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Populations at Risk
Darice Collier
Wayne State University











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Abstract

African Americans are minorities that are population at risk. This research paper discusses the
explanation of a client being an at-risk group membership due to being an African- American
male. This paper includes both positive and negative impacts upon being a part of an at risk
population. Documented information from a refereed journal or text identifying the client as a
member of an at- risk- population will be provided. An analysis of effects of membership as a
result of being in the oppressed population group and ethical dilemmas presented during the
interaction with the client system with solutions to the dilemmas will also be provided.

Keywords: african-american, population at risk, peer-reviewed, and poverty








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Description of Client
My client name is Marvin Ware; he is an African-American male that is nine years old.
He attends Marquette Elementary School and is in the third grade with a learning disability.
Marvin has difficulties in the classroom with concentrating on his schoolwork, easily being
distracted, behavior issues, emotional difficulties, interaction with peers, and reading at lower
grade level. Marvin misbehaves and acts out because he does not understand his school work.
Marvin bullies students in the classroom and does not have good peer relationships. Marvin
lives with his mother (Ms. Ware), his step-father (Mr. Mark Rams), and his younger brother
(Marcus Ware, 3 years old). Marvins biological father is Verret Hendry and his step-mother is
Kimberly Hendry. Marvin has 6 step-siblings; three from Mark and three from Kimberly. Ms.
Ware has been with her boyfriend, Mr. Rams for about 4 years and he has a good relationship
with Marvin. Mr. Rams is the second father figure in Marvins life. Marvin has a good
relationship with his mother.
Marvin has displayed difficulties with his behavior since he was in kindergarten; he was
making a lot of bad choices in the schools prior to Marquette Elementary. Some of the
behavior problems that Marvin exhibited was cutting his brother Marcus eyelashes off while
Marcus was an infant and burning him with a cigarette butt. Child Protective Services was
involved and they suggested Marvin to live outside of the home for the safety of his little
brother. Marvin was then sent to live with his father in Lansing; Marvin had a very limited
relationship between his father prior to living with him. While Marvin lived in Lansing Mrs.
Hendry had a court order of temporary legal guardianship of Marvin. Ms. Ware gave Marvins
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stepmother temporary guardianship due to him needing food stamps and Medicaid. It was
about six or seven months that Marvin resided with his father and his stepmother. Marvin
currently does not have a good relationship with his brother and he aggravates his brother
Marcus on purpose. Marvin has visited a child psychiatrist a plethora of times concerning his
relationship with his brother and the behavior he portrays at school.
There were a few family incidents that occurred that may have traumatized Marvin and
may relate to his misbehavior. When he was 3 years old Ms. Ware killed her uncle after he
attacked her for self-defense and Marvin witnessed it. She stabbed her uncle in his heart
multiple times, and after she killed her uncle she walked by his body while she carried Marvin
with something covering his head. Ms. Ware had to complete a year in the penitentiary due to
the incident. She had a difficult time in prison and spent the majority of time in their
psychiatric unit. When Marvin was five years old he was at the Youth Center playing football
and he was probably touched by an older child that was there; the child was probably about
seven or eight years old. Lansing was pressing charges against the other boy and Ms. Ware was
told the boy was accused of touching him inappropriately while playing football. Ms. Ware did
not follow up with the authorities and she did not become involved in the case or find out the
details of the case.
What Makes the Client Identified as Part of an at Risk Population?
My client is identified as being a part of an at risk population due to being African
American. The terms dominant group and minority group describe power differences
regardless of the size of the group (Eitzen, Zinn, & Smith, 2009, p. 219). African Americans are
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identified as being a part of the minority group As a result of continued exposure to prejudice
and stigmatization, devalued individuals become members of a minority group, a segment of
the population that suffers unjustified negative acts by the rest of the society (Appleby, Colon,
& Hamilton, 2011, p. 70).
The Effects of Being African American
African Americans comprise about 13% of the population in the United States (Appleby,
Colon, & Hamilton, 2011, p. 79). African Americans are the only group in America to experience
involuntary immigration (Appleby, Colon, & Hamilton, 2011, p. 78). African Americans have
experienced discrimination since their arrival to America. Discrimination is something that
most people experience at least one time in their lifetime and African Americans are well
known for experiencing it. We live in a world where mostly everybody thinks that their race,
culture, and beliefs are superior to other people. The people who believe that they are
superior to another race normally display discrimination and prejudice acts towards a different
group. Members of every society tend to use their cultures norms, as the standards for
judging other cultures, that is, to hold a view of things in which ones own group is the center of
everything and all others are rated with reference to it (Appleby, Colon, & Hamilton, 2011, p.
17). One of the strengths of African American families involves the strong kinship system and
support network developed beyond the simple nuclear family (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2009, p.
385).


