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8

Social Systems

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Introduction

I am a current part-time student in the college. I am currently working with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which plays a critical role in eradicating racism in the United States. The primary purpose of the ACLU is to fight racial injustices through public education, advocacy, and litigation. As a student and an employee, I interact with multiple key systems that shape my decisions and experience. Interact’s five common systems include Religious community, Friendship network, workplace, family, and informational ecosystems. However, religious community, Friendship networks, and informational ecosystems have the most impact on my day-to-day life. The paper will connect how the three systems will enhance measures to support antiracists and draw social workers’ vital role in eradicating racism. Fighting racism is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders by seeking information and support from the informational ecosystems, family, and workplace.

The role of information systems in eradicating racism is to provide education and awareness to the public. Information systems include all the media platforms, such as social media. Other informational systems are websites and books. The media allows the key stakeholders to provide narrative and diverse perspectives to enable people to understand diversity and the importance of eradicating racism. The media also highlights the racial injustices such as discrimination and police brutality against the racial groups. The family plays a critical role in eliminating racism by teaching values and virtual to children, shaping their beliefs and perspective to cultural humility and equality. The third system that enables me to advocate for antiracism is the workplace. I actively participate in developing policies and regulations in prioritizing diversity in promotions and hiring employees in private and public organizations.

Descriptions of the three systems

Informational ecosystems

Informational systems provide more insights and awareness by providing real-time data on racism, thus shaping my perspectives, beliefs, and thoughts. The most important components include educational institutions, websites, books, social networks, and news media. In this regard, information systems are the source of societal influence and the wellspring of knowledge. The most common theories utilized in the informational system include human behavior and the social environment theory (Schriver, 2017). The theory is used to collect and analyze the technological data in social media and websites. The theory can allow experts to collect and analyze data to identify patterns and trends of discrimination and racism. It also provides resources such as books and articles for education and training. The boundary of the informational ecosystem is porous since the information flow in from different people and channel.

Informational ecosystems also influence privilege, multiculturalism, and diversity in various ways. For instance, news media eradicate racism by highlighting cultural values and norms from different ethnicities. In this regard, the informational system provides a vibrant platform to discuss experiences and ideas. However, due to systemic biases, the media might amplify narratives and certain voices more than other racial groups. The most active members of informational ecosystems include the general public, educators, content creators, and journalists. However, journalists play a prominent role in airing the most compelling stories that change negative perspectives toward different racial groups. The informational ecosystems have hugely impacted self-perception by providing more insight into many information and perspectives. The information has encouraged me to use critical thinking to broaden my horizons while challenging my preconceived notions. Understanding the interplay and dynamics of multicultural and diverse influences has allowed me to navigate the challenges of racism.

Family

The family system comprises close relatives, siblings, and parents. The family is a haven of cultural heritage, shared traditions, and emotional support. The family system can be comprised of people from different ethnic groups; thus, the behavior of a family member can influence the behavior of other members. The boundaries in the family system are developed by the members of the families, allowing internal cohesion and external system. The members of the family assign themselves roles based on their hobbies and attitudes (Zastrow et al., 2019). The family system can be enriched by diversity, mainly when the family members come from different racial groups. In this regard, the perspectives and cultural backgrounds allow the family members to appreciate and adopt various norms and values of different traditions.

The parents assume the role of the central leadership and management of the family affairs. Parents are responsible for nurturing their children emotionally, providing financial support, and providing guidance and counseling. The family system has different leadership styles based on the nature of the family. The family system has impacted how I perceive various racial groups’ norms, values, and cultures. My parents have instilled cultural appreciation, humility, and resilience values (Masten, 2001). My parents have taught me that the norms and values of ethnicity do not encompass other ethnic groups’ values and views. Therefore, embracing multiple influences and diversity within society is necessary to enhance empathy, cultural competence, and collective experience to avoid bias and prejudice that could contribute to racism. Virtual reality is improved through shared experience, emotions, and effective communication. The social learning theory encourages parents to act as role models by engaging in non-discriminative activities with specific racial groups. Due to the advancement of new technologies, parents should discourage their children from posting or supporting news against certain racial groups.

Workplace

The workplace is a special place where individuals can actively discourage discriminatory policies against certain racial groups. The workplace contributes to financial and personal growth. The central concept is the system where people interact professionally based on the organizational culture and structure. Each workplace is unique and thus has clear boundaries from other systems such as social networks and family. Diversity in the workplace is essential in combating racism since it brings together people from different cultural backgrounds. It fosters challenges, biases, and inclusivity and promotes a culture of sympathy and respect. It is essential to encourage diversity during promotion and hiring of employees. People should be hired and promoted based on merit.

Multicultural influence leads to deep understanding and cultural competency, thus encouraging colleagues to be sensitive to worldviews, languages, and customs. There are various privileges to antiracists in the workplace, such as access to career advancement, resources, and promotion. Various members in the workplace include support staff, executives, managers, supervisors, and colleagues. The hierarchy includes the leadership, such as the CEO, and middle management, such as the head of department and employees. The CEO has the role of enlightening their members on the available seminars and workshops meant to educate and create awareness on the dangers of racism in the workplace and the entire nation.

On the other hand, the employees are responsible for attending the seminars to put whatever is taught into practice. Participating in developing policies and regulations to eradicate racism in the workplace has shaped how I perceive myself professionally. The challenges and opportunities in the workplace have shaped my career aspirations, professional identity, and self-confidence.

Analysis

The intersection of the three systems can contribute to policies and regulations to eradicate racism. For instance, the informational ecosystems provide a platform where any person can provide relevant information that can eradicate racism. The family members can take advantage of the social media programs that discourage racism by instilling values such as inclusivity, tolerance, diversity, and respect for children at a tender age. The family can also facilitate challenging communication in the information ecosystem. In this regard, families can create a discussion to facilitate discussions that will shed more light on discrimination practices such as police brutality against certain racial groups.

On the other hand, leaders in the workplace can liaise with the informational ecosystems through advertisement to propose areas where employees can attend seminars and workshops that discourage racism. It is also essential for leaders to support diverse leadership, such as hiring people from diverse ethnic groups. The informational ecosystems can also establish policies and regulations to discourage racism based on workplace needs and family status. The social and news media can also incorporate employees and people from marginalized areas to create advocacy for opportunities and a sense of community (Norman, 2000). Social media platforms can enlighten the public on the mechanical channels to report incidences of racism in the community. Parents can work as role models for non-discriminatory behavior. The three systems can work hand in hand to eradicate racism, particularly in a country with many marginalized groups with cases of racial discrimination.

Ecomap

The red lines represent key stakeholders in the family, the blue represents the informational ecosystems, and the yellow calibrated lines represent critical workplace stakeholders who need to eradicate racism actively.

References

Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. 
American Psychologist, 
56(3), 227-238.https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227

Norman.E. (2000). 
Resiliency Enhancement: Putting the Strength Perspective Into Social Work Practice. Columbia University Press. 

Schriver, J. M. (2017). Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Risk and Resiliency Theory: A Bridge from Neuroscience to Global Ecology. In 
Handbook of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (pp. 35–61). Taylor & Francis.

Zastrow, C. H., Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hessenauer, S. L. (2019). 
Understanding human behavior and the social environment(11th ed.). Cengage.

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