National Network for Equitable Library Service

"The helping professions - education, social work, public health, and justice - are built on the colonial lie that Indigenous people need saving and helping. In White Benevolence, leading anti-racist scholars reveal the ways in which white settlers working in these institutions shape, defend, and uphold institutional racism, even while professing to support Indigenous people. White supremacy shows up in the everyday behaviours, comments, and assumptions of white professionals who reproduce myths of Indigenous inferiority and deficit, making it clear that institutional racism encompasses not only high-level policies and laws, but also the collective enactment of racism by people within these institutions. In this uncompromising and essential collection, authors argue that white settler social workers, educators, healthcare workers, and criminal justice workers have a responsibility to understand the colonial history of their profession and the ongoing effects on Indigenous people, be it violent policing, school push out, or denial of health care. The answer isn't cultural awareness training. What's needed is radical anti-racism, solidarity, and a relinquishing of the power of white supremacy."