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The Effects Marvin May be Subjected to Due to Being African American
There are positive and negative effects due to having membership in the oppressed
population group of African Americans. A primary construction in Western cultural thought is
the belief that superior should control the inferior (Appleby et al., 2011, p. 61). African
Americans are considered to be the inferior in America and this will affect Marvin. The superior
is defined as the people with a lot of money that are making double the minimum wage and the
people that are considered inferior are the people that are only making minimum wage. There
should not be any thoughts or ideas that someone is inferior to anyone based upon income and
anything that considers someone to be in the category of inferior. Its sad that oppression is
common elements of institutional power, economic control, violence, distortion and invisibility.
(Appleby et al., 2011, p. 61).
Discrimination, a major problem in the environment is often based on ethnicity and/or
color, which can create problems for African Americans in social role functioning as well as in
physical, psychological, and health (Appleby et al., 2011, p. 61). Marvin may experience
discrimination and it may cause him to experience Being different increases a sense of
aloneness, isolation, and abandonmenta sense of non-connection to othersand threatens
the sense of psychological wholeness and intactness that people need (Appleby, Colon, &
Hamilton, 2007, p. 78). Marvin is identified as being a part of one of the minority groups.
Marvin may feel a sense of being different and may experience a sense of abandonment.
Oppression is an institutional process that is experienced personally as stigma, stress,
guilt, and shame (Appleby, Colon, & Hamilton, 2011, p. 70). Stigma can influence identity
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development and stigma can result in internalized oppression, which every minority person
must learn to manage in the process of developing a healthy identity (Appleby, Colon, &
Hamilton, 2011, p. 70). It may be hard for Marvin to develop a healthy identity due to being a
minority. Marvins identity, values, and behavior can influence his attitudes and behaviors he
may have. Members of stigmatized groups often have much higher levels of self-esteem that
might be predicted based on the prejudice and discrimination that they face (Appleby, Colon,
& Hamilton, 2011, p. 73). There is a possibility that Marvin may develop a high level of self-
esteem due to being a minority.
African Americans are half as likely to be wealthy and twice as likely to be poor as
Whites (Eitzen, Zinn, & Smith, 2009, p. 205). There is a possibility that Marvin may be
successful and productive with a good education. By 2006, 80% of African Americans age 25
or older had completed high schooldouble the completion rate in 1970 (Appleby, Colon, &
Hamilton, 2011, p. 83). Slightly more than half of women of the 17% have earned at least a
undergraduate college degree, this rate is triple the rate in 1970 (Appleby, Colon, & Hamilton,
2011, p. 83). The gap between the educational achievement between Caucasians and African
Americans still remains and internalized stereotypes account for a large part of this gap
(Appleby, Colon, & Hamilton, 2011, p. 83). There has been repeated experiments that has
displayed that African Americans do less well on exams when they are reminded negative
stereotypes. In the public school system the low-income African Americans students can face
significant barriers, including low parental and teacher expectations regarding school
performances and lack of culturally relevant materials(Ashford & LeCroy, 2010, p. 396).
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The role of the African American Churches has a big impact. Marvin and his family
attend church sometimes and Marvin likes to attend many of the church festivities. African
American churches have been and continue to be a source of much strength in the community
(Appleby, Colon, & Hamilton, 2011, p. 83).
Ethical Dilemma and Solution
The ethical dilemma I experienced while being a social worker intern included a
possibility of my client having a false psychological evaluation. The Schools Psychologist
decided that he wanted to avoid doing an extensive evaluation to prove that my client had a
learning disability. The psychologist reasoning for not wanting to complete the evaluation was
because he was not going to have enough adequate time to complete it before the IEP
(Intervention Education Plan) meeting. The IEP meeting was scheduled for the next day and the
psychologist decided to just document that Marvin had a learning disability without any
evaluation being done. This is an ethical dilemma because my client evaluation was going to
have false documentation. When the Schools Psychologist disclosed the information to my
supervisor and I we were both shocked and knew that it was wrong and unethical for the
psychologist to avoid giving my client an evaluation.
My supervisor told the Schools District Director what the psychologists plan was for
Marvin Wares IEP meeting. My supervisor also had me speak to the Schools District Director
also since I was present during the incident. The Schools District Director is over all the social
workers, psychologists, speech therapists, and occupational therapists that are in the school
district. The Schools District Director also makes all the final decisions about what happens for
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students that are receiving special education. The Schools District Director called the school
psychologist and told him that he needed to give Marvin an adequate evaluation and that the
meeting will be rescheduled so he can have time to perform the evaluation. I was happy that
my client was going to get a fair evaluation and not have an invalid evaluation documented. It
would have been completely wrong for my supervisor and I to just allow the psychologist to do
something that was unethical.
I was elated and glad that my supervisor and I decided to do the right thing and was able
to fix the ethical dilemma. The NASW ethical coded 1.01 is Commitment to Clients and allowing
someone to try to have a false documentation and evaluation that could potentially affect my
client education had to be resolved. A social worker is suppose to be committed and loyal to
their client and tell the truth about anything that may occur that could affect a client. The
other NASW ethical code is 2.11, Unethical Conduct of Colleagues, which relates to the ethical
dilemma that occurred with the Schools Psychologist. Social workers are suppose to correct
and expose a colleague that is doing an unethical conduct. There are many ethical dilemmas
that social workers encounter in practice and practitioners should know how to evaluate the
issues with the guidelines of the NASW and Social Work Values.
Conclusion
People that are African Americans are minorities that are population at risk. There are
positive and negative effects due to having membership in the oppressed population group of
African Americans. Black Americans has dealt with many obstacles due to being an at risk
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population. The African Americans are starting to have a better opportunities and are starting
to be more successful in America.















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