Glossary
The increasingly common conversation taking place in homes and communities across the country between parents of color and their children, especially sons, about how to behave if they are ever stopped by the police.
Source: PBS
The individual, cultural, and institutional beliefs and discrimination that systematically oppress people who have mental, emotional and physical disabilities.
Source: Our Shared Future
The abolition movement consisted of organized efforts to do away with legalized slavery, in the United States. Emancipation was gained gradually in northern states, and slavery was abolished throughout the country by the Thirteenth Amendment to the US.
Source: Understanding Race
Activism is intentional action by an individual to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of a controversial argument…Social activism is working with other people to bring about a change in society.
Source: Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research
Advocacy is a coordinated combination of problem identification, solution creation, strategy development and actions taken to make positive changes. Advocacy and activism are terms that are often used interchangeably, and while they do overlap, they also have distinctly different meanings.
An advocate is one who speaks on behalf of another person or group.
An activist is a person who makes an intentional action to bring about social or political change.
Source: NIH Pain Consortium
- Someone who makes the commitment and effort to recognize their privilege (based on gender, class, race, sexual identity, etc.) and work in solidarity with oppressed groups in the struggle for justice. Allies understand that it is in their own interest to end all forms of oppression, even those from which they may benefit in concrete ways.
- An action, not an identity. Members of the advantaged group recognize their privilege and work in solidarity with oppressed groups to dismantle the systems of oppression(s) from which they derive power, privilege, and acceptance. Requires understanding that it is in their own interest to end all forms of oppression, even those from which they may benefit in concrete ways. It means taking intentional, overt, and consistent responsibility for the changes we know are needed in our society, and often ignore or leave for others to deal with; it does so in a way that facilitates the empowerment of persons targeted by oppression. This framework can be used to imply that one does not feel directly implicated by the oppression.
Source: Racial Equity Tools
The Council for Democratizing Education defines anti-Blackness as being a two-part formation that both voids Blackness of value, while systematically marginalizing Black people and their issues. The first form of anti-Blackness is overt racism. Beneath this anti-Black racism is the covert structural and systemic racism which categorically predetermines the socioeconomic status of Blacks in this country. The structure is held in place by anti-Black policies, institutions, and ideologies.
The second form of anti-Blackness is the unethical disregard for anti-Black institutions and policies. This disregard is the product of class, race, and/or gender privilege certain individuals experience due to anti-Black institutions and policies. This form of anti-Blackness is protected by the first form of overt racism.
Source: Racial Equity Tools
Anti-Oppression is the strategies, theories, actions and practices that actively challenge systems of oppression on an ongoing basis in one’s daily life and in social justice/change work. Anti-oppression work seeks to recognize the oppression that exists in our society and attempts to mitigate its effects and eventually equalize the power imbalance in our communities. Oppression operates at different levels (from individual to institutional to cultural) and so anti-oppression must as well.
Source: Salem State University
The work of actively opposing racism by advocating for changes in political, economic, and social life.
Source: Our Shared Future
The process of change that occurs when an individual or group adopts the characteristics of the dominant culture and is fully incorporated into that culture’s social, economic, and political institutions.
Source: Understanding Race
Bias is any thought or action that discriminates or disproportionately favors one person or group of people over another based on superficial or inaccurate perceptions of the person or group.
Acts of bias can focus on almost any characteristic or belief, but the most common bias reports engage perceived race, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, ancestry, and political beliefs.
Source: Know Your Rights and Responsibilities at Penn State University
A global cultural practice of within-group and between-group prejudice in favor or lighter skin color.
Source: Our Shared Future
The movement of a collective identity, voluntaritly or involuntarily, from one place to many. The African Diaspora primarily refers to communities throughout the owrld that results from the capture and dispersal of African people during the transatlantic slave trade.
Source: Our Shared Future
Policies and practices that harm and disadvantage a group and its members.
Source: Understanding Race
The various backgrounds and races that comprise a community, nation or other grouping. In many cases the term diversity does not acknowledge the existence of diversity of background, race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, but implies an appreciation of these differences. However diversity does not eliminate structural racism. That dismantling requires acknowledgement of racism as well as changes in policies and processes that lead to racial equity.
Source: Our Shared Future
The ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.
