Module 1| Cultural Competence, Cultural Humility, and Anti-Oppression Work
This concept refers to developing awareness, knowledge, and skills to work effectively with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds.
What is cultural competence?
This term refers to the systematic disadvantage and mistreatment of a group based on a shared social identity.
What is oppression?
This concept explains how a person’s multiple social identities such as race, gender, class, and disability combine to shape their lived experiences.
What is intersectionality?
This type of bias operates unconsciously and can influence attitudes and decisions without a person being aware of it.
What is implicit bias?
This concept argues that capitalism has always relied on racial exploitation and inequality to generate profit and maintain power.
What is racial capitalism?
This concept emphasizes ongoing self-reflection and recognizing power differences between social workers and clients, rather than assuming one can fully “master” another culture.
What is cultural humility?
This concept refers to the ability of individuals or groups to control resources, influence decision-making, and shape social norms in ways that benefit some groups over others.
What is power?
(Or any remotely close word or concept)
This term refers to discrimination and systemic disadvantage directed at people with disabilities.
What is ableism?
These are subtle, often unintentional comments or behaviors that communicate negative or stereotypical messages toward marginalized groups.
What are microaggressions?
This system is characterized by private ownership of production, wage labor, and profit generation, within which racial hierarchies have historically developed.
What is capitalism?
A social worker who recognizes that agency policies disproportionately harm undocumented families and actively works to change those policies is engaging in this form of practice.
What is anti-oppressive practice?
This concept refers to unearned advantages that individuals receive because they belong to a dominant social group, often operating invisibly to those who benefit from it.
What is privilege?
This model of disability argues that disability is not caused primarily by a person’s impairment, but by societal barriers such as inaccessible environments, discriminatory attitudes, and exclusionary policies.
What is the social model of disability?
Telling a Black colleague, “You’re so articulate,” in a tone that implies surprise reflects this type of microaggression that communicates a hidden stereotype.
What is a microinsult?
The transatlantic slave trade and plantation economies are often cited as early examples of this economic system relying on racialized exploitation for profit.
What is racial capitalism in practice?
(Acceptable: capitalism rooted in slavery)
This theoretical framework explains how systems of oppression overlap and compound experiences of marginalization. It was introduced by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw.
What is intersectionality?
When policies appear neutral but consistently produce unequal outcomes for marginalized groups, this reflects this form of oppression that operates through institutions rather than individual prejudice.
What is institutional oppression?
(Acceptable: systemic oppression)
This framework expands beyond disability rights by centering those most marginalized within disability communities and emphasizing collective liberation rather than individual access alone.
What is disability justice?
This concept explains how repeated microaggressions over time create psychological, emotional, and even physical stress for marginalized individuals.
What is cumulative harm?
(Acceptable: cumulative impact)
This process describes how certain racial groups are positioned as disposable, exploited, or economically marginalized in order to sustain profit and wealth accumulation for dominant groups.
What is racialized economic exploitation?
(Acceptable: racialized labor exploitation)
This concept requires social workers to critically examine how their own social identities, professional authority, and institutional roles may unintentionally reinforce oppression, even when their intentions are positive.
What is critical self-reflection?
(Acceptable alternative: reflexivity)
This concept explains how dominant groups maintain control not only through force or policy, but by shaping cultural beliefs so inequality appears normal, natural, or justified.
What is hegemony?
This concept within disability justice challenges the idea of independence as the ultimate goal, instead emphasizing mutual reliance and community-based support as forms of resistance to ableist norms.
What is interdependence?
This psychological mechanism helps explain how implicit biases form by creating mental shortcuts that categorize people and reinforce stereotypes over time.
What are cognitive schemas?
This scholar coined and developed the concept of racial capitalism, arguing that capitalism did not create racism, but emerged within already racialized social systems.
Who is Cedric J. Robinson?