
elephant” in social work practice. Alfarano argues that critical consciousness
of white privilege on the part of white social workers is necessary to combat
racism within and beyond social work. She created her own list of the ways
she sees white privilege playing out in social work practice. Here are a few
examples:

• By discussing only individual rather than structural acts of racism with clients
and supervisors.
• Failing to acknowledge how systems are marginalizing and oppressing clients
of color.
• By seeing clients for their experiences with oppressive systems and not
acknowledging the intention of oppressive systems.
• Thinking that by bringing this into the conversation we are creating conflict, so
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we avoid it.
• By speaking for our clients in professional situations because we think it will be
better received.
• By blocking out the history of oppression and racism in the United States
because it is uncomfortable to think about.
• By assuming that just because we are social workers we have good intentions
and are doing good.

In sum, Alfarano, argues, to claim to not see color is to not see whiteness. And
when one remains unaware of white privilege, racial inequalities are perpetuated
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(Kaul, 2016). Take a moment to reflect on Alfarano’s list. Do you see some of these
practices playing out in your social work agency or practicum site? If you identify
as white, do you see yourself in some of these practices? If you do not identify as
white, do you feel an expectation to conform to these practices in your social work
agency or practicum site? Do you witness your white colleagues practicing in this
way? Have you witnessed social workers in your agency seeking to disrupt white
privilege? How were these actions received?

WHITENESS, RACISM, AND DISCOMFORT

Critical reflection on whiteness can create stress and discomfort for those who
identify as white. White people have been socialized to feel entitled to racial com-
fort and thereby avoid confronting racism (DiAngelo, 2011). When confronted,
the response is often one of “white fragility,” which DiAngelo (2011) defines as “a
state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, trig-
gering a range of defensive moves” (p. 54). It is a psychological strategy to avoid
racial stress and effectively deny their own inherent racism (Fultz & Kondrat,
2018). White people, DiAngelo writes, too often conflate discomfort with safety
and claim to feel unsafe in difficult conversations about race rather than simply
feeling uncomfortable. For those with white privilege critically reflective practice
requires a willingness to lean into and embrace discomfort as a transformative
resource (Wong, 2004). In turn, people of color continually confront the inter-
personal, organizational, and societal inequities wrought by white privilege and
bear the weight of racial battle fatigue. It is incumbent, then, upon white people
to acknowledge rather than deny white racism.

BEYOND PRIVILEGE: NAMING AND CONFRONTING

WHITE SUPREMACY
Critical reflection on white privilege provides an opening for examining ways in
which systems of oppression and privilege benefit some at the expense of oth-
ers. However, our interrogation cannot end there. White privilege does not exist
outside of the broader logic, history, and structures of white supremacy and
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coloniality. White supremacy is a mechanism of social control rooted in Euro-

white colonialism and imperialism. The organizing principles of white supremacy
include systems of knowledge that privilege Euro-white ways of knowing (episte-
mologies); societal structures that reinforce hierarchies; social constructions of
race that reinforce white power and institutions, policies, and practices that cod-
ify white power into law (Almeida et al., 2019). Almeida and colleagues contend
that white supremist normativity persists as a master narrative in U.S. society,
and social work is not outside of this master narrative. A master narrative may be

thought of as an overarching societal story in which a particular dominant per-

spective is presented as “truth.” It is imperative that we name white supremacy in
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order to challenge this master narrative. Social work scholar Willie Tolliver (2015)
argues that “diversity” is the “velvet glove” of white supremacy—a soft way of
talking around it without actually naming it. Perhaps we could say the same about
white privilege.
White privilege can be thought of as a by-product of white supremacy (Beck,
2019, p. 394). The term white supremacy, argues Elizabeth Beck (2019), more
powerfully and succinctly names these ideologies of white power, white logics,
constructions of difference, master narratives of discovery and destiny, and asso-
ciated violence (p. 394). The logic of white supremacy and the white colonial narra-
tive were deployed to justify the brutality of slavery and the genocide of American
Indian people (Beck, 2019). This logic and narrative continue to be reproduced in
ways of knowing, societal institutions, and in “the everyday practices of a well-
intended liberal society” (Young, 2011, p. 41).
Beck testifies to her own transformative experience as a social work educator
after attending a summit organized by the Equal Justice Initiative at the National
Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, which recognizes vic-
tims of racial terror in the United States. It is also the site of the Legacy Museum:
From Slavery to Mass Incarceration. The museum, opened in 2018, is built on the
site of a former warehouse where enslaved black people were imprisoned. Visitors
encounter first-person accounts of enslaved people, learn about the racial terror
of lynching, and bear witness to the relentless violence and violations directed
against black people in the United States. Beck addresses ways in which the colo-
nizer mentality of white supremacy continues to infiltrate thinking about causes
of personal and social problems in pathologizing ways where meaning is stripped
of understanding of context, power, and history. She challenges social workers to
name white supremacy and bear witness to its embeddedness in social welfare sys-
tems and social work practices in order to be part of the struggle to dismantle it.

