The dialogue around diversity, equity and inclusion is broad and growing. The purpose of this dictionary is to promote dialogue around equity and inclusion. It is not meant to be exhaustive, since language is continuously evolving. The main goal is to provide a basic framework around this conversation.
This dictionary will be updated on an annual basis to ensure that the content reflects the evolution of language. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion actively encourages feedback to ensure its continual improvement. If you have suggestions, please email [email protected].
For LGBTQ+ definitions, please visit the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center's Glossary.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Ableism: Prejudice and/or discrimination against people with disabilities.
Active Racism: Actions which have as their stated or explicit goal the maintenance of the system of racism and the oppression of those in the targeted racial groups. People who participate in active racism advocate the continued subjugation of members of the targeted groups and protection of “the rights” of members of the agent group. These goals are often supported by a belief in the inferiority of People of Color and the superiority of white people, culture, and values.
Affirmative Action: Affirmative Action refers to positive steps aimed at increasing the inclusion of historically excluded groups in employment, education, and business. Such steps are not designed to offer preferential treatment to, or exclude from participation, any group. To the contrary, Affirmative Action policies are intended to promote access for the traditionally underrepresented through heightened outreach and efforts at inclusion. (Courtesy of the American Association for Affirmative Action)
African American: 1. Refers to individuals living in the United States with African ancestry. 2. An ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to West and sub-Saharan Africa. Many African Americans also have European and/or Native American ancestors.
Ageism: Discrimination of individuals based on their age.
Ally: An individual that supports the struggles of a group; not part of the group themselves. In the LGBTQ+ context, a person who supports and honors sexual and gender diversity, acts against homophobic and transphobic remarks and behaviors, and is willing to explore and understand these forms of bias within themselves.
Antisemitism: (or Anti-Semitism) “Semitic” originally referred to a family of languages that included Hebrew. But it came to be applied directly to hatred of the Jews. Antisemitism is the systematic discrimination against denigration, or oppression of Jews, Judaism, and the cultural, intellectual, and religious heritage of the Jewish people.
Arab American: (adj.) Refers to Americans of Arab ancestry and constitute an ethnicity made up of several waves of immigrants from 22 Arab countries, stretching from Morocco in the west to Oman in the east. Arab Americans are also Middle Eastern and North African Americans, i.e. terms that do not equate ethnic heritage with nationality but rather a geographic area. Although a highly diverse ethnic group, Arab Americans descend from a heritage that represent common linguistic, cultural, and political traditions.
Asian American: (n) Refers to individuals living in the United States with Asian ancestry.
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B
Bias: An inclination or preference either for or against an individual or group that interferes with impartial judgment.
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C
Class: 1. Relative social rank in terms of income, wealth, status, and/or power. 2. Category or division based on economic status; members of a class are theoretically assumed to possess similar cultural, political, and economic characteristics and principles.
Classism: The institutional, cultural, and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign differential value to people according to their socio-economic class; and an economic system which creates excessive inequality and causes basic human needs to go unmet.
Collusion: Thinking and acting in ways which support the system of racism. White people can actively collude by joining groups which advocate white supremacy. All people can collude by telling racist jokes, discriminating against a Person of Color, or remaining silent when observing a racist incident or remark. We believe that both white people and People of Color can collude with racism through their attitudes, beliefs, and actions.
Culture: Aspects of a social environment that are used to communicate values such as what is considered good and desirable, right and wrong, normal, different, appropriate, or attractive. The means through which society creates context form which individuals derive meaning and prescriptions for successful living within that culture (language and speech patterns, orientation toward time, standards of beauty, holidays that are celebrated, images of a “normal family”).
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D
Diaspora: A historical dispersion of a group of people deriving from similar origins, i.e. the African Diaspora includes African Americans, Africans, Caribbeans, Afro-Russians, Black Brazilians, Agro-Latinos, etc.
Disability: An individual is considered to have a disability if they have a physical, intellectual, cognitive or psychiatric condition that limits the ability to perform a major life activity.
Disadvantaged: 1. A historically oppressed group having less than sufficient resources to fund all of basic needs; without expendable income. 2. A group characterized by disproportionate economic, social, and political disadvantages.
Discrimination: 1. The systematic, intended or unintended denial of recognition, power, privilege, and opportunity to certain people based on the groups to which they belong. 2. (Prejudice + Power) An action against other people on the ground of their group membership, particularly the refusal to grant such people opportunities, access, or resources that would be granted to similarly qualified members of one’s own group. There are many forms of discrimination including: racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism, etc.
