Action Continuum - A spectrum of ways that people can respond to injustice; ranges from actions that support prejudice, divisiveness, and social injustice to actions that promote prejudice reduction, coalitional work, and social justice (adapted from McClintock, 2001).
Advocacy - Organized efforts of individuals or groups to change policies, practices, and cultural climates within institutional contexts (i.e., a hospital, school, corporation, etc.).
Agency - Agency refers to the thoughts and actions taken by people that express their individual power in social context. The core challenge at the center of the field of sociology is understanding the relationship between structure and agency. Structure refers to the complex and interconnected set of social forces, relationships, institutions, and elements of society that work together to shape the thought, behavior, experiences, choices, and overall life courses of people. In contrast, agency denotes the power people have to think for themselves and act in ways that shape their experiences and life trajectories. Agency can take individual and collective forms.
Ally/allies - Individual(s) who take a stand against prejudice and discrimination directed at people from targeted or marginalized groups or who choose to support the struggle of other social groups because they have common goals and are committed to social justice. Examples include white people who work to end all forms of racism, cisgender men and women who support the struggle for inclusion of transgender individuals, AfricanAmerican people who work to end discrimination against Arab-Americans, and heterosexual men who work to end homophobia (Kaye/Kantrowitz, 1992; Wijeyesinghe, Griffin, & Love, 1997).
Anti-Black - The Council for Democratizing Education defines anti-Blackness as being a two-part formation that both voids Blackness of values, while systematically marginalizing Black people and their issues. The first form of anti-Blackness is overt racism. Beneath this anti-Black racism is the cover of structural and systemic racism which categorically predetermines the socioeconomic status of Black individuals in this country. The structure is held in place by anti-Black policies, institutions, and ideologies.
The second form of anti-Blackness is the unethical disregard for anti-Black institutions and policies. This disregard is the product of class, race, and/or gender privilege certain individuals experience due to anti-Black institutions and policies. This form of anti-Blackness is protected by the first form of overt racism. https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary#anti-black
Anti-racism - The active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably." NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity.
Antisemitism - "Antisemitism refers a system of prejudice and/or discrimination against Jews as individuals and as a group. Jews throughout Christian Europe had been demonized, vilified, expelled, or segregated in ghettos, mainly on religious grounds, although by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . . . Jews in Europe were racialized according to the 'pseudo-scientific' view that they constituted an essentially inferior and impure 'race' of 'Semites'." Adams and Joshi 232.
Be Well - Be Well is the College's wellness program that provides students' strategies and opportunities to create their own path to wellness. It integrates four components essential to building a life that sustains and empowers: a healthy mind, a healthy body, a healthy community and a healthy life. We believe the ability to thrive is founded on an active commitment and holistic approach to wellness. Be Well cultivates a tradition of wellness today, tomorrow, and always.
Coalition - A collection of people from different cultural and/or social groups who come together to work toward a common goal; ". . . works with, but does not ignore, differences and conflicts of interest" (Crowfoot & Chesler, 1996, p. 204). Examples include several civil rights and social movement organizations such as the organization for Human Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, CA; the National Women Coalition against Violence and Exploitation; and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Cycle of Liberation - A cyclical pattern of events and processes that are common to successful efforts to create critical transformation and social change, including intrapersonal awareness, interpersonal community-building, and systemic change (Harro, 2013).
Diversity - The collective mixture of human beings and the identities they have co-existing in a space.
Equity - Fairness for all regardless of their individual identities.
Hegemonic Oppression - Oppression which causes the unconscious reproduction of dominant group norms, values, beliefs, [and] culture that is carried out as part of everyday life. Hegemonic Oppression is the domination of a culturally diverse society by a ruling, privileged class so that their imposed worldview becomes the universally accepted cultural norm which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable. (Hegemony)
Horizontal Racial Oppression - "The result of people of targeted racial groups believing, acting on, or enforcing the dominant (White) system of racial discrimination and oppression. Horizontal racism can occur between members of the same racial group...or between members of different targeted racial groups." (Wijeysinghe, et al, p. 98).
Inclusion - Creating a space where you have welcoming, belonging, respect, and an equitable opportunity for people to show up authentically as who they are in a meaningful way.
Individual Racial Oppression - The beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism. Individual racism can occur at both an unconscious and conscious level, and can be both active and passive. Examples include telling a racist joke, using a racial epithet, or believing in the inherent superiority of Whites." (Wijeysinghe, et al, p. 89).
