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Health care organizations, like individuals, can evolve to become antiracist and promote racial equity within and beyond the organization. In this brief article, we introduce an intersectional antiracist advocacy practice framework applicable to health care organizations that seek restorative and transformative change, as well as participation in social and economic justice action. Becoming an antiracist organization requires an acknowledgment that no organization is impervious to racist and other oppressive ideologies. Organizations can then begin to interrogate, interrupt, and address how racism permeates agency policies, procedures, and culture. The implementation of an intersectional antiracist advocacy practice framework within organizations involves a multifaceted approach, including both internal and external practices. Internally facing practices include providing mandatory antiracist trainings to all employees; promoting a representative and equitable workplace; and developing an organizational power structure based on inclusion, transparency, and accountability. Externally facing practices include fostering nonexploitative, reciprocal community partnerships; contributing to social and economic justice movements; and demonstrating transparency and accountability for the negative impact of operations in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities and lands. We conclude with key questions for health care organizations to consider in regard to their racial equity efforts, specifically around organizational readiness, risk tolerance, and long-term commitment.

In this article, we critically engage the "dual pandemics" framing of this special issue. We first consider the key assumptions of this popular frame, specifically the conceptualization of racism as a pandemic, and examine limitations of medicalizing racism. We follow with an introduction of the term syndemic, coined by public health scholar Merrill Singer, and discuss how the language of syndemics might accurately characterize the synergism and interconnectedness of racism and COVID-19. We conclude by applying syndemic theory to offer insights and opportunities for social work research, practice, and policy from a racial justice lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social/political protest concerning structural anti-Black racism marks a moment for deep reflection and revision of many taken-for-granted assumptions about our research and academic lives as social work scholars. In this reflexive essay we, as two non-Black qualitative social work scholars, explore some of the questions and considerations for social work research that have surfaced since the emergence of these complex social, political, and economic crises. We organize our reflection around what we study, why, and how we go about studying it. We then offer a discussion of various constraints and challenges that emerge in this type of reflective scholarly practice, including an analysis of how contexts of white supremacy culture and neoliberalism shape social work scholarship. We close the essay with a number of recommendations for further reflection for social work scholars, such as reviewing research practices, seeking external research funding, practicing reflexivity, interrogating assumptions about knowledge production, self and community care, and integrating scholarly work into social work curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities of color experience intersecting systems of oppression that limit access to health care, safety, and other basic resources. Important research has documented these disparities, their antecedents, and consequences. However, little research has examined the strengths of multiply marginalized LGBTQ communities. Drawing from a health equity framework, this study is based on interviews with 38 LGBTQ-identified people of color in New York City. We used framework analysis to examine participants' perspectives on the role of community in enhancing health and well-being. Community strengths identified by participants included (a) safety, acceptance, and support; (b) interconnectedness and resource sharing; and (c) advocacy, collective action, and community potential. Recommendations for policy, practice, and future research are suggested, including efforts toward community power building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This teaching note examines the use of intentional, identity-centered spaces in the social work classroom. We discuss the use of identity-based caucusing as a means of centering the embodied and lived experiences of students in the social work classroom, drawing from previous classroom experiences in an MSW foundation course on social justice at a large public university. Specifically, we consider borderland perspectives and postcolonial constructions of third spaces and their usefulness in social work pedagogy. In particular, we pose questions regarding the use of third space caucusing as a means of embracing and affirming both/and, neither/nor identity positionalities. We also consider possibilities of student-centered, critical pedagogical approaches while paying attention to the unique challenges and contexts of social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]