Fundamental Concepts
Foundational DEI concepts and Related terms to broaden your understanding of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Note: This “Living Language Guide” is a curated glossary of DEI related terms, which sometimes offers multiple and differing definitions for some concepts. This should NOT be interpreted as Boston University’s recommended or mandated terminology nor used as such.
Accountability
Definition: Accountability is not simply taking the blame when something goes wrong. It’s not a confession. Accountability is about delivering on a commitment. It’s responsibility to an outcome, not just a set of tasks. It’s taking initiative with thoughtful, strategic follow-through.
Source: Harvard Business Review – The Right Way to Hold People Accountable
Definition: Accountability is about holding organizations responsible for performance against pre-established objectives. As
distinct from traditional financial accountability, the focus is on delivering outcomes rather than the correct allocation of inputs.
Thus ‘Accountability denotes the mechanisms through which people entrusted with power are kept under check to make sure that they do not abuse it, and that they carry out their duties effectively’. The World Bank’s Social Development Department describes it as ‘the obligation of power-holders to account for or take responsibility for their action’ (World Bank 2004: 2)
Source: Adapted from “Power, Mutual Accountability and Responsibility in the Practice of International Aid: A Relational Approach”, by Rosalind Eyben – IDS Working Paper 305
Affirmative Action
Definition: Affirmative action can be defined as a public or private program designed to equalize hiring and admissions opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups by taking into consideration these very characteristics which have been used to deny them equal treatment. Such explicit, systemic consideration of these characteristics in determining who obtains a job or a place in an entering class is and has historically been extremely controversial.
Source: The Future of Affirmative Action: A Jurisprudential/Legal Critique, by Myrl L. Duncan
Definition: Affirmative action exists when an organization deploys resources to make sure that people in designated categories receive fair treatment. A study by American Association Psychological Association explained that “affirmative action occurs when an organization expends energy to make sure there is no discrimination in employment or education and, instead, equal opportunity exists.”
Source: Affirmative Action in Employment by Crosby, Faye J; Konrad, Alison M. Diversity Factor 10, no. 2 (Winter 2002): p. 5-9
Definition: Any action taken by an employer, in compliance with federal law, to promote the employment and advancement of people who have been the traditional targets of discrimination.
Source: Equity Fluent Leaders Glossary of Key Terms (University of Berkeley)
Ally
Definition: Someone who makes the commitment and effort to recognize their privilege (based on gender, class, race, sexual identity, ability, etc.) and works in solidarity with oppressed groups in the struggle for justice. Allies understand that it is in their own interest to end all forms of oppression, even those from which they may benefit in concrete ways. Allies commit to reducing their own complicity or collusion in oppression of those groups and invest in strengthening their own knowledge and awareness of oppression.
Source: Adapted from Open Source Leadership Strategies “The Dynamic System of Power, Privilege, and Oppressions” and Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center
Definition: A person who is a member of the ‘dominant’ group who works to end oppression in their personal and professional life through support of, and as an advocate with and for, the oppressed population.
Source: Adapted from Beyond Tolerance: gays, lesbians, and bisexuals on campus. Edited by Nancy J. Evans and Vernon A. Wall. Chapter 11.
Definition: Brown and Ostrove (2013) assert that allies can be distinguished by two characteristics: first, allies have a desire to actively support social justice; to promote the rights of the non-dominant groups and to eliminate social inequalities that the allies benefit from; and second, allies offer support by establishing meaningful relationships with people and communities of the non-dominant group that they wish to ally themselves and to ensure accountability to those people and communities.
Source: Indigenous Allyship: An Overview. Office of Aboriginal Initiatives, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Allyship
Definition: Allyship is about supporting (not leading), working to change unjust and inequitable systems and institutions, and establishing meaningful relationships with underrepresented peoples and communities where one is invested and accountable. Allyship is a means to an end: the reconciliation of historical and contemporary wrongdoings and the rectification of the inequitable colonial systems.
One of the most important things to remember about allyship is that it is a continuous process; it is not a designation that one can earn and hold forevermore.
Source: Indigenous Allyship: An Overview. Office of Aboriginal Initiatives, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Definition: The action of working to end oppression through support of, and as an advocate with and for, a group other than one’s own.
Source: LGBTQIA Resource Center
Belonging
Definition: Belonging refer to processes of inclusion and exclusion among people in their everyday practice. Belonging is connected with diversity in a broad sense. The term groups of diverse people (and/or diversity) refer to folks with different social or/and cultural backgrounds, religions, values, languages, gender, (dis)abilities, or needs. This means that all people are diverse in some way. Participation can be an expression of belonging (being involved in a community, a place, activities and practices) and it can vary according to degree of involvement experienced by folks.
Source: Adapted from Promoting Diversity and Belonging: Preschool Staff’s Perspective on Inclusive Factors in the Swedish Preschool. Education Sciences; Basel Vol. 11, Iss. 3, (2021): 104.
Definition: Belonging is the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group. It is when an individual can bring their authentic self to work.
