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This is an essential guide for educators, administrators, policymakers, and the media. Glossaries are dynamic expressions of current language usage. Education has changed dramatically in recent years, and so must also the language used to describe and define them. We believe this glossary is useful for a wider field of educators promoting student success. This glossary provides precise language and definitions to use when communicating with peers and more effectively influencing administrators, legislators, and the media.
Antiracism and Racism
The following is an essential collection of terms related to antiracism and racism. More comprehensive glossaries on this topic are available from Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership (2020), Diversity Advisory Council (n.d.), Georgetown University Library (2020), Institute for Democratic Renewal and Project Change Anti-Racism Institute (2019), Pokhrel et al., (2021), Race Forward (2015), Sue, Williams, & Owens (2021) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (n.d.). Complete references to these glossaries and often an online link to them are found in the reference section at the end of this glossary.
ally
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 77–78):
1. Definitions: (a) “A person who supports a group other than their own identities, such as gender, RACE, religion, and sex” (Berkner Boyt, 2020, para. 10); and (b) A person who acknowledges disadvantages and oppression of other groups and takes action to stand with them and oppose the oppression (Wenger, n.d., p. 164).
2. Examples: (a) Speaking up on behalf of people of color (POC) during conversations when others make disparaging comments, MICROAGGRESSION behaviors, jokes, or stereotypical statements whether POC are present or not (Davis, 1989); (b) Participating in meetings hosted by POC that raise awareness about issues of identity (racial, sexual, etc.); (c) Displaying posters that advocate for social justice on the learning center walls; (d) Displaying a welcome poster on the learning center wall with the word “welcome” in languages spoken by members of the student body; (e) Asking questions of POC “like ‘what do I need to know,’ ‘how can I help,’ and ‘what can we do together?’” (Ludema & Johnson, 2020, Don’t be paternalistic section); (f) Taking time to read books and watch videos on racial topics (history, slavery, systemic racism, etc.) and avoid asking POC to explain complex racial issues to you; (g) Marching in a Pride Parade to advocate for an annual audit of pay equity (Ludema & Johnson, 2020, Do take ally-like actions section); (h) Taking actions that create an environment so that POC speak for themselves (Ludema & Johnson, 2020, Don’t speak for others section); (i) Responding when the leader of the campus LBGTQ affinity group contacts you to offer support to the goals of the affinity group for Black employees; (j) Using authority as the Resident Hall Assistant to confront students on the dorm floor who are dressed up as border patrol and migrants at the border and stop the activity, and using this incident as opportunity to inform all residents that this activity is not appropriate or acceptable learning opportunity (k) South Asian woman marching at various Black Lives Matter protests while holding up a sign saying “South Asians for Black Lives;” and (l) attending campus and social activities hosted by POC.
3. Compare with ANTIRACISM (verb), EQUALITY, EQUITY, and SOCIAL JUSTICE.
antiracism
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 78):
1. Definition: “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” (Race Forward, 2015, p. 25).
2. Examples: (a) Report any acts of discrimination to the institution's Dean of Students or Title IX Officer; (b) Ensure the racial diversity of the professional staff and the student employees of the learning center equals or exceeds the diversity demographics of the student population; (c) Best practices in antiracist language and behavior is a part of all professional development and training sessions for staff and student employees of tutoring and small group study sessions.
3. Compare with ALLY, RACISM, SPACE RACISM, and SOCIAL JUSTICE.
assimilationist
According to Pokhrel et al. ( 2021, p. 79):
1. Definition: Describes the process that a dominant group makes invisible a smaller, powerless group defining characteristics and identity (Yoshino, 2013).
2. Examples: (a) Focusing on Standard Written English in school may be considered an assimilationist pedagogy, as it requires racial and ethnic groups to change or hide their linguistic heritage; (b) reminding immigrant children how fortunate they are to have arrived in the United States; (c) not permitting reading in or using language from the country of origin during class sessions; and (d) not recognizing the common experience of confusion and stressful transition for the immigrant or marginalized U.S. citizens.
