Pamela Paul has a terrific column today describing how the woke march through the institutions has corrupted the field of social work, with a particular focus on the School of Social Work at Columbia University. The piece opens with a “glossary” which all incoming students are given. Here’s a sample:

Agent & Target of oppression- Members of the dominant social groups privileged by birth or acquisition, who consciously or unconsciously abuse power against the members or targets of oppressed groups. ○ See also: Marginalization, Oppression, Power, Privilege…

“Antifa”- A movement to address the rise of perceived fascist movements, using direct action rather than policy reform. Started by various autonomous groups and folx, in response to fascism, Nazis, racism, and the far-right…

“Black Lives Matter” Movement- A movement to address systemic violence against Black folx. Started in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the murder of Trayvon Martin. ○ See also: Anti-racism, Carceral System, Racism, White Privilege

Capitalism- A system of economic oppression based on class, private property, competition, and individual profit. ○ See also: Carceral System, Class, Inequality, Racism

There’s a lot more but you get the idea. Paul writes:

These aren’t the definitions you’d find in Webster’s dictionary, and until recently they would not have been much help in getting a master’s in social work at an Ivy League university. They reflect a shift not just at Columbia but in the field of social work, in which the social justice framework that has pervaded much of academia has affected the approach of top schools and the practice of social work itself…

As part of their coursework, students are required to give a presentation in which they share part of their “personal process of understanding anti-Black racism, intersectionality and uprooting systems of oppression.” They are asked to explain their presentation “as it relates to decolonizing social work, healing, critical self-awareness and self-reflection.” Teachings include “The Enduring, Invisible and Ubiquitous Centrality of Whiteness,” “Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People” and “What It Means to Be a Revolutionary,” a 1972 speech by Angela Davis.

These ideas won’t be limited to the sphere of government-employed social workers who are paid to interact with people. Paul notes that attending Columbia’s graduate school of social work costs more than $90,000 a year while government jobs in the field start around $60,000 a year. Most of these students intend on become psychological counselors, i.e. licensed clinical social workers, because getting that degree is cheaper and quicker than getting a Ph.D. in psychology or psychiatry. Now imagine what it will be like going to a therapist trained at Columbia.

“Until roughly five years ago, people seeking mental health care could expect their therapists to keep politics out of the office,” Sally Satel, a practicing psychotherapist and the author of “PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine,” wrote in 2021. “Mental health professionals — mainly counselors and therapists — are increasingly replacing evidence-driven therapeutics with ideologically motivated practice and activism.”

“White patients, for instance, are told that their distress stems from their subjugation of others,” Satel wrote, “while Black and minority patients are told that their problems stem from being oppressed.”

It’s no coincidence that Columbia has been one of the hotbeds of campus anti-Semitism since the 10/7 Hamas attack on Israel. The Times of Israel had a story about it yesterday which featured several references to the school of social work:

A stack of fliers caught Melissa Saidak’s eye when she walked into the lobby of the Columbia University School of Social Work in late November.

Advertising a “teach-in,” the fliers depicted three missiles targeting a Palestinian flag dripping in blood. One missile was emblazoned with the Columbia University logo, one with the American flag, and the third with the Israeli flag. Two weeks earlier, more than 50 students, some banging drums, some chanting into a megaphone, had staged a nine-hour sit-in in the school’s lobby. It was one of many such protests on campus.

“They were saying things like ‘Zionists get out,’ and ‘Israel go to hell.’ Most of the world is not safe for Jewish people and the facts are, Israel is important for a lot of reasons; namely, it’s a safe haven,” said Saidak, who describes herself as a non-Zionist secular Jew…

Amy Werman, a full-time professor at the Columbia School of Social Work, said she’s not bothered by the protests per se; it’s the rhetoric that she finds alarming. In fact, she walked through the November 9 sit-in because she wanted to bear witness and because she “believe[s] in conversation.”

“The rhetoric is what scares the shit out of me. It’s so harsh and caustic. Who says dismembering, raping, and decapitating is a form of resistance? That’s a level of barbarism I could never imagine. I feel so deflated,” said Werman.

There was pushback to all of this. Jewish students held rallies and were backed by a group of professors. Eventually the school felt it was necessary to announce the formation of a task force on anti-Semitism. The US Department of Education is investigating Columbia under the Civil Rights Act and the dean of the law school resigned last week.

Asaf Eyal who graduated from the school in 2017 told Pamela Paul he now questions the education he received at Columbia.

“The school is infected with a political agenda that should not be in place, especially on Day 1,” Eyal told me.

Now, he said, he questions the education he got there. “I don’t come into my shelter every day and think about who is the oppressed,” he told me. “I think about helping people.” In October, after four years volunteering on behalf of the school, Eyal resigned from his role overseeing fieldwork assignments.

“Is this a school of social work or an indoctrination agency for extreme ideology?” Eyal said. “We’re missing the purpose. It’s not our purpose.”

The infection continues to spread through these institutions and the result will be continued targeting of those groups identified as oppressors. The expression of these divisive views won’t be limited to campus rallies but could extend to private counseling sessions or social work paid for by government agencies. This is effectively a new religion bent on propagating itself. What we’ve seen on Columbia’s campus in the past two months is just the prologue.

Finally, there are some good comments including the top one.

Over my twenty plus years as a clinical social worker, my clients respond to kindness, impeccable clinical skills, and emotionally intelligent responses– not doctrinaire ones. My advice to anyone wanting to enter this wonderful field: realize that “common terms” come and go but nothing can replace respect for human dignity and knowing we are all in this together.

This one is not as optimistic.

Things are even worse in the social work field than this article makes out.

I recently helped write a federal grant for a large nonprofit I advise. The nonprofit provides housing and community services to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence — primarily, but not exclusively, women.

From what I learned from the more seasoned social workers at the agency, it used to be that the survivors would be welcomed, given a chance to recover physically and psychologically, and then, as long as they were safe from further abuse, encouraged to work or get more education.

But no more. Instead, the agency’s federal grants expressly forbid encouraging work or school, supposedly because neither path will be sufficient to overcome America’s “systemic oppression.”

Moreover, all the federal grants require that the agency agrees to provide instruction to its clients that because of “intersectionality,” the clients have almost no hope of succeeding in America, because they will be discriminated against for every aspect of their being.

If a bunch of old conservative white guys wrote grant requirements like this, telling survivors there is no hope that hard work at a job, or hard work in school, would help them, and so they should just drift listlessly at the bottom of the social food chain, not working, but only receiving various benefits, there would (justifiably) be outrage.

This is arguably a problem with all left-wing approaches. They don’t seek to build resilience and confidence but instead foster dependency, despondency and hopelessness. It’s literally the opposite of a what a trained cognitive behavioral therapist or counselor is supposed to express toward patients (i.e. things usually aren’t as bad as they seem, you can change the outcome more than you may realize). Having this depressive, negative attitude dominate these fields from the top down will destroy their utility in short order.