White Benevolence: Racism and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions

The helping professions - education, social work, health care, and justice - reinforce the colonial lie that Indigenous people need saving, according to White Benevolence. This book argues that white settler social workers, educators, health-care practitioners, and criminal justice workers have a responsibility to understand the colonial history of their professions and their complicity in ongoing violence, and that what is needed is radical anti-racism, solidarity, and a relinquishing of the power of white supremacy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 01 May 2022
Publisher: Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd

When engaging with Indigenous communities, the helping professions - education, social work, health care, and justice - perpetuate the colonial myth that Indigenous people require saving. In White Benevolence, esteemed anti-racism scholars expose the ways in which white settlers working within these institutions actively shape, defend, and uphold institutional racism, despite professing to support Indigenous people. White supremacy manifests in the everyday behaviors, language, and assumptions of white professionals who perpetuate myths of Indigenous inferiority and deficiency, making it evident that institutional racism extends beyond high-level policies and laws to the collective actions of individuals within these institutions.

In this unwavering and crucial collection, the authors argue that white settler social workers, educators, health-care practitioners, and criminal justice workers bear a responsibility to acknowledge the colonial history of their professions and their involvement in ongoing violence, whether it manifests as over-policing, school push-out, child apprehension, or denial of healthcare. Cultural awareness training is not the solution. What is required is a radical anti-racism, solidarity, and a relinquishment of the power of white supremacy.

Weight: 406g
Dimension: 152 x 230 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781773635224