Observations

September 19th, 2015: At a bar in Hoboken, NJ, I overheard a 22 or so year old white male describing his ex-girlfriend's new love interest. When comparing himself to the other man, he stated, "He's black and has dreads, I mean, come on!" His friends laughed.

September 20th, 2015: Hoboken, NJ was described to me as having the same rent prices as New York City; however, typically residents have more space, and the area is "whiter."

Immigration, Connection & Racial Identity

         As the semester unfolds, in each of my classes, we are delving into American history through a social work lens, one that is often very different than the prerequisite US history courses in which I was enrolled years ago! Repeatedly, I am struck by the apparent sameness of economic and social conditions of the past and today. This holds particularly true when considering immigrant affairs (pertaining to those who are legal and otherwise).  Marable (2009) describes immigrants as living in a status of “apartheid” despite America’s welcoming façade. This particular topic has been on my mind increasingly given the current news reports and status of the individuals rapidly entering European (and American) nations at this time. Zinn (2003) words describing the influx of immigration in the 1880s and 90s is remarkably appropriate to describe what is occurring today. Zinn (2003) states that, “In the 1880s and 1890s, immigrants were pouring in from Europe at a faster rate than before. They all went through the harrowing ocean voyage of the poor.” He goes on to describe the economic working class turmoil experienced as a result of the newcomers. These descriptions are remarkably similar to the immigration crises of today. Having the opportunity to speak candidly with Santiago and build a connection with someone who has undergone the trauma of immigration made these issues come to life.

Tuesday’s class session with Santiago has me perseverating on several ideas: the power of connection, my own racial identity, and advocacy in social work. As a spectator, his story was moving – both full of trauma and joy, but what struck me most, and what I hope to take with me into my life and professional practice was the role that Paula took in this man’s life both as a motherly figure, and a social worker.

         I am a white female, and while I am comfortable with that (and with myself) in my professional life as a teacher and now social worker, I have struggled with useless guilt I experience as a result of being an “white outsider” giving advice to individuals far my senior on how to access resources, or improve the academic or social emotional lives of their children.

         While teaching in Boston, even though I spoke Spanish, the dominant language used by families at my school, there was no mistaking that I was (another) young, white teacher in the vast majority coming to teach from a viewpoint that different from my students and their families.

          In another instance, when considering entering the Peace Corps, I again wrestled this internal battle that I could do nothing to change, but really unsettled me.

         Did I speak the right languages? Yes. Did I know the research based practices to teach the children? Yes. Did I try to engage families in home visits? Yes. Was I still a young white female teacher? YES.

         As a social work student, I have continued to wrestle with this, despite my pure intentions and desire to work collaboratively with individuals in need of services. What really invigorated me about Santiago’s visit was that because of Paula’s sustained connection with Santiago, and her well established role as a civil service provider, she was able to utilize her unique self (also white and female) to help navigate and provide emotional and legal  advocacy work to ensure that Santiago could remain in the United States.

         The guilt I sometimes feel over being myself is useless and something I need to work on is harnessing my qualities to be used as strengths to help clients. Being white and female are tools that I can use to benefit others, for whom the legal system or any system for that matter, may allow others less of a voice.

         This was probably not the desired outcome of Tuesday’s visit, but it gave me a new energy and new approach to advocacy work even for those with whom we are involved personally.

References:

Marable, M. (2004). Globalization and Racialization. ZNet Classics Series.      Retrieved from: http://www.zcommunications.org/globalizationandracializationbymanningmarale. 

Zinn, H. (2003). A People's History of the United States. New York: Harper Perennial Modern    Classics. 

September 8th, 2015

Although I have just begun my learning journey as a social worker, I have already come across numerous curricular connections to the teacher preparatory courses I participated in as an undergraduate student. The strongest connection by far, though, is the discussion of the shared responsibility of teachers and social workers as responders, educators, and thoughtful criticizers of institutionalized racism.

In a course I took several years ago focusing on the impacts of race, socioeconomic status in students across the United States, a central text referred to was Beverly Daniel Tatum’s (2003) racial identity building analysis, “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? : A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity.” The text promotes the same type of challenging conversations about race referred to in the Abrams and Molo (2009) article, “Critical Race Theory and the Cultural Competence Dilemma in the Social Work Education.” Both ascertain that addressing the racism that permeates society in 2015 can be frustrating, scary, and even guilt-ridden at times, but that it is necessary to bring about any sort of real change to the status quo.

One of the first steps in engaging in these conversations is acknowledging differences in race – a notion that differs greatly from “color blindness,”  the unsuccessful attempt to, “eliminate personal prejudices and level the playing field” (Abrams & Molo, 2009). Personally, when I began this process, I too felt that if I commented on another’s race I could be misconstrued as racist. Bringing these issues to light for the first time was challenging, and made me feel as though I was walking on egg shells whenever I participated. I was embarrassed, and I didn’t even really know why!With more practice, particularly in academic settings, I now rarely shy away from these conversations, but recognize them as vital to my own racial identity development and understanding.

A similar idea that was initially very challenging for me, was going through the “stages” Tatum (2003) describes in her book, and identifying moments from my personal history that helped shaped my identity (both positively and negatively) as a white American female. Tatum stresses identifying with yourself (racially) as a powerful prerequisite to exploring the races and cultures as others. Abrams and Molo (2009) describe this “self-awareness as a lifelong endeavor” which makes me excited to re-enter this type of self-discovery several years later, in a new field, with new peers. My learning, and self-awareness growth are not finished yet.

One way that I am excited about exploring my racial identity is possibly through the medium of Digital Story Telling (Lambert, 2013), which I am honestly very new to. I reflect, sometimes weekly through (often bulleted) journal writing. However, I have never turned these moments into full-fledged stories, developing friends and family as multidimensional characters – let alone illustrated or added sound in any way! I am intrigued.

References:

Abrams, L.S., & Molo, J.A., (2009). Critical race theory and the cultural

competence dilemma in social work education. Journal of Social Work

Education, 27(2), 245-261.

Lambert, J., (2013). Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community

4^th edition. New York: Life on the Water, Inc.

Tatum, B. D., (2003). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the

cafeteria? : A psychologist explains the development of racial identity.” New York: Basic Books.

Observations:

September 6, 2015: At 4:30pm all the individuals within my line of sight at the Eastern Promenade were white. About 50% of them were using smart phones.

September 3^rd, 2015: At approximately 9pm on Chestnut Street, there were two large congregations of people on either side of the street. On the left, there were white people sitting/standing/talking on the grass outside a parking lot. On the other side of the street, there was a group of seemingly black people only with three children playing in a parking lot. They were using rocks as props in their game.