Afrocentrism is a theoretical perspective based on the ideology that blacks; especially Americans of the African origin develop the need to reassert an agency that incorporates cultural identity. Additionally, it bases on the shift, critical and cultural construct of the Western positivistic traditions that undermines epistemological considerations (Robinson, 2015). Social movements based on the structural racism, such as the Black Lives Matter Movement, use this ideology to assert the necessity of police reforms so as to reduce the rising cases of police brutality. On the other hand, ethnicity integrates the historic and geographic specificity of power relations. In relation to the Afrocentrism and ethnicity theories, the Anti-Oppressive Social Work Theory focuses on ending the oppression as witnessed by one social group such as African Americans in a socio-economic sense to create balance in practice.
Historical development and theorists
The cultural ideology of Afrocentrism developed as a response to Eurocentric attitudes that the white races thought to be superior to the black community. The theoretical framework of Afrocentrism is, therefore, a Pan-African perspective that dates back to 1962 by W.E.B. Du Bois who made a proposal entry in the Encyclopedia Africana (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016). In efforts to popularize the term, Molefi Asante, an African American professor, published the famous ‘Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change’ in 1980.
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On the other hand, Robert E. Spark, a sociologist in 1920, formulated the ethnicity theory. He used the ethnicity perspective and the notion of biological essentialism to define race by eradicating the belief that European races are inherently superior to other non-white races. However, the Anti-Oppressive model was formulated by Lena Dominelli in 2002 to remove the imbalance between control and care service by social workers so as to create social justice (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016).
Key concepts and premises of the theories
Afrocentrism perspectives entail intellectual inquiries into the personal thoughts to assert their self-conscious of how they are part of the African reality rather than the European cultural reality (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016). The perspective, therefore, eradicates the perception of the people of color as presenting inferior traits towards the white community. Additionally, together with the ethnicity theory, Afrocentrism relies on the premise that ethnicity plays a role in distinguishing racism from racial identity. The two theoretical perspectives, therefore, define ethnic groups as non-static as opposed to the widespread view of reality, naturalist, static, stability, and eternal nature. Both definitions of memberships are based on the source of group identity.
The ethnicity theory focuses on the assimilation model, which considers the steps of contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation in explaining the marginalization of the minorities. Park's explanation is that the failure to assimilate to the European culture made most non-white people lack progress. However, Afrocentrism focuses on the history of black Africans mainly in the United States of America where the Black Lives Matter Movement established a massive following.
On the other hand, the fundamental concept of the anti-oppressive approach is the development of strategies that create an egalitarian environment to eradicate racism and oppression. This is through the distribution of resources to all social groups so as to reduce aspects of discrimination and social injustice. The concepts of AOP also entail the duty to others by providing them with welfare support to empower them to live healthy lives.
Contemporary issues
The recent police killings of unarmed African-American males prompted the formation of the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’ on Twitter as a trending ‘hashtag’ that would later influence the formation of the Black Lives Matter Movement (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016). The nature of the movement was virtual gestures that influenced the numerous protests across the world on the injustice of the law enforcement officers towards people of the black descent. The initial use of the slogan was after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of African-American teenager, Trayvon Martin (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016).
The movement gained national recognition after massive demonstrations in 2014 following the death of two other African American men under the hands of white law enforcement officers. Following these Ferguson protests, more movement events have garnered support from the artists, athletes and politicians of America including President Barrack Obama (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016). The movement, however, has been criticized for discouraging police functionality and championing for deaths of police officers.
Afrocentrism, ethnicity and anti-oppressive practice theories in relation to the Black Lives Matter Movement
The Black Lives Movement has Afrocentric and ethnic ties because it champions for the advocacy of people of the African American community in altercations with law enforcement officers. The growth of such civil rights movements prompts the question of ethical dilemmas and the ethics of practice as a social worker. The group also incorporates the principles of equality among Americans, which propagates the concepts of the anti-oppressive practice theory. The police shootings clearly show the oppressive nature of the law enforcement bodies in the U.S.
In the process of challenging oppressive systems such as the law enforcement bodies in the United States of America, people need intersectional frameworks that act interdependently to achieve a structural improvement. As was in the past, the ethnicity theory replaced the concepts propagated by the biological essentialism that encouraged the European races to undermine the rights of non-white people due to racial superiority.
The Nature of Ethics
The meta-ethics in the matter of brutal killings of the police officers dictates that the actions against the members of the African American community is wrong and therefore as an agent of social change, one can use this premise to advise reformed policies. In the past, racial profiling was used in the theory of biological essentialism to degrade people from non-white origins such as the black community. However, the Black Lives Matter Movement bases on the Afrocentrism AOP, and the ethnicity ideologies to explain that the African American community is not inferior by itself but by Eurocentric attitudes of the white people (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016).
