ABSTRACT

Identity formation as both an individual and collective endeavour occurs in and through processes of interaction. 'Race' is one of a number of elements which constitute one's identity and plays an important part in creating one's identity1• Other social divisions such as gender, class, sexual orientation and age interact with 'race' and one another to also play a key role in this constitutive process. With regards to 'race', a racialised hierarchy is created to enforce the subjugation of one 'race' or 'races' by another. In racialised relations of domination, there is a hierarchical ordering of' race' relations in which the dominant group is characterised as 'subjects' whilst those at the bottom end of the racialised hierarchy become their 'objects'. As a result of this configuring of social relations, racism impacts on one's identity, regardless with which 'race' one claims affinity. The nature of its impact depends on whether one is cast as subject or object in the encounter and the responses that subsequently flow from it on the part of the actors involved. These encounters are formed in and through social interactions which occur within the context of a community or communities. Communities, therefore, are spatial entities in which social interactions take place. Consequently, communities are locations in which racist social relations are enacted. These communities may be configured in various ways: on a geographical basis; according to shared interests; and along identity dimensions. Communities provide the collective contexts within which the socialisation of individuals as to who they are occurs. Communities also provide the locality in which social work intervention takes place. Communities, as the expression of collective aspirations to assist vulnerable groups, also provide the vehicles through which particular kinds of social work interventions are legitimised. Community also becomes the setting in which the laws, values and norms upon which social workers draw in the course oftheir work are formulated and reformulated. Communities are important to children as the providers of the contexts, people and resources that they need to realise their potential and grow up

'Racism' I define as the product of social relations which are organised on the basis of the imputed superiority of one 'race' over another with the presumption that the allegedly superior 'race' can dominate or otherwise oppress the others In racist paradigms, those who consider themselves racially superior are the 'subjects' who treat those whom they consider inferior as 'objects' in every dimension of their interaction with them. This subject/object dichotomy presupposes a biological basis to differences between peoples who are divided into a racialised hierarchy with 'white' people2 having light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes at its apex while 'black' people3 with black skin, black eyes and black hair are located along the bottom.