UKIP Shipping Forecast

There is trouble ahead....





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Let's play being an immigration officer....with racial profiling to help

Well who would you suspect of being the "illegal immigrant"?

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Anti-Racism in Social Work Practice: New book now out

Anti-Racism in Social Work Practice is a new book which I have have had the privilege of contributing a chapter to (on 'Critical Race Theory and exploring 'whiteness'). The book was published in April 2013 by Critical Publishing  edited by Angie Bartoli. All the contributors are either based in the Social Work Division at the University of Northampton or have historically been linked to it (as I was when I was the Equality and Diversity Advisor at the university for seven years until 2012).

The publishers describe the books in the following way:

Anti-racism has a long history within the profession of social work and its education. Despite an agenda within higher education which promotes internationalization and practice which recognises diversity, little has been written to address the question of why black African students have a different experience from others on their social work educational journey.  

This book is based upon the authors’ experience as educators and their own research about and with black students’ experience of racism and ‘otherness’ within social work practice and education. Radical and honest in nature, it re-visits anti-racism within social work practice and education from a student focused and informed perspective based on lived experience and conversations. 

This book will be of interest to all social work students, educators and policy makers with an interest in anti-racism and diversity. It includes practical models and tried and tested tools to help the reader work through these issues.

The chapter headings in the book and the authors of each chapter are as follows:

Introduction. Angie Bartoli

1. Backlash blues: racialisation and citizenship. Bernadette Curran

2. Anti-racist social work education. Sukhwinder Singh

3. Developing Cultural Competence. Prospera Tedam

4. Padare: a meeting around a tree. Angie Bartoli

5. White women listening. Sue Kennedy

6. Critical Race Theory and exploring 'whiteness'. Paul Crofts

7. View from the workplace: practitioners speak out. Charity Chukwuemeka

Conclusion: a forward looking journey. Angie Bartoli and Prospera Tedum

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Racism and Social Work Practice: Book launch Invitation

Book launch Invitation

Come and Join us in the launch of 

Anti-racism in Social Work Practice

 

The Social Work Division at the University of Northampton are are delighted to invite you to a book launch event on

 

16th May 2013 at 5.00pm

Sunley Management Centre 

The University of Northampton 

Park Campus 

Boughton Green Road 

Northampton NN2 7AL

Chapter authors: Angie Bartoli (Editor), Sue Kennedy, Prospera Tedam, Sukhwinder Singh, Bernadette Curran, Paul Crofts and Charity Chukwuemeka

Please circulate to others who also may be interested in attending.  

Due to catering please confirm your attendance to Karen.haines@northampton.ac.uk by 6th May 2013

Click here for more information about the book.

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What would you do?

I have just come across this experiment in the US on what people would do if they observed racism in action. I am not sure when it was conducted, but I found it illustrated what psychologist call "bystander" behaviour which allows injustices to continue simply because many/most people fail to intervene.  Injustice often continues simply because of silence by the majority - and especially the silence of those who are not part of the "discriminated" group. The message of the experiment is: if you observe racism, discrimination or injustice don't remain silent - speak out and challenge!

It would be interesting to know if there have been similar experiments in the UK (e.g. around Stop and Search by the Police for example). If you know of any such experiment, please let me know. Email crofts121@btinternet.com

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Was Diane Abbott right? Is Racism a White Conspiracy?

Yesterday Diane Abbott MP made an allegedly "racist" and "controversial" statement (via Twitter) that "White people love playing divide and rule". She went on to explain that Twitter is not really a good medium to convey complex messages and, in any event, the statement was "taken out of context" as she was referring to "19th century European colonialism". Despite her protestations she was forced to make an apology. But was she right to do so? Or was she making a legitimate (albeit poorly worded) observation on the way that racism operates in our society and that White people (or at least a White-dominated system) conspires to perpetuate its privilege, vis Black people, through such devices as "divide and rule"? When looked at in this way she may have made a very pertinent point, and the reaction to it touched on not just a sensitive sore nerve, but a significant factor in racism's continuing domination over the lives of Black people.


The idea that White people, or a white system of domination, may actually amount to some form of conspiracy may be difficult for many of us to get our heads around -  unless we ditch popular notions of "conspiracy" (people in smoked filled rooms plotting away?) and look at the word conspiracy in a much more sophisticated and historical way.


In his book "Racism and Education. Coincidence or Conspiracy", Prof. David Gillborn (2008) looks at some legal definitions of conspiracy which I have certainly found helpful and illuminating:

"(A) conspiracy has to be viewed as a whole, the component parts - which may be unobjectionable by themselves or taken individually - are not to be weeded out and enquired into separately"  

"(N)o formal agreement is required, it may be express or implied, and it is not even necessary to prove the terms of any particular agreement or plan. Conspiracy may be demonstrated by concert of action between participants all working together for a common purpose"  

(Quoted from Joshua and Jordon (2003) "Combinations, concerted practices and cartel: adopting the concept of conspiracy in European Community competition law", Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, 24: 647-81))

In the context of a conspiracy to protect and enhance the interests of Whiteness, Gillborn argues that White people will inevitable participate in such a conspiracy - whether they want to or not, whether they are aware of it or not - and all White people will directly benefit from it.


Gillborn also suggest that Black people almost instinctively realise there is such a conspiracy against them as they see and feel the daily consequences of it (just one example is the continuing disproportionate use of stop and search powers by the police against Black people). Diane Abbott was probably expressing this understanding that most Black people have about the way "Whiteness" has and does conspires against them, whereas David Miliband, who remonstrated against her, probably does not have much of a clue about the daily realities and weight of racism).


Gillborn does not stop here, however, as he goes on to elaborate the type of conspiracy that white privilege and supremacy represents: a Hub-and-Spoke conspiracy: this is one in which "many parties (the spokes) conspire with one person (the hub), but not with other defendants... individual people and different agencies (like education, the economy, media) are all spokes connected through the central hub of Whiteness ... a de facto conspiracy - by their shared "common sense" assumptions and actions that characterise them and support their cultural and economic dominance".


For a White person, like me, it is difficult to fully understand how such a conspiracy operates on a daily basis. I'm on the inside, cocooned by my Whiteness - unless I really take the time and effort to step outside and examine what is happening and get involved in challenging it. 

"That's part of the strength of institutional racism... no single person or agency can be held up as wholly responsible, but to some extent the power and force of the edifice relies on them all; from Whitehall and Parliament all the way down to the newest first year teacher. I am not saying they have equal weight but they are all important; they are all spokes." (Gillborn, 2008)

In the week when two of the perpetrators of the murder of Stephen Lawrence were brought to some kind of justice, it is necessary to reflect on the lessons that we started to learn from this tragedy. In his report (following the investigation into the death and the failures of the police), Sir William Macpherson used the term "institutional racism" to describe our society's failure to tackle the systematic nature of racism and inequality. Although this term appears to have gone out of fashion of late it is still highly relevant in describing the racism and White conspiracy that continues to perpetuate racial inequality and injustice. Indeed, isn't this an example of how Whiteness has re-asserted its dominance to deny further progress in tackling racism, after an initial start a decade ago in response to the report? How quickly we seem to have forgotten the lessons and returned to "business as usual". How quickly the conspiracy reasserted itself.


I am pretty certain that this is what Diane Abbott was broadly referring to in her Tweet. She was right to do so!


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