Race, Ethnicity & Identity: Culturally Relevant Social Work Practice

In this essay, as a social worker, I will be discussing Social system theory, privilege and oppression in which these affect the professionalism of clients within the social work. As a process of critical self-reflection, as a social worker, I will be exploring essentials of my own identity that fall into classifications of both privilege and oppression. I will be discussing how these experiences shape my values and beliefs that are demonstrated during my work carrier in Nepal.

A writer who has written on the privilege and oppression, I was a social worker should admit the privileged that I have achieved during my working career in Nepal. I was born in Nepal in an educated family with the privilege of getting a better education than most of the poor Nepalese. Born in the hill region in Nepal and Brahmin (highest in terms of caste), I get the optimum level of freedom and privilege during my growing up. I was a privileged class of Nepalese society want to acknowledge the different elements of social identity that impacted privileged and oppression which led to the development of intersectional theory.

Social System Theory was conceptualized by Talcot (1951) and was put in the map by one of the prominent sociologists Niklas Luhmann. The social systems theory or systems theory is the theory that study society as a multifaceted procedure of basics, including persons and their principles, as they relate to a whole. System theory mainly focuses on societal procedure and not on distinct actions and suggests a new role for the specific in the inner setting of the organisation. In system, theory individuality plays an important role and also emphases on societal procedures and specific aspects of the individual. In social system theory, every individual human is viewed as cognitive systems, self-conscious unions of feelings that are operationally closed to everything outside of realisation. Social System theory explains how communication raises its capability to positively establish different kinds of influences.

As a social worker, working in the rural communities of Nepal I began to understand the complexities of Nepali society and the problem faced by the people in the community. Working in the communities level and interacting with the rural people I try to understand how the complexities arrive and how it is difficult to solve the complexities that have withstanding in the Nepali society for the long period. Being introduced to social system theory, it has also allowed me to explore and reflect on my social identity and how it has led to my experiences of privilege and oppression in a certain social context.

In the words of Johnson (2006), Privilege survives when one group has a bit of significance that is deprived of to others solely because of group affiliation and not based on what a person or group has done or miscarried. Fellows of the privileged group gain many assistances by their association with the leading side of the power system. Being privileged has the greater advantage in establishing a social relationship and also receive difference and special knowledge and a higher level of comfort through a high level of social interaction. Privilege and oppression are interconnected with each other. Privileged hold a range of noticeable characteristics, comprising race and ethnicity, gender identity, sex, affectional and sexual orientation, aptitude, socioeconomic status, social class, and religious/spiritual identity. Every kind of privilege people get is through access to social power. Social power is preserved by social opinions and put into practice and is entrenched in our society and target group members often believe the message and adopt the oppression. Privilege is a communally created chances and is systematized to consign privilege on the base of a socially defined set of racial groups that change generally and often overlap.

As Nepal is a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious diverse society, the large number of ethnic people has to assimilate themselves with the dominant groups. To fit in the hill dominant Brahmin society a large number of ethnic people has to understand the dominant Nepali language and fit within the culture and religion followed by a dominant caste of people. Being from the dominant class hill Brahmin I get to know how my privilege has over and over again has guide social, cultural and political associations for marginalized groups. Also working in the poor ethnic community I get to know how privilege is formed for precise group or individuals, which consequently turn into a socio-political strength that has affected the relations, facilities, and advocacy with other members of the society. Within the dominant group, a male has more privilege than women and have access to a vast amount of resource in society. Nepal being the patriarchal society, women do not have influential power and often regarded as the second class citizen. This is created by dominant class male people who have access to power and often formulate law without considering the diversity of the Nepalese society. Working in the community I get to know from the people of the minority that I am the dominant class and has the privilege of getting every kind of job I wish to get which was not the scenario in the current context. As it was easier for me, due to language and my education background, it was still difficult for a large number of educated people from the minorities group to get the job due to the language barrier.

