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As social workers, we must do more than stand in solidarity with black people

How should social workers respond to 500 years of white supremacy and racism against black people in society? This is one of the questions I have been grappling with since I qualified as a social worker two years ago.

In social work school they teach us that fighting for social justice and doing critical reflection in practice are core to our professional development – and rightly so. As a result, I have been thinking about how there is no profession, community, or institution in the UK – or for that matter in the US and Europe - that I am aware of where social workers are able to operate free of racism.

But there aren’t any social work training modules that drill down into the racism that permeates our society. As it is so ingrained, this is deeply troubling for a profession that prides itself for being at the frontline of service provision in black and marginalised communities.

You have to wonder, as I have been, whether social workers can truly be agents of change or even anti-oppression in an inherently racist system. If we do not acknowledge, for example, the interplay between the racism that many black people experience and the high level of anxiety, anger and depression that they suffer and the poverty they live in, then how can we change lives for the better. And if we don’t acknowledge the disproportionately low access to employment that black people experience, or the high proportion of interactions with the police, then how can we do our jobs properly?

Related: Racism isn't just unfair. It's making us ill | Farrah Jarral

As a mental health social worker, I see this almost every day in the myriad ways black people are overmedicated, sectioned, pathologised and overpoliced. Classic examples of this are found in the mental health and the criminal justice systems – two sectors where black people are always heavily over-represented in the UK, in the US and across much of Europe.

Research shows that black men in Britain are 17 times more likely than their white counterpart to be diagnosed with serious mental illness and four times more likely to be sectioned. They are also more likely to be prescribed higher doses of psychoactive medication – which only treats symptoms; leaving the real issues untouched – instead of receiving therapy which soothes the soul, validates feelings and helps people to better understand and live with their condition.

As a result of this prejudice, black people suffer from a host of other physical health problems, including high blood pressure and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. During the pandemic this has disproportionately put black people at greater risk of dying from Covid-19. And why are black women in Britain five times more likely to die during childbirth than white women?

But it’s not just the virus that black people have had to look out for during lockdown. More than a quarter of all black 15 to 24-year-olds in London were stopped and searched by the police during the coronavirus lockdown. Official figures show people who identify as black in England and Wales are almost 10 times more likely to be stopped than people who identify as white.

To me these are textbook examples of racism against black people. I am not accusing my psychiatric and medical colleagues or even the police of being intentionally racist. That said, no matter your profession or politics, racism is clearly a crisis that cannot be ignored, as highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement. If you are white and are not actively trying to dismantle the unconscious bias and prejudice in your professions then you are tacitly condoning the racism that black people experience.

I fear that, like other centuries-old racial disparities in society, the over-representation of black people in the mental health and criminal justice systems may not end until racism in society is a thing of the past. But I am also optimistic. I believe that the road to a more equal society is possible and social workers have much to contribute on this journey. However, this requires a commitment to dismantle the power structures, bias and prejudices that create white supremacy professionally and personally.

Related: Covid-19 affects BAME youth mental health more than white peers – study

It is not enough for social workers in their positions of power to merely stand in solidarity with black people. We must practice a different kind of social work that is rooted in anti-racism. What would that look like? First, it would require social workers as part of our training to learn about how colonisation - a 500-year-old institution built to invalidate black people and to champion whiteness - has shaped social workers as individuals, social work as a profession and the society in which we operate.

For social workers to be able to provide the support and interventions that BLM has called for, such as anti-racist practice, it is vital to understand what fuels racism against black people and actively help to dismantle white supremacyin our profession, communities and globally.

• Vava Tampa is a community organiser, a freelance writer focusing on Africa’s great lakes, decolonisation and culture, and a social worker in London