3. Compare with INSTITUTIONAL RACISM, MICROAGGRESSION, and RACISM.
check your privilege
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 79–80):
1. Definition: “When someone asks you to ‘CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE,’ they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you’ve had in your life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing and in fact may be contributing to those struggles” (Oluo, 2019, p. 63).
2. Examples: (a) A White person considering the advantages that being White affords them regarding assumptions about their creditworthiness, honesty, and trustworthiness, among others; (b) Advantages that accompany being the second generation in the family to attend or graduate from college; and (c) Having family members who can mentor a younger person as they navigate the challenges of life.
3. Compare with PRIVILEGE.
climate
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 80):
1. Definitions: (a) Perceptions and experiences by individual members of the organizational environment; and (b) influences how an individual feels valued, safe, fairly treated, and treated with dignity.
2. Examples: (a) At a learning center, staff or student of color experience a CLIMATE of hostility and unwelcomeness toward them due to the attitudes and behaviors of its staff. For example, a staff member assumes that a student of color who comes to the front desk needs a tutor when the student is actually applying for a tutoring or study group job; (b) usually, on predominantly White institutions with few faculty, staff, and administrators who are people of color, the CLIMATE is “cold” or “chilly” to Latinx students who attend class or participate in predominantly White clubs; (c) When a Black student walks into a campus honor society meeting with all White students in attendance, the White students stare at the Black student as though they are entering by mistake. The honor society president asks immediately for credentials to validate the Black student’s participation but does not ask other White applicants to validate their participation. The Black student begins to feel unwelcome, and, as a result, the events at the honor society create an atmosphere in which the Black student experiences STEREOTYPE THREAT; and (d) A Black adult male is stopped by the campus police while he is walking across the campus at night, which often happens to African, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and Latinx people. The Black male was wearing a dark pea coat and a kufi skull cap. The campus police demanded to know why he was on the campus. He replied that he just finished work after a long day as the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity Affairs and was walking home to have a late dinner with his family in his own neighborhood.
3. Compare with IMPLICIT BIAS, RACISM, and STEREOTYPE THREAT.
equity
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 81–82):
1. Definitions: (a) “EQUITY recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome” (MPH@GW, 2020, para. 2); (b) “EQUITY is a solution for addressing imbalanced social systems. Justice can take EQUITY one step further by fixing the systems in a way that leads to long-term, sustainable, EQUITABLE access for generations to come” (MPH@GW, 2020, para. 2); (c). In contrast, EQUALITY “means [that] each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities” (MPH@GW, 2020, para. 2); and (d) “Proportional distribution or parity of desirable outcomes across groups. Sometimes confused with EQUALITY, EQUITY refers to outcomes, while EQUALITY connotes equal treatment” (Diversity Advisory Council, n.d., section E, para. 6).
2. Examples: (a) Giving students with certain disabilities accommodations so they can thrive in their classes and earn the same outcomes as students without similar disabilities; (b) Providing the services and resources needed for students who are POC to achieve outcome rates for graduation, homeownership rates, and wealth-accumulation that are similar to outcome rates of White students; (c) Partially basing public institution funding on the institution’s achievement of student demographics that are similar for both graduating and admitted students; and (d) Law enforcement treating protestors inequitably, such as the difference in police treatment of Black Lives Matter protestors at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020 (where protestors were overwhelmingly met with rubber bullets and tear gas) as compared to the treatment of White protestors who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 (where protesters were met only with Capitol police with no call for backup, national guard, or law enforcement presence). But this is “White man’s country, so they are allowed to go into the Capitol and take it over. They are allowed to do whatever they want” (BLM activist, personal communication, 2021).
3. Compare with ANTIRACISM, INCLUSION, and SOCIAL JUSTICE.
ethnicity
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 82):
1. Definition: “Social construct that divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as shared series of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests, history, and ancestral geographic location” (Florida Institute of Technology, n.d., para. 15.)
