Journal of Progressive Human Services, Jan 2, 2016
ABSTRACT Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to ... more ABSTRACT Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice. I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center whiteness within social work education and practice settings. Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to silence the operation of racism.
Social work imagines itself as a site of goodness and justice. My thesis illustrates the ways in ... more Social work imagines itself as a site of goodness and justice. My thesis illustrates the ways in which commitments to the profession’s social justice-oriented ideals are ruptured when racialized social workers name the operation of racism within everyday sites of professional practice. I show how colonial and imperial constructions of helping (moral superiority and goodness) continue to shape the hegemonic scripts about the role and practices of social work, reinscribing white dominance in social work knowledge production. Historically, racialized bodies have been constituted as Others, subjects to be regulated, controlled and ‘saved’ within the colonial project. I examine the dilemmas that emerge when racialized Others become the helpers and attempt to perform a normative identity that is constructed through white dominance. In this study, I provide a detailed analysis of twenty-three semi-structured interviews with racialized social workers. I trace the production of the professio...
Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address t... more Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice. I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center whiteness within social work education and practice settings. Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to silence the operation of racism.
Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 2019
In this paper four critical scholars/ activists reflect on the complex
institutional and public r... more In this paper four critical scholars/ activists reflect on the complex institutional and public responses to recent white supremacist events on Canadian campuses and the equity discussions they have affected. Specifically, we interrogate practices, which reify and reinsure positions of dominance and human/social hierarchy in four ways. To begin, (1) we interrogate freedom of speech and freedom of expression positions, as well as the reliance on critique of neoliberalism to supplant analyses of racism and colonial logics, to identify their role in preserving white fragility. Next, (2) we provide a local media analysis of academe’s responses to white supremacy on campus to trace the discursive moves that obscure institutional racism. Following these contextual scaffoldings, (3) we explore the ways equity projects within institutions remain projects protecting and preserving whiteness while exploiting the politics of identity. Finally, (4) we carefully reflect on the various modes of inclusion in the academy, which produce racialized scholars(hip) to be complicit in the reproduction of racial thinking, alongside and occluded by institutional narratives of equity and progress. Critical questions are raised regarding the possibilities, complicities and complexities of achieving equity and transformation in the academy, as well as the role of racialized scholars(hip) in this work.
This paper is concerned with the ethics of knowledge production when conducting research on racia... more This paper is concerned with the ethics of knowledge production when conducting research on racial injustice. The discussion draws upon my doctoral research, in which I interviewed 23 racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, about their encounters with racism in the workplace. The discussion centres on my role as a racialized researcher and the effects of any assumed " insider-ness " on how I heard and interpreted participant narratives. Although the workers and I shared experiences of racism, I could not assume " sameness, " nor could I adopt an authentic voice about how racism is experienced. This paper examines the significance of producing research about racial domination, but argues for an anti-essentialist stance. I explore the ethical dilemmas involved through examining the dominant assumptions underlying insider research. Only when we come to be very clear about how race is lived, in its multiple manifestations, only when we come to appreciate its often hidden epistemic effects and its power over collective imaginations of public space, can we entertain even the remote possibility of its eventual transformations. (Alcoff, 2002, p. 267) This paper is concerned with the ethics of knowledge production when conducting research on racial injustice. I specifically examine the ethical dilemmas that arise from the assumptions that constitute insider/outsider debates in research, and I make the argument that the danger for essentialism poses significant risks to research. The discussion draws upon my doctoral research, in which I interviewed 23 racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, about their encounters with racism in the workplace. The study focused on the ways in which racialized workers negotiate professional practice within a white-normed profession, with a specific emphasis the ways in which racial injustice manifests in everyday social work. The stories shared by participants in this study were emotionally heavy, complicated, hard to tell (and hear). The workers shared narratives describing how clients would refuse to work with them, utter racist comments toward them, and in some situations, used physical violence (Badwall, 2014). Furthermore, they relayed how co-workers and managers responded to these acts, which more often than not resulted in no action or support. Instead, their stories reveal the ways in which social work values of helping,
Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social
work. It is designed to address t... more Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice. I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center whiteness within social work education and practice settings. Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to silence the operation of racism.
This article examines the ways in which racialized social workers negotiate the values and practi... more This article examines the ways in which racialized social workers negotiate the values and practices of a social work profession that is constituted through scripts of whiteness. In particular, I examine how social work imagines itself as a site of social justice and goodness, and the processes through which racialized workers’ desires to be good collide with the racist encounters experienced in everyday sites of practice. I build upon scholarship that critiques the centralization of whiteness in social work and makes visible the liberal foundations of the profession that are implicated in constituting colonial and imperial practices of moral superiority. I argue that the professional values and practices committed to the goals of social justice are the same values and practices that reinstall whiteness and underpin incidents of racial violence. Historically, racialized bodies have been constituted as the Other—subjects to be regulated, controlled, and saved within the colonial project by white, bourgeois subjects. This article, based on interviews with racialized social workers in Canada, examines the dilemmas that emerge when racialized Others become the helpers and perform an identity that historically was never meant for them. Keywords: race, racism, whiteness, colonialism, critical social work
Journal of Progressive Human Services, Jan 2, 2016
ABSTRACT Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to ... more ABSTRACT Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice. I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center whiteness within social work education and practice settings. Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to silence the operation of racism.
