Race(ing) Social Work in Australia: Three Critical Recognitions for Dismantling Racism Virginia Mapedzahama, Bindi Bennett, and Michelle Parker Contents Cultural Protocols ................................................................................. 2 Introduction ....................................................................................... 2 The Australian Context ........................................................................... 4 Australia’s Problem with “Race” ............................................................. 4 Australia’s Love Affair with Whiteness ...................................................... 5 Race, Racism, and Whiteness in Australian Social Work ....................................... 5 Conceptual Understandings: Racism as Violence ............................................... 6 Racism in Social Work: Three Critical Recognitions ............................................ 8 Racism as Systemic Violence that Forms the “Structural Foundation” of Social Work Practice ........................................................................................ 9 Racism as the Ideological Violence of an Invisible White, Western Worldview and White Racial Framework that Continues to Inform Social Work Practice .......................... 10 Racism as Structural violence Embedded in “Normal” Yet Racist Structures, Policies, and Practices that Still Exist at the Core of Social Work Practice and Benefit of Racially Privileged (White) People ..................................................................... 11 Discussion: Race/ing Social Work ............................................................... 11 Recommendations for Change: Reflexive Anti-Racism ..................................... 13 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 15 References ........................................................................................ 16 Abstract This chapter takes as its starting point the paradoxical nature of Australian social work practice wherein the discourse of anti-racist (and anti-oppressive) practice V. Mapedzahama (*) African Women Australia Inc. (AWAU), Sydney, NSW, Australia B. Bennett Federation University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: bindi.bennett@acu.edu.au M. Parker Reflexive Conversations, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: michelle@reflexiveconversations.com © Crown 2024 J. Ravulo et al. (eds.), Handbook of Critical Whiteness, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1612-0_45-1 1