Source: Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley
Equality is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights and opportunities. Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources and opportunities, regardless of their circumstances. In social and racial justice movements, equality can actually increase inequities in communities as not every group of people needs the same resources or opportunities allocated to them in order to thrive. See more: Equity vs. Equality: What’s the Difference?
Equity recognizes each person has varying circumstances and needs, and therefore different groups of people need resources and opportunities allocated to them accordingly in order to thrive. See more: Equity vs. Equality: What’s the Difference?
An idea similar to race that groups people according to common origin or background. The term usually refers to social, cultural, religious, linguistic and other affiliations although, like race, it is sometimes linked to perceived biological markers. Ethnicity is often characterized by cultural features, such as dress, language, religion, and social organization.
Source: Understanding Race
A Permanent Resident card, or “green card,” is a plastic card with the individual’s biographic information, photo, fingerprint, and expiration date issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Source: University of California San Francisco – International Students and Scholars Office
The act of entering a country of which one is not a native to become a permanent resident. In the United States and elsewhere, immigration and immigration policies are often racially-charged issues.
Source: Understanding Race
U.S. immigration law criminalizes immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through a series of unjust laws and increasingly harsh penalties imposed not only on those entering the United States in the hopes of a better life, but on those members of the community without citizenship who have also endured mistreatment and racial profiling in the criminal legal system. In addition, immigrant workers are often abused, exploited, and have become scapegoats and victims of racism and stereotyping.
Sources: ACLU, Immigrant Justice
(also known as unconscious or hidden bias) Implicit biases are negative associations that people unknowingly hold. They are expressed automatically, without conscious awareness. Many studies have indicated that implicit biases affect individuals’ attitudes and actions, thus creating real-world implications, even though individuals may not even be aware that those biases exist within themselves.
Source: Our Shared Future
1. The policies and practices within and across institutions that, intentionally or not, produce outcomes that chronically favor, or put a racial group at a disadvantage.
2. The embeddedness of racially discriminatory practices in the institutions, laws, and agreed upon values and practices of a society.
Sources: Our Shared Future, Understanding Race
Internalized racism is the situation that occurs in a racist system when a racial group oppressed by racism supports the supremacy and dominance of the dominating group by maintaining or participating in the set of attitudes, behaviors, social structures, and ideologies that undergird the dominating group’s power. It involves four essential and interconnected elements: Decision-making, Resources, Standards, and Naming the problem. See more: https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary
Source: Racial Equality Tools
Interpersonal racism occurs between individuals. Once we bring our private beliefs into our interaction with others, racism is now in the interpersonal realm.
Source: Racial Equality Tools
A lends through which one can see where power collides and intersects with gender, class, heterosexism, and xenophobia and how the overlapping vulnerabilities created by these systems create specific kinds of challenges.
Source: Our Shared Future
Language discrimination occurs when a person is treated differently because of that person’s native language or other characteristics of that person’s speech.
Source: ACLU Northern California
Micro-affirmations substitute messages about deficit and exclusion with messages of excellence, openness, and opportunity.
Source: Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University
The everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their group identity.
Source: Our Shared Future
Antibias strategies that targets, allies and bystanders can engage in to disarm and dismantle microaggressions.
Source: APA
In the global context, movement of a person either across an international border (international migration) or within a state (internal migration) for more than one year irrespective of the causes, voluntary or involuntary, and the means, regular or irregular, used to migrate.
Source: Our Shared Future
A term created by sociologist William Peterson to describe the Japanese community, whom he saw as being able to overcome oppression because of their cultural values.
While individuals employing the Model Minority trope may think they are being complimentary, in fact the term is related to colorism and its root, anti-Blackness. The model minority myth creates an understanding of ethnic groups, including Asian Americans, as a monolith, or as a mass whose parts cannot be distinguished from each other. The model minority myth can be understood as a tool that white supremacy uses to pit people of color against each other in order to protect its status.
Source: Racial Equality Tools
A judgment or belief that is formed on insufficient grounds before facts are known or in disregard of facts that contradict it.
Source: Our Shared Future
The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems
Sources: Tufts University Prison Divestment, Critical Resistance
Unearned social power accorded by the formal and informal institutions of society to ALL members of a dominant group (e.g. white privilege, male privilege, etc.). Privilege is usually invisible to those who have it because we’re taught not to see it, but nevertheless it puts them at an advantage over those who do not have it.
