#radicalsocialwork

Dear RSWG members- our light-givers, ruckus-starters, thrivers, healers, protestors, organizers and community builders who have helped to generate the community that is RSWG-

We are in the middle of a transformation- an ending and beginning.

As a steering committee, that has worked together for almost two years, we have come to the conclusion that RSWG in it's current iteration needs to end. We are proud of what we've done together and all that RSWG has nourished over the past 11 years. 2017-2019, we got out to protest against violent policies, started new working groups, brought back potlucks which were on hiatus, started doing seasonal newsletters, expanded our connections to folks through a new Instagram page, and updated our blog. We launched and maintained a fellowship for two students for a whole academic year. 

We're proud of how we've showed up and showed out. And, we've had deep political and personal questions about RSWG's relevancy, political direction, and current leadership capacity.

We embarked on a strategic planning initiative over the year and realized that it was time to compost. Many of the reasons RSWG began in 2008, including the lack of radical spaces for social workers to find each other, are fulfilled today with more options.

Long story short, this is a love letter, a call and response, a mourning and a celebration. It is a beckoning forward of new seeds.

The RSWG Steering Committee is committed to support the closing of RSWG this winter and we want your support. We want to close this chapter as powerfully, boldly, and creatively as it was started. 

On Sunday, January 26, we will have a gathering 12-2:30pm for all those that want to celebrate the 11 year legacy of RSWG and want to help us think through how we close. We want to gather all the lessons and collective wisdom generated along the way. We want to learn from where we got stuck, stumbled, and where we won to pass on to future generations/configurations.

We will post an RSVP/flyer early in January on this listserv for the gathering. As we do, it will be a potluck, so let us know what you can contribute.

Thank you for your radical visions of resistance, recovery, and reimagining that you have carried out where you work and in your everyday lives.

If you want to support with this transition and have specific skills that you think would be helpful, please let us know. Send us light and love.

With much respect, fire, love, and hope,

My family has paid xx,xxx for me to learn about the poor. I learn about Blackness within an institution of Whiteness. We acknowledge Native people on land that was stolen.  It literally took me coming to one of the most  Elite Elitist Universities in the world To really understand Power, Racism, Oppression and Privilege. 

All my life I’ve been like a garbage collector. Collecting up the garbage that’s been put out: A woman who is liberated is a slut.  A Black man is a thug.  A trans woman is a man in a dress.  Jesus was White.  Terrorists are Brown.  Beauty is blue-eyed and blonde haired.  Beauty is thin. Capitalism is good.  Mental illness is bad.  People with disabilities are less than.  A human can be an alien. A human can be illegal. Guns don’t kill people. (People do!)  The United States is the *best* country in the world.  We are a shining beacon of freedom and democracy.  One nation, under God.  Indivisible. In liberty and justice for all.  (Like I said, garbage.) 

I feel sick from the accumulation of this garbage in my system.  I want to purge myself of the toxicity but it’s seeped into my bones. I want to hear the voices of the silenced, but the messages of the White Patriarchy keep playing on repeat in my head.  Starting on this journey has truly been like learning to walk again.  A shaky step forward. A stumble, a few steps backwards. And on it goes. Reflect, rinse, repeat. 

The juxtaposition of it all tears me up inside. Some days there is sunshine and hope and other days, Storm clouds of despair. 

Between wanting to jump at the call to action To being paralyzed with hot rage. 

There are days I feel woke as hell, then days I feel like I know nothing. 

There are days I feel like we as a country  are rising up, And then there are days I feel like it’s  all burning down. 

Shit, Indivisible my ass.  This country is so deeply divided  I want to tear my hair out with enigma of it. 

I hate this country. I hate everything it stands for.  But I also love this country. I love everything it stands for. This country gave me the life I have today.  What it gave to us, it took from others. 

My parents profited while lightly stepping around the dead bodies of -- Black men. Murdered trans people. Gunned down school children. Drowned migrants on the border. The sick and uninsured. Native women killed by suicide.  Wives killed by their husbands. (Insert additional example) (Insert additional example) (Insert additional example) (And so on, and so forth)

...And I reaped the benefits. 

It took me paying a lot of money To learn about The true cost of my privilege.

Sunday, March 31st from 3-5 pm RSWG will be hosting a potluck. Please email us for information at [email protected].

You are more than welcome to come and meet other individuals who are fueled and passionate about similar things. Also, please feel free to extend out the invitation to anyone you feel may be interested in joining the Radical Social Work Group.

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What folks are saying about our potlucks: 

"The potluck was a great way to build connections with other like-minded individuals that have a strong sense of justice. Everyone was really supportive of one another and helped to make the space more inclusive. I highly recommend the potluck for people who are looking for a community that is woke and making changes for social justice" - Tony. T "It was refreshing and replenishing experience and a great opportunity to connect with others who are doing transformative social work" - Michaela. B "To me, potlucks offer a safe place where I feel validated and a community I belong to. I am also grateful to have access to amazing and smart practitioners that are willing to share their knowledge and resources" - Lina. B

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I don’t anticipate that this blog will take off but in case it does, it’s always important to have a proper “greeting” entry.  A little bit about me without getting too much into detail: I am a final year social student (like many), I am also a sex-worker, a neurotic asshole, and a want-to-be revolutionary. At the present moment, I am happily sipping on my vodka lemonade and planning to Netflix binge for the night.

I have been asked the: “so what do you want to do when you graduate?” question a number of times and each time, I tweak my response each time.  I am a scholarship recipient and due to the nature of the scholarship, my focus has been shifted into the field of aging.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful, incredible, field producing many opportunities for social work students (a very small percentage of social work students choose to work with the elderly).  However, there remains so much more work to be done.  I am a pragmatist and an idealist, in some ways.  I wish to work with others interested in transforming the field of social work away from one that teaches individuals to adapt to a very unequal playing field but instead works to change the field so that many individuals can thrive in a way they never have before....

The caveat I should add is that I am a very unlikely leader but I still plan to be one.  I have a mother who battles schizophrenia and a father with a very persistent form of alcoholism. I, myself, am pretty sure at this point that I have some form of anxiety disorder which seriously impacts my attempts at public speaking/organizing social events but overall where I’ve come from and what I struggle with has made me a more empathetic and better organized person so I really can’t curse the Gods for cards I’ve been dealt.