DuBois, Brenda, and Karla Krogsrud Miley. Social Work: An
Empowering Profession. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2011. Print.
This book although it’s about the profession of Social
Workers it brings up many facts about many minorities, especially the Latino
community. It also provides great statistics and useful information about the
trends of Latinos within the United States and it also brings light about what
issues they may face. Although my paper is related to school and Latinos this
book really helps me understand the Latino community better.
The author Karla Miley is a professor in Black Hawk College
in Illinois and she teaches Psychology, Sociology and Social Work. Brenda
DuBois has a master’s degree in Social Work and she is also a Professor at St.
Ambrose University in Iowa teaching Social Work classes.
A term that is defined in this book is race. Race is defined
as “…a classification that emphasizes biological or physiological differences”(DuBois
& Miley, 153). It also defines minority as “those groups, including women,
older adults, people with disabilities, and gays and lesbians that have less access
to power than the dominant groups” (DuBois & Miley, 154).
The three quotes that I think would be very helpful to me
are “The particular culture of minorities defines family support systems,
confers self-identity and self-esteem and imparts an ethnic philosophy and
outlook on life. All of these factors are potential resources in times of
crisis and stress”(DuBois & Miley, 154). This really helps my topic because
it discusses the things that make up a culture and the factors that go into defining
what a culture or minority is. “Hispanics are the fastest going minority group
in the United States” (DuBois & Miley, 165). This is good to know because
this minority group will be a majority in number soon but we still won’t get
the same opportunities as the upper class and those that run the government. Last
quote, “Demographic data indicate that Hispanic American are less educated,
have higher rates of poverty, and are more likely to live in inner city
neighborhoods” (DuBois & Miley, 165). This is a great piece of information because
it proves that Spanish people are not as well off economically as other people
as well as educationally and my paper will try to explain the reasons for these
statistics.
This is a surprising source, since the title seems so unrelated to your topic. It is also a textbook. You should look for some other sources for specific current statistics.
ReplyDeleteJust as an aside: I am intrigued by the pitching of social work as "an empowering profession," since most social workers I know feel very disempowered. I am reminded that one of the programs featured by Michael Crawford during his interview in "College, Inc." is a program in social work directed toward the typical recipients of social services -- including recovering addicts. For them, it might actually feel like an empowering profession -- but it can also be something of a trap since the pay for social workers is relatively low and many social work jobs are threatened by government cutbacks and the increasing privatization of social services. Meanwhile, when students go to a for-profit school they typically pay high rates of tuition supported by loans -- so if they end up in a profession with shaky job prospects and relatively low pay they will feel nothing like empowered.