One Small Step
by Allan Barsky, JD, MSW, Ph.D.
Professor, Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work
As I saw neo-Nazis marching in the streets of Charlottesville in August 2017, I could not believe my eyes. As I heard the President of the United States defending the neo-Nazis, I could not believe my ears. When I read President Trump’s tweet that transgender people would be banned from the military, I could believe what I was reading, but my eyes welled up with tears. Is this what President Trump means by “Make America great again”?
Despite Dr. Martin Luther King’s pronouncements that “The arc of the moral history is long, but it bends toward justice,” it seems as though we are heading in the opposite direction. From President Trump’s announcements that Muslims would be banned from immigrating to the United States, to describing Africa and Haiti with vulgar insults, to his declarations that Mexicans are a bunch of “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists,” I not only wondered about the direction of the leadership of this country, but also about the millions of Americans who seem to support these views. Part of me felt depressed, defeated, and disillusioned. Fortunately, the optimism within me has started to re-emerge and strengthen. Movements such as the International Women’s March, Resist, the Dreamers, and Defend Science demonstrate that we, as social workers, have many allies in the fight for social justice.
The issues of racism, religious bigotry, transphobia, and other forms of discrimination are pervasive at national and international levels. Rather than being paralyzed by the magnitude of the problems, however, I have decided to take the credo, “Think globally, act locally,” to heart, head, and hand. When I started to think about what I could do in my own backyard, I reflected on my position as a social work educator and my specialization in conflict resolution. As an educator and a mediator, I know that engaging in constructive conversations about racism, religious bigotry, and other forms of discrimination is difficult. Many people avoid such conversations, concerned that emotions will be inflamed and relationships will be hurt. Unfortunately, silence condones further discrimination and allows it to flourish. Conversely, calling out people as racists or bigots does little to change their behaviors or attitudes.
So, what do we do to engage with people in a more constructive manner? I decided to develop a workshop for social workers, focusing on how to engage clients in conversation about racism and religious bigotry. I began by exploring current theory and research on this topic to discern the best practices for engaging in meaningful dialogues about such challenging issues. I am also working with a team of social work students (Keren Gonzalez, Talia Lewis, and Blair-Tiffany Boston) to study the effectiveness of the workshop.
Allan Barsky, PhD, JD, MSW
Although I do not pretend to have all the answers or think that “our little workshop” will change the world, I hope that we can contribute in a significant way. And who knows—maybe one of our social work students will one day be president.
Dr. Allan Barsky is Professor of Social Work at Florida Atlantic University and former Chair of the National Ethics Committee of the National Association of Social Workers. He is the author of Ethics and Values in Social Work (Oxford University Press), Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions (Oxford University Press), and Clinicians in Court (Guilford Press).