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This issue of the JBFCS Report is dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King

It’s been 43 years since Dr. Martin Luther King shared this earth with us. In so many ways, times have changed—and in so many ways, they have not. Paul Levine, CEO and Executive V.P. for JBFCS, reflects on Dr. King’s impact on JBFCS and racism. “Dr. King was a giant in the years when JBFCS was becoming the multiservice agency it is today. It was physically dangerous to be part of the effort to combat racism in the South in the 1960s. Fast forward 40 some odd years, and you won’t likely encounter physical fear when talking about racism, where it exists, and how to confront it, but you will still encounter resistance in dealing with racism. Most people do not want to discriminate against others based on race, and yet racism is so ingrained in our society that discrimination happens even if conscious intent is not present.

“In 2004, under my predecessor, Dr. Alan Siskind, JBFCS launched a major initiative I named Confronting Organizational Racism (COR). We were probably the first of any large social service agency in New York to look internally and recognize the impact that racism was having on both our staff and our clients. Our work had actually begun in the mid-1990s. We needed to look at issues of treatment and then identify institutional bias and workplace inequity. Our clinical focus on psychological trauma had also placed racism among factors causing trauma. We have learned to apply a race lens to many aspects of our work, and we have established Affinity Groups to identify issues as they arise. When racism is so ingrained, people get slighted or pushed aside; people don’t get the same amount of respect because of prejudices that may never even be spoken aloud; people don’t get the same career opportunities because of preconceived notions that those in power may not recognize in themselves. COR fights that. COR encourages us to talk together and freely. We have Dr. King to thank, and I believe he would have felt positive about these efforts.”


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JBFCS' Anti-Racism Work

Jonathan McLean runs the Brooklyn People of Color Affinity Group. Regional groups were created because people found it easier to attend meetings where they worked or lived, rather than at one main office that they had to travel to. Jonathan facilitates meetings, making it easy and comfortable for people to talk and to raise issues that they feel aren't being adequately addressed. He also brings these ideas back to JBFCS executive management so they can be addressed in context with reports from other Affinity Groups and from the main office. One of the main problems discussed is a person of color's difficulty in navigating the work world, the feeling that you have to divest yourself of your individuality, your cultural background, in order to advance and succeed. Questions asked and discussed include: "How do you deal with being the ONLY...?" "How do you deal with insensitivities from coworkers?" The Brooklyn group is currently developing a support group for staff struggling with the social worker's licensing exam because of language issues. They're also working with the residential programs to strengthen the relationship between the milieu staff that is predominantly people of color and the social work staff that is predominantly white.

Deborah Zicht co-chairs (with Jordan Margolis) the Brooklyn White Anti-Racist Caucus Group. Its goal is to work with white colleagues to address racism and white privilege within the agency in terms of staff and client relations. She notes that many white staff don't recognize that white privilege applies to them. Some of this results from, say, someone belonging to another cultural group that also experiences discrimination and feels oppressed. They then feel that excuses him or her from being a beneficiary of white privilege. The challenge that Deborah feels is getting people to own both—the fact of their white privilege as well as their own oppression—and acknowledge that one doesn't outweigh the other nor does addressing one diminish the significance of the other. As the Director of the Thomas Askin Youth Programs (TAYP) Adolescent Services, Deborah feels it's vitally important to push certain agendas with her staff and other staff within the agency and talk about how race affects their work and their attitudes. To not address it in her position would be unprofessional. She considers this a work in progress, something that needs attention on an ongoing basis.