Racialization, Silences and the Negotiation of Power Within Child Welfare Institutions in Ontario.

This paper examines the employment experiences of racialized social workers, many of whom were immigrants, in Ontario in recent years. This article has four central objectives. First, to provide an overview of the perceptions of racialized social workers regarding the ways they are perceived and treated by supervisors, co-workers, other professionals, as well as clients and the effect that such views and treatment has on them. Second, the perceptions of racialized workers regarding the ghettoization, marginalization and disempowerment they may experience in the workplace. Third, to explain three strategies they use in managing power relations within the workplace (i.e., conformity, collaboration, and conflict). Fourth, to provide some suggestions on what must be done to improve the perceptions and treatment of racialized social workers by supervisors, co-workers, other professionals and clients. The major findings are that negotiating power relations is a complex process and includes experiences of tensions and awkward silences due to the sensitivity of the topic of race. The paper concludes that in moving forward constructively it is imperative to engage in difficult but crucial conversations that can contribute to the identification of ways to address tensions and awkward silences on matters of race in the context of social work, as well as in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]