2. Examples: Cuban, Hmong, and Mexican.
3. Compare with RACE.
implicit bias
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 82–83):
1. Definition: “Refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These BIASES, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control. Residing deep in the subconscious, these BIASES are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness. Rather, IMPLICIT BIASES are not accessible through introspection. The implicit associations we harbor in our subconscious cause us to have feelings and attitudes about other people based on characteristics such as RACE, ETHNICITY, age, and appearance. These associations develop over the course of a lifetime beginning at a very early age through exposure to direct and indirect messages. In addition to early life experiences, the media and news programming are often cited origins of implicit associations” (Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, 2012, para. 1–2).
2. Examples: (a) Assuming that some RACIAL groups are better or worse athletes than others for a particular sport; (b) Assuming that students of color are often academically underprepared for college-level work; (c) Assuming that Asians are better at math than other ethnic groups; and (d) a male White student not wanting to work with a female Black computer science tutor be- cause he assumes that she is not as capable as a White male tutor.
3. Compare with BIAS, BIGOTRY, DISCRIMINA- TION, PRIVILEGE, and RACISM.
institutional racism
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 83–84):
1. Definitions: (a) A 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 (Adams et al., 2007, p. 93); (b) “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 [sic] and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups classified as non-white” (Potapchuk et al., 2005, p. 39); (c) “The difference between STRUCTURAL RACISM and MACROAGGRESSSIONS is MACROAGGRESSIONS are purposeful, deliberate, and blatantly damaging acts that make an impact at the individual level. STRUCTURAL RACISM is integral to everyday, ordinary interactions” (Osanloo et al., 2016, p. 7); and (d) This term is synonymous with STRUCTURAL RACISM and SYSTEMIC RACISM.
2. Examples: (a) Government policies that explicitly restrict the ability of people to get loans to buy or improve their homes in neighborhoods with high concentrations of African Americans (also known as "red-lining"); (b) City sanitation department policies that concentrate trash transfer stations and other environmental hazards disproportionately in communities of color (Potapchuk et al., 2005); and (c) Admissions departments that do not have people of color (POC) recruiters may decrease the number of POC who apply since they will not meet someone from a culturally and ethnically diverse background and not see someone with whom they can identify.
3. Compare with MICROAGGRESSION, PASSIVE RACISM, RACISM, and SPACE RACISM.
intersectionality
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 84):
1. Definitions: (a) “Analytical framework through which the relationship among systems of oppression can be understood. African American women made an early contribution to this analysis in the 19th century. Recognizing that they experienced racism and sexism differently from both Black men and White women even while they shared commonalities with both, they argued that a struggle that did not simultaneously address sexism and racism would only perpetuate both” (Diversity Advisory Council, n.d., section I, para. 4); and (b) “SOCIAL JUSTICE movements consider all INTERSECTIONS of identity, PRIVILEGE, and oppression that people face” (Oluo, 2019, p. 7.)
2. Examples: (a) Students from multiple affinity groups collaborating to discuss ways of combating systematic oppression experienced by members of marginalized groups on their campus; and (b) acknowledging the two sets of challenges that a woman of color may face in a field dominated by White men.
3. Compare with CLIMATE and SOCIAL JUSTICE.
microaggression
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 84–85):
1. Definitions: (a) “Small daily insults and indignities perpetuated against marginalized or oppressed people because of their affiliation with the marginalized or oppressed group and here we are going to talk about RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS—insults and indignities perpetuated against people of color. But many aggressions are more than just annoyances. The cumulative effect of these constant reminders that you are less valuable than others does real psychological damage. Regular exposure to MICROAGGRESSIONS causes person of color to feel isolated and invalidated” (Oluo, 2019, p. 169); and (b) “an onslaught of derogatory comments, invalidations, avoidance behaviors, and deficit-laden comments, the experiences may weigh heavy on an individual’s spirit, self-worth, and sense of self” (Osanloo et al., 2016, p. 5).
