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Anti-Oppressive Approach In Social Work

1235 Words5 Pages

An approach that I plan on employing within my future social work practice, is the anti-oppressive approach to social work intervention. This approach is incredibly important to comprehensive social work practice, and completely assisting a client with the social problems or discrimination that they may face within society. Anti-oppressive practice is employed in situations where the client is a victim of discriminatory power structures (Sakamoto, 2005). I will particularly be focusing on how discriminatory power structures impact racialized and visible minorities. The discrimination and mistreatment of visible minorities is widespread within contemporary Canadian society, as often times societal structures benefit dominant groups and mistreat …show more content…

I am a black Muslim female, and have been exposed to discrimination throughout my life, therefore, the discrimination and mistreatment of racialized and minority groups is something that I hold very close to my heart. I am especially passionate about employing an anti-oppressive approach with racialized individuals, in particular. As a victim of discrimination, I am well aware of the destructive effects that discrimination can have on the everyday life and identities of racialized individuals. Therefore, employing an anti-oppressive approach will allow for a social worker to provide the assistance and care that is required when dealing with the effects of systematic and institutional oppression that takes place within society. Employing an anti-oppressive approach will allow for the client and the social worker to mutually share and determine positive identities to combat the racism and discrimination evident within society (Mbakogu, 2017, 16). My social identity as a black visibly Muslim female, has exposed me to many discriminatory tendencies within society, which is the main reason that I have chosen to focus on the anti-oppressive approach, as this is the approach that can eradicate racial inequality and discrimination. Furthermore, as a racial minority I have the unique ability to intensely empathize with my client’s as I believe that I can truly understand the complexity of racism and discrimination within contemporary Canadian society. However, this is not to say that I understand the experiences of every racialized individual within society, I have been exposed to privilege as well, and must understand this dichotomy in order to comprehensively assist my clients. I believe that I have an understanding of racism, and can use this understanding to help clients, and in the

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