The Critical Social Worker: A Revolutionary story telling podcast.
On the 48th episode of Professor Christian Stettler’s podcast The Critical Social Worker: A Revolutionary story telling podcast. Professor Christian invited Alan Dettlaff to share his thoughts and to help educate us on abolitionist principles/perspectives.
Quick BIO
Alan Dettlaff is a social work professor, author, and an abolitionist. He earned his PHD from the University of Texas at Arlington. He started his social work career in the child welfare/family policing system as a caseworker and administrator. In the video below his explains in detail how he went from an investigator in the Child Welfare System with hopes to reform it to becoming founder of the UPEnd movement that is geared towards the abolishment of the Family Policing System.
Right from jump I was intrigued by the topic of abolition and how it corelates to the social work profession. Professor Stettler asked thoughtful questions that helped create a stimulating and informative dialogue.
Many people look at the policing system, industrial prison complex, and child welfare system as impactful and necessary. This stems from a place of wanting a safe world. The idea of children living in an abusive and harmful environment is difficult for anyone to fathom. It’s portrayed that these systems were created to serve and protect, but when you look at the foundation and original motives of these systems, you’ll realize it’s the exact opposite. Alan did an excellent job explaining how the abolition movement during slavery wasn’t only focused on ending slavery but also geared towards obtaining liberation and equality for all. Which has not ever been achieved. These systems were initiated post-slavery with the goals to do the exact opposite of what that movement to end slavery truly stood for.
Child Welfare system or Family Policing?
Why the name change? Alan states in the podcast that he is intentional with the public rejection of changing the name of Child Welfare system to Family Policing. This is due to the functions of the system which consist of punishment, surveillance, forceful obedience, and largely separating children from their families. When it’s broken down in this way it’s extremely difficult to argue that it would be anything other than policing.
Can the social work profession be abolitionist?
This section of the podcast really dove into the history of the profession of social work, the complacency, and the fear of challenging/facing hard truths within the profession. Labeling yourself as an abolitionist is considered to be radical in Social Work, especially when your stance is to abolish a system that the social work profession is actively a participant of. For example, Alan Dettlaff was fired as the Dean of the university of Houston due to his beliefs.
Professor Christian asked Alan ” What did you mean by you don’t think social workers can be abolitionist?” to which Alan went on to explain that he doesn’t feel the profession is in a space or can be abolitionist. He described the origins of social work and how it was more of a citizen building project to help the poor “fit” into society “appropriately”. He continues on to say that he feels like we haven’t progressed all that much since then due to the profession being dependent on working with people and communities that exist in poverty.
“A lot of social work is about pathologizing individual behaviors and trying to address individual issues that contribute to poverty, rather than focusing on the broader issues in society that contribute to people’s poverty.” – Alan Dettlaff
When Alan said this on the podcast it truly had me thinking of who I want to be as a Social Worker.
My goal has always been to become a trauma and resiliency therapist within the social work field. As I sit here and reflect on the podcast and think about the statistic of how 70% of children taken away from their parents from the family policing system, due to neglect brought on by poverty. I’m frustrated. The trauma inflicted by poverty and these institutions that are designed to be impossible to navigate alone is great, but the trauma a family experiences being torn apart is torture. How could I possibly give them tools to cope with that? It’s so much deeper than just everyday problems and I want to take a more active role in focusing on the broader aspect of what’s causing these issues (poverty, racism, and colonization) instead of quickly assisting patching up someone wounds. What do you think of the quote above? Do you think Social work should focus more on the root causes of these systems instead of leaning more into therapeutic services?
If you did not watch this episode, I suggest you do! The link will be below as well as information on the UpEnd movement.
I want to shout out Professor Stettler for providing diverse and thought-provoking educational content to us.
Comments
3 responses to “Abolitionist Social Work”
Hi Adriana. Thank you for giving us your reflection. I think you could have gone deeper in terms of your thoughts and how you think the guest of the podcast is an asset to this field (or not). It is that time of the year though when we are just tired and want to be “done”. So I get it. Anyways, I was going to participate on this podcast the other day but got sick and wasn’t able to. So thanks again for giving me a bit of background. Like yourself, the thought of abuse or overall neglect of babies and children is unfathomable. There is such a huge need for child protective or intervention services to help get kids and babies out of harm’s way. If I worked for the Department of office Children services, I would probably bring every baby home with me. There is a difference between neglect and simply not having the time or resources (maybe you are a single parent, maybe that parent is depressed and loves their kids. But, they don’t have medication to help them get better because they can’t afford it). I didn’t know they had resiliency and trauma therapists. I am interested in further exploring this facet of social work. My long-term goal is one day opening my own practice. Hopefully if I focus enough, I can do it. Other times I am doubtful. But then I never thought I would get to this point. And, here I am. Doing homework! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for your constructive feedback. I could have given more of an opinion on how I believe the guest is an asset to the field of social work. In my opinion, I think anyone who is brave enough to speak on the corrupt foundations of these systems that have been in place for decades deserves to have a place in the social work field.
This podcast changed the way I view the social work profession. Like I mentioned above my goal is to become a trauma and resiliency counselor and just like you I want my own clinic! But as I sit here and reflect on what I have learned in this class and throughout my college “career” I’m afraid that I won’t make enough of an impact. I don’t want to fall into utilizing systems I don’t fully believe in or work for people who don’t care.
I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist but when I look at the conditions, we the people have experienced in the past and the conditions we are in now. It’s made me develop a deep distrust for the government and the motives people in power have. They need us to be poor, they need us to work our asses off for them to make billions, they need us to eat crap food so we can continue to pour our money into big pharma! The list goes on.
But anyway, I don’t want to go on and on in the comment section.
You are correct though; it’s the end of the semester and I’m barely getting by. Not to mention writing gives me so much anxiety. The average person could probably knock one of these blogs out in a day. For me it takes way longer than it should and even then, it’s pretty basic.
I hope you are able to finish the semester strong and open that practice one day!
Hello Adrianna,
Thank you for your thoughts on this podcast. I can see that it gave you something else to think about. When I first started looking into social work, my husband thought it was going to be more of a OCS thing where they take away kids. Not everything else that goes along with it. As for your question on Mr. Alan’s quote, I think that we live in a broken system. It is made for the rich to stay rich and the poor to stay poor. In a way, I believe that social work was created to be that change in finding the root of problems. But over time it has changed to what it is today. I also think that social work as a profession realizes this in a way because of classes like this one. It is in an attempt to change the status quo. I also think that people get used to how things are and don’t want to rock the boat. Or they are more concerned with trying to stay alive than risking to much rocking and lose their job like Mr. Alan.
I do love that Professor Ace was able to get him on the podcast. It is important to have people that are not ashamed to stand for what they believe in. There was so much going on within the podcast that I will have to listen to it a few more times before it is solid within my mind.