2. Examples: “Sue et al. (2007) distinguished three types of MICROAGGRESSIONS. They are: microassaults; microinsults; and microinvalidations. A microassault is ‘an explicit RACIAL derogation characterized primarily by a verbal or nonverbal attack meant to hurt the intended victim through name-calling, avoidant behavior, or purposeful discriminatory actions (p. 274). ’... While explicit, overt, and deliberate, they are deemed ‘micro’ because they are often conducted on an individual or private level. … Microinsults are characterized as ‘… communications that convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person’s RACIAL heritage or identity. Microinsults represent subtle snubs, frequently unknown to the perpetrator, but clearly convey a hidden insulting message to the recipient of color’ (Sue et al., 2007, p. 274). ... Last, microinvalidations are described as: ‘…communications that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person of color’ (Sue et al., 2007, p. 274)” (Osanloo et al., 2007, p. 5).
3. Compare with IMPOSTOR SYNDROME, RACISM, and STEREOTYPE THREAT.
privilege
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 86):
1. Definition: (a) “A right that only some people have access or availability to because of their social group membership. Because hierarchies of PRIVILEGE exist, even within the same group, people who are part of the group in power (White people with respect to people of color, men with respect to women, heterosexuals with respect to homosexuals, adults with respect to children, and rich people with respect to poor people) often deny they have privilege even when evidence of differential benefit is obvious” (Institute for Democratic Renewal and Project Change Anti-Racism Institute, 2019, p. 15); and (b) “These advantages can often be ascribed to certain social groups: PRIVILEGE based on RACE, physical ability, gender, class, etc. But these PRIVILEGES can also lie in areas that you may have not considered, like sexuality, body type, and neurological differences” (Oluo, 2019, p. 60).
2. Examples: (a) A person who is a Brahmin Hindu has access to education loans, jobs, and wealth more easily than those who are not born into this caste; (b) White people are more often given the benefit of the doubt than Black people by police when they are stopped and questioned by them; and (c) White people are more likely than other RACIAL groups to be approved for car and home loans and at lower rates than POC.
3. Compare with CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE and RACISM.
race
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 86):
1. Definitions: (a) “A power construct of collected or merged difference that lives socially” (Kendi, 2019, p. 35); and (b) “RACE is a central organizing idea that shapes much of human life across the world. … Currently, RACE is understood to be socially constructed because the value placed on RACIAL groupings reflects a social and political rationale rather than distinct genetic differences. Historically, RACE has been conceptualized using three types of theories: ETHNICITY, class, and nation” (Williams, 2017, p. 1389).
2. Examples: (a) Skin color, (b) ancestral heritage, (c) cultural affiliation, (d) cultural history, and (e) ethnic classification.
3. Compare with ETHNICITY.
racial humility (synonymous with cultural humility)
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 87):
1. Definitions: (a) Learning across the lines of RACIAL difference (Gallardo, 2013); and (b) a look back (at prior RACIAL injustices) to move forward (Perkins, 2018).
2. Examples: (a) Engaging in conversations with people of different ethnic groups concerning issues of RACE; (b) a personal or a professional development activity being conducted by learning center staff, tutors, faculty members, or student study group leaders who read, study, and reflect about books on RACE and consider changes in personal actions, attitudes, and words; (c) visiting civil rights sites and learning about the historical events that occurred there and, if possible, visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and continuing with a deeper study of the events and conversations with people of color; (d) attending an ethno-religious service or social club whose members are of a different ETHNIC group than their own for a significant period of time, talking with the regular attendees, and becoming a learner by listening and observing (Perkins, 2018); (e) attending a branch meeting of the NAACP or the National Urban League in your city or on a college campus; and (f) attending campus events hosted by different RACIAL groups and reflecting about what was seen and heard.
3. Compare with CLIMATE, CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE, CLIMATE, RACISM, and SOCIAL JUSTICE.
raciolinguistic justice
According to Sue et al. (2021, p. 28):
1. Definition: Justice Howell et al. (2020) describes the practice of RACIOLINGUISTIC JUSTICE as, “subverting racism’s hold on language use in the classroom and beyond” (para. 4).
