Shamed into Action?: The Historical Avoidance of Pursuing Anti-racist Educational Policies and Content in Social Work Education

Linguistic norms concerning issues of social injustice, racism specifically, vary by discipline. In this study, the authors used content analysis to examine discourse in the social work profession related to racism and anti-racist action. Our investigation found that the usage of forthright terms such as racism, white supremacy, and oppression in the description of social work courses, authoritative disciplinary statements, and educational standards, was uncommon prior to the uprisings that occurred worldwide following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. In contrast, we find the pervasive promulgation of anti-racism as an explicit social work priority across multiple high-profile educational venues since this time. In our discussion, we interrogate the implications of this contrast as it relates to the ability of social work students and practitioners to both conceptually and practically engage in effective anti-racist action.