Ethnicity & Race Policy and News

Safe Storage of Guns in the Home, Extreme Risk Protection Orders, and Other Methods of Gun Violence Prevention

NASW and the Brady Center are collaborating on gun safety programs that can reduce gun deaths in the home caused by suicide, domestic violence, and accidental gun deaths and injuries. This brief was developed jointly by NASW and the Brady Center. It reflects the anti-gun-violence and pro-gun safety values espoused by both organizations.

There are a number of ways that social workers can help immigrants who have been separated from their families. NASW created a tip sheet to compile ways you can help.

This article examines the deleterious effects of racial profiling as it pertains to police targeting of male African Americans. The authors use the Trayvon Martin court case to exemplify how racial profiling and black male stigma help perpetuate social inequality and injustice for black men. NASW Members, sign in to read this article.

Racial profiling is one of the most insidious and potentially damaging phenomenon related to law enforcement‘s relationship with communities of color. Concerns about racial profiling leading to disproportionate arrests and police stops of ethnic minorities are not new. For many decades African American and Latino communities have accused law enforcement agencies (or individual officers) of targeting them without probable cause.

NASW and other organizations see the aftermath of Ferguson as an opportunity to end racial profiling by law enforcement. Racial profiling is the main reason for disproportionately higher arrests and police encounters for young men of color as compared to their white counterparts.

While institutional racism as a social issue is not new to social work, its significance and centrality to the profession need to be clarified and underscored. Members of the social work profession, the organizations where they work, and schools of social work must have the knowledge base, theories, and values to understand relevant social issues, especially for the purpose of creating positive change.