Glossary of Diversity Terminology

The Center for Culture, Equity and Empowerment (CCEE) is providing you with a glossary of the terms that are used within our workshops, trainings and presentations. These terms also may be accepted and agreed to language in other offices, classrooms, and brave spaces on campus.  

No glossary will be all-encompassing, but you can continue to expand your knowledge through online research or advanced workshops offered by the CCEE through Coalition Building and Diversity Education.  

You may also visit some of the resources listed at the end of this packet for more information. 

 
General Terminology
  • _____ism – indicating prejudice on the basis specified (e.g:: sexism, racism, ableism, etc.)
  • _____phobia – an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something (e.g: homophobia)
  • Ableism – The intentional or unintentional discrimination or oppression of individuals with disabilities.
  • Activist – Is the person on the front lines of a cause; most engaged, actively involved in forcing change, holding power accountable, setting the agenda, and leading the charge. These are the courageous, relentless, committed people who dedicate all or most of their lives work to their vision of moving society forward for a cause. This person is typically from the group that is most affected by systemic or systematic harm.
  • Accessibility – The quality of being possible to get into, use, or make use of.
  • Accomplice – Those who join in solidarity with marginalized people actively working for their cause. They actively fight against systematic and systemic oppression intentionally designed to keep the marginalized oppressed. They directly place their privileged position at risk for those in marginalized groups.
  • Advocate – Work one does from a position of power and safety.
  • Ally – A person in a position of privilege and power who acts and speaks on behalf of a marginalized or disadvantaged group/community and is always accountable to that community. This is a term a marginalized group gives to a person who is an active advocate for the group/community; this is not a self-proclaimed title. 
  • Active Racism – Actions that have as their stated or explicit goal the maintenance of the system of racism and the oppression of those in targeted racial groups. People who participate in active racism advocate the continual subjugation of members of the targeted racial groups and the protection of ‘the rights’ of members of the agent group. These goals are often supported by a belief in the inferiority of People of Color and the superiority of white people, culture, and values (Wijeysinghe, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 89).
  • Anti-Racism – Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by recognizing, changing, disrupting, and/or dismantling systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, and attitudes that perpetuate racism, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably.
  • Agent Groups – Members of dominant social groups privileged by birth or acquisition who knowingly or unknowingly exploit and reap unfair advantage over members of the target groups.   
  • Belonging – Acceptance as a member or part. A sense of belonging is a human need, just like the need for food and shelter. Feeling that you belong is most important in seeing value in life and in coping with intensely painful emotions  
  • Bias – Any discriminatory or hurtful act that appears to be motivated or is perceived by the victim or victims to be motivated by race, ethnicity, religion, age, national origin, sex, ability, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, socioeconomic status or language.
  • Caucasian – A common term to describe the race of White people. The term comes from Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s (German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be the main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines) racial classification system, in which he purported that God created Caucasians in his own image as the ideal race (Moses 2017). Then, Blumenbach designated other races that he deemed inferior to describe everyone else. His system was later used to justify the enslavement of Black people in the United States. 
  • Co-Conspirator – A person from a privileged group who understands that their liberation is bound to the liberation of those from marginalized or disadvantaged communities/groups. It is being in constant, consistent action. Identities such as co-conspirators are neither static nor self-ascribed; rather, these words ought to be verbs that only describe one’s identity to the extent to which People of Color or other marginalized groups experience them as true. co-conspirator helps in the planning, development, and participation of dismantling systems of oppression. 
  • Culture – the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group
  • Cultural Agility – The ability of an organization and its members to understand, incorporate, and successfully work within and between multiple different cultural contexts and locations.
  • Cultural Appropriation – The use of objects or elements of a non-dominant culture in a way that doesn’t respect their original meaning, give credit to their source, or reinforces stereotypes, or contributes to oppression.
  • Cultural Assimilation – The process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society. The process of assimilating involves taking on the traits of the dominant culture to such a degree that the assimilating group becomes socially indistinguishable from other members of the society.
  • Cultural Imperialism –The deliberate imposition of one’s own cultural values on another culture.
  • Cultural Racism (Racism at the Cultural Level) – Those aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and Whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label People of Color as “other,” different, less than, or render them invisible (Wijeysinghe, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 93).
  • Dangerous Groups – A dangerous group is a group with a hidden agenda of power which is achieved by deceptive recruitment and control over the minds and lives of its members. Particular behaviors that make an organization or group destructive may include one or combined practices of the following: Deception (innocent recruitment efforts in the beginning, such as pretensions of friendship, conversations about philosophy, religion, or politics), or an invitation to attend a social function, a meeting or a discussion group; Efforts to remove members from individuals and activities outside the group; The use of ridicule or embarrassment to motivate or control members; A demand for unquestioning obedience to the group and its leadership; Extraordinary pressure to recruit new members, sometimes even in pyramid fashion; Extraordinary demands for members’ contributions — in money and time — in support of the group; The channeling of funds raised to undisclosed parent organizations.
  • Discrimination – The practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people.
  • Diversity – Focuses on appreciating social difference without an emphasis on power dynamics or differential access to resources and institutional support needed to live safe, satisfying, productive lives. 
