Casualties of care: Social work as a cog in the machinery of White supremacy

Indigenous and Black people in Canada are disproportionately targeted and killed by police. They are also disproportionately involved in systems of child welfare. The Canadian state, it seems, insists on supporting Indigenous and Black families - even as it insists on taking Indigenous and Black life. This apparent paradox is resolved by the reality that both practices, ultimately, secure the subordination of those disadvantaged by the racialized settler-colonial project. ‘Hate’ and ‘love’ are not only compatible but collaborative.

As those in the profession of administering care, social workers are a ‘benevolent’ cog in the machinery of White supremacy. This presentation dissects the operations of this cog in relation to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers/refugees – a group of displaced people both produced by White supremacy, and exploited to perpetuate it. It reflects on racism as more than interpersonal violence but structural denial and situates the role of care work in facilitating, legitimating, obscuring, and erasing this.

Webinar Objectives
Recognize the role of ‘benevolence’ in the perpetuation of White supremacy
Recognize the continuities between social work’s past and present, in the perpetuation of White supremacy
Recognize the racialized origins and racializing effects of refugee practice and discourse
Recognize mental health knowledge as a system of power, towards the perpetuation of White supremacy
Recognize ‘cultural’ knowledge as a system of power, towards the perpetuation of White supremacy
Recognize mainstream sexual and gender discourse as particular rather than universal