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Lamont Simmons, PhD, and Elspeth Slayter, PhD, both professors of social work at 51�Թ�, co-presented at the Global Anti-Racism Summit on October 26, 2021. The international event for social service professionals is run by Social Work Helper, the Council on Social Work Education and Sacred Heart University. Simmons and Slayter’s speech, titled addressed approaches to anti-racist social work practice within the disability community in the U.S. 

is a nationally recognized expert in the area of racial justice, especially as it relates to the persistence of students of color in higher education. runs a national group for social work educators who are interested in learning about anti-racist pedagogy and also speaks nationally and locally about disability cultural competence.

“We decided to join forces to talk about the need for an intersectional approach to addressing antiracism and ableism, due to the fact that the disability community and communities of color are not separate communities,” said Simmons.

“One in four members of the Black or African American communities are disabled, three in 10 members of the American Indian/Alaskan Native communities are as well,” said Slayter. “There is a long history of a relationship between ableism and racism, and social service workers need to be aware of this in order to be effective anti-racist practitioners. Indeed, even Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, who spoke at Salem State a few years ago, has been quoted as saying ‘It is pretty apparent to me that one cannot be anti-racist while still being ableist.’"

Simmons can be reached at lsimmons@salemstate.edu and Slayter can be reached at eslayter@salemstate.edu.