Internalized Racial Oppression - When members of stigmatized groups, who are bombarded with negative messages about their own abilities and intrinsic worth, may internalize those negative messages.
Interpersonal/Individual Racial Oppression - Prejudices and discriminatory behaviors where one group makes assumptions about the abilities, motives, and intents of other groups based on their identity.
Institutional Religious Oppression - "Where assumptions are structured into the social and economic institutions in our society. Institutional oppression occurs when organizations, businesses, or institutions like schools and police departments discriminate, either deliberately or indirectly, against certain groups of people to limit their rights." Gender and Sexuality I's of Oppression Slide
Islamophobia - A system of oppression manifesting in prejudice towards or discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, or perceived religious, national, or ethnic identity associated with Islam. Islamophobia is also deeply intertwined with the racialization and demonizing of brown religious folks.
Institutional Racial Oppression - Where assumptions are structured into the social and economic institutions in our society.
Collusion: Thinking and acting in ways that support dominant systems power, privilege, and oppression. Both privileged and oppressed groups can collude with oppression
Spheres of Influence- These are areas over which one has control, where one can work for change. This may include one's personal network of family and friends, family and co-workers, community, or local institutions (Tatum, 1997).
Power over/with/from within - A concept that can be deployed in a number of ways, including hierarchal dominance, a non-hierarchal and collaborative process for mutual benefit and self-determination, or an internal source of energy (Irwin, 1996; Kreisberg, 1992).
Liberatory consciousness - A tool that enables us to maintain an awareness of the dynamics of oppression without giving into despair and hopelessness; an awareness of the roles played by each individual in the maintenance of that system without blaming them for the roles they play; the ability to live outside of the patterns of thought and behavior learned through an oppressive socialization process in order to be intentional about our role in working toward transformation (Love, 2013).
Unconscious/ Implicit Bias - The attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, and are activated involuntarily and without an individual's awareness or intentional control (The Kirwan Institute).
Settler colonialism - A distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that, over time, develops a distinctive identity and sovereignty. Settler colonial states include Canada, the United States, Australia, and South Africa, and settler colonial theory has been important to understanding conflicts in places like Israel, Kenya, and Argentina, and in tracing the colonial legacies of empires that engaged in the widespread foundation of settlement colonies. More recently, settler colonial analyses have been extended to the use of settler colonization in larger imperial projects, and the impacts of settler colonial state power on global politics. As Lorenzo Veracini, a key scholar in settler colonial studies, argues "settler colonialism makes sense especially if it is understood globally, and that we live in a settler colonial global present" (The Settler Colonial Present, 2015).
Structural/Cultural Racial Oppression - This refers to the accumulation over centuries of the effects of a racist, sexist, classist, etc. society.
Solidarity - Realizing the value of aligning oneself with the aims and values of social justice movements across multiple social identities, social locations, and social positions. For example: Taking a stand in support of the struggle for social justice of different groups.
Internalized dominance - Internalized dominance occurs among white people when they believe and/or act on assumptions that white people are superior to, more capable, intelligent, or entitled than people of color. It occurs when members of the dominant white group take their group's socially advantaged status as normal and deserved, rather than recognizing how it has been conferred through racialized systems of inequality. Internalized dominance may be conscious or unconscious." (Bell, et al., p. 137).
Religious Oppression- Refers to the systematic subordination of minority religions by the dominant Christian majority.
The Ideology of White Supremacy - Describes the belief system that rationalizes and reproduces white advantage in the political, social, and cultural institutions of society. This belief system holds that white people, white culture, and things associated with whiteness are superior to those of other racial groups. It assumes as normal and rational that the interests and perceptions of white individuals are central in society. Unlike overt white supremacist groups, this racial ideology may be unexamined or unconscious. Relations of white dominance and subordination of others are reenacted daily throughout institutions and social settings in a society where whites overwhelmingly control material resources, and ideas about entitlement are widespread (Bell, et al.,2016, p. 138).
White Supremacy Culture perpetuates dominant white culture values such as:
- "Rugged Individual," Self sufficiency
- Perfectionism / going right to critique
- One right way
- Emotional Restraint
- Sense of Urgency
- Assumptions and Judgments
- Status Quo
Adopted from Okun,T. (2001), White Supremacy Culture. Retrieved from https://www.dismantlingracism.org/