Dictionary/Glossary

Multiculturalism - The practice of acknowledging and respecting the various cultures, religions, languages, social equity, races, ethnicities, attitudes, and opinions within an environment. The theory and practice promotes peaceful coexistence of all identities and people.

Oppression - The systemic and pervasive nature of social inequality woven throughout social institutions as well as embedded within individual consciousness. 

Power - The ability to control, coerce or influence people based on privilege identities. Power may be positional and provide access to social, political, and economic resources.

Privilege - Any unearned benefit, right or advantage one receives in society by nature of their identities. Privilege tends to be invisible to those who possess it, because its absence (lack of privilege) is what calls attention to it. In other words, men are less likely to notice/acknowledge a difference in advantage because they do not live the life of a woman; white people are less likely to notice/acknowledge racism because they do not live the life of a person of color; straight people are less likely to notice/acknowledge heterosexism because they do not live the life of a gay/lesbian/bisexual person. 

Prejudice - A pre-judgment or unjustifiable, and usually negative, attitude of one type of individual or groups toward another group and its members. Such negative attitudes are typically based on unsupported generalizations (or stereotypes) that deny the right of individual members of certain groups to be recognized and treated as individuals with individual characteristics.  

Queer - An umbrella term that can refer to anyone who transgresses society's view of gender or sexuality. 

Race - A social construct that artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance, ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, cultural history, ethnic classification, and the political needs of a society at a given period of time.

Racial Equity - The condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. This includes the elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them.

Racial Justice - The proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts and outcomes for all.  

Racial Profiling - The use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense.

Racism - Prejudiced thoughts and discriminatory actions based on a difference in race/ethnicity. It is the intentional or unintentional use of power to isolate, separate and exploit others. 

Reverse Racism - Perceived discrimination against a dominant group or political majority. Commonly used by opponents to affirmative action who believe that these policies are causing members of traditionally dominant groups to be discriminated against.

Safe Space - A place where anyone can relax and be able to fully express, without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe on account of biological sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, cultural background, religious affiliation, age, or physical or mental ability.

Saliency - The quality of a group identity in which an individual is more conscious, and plays a larger role in that individual's day‐to‐day life; for example, a man's awareness of his "maleness" in an elevator with only women.

Scapegoating - The action of blaming an individual or group for something when, in reality, there is no one person or group responsible for the problem. It targets another person or group as responsible for problems in society because of that person’s group identity.

Sexual Orientation - The direction of one’s sexual attraction toward the same gender, opposite gender, or other genders. It is on a continuum and not necessarily a set of absolute categories.

Social Construct - An idea that appears to be natural and obvious to people who accept it but may or may not represent reality.

Social Justice - To take action as an advocate for a just society where all people have a right to fair and equitable treatment, support and resources.

Social Identity - Involves the ways in which one characterizes oneself, the affinities one has with other people, the ways one has learned to behave in stereotyped social settings, the things one values in oneself and in the world, and the norms that one recognizes or accepts governing everyday behavior.

Stereotype - Blanket beliefs and expectations about members of certain groups that present an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment. They go beyond necessary and useful categorizations and generalizations in that they are typically negative, are based on little information and are highly generalized.

System of Oppression - Conscious and unconscious, non‐random, and organized harassment, discrimination, exploitation, discrimination, prejudice and other forms of unequal treatment that impact different groups.

Tolerance - Acceptance, and open‐mindedness to different practices, attitudes, and cultures; does not necessarily mean agreement with the differences.

Token-ism - Hiring or seeking to have representation such as a few women and/or racial or ethnic minority persons so as to appear inclusive while remaining mono-cultural.

Transgender/Trans - An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term transgender is not indicative of gender expression, sexual orientation, hormonal makeup, physical anatomy, or how one is perceived in daily life.

Unconscious Bias (Implicit Bias) - Social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.

White Fragility - Discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice.

White Privilege - White Privilege is the spillover effect of racial prejudice and White institutional power. It means, for example, that a White person in the United States has privilege, simply because one is White. It means that as a member of the dominant group a White person has greater access or availability to resources because of being White. White ways of thinking and living are seen as the norm against which all people of color are compared. Life is structured around those norms for the benefit of White people. White privilege is the ability to grow up thinking that race doesn’t matter. It is not having to daily think about skin color and the questions, looks, and hurdles that need to be overcome because of one’s color. White Privilege may be less recognizable to some White people because of gender, age, sexual orientation, economic class or physical or mental ability, but it remains a reality because of one’s membership in the White dominant group.

White Supremacy | White supremacy is a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and individuals of color by white individuals and nations of the European continent for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege.

Xenophobia - Hatred or fear of foreigners/strangers or of their politics or culture.