Bias
Definition: Automatic sorting into categories, or schemas. Inherent process of including and excluding things/people in categories, schemas that are familiar to us. Judgments, stereotypes, and prejudices that operate automatically and unconsciously, when interacting with others. It is virtually impossible to live in contemporary society and not develop BIAS.
- We ALL have biases. There is “No Blame No Shame” in naming them
- We must become aware of our biases and work collectively to contradict them.
- Bias never goes away. Have to intentionally exercise, building new muscle daily
Source: Adapted from Perception Institute
Definition: A standard description of implicit biases is that they are unconscious and/or automatic mental associations made between the members of a social group (or individuals who share a particular characteristic) and one or more attributes (implicit stereotype) or a negative evaluation (implicit prejudice). The term implicit bias is typically used to refer to both implicit stereotypes and implicit prejudices and aims to capture what is most troubling for professionals: the possibility of biased judgment and of the resulting biased behavior.
Source: Adapted from Interventions designed to reduce implicit prejudices and implicit stereotypes in real world contexts: a systematic review – BMC Psychology (May 2019)
Burnout
Definition: Physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance, and negative attitudes toward oneself and others. It results from performing at a high level until stress and tension, especially from extreme and prolonged physical or mental exertion or an overburdening workload, take their toll. The word was first used in this sense in 1975 by U.S. psychologist Herbert J. Freudenberger (1926–1999) in referring to workers in clinics with heavy caseloads. Burnout is most often observed in professionals who work in service-oriented vocations (e.g., social workers, teachers, correctional officers) and experience chronic high levels of stress. It can be particularly acute in therapists or counselors doing trauma work, who feel overwhelmed by the cumulative secondary trauma of witnessing the effects. Burnout is also experienced by athletes when continually exposed to stress associated with performance without commensurate rewards or rest.
Source: American Psychological Association – Dictionary of Psychology
Definition: Emotional exhaustion and interpersonal disengagement.
Source: Physician Wellness Academic Consortium
Definition: Burnout refers to the emotional depletion and loss of motivation that result from prolonged exposure to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is one of the most widely accepted scales and is composed of the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. With more than 35 years of research and a solid theoretical foundation, researchers in this field are increasingly dedicating themselves to the development of effective and lasting interventions to reduce job burnout. Successful interventions include the consideration of the individual within the context of the workplace.
Source: Stress and quality of working life, by C Maslach, M Leiter, and K Frame.
Colonization
Definition: Colonization can be defined as some form of invasion, dispossession and subjugation of a people. The invasion need not be military; it can begin—or continue—as geographical intrusion in the form of agricultural, urban or industrial encroachments. The result of such incursion is the dispossession of vast amounts of lands from the original inhabitants. This is often legalized after the fact. The long-term result of such massive dispossession is institutionalized inequality. The colonizer/colonized relationship is by nature an unequal one that benefits the colonizer at the expense of the colonized.
Ongoing and legacy colonialism impact power relations in most of the world today. For example, white supremacy as a philosophy was developed largely to justify European colonial exploitation of the Global South (including enslaving African peoples, extracting resources from much of Asia and Latin America, and enshrining cultural norms of whiteness as desirable both in colonizing and colonizer nations).
Source: Racial Equity Tools
Definition: Colonization occurs when an external power forcefully asserts their governing authority over a people — their lives, lands, and resources. – Dr. Sharon Stein, UBC
There are many forms of colonization we can delve into of course but as educators in a North America anchored institution, The form of colonization that we should be most concerned about in the U.S. and Canadian context is settler colonization. Though the specifics of settler colonialism differ from place to place (Kelley, 2017), according to Glen Coulthard (2014) “a settler-colonial relationship is one characterized by domination; that is a relationship where power — in this case, interrelated, discursive and non-discursive facets of economic, gendered, racial, and state power — has been structured into a relatively secure or sedimented set of hierarchical social relations that continue to facilitate the dispossession of Indigenous peoples of their lands and self-determining authority”
It is through processes of settler colonialism that many of us are here today, and all U.S. colleges and universities were built on dispossessed Indigenous lands. We should also be mindful that we have students immigrating from other countries that have deep colonial histories that shape their ideas of power, identity, and the American dream.
Source: So, So you want to decolonize higher education? Necessary conversations for non-Indigenous people, by Dr. Sharon Stein
Definition: Colonialism refers to deliberate practices of domination and power through the subjugation and exploitation of one people over another. This domination extends not only into political and economic control, but centers on very particular constructions and practices of dehumanizing the other, which allows the colonizer to justify or legitimize its actions. The actions of colonialism are made visible in administrative and architectural structures, inasmuch as it manifests in military occupation, the marauding of resources, the dispossession of land, and of course, the control of education.
Source: Love in the time of Decoloniality, by Nuraan David (December 2019)
Decolonization
Definition: Decolonization may be defined as the active resistance against colonial powers, and a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, cultural, psychic independence and power that originate from a colonized nation’s own indigenous culture. This process occurs politically and also applies to personal and societal psychic, cultural, political, agricultural, and educational deconstruction of colonial oppression.
Source: Racial Equity Tools (The Movement for Black Lives – M4BL)
Definition: This term is typically associated with the mid-twentieth century wave of processes through which subjugated peoples in colonies of occupation sought to attain political independence. It is vital to note that in settler-colonial nation-states like Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, such structural decolonization has never occurred; the same settler government systems imposed upon pre-existing sovereign Indigenous nations and their lands continue to remain in power today. In its most robust sense, therefore, decolonization involves nothing less than the dismantling of colonial power structures, be they political, epistemic, or social, with the ultimate goal of “repatriati[ng] … Indigenous land and life”
Source: Decolonization is not a metaphor, by Tuck& Yang, 2012
Diaspora
Definition: The word “Diaspora” has its origins in the Latin word “diaspeirein” meaning “disperse”. Since the late twentieth century, the term Diaspora (Greek διασπορα, a scattering or sowing of seeds) has described people or ethnic groups who have left their traditional ethnic homelands by force and have scattered all over the world. The term is often used in relation to a minority ethnic group or a religious group. Originally, the term Diaspora referred to the populations of Jews exiled from Judea in 586 BC by the Babylonians and in AD 135 by the Romans. Since early modern times, the confessional minorities of Christianity were part of a Diaspora. The term describes the process of dispersal and the dispersed ethnic population.
Today ‘Diaspora’ refers to, among others, the Jewish Diaspora in the modern sense (Jews who live outside Israel), the Christian Diaspora (Christian minorities in East and South East Asia or Catholics in Northern Europe and Protestants in Southern Europe) ), the Irish Diaspora (Irish refugees due to the Irish Potato Famine and political oppression), the Armenian Diaspora (the dispersal of Armenians after the genocide in 1915-16), the South East Asian Diaspora (the scattered refugees from South East Asia due to several wars such as World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War), the Islamic Diaspora (the Muslim minority in Europe and North America) and the African Diaspora.
Source: Adapted from Institute for Cultural Diplomacy
Definition: The dispersion of a group of people who live outside their homeland due to an historical event that caused them to flee or which forcibly removed them from their homelands into new regions: such as, Africans as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Source: University of Washington – Diversity & Social Justice Glossary
Discrimination
Definition: Discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on characteristics such as race, gender, age or sexual orientation. Discrimination is a public health issue. According to the 2015 Stress in America Survey, people who say they have faced discrimination rate their stress levels higher, on average, than those who say they have not experienced discrimination. That’s true across racial and ethnic groups.
Source: Adapted from Association Psychological Association
Definition: An act or policy (directly) discriminates if the actor or the policy treats person A differently from B on the basis
of A having or lacking some trait X. Alternatively, a policy (indirectly) discriminates if the policy has a disparate impact on persons with trait X as compared to persons with trait Y.
Source: Discrimination and Social Meaning by Deborah Hellman, University of Virginia School of Law.
Definition:
To “discriminate” against someone means to treat that person differently, or less favorably, for some reason. Discrimination can occur while you are at school, at work, or in a public place, such as a mall or subway station. You can be discriminated against by school friends, teachers, coaches, co-workers, managers, or business owners.
Equal employment opportunity law protects you from discrimination based on Age, Disability, Equal Pay/Compensation, Genetic Information, Harassment, National Origin, Pregnancy, Race/Color, Retaliation, Sex, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity.
Source: Adapted from U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Disempowerment
Definition: Disempowerment is closely connected to the denial of human rights, which is linked to the loss of autonomy. Some key dimensions of disempowerment include Physical and mental vulnerability; Poor information; Poverty; and Self-excluding behavior and social isolation.
Source: Adapted from Empowerment and older people: enhancing capabilities in an ageing world – un.org
Definition: A process by which people are socially excluded because they are denied access to such power and control. Racism, Ethnicization, Religious, Gendered and Social Class discrimination are all sources of community and political disempowerment in that they reduce people’s life chances and the economic and social possibilities open to them (Small, 1994).
Source: Adapted from Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity and Culture, edited by Guido Bolaffi, Raffaele Bracalenti, Peter Braham and Sandro Gindro, 2003. Page 1901.
Diversity
Definition: Each individual is unique, and groups of individuals reflect multiple dimensions of identity: race, sex and gender, socio-economic status, sexuality, age, ability, national origin, religious beliefs, cognitive styles, personality, appearance, and much more. Valuing diversity means embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of difference that exist in groups and eliminating interpersonal and institutional biases based on these differences.
Source: Adapted from Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center – Living Glossary for Racial Justice, Equity & Inclusion
Definition: Diversity means variety. Diversity refers to difference. People are the same and different. Human diversity includes: country of origin, family and ethnic background, race, sex, age, culture, professional background and training, religious or political beliefs, and personality.
Source: United Nations – Respect for Diversity
Definition: Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, encompassing the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. While diversity is often used in reference to race, ethnicity, and gender, a broader definition of diversity that also includes age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, and physical appearance. Also is important to consider diversity of thought: ideas, perspectives, and values. It is important to recognize that individuals affiliate with multiple identities.
Source: Adapted from Independent Sector.org – Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter
Emotional Tax
Definition: Feeling that you need to protect yourself from unfair treatment and negative attention inside and outside the workplace. The devotion of time and energy consciously preparing to face each day, which you know comes with the potential for large and small acts of bias, exclusion, or discrimination. This requires daily, not occasional, vigilance.
For Asian, Black, Latinx, and multiracial employees, decades of research tells that exclusion, discrimination, and bias can be daily experiences. These experiences occur both inside and outside the workplace, and they can be sharply painful. Put simply, Emotional tax is when a person lives each day in a constant state of being “on guard.”
Source: Adapted from Catalyst.org – Workplaces that work for women
Definition: 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.
Source: Harvard Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion & Belonging
Definition: A state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in certain respects, including civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights, and equal access to certain social goods and services.
Source: Pacific University Oregon
Equality
Definition: Equality aims to ensure that everyone gets the same things in order to enjoy full, healthy lives. Like equity, equality aims to promote fairness and justice, but it can only work if everyone starts from the same place and needs the same things.
Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation
Definition: Equality is the provision of equal treatment, access, and opportunity to resources and opportunities (Gunn, 2018). Essentially, everyone gets the same thing, regardless of where they come from or what needs they might have.
Source: Equity in Education: Defining Equity, Equality, and Standardization by Dr. Laura Latta, M.Ed., Ph.D., Director of Post-Secondary Partnerships & Research
Equity
Definition: Equity is defined as “the state, quality or ideal of being just, impartial and fair.” The concept of equity is synonymous with fairness and justice. It is helpful to think of equity as not simply a desired state of affairs or a lofty value. To be achieved and sustained, equity needs to be thought of as a structural and systemic concept.
Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation
Definition: Equity is the provision of personalized resources needed for all individuals to reach common goals. In other words, the goals and expectations are the same for all students, but the supports needed to achieve those goals depends on the students’ needs.
Source: Equity in Education: Defining Equity, Equality, and Standardization by Dr. Laura Latta, M.Ed., Ph.D., Director of Post-Secondary Partnerships & Research
Definition: The state in which differences in life outcomes are not predicted by one’s race, sex and gender, and other dimensions of identity, with specific emphasis on populations bearing the burden of inequities (e.g., people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ folk). Valuing equity means proactively creating policies, practices, and institutional messages that eliminate unfair differences in outcomes, so all individuals and groups have the means and the latitude necessary to eliminate gaps of opportunity and resources, and thereby, improve the quality of their lives. Equity does not mean equality.
Source: Adapted from Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center – Living Glossary for Racial Justice, Equity & Inclusion
Definition: The outcome of diversity, inclusion, and anti-oppression wherein all people have fair access, opportunity, resources, and power to thrive with consideration for and elimination of historical and systemic barriers and privileges that cause oppression.
Source: Delloite 2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Transparency
Gaslighting
Definition: To manipulate another person into doubting his or her perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events. The term once referred to manipulation so extreme as to induce mental illness or to justify commitment of the gaslighted person to a psychiatric institution but is now used more generally. It is usually considered a colloquialism, though occasionally it is seen in clinical literature, referring, for example, to the manipulative tactics associated with antisocial personality disorder. Gaslighted adjective [from Gaslight, a 1938 stage play and two later film adaptations (1940, 1944) in which a wife is nearly driven to insanity by the deceptions of her husband]
Source: American Psychological Association
Definition: First popularized in the 1944 movie Gas Light, it means a deliberate attempt to undermine a victim’s sense of reality or sanity. In a work context, it usually means behaviors that undermine the success, self-confidence, self-esteem or wellbeing of the target. For people in underrepresented or less powerful groups, it is more likely to occur, with more severe and harmful cumulative effects. Tactics can include withholding (critical information, meeting invitations, silent treatment), isolation (exclusion, causing conflict with coworkers), and discrediting (consistently shooting down the target’s ideas, ignoring or taking credit for them).
Source: Harvard Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion & Belonging
Health Equity
Definition: The idea that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their full health potential. No one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of their social position (e.g. class, socioeconomic status) or socially assigned circumstance (e.g. race, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, geography, etc.).
Source: The Boston Public Health Commission
Definition: Health equity is when every person has the opportunity to “attain his or her full health potential” and no one is “disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.”
Source: Adapted from National Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Health Inequity
Definition: Differences in health status and mortality rates across population groups that are systemic, avoidable, unfair, and unjust. These differences are rooted in social and economic injustice and are attributable to social, economic, and environmental conditions in which people live, work, and play (e.g. Black and brown babies tend to have much lower birth weight and higher infant mortality rates than white babies, even when controlling for individual behavior, income, and education of the mother). Health inequities are different from health disparities, though many people use these terms interchangeably. Disparities speak of differences across population groups (e.g., comparing health outcomes of an aging population to a younger population) and do not account for differences resulting from injustice.
Source: The Boston Public Health Commission
Definition: Health inequities are when people are disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances. Health inequities are reflected in differences in length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment.
Source: Adapted from National Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Identity
Definition: An individual’s sense of self defined by (a) a set of physical, psychological, and interpersonal characteristics that is not wholly shared with any other person and (b) a range of affiliations (e.g., ethnicity) and social roles. Identity involves a sense of continuity, or the feeling that one is the same person today that one was yesterday or last year (despite physical or other changes). Such a sense is derived from one’s body sensations; one’s body image; and the feeling that one’s memories, goals, values, expectations, and beliefs belong to the self. Also called personal identity.
Source: American Psychological Association
Definition: Identity is a combination of characteristics, attributes, experiences or behaviors that make us each who we are. Many of these dimensions of diversity give meaning to our identity: For example, “I am a parent, I am a doctor, I am from New York.” All of these are elements of an individual’s identity. Identity evolves over one’s lifetime, but it always dictates how we see ourselves and how others see us.
Implicit Bias
Definition: Negative associations people unknowingly hold, also known as unconscious or hidden bias. They are expressed automatically, without conscious awareness, providing unearned advantage to those in dominant groups and unearned disadvantage to those in marginalized groups. Many studies have indicated that implicit biases affect individuals’ attitudes and actions, thus creating real-world implications, even though individuals may not even be aware that those biases exist within themselves. Notably, implicit biases have been shown to undermine individuals’ stated commitments to equality and fairness, thereby producing behavior that diverges from the explicit attitudes that many people profess. The term “implicit bias” many times is used to avoid naming internalized racism, internalized sexism, etc.
Source: Adapted from Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center – Living Glossary for Racial Justice, Equity & Inclusion
Definition: The term implicit bias was first coined back in 1995 by psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald, where they argued that social behavior is largely influenced by unconscious associations and judgments (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Specifically, implicit bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious way, making them difficult to control.
Source: Simplypsichology.org
Definition: Bias is a human trait resulting from our tendency and need to classify individuals into categories as we strive to quickly process information and make sense of the world. To a large extent, these processes occur below the level of consciousness. This “unconscious” classification of people occurs through schemas, or “mental maps,” developed from life experiences to aid in “automatic processing.”
Source: US Department of Justice
Impostor Syndrome
Definition: First described by psychologists Suzanne Imes, PhD, and Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, in the 1970s, impostor phenomenon occurs among high achievers who are unable to internalize and accept their success. They often attribute their accomplishments to luck rather than to ability, and fear that others will eventually unmask them as a fraud.
Though the impostor phenomenon isn’t an official diagnosis listed in the DSM, psychologists and others acknowledge that it is a very real and specific form of intellectual self-doubt. Impostor feelings are generally accompanied by anxiety and, often, depression.
Source: APA – American Psychology Association
Definition: Impostor syndrome is a persistent self-doubt and fear of exposure as a fraud that causes many first-generation students to doubt their own abilities, discount praise, generate additional anxiety, opt for easier pathways, and to experience increased dissatisfaction with their lives.
Inclusion
Definition: The fundamental and authentic integration of historically and currently excluded individuals and/or groups (e.g., Black, Indigenous, people of color, women, transgender, and gender non-binary/non-conforming individuals, and the intersection of marginalized identities) into positions, processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power, values input and engenders belonging.
Source: Adapted from Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center – Living Glossary for Racial Justice, Equity & Inclusion, Informed by the NIH and AAMC
Definition: The word inclusion was actually coined in the late 1980s to distinguish placement in the general education classroom with appropriate supports from placing a child into general education classrooms without any supports, a practice commonly referred to as “mainstreaming.” But, today, inclusion is not just about children with disabilities.
Intersectionality
Definition: The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, sex and gender, and other dimensions of identity as they apply to a given individual or group, creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Intersectionality recognizes the multiple ways in which people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression.
Source: A Feminist theory first highlighted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989). Adapted from YW Boston and Oxford Dictionary
Definition: Intersectionality gained currency in the late 1980s and early 90s when feminists and women of color began to use the term to articulate their experiences in society and within movements for social change and equality. They argued that systems of race, class, gender, ethnicity and other markers of difference were intersecting and interlocking. These markers often interact with institutions and structures in society to limit access to resources and information to privilege some groups over others, and to maintain power. One of the earliest articulations of the intersectional
framework is outlined in the groundbreaking article Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color by noted legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw.
Source: Women of Color Policy Network – Leading at the intersections: An introduction to the intersectional approach model for policy & Social Change, by C. Nicole Mason, Phd
Definition: Intersectionality is a feminist theory, a methodology for research, and a springboard for a social justice action agenda. It starts from the premise that people live multiple, layered identities derived from social relations, history, and the operation of structures of power. People are members of more than one community at the same time, and can simultaneously experience oppression and privilege (e.g. a woman may be a respected medical professional yet suffer domestic violence in her home).
Source: Women’s Rights and Economic Change, 2004
Macro-Aggression
Definition: A macroaggression is an act of racism towards everyone of a race, gender or group. An example of a macroaggression would be individuals spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and placing blame on Asia. This has contributed to an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Source: YWCA – Eliminating Racism Empowering Women
Definition: Macroaggressions occur at a structural level encompassing actions that are meant to exclude, either by action or omission. Macroaggressions are verbal or non-verbal communications that are not only purposeful and deliberate, but are meant to create longitudinally debilitating and depressive results in the victim. They are persistent and malicious.
Macroaggressions occur in the nebulous space between microaggressions and institutional/structural racism. They move past the subtle, unconscious aspects of microinsults and microinvalidations into a more literal and overt space. We use the term “macroaggressions” to showcase the aggressive and deleterious effect of macroaggressive activities.
Source: Adpated from Deconstructing Macroaggressions, Microaggressions, and Structural Racism in Education: Developing a Conceptual Model for the Intersection of Social Justice Practice and Intercultural Education (Boske, Newcomb, and Osanloo – 2016)
Micro-Affirmation
Definition: Tiny (yet BIG) acts of kindness, appreciation, and acknowledgment; intentional creation of opportunity, regular gestures of inclusion and caring, and graceful acts of listening.
Source: Adapted from Mary Rowe, 2017
Definition: A small gesture of inclusion, caring or kindness. They include listening, providing comfort and support, being an ally, and explicitly valuing the contributions and presence of all. It is particularly helpful for those with greater power or seniority to “model” affirming behavior.
Source: Harvard Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion & Belonging
Micro-Aggression
Definition: Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group. (Sue et al., 2007, p. 273)
Source: BUSSW Racial & Social Justice Vocabulary List
Definition: The 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.
Source: Racial Equity Tools (Derald Wing Sue, PhD, “Microaggressions: More than Just Race” – Psychology Today, 17 November 2010)
Definition: Brief and subtle behaviors, whether intentional or not, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages of commonly oppressed identities. These actions cause harm through the invalidation of the target person’s identity and may reinforce stereotypes. Examples of microaggressions include a person who is not white being told they speak “good English” or someone saying something is “gay” to mean they think something is bad.
Source: LGBTQIA Resource Center
Micro-Inequities
Definition: In 1973, Mary Rowe began writing about “microinequities.” She defined them as “apparently small events
which are often ephemeral and hard-to-prove, events which are covert, often unintentional, frequently
unrecognized by the perpetrator, which occur wherever people are perceived to be ‘different.’”
Source: Micro-affirmations & Micro-inequities (Mary Rowe – MIT)
Definition: Micro-inequities, by definition, are unfair to those whom they affect. Mary Rowe has further described these as small events that may be ephemeral and hard to prove; that may be covert, often unintentional, and frequently unrecognized by the perpetrator; that occur wherever people are perceived to be different; and that can cause serious harm, especially in the aggregate.
Micro-Messaging
Definition: Small, subtle, and often unintentional messages we send and receive verbally and non-verbally. We subconsciously communicate values and expectations that can be supportive (micro-affirmations) or negative (micro-inequities).
Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center
Definition: Small, subtle messages, sometimes subconscious, that are communicated between people without saying a word. We each send between 2,000 and 4,000 positive and negative micro-messages each day. Micro-messages are small behaviors that add up to have a big impact. These subtle, semi-conscious, universally understood messages, both verbal and physical, tell others what we really think about them.
Source: Harvard Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion & Belonging
Oppression
Definition: The unjust exercise of power by a dominant group over people who have less power such that the dominant group is privileged at the other group’s expense (Lechuga, Clerc & Howell, 2009; Sue, 2015). Oppression is the complicated and multifaceted manifestation of power and privilege (Dei, 2007; Spencer, 2008).
Source: BUSSW Racial & Social Justice Vocabulary List
Definition: The power and the effects of domination. In the U.S., there are many forms of (often) interlocking oppressions: racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, anti-Semitism, ableism, ageism, etc.
Source: Adapted from Race Forward and Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center
Definition: The systematic subjugation of one social group by a more powerful social group for the social, economic, and political benefit of the more powerful social group. Rita Hardiman and Bailey Jackson state that oppression exists when the following 4 conditions are found:
- the oppressor group has the power to define reality for themselves and others,
- the target groups take in and internalize the negative messages about them and end up cooperating with the oppressors (thinking and acting like them),
- genocide, harassment, and discrimination are systematic and institutionalized, so that individuals are not necessary to keep it going, and,
- members of both the oppressor and target groups are socialized to play their roles as normal and correct.
Othering
Definition: Othering is a set of dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality across any of the full range of human differences based on group identities.13 Dimensions of othering include, but are not limited to, religion, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (class), disability, sexual orientation, and skin tone. Although the axes of difference that undergird these expressions of othering vary considerably and are deeply contextual, they contain a similar set of underlying dynamics.
Source: Othering & Belonging – Expanding the circle of human concern
Definition: Othering refers to the process whereby an individual or groups of people attribute negative characteristics to other individuals or groups of people that set them apart as representing that which is opposite to them. It refers to more than just stereotyping, as this can involve making generalizations about groups of people which may be positive or negative. Othering includes an affect component, where those that are othered are irrationally feared, even hated.
Patriarchy
Definition: The concept of Patriarchy itself is not a contribution of feminist theories. Many social scientists in the nineteenth century wrote about it as a more civilized or complex form of organization compared to the primitive matriarchies. Engels referred to it as the earliest system of domination establishing that Patriarchy is “the world historical defeat of the female sex.” In this sense, it is said that Patriarchy was a form of political organization that distributed power unequally between men and women to the detriment of women. The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language Dictionary defines Patriarchy as “A primitive social organization in which authority is exercised by a male head of the family, extending this power even to distant relatives of the same lineage.”
