Personal Statement on Today’s Rally of Social Workers and Human Service Professionals in Support of Black Lives Matter

2020-06-12 DrMattDSW

Friday, June 12, 2020

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE ENTIRELY MY OWN AND DO NOT REPRESENT ANY OF MY EMPLOYERS: PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE.

6. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities to the Broader Society

6.01 Social Welfare

Social workers should promote the general welfare of society, from local to global levels, and the development of people, their communities, and their environments. Social workers should advocate for living conditions conducive to the fulfillment of basic human needs and should promote social, economic, political, and cultural values and institutions that are compatible with the realization of social justice.

6.04 Social and Political Action

(d) Social workers should act to prevent and eliminate domination of, exploitation of, and discrimination against any person, group, or class on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, or mental or physical ability.

(NASW Code of Ethics)

Today my colleagues will be rallying in front of City Hall in support of Black Lives Matter. I am there with them completely in spirit, though, unfortunately not in body: as someone who is Disabled, with chronic-illness, and two auto-immune conditions, and who is immunosuppressed, it is, unfortunately, not safe for me to be in large crowds right now due to COVID-19, even while wearing a face mask.

That said, to remain silent is to side with the oppressor against the oppressed. My field, my profession, can and does do a lot of good. However, the field of Social Work and those who work within it it also must work to de-colonize ourselves, and to de-link ourselves from systems of oppression, so that we are not the “friendlier face” of the police force, or the “friendlier face” of the State’s arm of enforcement and systemic racism and oppression.

My field, like all ‘helping’ fields, has much to answer for: from Orphan Trains in the United States, to the treatment of the indigenous populations in the United States, New Zealand and Canada, and more. We must do better. We must align ourselves with actively anti-racist practices, and we must do the work to educate ourselves, rather than rely on marginalized colleagues to take the work of educating us on their shoulders. We must remove barriers to diversifying our field, and we must work to ensure that those who have been kept out of leadership are placed in roles where they can lead and have their voices heard.

I propose no answers, and no solutions: we are no one’s saviors. Instead, I join together with my brothers and sisters in radical solidarity for tearing down systems of oppression, and replacing them with systems of healing, equity, justice, education, peace, housing, healthcare, and food security.

Yours in the Struggle,

Matthew L. Schwartz