Ability - The power or capacity to do or act physically, mentally, legally, morally, financially, etc. 

Access - Creating the necessary conditions so that individuals and organizations desiring to, and who are eligible to, use our services, facilities, programs and employment opportunities. 

Accomplice - The actions of an accomplice are meant to directly challenge institutionalized racism, colonization, and white supremacy by blocking or impeding racist people, policies and structures.

Advocate - Someone who speaks up for themselves and members of their identity group; e.g. a person who lobbies for equal pay for a specific group.

Ally - A person of one social identity group who stands up in support of members of another group; typically a member of dominant identity advocating and supporting a marginalized group.

Bias - Prejudice; an inclination or preference, especially one that interferes with impartial judgement.

Bigotry - An unreasonable or irrational attachment to negative stereotypes and prejudices.

Cisgender - An abbreviation for individuals in whom there is a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity. 

Color Blind(ness) - The racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. The term “colorblind” de‐emphasizes, or ignores, race and ethnicity, a large part of one’s identity. 

Culture - A way of life of a group of people. The behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. 

Cultural Appropriation - The adoption or theft of icons, rituals, aesthetic standards, and behavior from one culture or subculture by another. It is generally applied when the subject culture is a minority culture or somehow subordinate in social, political, economic, or military status to appropriating culture. This “appropriation” often occurs without any real understanding of why the original culture took part in these activities, often converting culturally significant artifacts, practices, and beliefs into “meaningless” pop-culture or giving them a significance that is completely different/less nuanced than they would originally have had.

Cultural Competence - An ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures. Developing cultural competence results in an ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures. Cultural competence is a developmental process that evolves over an extended period.

Disability - An impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or some combination of these. It substantially affects a person's life activities and may be present from birth or occur during a person's lifetime.

Discrimination - The denial of justice and fair treatment by both individuals and institutions in many areas, including employment, education, housing, banking, and political rights. Discrimination is an action that can follow prejudiced thinking.

Diversity - The wide variety of shared and different personal and group characteristics among human beings.

Ethnicity - A social construct which divides individuals into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as a shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests, history and ancestral geographical base.

Ethnocentricity - Considered by some to be an attitude that views one’s own culture as superior. Others cast it as “seeing things from the point of view of one’s own ethnic group” without the necessary connotation of superiority.

Equality - A state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in certain respects, including civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights and equal access to certain social goods and services.

Equity - Takes into consideration the fact that the social identifiers (race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.) do, in fact, affect equality. In an equitable environment, an individual or a group would be given what was needed to give them equal advantage. This would not necessarily be equal to what others were receiving. It could be more or different. Equity is an ideal and a goal, not a process. It ensures that everyone has the resources they need to succeed.

Feminism - The advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

Gender Fluid | A person who does not identify with a single fixed gender; of or relating to a person having or expressing a fluid or unfixed gender identity.

Gender Identity - Your internal sense of self; how you relate to your gender(s).

Gender Non-Conforming - A broad term referring to people who do not behave in a way that conforms to the traditional expectations of their gender, or whose gender expression does not fit into a category.

Hate Crime - Hate crime legislation often defines a hate crime as a crime motivated by the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.

Inclusion - The act of creating an environment in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate. An inclusive and welcoming climate with equal access to opportunities and resources embraces differences and offers respect in words and actions for all people. 

Intercultural Competence - The ability to develop targeted knowledge, skills and attitudes that lead to visible behavior and communication that are both effective and appropriate in intercultural interactions.

Institutional Racism - The ways in which institutional policies and practices create different outcomes for different racial groups. The institutional policies may never mention any racial group, but their effect is to create advantages for whites and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups classified as people of color.

Intersectionality - The idea that various biological, social, and cultural categories-- including gender, race, class, ethnicity, and social categories interact and contribute towards systematic social inequality. 

Implicit Bias - Negative associations expressed automatically that people unknowingly hold; also known as unconscious or hidden bias. 

Impostor Syndrome - Refers to individuals' feelings of not being as capable or adequate as others. 

LGBTQAAI - The more commonly seen LGBT acronym means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. The addition of a “Q” at the end means “questioning” or “queer.” One “A” stands for “asexual”, another for “allies”. The “I” means “intersex”.

Marginalization - Treatment of a person, group or concept as insignificant or pervasive and places them outside of the mainstream society. 

Microaggressions - Intentional or unintentional verbal, nonverbal or environmental slights/insults that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative messages to people based upon their marginalized group. 

Model Minority - Refers to a minority ethnic, racial, or religious group whose members achieve a higher degree of success than the population average. This success is typically measured in income, education, and related factors such as low crime rate and high family stability.