The anti-oppressive practice approach in social work is focused on the elimination of social and economic inequalities. Through this approach, the social worker reflects on the dominant and minority groups' structure within a social setting. This reflection helps the social worker effectively adopt strategies and interventions suitable for establishing an environment with equality. Anti-oppressive practice in social work reinforces inclusivity in the delivery of service through cultural competency, empathy, and effective communication.
Impact of White Privilege on Clients
White privilege has been perceived as one of the components of culturally responsive social work interventions on clients. Most clients report evaluating the social worker's race first before assessing other aspects such as gender and age. Based on this aspect, it is evident that white privilege has a significant impact on clients from diverse backgrounds. White people have always had a higher social and economic advantage over non-White (McIntosh, 2018).
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Social workers have an ethical duty to evaluate their relationship pertaining to white privilege. White social workers, in particular, should partake a non-judgmental and inclusive stance according to the code of ethics. They should be aware of the aspects of themselves that influence their interventions to others. Unexplored stereotypes by the social worker can result in the worker making assumptions about their clients (Johnston-Goodstar, 2013). Social workers are predominantly white, and such a homogeneous environment poses the risk of complacency in assessing stereotypes held by a social worker.
If the social worker does not examine the white privilege, detachment from experience may occur when working with a client from a minority group (McIntosh, 2018). Negative stereotypes about African Americans being more prone to violence than other ethnicities may cause the distancing of a social worker from a client's experience. This aspect can happen in both worker-client relationships and peer relationships. White people as benefactors of white privilege naturally tend not to acknowledge their involvement in the systemic privilege they enjoy daily.
The lack of acknowledgment of one’s privileges may lead to microaggressions by White social workers on their non-White clients. The outcome of such an occurrence would be the deterioration of the relationship between the client and the social worker. On the other stereotypes about the superior ability of White people to handle personal crises more effectively may lead lack of full engagement with the client. In general, the effectiveness of social work interventions on clients is likely to be negatively affected by stereotypes and attitudes about the client's ethnicity (Joo et al., 2016).
Intersecting Identities’ Impact on Individual Experiences
Intersecting identities are described as combinations of categories that are attributed to an individual. Intersectional identities are a complex and dynamic feature in social work interventions since each identity category has its unique challenges (Mattsson, 2013). Race, gender, sexual orientation, and class each have distinct structural inequalities that characterize them. A social worker should reflect on intersectional identities' impact to effectively help a client overcome their challenges.
An African American woman, for example, is likely to face triple jeopardy in their experience since they are likely to be affected by the inequalities that affect women, African Americans, and lower-income people (Bent-Goodley et al., 2016). Such an individual's experience will be negatively higher in magnitude than that of a White woman or African American man. An African American man from an economically privileged background may demonstrate the traits of economically privileged people and be judgmental of low-income people. Still, he too experiences inequalities due to his race.
Understanding this cultural identity is key to helping individuals in different situations and experiences. A client's openness may likely be due to their intersectional identities; double or triple oppression is a major cause of concern for many people of color (Wong, 2017). Interventions and approaches to this group should be different and lean heavily towards making a client open during an intervention. Clients of White ethnicity or those from high economic backgrounds may be entitled and judgmental because of their privilege.
A social worker should help these clients overcome their prejudices besides addressing the oppressions they may be facing with their other cultural identities. The client’s perception of oppression due to a specific cultural identity will likely be distinct due to their different intersecting identities (Mattsson, 2013). For example, a White woman has white privilege but experiences gender oppression, her view of gender oppression will be fundamentally different from that of an African American woman. Having this knowledge will be crucial in selecting and implementing interventions that are effective to the uniqueness of a client’s circumstances.
Strength-Based Approach in Social Work
A strength-based approach is a valuable and effective strategy that a social worker may utilize in work with clients. The strength-based approach helps the client adopt a positive mentality of their circumstances and set reasonable goals to overcome those challenges (Johnston-Goodstar, 2013). An individual experiencing depression due to a series of economic challenges has the strength of resilience. Despite facing a period of financial difficulty, they have continued to endeavor to overcome their situation.
