Beyond Child Protection: Afro-Caribbean Service Users of Child Welfare

Abstract

The literature on the overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system is well established, yet little is known about the experiences of Afro-Caribbean families as service users. This article draws on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with Afro-Caribbean mothers and youths to understand how they perceive and experience the child welfare system. The analyses were informed by the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory and critical race feminism. Findings indicate that Afro-Caribbean service users are caught in a complex institutional web of racism, classism, and sexism, which marginalizes and criminalizes them.

Ethnicity, Race, Oppression, and Social Work: The Canadian Case

“…Emergent calls to address anti-oppression limitations have pointed to critical race theory (Razack and Jeffery, 2002), critical race feminism (Clarke, 2012;Pon et al, 2011;Razack et al, 2010), anticolonialism (Pon et al, 2011;Sinclair et al, 2009), and decolonization (Baskin, 2010;Lavallée, 2007;Lawrence and Dua, 2005), especially as these theories address the fundamental stakes of white supremacy, imperialism, racism, settler colonialism, and interlocking oppressions. The extant literature on the ongoing colonialism and racism experienced by Aboriginal and racialized peoples in Canada is extensive (Baskin, 2010;Clarke et al, 2012;Dei, 2008;James, 1996;Lawrence and Dua, 2005).…”

“…For example, 94% of all child welfare workers in Canada are White (Fallon et al, 2003). Besides, racialized social workers face barriers such as lack of promotion opportunities, nonrecognition of foreign credentials, and devaluation of their knowledge and skills (Clarke, 2010(Clarke, , 2012Gosine and Pon, 2010;Henry and Tator, 2010). Of equal concern is the exclusion of Aboriginal and racialized people from tenure stream positions in schools of social work in Canada (CASSW, 1991).…”

The “Fragility of Goodness”: Black Parents’ Perspective about Raising Children in Toronto, Winnipeg, and St. John’s of Canada

“…Disregard of this reality implies that certain parenting behaviors considered to be effective and functional among one group could easily be construed as "aberrant" behavior by another group (Maiter & George, 2003). For example, Hill and Bush (2001) note that whereas authoritarian and harsher parenting styles may imply out-of-control parenting to many European American/ Canadian families, many African/Caribbean Canadian parents may see permissive and non-punitive styles of parenting as an abdication of parental responsibilities (Ho, Bluestein, & Jenkins, 2008) Despite such differences in understanding and approach to parenting between European American/Canadian families and Black families in Canada, the parenting style of the latter is heavily scrutinized by child welfare agencies, which has resulted in over-representation of apprehended Black children in care in Toronto (Clarke, 2011(Clarke, , 2012De Finney, Dean, Loiselle, & Saraceno, 2011;Greenbaum, 2014;Hughes, 2014;Pon, Gosine, & Phillips, 2011). According to the Toronto Star, within Greater Toronto Black children are apprehended and placed into foster care at much higher rates (41%) than any other social group, aside from Indigenous people of Canada (Contenta, Monsebraaten, & Rankin, 2014).…”

“…This theory emerged in the mid-1970s from the critical legal scholarship of Derrick Bell and Alan Freeman, which challenged racial oppression and injustices in the law against African Americans in the United States (Bell, 1976(Bell, , 1979Freeman, 1977Freeman, , 1981. Today, CRT is being used in many academic disciplines, including the fields of education (Ladson-Billings, 1998) and social work (Clarke, 2012;Jeffery, 2005) to examine racist ideas and to challenge racial oppression and injustices that continue to prevail in Western society. In our study we employed CRT for two purposes.…”

Exploring Racial Disproportionalities and Disparities for Black Families Involved with the Child Welfare System

“…Alongside these quantitative findings, there is also qualitative research that highlights how experiences of Black families and Black child welfare workers in Ontario are characterized by anti-Black racism (ABR) (Bonnie & Pon, 2015;Clarke, 2011Clarke, , 2012Hasford, 2015). ABR is a specific type of violence aimed at Black individuals and their resistance to such violence (Phillips & Pon, 2018;Pon et al, 2011).…”