Diversity: A collective mixture characterized by differences and similarities that are applied in pursuit of organizational objectives.
Diversity Management: A comprehensive organizational and managerial process of planning for, organizing, directing, and supporting a collective mixture in a way that adds a measurable difference to organizational performance.
Dominant Culture: The cultural group that controls the major aspects of social power, values, and norms within a society.
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E
Emigrant: One who leaves their country of origin to reside in a foreign country.
Essentialism: The practice of categorizing a group based on an artificial social construction that imparts an “essence” of that group, which homogenizes the group and effaces individuality and difference.
Ethnicity: A social construct that divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interest, history, and ancestral geographical base. Examples of different ethnic groups are Cape Verdean, Haitian, African American (Black); Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese (Asian); Cherokee, Mohawk, Navajo (Native American); Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican (Latino/a); Polish, Irish, and French (White).
Ethnocentrism: A practice of unconsciously or consciously privileging a certain ethnic group over others. This involves judging other groups by the values of one’s own group.
Eurocentrism: The practice of consciously or unconsciously privileging the culture of Europe over other cultures.
European American: An individual living in the United States with European ancestry.
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F
Feminism: The valuing of women, and the belief in and advocacy for social, political, and economic equality and liberation for all genders. Feminism questions and challenges patriarchal social values and structures that serve to enforce and maintain men’s dominance and women’s subordination.
Fundamentalism: Movement with strict view of doctrine: a religious or political movement based on a literal interpretation of and strict adherence to doctrine, especially as a return to former principles.
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G
Glass ceiling: A term that describes the maximum position and salary some claim minorities and women are allowed to reach without any chances of further promotion or advancement within an employment scenario.
G
H
Harassment: Unwelcome words, conduct, or actions, typically repeated or persistent, that are directed towards persons based on their race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, and/or age, among other things. These behaviors annoy, alarm or cause substantial emotional distress in those persons resulting in feelings of intimidation, hostility, degradation, humiliation, or offense.
Hate: Intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury: extreme dislike or antipathy.
Hate Incident: Behavior which constitutes an expression of hostility against the person or property of another because of their difference. Such incidents include actions motivated by bias, but do not meet the necessary elements required to prove a crime.
Hispanic American: Pertaining to Americans with direct ancestry from Hispanic, or Spanish-speaking, countries.
Horizontal Hostility: The result of people of targeted groups believing, acting on, or enforcing the dominant system of discrimination and oppression. Horizontal hostility can occur between members of the same group or between members of different, targeted groups.
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I
Ignorance: Lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified: resulting from or showing lack of knowledge.
Immigrant: A person who resides in a nation, country, or region other than that of his/her origin.
Inclusion: Inclusion is engaging the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, capabilities, and ways of living of individuals and groups when joined in a common endeavor. Inclusion creates a culture of belonging in which similarities and differences are valued and honored for the improvement of our enterprises, our society, and our world. (Courtesy of the Institute for Inclusion)
Indigenous: Originating from a culture with ancient ties to the land in which a group resides.
Institutional Racism: The network of institutional structures, policies, and practices that create advantages and benefits for white people, and discrimination, oppression, and disadvantage for people from targeted racial groups. The advantages created for white people are often invisible to them, or are considered “rights” available to everyone as opposed to “privileges” awarded to only some individuals and groups.
Internalized Domination: When members of the agent group accept their group’s socially superior status as normal and deserved.
Internalized Oppression: The process by which a member of an oppressed group comes to accept and live out the inaccurate myths and stereotypes applied to their group.
Internalized Subordination: When members of the target social group have adopted the agent group’s ideology and accept their subordinate status as deserved, natural, and inevitable.
Intolerance: Refusal to accept differences: unwillingness or refusal to accept people who are different from you, or views, beliefs, or lifestyles that differ from your own.
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J
Jew(s): The term Jew is derived from Judea, one of the ancient kingdoms of the Hebrew people. Since the scattering of the Jewish people, after the destruction of Judea and Israel, the Jews have thought of themselves as a people, a religion, a culture, joined together by a common history. Whether they assimilated or remained separate, Jews in medieval Europe were “the other” on the basis of their non-Christian religious practice and culture; in modern Europe, they were “the other” on the basis of racial hierarchies (Aryan, Serb, and Semite).
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L
Latino/a: Individual living in the United States originating from, or having a heritage relating to Latin America.