REFLECTION MOMENT: Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum

For an introduction to the work of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), its
founding director Bryan Stevenson, and the legacy museum, visit the muse-
um’s website at https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/museum. Take time to
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

view the brief video. In the video, Equal Justice Initiative staff member Sia
Sanneh states, “By telling the history of the African American experience in
this country we expose the narratives that have allowed us to tolerate suffer-
ing and injustice among people of color.” Do her words challenge or inspire
your thinking about social justice work? Where do you see your responsibil-
ity as a social worker in dislodging the embeddedness of white supremacy in
our society? In the practice of social work?

FROM CRITICAL REFLECTION TO ANTI-O

Confronting White Supremacy

Acknowledging our place as individuals and as social workers within systems stamped
by the logic and history of white supremacy is a daunting prospect. At the same time
we are developing skills of critical reflection, structural analysis, and consciousness
raising to inform action. As Kaschak (2011) says, “we do not see what we have not
learned to see” (p. 8). Part of the critical reflection process is about learning to see in
new ways, to bear witness, and to face hard truths. It is also about recognizing that it
is not enough to say “I am not racist” but to be willing to commit to an active position
of anti-racism. As Ibram Kendi (2019) writes, “the only way to undo racism is to con-
sistently identify and describe it and then dismantle it (p. 9).” One who is anti-racist
expresses “the idea that racial groups are equals and none needs developing, and .
. . support[s]‌policy that reduces racial inequity (Kendi, 2019, p. 24). According to
Kendi, there is no such thing as a race-neutral policy. Therefore it is incumbent upon
us as social justice workers to interrogate the written and unwritten laws, rules, and
procedures that shape our social systems and social work practice to dislodge oppres-
sive assumptions and open spaces for transformative possibilities.
This may feel like an overwhelming responsibility. But we begin the journey by
making race, racism, and other forms of oppression talkable in our practice; by
challenging the presumptions of whiteness; by problematizing our own ways of
knowing; and by recognizing the learning process as also an unlearning process.
We can take guidance from organizations taking a stand against white supremacy.
For example, the Indivisible Project (2020) names several actions that stem from
critical reflection on white supremacy. Here are some examples:

• Recognize privileges that have flowed from histories and practice of oppression.
• De-center white voices and center the voices of those impacted by white
supremacy.
• Learn to listen actively.
• Think about historical legacies of oppression and work to increase your aware-
ness of these legacies (e.g. in criminal justice, housing, education, health, etc.).
• Educate yourself about our country’s history of white supremacy.
• Do not rely on marginalized communities to teach you. You have responsibility
for your own political education.
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

• Think about your media consumption—where do you encounter symbols of

white supremacy? (Indivisible, n.d.)

What else would you add to this list?

Confronting Intersecting Forms of Oppression

We have focused attention here on racism to bring to light the meaning and power
of whiteness and the history of white supremacy in shaping social problems and

contexts of social work practice. However, the systems of hierarchy, the privileg-
ing of Euro-white colonizing ways of knowing, and the power relations behind
Copyright © 2021. Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under

constructions of the “other” are also manifest in sexism, ableism, heterosexism,

classism, ageism, and other forms of oppression (Almeida et al., 2019). They lurk
behind anti-immigrant rhetoric, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. As social jus-
tice workers we must also grapple with the staying power of patriarchy, the sys-
temic nature of gender oppression, and their intersection with white supremacy.
We need to critically interrogate ways in which heterosexism and homo/transpho-
bia are manifest in our communities and social services. We must name and con-
front these “-isms” that divide and devalue. And, following the lead of Crenshaw,
Hill Collins, and others, we need to continually address how these intersecting
and complex matrices of domination and oppression play out in people’s every-
day lives. Classifications such as gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability cannot
be understood in isolation of one another because they intersect in peoples lived
experience and need to be understood in this light. Eli Clare (2003) calls on us to
“dig deep” in confronting these complexities:

