Social workers are constantly faced with a wide range of social work issues and are responsible for helping their clients navigate challenging life situations. As such, social workers, more so than many other professionals, have the opportunity to effect change in the individuals, communities and institutions they work with. This is particularly important when it comes to issues of racism and white supremacy in our country. Explore our guide to practicing anti-racism and promoting social justice and racial equity through social work. 

Anti-racism is a process of actively identifying and combating racism. Anti-racism requires ongoing action. The goal is to become aware of racism in all its forms and actively change the beliefs, behaviors and policies that perpetuate racist ideas and actions in individuals, institutions and systems in order to create an equal society. 

Ibram X. Kendi, race theory scholar and author of “How to Be An Antiracist”, offers this anti-racism definition: “I define an antiracist as someone who is expressing an antiracist idea or supporting an antiracist policy with their actions. And I define an antiracist idea as any idea that says the racial groups are equal.”

Institutional racism isn’t just interpersonal bias, it shows up in policies, practices, and resource decisions that shape who gets protected, believed, supported, and offered opportunity. Social work education and practice have been moving more explicitly toward confronting these dynamics: the CSWE 2022 EPAS (highlighted in February 2025) emphasizes a profession-wide commitment to engaging anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) as a core competency for social work practice.

These inequities also show up in major systems where social workers practice. In child welfare, the federal AFCARS dashboard reports foster care entries, exits, and other outcomes and includes breakdowns by race/ethnicity, helping make disparities more visible and trackable at national and state levels. In health care, recent syntheses from Kaiser Family Foundation continue to document how structural racism and discrimination contribute to persistent disparities in access, treatment, and outcomes for communities of color. And in the criminal legal system, current reporting from the Prison Policy Initiative continues to show how policy choices and enforcement patterns sustain mass incarceration and disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities. Relatedly, a January 2026 federal analysis on the school-to-prison pipeline highlights how exclusionary discipline and differential treatment can undermine educational equity and increase justice-system contact for Black boys. 

Most people can identify examples of individual racism. Whether it’s someone using a racial slur, racial harassment or threats, discriminatory treatment in everyday interactions, or racist content circulated online, instances of individual racism tend to be more overt and easier to identify, according to the CDC.

Institutional racism, on the other hand, may not be as obvious. Institutional racism, which is often discussed as part of structural racism, refers to the ways that policies and practices within institutions, and the structure of major systems (such as education, health care, housing, and law enforcement), can systematically advantage the group in power and create barriers for racially and ethnically minoritized groups.

“A common example is redlining, which is an illegal discriminatory practice in which lenders discourage applications or deny equal access to home loans and other credit services in certain neighborhoods because of the race, color, or national origin of the people who live there, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Racial disparities are also evident in the criminal legal system, where Black, Latino, and Indigenous people are disproportionately represented in jails and prisons compared with white people, according to 2025 data from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Social work is a profession committed to helping and advocating for oppressed and disadvantaged people, and to fighting injustice in society. According to NASW, “Social workers have an ethical duty to dismantle racism, both personally and professionally, and to demonstrate what it means to be antiracist.” 

Social work ethics and values are spelled out in the NASW Code of Ethics. Using that as a guidepost, social workers can begin or continue their social justice social work with these actions:

Social workers work to create change using three interrelated scales or scopes of practice: micro, mezzo and macro social work. Anti-racism practices can be integrated into daily practices by following this framework. 

Family therapy and individual counseling fall under the micro social work category. Social workers have the opportunity to confront their own internalized racial bias toward others in these settings by self-reflecting on racial incidents they have experienced, considering their personal history, power, and position, and by identifying opportunities for change. 

Mezzo social work involves working with neighborhoods, institutions or other smaller groups, such as the staff of schools, hospitals, community centers and prisons. Anti-racism work in these settings might involve identifying unjust norms and working to address them as a group. This may look like calling out racism when you see it at home or at work in a productive, non-judgmental manner or joining an anti-racism book club.

Macro social work focuses on the big picture and on preventing societal problems. It encompasses practices like social work research, community-based education and social justice initiatives, policy analysis and advocacy, and nonprofit administration and leadership. Macro-level social work involves using influence and privilege to dismantle racist practices and policies, such as by calling representatives to support and promote racial equity and the advancement of marginalized people in your community, city or state. Other opportunities might include participating in elections, petitions and protests promoting racial and social justice.

There is a wide range of anti-racism resources available to social workers, students and anyone committed to being anti-racist. This list is not exhaustive, but it’s a starting point for social workers interested in anti-racism work.  

There are several insightful anti-racism articles for social workers and the stakeholders they collaborate with. Here are a few: 

Anti-racism podcasts are a convenient way to stay up to date on all things social justice and social work. Here are some recommendations:

Looking for more than just podcasts? The inSocialWork episode, White Social Workers’ Path to Showing Up for People of Color (2025), includes reflection prompts and practice-oriented takeaways that can also be used for classroom or team discussions.

Here are a few books that can help social workers learn more about racial equity:

Information last updated: February 2026.