Theorising anti-racism in health and social care

Abstract

The emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 in the context of a COVID-19 pandemic that was already disproportionally impacting on the lives of people from black, Asian and other minority ethnicities in the UK and the US has provoked scrutiny of how racism impacts on all areas of our lives. This article will examine some competing theories of racism, and ask what theoretical tools we need to successfully confront racism in health and social care. In particular, it will scrutinise the different levels at which racism operates – individual, institutional and structural – and ask how these are related. Furthermore, it will argue against theories that see racism as a product of whiteness per se or ‘white supremacy’, insisting instead that racism should be understood as firmly bound to the functioning and perpetuation of capitalism.

Editorial

“…Similar themes are addressed in the pieces by Larkins et al (2021), by Hennum and Aamodt (2021) and, in the commentary section, by Dillon, Evans and Wroe (2021). Our second main article is by Choonara (2021) and looks at the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and how we understand contemporary racism. Issues of racism and decolonisation are also addressed by two pieces on social work in Israel/Palestine by Mahajne and Bar-On (2021) and Al-Bazz and Polakow ( 2021).…”

Racism in occupational therapy: “It’s part of who we are . . .”

“…it’s part of who we are as a nation” (CBC, The Current, 2017). Racism, inextricably reliant upon colonial capitalism, is not an aberrant act committed by isolated individuals who embrace objectionable ideologies (see Choonara, 2021). It is woven into our histories of nation-building, in Britain and its former colonies.…”

“…At a structural level, we can learn to recognize the intersections of racism, colonialism and capitalism; analysis then demands action. Proclamations of commitment must be accompanied by deepening and broadening the struggle, work that goes beyond critical interrogation and reflexivity at the individual or even institutional level (Choonara, 2021). At a time of deep divisions in Western societies, it demands strategic allegiances and coalitions, collective rather than individual action.…”

Criminal Records as Predictors of Harm

“…Exclusion, therefore, becomes oppression. Abolition, then, is an essential path to anti-oppressive practice for social workers (Choonara, 2021). The implications are, admittedly, fairly drastic.…”