Cultural taxation, racialized trauma, and the impact of anti-DEI legislation on social work students and faculty of color

This paper explores how the rise of anti-DEI legislation may intensify structural and psychosocial harm among students and early-career faculty of color in social work education. Drawing on minority stress theory, racialized trauma, institutional betrayal theory, and cultural taxation, the paper explores how policy restrictions and institutional responses may heighten racialized stress, undermine institutional support, and increase the racialized labor expected of marginalized members of academic communities. For students of color, these conditions may manifest through racial isolation, curricular sanitization, diminished opportunities to engage critical perspectives on racism, and uncertainty regarding institutional support when racialized harm occurs. For early-career faculty of color, they may intensify expectations to mentor students, provide emotional support, advocate for equity, and sustain inclusion while simultaneously exposing faculty to heightened scrutiny, challenges to professional legitimacy, and devaluation of race-related scholarship and service. This article concludes by calling on social work programs to recognize and address cultural taxation, strengthen institutional protections, and reaffirm the profession’s commitments to equity, justice, and opposition to oppression amid the contemporary rollback of DEI initiatives.