How do we make the space to talk honestly and wrenchingly about all the
multi-layered systems of injustice that target some of us and privilege
others for who we are? The layers are so tangled: gender folds into dis-
ability, disability wraps around class, class strains against race, race snarls
into sexuality, sexuality hangs onto gender, all of it finally piling into our
bodies. I dare say everyone in this room has stories of both oppression
and privilege. How do we dig down to find, not uncrackable, unmovable
rhetoric, but the concrete daily material, emotional, and spiritual reali-
ties of privilege and oppression on this planet rife with injustice?

In the coming chapters we provide grounded examples of approaches to practice

that name oppression, honor difference, and support social justice processes and
outcomes. We turn now to tandem concepts to guide us from critical reflection to
just action: Cultural humility and structural competence.

C U LT U R A L H U M I L I T Y A N D S T R U C T U R A L C O M P E T E N C E
For more than 30 years, social workers have been called upon to develop cul-
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

tural competence and engage in culturally competent practice. The Social Work
Dictionary (Barker, 2014) defines cultural competence as “possession of the
knowledge, attitudes, understanding, self-awareness, and practice skills that
enable a professional person to serve clients from diverse socioethnic back-
grounds” (p. 102). Social workers were expected to understand culture and its
functions, and recognize that all cultures have strengths. They were expected to
have knowledge of their clients’ cultures and of the differences among cultural
groups. They were expected to seek out education to better understand different

cultures (National Association of Social Workers, 1997). This understanding of

cultural competence speaks to the importance of self-awareness, responsibility
Copyright © 2021. Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under

for learning about diversity, and critical reflection about how questions of dif-
ference and diversity shape practice. However, it is based on an outdated under-
standing of culture as a discreet, neutral, bounded collection of “customs, habits,
skills, technology, arts, values” and ideologies of a group of people (Barker, 2014,
p. 103). This understanding of culture does not address the importance of his-
torical context, power relations, or community and intergenerational dynamics
in understanding people’s strengths and struggles (Sakamoto, 2007), nor does
it capture the interplay of structural forces and cultural processes (Finn, 1998b).
Some have argued that this concept of cultural competence in social work not
only operates from an outmoded notion of culture but that it also essentializes
“culture,” constructs whiteness as the default norm and, in effect, operates as a
new form of racism in constructing others as those who differ from the standard
of whiteness (Pon, 2009).
Over the past several years, some social workers have been questioning the
assumption that one can attain cultural competence (Dean, 2001). They encour-
age social workers to work from a place of cultural humility in the ongoing struggle
to grasp and appreciate another’s experience. Cultural humility requires social
workers to acknowledge the partiality of their knowledge and open themselves to
hearing and honoring another’s story. Working from a place of cultural humility,
one tries to apprehend meaning systems, values, ways of perceiving the world,
and ways of constructing fundamental concepts such as personhood, family, well-
ness, and healing in ways that may be very different from one’s own (Ortega &
Faller, 2011).
Bindi Bennett and Trevor Gates (2019) describe three facets of cultural humil-
ity. First, it calls for self-awareness on the part of social workers to recognize that
they view the world through a cultural lens. Second, it requires openness to learn-
ing about the experiences of others from their perspectives. Third, it involves
transcendence, an acceptance of something greater than the self, and humble rec-
ognition that the world is far more complex than we can fully imagine. Further,
they suggest that in working from a perspective of cultural humility, one takes
into account another’s multiple identities and the ways in which their social
experiences impact their world view. On the one hand, this frees social workers
from having to possess expert knowledge about a host of cultural differences, but
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

on the other, this places responsibility on us to engage with permanent critical

curiosity as learners. This requires relinquishing power, control, and authority
(Ortega & Faller, 2011).
The concept of cultural humility as an approach to engaging with and valuing
difference and diversity in social work has come to replace the notion of cultural
competence. We find this to be a significant shift in terms of moving away from
the stance of social worker as “expert” and cookbook approaches to understand-
ing difference in terms of a collection of traits, habits, and practices of the “other.”

