Social Work Advocacy for Black Reparations

Reparations are acknowledgement, acceptance, and redress for gross injustices and wrongdoings. U.S. Black reparations can attempt to address and repair systematic oppression through comprehensive interventions aimed at the vestiges of chattel enslavement and undoing and countering disproportionate, negative outcomes experienced by African Americans. Social workers committed to doing anti-racism should fervently advance reparations in social work education and practice as a social justice policy priority. This article envisions ways that social workers can actualize advocacy for reparations as an anti-racist practice. The social work profession has the potential to serve and support the Black reparations movement through education, collaboration, and community organizing.