Social Work’s Feminist Façade: Descriptive Manifestations of White Supremacy

Inspired by Queen Elizabeth I’s Poor Laws, Jane Addams espoused the rhetoric of social justice. Addams is an example of social reform between 1890 and 1930s as tied to eugenics, which is also evident in disagreements between Addams and Ida B. Wells. Despite the contributions of white women to social work, their subtle transgressions exist behind the veil of a feminist façade. It operates as a culture of ideas, and ultimately a prescribed assortment of race-based behaviours. Leading white women such as Addams dedicated their careers aloof to the subjugation of non-white issues that Ida B. Wells challenged via lynching. After constant prodding from Wells, Addams emerged from her silence to oppose lynching. Wells responded to Addams’ discourse that she viewed as passive white rhetoric. According to contemporary descriptive data, white women/students are similarly aloof to non-white issues provoking womanism in response to feminism’s Women’s Ku Klux Klan. Ultimately, in the rescue of social justice, white women activists, including Social Work students, must denounce the feminist façade that social justice rhetoric and social justice activism coalesce for all oppressed populations. American Social Work was inspired by the social justice contained in Queen Elizabeth I’s Poor Laws. White American Social Work icon Jane Addams contradicted the Queen’s Poor Laws by acting out racism. She was a feminist of her day who espoused social justice contradicted in actions ignoring the lynching of black men falsely accused of crime. Addams went so far as to side with racists in stating that such men may have been guilty. African American social justice activist Ida B. Wells criticised Addams for ignoring the struggles of black citizens whilst committed to helping white immigrants arriving from Europe. Her racist disposition, which she denied, was typical of feminists then and now including all of Western society. Despite such organisations as the Women’s Ku Klux Klan (WKKK), modern day feminists deny being racist. Descriptive data collected from a contemporary class of white Social Work feminist students revealed similar racist disdain for critical black content. In fact, feminists as all are racist being the products of a racist Western environment. Their denial precipitates a defensive posture immune to resolution. By owning racism, feminists become amenable to resolution and hence prepared to assume a leadership role in its demise.