Toward A Just and Humanizing System: A Critical Structural Analysis of the Human Services Field

Abstract

This paper advances a critical conceptual discussion and paradigm shift regarding the preparation of human and social service students. This work looks to make apparent the racial and class realities of preparing a primarily white, female, upper/middle-class human service professional to work in a field that overwhelmingly serves poor Black and Brown communities. The frameworks/concepts of The Racial Contract, Structural Competency, and The nonprofit Industrial Complex are employed to examine and understand social systems and structures of pertinence to human services. Finally, implications for human services, both in terms of human service curricula and practice are considered.