Latinx: (Pronounced “Latin ex”) Latinx is a gender-neutral term to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. In English, Latinx is sometimes preferred as Latino can sound less inclusive because of its grammatically masculine root. In Spanish, Latino can also refer to a group of different genders. Note that Latinx is still a new term and not everyone agrees with its use, with some preferring to be called Hispanic.
Linguicism: Refers to discrimination based particularly on language. Language oppression is often tied to discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and/or class.
L
M
Minority: Term used to describe a group that represents a relatively smaller percentage of the overall population of a nation/state/continent, etc.
Multiculturalism: The practice of acknowledging and respecting the various cultures, religions, races, ethnicities, attitudes, and opinions within an environment.
M
N
National Origin: System of classification based on nation from which a person originates, regardless of the nation in which they currently reside.
Native American: Refers to the descendants of the various indigenous populations that occupied the land now designated America.
Neocolonialization: Term for contemporary policies adopted by international and western nations and organizations that exert regulation, power, and control over poorer nations disguised as humanitarian help or aid. These policies are distinct from but related to the “original” period of colonization of Africa, Asia, and the Americas by European nations.
N
O
Oppression: A systemic social phenomenon based on the perceived and real differences among social groups that involve ideological domination, institutional control and the promulgation of the oppressor’s ideology, logic system, and culture to the oppressed group. The result is the exploitation of one social group by another for the benefit of the oppressor group.
O
P
Pan-Africanism: 1. Describes the theory relating to the desire to educate all peoples of the African Diaspora of their common plight and of the connections between them, e.g. a problem faced by one group affects the lives of other groups as well. 2. Theory relating to the desire to link all African countries across the continent through a common government, language, ideology, or belief.
Passive Racism: Beliefs, attitudes, and actions that contribute to the maintenance of racism, without openly advocating violence or oppression. The conscious and unconscious maintenance of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that support the system of racism, racial prejudice and racial dominance.
Patriarchy: Social system in which men dominate: a social system in which men are regarded as the authority within the family and society, and in which power and possessions are passed on from father to son.
Pluralism: An organizational culture that incorporates mutual respect, acceptance, teamwork, and productivity among people who are diverse in the dimensions of these same human differences.
Prejudice: Conscious or unconscious negative belief about another social group and its members without knowledge of or examination of the facts: bias.
Privilege: 1. Power and advantages benefiting a group derived from the historical oppression and exploitation of other groups. 2. Unearned access to resources only readily available to some people as a result of their group membership.
P
Q
Q
R
Race: A social construct that artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as a physical appearance (particularly color), ancestral heritage, cultural affiliations, cultural history, ethnic classification, and the social, economic, and political needs of a society at a given period of time. Racial categories subsume ethnic groups.
Racism: The systematics subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power in the United States (Blacks, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asians), by the members of the agent racial group who have relatively more social power (white people). This subordination is supported by the actions of the individuals, cultural norms and values, and the institutional structures and practices of society.
Religion: 1. An organized belief system based on certain tenets of faith. 2. A belief in a supreme supernatural force or god(s).
R
S
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.
Sexism: (Prejudice + Power) Conscious or unconscious action or institutional structure that subordinates a person because of gender. In our history, it has been women who have traditionally been subordinate.
Social Constructionism: A perception of an individual, group, or idea that is “constructed” through cultural and social practice, but appears to be “natural” or “the way things are.” For example, the idea that women “naturally” like to do housework is a social construction because this idea appears “natural” due to its historical repetition, rather than it being “true” in any essential sense.
Stereotype: A preconceived or oversimplified generalization about an entire group of people without regard for their individual differences. While often negative, stereotypes may also be complimentary. Yet ever positive stereotypes can have a negation impact and can feed into prejudice.
S
T
Tolerance: Acceptance and open-mindedness to different practices, attitudes, and cultures; does not necessarily mean agreement with the differences.
T
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U
V
Violence: Intense, turbulent, or furious and often destructive action or force: vehement feeling or expression: exertion of force so as to injure or abuse.
V
W
White Privilege: The concrete benefits of access and social rewards and the power to shape the norms and values of society which white people receive, unconsciously or consciously, by virtue of their skin color in a racist society. Examples include the ability to be unaware of race, the ability to live and work among people of the same racial group as their own, the security of not being pulled over by the police for being a suspicious person, the expectation that they speak for themselves and not their entire race, the ability to have a job hire or promotion attributed to their skills and background and not affirmative action.
W
X
Xenophobia: A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.
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