Diversity Equity inclusion & Anti-Racism Terminology

Groups of people who share an identity or background that gather together, formally and informally, to build community and hold space. An affinity group gives members of a shared identity an opportunity to spend time in a space where their cultural experiences, both healthy and harmful, are commonly understood and affirmed, and where their backgrounds can be celebrated. In gathering without the presence of those in dominant identities, where affinity group members’ voices can be heard without feeling the need to teach or explain, this fulfills a communal need for those who have not historically had spaces created for them.  ACC Inclusive Excellence Resources

Someone who supports a group other than one’s own (in terms of multiple identities such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc.). An ally acknowledges oppression and actively commits to reducing their own complicity, investing in strengthening their own knowledge and awareness of oppression. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

The active process of identifying, challenging, and confronting racism. This active process requires confronting systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, behaviors, and attitudes. NADOHE

One who is expressing the ideas that racial groups are equals and do not need developing and who actively call out and oppose racism, and support policy that reduces racial inequity.  IMPACT, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Racial Equity Tools Glossary

The cognitive tendency among humans to make systematic decisions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence. Bias becomes a concern when it interferes with how we make fair decisions. NCCC :: establish

An acronym used to refer to Black, Indigenous and People of Color. It is based on the recognition of collective experiences of systemic racism. As with any other identity term, it is up to individuals to use this term as an identifier.  UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

A term for people whose gender identity, expression, or behavior aligns with those typically associated with their assigned sex at birth.  UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

The belief that everyone should be treated “equally” without respect to societal, economic, historical, racial, or other differences. No differences are seen or acknowledged; everyone is the same.  UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

A term used primarily in the United States to describe communities of people who are not identified as White, emphasize common experiences of racism. UW School of Public Health  

A public or private nonprofit organization of demonstrated effectiveness that— (A) is representative of a community or significant segments of a community; and (B) provides educational or related services to individuals in the community. Cornell Law / Legal Information Institute

A set of academic and interpersonal skills [and actions] that allow individuals to increase their understanding, sensitivity, appreciation, and responsiveness to cultural differences and the interactions resulting from them. The particulars of acquiring cultural competency vary among different groups, and they involve an ongoing relational process tending to inclusion and trust-building. Martin and Vaughn, "Cultural Competence"

Educational institutions, businesses, organizations, and service delivery systems that respond to the needs of the community being served as defined by that community. 

The non-consensual/misappropriate use of cultural elements for commodification or profit purposes – including symbols, art, language, customs, etc. – often without understanding, acknowledgment, or respect for its value in the context of its original culture. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

Physical or mental impairment that affects a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

Includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all 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. The differences or diversity term includes but is not limited to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, disability, sex, age, religion, socioeconomic status, education, language, physical appearance, veteran status, national origin,  geographic location, and political affiliation. It also involves different ideas, perspectives, and values. UC Berkeley

Unequal treatment of people based on their membership in a group. In contrast to prejudice, discrimination is a behavior. To discriminate is to treat a person, not on the basis of their intrinsic individual qualities, but on the basis of a prejudgment about a group [based on race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, and other categories}. Discrimination can manifest in the law or in practice without legal sanction. Baltimore Racial Justice Action

When target group members refuse to accept the dominant ideology and take actions to redistribute social power more equitably. 

The guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all students, faculty and staff, while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that impact the achievement, success, and full participation of historically marginalized and other groups. UC Berkeley

A demonstrated awareness of a willingness to address equity issues among institutional leaders and staff. The perspective or mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student and [employee] outcomes. (CUE, USC, Bensimon, Dowd & Whitham, 2016)

The condition under which every individual is treated in the same way, and is granted the same rights and responsibilities, regardless of their individual difference. UW School of Public Health

A person is clear about their feelings and attitudes and related behaviors are conducted with intent. This type of bias is processed neurologically at a conscious level. NCCC :: establish

Distinct from the term “sexual orientation,” refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female or something else. Since gender identity is internal, one’s gender identity is not necessarily visible to others. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

An individual whose gender expression is different from societal expectations related to gender. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

Communities that have systematically been denied access to economic, political. and cultural participation. These 4 phrases are sabotaging your DEI Efforts

Category of types of students not considered when U.S. education systems were originally designed. Examples include students of first-generation immigrants; from low income families; of adult status; of color; of marginalized gender identities; from second-language backgrounds; of undocumented status; with military service; with disabilities; with dependents; in foster care; or with records of incarceration.  (Achieving the Dream, 2018) 

The unintentional activation of prejudicial attitudes toward a group based on stereotypes that have receded from consciousness over time and have become invisible to the holder. These attitudes represent “overlearned associations with a strong affective basis that are difficult to completely overwrite with recent experiences or acquired values." Such biases result in an automatic and unconscious reaction and/or behavior. NCCC :: establish

Authentically and intentionally valuing, engaging and respecting all individuals in an organization or community. Bringing traditionally excluded individuals or groups into all aspects of organizational work and partnerships including decision-making and policy processes in a way that shares power. 

