White Privilege: A call to Pākehā social workers

By Novice Pākehā decoloniser

Three years ago, I began a journey of critical reflection, what McIntosh (1989) refers to as, ‘unpacking your knapsack’. It wasn’t until I started my Bachelor of Social Work that anyone had challenged my positioning in society. I had never had to think about what my culture was. I started confused, in denial, maybe even defensive. I used to say, “I don’t really have a culture”, I used to believe, “colour doesn’t differentiate us”. Slowly, I started to recognise that as a British Pākehā, my culture had been invisibilised due to the dominance of Western society. My culture is so embedded in society that it goes relatively unnoticed.

White privilege is blinding – but it’s time to put the sunglasses on

By The Small Town Gal

I am a Pākehā woman from a small coastal town, a mostly Pākehā bubble of 60,000 people that helped to raise me with love and kindness, complete with naivety and racism. Privilege meant to be rich. White privilege would have been considered ‘reverse racism’. Māori in our town were and still are, the highest representative in statistics of crime, of poor health outcomes and of poor education outcomes. This was discussed in society as laziness, lack of education and lack of drive for employment by the general population.

Unconsciously choosing your privilege in social work

By Poly pantheress

More too often I find myself gazing into the distance, reflecting on where my journey as a social work practitioner will take me. At times wondering about what stance I will take in this often risk-filled and stigmatized profession. My first placement made me realize just where I, a brown and proud Polynesian, would fit or am needed; and that is advocating against a white system in which other brown, Pasifika and Maori whanau are over-flooding in our welfare systems.

The issue with “All Lives Matter”

By H.R.

The world is stunned, horrified, and saddened by the death and murder in broad daylight of 42-year-old African American George Floyd, at the hands of police officers. As a result of this unjust death, Americans took to the streets with a message: Black Lives Matter. While the world is shocked, African Americans are not, as this is the fate of many African Americans in the USA. The Black Lives Matter movement was formed in 2013 as a movement that fights for liberation and justice. Its mission to eradicate white supremacy and violence inflicted against Black communities by vigilantes and the State.

Being comfortable with the uncomfortable

By Suzie Q

Reflecting on the past four years of studying social work the lessons I have learnt are vastly different to what I envisioned they would be when I first began this journey. I once aspired to become the all-knowing expert; what I believed at the time it took to be a good social worker. Now as I near the end of my degree I have come to believe the inverse of this, the mark of a good social worker is the acceptance that we cannot know everything. When it comes to other people’s lived experiences it is our compassion that drives us to understand that is the true virtue of our profession. In my own education this shift in motivation has been a result of reconciling with my own privilege being white-passing, learning to become comfortable in the uncomfortable.

The privilege walk

By Anonymous

A Privilege Check

In my first year as a BSW student, I participated in a simple but profound class activity. Students were asked to stand in one straight line facing the lecturer, who would then ask us several questions. We were instructed to take a step forward or back depending on whether we felt the question applied to us or not. Some of the many questions included: “If you lived in a home your parents owned, take a step forward”; “If you were discouraged to study at university because of your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take a step back”; “If you lived in a home with more than 50 books, take a step forward”. The activity was easy, but the questions were unsettling. It was my first time ever checking my own privilege. Before I knew it, I had taken many steps back. I soon felt the reality of being an under-privileged individual compared to those standing in front of me. What does this mean?