In this essay I will be assessing how youth work organisations such as Your Story - a youth work organisation used to support youth such as NEET (not in employment education or training) youths, the organisation in which I’m doing my placement with and how this and many other youth work service use strategies to address racism and I will also be analysing the effectiveness and how they break down the barriers of racism in services or work places. I feel as though this essay will allow me to understand further what happens in work places which aren’t always discussed publicly and how it can affect the individual or further affect the community, this will also allow me to adapt my practice in a professional environment and assess how I am with others, allowing me to learn new skills and adapt them into my professional practice.
To understand how strategies are used to address racism and the effectiveness of them in the organisations, we need to firstly understand race, racism and whiteness. The following are the meaning of these key words I my opinion.
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- Race is the colour of an individual’s skin.
- Racism is the act of prejudice or discrimination towards someone because of the individuals skin colour, with the belief that one’s race is superior, thus causing them play the role of the oppressor.
- Whiteness is a set of characteristics attached to the ‘white race’.
One strategy that I’ve found to address racism is educating individuals, I feel as though some individual have racist view due to lack of education causing a lack of knowledge and them allowing space for ignorance. I feel as though this strategy is used in school in things such as history lesson, this allows everyone to understand the changes that have occurred and who and how people are still affected. Also teaching individuals about racism is very important because educating individuals allows the different type of racism such as overt and covert racism, I was once told that racism isn’t just about an individual’s skin colour, but about discrimination toward other individuals. Also educating an individual about how their place in society and their role in racism can affect others in society in importance for when youths grow up.
One legislation that supports this is the Equality Act 2010, this act covers race in one of the nine protected characteristics the legislations covers and through education this allows you to teach individuals laws that protect them around racism. I find this strategy one of the most effective because it is not only allowing teaching individuals but allows you to address certain views that they might have. I feel as though educating individuals on racism can most effectively be done through culturally relevant teaching this uses various ways to address difficult issues of race, it exposes students to a variety of people and environments. It also promotes social justice and highlights historical movements that might still impact individuals now, these have worked to promote tolerance and equity and I feel as though would reduce racism. This also promotes and ensures that self-awareness and self-reflection is being taught because it allows the individual to realise how the connections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, impact us individually and the understand of how our identification within a particular group gives us privilege such as race and whiteness and white privilege in certain spaces and we must be open to actively listen to marginalized groups who experience life differently because of their social groupings and this can be done through teaching individual in culturally relevant teaching. This includes things such as white privilege with in my opinion means that not that life is made easier because you’re white but life isn’t made harder because you are white. Critical race theory and studies on whiteness are used to see how racism and racialized society affect others.
This strategy could be used in the youth work setting as previously stated in culturally relevant teaching, this could be done in history lesson teaching individuals about the race issues that occurs such as slavery and the impact that still occur to this day such as racism due to migration, this could be done through presentation done by the individuals to show how and what they have learn and through discussion to allow them to express how they feel on that matter and discussing on understanding your role in society and your subconscious privilege toward black and minority individuals and how they can eliminate racism and an in individual.
Another strategy that I’ve found to be adopted to address racism is identifying inequality, I feel like this is a key strategy because I feel as though through identifying inequality in the service because it allows you to access where racism might be apparent due to the down falls of service, some of these might include opportunity that aren’t provided for all. This promoting educational equality, this identifies any marginalized group within the service and finding ways to bring people out of their comfort zone to ensure they can interact with other people they don’t usually do. Also can be done through as said prior by providing equal opportunities and resources to all regardless of their race.
I feel as though through identifying inequality that might be there is one of the most effective ways of addressing racism because I feel like it allows the professionals to understand where the an individual might be put in a place where they might be a victim to racism due to them being marginalized and this being apparent to others could cause a space for racism to occur, I feel like this to most effective because this allows you to remove all possible barriers, and is an essential part of addressing and removing racism in youth work services.
