Social Work and Justice

Paper Summary:

The paper evaluates the relationship of social work to social justice and contends that social work has a record of exclusion of oppressed or marginalized groups. The paper highlights the destructive imperialistic influence in the field of social work and education. The paper shows how immigrants are unwilling to interact with social workers because the immigrant's history provokes an anger and fear of social workers that is indeed justified. The paper asserts that change must begin at the level of interaction as opposed to waiting for the controlling imperialistic mindset to change.

Outline:
Objective
Introduction
Imperialistic in Thought and Basis
Problems in Social Work Practice Explored
The Solution

From the Paper:

"In understanding the historical perspective of social work in the United States one must first gain an understanding of the basis of the formation of the United States in its' thought and rationale of order within a governmental system. In a speech on social work Ruth G. Dean from the Simmons School of Social Work stated that: "Social work, it seems, now content spending more time doing paperwork than working with people. We talk and write in the professional patois of pathology rather than with words that worry life and insight into dreams and aspirations and hope.""

Sample of Sources Used:

• Takaki, R. (1993). A different mirror. In a different mirror: A history of multicultural America (pp 1-170. New York, NY: Little, Brown & Company.
• Kilty, K., & Haymes, M. (2000). Racism, nativism, and exclusion: Public policy, immigration, and the Latino experience in the United States. Journal of Poverty 4, 1-25.Shacknove, A. (January 1985). Who is Refugee? Ethics 95, 274-284.
• Said, E. (1993) Culture and imperialism. www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/barsaid.htm.
• Platt, A.M., & Cooreman, J.L. (2001). A multicultural chronology of welfare policy and social work in the United States. Social Justice 28, 91-137.
• Reisch, M. (1998). The sociopolitical context and social work method, 1890-1950. Social Service Review, June, 162-181.

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