Introduction & Definitions

Key Definitions: Racism

Race

A social construct of human beings which assigns human worth and social status based on predominantly inherited physical characteristics such as skin color, hair or facial features.

Racism 

A host of practices, beliefs, social relations and phenomena based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin that work to reproduce a racial hierarchy and social structure that yields superiority and privilege for some, and discrimination and oppression for others. A component of racism is that it is supported by societal and institutional power and authority.  

Cultural Racism

Societal beliefs and customs that promote the assumption that the elements of a given culture, including the language and traditions of that culture are superior to those of other cultures because of the race of those involved. Cultural racism exists when there is a widespread acceptance of stereotypes concerning different ethnic or racial groups.

The process of cultural racism is both historical and contemporary. From slavery, colonization and the forced removal of Indigenous people to conditioning from modern media segregating groups that are non-dominant, dominant cultural values are the imposed norm and do not allow for other forms of knowing, communicating, understanding and being in the world to exist legitimately.

Institutional Racism

Institutional/Structural racism is racial bias that occurs within and across institutions and social structures that work to reproduce advantages for white people. It is the impact of any organizational or social structure in which laws, policies, practices, cultural assumptions and socio-political and economic norms work in various and often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial inequity and discrimination against people of color. (Ewuare Osayande, American Friends Service Committee Chief Diversity Officer, Implicit Bias: Developing Critical Consciousness in Service of Intercultural Advancement PowerPoint Presentation (2016)).

Key Definitions: Discrimination

Implicit / Unconscious Bias

Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. The implicit associations we harbor in our subconscious cause us to have feelings and attitudes about others based on preconceived notions attributed to race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability and appearance. These associations develop over a lifetime through exposure to direct and indirect messages from institutions of authority. Although automatic, implicit biases are not completely inflexible: They are malleable and manifest in ways that are responsive to the perceiver’s motives and environment. (Ewuare Osayande, American Friends Service Committee Chief Diversity Officer, Implicit Bias: Developing Critical Consciousness in Service of Intercultural Advancement PowerPoint Presentation (2016)

Racial Discrimination

Any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect (Emphasis added) of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms. (International Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Article I(1).)

Microaggressions

The everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. (from Diversity in the Classroom, UCLA Diversity & Faculty Development,2014). The first step in addressing microaggressions is to recognize when a microaggression has occurred and what message it may be sending. The context of the relationship and situation is critical. (Adapted from Debra Wing Sue’s Microagressions in Every Day Life by Patty Powell, Counsel for Counsel, LLC, Presentation on Microagressions, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, February 2015.)

Interpersonal / Individual Racism

Actions that perpetuate inequalities on the basis of race. Such behaviors may be intentional or unintentional; unintentional acts may be racist in their consequence.(World Trust.Org, Cracking the Codes Conversation Guide, p. 6. )

Key Definitions: White Privilege

Privilege

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. Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is definitely an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.  (Peggy McIntosh)

White Privilege

A social construct which benefits and gives preferences for whiteness that saturates societies around the world and that creates rights, advantages, and protections enjoyed at the expense of and beyond those available to people of color.  Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.  (2015 White Privilege Conference.)

White Supremacy

The assumption or theory that whites are superior to all other races and should be in power or control. White supremacy as a term captures the pervasive magnitude, and normalcy of white privilege, dominance, and assumed superiority. It is embedded within systems and well as an attitude or culture of individual White people. The term white supremacy has often been associated only with extreme hate groups. However, this terminology captures the magnitude of a larger system and way of being.

White Fragility

White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.  (Robin D’Angelo, White Fragility in The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol. 3 No 3 (2011))

Key Definitions: Intersectionality

Intersectionality

Intersectionality first emerged in the context of feminism (acknowledging that while all women face sexism, the sexism that black women face is uniquely challenging, because it also involves racism), but has more recently come to refer to the complex and ever-shifting way that many different varieties of discrimination overlap, accumulate, and intersect. The term is also now being used to discuss how different causes (such as racial justice and environmental justice, for example) are joining forces in the recognition that they share common values and face common threats.  (Words Matter: A Racial Justice Glossary)

Credits

The source of the definitions in the Understanding & Healing White Supremacy topic is the Glossary of Basic Terms Related to Racism, Prepared for Mountain View Friends Meeting Racial Equity Training, compiled by Paula Rhodes, September 2018. Used by Permission.

The original version of this glossary was compiled by Paula Rhodes on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Board Community Equality & Justice Committee (BCEJC) for a 2015 workshop and we wish to thank the following AFSC staff members at that time for seasoning and giving input on many of the definitions herein: Hector Cortez, Tara Gaudin, Jamie Bissonette Lewey, Jiway Tung and Dustin Washington.

We also wish to thank the other members of the BCEJC at that time who seasoned and authorized the original version: Marta Benavides, Jada Monica Drew, Ann Francis, Keiko Kubo, Ricardo Leyva-Puebla, Paul Ricketts, Gregory Williams and Inspira Williams.

Unless otherwise noted, the terms used in this glossary are from the original BCEJC glossary.