“The Air Is Being Sucked Out of the Room”: Experiences of Social Work Students of Color with Antiracism Education in the Classroom and Practicum

Abstract

This study explores the experiences of social work students of color (SOC) and their antiracism education within a school of social work at a public university. Twenty-one SOC participated in focus groups where they described their experiences with antiracism education. Several key themes were identified: (a) finding community through affinity groups, (b) SOC interactions with White students, (c) differentiating internalized racism and anti-Black racism, (d) the impact of White instructors and the lack of mentors and supervisors of color, (e) microaggressions and incidents of racism, and (f) taking up space. As this is an exploratory study, authors make recommendations for social work schools to pilot in the future. These recommendations include assessing White students’ skill level with antiracism education and practice before placing them in classes with SOC, assessing faculty’s skill set with antiracist teaching and providing ongoing support, creating sustained affinity spaces for SOC as a way to booster wellness, designing and piloting antiracist outcomes for social work students, and developing simulation-based learning with simulated patients as a tool to measure antiracist practice competencies.