In an illustration, the white police officers view the black male as a criminal from the physical appearance as was in the past and shoots without assessing the situation. According to meta-ethics, this is wrong because it presents racial profiling in the American society. Additionally, from the theoretical perspective of the Afrocentrism, AOP, and ethnic theory, people define their duty and self-determination based on their drive to create a discerning environment for their racial identities.
Furthermore, normative ethics applies in the determination of solving ethical dilemmas by using moral concepts such as people right. For example, the right to gun ownership in America where the police officer fatally shot an African-American male, Philando Castille for possession of a weapon in his car (Pratt-Harris et al., 2016). The decision was viewed as wrong in a moral view.
The Authoritative Question
The authentic question in an ethical dilemma answers the problem of social work intervention depending on technical, empirical, and ethical factors of the client's life. In an incident where a white police officer shoots an unarmed male black person, the social worker identifies the beliefs based on such theories such as Afrocentrism and ethnicity. The Black Lives Movement uses such ideas to hold protests that are emotional and bitter ad basing on the cruel nature of the police actions towards their victims.
The empirical factors of such situations include information from the past on such an action. From experience, African Americans are the major target of brutal police killings, and therefore this justifies the BLM movement to protest against such actions. From experience also, protests have proved that public action has led to the address of reforms that deal with matters such as racial profiling and discriminative policies. Methods of interventions can therefore only be applied after the technical, empirical and ethical factors are weighed.
The distributive question
The distributive question incorporates the interest of others as well as that of the interveners. This is based on extreme altruism and egoism. The Black Lives Matter Movement aims to stop police brutality by bringing suggestions for reforms but also forwards the rights for LGBT blacks, the disabled, women and intra-community violence. The distributive question of extreme altruism focuses on the spread of Afrocentric and ethnic ideas to all blacks in the community to empower the young and old. The Black Lives Matter Movement, therefore, uses altruism because the movement does not individually benefit the founders pa se but the community as a whole (Hutchinson, 2016). The founders, therefore, championed for a democratic society that incurs a fundamental obligation for those that have suffered and died at the hands of a society that condones racial profiling.
The intervener can, therefore, use the criteria for distribution by weighing factors such as fulfillment of the moral obligation of combination, need, equality and compensation. The Blacks Lives Matter Movement uses this concept to create a forum for representation of the families that have suffered as a result of the killings of their sons, fathers, husbands or relatives. They, therefore, champion for equality in the treatment of all American people regardless of race, they demand rights for the black community to have more economic and educational opportunities as a result of past discrimination and call for the contribution of black pioneers who can help the community.
Duty to aid
Social workers, therefore, have an obligation to promote the good fare of others. In a community that still has manifestations of racial profiling and discrimination, it’s the responsibility of a social worker who is morally obliged, to improve the social situation.
The relevance of ethics and virtue
Ethics are moral codes that guide the application of theoretical frameworks in assessing the morality of a decision by a social worker. The Anti-Oppressive Practice theory and the Afrocentrism theory conflict in a small margin where the former champions for a fair presentation of the society while the latter focuses on the African American community. The ideologies, however, coincide when it comes to the past injustice of the American society so as to provide the avenue of uplifting the black community so that they can progress and realize the American dream as well as their white counterparts. In addition to this, the victimization of the black male individuals discourages the right to flourish in their country and therefore the Afrocentric ideologies replenish the dignity of the black people while the AOP theoretical principles elevate their efforts to match up to the Caucasian Americans.
Conclusion
Through the Black Lives Matter Movement, the Afrocentric and ethnic approaches intersect with the anti-oppressive approach to provide a platform for equal representation of the African American population. Some might argue that the BLM movement is racially discriminative, but it voices out the manifestations of past oppressive policies that undermined the economic empowerment of the black community. Due to their weak economic statuses, most male black people became criminals, and the racial stereotypes encourage the brutal killings of the unarmed black men by white police officers. The ethical decision is to; therefore, support such movements to improve the social justice status of the American community.
References
Hutchinson, S. (2016). Whose Bodies? Black Lives Matter and the Reproductive Justice Imperative. The Humanist , 76 (3), 10.
Robinson, D. E. (2015). Unitary Interests and Black Political Insurgency: How are the Lessons of Black Power Relevant to Black Lives Matter?. Available at SSRN 2691557 .
Pratt-Harris, N. C., Sinclair, M. M., Bragg, C. B., Williams, N. R., Ture, K. N., Smith, B. D., ... & Brown, L. (2016). Police-involved homicide of unarmed Black males: Observations by Black scholars in the midst of the April 2015 Baltimore uprising. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment , 26 (3-4), 377-389.
