Week 5 Discussion: Continue Your DiscussionApplying an Anti-Racism Lens in the Literature Review In preparing to complete your literature review, you likely found there are many tools available to add

KEYWORDS: antiracist research, antioppressive research, social work research, social justice, community engagement doi: 10.1086/722974 A renewed call to confront structural and systemic racism and oppression globally, and more specifically in the United States, has emerged to confront aconfluence of state-sanctioned violence against Black lives; systemic racism against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC); abuses based upon sexual ori- entation, gender identity, and expression; oppression of people with disabilities; religious discrimination; xenophobia and anti-immigrant fervor; attacks upon re- productive rights; and racial erasure and pandemic othering against Asian Pacific Islander and Desi American communities. Fear of white replacement—based on Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, volume 13, number 4, winter 2022.

© 2022 Society for Social Work and Research. All rights reserved. Published by The University of Chicago Press for the Society for Social Work and Research. https://doi.org/10.1086/722974 637 the“great replacement”conspiracy argument that white people are being replaced at ethnic and cultural levels via mass migration (Davey & Ebner, 2019; Obaidi et al., 2021)—and polarizing politics fuel vitriol, hatred, and an overall devalua- tion of human life, with BIPOC and minoritized communities experiencing the brunt of the effects.

Although antiracist and antioppressive (ARAO) social work scholarship has been part of the call to confront racism and oppression and dismantle white supremacy, little progress has been achieved, in part because the social work profession lacks a comprehensive framework for ARAO research. Scholars with minoritized identities have long confronted racist and oppressive scholarship practices and have continu- ally amplified the deep, embodied knowledge and experiences of minoritized pop- ulations. The weight of this work, however, should not rest solely upon them (McCoy, 2021). We must collectively ensure that all scholars adopt ARAO research practices. We call upon the profession to move beyond performative acknowledg- ments and intentionally center ARAO research. Just as social work pedagogy has failed to comprehensively incorporate critical theories and frameworks (Yearwood et al., 2021), ARAO research approaches are implemented in fragments. To center ARAO research, we mustfirst acknowledge the role of social work in upholding white supremacy (National Association of Social Workers, 2021), failing to address oppression (Corley & Young, 2018; McMahon & Allen-Meares, 1992), and inflicting tremendous harm on BIPOC communities ( Jacobs et al., 2021). This includes“white- washing”social work’s history, from the research and saviorism practiced by white women (Wright et al., 2021) to the enforcement of the social control that sustains racial capitalism ( Jacobs et al., 2021). Building upon the work of the Society for So- cial Work and Research’s Research Capacity and Development Committee (RCDC), we hope this commentary will direct social workers toward pragmatic steps to de- velop a comprehensive framework and strategies for ARAO research.

Research Capacity and Development Committee The RCDC was created in 2017 to build research capacity across the careers of social work scholars. In its efforts to do so, the RCDC has initiated multiple conference and webinar sessions that have increasingly focused on ARAO research. For example, the webinar“Mentorship for Antiracist and Inclusive Research”discussed ways to support antiracist and inclusive mentoring and equip doctoral students to conduct ARAO research. Another webinar,“Strategies for Supporting Antiracist Pedagogy & Scholarship: Reimagining Institutional Systems & Structures,”examined systemic and institutional barriers to conducting ARAO research and discussed ways to sup- port and incentivize ARAO practices, such as reimagining promotion and tenure criteria and productivity metrics. The RCDC is now conducting a study to garner a comprehensive understanding of ARAO research in social work.

638 Journal of the Society for Social Work & Research Winter 2022 The Need for Antiracist and Antioppressive Social Work Research ARAO research includes critically examining and resisting policies that oppress and minoritize the populations social work purports to assist, as well as building new systems and structures that value and uplift marginalized voices. ARAO research facilitates knowledge democracy and recognizes that all knowledge is socially con- structed and that individual perceptions of reality are manifold (Potts & Brown, 2005). This is an ongoing practice of identifying and resisting policies that serve ways of knowing and being that are fundamentally racist and oppressive. A deeper self-interrogation reveals a veneer of change rather than a radical transformation toward ARAO research. Arguments to uphold traditional research often rebuff such introspection by arguing that the status quo is necessary to preserve objectivity and rigor. Toward a Vision of Antiracist and Antioppressive Social Work Research Social work can address racism and oppression directly through its scholarly practice, with the potential to advance an equitable society and become a model for rigorously applied ARAO research in interdisciplinary spaces. Although ARAO research has burgeoned, it is unclear how this methodology is different from other research methods (Dei, 2005), undercutting the potential of ARAO approaches to dismantle racism and oppression (Doucet, 2021). ARAO research critiques tradition- ally white-centered, Western approaches to research, from conceptualization to dissemination. The production of knowledge is inextricably linked to power and success in academia. Prestigious program grants are predominately awarded to white principal investigators (Onyejiaka, 2021). Scholars hold the power to assign meaning and value to participants’lived experiences and present those experiences as knowl- edge, often through a deficit lens. This approach of social-scientific data interpretation showing the inferiority of and problematizing of populations is described as an epis- temologically violent action (Teo,2010). Thus, all stages of research—including training, idea generation, epistemologies, theories, methods, funding, publishing, promotion, library cataloging, and more—must be critiqued using an ARAO lens (University of Minnesota, 2021). Ingrained practices and systems point to the need for clear guidance on ARAO research and a complementary vision for structural change.

