Glossary
Anti-Bias
“An active commitment to challenging prejudice, stereotyping, and all forms of discrimination.”
Source: https://resources.environment.yale.edu/content/documents/00008167/Diversity-Glossary.pdf?201702022
Anti-Racism
“Anti-racism is a proactive stance against racism in all forms seen in actions and work rather than statements and policy. is defined as the work of actively opposing racism by advocating for changes in political, economic, and social life. Anti-racism tends to be an individualized approach, and set up in opposition to individual racist behaviors and impacts.”
Sources: https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary & https://curatorialresearch.com/services/research/decolonisation/decolonising-glossary/
Bias
“A conscious or subconscious preference which interferes with impartial judgment.”
Source: https://resources.environment.yale.edu/content/documents/00008167/Diversity-Glossary.pdf?201702022
Decolonization
“1. Decolonization may be defined as the active resistance against colonial powers, and a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, cultural, psychic independence and power that originate from a colonized nation’s own indigenous culture. This process occurs politically and also applies to personal and societal psychic, cultural, political, agricultural, and educational deconstruction of colonial oppression.
2. Per Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang: “Decolonization doesn’t have a synonym”; it is not a substitute for ‘human rights’ or ‘social justice’, though undoubtedly, they are connected in various ways. Decolonization demands an Indigenous framework and a centering of Indigenous land, Indigenous sovereignty, and Indigenous ways of thinking.”
Source: https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary
Discrimination
“The unequal treatment of members of various groups, based on conscious or unconscious prejudice, which favors one group over others on differences of race, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, language, age, national identity, religion and other categories.”
Diversity
“Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. It is all-inclusive and recognizes everyone and every group as part of the diversity that should be valued. A broad definition includes not only race, ethnicity, and gender—the groups that most often come to mind when the term "diversity" is used—but also age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, and physical appearance. It also involves different ideas, perspectives, and values.
It is important to note that many activists and thinkers critique diversity alone as a strategy. For instance, Baltimore Racial Justice Action states: “Diversity is silent on the subject of equity. In an anti-oppression context, therefore, the issue is not diversity, but rather equity. Often when people talk about diversity, they are thinking only of the ‘non-dominant” groups.’”
Source: https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary
Diversity Consciousness
“The awareness, understanding, and skills that allow us to think through and value human differences. As our awareness and understanding expand, so do our diversity skills. Similarly, developing and refining our diversity skills increases our awareness and understanding.”
Source: https://www.diversity.pitt.edu/education/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-glossary
Empowerment
“A social process that helps individuals or groups gain control over their own lives by acting on issues they define as important. It is important to avoid stating that the agency is empowering communities, as communities and individuals empower themselves.”
Source: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/dpho/race-to-justice-action-kit-glossary.pdf
Equity
“The fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all people, while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that prevent the full participation of some groups. The principle of equity acknowledges that there are historically underserved and underrepresented populations and that fairness regarding these unbalanced conditions is necessary to provide equal opportunities to all groups.”
Gender Justice
“Gender Justice is a feminist movement to end patriarchy, transphobia, and homophobia and to create a world free from misogyny. This includes equality and liberation for transgender people, gender non-conforming and non-binary people, and all women. Gender justice includes issues such as transgender and queer liberation, reproductive and sexual health, gender-based violence, human trafficking, and gender-based aspects of economic justice, and more. Achieving gender justice would mean that people of all genders have a meaningful right to bodily autonomy, safety, health, and opportunity. This movement works to deconstruct all legal, structural, and cultural barriers to gender equity.
*It’s important to note that gender justice is explicitly inclusive of transgender and nonbinary people; transphobic “feminism” has no place in our definition of gender justice.”
Source: https://sdpride.org/genderjustice/
Inclusion
“Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities and decision/policy making in a way that shares power. Inclusion promotes broad engagement, shared participation, and advances authentic sense of belonging through safe, positive, and nurturing environments. Inclusion is key to eliminating systemic inequality.”
Source: https://www.diversity.pitt.edu/education/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-glossary
Intersectionality
“1. Exposing [one’s] multiple identities can help clarify the ways in which a person can simultaneously experience privilege and oppression. For example, a Black woman in America does not experience gender inequalities in exactly the same way as a white woman, nor racial oppression identical to that experienced by a Black man. Each race and gender intersection produces a qualitatively distinct life.
2. Per Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw: Intersectionality is simply a prism to see the interactive effects of various forms of discrimination and disempowerment. It looks at the way that racism, many times, interacts with patriarchy, heterosexism, classism, xenophobia — seeing that the overlapping vulnerabilities created by these systems actually create specific kinds of challenges. “Intersectionality 102,” then, is to say that these distinct problems create challenges for movements that are only organized around these problems as separate and individual. So when racial justice doesn’t have a critique of patriarchy and homophobia, the particular way that racism is experienced and exacerbated by heterosexism, classism etc., falls outside of our political organizing. It means that significant numbers of people in our communities aren’t being served by social justice frames because they don’t address the particular ways that they’re experiencing discrimination.”
Source: https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary
Social Justice
“A broad term that connotes the practice of allyship and coalition work in order to promote equality, equity, respect, and the assurance of rights within and between communities and social groups. Social justice includes a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable, and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure. Social justice involves social actors who have a sense of their own agency as well as a sense of social responsibility toward and with others and the society as a whole.”
Source: https://www.diversity.pitt.edu/education/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-glossary