Social Workers Org Urges Members to Pledge Allegiance to Radical Identity Politics

Medical social workers are important figures in the healthcare landscape, connecting patients with valuable medical resources, coordinating care, addressing financial barriers and helping them better manage their medical conditions. 

Yet the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), which numbers over 120,000 members, seems to have another objective for social workers in mind: radical identity politics.

The NASW provides resources for healthcare social workers, establishing standards for clinical social work and offering information on federal regulations. But over the past few years, the NASW has become increasingly focused on promoting radical and divisive concepts around race, gender, and sexuality among its members.

For instance, NASW has repeatedly called on its members to promote “anti-racism” and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives, even codifying this commitment in its ethics code.

“The NASW Code of Ethics calls on all members of the social work profession to practice through an anti-racist and anti-oppressive lens,” the organization said in a 2023 statement on its DEI agenda. “This includes supporting activities, such as DEI programs, that promote sensitivity to and knowledge about exclusion and the disproportionality of discrimination when intersecting with diverse identities.”

In practice, DEI programs and “anti-racism” invariably involve treating racial groups differently in order to achieve desired ideological outcomes. As anti-racism’s best-known advocate Ibram X. Kendi puts it, anti-racism involves explicit racial discrimination like affirmative action to right past historical wrongs. The NASW is essentially embedding racism into its ethical code.

It’s not hard to imagine the deleterious effects of such an outlook. Encouraging thousands of medical professionals to view the world through the lens of a regressive ideology is a recipe for prioritizing race in healthcare decisions.

We need only look at the federal government to see an example of this ideology’s real-world consequences. Just the other month, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a new rule aimed at improving “racial equity” in kidney transplants that preferences patients based on their income, a de facto proxy for race.

The NASW provides a few examples on how it envisions its ideology being applied in the healthcare field.

For instance, in a 2022 “anti-racism” statement, the NASW assumes the premise that white social workers are inherently privileged and there is an “empathy gap” between them and their minority clients. The organization then calls to address this so-called gap, though it’s not exactly clear how, or what evidence the NASW has for the existence of said gap.

Instead, there is a wealth of research demonstrating that being treated by a physician of the same race has no impact on one’s health outcome.

Additionally, the NASW is committed to ensuring “individuals in decision-making positions and key stakeholders across the association represent the diversity of Black, Latin A/O/X, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander, and other People of Color and demonstrate best practices in diversity, equity and inclusion,” according to the organization’s anti-racism statement.

The NASW’s ethics code also urges its members to engage in activism to further these ideals.

“[S]ocial workers demonstrate knowledge that guides practice … in the provision of culturally informed services that empower marginalized individuals and groups,” the group’s ethics code states. “Social workers must take action against oppression, racism, discrimination, and inequities, and acknowledge personal privilege.”

But beyond that, the NASW recommends its members get further inculcated into the woke worldview.

State NASW chapters urge members to read books on anti-racism and texts advocating radical identity politics.

Delaware’s chapter, for example, recommends Kendi’s book on anti-racism, where he advocates for racial discrimination, as well as Robin DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility.” In her book, DiAngelo argues for viewing society through a racialized lens, and advances the view that white people are generally racist.

It’s disturbing that an organization representing thousands of healthcare professionals would advocate for such ideas and urge its members to follow suit.

These concepts are more than just trivial distractions from the NASW’s mission; they are dangerous, and lead to direct discrimination in healthcare.

The NASW should focus instead on helping social workers do their jobs to ensure the best possible health outcomes for society, and spend less time promoting discriminatory ideologies.