Social Work Assignment

Question

Members of dominant ethnic and racial groups may assume that other groups’ struggles are not their own or assume that those of a given race speak with one voice and react in the same way to their oppression. In reality, people can cope with racial inequalities in a variety of ways, creating complex relationships both between the dominant and oppressed group and among members of the dominant and oppressed groups. 

As a social worker, you must understand the many ways in which racial privilege can impact your clients. You must also understand the ways in which racial privilege has impacted your life and the ways you react to the realities of racism. You will likely need to help clients address racial divides and combat racial inequality to empower them.

To prepare:

Review "Working With Immigrants and Refugees: The Case of Arthur."
Post an explanation of how dominant groups can play a role in marginalizing other groups based on racial and ethnic characteristics.
Discuss
the potential negative impact of a dominant culture on immigrants and refugees, such as Arthur.
How might racism and prejudice impact his assimilation?
Furthermore, explain how you would respond to Arthur when he discusses his brother’s death and him being torn with remaining in school and joining his brother’s gang.
In your explanation, identify specific skills you would employ as a multiculturally sensitive social worker.

Answer

Racial Privilege

Dominant groups play a major part in the marginalization of other groups based on racial and ethnic characteristics through imposing their beliefs and wills on them. In most cases, dominant groups feel that they are the bests hence will demand that the other groups follow their ways of doing things (Avruch, 2015). This is some cases occurs subconsciously. For example, members of a dominant group may ridicule another group’s way of doing things believing that it is primitive or against the social norms. By doing this, they are imposing their ways onto the weaker groups. Dominant groups also play a role by ignoring the sufferings of the weaker group. They assume that the struggles are not their own hence end up encouraging marginalization. For example, Arthur’s basketball teacher did not bother to find out why he was not attending practices.

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A dominant culture can impact negatively on immigrants. Through racial and ethnical conflicts, the immigrants may feel unwanted and discriminated upon hence may resort to withdrawal from the society. Like in the case of Arthur, he felt that the teachers gave the white boys racial privilege by not punishing them. He became psychologically affected to the point of withdrawing from public life. This also resulted in a drop in his performance despite being a smart boy. The racism and prejudice has made Arthur to feel as unwanted member of the society hence has stopped interacting with the members of the dominant group.

Resolving cross-cultural conflicts requires that one identifies the cross-cultural issues that exist. As a social worker, I would explain to Arthur the negatives and potential benefits of joining his brother’s gang and remaining in school. The explanations will be done with an insight into his culture to avoid creating further cultural conflicts (Burton & Furr, 2014). I would explain to him the cultural stereotypes held by people in relation to his culture and advise him on how he should cope with them. Finally, I would inform him of the potential of altering the institution’s culture so that he can be accommodated just like other students.

References

Avruch, K. (2015). Context and pretext in conflict resolution: Culture, identity, power, and practice. London: Routledge.

Burton, S., & Furr, S. (2014). Conflict in multicultural classes: Approaches to resolving difficult dialogues. Counselor Education and Supervision, 53(2), 97-110.