Anti-oppressive social work practice

Anti-oppressive social work means critically reflecting on your own cultural identities and how the social environment impacts these identities. Acknowledging power and privilege can be uncomfortable; however, with values of multiculturalism and social justice, social workers are committed to engaging in their own personal work and addressing social barriers clients may experience. Social workers view clients from a strengths-based perspective utilizing client strengths to support their goals, rather than pathologizing clients from the lens of the dominant culture.

So far, you have learned about the social construction of social identities, structural inequality based on dominant and non-dominant groups, and oppressions based on sex, class, and race.

While readings have continuously pointed out white privilege as the dominant group privilege, you also know that privilege is not equally distributed in groups. Intersecting identities creates unique experiences for clients.

For this assignment, you draw from what you have been learning during the first part of this course and discuss strategies for anti-oppressive social work practice.

• Explain the potential impact of white privilege on clients from both dominant and minority groups (consider impact of both positive and negative stereotypes).
• Explain how intersecting identities might impact an individual’s experience (for example, race/ethnicity and gender, race/ethnicity and class, race/ethnicity and ability, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation, race/ethnicity and class).
• Providing specific examples, explain how a social worker might utilize cultural strengths when working with clients.
• Describe 2-3 social work skills and how a social worker might use them to engage in anti-oppressive work.