Doin’ The Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change
Society & Culture
Episode 37
Guests: Laura S. Abrams, MSW, PhD; Nicole Vazquez, MSW, MPP
Host: Shimon Cohen, LCSW
www.dointhework.com
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If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us!
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In this episode, I talk with Dr. Laura Abrams and Nicole Vazquez about critical race theory (CRT) in social work. Shout out to my former student Gaby for suggesting I do a podcast episode explicitly about CRT in response to the anti-CRT executive order. Laura is the Chair and Professor of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Nicole is a critical race scholar, the former Field Director and Chair Designee in Cal State Dominguez Hills’ MSW program, and currently runs Vazquez Consulting. They discuss the history of CRT, honoring the scholars of legal studies who developed CRT, with the analysis that the law is not neutral, and has been used to oppress people of color and others from marginalized groups. Laura and Nicole provide an overview of some of the core tenets of CRT, using specific examples that connect to social work, and ways to implement them in practice. Some of the core tenets covered are: race is a social construct, racism is an ordinary everyday experience, myth of colorblindness, critique of liberalism and the myth of meritocracy, differential racialization, interest convergence, and counter-narratives. They talk about white supremacist culture and its impact on all of us, particularly how it works to strip communities of color from their collective and community-based cultures. We discuss CRT’s fit with social work’s social justice focus and how social work educators, students, and practitioners can implement CRT in their work and programs. We also talk about barriers to change and how to address them. I hope this conversation inspires you to action.
Laura
Twitter: @labramsucla
Instagram: prof.abrams
Nicole
Twitter: @vazquez_consult
Instagram: vazquezconsulting
Music credit:
"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
We Charge Genocide – Jalil Muntaqim
Anti-Racist Social Work in England – Wayne Reid
Civil Rights Organizing – Alesandra Lozano, MSW
Abolitionist Social Work – Cameron Rasmussen, MSW; Durrell Washington, MSW; Michelle Grier, LMSW; Vivianne Guevara, LMSW
Transformational Healing & Critical Race Theory in Practice – Nicole Vazquez, MSW, MPP & Susana Victoria Parras, LCSW, PPSC
Anti-Racist, Anti-Oppressive Mental Health – Hayden Dawes, LCSW
Speaking Against Police Injustice – Anjanette Young, LCSW
White People Organizing for Racial Justice: Deep Canvassing – Kristen Brock-Petroshius, MSW
Black Power, Black Liberation & Social Work: Back to the Beginning of the National Association of Black Social Workers – Founder Garland Jaggers, MSW & Archivist Denise McLane-Davison, PhD, AM
Prison to Professor – Nathan Stephens, MSW
Healing Trauma Through Community Building in Little Village – Alicia Martinez, MSW; David ”Tiny” Estrada; Shipra Parikh, PhD, LCSW
Voting and Legislative Advocacy – Dawn Brown, MSW
Black Social Workers Speak Out About Social Work Education – André Marcel Harris, BSW; Dashawna J. Fussell-Ware, MSW; Deana Ayers, BSW; Vivian Taylor, MSW
Prison Abolition – K Agbebiyi, MSW
The Social Justice Doula – Lutze Segu, MSW
The Alliance for GLBTQ Youth – Mark Houston, LCSW and Pauline Green, Esq
Mental Health in Schools – Tre King, MSW
Immigrant Rights at the Border – Alejandra Martinez
White Supremacy in Social Work – Charla Cannon Yearwood, LSW and Laura Hoge, LCSW
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