An institutional commitment to create an environment in which excellence is more expansive for students, faculty, staff, and the community. For the institution to be excellent, practitioners must focus on embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into practices, procedures, and culture in support services, curriculum, and classrooms. Efforts go beyond diversity in recruiting, admissions and hiring, but are embedded throughout the organization.  ACC Inclusive Excellence Resources

Refers specifically to 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. Racial Equity Tools

A social construct that recognizes the fluid diversity of identities that a person can hold such as gender, race, class, religion, professional status, marital status, socioeconomic status, etc. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

A way of describing any attitude, action or institutional structure that oppresses a person or group because of their target group. For example, race (racism), gender (sexism), economic status (classism), older age (ageism), religion (e.g., anti-Semitism), sexual orientation (heterosexism), language/immigrant status (xenophobism), etc. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

An inclusive term for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

Generally, a Low-Income Community (LIC) is defined by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a census tract with a poverty rate of at least 20 percent or a median family income 80 percent or less than the area it is benchmarked against (metropolitan area for metropolitan tracts, state for rural tracts). Economic Innovation Group

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 marginalized group membership. D.W. Sue   

An individual’s development and demonstration of awareness, knowledge, understanding, and skills, which are applied to take effective action that promotes equity, inclusion and social justice.  It implies awareness and knowledge of self and others and the ability to apply culturally appropriate knowledge and skills with the objective of advancing equity, inclusion, social justice and anti-racism. (Johnson & Terrell, 2020)

The word neurodiversity refers to the diversity of all people, but it is often used in the context of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as other neurological or developmental conditions such as ADHD or learning disabilities. What is neurodiversity? - Harvard Health

The systematic exploitation of one social group by another for its own benefit; it involves institutional control, ideological domination and the imposition of the dominant group’s culture on the marginalized group. It is pervasive – woven throughout social institutions as well as embedded within individual consciousness. It is restricting – structural limits significantly shape a person’s life chances and sense of possibility in ways beyond the individual’s control. It is hierarchical – the dominant or privileged groups benefit, often in unconscious ways, from the disempowerment of subordinated or targeted groups.  Baltimore Racial Justice Action, 

An explicit, known, conscious, and usually pejorative judgment or attitude toward a group. Prejudice is beliefs and attitudes that people know they hold and can control deliberately and strategically. Such biases can result in prejudice. However, people have conscious access to their explicit biases and are able to monitor and control them to mitigate their impact on their behavior. 

The benefits or unearned social power automatically received from being a member of the dominant group (e.g., white privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege, etc.). Privilege includes not having to think about the implications of one’s identity because of automatically fitting in the category that is the “norm” or the “standard” for the society. The advantages created for members of the dominant group are often invisible to them, or are considered “rights” available to everyone as opposed to “privileges” awarded to only some individuals and groups. Baltimore Racial Justice Action & Racial Equity Tools Glossary

An umbrella term that can refer to anyone who transgresses society’s view of gender or sexuality. The definitional indeterminacy of the word Queer, its elasticity, is one of its characteristics: “A zone of possibilities.” UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

Race is a made-up social construct, and not an actual biological fact. A social construct that artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance (particularly race), ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, cultural history, ethnic classification, and the social, economic and political needs of a society at a given period of time. Racial Equity Tools & UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

Race prejudice + [discrimination] + [social and institutional] power. Racism is different from racial prejudice, hatred, or discrimination. Racism involves one group having the power to carry out systematic discrimination through the institutional policies and practices of the society and shaping the cultural beliefs and values that support those racist policies and practice. Racial Equity Tools

One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.  (Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, 2020)

Refers specifically to 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. Racial Equity Tools Glossary

Constitutes a form of activism, based on principles of equity and inclusion that encompasses 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. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

An individual’s enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to another person. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same. Transgender people may be straight, lesbian, gay, or bisexual. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

A form of generalization rooted in blanket beliefs and false assumptions, a product of processes of categorization that can result in a prejudiced attitude, critical judgment, and intentional or unintentional discrimination. Stereotypes are typically negative, based on little information and do not recognize individualism and personal agency. A stereotype is “a widely held image of a group of people through which individuals are perceived or the application of an attitude set based on the group or class to which the person belongs.” UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

Systemic disadvantage(s) of one social group compared to other groups, rooted and perpetuated through discriminatory practices (conscious or unconscious) that are reinforced through institutions, ideologies, representations, policies/laws, and practices. When this kind of inequality is related to racial/ethnic discrimination, it is referred to as systemic or structural racism. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

The negative and harmful impacts, both compounding and cumulative, that are experienced by historically marginalized populations in all facets of our societal structures. Systemic oppression may be formally present as written in policies and procedures or informally present by unwritten rules and practice. Regardless of initial intent, system oppression exists and creates disadvantages throughout our institutions. ACC Inclusive Excellence Resources

Refers specifically to the ways in which institutional policies and practices create different outcomes for different racial groups. The institutional policies may never mention any racial groups, but their effect is to create advantages for whites and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups such as [BIPOC]. UW Diversity Environmental Glossary

A historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and [BIPOC] people by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege. UW School of Public Health