A legislation that supports this strategy is the race relations act, this act ensures and promotes that individuals are protected from discrimination around their race and support any action against racial harassment. This act also ensures that all policies and procedures are relevant to race equality this act also covers organisation that is publically funded and to provide equal opportunities regardless of race, disability, culture, faith, etc. I feel as though is act is very important regarding organisation because it prevent discriminations on many grounds not only race.
This strategy could be used in the youth work setting by it being acknowledged by working professionals, such as teachers and social works, this would be most effectively used during meeting discussing anything that could be changes to positively impact BME (black and minority ethnicity) individuals, such as mixed classes, opportunities provide to all individuals, and reports being created to assess the effectiveness from the taken measures, this could also be done through not only inclusive activities but discussion with the individuals about what changes could be made to promote inclusivity, that allowing you to remove any barrier the induvial might have toward other.
An additional strategy that I’ve found to be adopted to address racism is anti-racism policies, these policies focus on address racism and ensuring support for individuals that have experienced racism, to also promote anti discriminatory practice and also stressing the importance of recording and reporting instances of racism. I find this strategy very effective because I feel as though it effectively promotion of anti-racist practices and ensures diversity not only race but of cultures, backgrounds, faiths and beliefs and the Commission for Racial Equality framework is used and has the aim to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality, this framework promoted the use of legislations to help eradicate racial discrimination and harassment, and also to support organisations, and employers in all sectors, in their efforts to ensure equality of opportunity and good race relations, I find this frame work very supportive in addressing racism and to raise public awareness of racial discrimination and injustice. Services like the ENAR (European Network Anti-Racism) network are used to support ‘racial equality and facilitating cooperation among civil society anti-racism actors in Europe’. ENAR works to put an end to structural racism and discrimination across Europe and make a difference in ethnic minorities’ lives. The ENAR offers lessons for effective policies against racism.
This strategy could be used in the youth work setting by it being implemented and promoted by governing bodies, and policies and procedures focusing on anti-racism practices, and training being provide to support this framework, to ensure professional know how to address a racial issue if it ever occurs in the environment and how to provide the correct support.
Some theories surrounding addressing racism is the Critical race theory this is theory is a framework that started from the concept of critical legal studies on racial issues that addresses the racial inequities in the community. Critical race is theory is a way to deal with race issues for black and minority individuals and to challenge narratives. This theory looks at race, racism and power in order to understand the relationship in order to change it for the benefit of others. The theory main promoted the elimination of oppression in all for including race, class, gender and power, and is an important theory when dealing with race issues.
Another theory surrounding addressing racism is the conflict theory, this theory focus on the inequalities in the society. The conflict theory revolves around Structural racialization is a system of social structures and the inequalities in the community, this can affect many things. I feel as though the conflict theory applies to addressing racism because this theory suggest there always requires an individual’s high than you and there is a power difference most commonly related to race, however I feel as though this can be relevant with race, racial power, this can be called different things whiteness, white privilege or racism.
I feel as though understanding these theories is importance when addressing racism because alongside strategies, these theories would be most useful in many environment and settings, because I feel as though theory allow you to understand most about society and the similarities and differences there might be. Also theories explain situations and predict the outcome. They also allow the understanding of individuals behaviour in situation and how they can be dealt with and how you may subconsciously influence society, theories support many things such as behaviour, societies structure, cognitive processes, and stages of change, and also challenges ideas, supports research.
To sum up everything that has been stated in this essay on how strategies that are adopted to address racism and evaluate effectiveness, five provide definitions of key words when exploring racism such as race, racism, whiteness and privilege, I’ve stated the key strategies that I’ve found to address racism and the key theoretical frameworks for assessing racism, a network used in the UK to ensure anti-racism practice this being the ENAR service. I’ve also assessed the effectiveness of all of these things and how I feel as though the strategies can be most effectively used. Overall I feel as though addressing racism is a hard issue to discuss I’ve learnt a lot through this essay and the research I’ve done on the legislation and frameworks in place to address racism and the service that are promoted anti-racism practice and how effect they are.
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