Paternalism, Social Work Education, Toxic Masculinity 6 Articles I’ve Been Reading This Week

From Trina S. Tan: Do’s & Don’ts for White Mentors and Mentees of Color

” White savior. Good white person. Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side.

There are several names for this concept– the white mentor who chooses mentees of color. One name for it is the collector. A collector is a white mentor who intentionally and strategically chooses mentees of color, because they see the career benefits of visibly loving “diversity.” As a result, they utilize people of color as a stepping stone for their own career. Hence, they collect mentees of color. 

I have both incredible white mentors and friends who are great white mentors for mentees of color. Folks who know when to step back and realize the role they play more often than not. They serve different purposes for my personal and professional development. Unfortunately, there are also white mentors who remain suspect and hence the term collector.”

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From Ellen Oh: Dear White Writers

“I’m going to keep saying this over and over again. Diversity is not a new hot trend for you all to jump on and write about because you think it will help you get published. That’s not what this is about. White writers can write about whatever they want, they have that luxury.

Whether or not they do it well is of course subject to debate. White writers don’t have to worry about writing main characters that are white and being told “Oh we have a white story already so we have to pass.” There is no arbitrary quota of stories for you all.

We get 1 maybe 2 books allocated to Asian stories – so when it is taken by a white author writing about Asian stories – guess what happens to the Asian writer trying to write their own stories.”

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From The New York Times: The Faces of American Power, Nearly as White as the Nominees

“We reviewed 503 of the most powerful people in American culture, government, education and business, and found that just 44 are minorities.”

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From Inside Higher Ed: The 21st Century’s J.D.

“Social work education is the future of all academic teaching, even if most academicians don’t know it yet. It mixes training in social theory with mandatory hours of work in the field, putting those theories decidedly into practice — something that most students clamor for. It places one-on-one or clinical work with individuals and families in the context of larger systematic concerns.”

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From Bustle: 6 Harmful Effects of Toxic Masculinity

“As it stands, though, the cultural construct of masculinity — particularly when it turns toxic — has many problematic and truly damaging consequences. Here are a few of its most harmful effects.”

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From the Root: Women: Stop Listening to Sexist Relationship “Experts”

“If they’re men who hold shoddy views about sex and women, it follows that their advice to women will also be shoddy.”

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones, MSW, LLMSW

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