Smith ScholarWorks Theses, Dissertations, and Projects 2008 Exploring internalized racism : a critical review of the literature and implications for clinical social work Keshia Unika Williams Smith College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Keshia Unika, "Exploring internalized racism : a critical review of the literature and implications for clinical social work" (2008). Masters Thesis, Smith College, Northampton, MA. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/1302 This Masters Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Projects by an authorized administrator of Smith ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Keshia Unika Williams Exploring Internalized Racism: A critical review of the literature and implications for clinical social work ABSTRACT In social work, like many of its allied disciplines, the effects of racism on the racially oppressed has tended to focus on overt manifestations like violence and discrimination (Pyke and Dang, 2003). Largely missing from the mainstream social work literature is a clear and consistent definition and framework for internalized racism. An understanding of the deleterious effects of internalized racism- the subtle, often unconscious, processes by which racial inequality shapes the way that the oppressed think of themselves and other members of their group- is often lacking in clinical social work literature. Internalized racism represents a harmful consequence of a racially unequal system. The discussion of racial oppression is not limited to patterns of individual and institutional practices, but also includes the process of how people of color come to internalize their subordination within a system wrought by racism.