2. Compare with ANTIRACISM, RACIOLINGUISTICS, and RACISM.
raciolinguistics
According to Sue et al. (2021, p. 28):
1. Definition: Rowsa and Flores (2017) describe RACIOLINGUISTICS as the interconnected relationship between language and race, which led to “the linguistic practices of racialized populations [who] are systematically stigmatized, regardless of the extent to which these practices might seem to correspond to standardized norms” (Rosa & Flores, 2017, p. 623).
2. Compare with ANTIRACISM, RACIOLINGUISTIC JUSTICE, and RACISM.
racism
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, p. 88):
1. Definitions: (a) “Marriage of RACIST POLICIES and RACIST IDEAS that produces and normalizes RACIAL inequities” (Kendi, 2019, p. 18); and (b) “Specific ways in which institutional policies and practices create different outcomes for different RACIAL groups. The policies may never mention specific RACIAL groups, but their effect is to create advantages for Whites [sic] and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups classified as non-White” (Wenger, n.d., p. 164).
2. Examples: See examples for INSTITUTIONAL RACISM and SPACE RACISM.
3. Compare with ANTIRACISM, INSTITUTIONAL RACISM and SPACE RACISM.
social justice
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 89–90):
1. Definitions: (a) The condition in which all people have equal access to education, employment, wealth, healthcare, well-being, justice, freedom, and opportunity; (b) A vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure (Adams et al., 2007); and (c) “Individuals are both self-determining (able to develop their full capacities) and interdependent (capable of interacting democratically with others). 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, their society, and the broader world in which we live…. The goal of SOCIAL JUSTICE education is to enable people to develop the critical analytical tools necessary to understand oppression and their socialization within oppressive systems and to develop a sense of agency and capacity to interrupt and change oppressive patterns and behaviors in themselves and in the institutions and communities they are a part” (Bell, 2007, pp. 1–2).
2. Examples: (a) All people have equal access (EQUALITY) to education, employment, wealth, healthcare, well-being, justice, freedom, and opportunity; (b) All people receive EQUITABLE outcomes from their education and employment regarding wealth, health, well-being, justice, freedom, and opportunity; and (c) All people have access to distribution of resources (for example, the COVID vaccine) is equally distributed to ethnic minorities and the poor.
3. Compare with EQUITY.
space racism
According to Pokhrel et al. (2021, pp. 88–89):
1. Definition: “Powerful collection of racist policies that lead to resource inequity between racialized spaces or the elimination of certain racialized spaces, which are substantiated by racist ideas about racialized spaces” (Kendi, 2019, p. 166).
2. Examples: (a) Locate ethnic centers in the basements of old buildings which takes them away from flow of students through the campus; (b) Locate learning centers which serve a culturally-diverse group of students in buildings without nearby parking lots or close to campus bus routes making it inconvenient for students to access, especially during unsafe weather conditions; (c) Locate academic support services which serve those from marginalized backgrounds, in the oldest and most dilapidated campus buildings; (d) Campus security officers more often stopping Black people than White people to check why they are on campus; (e) Campus buildings of taxpayer-funded institutions that are locked and only admissible with the presentation of an institution-issued identity card, which creates an unfriendly atmosphere for staff and students, especially for those that are first-generation college and find the college experience unfamiliar and sometimes intimidating; (f) Real estate agents steering prospective homeowners to neighborhoods of similar demographics (ETHNICITY and RACE) despite having credit ratings that allow them to purchase more expensive homes in predominantly White neighborhoods (Tatum, 2017); and (g) EQUITY programs such as TRIO being assigned by senior college administrators to old offices and classroom spaces abandoned by academic departments with used furniture, old equipment, and dilapidated facility conditions. This treatment creates an impression of the low priority for the program by the administrators and diminished importance for students who are from marginalized backgrounds.
3. Compare with INSTITUTIONAL RACISM and RACISM.