Ethnicity & Race Policy and News

Racial profiling is one of the most insidious and potentially damaging phenomenon related to law enforcement‘s relationship with communities of color. Concerns about racial profiling leading to disproportionate arrests and police stops of ethnic minorities are not new. For many decades African American and Latino communities have accused law enforcement agencies (or individual officers) of targeting them without probable cause.

NASW and other organizations see the aftermath of Ferguson as an opportunity to end racial profiling by law enforcement. Racial profiling is the main reason for disproportionately higher arrests and police encounters for young men of color as compared to their white counterparts.

While institutional racism as a social issue is not new to social work, its significance and centrality to the profession need to be clarified and underscored. Members of the social work profession, the organizations where they work, and schools of social work must have the knowledge base, theories, and values to understand relevant social issues, especially for the purpose of creating positive change.

NASW has always been at the forefront of the fight for civil rights, and immigration policy is clearly a civil rights issue. Historically, many peoples and groups in the United States have been discriminated against, legislated against, and oppressed. NASW has fought for the rights of all peoples regardless of their race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, political belief, religion, and mental or physical disability.

The purpose of this document is to address one key and significant social issue, institutional (also known as structural) racism. It offers a vision for how the social work profession can address structural racism, in terms of both limiting its negative influence and creating conditions for effectuating realistic, achievable positive outcomes.

Since NASW published its Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice (2001), social workers and social work organizations have utilized the multicultural framework to promote respect for, and appreciation of, diversity. NCORED committee members wrote, revised, and finalized the Standards, which were approved by the NASW National Board of Directors in June 2001.