TY - JOUR AU - Editor, Reflections PY - 2017/08/14 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Creating Space for the ‘Uncomfortable’: Discussions about Race and Police Brutality in a BSW Classroom JF - Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping JA - Reflections VL - 21 IS - 3 SE - DO - UR - https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/1556 SP - 4-9 AB - <p>During the summer of 2014 I was developing my syllabus for a cultural competency course I would<br>teach in the fall to a group of BSW students. On August 9th of that summer Michael Brown, a young black man,<br>was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson Missouri. As the fall semester<br>approached and I was putting the finishing touches on my syllabus, I knew that I would speak with my students of<br>the events unfolding in Ferguson. But I was anxious of what such conversations would look like. This narrative<br>offers an overview of the critical dialogue that I engaged in with students about race and police brutality that<br>semester. It also documents my journey in learning to create space for ‘uncomfortable’ classroom discussions that<br>foster critical reflection about race in America and preparing social work students to practice in a multiracial<br>society.</p> ER -