A social worker may focus on resilience as a critical factor in helping the client. Reinforcing the client’s belief and self-motivation should be centered on this aspect of their life. The history of success that the individual has had in previous times can be used as a point of reference that demonstrates their unique ability to overcome whatever challenges they are facing in their lives at the moment. This strategy will help prevent the client from causing self-harm due to stress and depression.
A teenage girl having mental health problems and depression due to cyber-bullying may have a supportive circle of family and friends in her life. This trait is considered asset-based strengths that refer to the environmental strengths and community resources at the client's disposal. The social worker may focus on the support and help the client’s family are willing to offer despite the attacks she has experienced online. She would be encouraged to consider the advantage of such a caring and supportive community that many other people lack in their lives.
This approach will help the client re-establish balance in their lives by interacting more with her family and friends that appreciate and respect her. Strengthening the client’s relationship with her family will induce hope and achieve success in accomplishing goals set by the intervention. Social workers should embrace Strength-based approaches since they have proved to be effective in prevention interventions. The client has a more direct influence on the intervention's success in their lives since their direct involvement is central to this approach.
Three Important Social Work Skills
Three necessary social work skills include cultural competency, empathy, and communication. Cultural competency refers to the quality of understanding and respecting diverse cultural backgrounds (Barnes, 2016). It involves recognizing the privileges and oppressions that are connected with each cultural identity. A social workers will be effective in their objectives when they become responsive to their clients’ cultural practices. Using cultural competency, a social worker may assess their own cultural identities and that of a client and establish a relationship with the client based on this knowledge. Cultural competency will help the social worker be non-judgmental in their service delivery to clients from diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences based on gender, disability, race, age, or sexual orientation.
Empathy is another critical skill that a social worker should possess in their profession. Empathy refers to the quality of acknowledging another individual’s perception and experience. It involves appropriately responding to the individual's emotional status by attempting to perceive things from their experience. A social worker may use empathy to identify a client’s needs, select an appropriate approach, and set goals suitable for these particular needs.
Communication is the third skill that would be useful for a social worker. Verbal and non-verbal communication is a critical skill that makes social workers clearly express themselves to the client while allowing them to openly express their views (Barnes, 2016). Through effective communication, a social worker can understand a client’s needs and, together with them, implement interventions to resolve them. Communicating clearly with colleagues is also a critical part of social work that improves knowledge and skills.
In conclusion, anti-oppressive practice is a model that is effective in promoting equality among different cultural identities. This approach illustrates how oppression can occur to any individual based on their various identities. Sometimes these personal identities intersect to make the individual needs complex in nature. It attempts to resolve these oppressions through social work interventions that utilize cultural competency, empathy, and communication skills in service delivery.
References
Barnes, V. (2016). Skills for Inter-Professional Social Work Practice. Skills for Social Work Practice , 178–195. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-39027-1_10
Bent-Goodley, T., Snell, C. L., & Carlton-LaNey, I. (2016). Black perspectives and social work practice. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment , 27 (1-2), 27–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2016.1252604
Johnston-Goodstar, K. (2013). Indigenous Youth Participatory Action Research: Re-visioning Social Justice for Social Work with Indigenous Youths. Social Work , 58 (4), 314–320. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swt036
Joo, N., Reeves, R. V., & Rodrigue, E. (2016, October 26). Asian-American success and the pitfalls of generalization . Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/research/asian-american-success-and-the-pitfalls-of-generalization/.
Mattsson, T. (2013). Intersectionality as a Useful Tool. Affilia , 29 (1), 8–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109913510659
McIntosh, P. (2018). white privilege and male privilege. Privilege , 28–40. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429494802-6
Wong, A. S. (2017). Intersectionality: Understanding Power, Privilege, and the Intersecting Identities of Women. Counseling Women Across the Life Span . https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826129178.0003
