An Open Letter to National Social Work Organizations to Support Abolitionist Inquiry
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As social workers, social service practitioners, researchers, educators, students, and activists, we believe abolitionist inquiry, scholarship, and praxis in social work are of critical importance and aligned with the actualization of social work values. Unfortunately, the social work profession has long been an active partner in supporting and sustaining harmful and punitive systems — that have devastating consequences for marginalized people and communities — especially Black, Brown, Indigenous, trans, queer, disabled, and poor communities. These harmful systems include but are not limited to police, jails, prisons, ICE, and the family policing system, also known as the child welfare system.
Abolitionist history, inquiry, and praxis have given many of us in the social work community a way to understand not only the harm of these systems but a pathway towards building a world in which racially coded capitalistic laws and practices — rooted in the creation and maintenance of white supremacy — are dismantled! Thus, allowing people and communities the safety and resources needed to thrive.
Abolitionist history is imaginative, intersectional, and rooted in a world where everyone can self-actualize. The work of historical abolitionists like Fredrick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth preceded the formation of social work as a profession. But their values and actions make them, in many ways, the vanguards of social justice and human rights we should strive to emulate.
We write this open letter to the University of Houston, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Society for Social Work and Research(SSWR), Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), National Association of Deans and Directors (NADD), and Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE) calling on each of these organizations to take action, inclusive of the steps below to support abolitionist efforts in social work.
Additionally, we call on social workers aligned with the values of abolition and the above-listed organizations to speak out publicly against the injustice perpetrated against Dr. Alan Dettlaff — who on December 13th, 2022, was removed from his position as Dean of the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work — explicitly because of his abolitionist research, organizing, and activism.
The role and tension of capitalism within social work are often not discussed or acknowledged. Still, we know concerns around research and institutional funding, and the maintenance of carceral relations were instrumental in Dr. Dettlaff’s removal as Dean — which we, as abolitionist social workers, find highly troubling and not aligned with our purported values as a profession.
Abolition is a legitimate area of inquiry, scholarship, and praxis for social work. However, we have seen that some in our field see abolition as too radical or unrealistic. We recognize that the framework of abolition requires that we reimagine what social work is and can be and that we dramatically change our relationship to harmful systems that have been core to the legitimization of the social work profession. However, if we as social workers are to realize the liberatory possibilities of social work, abolition has to be a critical part of how we get there!
The removal of Dr. Dettlaff is an attempt to quiet those of us that demand a more liberatory social work while reinforcing the history of harm embedded within our profession. Yet we know that Dr. Dettlaff’s removal is not a singular event, as we have witnessed similar attempts to suppress struggles for social justice and human rights within the profession and in social justice struggles more broadly. It also sends a clear message to junior scholars and social workers as to what type of social work practice has value and will be rewarded by the profession.
Dr. Angela Davis says, “if they come for me in the morning, they will come for you at night.” Therefore, the struggle for our collective liberation has to be intersectional. And we, as a collective, must speak up against efforts to subdue liberatory social work.
We make the following asks:
We ask that you publicly commit to maintaining the Graduate College of Social Work’s focus on racial justice and abolitionist social work.
National Association of Deans and Directors (NADD):
We ask that you acknowledge abolition as a legitimate and important area of academic inquiry in social work programs, including the inclusion of content on abolitionist praxis in social work curricula. We also ask that you publish a statement demonstrating support for hiring social work faculty who conduct abolitionist-oriented research.
Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE):
We ask that you publish a statement demonstrating support for Ph.D. students who are conducting abolitionist-oriented research as part of their doctoral dissertations.
Council on Social Work Education (CSWE):
We ask that you acknowledge the importance of an abolitionist perspective in social work education, particularly as it relates to Competency #2 in your Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards — to Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice.