Ally

Noun: Advocates for people from underrepresented or marginalized groups. An ally takes action to support people outside of their own group. 

Cisgender

Adj: A term used to describe people whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth. Often abbreviated to cis.

Community of Care

A community where the organizational culture begins the process to shift from one of control to one of connecting. 

Corporate Social Responsibility

Noun: Practicing good corporate citizenship by going beyond profit maximization to make a positive impact on communities and societies.

Cultural Representations

Cultural representations refer to popular stereotypes, images, frames and narratives that are socialized and reinforced by media, language and other forms of mass communication and “common sense.” Cultural representations can be positive or negative, but from the perspective of the dismantling structural racism analysis, too often cultural representations depict people of color in ways that are dehumanizing, perpetuate inaccurate stereotypes, and have the overall effect of allowing unfair treatment within the society as a whole to seem fair, or ‘natural.’

Demographic Diversity

Differences in observable attributes or demographic characteristics such as age, gender and, ethnicity.

Diversity

Diversity has come to refer to the various backgrounds and races that comprise a community, nation or other grouping. In many cases the term diversity does not just acknowledge the existence of diversity of background, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and so on, but implies an appreciation of these differences. The structural racism perspective can be distinguished from a diversity perspective in that structural racism takes direct account of the striking disparities in well-being and opportunity areas that come along with being a member of a particular group and works to identify ways in which these disparities can be eliminated.

Emotional Tax

Noun: The combination of being on guard to protect against bias, feeling different at work because of gender, race, and/or ethnicity, and the associated effects on health, well-being, and ability to thrive at work. 

Equality

Noun: Treating everyone the same way, often while assuming that everyone also starts out on equal footing or with the same opportunities.

Equity

Equity is an approach that ensures everyone has access to the same opportunities. Equity recognizes that we don’t all start from the same place because advantages and barriers exist. It’s a process that acknowledges uneven starting places and seeks to correct the imbalance. Diversity and inclusion are both outcomes. Equity is not. It refers to the process an organization engages in to ensure that people with marginalized identities have the opportunity to grow, contribute, and develop. 

Ethnicity

Ethnicity refers to the social characteristics that people may have in common, such as language, religion, regional background, culture, foods, etc. Ethnicity is revealed by the traditions one follows, a person’s native language, and so on. Race, on the other hand, describes categories assigned to demographic groups based mostly on observable physical characteristics, like skin color, hair texture and eye shape

Historically Disadvantaged Group

A group in U.S. society that has been systematically discriminated against over a significant period of time (e.g. Native American/First People’s, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered communities).

Inclusion

Inclusion has to do with people with different identities feeling and/or being valued, leveraged, and welcomed within a given setting (whether that’s a team, workplace, or industry). Longtime Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion educator, Verna Myers, said: “Diversity is being asked to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” Inclusion isn’t a natural consequence of diversity. You can have a diverse team of talent, but that doesn’t mean they feel welcomed or valued or are given opportunities to grow.

Inclusive Language

Put simply, inclusive language is effective language – it is respectful, accurate and relevant to all. about and showing respect for all members of our team and workplace. of the real world by reflecting social diversity rather than perpetuating stereotypes.

Individual Racism

Individual racism can include face-to-face or covert actions toward a person that intentionally express prejudice, hate or bias based on race. 

Intersectionality

Noun: The intertwining of social identities such as gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity, which can result in unique experiences, opportunities, and barriers.

Institutional (as in institutional barriers)

Refers to both an institution and systemic societal dynamics.

Institutional Racism

Institutional racism refers to the policies and practices within and across institutions that, intentionally or not, produce outcomes that chronically favor, or put a racial group at a disadvantage. Examples of institutional racism can be found in school disciplinary policies in which students of color are punished at much higher rates that their white counterparts, in the criminal justice system, and many employment sectors in which day-to-day operations, as well as hiring and firing practices can significantly disadvantage workers of color.

National Values

National values are behaviors and characteristics that we as members of a society are taught to value and enact. Fairness, equal treatment, individual responsibility, and meritocracy are examples of some key national values in the United States. When looking at national values through a structural racism lens, however, we can see that there are certain values that have allowed structural racism to exist in ways that are hard to detect. This is because these national values are referred to in ways that ignore historical realities. Two examples of such national values are ‘personal responsibility’ and ‘individualism,’ which convey the idea that people control their fates regardless of social position, and that individual behaviors and choices alone determine material outcomes.

Neurodiversity

Noun: The concept that there is great diversity in how people’s brains are wired and work, and that neurological differences should be valued in the same way we value any other human variation.

 Non-Binary (also known as Genderqueer)

Adj: A category for a fluid constellation of gender identities beyond the woman/man gender binary.

Power and Privilege

Rights, entitlement, advantage, or immunity granted or enjoyed by certain people or groups of people beyond the common advantages of others.

Progress & Retrenchment

This term refers to the pattern in which progress is made through the passage of legislation, court rulings and other formal mechanisms that aim to promote racial equality. Brown v. Board of Education and the Fair Housing Act are two prime examples of such progress. But retrenchment refers to the ways in which this progress is very often challenged, neutralized or undermined. In many cases after a measure is enacted that can be counted as progress, significant backlashes—retrenchment—develop in key public policy areas. Some examples include the gradual erosion of affirmative action programs, practices among real estate professionals that maintain segregated neighborhoods, and failure on the part of local governments to enforce equity-oriented policies such as inclusionary zoning laws.

Psychological Diversity

Differences in underlying attributes such as skills, talents, personality characteristics, attitudes, beliefs, and values; may also include functional, occupational, and educational background.

Racial Equity

Racial equity refers to what a genuinely non-racist society would look like. In a racially equitable society, the distribution of society’s benefits and burdens would not be skewed by race. In other words, racial equity would be a reality in which a person is no more or less likely to experience society’s benefits or burdens just because of the color of their skin. This is in contrast to the current state of affairs in which a person of color is more likely to live in poverty, be imprisoned, drop out of high school, be unemployed and experience poor health outcomes like diabetes, heart disease, depression and other potentially fatal diseases. Racial equity holds society to a higher standard. It demands that we pay attention not just to individual-level discrimination, but to overall social outcomes.

Social Equity

Facilitate student learning by providing the conditions that improve educational outcomes and eliminate systemic disparities among all groups.

Social Justice

Institutional commitment to produce equitable outcomes and challenge systems of power, privilege, and inequity. 

Social Group

People sharing a social relation sometimes based on demographic or cultural similarity.

Structural Racism

A system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.

Systemic Racism

In many ways “systemic racism” and “structural racism” are synonymous. If there is a difference between the terms, it can be said to exist in the fact that a structural racism analysis pays more attention to the historical, cultural and social psychological aspects of our currently racialized society. 

Systemically Non-dominant Groups

Systemically non-dominant refers to membership outside of the dominant group within systems of oppression. Systems of oppression are created to provide benefits and assets for members of specific groups. The recipient groups are referred to as dominant groups because such advantages grant impacting levels of power, privilege, and status within social, economic, and political infrastructures of a society. For example, such frameworks are established to specify who is in control and who is not, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable, and who will have access to resources and who will not.

Jenkins, D. (2018). A Critical Lens to Rethinking Power, Privilege, and Inequity Language: “Systemically Dominant” and “Systemically Non-Dominant”. Share the Flame LLC: Camas, WA.  www.shareflame.com

Unconscious Bias

Noun: An implicit association, whether about people, places, or situations, which are often based on mistaken, inaccurate, or incomplete information and include the personal histories we bring to the situation.

Universal Design

Universal Design involves designing products and spaces so that they can be used by the widest range of people possible. Universal Design evolved from Accessible Design, a design process that addresses the needs of people with disabilities. Universal Design goes further by recognizing that there is a wide spectrum of human abilities. Everyone, even the most able-bodied person, passes through childhood, periods of temporary illness, injury and old age. By designing for this human diversity, we can create things that will be easier for all people to use.

White Privilege

White privilege, or “historically accumulated white privilege,” as we have come to call it, refers to whites’ historical and contemporary advantages in access to quality education, decent jobs and liveable wages, homeownership, retirement benefits, wealth and so on. The following quotation from a publication by Peggy Macintosh can be helpful in understanding what is meant by white privilege: “As a white person I had been taught about racism that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. . . White privilege is an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in every day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious.” (Source: Peggy Macintosh, “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” excerpted from Working Paper #189 White Privilege and Male Privilege a Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Center for the Study of Women (1989).)

Work-Life Effectiveness

Noun: A talent management strategy that focuses on doing the best work at the best time with the best talent. It helps businesses create flexibility, enhance agility, and drive mutually beneficial solutions for both employers and employees. 

Workplace Inclusion

Noun: An atmosphere where all employees belong, contribute, and can thrive. Requires deliberate and intentional action.