Source: Adapted from Women’s Human Rights Institute
Definition: The control by men, rather than woman or both men and women, of most of the power and authority in a society. Patriarchy can also be defined as a form of social organization in which fathers or males control the family, clan, tribe, or larger social unit (or a society is organized in this way).
Source: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Definition: Structural and ideological system that perpetuates the privileging of particular kinds of masculinity and cisgender men. A system in which cisgender men have institutional control and dominance.
Source: UMass Medical + UMassMemorial Health Care’s Diversity + Inclusion, Diversity Toolkit
Positionality
Definition: Positionality refers to how differences in social position and power shape identities and access in society. Citing a few key definitions of positionality, Misawa (2010, p. 26) emphasizes the fluid and relational qualities of social identity formation while also noting that “all parts of our identities are shaped by socially constructed positions and memberships to which we belong” and which are “embedded in our society as a system.”
Pascua Yaqui/Chicana scholar M. Duarte (2017, p. 135) describes positionality as a methodology that “requires researchers to identify their own degrees of privilege through factors of race, class, educational attainment, income, ability, gender, and citizenship, among others” for the purpose of analyzing and acting from one’s social position “in an unjust world.”
Source: University of British Columbia
Definition:
Refer to the way in which the individual identity and affiliations we have are positioned by others. Positionality is, therefore, a cultural concept relating to gender, ethnicity, culture, and so on. There are different kinds of positionality: ascribed positionality (as is generally the case with gender); selective positionality (as in the case of those who opt for a particular position) and enforced positionality (where others forcibly define the position whether it meets with subjective criteria or not).
Source: Feminisms and Cross-ideological Feminist Social Research: Standpoint, Situatedness and Positionality – Developing Cross-ideological Feminist Research – Journal of International Women’s Studies
Power
Definition: Power can be defined as the degree of control over material, human, intellectual, and financial resources exercised by different sections of society. The control of these resources becomes a source of individual and social power. Power is dynamic and relational, rather than absolute – it is exercised in the social, economic, and political relations between individuals and groups. It is also unequally distributed – some individuals and groups having greater control. The extent of power of an individual or group is correlated to how many different kinds of resources they can access and control.
Source: Dynamics of Power, Inclusion, and Exclusion, by Lisa VeneKlasen with Valeire Miller, 2002
Definition: The word power is derived from the Latin word ‘potere’, which means “to be able.” This root meaning focuses on power as a general capacity—we all have the potential to shape our lives and the world around us. However, based on most peoples’ experiences with economic and political institutions, power has more to do with “control, influence or authority over others.” (as defined in Webster’s Dictionary). A common if unspoken assumption about power in our society is that unequal power relations are part of the natural order of things, and are, therefore, inevitable and unchangeable.
Source: Power and Social Change – Grassroots Policy Project – Otto Bremer Foundation
Prejudice
Definition: Attitudes and/or beliefs (typically negative) held toward a person or group based on preconceived notions. (Williams, 1999)
Source: BUSSW Racial & Social Justice Vocabulary List
Definition: An attitude based on limited information, often on stereotypes. Prejudice is usually, but not always, negative. Positive and negative prejudices alike, especially when directed toward oppressed people, are damaging because they deny the individuality of the person. In some cases, the prejudices of oppressed people (“you can’t trust the police”) are necessary for survival. No one is free of prejudice.
Source: Dismantling Racism.org – Racism Defined
Privilege
Definition: Unearned social power, advantages, and immunities enjoyed by one, usually powerful group or class, especially to the disadvantage of others. Systemic advantages that are granted based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation or other dimensions of diversity, regardless of an individual’s personal effort and often invisible to those who have it because we are taught not to see it.
Source: Adapted from Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center – Living Glossary for Racial Justice, Equity & Inclusion
Definition: Privileges are benefits that are available based on social group membership that are available to some people and not others, and sometimes at the expense of others. Some privileges are material—such as access to adequate healthcare—while others are nonmaterial—such as the ability to experience oneself as normal and central in society.
Source: Adams, Maurianne. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, 2018
Definition: Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do.
Source: Peggy McIntosh – “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies” (1988) and “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1989)
Psychological Safety
Definition: Psychological safety is not immunity from consequences, nor is it a state of high self-regard. In psychologically safe workplaces, people know they might fail, they might receive performance feedback that says they’re not meeting expectations, and they might lose their jobs due to changes in the industry environment or even to a lack of competence in their role. These attributes of the modern workplace are unlikely to disappear anytime soon. But in a psychologically safe workplace, people are not hindered by interpersonal fear. They feel willing and able to take the inherent interpersonal risks of candor. They fear holding back their full participation more than they fear sharing a potentially sensitive, threatening, or wrong idea.
Source: The Fearless Organization – Amy Edmondson, 2018
Definition: Team psychological safety is defined as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. It involves but goes beyond interpersonal trust; it describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.
Source: Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams, by Amy Edmondson
Social Justice
Definition: Social justice may be broadly understood as the fair and compassionate distribution of the fruits of economic growth.
