Promoting social justice for all is not new to social workers, but historically rooted in our professional value base. While for many years the NASW Code of Ethics has had a provision opposing discrimination, the current code now includes a specific section on cultural and social diversity. Social workers must learn about the culture of their clients and demonstrate competence in providing services to diverse people. Furthermore, they must be able to recognize oppression with respect to diverse groups and promote conditions that encourage cultural and social diversity.

Unfortunately there are many who do not share our views about promoting social justice. I am sad when I hear about how differences have been dealt with in Rwanda and Kosovo. I am upset when I recall how some in our country have reacted to differences in terms of Matthew Shepard, a gay man from Wyoming and James Byrd, an African American man from Texas, both of whom were brutally killed. Much closer to home I am angry when I think about Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo, and also somewhat ashamed since this city is my home.

While I have had a growing awareness of the changing diversity of our city, I was particularly interested to learn at the Chapter’s recent think tank on future trends discussed in this issue how our city has changed within the last thirty years. While the number of non-Hispanic whites has decreased from 60% to 34%, the variety within ethnic groups has also changed dramatically. While once European white, African American, and Puerto Rican dominated, now there are many eastern European whites from Russia and Poland, blacks from Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and Africa, and Hispanics from Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, and Columbia, as well as Asians from China, Korea, and Bangladesh. The social work profession must be prepared to meet the needs of the 140, 000 immigrants who enter New York City each year, as well as the millions of others from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. Equally as important, however, we must include diverse social workers in our agencies and our association.

We hope that NASW can make a difference with differences. How are we doing in promoting this agenda? As you may know, NASW uses affirmative action guidelines for selecting leaders for our organization. Recently the NYC NASW signed on with other social service agencies to a full page advertisement in The New York Times denouncing the injustice of Amadou Diallo’s murder (see page 8). Our annual meeting focused on the theme of social justice past, present, and future. The keynote speaker Dr. William Pollard ably addressed the relationship between social justice and social work in terms of our historic mission and vision for the future (complete coverage next month).

For the first time this year, all our equity committees and task forces —Affirmative Action/ Multicultural Affairs (our first equity committee); Social Workers of African Descent; Latino Social Workers; Asian Social Workers including Southeast Asians and Korean Social Workers; Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual; Disabled; and Retired Social Workers have joined together to form a Council on Equity Committees (CEC) that will strive to further promote cultural and social diversity. After many discussions, we noted that while cultural sensitivity and competency are currently frequently discussed in social work practice with clients, issues of bias, power, and prejudice among ourselves were rarely addressed. In our profession the importance of developing self awareness, however, is stressed from the first class in social work school. If we do not understand and confront our own biases and issues about power and the sharing of power, how can we hope to help clients?

This year on June 10 the Council on Equity Committees will sponsor a unique event—a roundtable on Bias and Privilege in the Workplace to further our social justice agenda for ourselves, as well as our clients. The focus will be on historic and current issues around oppression, the link between social work values and social justice, and the effects of white privilege in the workplace. All members are invited to join in this discussion and I hope to see you there.

I ask, is this enough? What else should we be doing to promote cultural and social diversity? I would like ideas from all our members on this important issue.