The employment of black social workers: from 'ethnic sensitivity' to anti-racism?:

TLDR: Cheetham et al. as discussed by the authors discuss the ways in which black social workers aid the smooth reproduction of racism in social services departments, and whether they can be a key element in the development of anti-racist strategies and practices.

Abstract: sideration of the ways in which black social workers Although the study of social work intervention in the black community has been something of a growth area, the literature has, on the whole, been guilty of two critical omissions. Firstly, it has failed to utilise the concept of racism as a central theoretical category, and secondly, it has failed to address pertinent issues in the functioning of social services departments.* This article, organised around a discussion of the implementation of policies for the employment of black social workers, seeks to address these omissions by posing a number of questions about the reproduction of racism in social services departments. The main question concerns how far black social workers aid the smooth reproduction of racism, or whether they can be a key element in the development of anti-racist strategies and practices. The suggestion is that this is a theoretically and empirically open question. The article seeks to address these issues on the basis’of research carried out between October 1983 and April 1984 in connection with a PhD research project, in the social services departments of two Inner London boroughs which I shall term ’Ayeborough’ and ’Beeborough’. The text includes quotes gathered from taped interviews * See Cheetham et al (eds.) 1981 and Cheetham (ed) 1982 as the two most influential readers; for more critical analyses, see McCulloch and Kornreich 1974, Husband 1980a and 1980b, and ABSWAP 1983.