Racial Equity

Statement on Racial Equity (June 2, 2020) 

The tragedy of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis reveals, once again, the effects of institutionalized racism has become a flashpoint for justified lack of trust that will be seen and treated as a symptom of implicit bias in all systems. The Institute for Clinical Social Work understands that institutional racism is not isolated to police departments and hears the protests as a call to action to work for racial equity in our nation, in our communities, and in our institutions of higher education. ICSW’s answer is a diversity task force.    

The Institute for Clinical Social Work believes in equal access to education, health care, and the right to exist and calls upon its members to reflect individually on what actions we each can take to seek justice and to commit collectively to create an institute that lives its values. The DEI task force is a joint effort from students and professors to promote strategies and best practices within the realms of racial, social, sexual, and gender diversity. 

Our diversity task force goals are imperative to the safety and security of our communities. We must turn our listening ear and our great capacities for empathy to the voices of African American people who do not feel safe, to black and brown mothers and fathers who send their children out in the world and must tolerate unyielding fear for them, and to our colleagues, co-workers, students, and partners who are generous enough to share their experience, and we learn from each other. 

We use our self-awareness to know that if we blame the police and leave it at that, we are avoiding our own privilege and our own responsibility to act, speak up, demand equity. IF we stay silent, we are complicit. Our education and work seek to amplify all human stories and perspectives. 

Goals of the Diversity Task Force:

Here are some specific action steps that the Institute for Clinical Social Work’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force will implement as we continue to live our mission and work towards combatting institutionalized racism: 

Academic curricular- We will review our curriculum to include a greater diversity of authorship in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theories and practices. 

Community education- We will organize a summer training on implicit bias in theorizing, agencies, and practices. 

Faculty development- We will focus on Diversity and Inclusion and include training on White privilege and racial inequity at our next Faculty Retreat.

Recruitment – We will focus recruitment efforts to reach underrepresented groups in our faculty, student, and staff recruitment efforts. 

We must collectively acknowledge that institutionalized racism can only exist if we do not acknowledge our own privileges and commit to working together to dismantle social injustices within all institutions.  We recognize that it begins here, it begins with us at the Institute for Clinical Social Work.  Please join the DEI Taskforce in our commitment to racial equity.