AntiRacist Social Work Today

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• 10.
• Anti-Racist Social Work Today

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History of Race Relations

• First Nations
• Chinese Canadians
• Japanese Canadians
• Jews
• Blacks in Canada

History of race relations in Canada is contains
numerous instances of racism
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Shifting Immigration Patterns
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Multiculturalism

• 1971 Canada 1st country to adopt official
  multiculturalism policy
• Meant to ensure cultural freedom, break down
  discrimination and build national unity
• 1988 Multiculturalism Act reinforced policy

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Human Rights Legislation

• Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960.
• Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1982
• Canadian Human Rights Act and the Employment
  Equity Act 1986

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Hate Crimes

• When people are the target of violence solely
  because of who they are
• Wide-spread problem in Canada, especially against
  Blacks, Jews and gays, and increasingly those who
  appear to be Arab or Islamic
• Social workers work at community and legislative
  levels to combat

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Three Levels of Racism

• Personal Racism social attitudes and behaviours
  by individuals which ascribe inferior status on
  visible and racial minorities
• Cultural Racism beliefs that "others" cultural
  or ethnic differences are inferior
• Systemic Racism discriminatory policies,
  institutional practices and structures

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• Racism is the subordination of one
• group by another using arbitrary
• physical features such as skin colour.
• It can occur at individual, institutional
• or societal levels in the form of
• attitudes, beliefs, policies or procedures.
• Anti-racist social work is an approach
• to practice that aggressively combats
• racism on all three levels.

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Definitions

• Stereotype
• Prejudice
• Ethnicity or ethnic group
• Culture
• Ethnocentrism
• Race

• Visible minority
• Racism
• Discrimination
• Systemic discrimination
• Anti-racist social work

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Anti-Racist Social Work

• Goes beyond a recognition of personal racism
  recognizing that racism is rooted in wider
  institutions and structures in society

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Anti-racism Analysis Tool
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Using the Anti-Racist Tool

• First Nations peoples are incarcerated at rates
  that are six to seven times higher than the
  overall provincial rate
• Unpack this statistic using the Anti-racism tool
  to figure out HOW this happens
• Look at the personal, cultural and systemic
  levels