Working with Marginalized Communities

As a secondary distributor, it’s important that you be able to work with people who hold identities – including racial, ethnic, gender, and sexuality – that are different than your own. Talking about drug use already feels vulnerable for a lot of people, and it can be even more intimidating for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) people who use drugs, because they hold multiple stigmatized and marginalized identities, and are criminalized for their drug use at higher rates than their white and straight counterparts.

Here are some tips for being respectful when connecting with people who hold marginalized identities.

1. Acknowledge that structural racism, homophobia, and transphobia exist -and so does white privilege.

• “Structural racism” means that the policies that uphold the major structures and systems of our society – like systems of labor, housing, justice, education, and healthcare – give advantages to white people over BIPOC. It means racial discrimination exists in housing, healthcare, the criminal justice system, the education system, and so on. Similarly, acknowledging homophobia and transphobia means recognizing that queer and trans people experience discrimination from these systems, too.

• Recognizing that white privilege exists does not mean that white people haven’t experienced hardships in their life, or that white people can’t be part of marginalized groups like the poor and working-class, the queer community, or people who have experienced incarceration – it means recognizing that white people have some unearned advantages, particularly when dealing with these major systems and structures.

2. Don’t try to be “culturally competent” –be culturally humble instead.

• Cultural competence is a term lots of people use to express that they know how to work with people from different cultural backgrounds than their own, but it implies that it’s possible to know everything about a culture or identity that you’re not part of, which just isn’t possible. Thinking you’re “culturally competent” implies that you think you can’t mess up and say something hurtful to people who are different than you. Instead, cultural humility encourages people to acknowledge when a culture is not their own and to admit when you mess up or come from a place of stereotyping or bias. Being culturally humble means you’re open to learning from and about people who are different than you.

3.

Don’t ignore or dismiss differences –acknowledge them.

• The criminalization of drugs impacts all people who use drugs -- but its impact on BIPOC and queer communities is disproportionately high. Black people make up 26% of drug-related arrests, but only represent 13% of the U.S. population, despite the fact that people of all races use and sell drugs at similar rates. Over 37% of queer and trans people self-report using drugs, as compared to 17% of straight and cis people. In 2019, overdose rates per capita were higher amount Indigenous (Native American) communities than for any other racial or ethnic group. BIPOC with opioid use disorder are less likely to be prescribed Suboxone than white people with opioid use disorder. These differences are important, and saying things like “We’re all human” or “I don’t see color” minimizes marginalized communities’ experiences of structural racism, homophobia and transphobia, and discrimination.

4. Don’t force interactions.

• Remember that people who hold marginalized identities are disporportionately vulnerable to some of the harms related to substance use: particularly, criminalization. For people who harm reduction is new and unfamiliar to – and people that you are new and unfamiliar to – it may not feel safe to take syringes, injection equipment, or other safer use equipment. That’s okay. Offer people information about NEXT Distro and harm reduction in general, and tell them that they can do their own research, or even reach out to NEXT for themselves if they want. Tell them that if they change their minds, they can always come to you for supplies. Trust takes time to develop, and that’s okay.

Resources

• https://www.bmc.org/healthcity/policy-and-industry/ cultural-humility-vs-cultural-competence-providersneed-both#:~:text=Cultural%20competence%20is%20 loosely%20defined,knowledgeably%20with%20people%20 across%20cultures.&text=The%20term%20%22cultural%20 humility%22%20was,critique%2C%20acknowledging%20 one’s%20own%20biases

• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1524839919884912