But is there something missing here? We opened this chapter by defining critical
reflection in terms of unsettling taken-for-granted assumptions, and examining
Copyright © 2021. Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under

how power operates. Is there a tension here between critical reflection and cultural
humility? We suggest that a missing piece may be attention to structural, rather
that cultural competence. If we are to strive for structural competence, then we
must critically consider the multiple forms and mechanisms of oppression that
may be bearing down on those with whom we work. New directions in social med-
icine (Metzl & Hanson, 2014) are making the case for recognizing the structures
that shape experiences of health and illness, rearticulating “cultural” formula-
tions of problems in structural terms, and envisioning structural interventions.
Jonathan Metzl and Helena Hanson (2014) define structural competency as

the trained ability to discern how a host of issues defined clinically as

symptoms, attitudes, or diseases (e.g., depression, hypertension, obesity,
smoking, medication “non-compliance,” trauma, psychosis) also repre-
sent the downstream implications of a number of upstream decisions
about such matters as health care and food delivery systems, zoning
laws, urban and rural infrastructures, medicalization, or even about the
very definitions of illness and health. (p. 128)

Might this understanding borrowed from social medicine inform our critically
reflective process as one where we bring both cultural humility and critical struc-
tural curiosity to bear? Interestingly, Metzl and Hanson temper their discussion
of structural competence by naming “developing structural humility” as a key
facet of structural competence. Structural humility, they suggest, recognizes our
limits to fully grasp the complexity of structural forces and their impact. Perhaps,
in sum, we could envision cultural humility and structural vigilance as key facets
of critically reflective practice.

Summary
As social justice workers it is important to be mindful of the ways in which issues
of difference, diversity, oppression, and privilege converge in our own lived expe-
rience and to be open to learning about the experiences of others. In order to
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

meaningfully engage in social justice work, we must start by both honoring differ-
ence and critically examining its production. We need to recognize our own posi-
tionalities in the social world and the fact that our world views are always partial
and open to change. We must “learn how to learn” about other people, groups,
and their experiences (Reed et al., 1997, p. 66).
Ongoing attention to questions of oppression and privilege is both difficult
and important. It is through confrontation with systems of domination, oppres-
sion, and privilege and their multifaceted effects that we open possibilities for

liberation, the collective process of becoming free of dehumanizing conditions

(Marsiglia & Kulis, 2015, p. 43). The practice of social justice work is envisioned
Copyright © 2021. Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under

as a liberatory practice. It involves development of critical consciousness through

ongoing reflection on our values, positionality, and actions and attention to his-
torical forces, structural arrangements, and root causes of oppression. It demands
an integrated approach to practice; honoring human dignity and advocating for
human rights; and creation of new forms of alliance, solidarity, organization, and
action.

Questions for Discussion

1. What skills and habits can you build into your professional practice to ensure
that you are a critically reflective thinker?
2. What is your plan for maintaining a stance of permanent critical curiosity in
relation to your practice?
3. How might you bring Iris Marion Young’s concept of the five faces of oppres-
sion to bear in understanding the struggles facing people served by your pract-
icum agency?
4. What are concrete actions that you can take to demonstrate an active commit-
ment to anti-racism in the context of your practicum agency or community?
5. Are there ways in which your practicum agency is complicit in reinforcing cy-
cles of oppression? How might those practices be disrupted? Are there ways
in which your practicum agency is challenging cycles of oppression? How can
they be reinforced?

Suggested Readings
DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Boston,
MA: Beacon Press.
Kendi, I. (2019). How to be an anti-racist. New York, NY: One World.
Marsiglia, F. F., & Kulis, S. (2015). Diversity, oppression, and change (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL:
Lyceum Books.
Oluo, I. (2019). So you want to talk about race. New York, NY: Seal Press.
Young, I. M. (2011). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

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2

Denial is the heartbeat of racism.

