Submission to The Social Lens: A Social Work Action Blog by Community of Practice 6 as part of SOWK 550
Social work aims to support people having to navigate oppressive systems. As social workers, we should care about microaggressions because we often experience or commit them daily. There is a lack of discussion about microaggressions within social work. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the practice of social work to adapt to practicing in online spaces throughout the year 2020. We hope to highlight possible approaches that social workers may employ when addressing oppressive systems through online platforms. We believe this blog post will allow social workers to explore new tools to combat this issue and make social change.
Sue (2010) defines microaggressions as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward persons of colour.” Overt racism is typically condemned in today’s society while microaggressions are more covert. They are unnoticed by those outside of the population being derided, yet cause severe harm by perpetuating negative stereotypes and negating the lived experiences of marginalized groups.
Popular media can be a dominant and oppressive system, representing society’s collective values. Black people are represented by western media in stereotypical roles such as the gangster, the jezebel, comedic relief, etc. (Coleman, 2020). They are forced into these categories and their experiences are often invalidated when they step out of them.
One of the most prevalent sources of microaggressions is internet “meme culture.” Memes appear to be harmless photos and captions intended for the purpose of sharing humour, yet there is a prevailing issue of meme content using racialized people as subjects of derision. A noteworthy example are the prolific viral memes featuring Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins, a black woman who spoke to local news reporters after she narrowly escaped her home as it was being engulfed in flames. Though Wilkins’ personal story of a house fire is tragic, she has instead become infamous for her phrase “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” The video of her went viral and was turned into a song, seen as a point of ridicule for Wilkins. Wilkins has stated that she wasn’t attempting to be funny when speaking to the reporters, but was trying to explain her rush to get out of her burning home. The focus shifted from her experience of a tragic fire and her experience of having to escape it, to a joke that has amassed millions of views. Wilkins filed a lawsuit. The song was taken down but Wilkins did not receive any form of compensation. Many media outlets responded to this development by describing her as the “’Ain’t nobody got time for that’ lady” or simply as a meme. One article in particular by the Business Insider (Dickey, 2013) linked a YouTube video of the song and urged viewers to watch the viral video before it was to be removed—despite her wishes. If we examine these incidents closely, we can observe a trend of affirming black voices and mannerisms as comedic memes, and invalidating their true lived experiences.
Recently, many initiatives validating and voicing the lived experience of the black community have emerged. The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted systemic and hidden racism that black individuals face in our communities. This movement, which has a chapter in Vancouver, originated out of the United States in 2013 after the killing of a black teenager, Trayvon Martin. This movement has recently garnered attention all over the world in response to the killing of George Floyd. It has been remarkable to see people from all around the world and from different backgrounds coming together to fight the injustices that the black community face. There has been pressure for change at the structural level through protests, petitions, and calls for justice; leading to investigations of racism and aggression, particularly within policing. Increased awareness about the racism and microaggressions black individuals face through media like social media has forced people to look internally at their own hidden racism, biases, and stereotypes.
A local initiative is the Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS). The Black Women’s Program was established as a place where Black women can go for support, understanding, connection, and community. The Black Women’s Program at BWSS builds on historical underpinnings, the universality of the Black women’s experience of violence, marginalization, hypervisibility alongside relative invisibility as Black women, and to redress the way black people’s experiences are downplayed (BWSS, 2020).
A theoretical framework that can be applied to this social justice is Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP). AOP focuses on the need for social workers to practice continual self-reflexivity to reduce the unintentional perpetuation of oppressed populations (Baines, Article in Press). Social workers must consider their social location, values, and unconscious biases, all of which contribute to their perceptions and actions. When thinking about microaggressions and media, social workers must be aware of how media shapes their ability to recognize or unconsciously engage in microaggressions towards Persons of Colour. AOP is also founded in the belief that the interaction between macro and micro social influences can both create and perpetuate oppression (Baines, Article in Progress). Through this lens, it is clear that social conditions including gender, sexuality, race, citizenship, etc., can play a role in the oppression of vulnerable populations. This ties to intersectionality as well, as this concept is founded in the belief that various social and political identities contribute to privilege or oppression in a person’s life. Through this framework, it is clear that the oppression of Persons of Colour through microaggressions occurs on both the micro level through personal interactions and the macro level through media production.
Racism through microaggressions also relates to internalized oppression, which is when systematic oppression causes individuals to have a damaged sense of self (Baines, 2011). Microaggressions in the media can create internalized oppression by reinforcing negative stereotypes rather than empowering oppressed populations to fight racist power structures in society. At the micro level, we as social workers should work collaboratively with oppressed individuals and come up with solutions together rather than for them, which can further perpetuate oppression. We must listen with empathy, and empower individuals to be comfortable in sharing their stories and perspectives. Therefore, the micro level is the best place to start looking within ourselves and the people we serve directly to create lasting change.
Additional Links
- https://blacklivesmatter.ca
- https://www.bccommunityalliance.com
- https://blacklivesmatter.ca/demands-overview/
- https://www.bwss.org/black-women-in-canada/
- https://www.citynews1130.com/2019/11/10/bc-community-alliance-racism-in-vancouver-schools/
- https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/01/microaggressions
References
- Baines, D. (2011). Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice. Social Justice Social Work.
- Baines, D. & Sharma, A. (in press). Anti-Oppressive Practice Theory. University of Sydney.
- Black Lives Matter. (2020). Demands. BLM Canada. https://blacklivesmatter.ca/demands-overview
- Coleman, M. N. (2020). The relation of black-oriented reality television consumption and perceived realism to the endorsement of stereotypes of black women doi:10.1037/ppm0000223
- Dickey, M. (2013) ‘Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That’ Viral-video Star Does Have Time To Sue Apple. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/sweet-brown-apple-lawsuit-2013-3
- MacDougall, A. M. (2020, February 21). Black women in Canada and the Black Women’s Program at BWSS. Battered Women’s Support Services. https://www.bwss.org/black-women-in-canada/
- Maqbool, A. (2020, July 9). Black lives matter: From social media to global movement. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53273381
- Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.684319828288
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