Marching Forward BY TYNAN POWER
A Trump
Presidency
Prompts Action within the SSW Community
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n the days after the 2016 election, many social workers and SSW students found themselves responding to clients who were upset by Donald Trump’s victory, while experiencing their own personal and professional concerns and distress. Brianna Suslovic, a first-year M.S.W. student, didn’t expect her patients at a psychiatric unit to talk about Donald Trump—but she found his name came up frequently.
“Some of my patients are ambivalent, others are more ruminative about the potential for harm or disruption under a Trump presidency, and others still are drawn to Trump’s persona and campaign promises,” said Suslovic. Noah Cochran, also a first-year master’s student, found that elementary school children did not talk much about the election but picked up on the mood of adults in the school. High school students were more vocal. “The students there were much more engaged in discussing the election and its potential effects on their lives and the lives of those they love,” said Cochran. “After the election, clients brought up feelings regarding the election daily,” said Ben Borkan, a second-year M.S.W. student interning at a middle/high school in Boulder. “After about two weeks, the frequency lessened. My internship has discouraged engagement in political conversations at school which has, most likely, influenced the amount of political discussions.” For many, the post-election concerns are not diminishing. “I believe that those experiencing the election results in a more acutely negative light are generally marginalized folks: queer and trans people, people of color, immigrants and folks
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who are dependent upon state and federal funding for their healthcare,” said Suslovic. Adjunct instructor Crystal Hayes, M.S.W. ’06, believes social workers have an obligation to speak out. In December, Hayes joined forces with Professor Joshua Miller and Assistant Professor Hannah Karpman to pen “Social Work at the Crossroads: How to Resist the Politics of a Donald Trump Presidency” for the Huffington Post. In it, the authors state, “[S]ocial work is not nor should it be a neutral profession. Social work’s commitment to vulnerable communities is explicit.” As of this writing, the three have published four subsequent pieces in the online journal, each one stating ways in which the social work profession should respond to the current political climate. Shortly after the election, Cochran, who is queer and gender non-conforming and contributes to SSW’s Dispatches blog, wrote about the challenge of being a social worker with a marginalized identity serving distressed clients who also hold marginalized identities.
SSW students, faculty and alumni joined in marches across the nation, including Washington, D.C., Boston, Northampton and Greenfield, Mass.
“Audre Lorde taught me that self-care isn’t self-indulgence, but an act of political resistance,” said Hayes. Suslovic, a queer woman of color, finds support among fellow organizers and activists. “I’ve been fortunate to have a community of supportive co-organizers in Boston,” said Suslovic. Among her supporters, — members of the SSW Suslovic counts several faculty, Huffington Post SSW alumni—including her supervisor. “These are the individuals who checked in with me the day after the election, bringing their understanding that current events have a huge potential to affect my clinical interactions,” said Suslovic. “They’ve been great resources to me throughout the placement, but especially following the election.” Cochran also has found alumni and fellow students to be a source of support. In fact, last summer’s student activism around anti-racism has served to bring students together and helped them build meaningful connections. “One of the places I felt the most connection and cohesion this summer was through the student-of-color-led racial justice organizing in Smith’s community,” said Cochran. “These spaces in particular felt bridging across cohort years and laid the foundation for growing connections rooted in student solidarity and activism with a lot of heart, bringing together clinical social work and anti-oppressive practice.”
“ Social work is not nor should it be a neutral profession.”
“Communities of color, Muslims, immigrants, women and disabled folks—along with queer, trans and gender non-conforming individuals—are among those who stand to bear the most backlash from this election and the coming years,” said Cochran. “I have spoken to other social workers who embody these identities about the tension of holding and being held—especially in response to clients who are bringing experiences that threaten the parts of ourselves in the room, either visibly or invisibly.” Support is crucial at such trying times. “Maintaining my relationships with an anti-racist community that affirms and reaffirms these values is critical,” said Hayes, who also prioritizes self-care.
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“ I strongly believe in the imperative of integrating social justice, anti-oppressive politics and actions and clinical social work” —Noah Cochran ’18
For some, taking a stand included inauguration day actions around the country. Borkan participated in the Women’s March in Denver. “I think it is important to find solidarity with others as a means to express our free speech,” Borkan said. “We, as a nation, need to recognize the power there is in standing together, to fight injustice.” Cochran attended a protest in Washington, D.C. the day after the inauguration. “There’s no other place I could have been than with my community and fellow activists that day—those I will continue to fight alongside and in solidarity with for the next four years and beyond; those who are echoing back to me feelings of fear, sadness and rage,” said Cochran. “I strongly believe in the imperative of integrating social justice, anti-oppressive politics and actions and clinical social work, and I am grateful for a Smith community that reflects this commitment,” Cochran added. Suslovic decided to spend the weekend of the inauguration at the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Creating Change conference, where she found support in reuniting with organizer friends from across the country. “I think marches are a valid form of resistance when executed with attention to identity and differential impact,” said Suslovic. “I’m also committed to relationship-building, however, as it seems to be an essential part of creating sustainable movements for resistance!” “By organizing to protect Obamacare and other federally-funded programs from the likely-impending
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budget cuts under the [Trump] administration, I’m demonstrating a commitment to social justice and the livelihood of many of my patients, something that falls in line with my reading of the NASW Code of Ethics,” she added. Agencies and schools also have a role to play in supporting social workers so that they can best provide services to their clients and advocate for social justice. “I believe that new social workers especially are in need of more conscientious check-ins and supervision about the election, more training on how to respond to clients’ election-related needs and more information about how to protect insurance coverage and healthcare access for our client populations,” said Suslovic. Hayes believes that schools of social work can play an important role in training social workers to respond to injustice and take action in ways that are in keeping with social work ethics. She points to SSW’s new elective course, A Trump Presidency: How did we get here and where are we going?, as an example of directly addressing the challenges ahead. The course is based on the “Trump Syllabus 2.0” developed by historians N. D. B. Connolly and Keisha N. Blain. Committed to thinking about the responsibility of social workers in an era of the new administration, SSW faculty members Rory Crath and Hannah Karpman have revised this syllabus for social work students and say “it will examine the rise of ‘Trumpism’ as a social and historical phenomenon in which politically legitimated violence, raced based exclusion, the centralizing of market values and the eschewing of empirical truths become consolidated as a legitimate and validated politics.” “We will pilot and evaluate it this summer at Smith before sharing it with other schools,” said Karpman. “We only get to the other side by moving through it,” said Hayes. “We all agree that there’s a problem. It’s going to take some collective thinking, collective work to resolve that. I’m excited about that.” ◆