Social work is a n
oble profession. We help the people who have been cast out by society. We advocate for the socially marginalized, and we give voice to the voiceless. Over the years, there have been many famous social workers such as Jane Addams who pioneered the settlement house movement in Chicago, IL. But, history sometimes overlooks a very important segment of social workers – Black male social workers.
Whitney Young, who is known for being a civil rights leader and executive director of the National Urban League, was first a direct service social worker. He started his work with the Urban League of St. Paul, Minnesota in the 1940s helping African Americans gain employment in jobs that were previously reserved for whites. Whitney Young is perhaps one of the most famous black male social workers, and he deserves to be celebrated. Furthermore, we must continue to celebrate our famous social workers so that their legacies will live on.
Unfortunately, I fear that this legacy of influential black social workers may end if more young men of color do not enter into the profession. There are very few black males social workers in the profession today. According to the Center for Workforce Studies, in 2004 only 8% of male social workers were black compared to 85% who were non-Hispanic, white. This is a striking disparity. The disparity is notable because people of color are more likely to received social work services. The lack of representation becomes an issue when the people giving the help are all of one race and the people receiving it are all of another race.
Alan Speed, an African American social work student at the University of Pennsylvania was quoted in a 2007 Social Work Today article. He stated that in his community, “most of the people that helped did not look like me,” [and] “most of the people that needed help looked like me.” He went on to say that he wanted to become a social worker because he “wanted to be involved, especially in West Philly, especially with poverty. I really wanted to touch base with that community.”
The motivation to go into communities of color and help people that look like them is what compels many students of color to become helping professionals, especially social workers. They recognize that men of color just like themselves have poor health outcomes and are more likely to be unemployed and least likely to have college degrees. Young men of color, especially those who live in urban areas, don’t have to go far to find community members who are in need. Young men who become social workers and help their community members should also be honored just as we honor our great historical social workers.
To celebrate these young men, FROM BOYZ 2 MEN, INC. interviewed a social worker for the first installment of our Young Professionals Series. In this series, we profile young black male professionals in our community so we can learn more about what they do. We started the series with Eric Watts, a social worker who earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work at the Whitney M. Young School of Social Work at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. Watch the video below to hear Eric tell his story.
References
Biography.com Editors. (2016). Whitney Young Jr. Biography. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/whitney-young-jr-9539757
Morris-Comption, D. J. (2007). Wanted: African American men in social work. Retrieved from http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/janfeb2007p24.shtml
National Association of Social Workers. (2016). Black history month – Influential social workers. Retrieved from http://www.nasw-pa.org/?192
Center For Workforce Studies. (2004). 2004 national study of licensed social workers demographic fact sheet – Male social workers Retrieved from http://workforce.socialworkers.org/studies/demo_fact_male.asp
FROM BOYZ 2 MEN, INC. 