The Daunting Realities of Injustice

Economic inequality is out of control. In 2019 the world’s billionaires,

inequality has profound costs and consequences. It is economically inefficient,

mentally unethical (Oxfam America, 2014). But it is not inevitable.

turn now to the process of critical reflection.

Meanings of Critical Reflection

THE REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER

Reflective thinking is always more or less troublesome because it involves

As Dewey suggests, we must be prepared to deal with the discomfort that

CRITIC AL REFLECTION AND CRITIC AL CONSCIOUSNESS

• Knowledge about how political and economic systems function.

Each party to the process brings knowledge grounded in personal experience

Figure 2.1 Praxis of consciousness raising. Adapted from

Anthony Nicotera (2019) describes this praxis of consciousness raising in terms

WHY ENGAGE IN CRITIC AL REFLECTION?

• Critical reflection promotes continuous self-​ assessment. Posing questions

• Critical reflection invites questioning of dominant explanations and observa-

ing of power embedded in the definitions attributed to social problems and

Skills and Practices of Critical Reflection

• Dialogue. Engaging in dialogue is the primary way we develop critical reflection

tures toward more just and equitable arrangements?

Difference, Oppression, and Privilege

do so throughout this book, and we encourage readers to do so in their everyday

Recognizing and building on people’s differences is important and neces-

for appreciating the sameness of our underlying humanity—​may prevent us from

REFLECTION MOMENT: Sameness and Difference

of these multiple identifications. Our positionality is thus multidimensional, and

Positionality is an unfamiliar word in our vocabulary. We hope you will find it to be

INDIVIDUAL LEARNING ACTIVITY:

1. Race/​skin color/​ethnicity/​nationality/​first language

In a reflection essay, explore each of these dimensions to gain an under-

Common Elements of Oppression

• Oppression is institutionalized in societal norms, laws, policies, and

• Oppression works to maintain the invisibility of those who are oppressed.

Racism as One Form of Oppression

Misinformation Justification for

Figure 2.2 Cycle of oppression. Adapted from DiAngelo (2012).

mediated sense to have a meaningful voice in decisions.

5. Violence: Systematic violation, both physical and structural, leveled against

humiliation, often accompanied by a high degree of tolerance or indifference

Where do you see examples of these forms of oppression in your community?

CLASS LEARNING ACTIVITY:

microaggressions, those “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or envi-

discrimination represents an action intended to have a “differential and/​

Insidious practices of discrimination, as evidenced in microaggressions, may

impacts of stress that contribute to chronic health problems such as hypertension

REFLECTION MOMENT: Microaggressions

Additive models of oppression are firmly rooted in the either/​or dichoto-

Collins asks us to think in terms of the matrix of domination:

Black feminist thought emphasizes all three levels as sites of domination

Age Education Occupation

Indigeneity Gender Geographic

Social Status Life Experience

Sexuality Privilege, and Family Status

Housing Situation Disability

Work History Experience of Radicalization

Citizenship Status Religion

Figure 2.3 Intersectionality wheel. Adapted from CRIAW/​ICREF.

INDIVIDUAL LEARNING ACTIVITY:

White Privilege, Racism, and White Supremacy

As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as some-

McIntosh went on to name specific privileges afforded her by virtue of being

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of

WHITENESS, RACISM, AND DISCOMFORT

BEYOND PRIVILEGE: NAMING AND CONFRONTING

coloniality. White supremacy is a mechanism of social control rooted in Euro-​

thought of as an overarching societal story in which a particular dominant per-

REFLECTION MOMENT: Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum

FROM CRITICAL REFLECTION TO ANTI-O

Confronting White Supremacy

• Think about your media consumption—​where do you encounter symbols of

What else would you add to this list?

Confronting Intersecting Forms of Oppression

constructions of the “other” are also manifest in sexism, ableism, heterosexism,

• Critical reflection promotes continuous self- assessment. Posing questions

for appreciating the sameness of our underlying humanity—may prevent us from

1. Race/skin color/ethnicity/nationality/first language

discrimination represents an action intended to have a “differential and/

Additive models of oppression are firmly rooted in the either/or dichoto-

Figure 2.3 Intersectionality wheel. Adapted from CRIAW/ICREF.

coloniality. White supremacy is a mechanism of social control rooted in Euro-

• Think about your media consumption—where do you encounter symbols of