Taking Back the Narrative: Gendered Anti-Blackness in Predominantly White Schools of Social Work

Abstract

Black women scholars have and continue to make significant contributions to the social work profession; however, their experiences within the profession are mostly absent in the literature. In general, Black women face numerous challenges within schools of social work. Black women scholars endure a compound form of anti-Blackness in higher education known as gendered anti-Blackness due to their multiple marginalized statuses associated with race and gender. This study examined the phenomenon of gendered anti-Blackness as experienced in academia by a diverse group of Black and mixed Black faculty and PhD students. We intentionally utilized a new methodology, Black Feminist Polyethnography, to provide an affirming and communal space for us to dialogically reflect on our collective experiences of gendered anti-Blackness in predominantly white schools of social work. Our findings uncovered six Black woman-centered proverbs that symbolize the ways we collectively thrive as scholars despite gendered anti-Blackness.

A New World Cannot be Built Alone: An Abolitionist Framework for Collective Action in Social Work

“…"Racism is entrenched in social work practice and education" (Haley in Bullock et al, 2023) as the University and the profession have historically been hostile, harmful, and exclusionary toward Black women, LGBTQIA+ people, folks with disabilities, and others (Jackson et al, 2022;Mackey et al, 2022;Patton, 2016;Stovall, 2018), including gatekeeping who had access to professional credentials (Harty, 2023). All of this is made more so with this rising tide of legislation that ensures that social work educators -and, by extension, their students -continue to uphold and reproduce harm in the very communities that we claim to be serving.…”

“…Many of these implemented and proposed "corrective" policies directly impact social work education and educators. As social work academics, we [the authors] know that the academy has historically been hostile, harmful, and exclusionary toward Black women, LGBTQIA+ people, folks with disabilities, and others (Jackson et al, 2022;Mackey et al, 2022;Patton, 2016;Stovall, 2018). We acknowledge that while we have variably felt the impacts of this hostility, we must reckon with our own capacity to do harm.…”

First They Came for Critical Race Theory …

“…We recognize that women and people of color, and especially women and non-binary people of color, have long experienced greater surveillance and censorship, even within the academy (Vakalahi & Starks, 2010). Our Distinguished Feminist Scholarship and Praxis is Social Work award-winning article from 2022 by Jackson et al (2022) documents gendered anti-blackness in predominantly white schools of social work. Written from an intersectional framework, this important piece would likely be banned under these new prohibitions based on its use of a novel methodology (Black Feminist Polyethnography), its unequivocal insistence on naming anti-Black racism, and its critical view of history.…”