Antiracist and Antioppressive Research Challenges and Opportunities RCDC discussions reflect the challenges of centering ARAO research, including com- peting views about ways of knowing and what constitutes methodological rigor; data collection and aggregation practices that hide nuances across minoritized groups; limited time and resources, and productivity pressure that dissuade relationship building, deep critical reflection, and community engagement; and gaps in training and mentorship resources. For example, collaboration with the populations being studied is essential to ARAO research. In fact, community-engaged scholarship has Just Research 639 long been at the heart of social work research, and scholars have rightly called for community-engaged research to be considered the signature methodology of social work (Delavega et al., 2017). Unfortunately, the time-intensive process of community- engaged work is rarely facilitated by existing structures, such as tenure and promotion standards and institutional review board processes (Hammatt et al., 2011; Solomon et al., 2016).

The need to explicate how and what we know, what knowledge matters, what metrics are appropriate, and the terms and conditions of knowledge ownership is es- sential to ARAO research (Rogers, 2012; Strier, 2007). Although the communities we engage in research should be the coarchitects of the complete knowledge production process, the process often depends on scholars’capacity to commit to and implement these approaches. Additionally, ways of knowing that are primarily based on engaged scholarship using multiple methodologies—such as qualitative and mixed methods— and the contributions of those who are not formally trained as researchers are often considered“nonscientific”(Almeida et al., 2019; Curry et al., 2009). The preference for first- or sole-author publications, for establishing leadership in afield of study, and for receiving national or international recognition runs counter to deep, authentic com- munity engagement. Another essential element is to value and uplift all minoritized groups. However, social work researchers focusing on unique areas and highly di- verse populations often encounter challenges due to the limitations of available large-scale national data and issues of mistrust related to research in general. For ex- ample, highly diverse groups such as Asian Pacific Islanders and Desi Americans are often aggregated, making subpopulations invisible. Although the concept of rigor and the emphasis on large, representative samples favor larger, more easily engaged populations, research grounded in community perspectives that aims to identify unique experiences can meaningfully contribute to knowledge, even with small sam- ples (Maleku et al., 2022). ARAO research requires that social work scholars are ac- countable for the input and critique of a diverse set of actors—including those in the academy and in the community—and directs us to reconsider the concept of re- search rigor that benefits our target populations. Unfortunately, the literature on im- plementing capacity-building frameworks for ARAO is scant. Thus, we have identified key steps that should be taken to advance ARAO research in social work. Steps Toward Advancing Antiracist and Antioppressive Research Dismantle White Supremacy in Social Work Thefirst step toward defining ARAO research is to describe the activities that have sustained white supremacy in social work research, both as a profession and as individual scholars. Among the social sciences, social work is uniquely positioned to foster and expand community-engaged research. Still, there remains a great deal 640 Journal of the Society for Social Work & Research Winter 2022 of work to be done in our own profession to weed out performative practices that reify racism. We must document how histories and structures of cumulative disad- vantage and privilege seep into the social–psychological landscapes of populations and examine social problems and research dialectically in relation to complex dy- namics across time, space, and groups (Fine, 2014), including our own role in the his- tories and processes. This work includes the further development and incorporation of critical theories that center race and other marginalized identities.

Understand Researcher Positionality We must be curious, compassionate, and courageous enough to recognize, call out, and address racist and oppressive acts in real time. It is essential that all social work researchers understand their positionality. Understanding how researcher position- ality informs what questions are asked, how research is designed, who is included in the research team, and how research is conducted is fundamental to ARAO research.

Social work scholars can model these practices for their research teams and incorpo- rate them into doctoral training by using insight-oriented exercises to clarify the pri- mary motivation for their work. This critical self-reflection is key to co-constructing and co-conducting research that is driven by the needs and vision of the community and researchers’methodological expertise.

Promote Antiracist and Antioppressive Research Methods Social work scholars must also develop and codify research approaches that pro- mote ARAO research methods, such as community-engaged and community- driven research that honors community strengths and capacity. This requires the alignment of training, hiring, recognition, human subjects research oversight, and promotion practices that value this work. The advancement of ARAO research cul- ture in social work requires investments at the individual and structural lev- els. It will require institutions, including social work leadership organizations, to invest in training, funding, and capacity-building initiatives that advance these practices. Conclusion Substantial work remains to center ARAO research in social work. To do so will re- quire social work researchers to collectively and humbly engage in this effort. It is high time that social work—including scholars, professional organizations, pub- lishers, and the broader community of partners who use social work evidence to inform policy and action—engages in radical leadership to promote and advance ARAO research practice in pursuit of the profession’s social justice mission. Just Research 641 Author Notes Bernadine Y. Waller, PhD, LMHC, is an NIMH T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the De- partment of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychi- atric Institute.

Arati Maleku, PhD, is an associate professor at the College of Social Work, The Ohio State University.

Camille R. Quinn, PhD, AM, LCSW, LISW-S, is an associate professor at the Center for Equi- table Family and Community Well-Being, School of Social Work, University of Michigan.

Anamika Barman-Adhikari, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Denver Grad- uate School of Social Work.

Linda S. Sprague Martinez, PhD, is an associate professor at the Boston University School of Social Work.

Dorian Traube, PhD, is an associate professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California.

Jennifer L. Bellamy, PhD, is a professor and the Associate Dean for Research and Faculty De- velopment at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.

Correspondence regarding this article should be directed to Jennifer L. Bellamy via e-mail to [email protected]. Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the board of directors of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), members of SSWR’s Research Capacity and Development Committee (RCDC) antiracist and antioppressive research subcommittee, and all members of the RCDC com- mittee for the feedback and support provided throughout the process of writing this commentary. References Almeida, R. V., Werkmeister Rozas, L. M., Cross-Deny, B., Kyeunghae Lee, K., & Yamada, A. M.

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