Source: United Nations
Definition: Social justice encompasses economic justice. Social justice is the virtue which guides us in creating those organized human interactions we call institutions. In turn, social institutions, when justly organized, provide us with access to what is good for the person, both individually and in our associations with others. Social justice also imposes on each of us a personal responsibility to work with others to design and continually perfect our institutions as tools for personal and social development.
Stereotype
Definition: A set of cognitive generalizations (e.g., beliefs, expectations) about the qualities and characteristics of the members of a group or social category. Stereotypes, like schemas, simplify and expedite perceptions and judgments, but they are often exaggerated, negative rather than positive, and resistant to revision even when perceivers encounter individuals with qualities that are not congruent with the stereotype.
Source: American Psychological Association
Definition: A generalization applied to every person in a cultural group; a fixed conception of a group without allowing for individuality. When we believe our stereotypes, we tend to ignore characteristics that don’t conform to our stereotype, rationalize what we see to fit our stereotype, see those who do not conform as “exceptions,” and find ways to create the expected characteristics.
Source: LGBTQIA Resource Center
Unconscious Bias
Check Implicit Bias
Underrepresented Groups (URG)
Definition: An acronym used in academic medicine meaning underrepresented groups; specifically refers to Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Native American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander . Although there is some overlap, URG is not interchangeable with people of color, which includes those of Asian descent.
Source: NIH’s definition of underrepresented groups (URG) in medicine and informed by the National Science Foundation.
Definition: A group that is less represented in one subset (e.g., employees in a particular sector, such as IT) than in the general population. This can refer to gender, race/ethnicity, physical or mental ability, LGBTQ+ status, and many more. Also referred to as minorities, underrepresented minorities, or marginalized populations.
Source: Innovation Through Diversity and Inclusion: A Roadmap for Higher Education Information Technology Leaders – Brenna Deanne Miaira Kutch (Portland State University, USA) and Juliana Sayumi Miaira Kutch (Portland State University, USA), 2019
Veteran
Definition: Title 38 of the Code of Federal Regulations defines a veteran as “a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable.” This definition explains that any individual that completed a service for any branch of armed forces classifies as a veteran as long as they were not dishonorably discharged.
Source: VA.org
White Privilege
Definition: White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which 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. I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege.
Source: Adapted from Peggy McIntosh – White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Definition: The unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white, separate from one’s level of income or effort. Generally, white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it. White privilege does not mean that white people do not face challenges or struggles; it does mean that those struggles are not due to being white.
Source: Adapted from Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center
Definition: White privilege is—perhaps most notably in this era of uncivil discourse—a concept that has fallen victim to its own connotations. The two-word term packs a double whammy that inspires pushback. 1) The word white creates discomfort among those who are not used to being defined or described by their race. And 2) the word privilege, especially for poor and rural white people, sounds like a word that doesn’t belong to them—like a word that suggests they have never struggled.
Source: Adapted from Learning for Justice.org
White Supremacy
Definition: A political term to describe the system in which Whites enjoy social, economic, and political benefits and preferential treatment at the expense of others. (Mills, 2008; Mills, 2000; Morris, 1995)
Source: BUSSW Racial & Social Justice Vocabulary List
Definition: A historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege.
Source: Adapted from Race Forward
Definition: White Supremacy is a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent, for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege. (Definition by Challenging the White Supremacy Workshop, San Francisco, CA)
Source: What is White Supremacy – Pym.org – Philadelphia Yearly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends
White Supremacy Culture
Definition: White Supremacy Culture refers to the dominant, unquestioned standards of behavior and ways of functioning embodied by the vast majority of institutions in the United States. These standards may be seen as mainstream, dominant cultural practices; they have evolved from the United States’ history of white supremacy. Because it is so normalized it can be hard to see, which only adds to its powerful hold. In many ways, it is indistinguishable from what we might call U.S. culture or norms – a focus on individuals over groups, for example, or an emphasis on the written word as a form of professional communication. But it operates in even more subtle ways, by actually defining what “normal” is – and likewise, what “professional,” “effective,” or even “good” is. In turn, white culture also defines what is not good, “at-risk,” or “unsustainable.” White culture values some ways of thinking, behaving, deciding, and knowing – ways that are more familiar and come more naturally to those from a white, western tradition – while devaluing or rendering invisible other ways.
Source: Racial Equity Tools – Gita Gulati-Partee and Maggie Potapchuk, “Paying Attention to White Culture and Privilege: A Missing Link to Advancing Racial Equity” (The Foundation Review vol. 6: issue 1, 2014)
Definition: White supremacy culture is the idea (ideology) that white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of white people are superior to People of Color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions.
White supremacy culture is reproduced by all the institutions of our society. In particular, the media, the education system, western science (which played a major role in reinforcing the idea of race as a biological truth with the white race as the “ideal” top of the hierarchy), and the Christian church have played central roles in reproducing the idea of white supremacy (i.e. that white is “normal,” “better,” “smarter,” “holy” in contrast to Black, Indigenous, and other People and Communities of Color.
Source: Dismantling Racism.org – White Supremacy Culture