Accepting privilege is vital in direction to figure out an academic discourse capable of truthfully overcoming inequality. The problem lies in how problematic it is for the privileged to realise their privilege, for privilege exists exactly because it is indistinguishable to those who benefit from it. Privileges work without a sound for the advantage of those who fit into the thin ideals of a left out society and to the difficulty of those who do not. The social order is categorized by enormous disparity, through such social classifications as a class, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, culture, language, and damage within them as well. Sometimes being within the privileged class I experience the oppression within the society. Most of the time being from the privileged class I was not able to address the issues and problem faced by the minority group through advocacy and I was the owner who invaded the society from outside and starts dominating other ethnic backgrounds through my experience gained through education and mentality stored in my mind during my upbringing. Though being the dominant class of my society a large number of people within the dominant class are oppressed being the economically poor, being women and also based on their sexuality and skin colour.

Privilege is best understood in part as the restraint of what should be general human rights to an exclusive selected that all the while publicly denies its status as elite. Growing up as hill, middle class, Brahmin with access to ample resources did not understand the concept of privileged until I get to work as a social worker in the rural part of Nepal. Privileges are best understood as human rights that are deprived of the majority of humankind in exercise, even if they are assured in principle. In the context of Nepal the source of the problem, of course, is important disparity innate in our society, one supported up and reinforced by a very highly patriarchal social system: the caste system. Breaking down these structures, arrangements which maintain privilege and thus disparity, avoiding a majority of Nepalese from understanding their ability, from living their lives to the fullest, and instead convicting them and their successors to a life of sorrow and bondage, would go a long way towards providing social justice, sharply lacking in our country and holding the country back from making social, political, and economic progress. The concept of privilege fails to meet the borderline condition. The phenomenon its efforts to capture is not so much about a boundary between a social norm and those who are placed above it, but rather more frequently a boundary between a social norm and those who are kept beneath it.

Critical reflection on Social work involves the capability to dig up, inspect and adjustment very intensely held of essential norms. Critical reflection has been adjusted in many different ways to suit certain commitments and settings of practice teaching and learning. It might be adapted using different tools in place of the critical incident to avoid problems of confidentiality. Critical thinking for social work challenges morals, traditions, and principles underlying information concepts, rehearsal and exploration that has existed in the society for a long period. A critically philosophical approach, depend on information which is created both empirically and personally reflective, and in a process of communication, to examine, fight and adjustment built power affairs, arrangements and ways of thinking.

In critical reflection, it will apply to many significant features of living, which may spread outside the topography of specialised practice. Fundamental and generalizable critical reflection should purpose to advance the way we live and communicate as human beings, and in the development also progress our skilled training. While working in a rural region of Nepal I get to contact with the disadvantaged group of people who are systematically oppressed in one or other way. The capability to imitate upon practice in an ongoing and methodical way is now observed as essential to responsible specialised practice. Though I have been privileged and have a certain amount of social identity, I try to understand my own privileged and understand how the privileged has helped me to live in the society the way I do. While working, I was a privileged class, the way I work or got the work was not intentional but was through the systematic act that has been instituted in the Nepali society for the generation. After working in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), as a social worker was able to understand how oppressed the people of a minority group were. Also working for a few years I was able to understand the social structure of Nepali society and how it has been working for the generation. Through understanding, I was able to demonstrate the values and norms by respecting the minority communities.

While understanding and writing this essay, it has given me a deeper sense of understanding of the people, including me and also understands the privileged and oppression faced by the people during my working career in Nepal. With research and working in poor communities, I was able to understand the people and the social setting that has been established for a long period. One of the main reason being privileged class was able to understand as a position or disorder that the recipients of repression reside in or own, irrespective of their activities or purposes. Critical reflection as a process which permits me the chance to replicate how I conduct myself as a social worker and how my privilege effects the way I interact with the people. While working in the unit I was confused and was not able to understand at the beginning but after through critical reflection, it has shown me the different kinds of the privilege of oppression that has existed within the society and the relationship that has existed with the social work professions.

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