Diana R. Garland School of Social Work Anti-Racism Statement

The Garland School of Social Work seeks to produce ethical social work practitioners committed to anti-oppressive practices and the empowerment of all people. Anti-oppressive social work is a frame we are striving to use in the Garland School to promote our work for equality, honoring the dignity and worth of all people, with a focus on underrepresented and marginalized groups.

Our approach to work for justice is informed by our Christian faith as well as our professional values and ethics. Christianity, as with the major world religions, seeks to challenge power inequities, center the lives of people who have been marginalized, and work for liberation for people who are oppressed. Our efforts to use the anti-oppressive framework are situated first in anti-racism, but take seriously an intersectional approach to justice work related to experiences of ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, mental or physical ability, religion/spirituality, age and other marginalized identities in accordance with our professional Code of Ethics.

The race focus of our work includes being actively opposed to racism in all its forms —individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural. As such, we denounce white supremacy, systemic oppression, racism, microaggression and bigotry in any form toward Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Latino(a) individuals and communities. We reject all forms of invalidation, hate, marginalization, discrimination, and violence. We strive to stand in solidarity with our BIPOC faculty, staff, and students and focus on allyship, microresistance opportunities, and collaboration to challenge these oppressive forces.

We stand committed:

• To actively and humbly identify as and commit to being an anti-racist academic unit of Baylor University.


• To the ongoing individual and institutional exploration and examination of implicit bias and systemic advantage/oppression such that our anti-racism commitment be reflected in the life and culture of the GSSW through our policies, programs, and practices as we continue to learn about racism and ethnic oppression.


• To the continual development and implementation of strategies and best-practices that dismantle racism and ethnic oppression within all aspects of the GSSW and broader community.