How Are African Americans Currently Represented in Various Social Work Venues?

Abstract

This study explored how African Americans are currently represented in social work journals, research, and schools. Method: Journal publication content and editorship, research methods and designs, and school mission statements and course titles were examined. Results: Only 14% of publications in the top 5 social work journals targeted African Americans as study subjects. The terms "African American" and "race" appeared in only 10% of mission statements of the top 50 ranked schools of social work and 20% of mission statements of the top 23 ranked historically African American colleges and university (HBCU) schools of social work and appeared in only six bachelor of social work and four master of social work course titles at HBCU social work schools. Only 2 of the top 16 U.S. social work journal editors were African American. Discussion: Across current social work venues, this study reveals that there has been minimal emphasis in research and pedagogy on race and African American-related matters.

Cracks in the Ceiling? Historical and Contemporary Trends of African American Deans of Schools of Social Work

“…Future studies in this area should employ more robust measures to track the mention of ethnic groups in published articles that further delineate the purposes, the context, and the social justice implications of particular articles. Taken together, the lack of content focus on African Americans and other minority groups in top 50 deans’ body of publishing, along with the underrepresentation of African Americans in decanal roles in the top 50 schools of social work; and the similarity in h- index scores between African American and non-African American deans supports the notion that social work still discriminates against African Americans, which has been true since the profession’s origins (Briggs et al, 2018).…”

“…This raises questions about the social justice focus of many of these deans and their respective provosts and schools. The lack of attention paid to African Americans and other ethnic groups in social work journals has been an issue observed by Hopps (1982), McMahon andAllen-Meares (1992), Schiele and Hopps (2009), and recently by Briggs, Holosko, Banks, Huggins-Hoyt, and Parker (2018). Also, African Americans are rarely covered across a number of social work venues such as the mission statements of the top 50 schools of social work, courses titles of the top 25 HBCU graduate and BSW (Bachelor of Social Work) curricula, editors in chief of the top 16 U.S. social work journals, and the Encyclopedia of Social Work (Briggs et al, 2018).…”

Dismantling Privilege and White Supremacy in Social Work Education

“…This practice has led many authors to conclude that research on racerelated themes is not valued or considered good scholarship (Bernal & Villalpando, 2002;Holosko et al, 2017;Jayakumar et al, 2009). This evident lack of attention and inaction on issues related to social justice brings the profession's true commitment to ending all forms of oppression into question (Bowles & Hopps, 2014;Briggs et al, 2018;Schiele & Hopps, 2009). The lack of social work leadership in this area has not gone unnoticed, and its silence has been categorized as "discomforting" (Allen-Meares & Burman, 1995, p. 271) and "unnatural" (Holosko, et al, 2017, p. 273).…”

Stories We Tell

“…Although research explicitly examining the perceived implications of normativewhiteness and White supremacy among social work faculty are limited, efforts have been made to investigate alternative articulations and impacts of racial inequality within social work and social work education (Abrams & Gipson, 2007;Basham et al, 1997;Bowles & Hopps, 2014;Briggs et al, 2018;Davis, 1985;Davis et al, 1983;Garcia & Van Soest, 1997;Nylund, 2006). For example, in 2015 Deepak and colleagues conducted a series of focus groups with the intent of elucidating how social work students, faculty, and staff viewed the delivery of diversity and social justice materials.…”

“…However, in the last two decades, these efforts have come under considerable scrutiny. The primary source of criticism has been informed by the a-political or de-political nature of these initiatives (Bowles & Hopps, 2014;Briggs et al, 2018;Pon, 2009;Sakamoto, 2020). For instance, Sakamoto (2020) suggests that existing cultural competency literature largely omits any meaningful analysis of power, specifically as it relates to culture as a racialized-politic.…”