  • Ethnicity – A social construct that artificially divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests, history, and ancestral geographical base (Wijeysinghe, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 88).
  • Ethnocentrism– Evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares to one’s own cultural norms; a belief or attitude that one’s own culture is better than all others.
  • Equity – Giving people what they need, in order to make things fair.
  • Equality – Ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents.   
  • Hate Crime – A criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.  
  • Hate Speech – Any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons based on race, religion, skin color sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin 
  • Horizontal Prejudice – 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, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 98).  
  • Implicit/Unconscious Bias – attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner.
  • Individual Racism 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, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 89).
  • Inclusivity/Inclusion – the fact or policy of not excluding members or participants on the grounds of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, etc.
  • Inclusive Excellence – The active commitment to intentionally and perpetually engage with diversity in ways that systematically leverage learning and resources while effectively reimagining organizational structure and innovatively increasing awareness, content and cognitive knowledge, and compassionate understanding for one another.  
  • Interfaith – When people or groups from different religious/spiritual worldviews and traditions come together in commonality.  
  • Intersectionality – The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
  • Internalized Domination – “When members of the agent group (Whites) accept their group’s socially superior status as normal and deserved.” (p. 76) Source: Griffin, P. (1997). Introductory Module for Single Issue Courses. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook (pp. 61-81). New York: Routledge. 
  • Internalized Racism/Oppression – The result of people of targeted racial groups believing, acting on, or enforcing the dominant system of beliefs about themselves and members of their own racial group. (Wijeysinghe, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 98).
  • Institutional Racism (Racism at the Institutional Level)- The network of institutional structures, policies, and practices that create advantages and benefits for Whites, and discrimination, oppression, and disadvantage for people from targeted racial groups. The advantages created for Whites are often invisible to them. Or are considered “rights’ available to everyone as opposed to “privileges” awarded to only some individuals and groups (Wijeysinghe, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 93). 
  • Marginalized – To put or keep (someone) in a powerless or unimportant position within a society or group.
  • Microaggression – The brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group.
  • Multiculturalism- The co-existence of diverse cultures, where culture includes racial, religious, or cultural groups and is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles.
  • Neurodiversity – The diversity of human brains and minds – the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species. What It Doesn’t Mean: Neurodiversity is a biological fact. It’s not a perspective, an approach, a belief, a political position, or a paradigm. Neurodiversity is not a political or social activist movement. (Nick Walker, neurocosmopolitanism.com.)
  • Oppression – unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power. The interlocking force that creates and sustains injustice. It is manifested through racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, transgender oppression, religious oppression ableism, and youth and elder oppression. 
  • Neurotypical – Often abbreviated as NT, means having a style of neurocognitive functioning that falls within the dominant societal standards of “normal.” Neurotypical can be used as either an adjective (“He’s neurotypical”) or a noun (“He’s a neurotypical”). Neurotypical is the opposite of neurodivergent. Neurotypicality is the condition from which neurodivergent people diverge. Neurotypical bears the same sort of relationship to neurodivergent that straight bears to queer. Neurotypical is not synonymous with non-autistic. Neurotypical is the opposite of neurodivergent, not the opposite of autistic. Autism is only one of many forms of neurodivergence, so there are many, many people who are neither neurotypical nor autistic. Using neurotypical to mean non-autistic is like using “white” to mean “not black.
  • Passive Racism – Beliefs, attitudes, and actions that contribute to the maintenance of racism, without openly advocating violence or oppression. The conscious and unconscious maintenance of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that support the system of racism, racial prejudice and racial dominance.” (Wijeysinghe, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook (p. 89).
  • Performative Allyship – When an individual or group of power/majority/privilege (e.g., white, male, abled, unqueer, etc.) loudly profess(es) their actions in the name of ‘allyship,’ while actively conducting harm to, taking focus away from, and generally being unhelpful towards the group they claim to support, often to receive praise and attention, without taking critical action to dismantle the systems of harm.
  • Prejudice – Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) towards an individual based solely on the individual’s membership in a social group.
  • Privilege – A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to one person or group of people. Operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels, gives advantages, favors, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups, and people in dominant groups are frequently unaware that they are members of the dominant group due to the privilege of being able to see themselves as persons rather than stereotypes. 
  • Race – “A social construct that artificially divides people into distinct groups based on certain characteristics such as physical appearance (particularly skin color) ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, cultural history, ethnic classification…Racial categories subsume ethnic groups.”(Wijeysinghe, C. L., Griffin, P, and Love, B. (1997). Racism Curriculum Design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook, 88).
  • Racial Identity – A social construct that generally refers to a group that is thought to share a racial heritage. (Anneliese A. Singh, The Racial Healing Handbook (2019), 11). 
  • Racial Identity Development – The stages or processes you experience in learning about your racial identity. (Anneliese A. Singh, The Racial Healing Handbook (2019), 11).
  • Racism – The systemic subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have little social power in society (e.g., Blacks, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asians in the United States), by the members of the agent racial group who have more social power (e.g., Whites in the United States). This subordination is supported by the actions of individuals, cultural norms and values, and the institutional structures and practices of society.
