An Indigenous Peoples’ History Of The United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. “Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native peoples who once inhabited his land”. (Beacon Press, 2014)
Choose the book you read based on two primary criteria:
(a) that you perceive the topic to be one where you can begin to locate how dynamics such as privilege, power, positionality, and oppression remain at play and/or influence social work practice; and
(b) that it be one where you will learn content about the history of oppression in the United States.
Address the following content and practice behaviors:
• Examples of what the book offers as history and the extent to which that history is reflected in present-day forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination in the United States;
• Examples of how the structures and values of the United States may oppress, marginalize, and alienate some people, while creating or enhancing privilege and power for others.
• Examples of discriminatory practices that you see evidenced in the way the social work profession today engages with members of the group(s) discussed in the book. Please identify dynamics (privilege, power, positionality) in the examples where appropriate.
• How are the dynamics of oppression and discrimination expressed in your agency?
• Where do you see examples in your agency of practices to advocate for human rights and social and economic justice? ctivate Windows
• When working with diverse groups, where do you see examples of your personal values and biases intruding?
Identify what strategies you have used to develop sufficient self-awareness to prevent personal valu influencing how you work with service users.