Source: Racial Equality Tools
A social process of classifying people with similar physical traits and customs into specific groups. Race was created and used to justify historical oppression, slavery, and conquest.
Source: Our Shared Future
involves adjusting one’s style of speech, appearance, behavior, and expression in ways that will optimize the comfort of others in exchange for fair treatment, quality service, and employment opportunities. Research suggests that code-switching often occurs in spaces where negative stereotypes of black people run counter to what are considered “appropriate” behaviors and norms for a specific environment.
Source: Harvard Business Review
Refers to what a genuinely non-racist society would look like. In a racially equitable society, the distribution of society’s benefits and burdens would not be skewed by race. In other words, racial equity would be a reality in which a person is no more or less likely to experience society’s benefits or burdens just because of the color of their skin.
Source: Our Shared Future
Racial gerrymandering is a political practice that dilutes the voting power of racial minorities as a method of voter suppression. Gerrymandering (racial or otherwise) is conducted to provide an unfair advantage to a particular candidate or party. There are two methods used in gerrymandering, colloquially referred to as ‘cracking’ and ‘packing.’ Cracking refers to the process of splitting up voters into disparate districts to dilute their vote. Packing concentrates the vote of a particular group into a singular district thereby ensuring that they have fewer representatives in office.
Source: National Organization for Women
1. The use of race to establish and justify a social hierarchy and system of power that privileges, preferences or advances certain individuals or groups of people usually at the expense of others. Racism is perpetuated through both interpersonal and institutional practices.
2. The individual, cultural, and institutional beliefs and discrimination that systematically oppress Black [people] and people of color.
Sources: Our Shared Future, Understanding Race
The term “redlining” … comes from the development by the New Deal, by the federal government of maps of every metropolitan area in the country. And those maps were color-coded by first the Home Owners Loan Corp. and then the Federal Housing Administration and then adopted by the Veterans Administration, and these color codes were designed to indicate where it was safe to insure mortgages. And anywhere where African-Americans lived, anywhere where African-Americans lived nearby were colored red to indicate to appraisers that these neighborhoods were too risky to insure mortgages.
Redlining is the practice of denying people access to credit because of where they live, even if they are personally qualified for loans. Historically, mortgage lenders once widely redlined core urban neighborhoods and Black-populated neighborhoods in particular…The Fair Housing Act in 1968 banned discrimination in real estate and mortgage lending, including racially motivated redlining.
Sources: NPR, Federal Reserve History
School districts across the country employ discipline policies that push students out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system at alarming rates…Policies that encourage police presence at schools, harsh tactics including physical restraint, and automatic punishments that result in suspensions and out-of-class time are huge contributors to the pipeline, but the problem is more complex than that.
Source: Learning for Justice
Social justice encompasses economic justice. Social justice is the virtue which guides us in creating those organized human interactions we call institutions. In turn, social institutions, when justly organized, provide us with access to what is good for the person, both individually and in our associations with others. Social justice also imposes on each of us a personal responsibility to collaborate with others, at whatever level of the “Common Good” in which we participate, to design and continually perfect our institutions as tools for personal and social development.
Source: Our Shared Future
The process of attributing particular traits, characteristics, behaviors or values to an entire group or category of people who are, as a consequence, monolithically represented; includes the process of negative stereotyping.
Source: Understanding Race
A system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.
Source: Our Shared Future
the concept of systemic reform may be used in reference to (1) reforms that impact multiple levels of a system (2) reforms that aspire to make changes throughout a defined system, such as district-wide or statewide reforms; (3) reforms that are intended to influence, in minor or significant ways, every member in a system; or (4) reforms that may vary widely in design and purpose, but that nevertheless reflect a consistent philosophy or that is aimed at achieving common objectives.
Source: EdGlossary
An emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, crime, natural disaster, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, experiencing or witnessing violence, death of a loved one, war, and more. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.
Source: APA
Refers to the defensiveness, denial, and invalidation that characterizes some white people’s responses to the mention of racism.
Source: Healthline
The historical and contemporary advantages that have favored whites, regardless of socioeconomic status, over other groups such as African Americans in gaining access to quality education, decent jobs and livable wages, homeownership, retirement benefits, and wealth.
Source: Our Shared Future
Attitudes, prejudices and behavior that reject, exclude and often vilify persons based on the perception that they are outsiders or foreigners to the community, society or national identity.
Source: Our Shared Future