Social work imagines itself as a site of goodness and justice. My thesis illustrates the ways in ... more Social work imagines itself as a site of goodness and justice. My thesis illustrates the ways in which commitments to the profession’s social justice-oriented ideals are ruptured when racialized social workers name the operation of racism within everyday sites of professional practice. I show how colonial and imperial constructions of helping (moral superiority and goodness) continue to shape the hegemonic scripts about the role and practices of social work, reinscribing white dominance in social work knowledge production. Historically, racialized bodies have been constituted as Others, subjects to be regulated, controlled and ‘saved’ within the colonial project. I examine the dilemmas that emerge when racialized Others become the helpers and attempt to perform a normative identity that is constructed through white dominance. In this study, I provide a detailed analysis of twenty-three semi-structured interviews with racialized social workers. I trace the production of the professio...
Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address t... more Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice. I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center whiteness within social work education and practice settings. Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to silence the operation of racism.
Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 2019
In this paper four critical scholars/ activists reflect on the complex
institutional and public r... more In this paper four critical scholars/ activists reflect on the complex institutional and public responses to recent white supremacist events on Canadian campuses and the equity discussions they have affected. Specifically, we interrogate practices, which reify and reinsure positions of dominance and human/social hierarchy in four ways. To begin, (1) we interrogate freedom of speech and freedom of expression positions, as well as the reliance on critique of neoliberalism to supplant analyses of racism and colonial logics, to identify their role in preserving white fragility. Next, (2) we provide a local media analysis of academe’s responses to white supremacy on campus to trace the discursive moves that obscure institutional racism. Following these contextual scaffoldings, (3) we explore the ways equity projects within institutions remain projects protecting and preserving whiteness while exploiting the politics of identity. Finally, (4) we carefully reflect on the various modes of inclusion in the academy, which produce racialized scholars(hip) to be complicit in the reproduction of racial thinking, alongside and occluded by institutional narratives of equity and progress. Critical questions are raised regarding the possibilities, complicities and complexities of achieving equity and transformation in the academy, as well as the role of racialized scholars(hip) in this work.
This paper is concerned with the ethics of knowledge production when conducting research on racia... more This paper is concerned with the ethics of knowledge production when conducting research on racial injustice. The discussion draws upon my doctoral research, in which I interviewed 23 racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, about their encounters with racism in the workplace. The discussion centres on my role as a racialized researcher and the effects of any assumed " insider-ness " on how I heard and interpreted participant narratives. Although the workers and I shared experiences of racism, I could not assume " sameness, " nor could I adopt an authentic voice about how racism is experienced. This paper examines the significance of producing research about racial domination, but argues for an anti-essentialist stance. I explore the ethical dilemmas involved through examining the dominant assumptions underlying insider research. Only when we come to be very clear about how race is lived, in its multiple manifestations, only when we come to appreciate its often hidden epistemic effects and its power over collective imaginations of public space, can we entertain even the remote possibility of its eventual transformations. (Alcoff, 2002, p. 267) This paper is concerned with the ethics of knowledge production when conducting research on racial injustice. I specifically examine the ethical dilemmas that arise from the assumptions that constitute insider/outsider debates in research, and I make the argument that the danger for essentialism poses significant risks to research. The discussion draws upon my doctoral research, in which I interviewed 23 racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, about their encounters with racism in the workplace. The study focused on the ways in which racialized workers negotiate professional practice within a white-normed profession, with a specific emphasis the ways in which racial injustice manifests in everyday social work. The stories shared by participants in this study were emotionally heavy, complicated, hard to tell (and hear). The workers shared narratives describing how clients would refuse to work with them, utter racist comments toward them, and in some situations, used physical violence (Badwall, 2014). Furthermore, they relayed how co-workers and managers responded to these acts, which more often than not resulted in no action or support. Instead, their stories reveal the ways in which social work values of helping,
Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social
work. It is designed to address t... more Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice. I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center whiteness within social work education and practice settings. Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to silence the operation of racism.
