Social work with Third-World people

Armando Morales, DSW, is Professor, Chief Clinical Social Worker, and Di rector, Spanish Speaking Psychosocial Clinic, Neuropsychiatrie Institute, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. The most recent issue of the Encythese subgroups share a common clopedia of Social Work lists the follanguage—Spanish. However, they are lowing groups under the term not homogeneous and they have dif "minorities": American Indians, Asian ferent needs. Asian Americans consist Americans, Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto of the following subgroups: Chinese, Ricans, and white ethnics.1 The term Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Sa "white ethnics" is frequently used to moans, Guamanians, and Indo refer to the descendants of eastern and Chinese. In addition to language dif southern European immigrants such as ferences, each of these subgroups has a Jewish, Greek, Hungarian, Lithuanian, distinct culture. The American Indian Italian, Irish, and Scandinavian and Alaska Native population is most Americans who came to the United diverse, consisting of 481 identified tri States between 1880 and 1920. They bal groups. Half of all Indians belong to number approximately fifty million nine tribes; the largest tribal group is persons and are sometimes called the Navajo, with a population of "middle Americans."2 They generally 140,000. do not share the same socioeconomic Street has maintained that the in characteristics often found in other creasing racial, ethnic, and political minority groups. For example, white consciousness of these groups binds ethnics have been successfully accultuthem together under the term "Third rated into American life, they earn World" and enhances their apprecia more money than Anglo-American tion of themselves and their relation Protestants, and their educational moship with each other.6 This emerging bility is greater than that of other consciousness has led Third-World Americans.3 groups to coin such catchwords as Because white ethnics are less likely "black power," "brown power," than other minorities to be welfare re"yellow power," and "red power," all cipients and, therefore, social work of which reflect their ideologies, pro clients, this article focuses on the regrams, and strategies to achieve power, maining minority groups—Blacks, HisTheir ideologies and strategies, how panics, Asian Americans, and Ameriever, differ from and threaten those of can Indians, who are frequently rewhite society. ferred to as Third-World people.4 Prager has described an ideology of In 1975, the Third-World populawhiteness that enables whites to pro tion of the United States consisted tect white privilege.7 He has found sev of 24,000,000 Blacks, approximately eral components that constitute the 11,200,000 Hispanics, 2,000,000 Asian white ideology, one of which is the re Americans, and 1,000,000 American jection of ethnic or racial conscious Indians.5 These groups constitute 17 ness expressed through such terms as percent of the total U.S. population. "Third World," "Chicano," and "Na The internal segmentation of these tive American." Such ethnic con groups reflects their diversity. For sciousness is viewed as a challenge to example, the black population comwhat whites perceive as an ideal nonra prises at least three subgroups: those cial, integrated society. Within this who are born in the United States, ideological context, separatism, lan those who are born in and emigrate guage differences, and cultural en from the West Indies, and those who hancement are thought to be improper are born in and emigrate from Africa, responses for building a society for all. The Hispanic population consists of Thus, the ideology of whiteness 6,690,000 persons of Mexican descent, provides a framework for evading and 1,600,000 Puerto Ricans, 743,000 Cudenying Third-World realities. Ac bans, 671,000 Central Americans, and cording to Street, this ideology partly 1,428,000 persons termed by the census reflects the social science theories on as "other Spanish." All these Hispanic race relations, which affect the plan subgroups include persons who are ning and implementation of human ser born in or immigrate to the United vice programs. Often, these theories States. With the exception of the constitute barriers to the delivery of Brazilians who speak Portuguese, services to Third-World people.8