  • Socialization – The process beginning during childhood by which individuals acquire the values, habits, and attitudes of a society (Merriam-Webster.com)
  • Social Construction – A process by which society categorizes groups of people.
  • Stereotype – An oversimplified generalization about a group of people without regard to their individual differences. Some stereotypes can be positive; however, they can have a negative impact, simply because they involve broad generalizations that ignore individual realities.
  • Stereotype Threat – A phenomenon that occurs when there is the opportunity or perceived opportunity for an individual to satisfy or confirm a negative stereotype of a group of which they are members.  The threat of possibly satisfying or confirming the stereotype can interfere with one’s performance in a variety of tasks
  • Target Group – Members of social identity groups who are discriminated against, marginalized, disenfranchised, oppressed, exploited by an oppressor and oppressor’s system of institutions without identity apart from the target group, and compartmentalized in defined roles. 
  • White Privilege – The concrete benefits of access to resources and social rewards and the power to shape the norms and values of society which Whites receive, unconsciously and consciously, by virtue of their skin color in a racist society. 
  • White Supremacy – The belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to the exclusion or detriment of other racial and ethnic groups, in particular black or Jewish people. 
  • Whiteness/White Dominant Culture – Whiteness and white racialized identity refer to the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups are compared. Whiteness is also at the core of understanding race in America. Whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity throughout America’s history have created a culture where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal.
  • Underrepresented Student – A group that is less represented in one subset (e.g., employees or students in a particular sector as in a certain academic concentration, represented in campus population, or employed in a certain department) than in the general population. This can refer to gender, race/ethnicity, physical or mental ability, LGBTQ+ status, undocumented, 1 Gen representation, or veteran status. Some also refer to it as minorities, underrepresented minorities, or marginalized populations (Innovation Through Diversity and Inclusion: A Roadmap for Higher Education Information Technology Leaders).  
  • Undocumented Immigrant – Foreign-born people who do not possess a valid visa or other immigration documentation, because they entered the U.S. without inspection, stayed longer than their temporary visa permitted, or otherwise violated the terms under which they were admitted.
  • Undocumented Student – Those who do not have U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status. This includes both people who legally entered the United States but remained in the country without authorization and those who entered the U.S. without inspection or valid entry documents. 
LGBTQ Terminology
  • Asexual – An adjective used to describe people who do not experience sexual attraction (e.g., asexual person). A person can also be aromantic, meaning they do not experience romantic attraction. (For more information, visit asexuality.org.) 
  • Bisexual – A person emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to more than one sex, gender or gender identity though not necessarily simultaneously, in the same way or to the same degree.
  • Cisgender – A term used to describe an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.
  • Gay – A person who is emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to members of the same gender. This term is sometimes used to describe gay men specifically.
  • Gender Expression: External representation of one’s gender identity, usually expressed through behavior, clothing, haircut or voice, and which may or may not conform to socially defined behaviors and characteristics typically associated with being either masculine or feminine.
  • Gender Identity: One’s internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or other gender(s).
  • Gender non-conforming – A term for individuals whose gender expression is different from societal expectations related to gender.
  • Heterosexual/Straight – A sexual orientation in which a person feels physically and emotionally attracted to people of a gender other than their own.
  • Intersex – Intersex is an umbrella term describing people born with variations of internal and/or external sex anatomy resulting in bodies that can’t be classified as the typical male or female. 
  • Karyotype – An individual’s collection of chromosomes. Refers to a laboratory technique that produces an image of an individual’s chromosomes; used to look for abnormal numbers or structures of chromosomes. (National Human Genome Research Institute)
  • LGBTQ- Abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (often used to encompass sexual preference and gender identities that do not correspond to heterosexual norms)
    • LGBT is an acronym with multiple variations such as:
      • LGBTQ — Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (or questioning). 
      • LGBTQIA — Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and asexual (or allies). 
      • LGBTA — Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and asexual/aromantic/agender.
      • LGBTIQQ — Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, and Questioning.
      • LGBTQ2+ — Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or sometimes questioning), and two-spirited. The “+” signifies several other identities and is used to keep the abbreviation brief when written out.  Some write out the full abbreviation which is LGBTTTQQIAA.   
  • Lesbian – A woman who is emotionally, romantically and/or sexually attracted to other women.
  • Pansexual – A person whose emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attraction is to people of all gender identities.
  • Pronouns: the words we use in place of someone’s name when we talk about them. Pronouns are often gendered which is why it is important to never assume someone’s pronouns. (she/her, he/him, they/them, etc.)
  • Queer – A term people often use to express fluid and/or nonbinary identities and orientations. Often used interchangeably with “LGBTQ.” Note – while this term has been embraced by many people in LGBTQ communities, particularly by younger people, this term is not used by all LGBTQ people.
  • Sex Assigned at Birth – The assignment and classification of people as male, female, intersex, or another sex assigned at birth is often based on physical anatomy at birth and/or karyotyping. Examples:
    • AFAB – An abbreviation for assigned female at birth.
    • AMAB – An abbreviation for assigned male at birth.
  • Sexual Orientation: A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction to others
  • Transgender – An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc. Trans can be shorthand for transgender. 
References