The imperative and promise of neo-abolitionism in social work

Abstract

Summary Neo-abolitionism, the social movement to abolish whiteness, contends that whiteness—not white people—possesses no humane or redeemable quality, in and of itself, but functions solely as the keystone of racialization and systemic racial oppression. Neo-abolitionism has not garnered legitimacy or secured broad commitment from any profession or discipline in the United States. This is unsurprising given the existential anathema, to a society founded upon white supremacy, of such a direct ideological affront and material challenge to the reigning social and institutional order. Practically speaking, though, neo-abolitionism has failed to translate theoretical philosophy to a viable sociopolitical agenda comprised of actionable routes toward social change that might subvert the hegemony of whiteness and erode the social construction of race. As whiteness increasingly inflicts harm and sows division in the contemporary historical moment, social work faces the imperative to seriously consider the merits of neo-abolitionism. Findings Where neo-abolitionism has stalled in attempts to move beyond theorization and academic debate in disciplines such as history and sociology, the organizing capacity, praxis techniques, and advocacy expertise of social work—as much a profession as a discipline—offer means of real progress toward abolishing the ideological and material supports of the social construction of whiteness at large, which proliferates racial injustice and undergirds myriad inequities beyond race. Applications Neo-abolitionism addresses the imperative faced by social work, in research, practice, and pedagogy, to move beyond mediation and toward elimination of the structural injustices and manifest inhumanities in lived experience propagated by white hegemony.