This article examines the ways in which racialized social workers negotiate the values and practi... more This article examines the ways in which racialized social workers negotiate the values and practices of a social work profession that is constituted through scripts of whiteness. In particular, I examine how social work imagines itself as a site of social justice and goodness, and the processes through which racialized workers’ desires to be good collide with the racist encounters experienced in everyday sites of practice. I build upon scholarship that critiques the centralization of whiteness in social work and makes visible the liberal foundations of the profession that are implicated in constituting colonial and imperial practices of moral superiority. I argue that the professional values and practices committed to the goals of social justice are the same values and practices that reinstall whiteness and underpin incidents of racial violence. Historically, racialized bodies have been constituted as the Other—subjects to be regulated, controlled, and saved within the colonial project by white, bourgeois subjects. This article, based on interviews with racialized social workers in Canada, examines the dilemmas that emerge when racialized Others become the helpers and perform an identity that historically was never meant for them. Keywords: race, racism, whiteness, colonialism, critical social work
Uploads
Papers by Harjeet Badwall
institutional and public responses to recent white supremacist
events on Canadian campuses and the equity discussions they
have affected. Specifically, we interrogate practices, which reify
and reinsure positions of dominance and human/social hierarchy
in four ways. To begin, (1) we interrogate freedom of speech and
freedom of expression positions, as well as the reliance on critique
of neoliberalism to supplant analyses of racism and colonial logics,
to identify their role in preserving white fragility. Next, (2) we
provide a local media analysis of academe’s responses to white
supremacy on campus to trace the discursive moves that obscure
institutional racism. Following these contextual scaffoldings, (3)
we explore the ways equity projects within institutions remain
projects protecting and preserving whiteness while exploiting the
politics of identity. Finally, (4) we carefully reflect on the various
modes of inclusion in the academy, which produce racialized
scholars(hip) to be complicit in the reproduction of racial thinking,
alongside and occluded by institutional narratives of equity and
progress. Critical questions are raised regarding the possibilities,
complicities and complexities of achieving equity and
transformation in the academy, as well as the role of racialized
scholars(hip) in this work.
work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations
between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to
shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice.
I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to
re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center
whiteness within social work education and practice settings.
Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers
in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which
critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to
silence the operation of racism.
justice and goodness, and the processes through which racialized workers’ desires to be good collide with the racist encounters experienced in everyday sites of practice. I
build upon scholarship that critiques the centralization of whiteness in social work and makes visible the liberal foundations of the profession that are implicated in
constituting colonial and imperial practices of moral superiority. I argue that the professional values and practices committed to the goals of social justice are the same values and practices that reinstall whiteness and underpin incidents of racial violence. Historically, racialized bodies have been constituted as the Other—subjects to be regulated, controlled, and saved within the colonial project by white, bourgeois subjects. This article, based on interviews with racialized social workers in Canada,
examines the dilemmas that emerge when racialized Others become the helpers and perform an identity that historically was never meant for them. Keywords: race, racism, whiteness, colonialism, critical social work
institutional and public responses to recent white supremacist
events on Canadian campuses and the equity discussions they
have affected. Specifically, we interrogate practices, which reify
and reinsure positions of dominance and human/social hierarchy
in four ways. To begin, (1) we interrogate freedom of speech and
freedom of expression positions, as well as the reliance on critique
of neoliberalism to supplant analyses of racism and colonial logics,
to identify their role in preserving white fragility. Next, (2) we
provide a local media analysis of academe’s responses to white
supremacy on campus to trace the discursive moves that obscure
institutional racism. Following these contextual scaffoldings, (3)
we explore the ways equity projects within institutions remain
projects protecting and preserving whiteness while exploiting the
politics of identity. Finally, (4) we carefully reflect on the various
modes of inclusion in the academy, which produce racialized
scholars(hip) to be complicit in the reproduction of racial thinking,
alongside and occluded by institutional narratives of equity and
progress. Critical questions are raised regarding the possibilities,
complicities and complexities of achieving equity and
transformation in the academy, as well as the role of racialized
scholars(hip) in this work.
work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations
between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to
shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice.
I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to
re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center
whiteness within social work education and practice settings.
Drawing on research I conducted with racialized social workers
in Toronto, Canada, this article examines the ways in which
critical reflexivity can operate as a governing technology to
silence the operation of racism.
justice and goodness, and the processes through which racialized workers’ desires to be good collide with the racist encounters experienced in everyday sites of practice. I
build upon scholarship that critiques the centralization of whiteness in social work and makes visible the liberal foundations of the profession that are implicated in
constituting colonial and imperial practices of moral superiority. I argue that the professional values and practices committed to the goals of social justice are the same values and practices that reinstall whiteness and underpin incidents of racial violence. Historically, racialized bodies have been constituted as the Other—subjects to be regulated, controlled, and saved within the colonial project by white, bourgeois subjects. This article, based on interviews with racialized social workers in Canada,
examines the dilemmas that emerge when racialized Others become the helpers and perform an identity that historically was never meant for them. Keywords: race, racism, whiteness, colonialism, critical social work