Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Sep 6, 2023 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Sep 6, 2023 6:00 pm
14th & V
In Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System, Alan J. Dettlaff presents a call to abolish the child welfare system due to the harm and destruction it causes Black families. By tracing the history of family separations since the era of slavery, Dettlaff demonstrates that the intended outcomes of those separations—the subjugation of Black Americans and the maintenance of White supremacy—are the same intended outcomes of the family separations done today. What distinguishes today's family separations from those that occurred during slavery is that today's separations occur under a facade of benevolence, a myth that has been perpetuated that family separations are necessary to “save” the most vulnerable children.
Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System presents evidence of the vast harms that result from family separations to make a case that the child welfare system is beyond reform. Rather, the only solution to ending these harms is complete abolition of this system and a fundamental reimagining of the way society cares for children, families, and communities.
Alan J. Dettlaff and Kristen Weber are joining us on the Busboys stage to honor Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and the author will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of CONFRONTING THE RACIST LEGACY OF THE AMERICAN CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.
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Alan Dettlaff is a Mexican-American scholar, author, and abolitionist. He is currently professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, where he also served as Dean from 2015 to 2022. Alan began his career as a social worker in the family policing system, where he worked as an investigative caseworker and administrator. Today his work focuses on ending the harm that results from this system. In 2020, he helped to create and launch the upEND movement, a collaborative effort dedicated to abolishing the family policing system and building alternatives that focus on healing and liberation.
Alan is author of Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System: The Case for Abolition, published by Oxford University Press in August 2023. He is also co-founding editor of Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal dedicated to developing and disseminating an abolitionist praxis in social work.
Kristen Weber, J.D., focuses on advancing racial and social justice for children, youth, and their families. She is currently Senior Director of Child Welfare at the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) where she implements strategies to stop harmful state actions, increase helpful state actions, and support community-based forms of care so that children and youth are safer and can heal and thrive in their families. Kristen began her career by providing direct legal services to children and youth in the foster and juvenile court systems and then moved to the Center for the Study of Social Policy where she focused on policy and research addressing racial and social inequities in the “child welfare” system. Before coming to NCYL, Kristen designed and led a multi-year, multi-jurisdiction qualitative review project, known as the Institutional Analysis, that works with communities to identify how institutions of “child welfare” or “juvenile justice” are not working effectively for families, with a particular focus on Black, Latine, and LGBTQ+ children and families. She has provided technical assistance to communities and “child welfare” systems working to be anti-racist and supported innovations as part of federal quality improvement centers. Kristen has written extensively about racial and social inequities and the harms of the “child welfare” system, more accurately described as a family regulation or family policing system. Kristen helped launch the upEND movement and continues to collaborate with youth, parents, advocates, policymakers, and researchers to reimagine care and support for families and build supports that ensure racial and social justice. Kristen is a graduate of Berkeley School of Law and Yale University.
