SOCIAL WORK AND CLINICAL TREATMENT OF TRAUMA A caution BY ROBERT S. WRIGHT, MSW, RSW, AND JAMES OWEN DUBÉ, MSW, RSW
As social workers take up more and more space in clinical
how African men were sexually victimized by both their male
settings and have our clinical expertise recognized and
and female captors. This sexual victimization, exploitation,
expanded in institutional and community settings, it is
fetishization and demonization continued after emancipation
important that we not stray from our roots as advocates
and shaped the ideas that continue to oppress and
for the most oppressed and marginalized members of our
problematize Black male sexuality to this day. This creates a
society. We must be clinicians who bring our social justice
barrier to Black men seeking help for their victimization and
orientation and prerogative to all aspects of practice. It
other forms of trauma.
is important that we critique clinical practice models to ensure that they are not perpetuating or expanding the marginalization of certain populations from accessing and benefiting from mental health services. It is important that poor, fragilely housed, racialized and Indigenous persons’ needs and considerations are centred in all our practices. We cannot abandon our primary clients as our profession becomes more privileged among health practitioners. As conceptualizations of trauma become more central to our understanding of mental health, it is important that we consider the social justice imperative in our exploration of trauma. Most would agree that trauma is complex. When we add to our understanding of trauma other lenses such as critical race
That Black men continue to suffer as victims of sexual violence and other forms of trauma should be understood, but it is widely under-reported and poorly addressed.
We can connect the dots, however. We know, for example, that the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently amended their estimate of male, lifetime sexual assault victimization from 1 in 6 to 1 in 4 (CDC,
theory, anti-oppressive practice, and socio-cultural intersection,
2021). We also know that the incidence of such traumas
the complexity explodes into a kaleidoscope of considerations
is dramatically higher among marginalized, criminalized,
that social workers must address as we work with clients.
and clinical populations. With Black men disproportionately experiencing poverty, academic underachievement, and
An example of where concerns exist about trauma as a sociocultural phenomenon needing a critical race/anti-oppressive practice approach is in relation to Black male sexual victimization. Images in popular media and even reputable news media perpetuate ideas about Black men that are rooted
incarceration, and given the history of Black male sexual victimization, it is not a hard sell to believe they experience sexual victimization at a rate greater than 1 in 4. Yet, the clinical needs, and specifically the trauma treatment needs, of Black men are underserved.
in the history of enslavement. Though most are aware that African women were often sold into sexual slavery or regularly
Consequently, it is our view that the “needs” of Black men go
sexually abused by their captors, few realize that the same
unaddressed, and society reacts to the symptoms of Black
was true for African men. Foster (2011) described it well: “The
male trauma, or the “idioms of distress” (Brown & Courtois,
sexual exploitation of enslaved black men took place within
2019) through a criminal justice response. That Black men
a cultural context that fixated on black male bodies with both
are dramatically and disproportionately targeted by police and
desire and horror.” Foster goes on to describe graphically
overrepresented in Canadian federal correctional institutions
20 Connection | Winter 2022
