1st Edition

Racism and Racial Identity Reflections on Urban Practice in Mental Health and Social Services

By Lisa V. Blitz Copyright 2006
    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    First published in 2006. This powerful book examines the emotional and psychological impact of racism, culture and identity within the context of racism, and racial identity in treatment. The book's contributors address the invisible aspects of racism (stress, abuse, and trauma), social functioning, domestic violence, and foster care, with a special focus on women and West Indian, Afro-Caribbean, and Mexican clients.Each chapter of Racism and Racial Identity examines a different facet of the impact of race and racism on psychotherapeutic work, emotional healing, and service delivery. The book's contributors draw from years of experience to provide a sociopolitical analysis of racism that places the social construct of race in a historical context.

    SECTION I: THE EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF RACISM Violence: The Inarticulate Language of Hate, Dread, and Despair: An Introduction to Racism and Racial Identity: Reflections on Urban Practice; Racism and Invisibility: Race-Related Stress, Emotional Abuse and Psychological Trauma for People of Color; The Impact of Racism on Social Functioning: Is It Skin Deep? SECTION II: CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF RACISM Immigrant West Indian Families and Their Struggles with Racism in America; Social Work Practice with Mexican Clients: Service Provision with Illegal Entrants to the United States; Triple Trouble: Battered Women of Color–“Being Black, Being Battered and Being Female . . .I Ask Myself, Where Do I Begin?” SECTION III: BUILDING ANTIRACIST SYSTEMS IN SOCIAL SERVICES AND MENTAL HEALTH A Hope for Foster Care: Agency Executives in Partnerships with Parent Leaders; Not So Black and White: Shades of Gray and Brown in Antiracist Multicultural Team Building in a Domestic Violence Shelter; Applying an Antiracist Framework to a Residential Treatment Center: Sanctuary®, a Model for Change SECTION IV: RACIAL IDENTITY IN TREATMENT Coming Together and Falling Apart: Looking at Relationship; Can You Feel Me Now? Worldview, Empathy, and Racial Identity in a Therapy Dyad; Color Me Beautiful: Racism, Identity Formation, and Art Therapy; SECTION V: RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT OF THE THERAPIST Internalized Racism of the Clinician and the Treatment Dynamic; Staying Whole in a Fragmented World: One Afro-Caribbean Social Worker’s Journey Through Wholeness–A Psycho-Spiritual Perspective Owning Whiteness: The Reinvention of Self and Practice

    Biography

    Lisa V. Blitz, PhD, LCSW, is Director of JBFCS Genesis, an emergency domestic violence shelter for families, and teaches in the JBFCS/Martha K. Selig Educational Institute for social workers and the JBFCS/Adult Milieu Training Institute for residential direct care staff. She practice has a private psychotherapy practice in New York City. Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-R, ACSW, is practice Chief of Social Work Services at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. A past president of the New York City chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, she is on the executive committee of Black Agency Executives and is a member of the New York State Education Social Work Board.