Glossary

A partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, practitioners, and academic researchers in all aspects of the process, enabling all partners to contribute their expertise and share responsibility and ownership. [ ]

The ability to effectively and empathetically work and engage with people of different cultural identities and backgrounds to provide safe and accountable spaces for dialogue and discourse. Cultural competence is relevant in all fields of work, education, and informal social interactions. [ ]

A lifelong process that includes commitment to self-reflection and self-critique about differences in culture and to actively mitigating power imbalances in intercultural interactions. [ ]

Differences in social outcomes (e.g., health, income, education, etc.) between populations or groups. [ ]

The practice of including many communities, identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, cultures, and beliefs, including underserved communities.” [ ]

The effort to treat everyone the same or to ensure that everyone has access to the same opportunities. However, only working to achieve equality ignores historical and structural factors that benefit some social groups and disadvantages other social groups in ways that create differential starting points [ ]

The effort to provide different levels of support based on an individual’s or group’s needs in order to achieve fairness in outcomes. Working to achieve equity acknowledges unequal starting places and the need to correct the imbalance. The concept of equity applies across social disparities (e.g., Racial Equity, Gender Equity) and social outcomes (e.g., Health Equity, Educational Equity). [ ]

A mindset and a repeatable process to help designers, researchers, advocates, and policymakers create more equitable outcomes through inclusive solutions. “Equity-driven design thinking helps ensure we design at the margins, for those who have the greatest need, who are traditionally left out of the design process” (e.g., non-English speakers, those with differing abilities, historically underrepresented communities, etc.) [ ]

Attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. [ ]

The tendency for groups to ‘favor’ themselves by rewarding group members economically, socially, psychologically, and emotionally, in order to uplift one group over another. [ ]

The act of recognizing, understanding, appreciating, and utilizing the similar and different characteristics between individuals and groups. [ ]

Policies and practices within and across institutions that, intentionally or not, produce outcomes that chronically favor one racial group and/or put a racial group at a disadvantage…The institutional policies may never mention any racial group, but their effect is to create advantages for Whites and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups classified as people of color. [ ]

The conscious and unconscious development of ideas, beliefs, actions, and behaviors that demonstrate one’s acceptance of the dominant society’s racist tropes and stereotypes about their own race. Internalized racism is the simultaneous hating of oneself and/or one’s own race and valuing of the dominant race. [ ]

Racism that occurs between individuals. It is when someone consciously or unconsciously employs or acts upon on racist thoughts, in ways that perpetuate stereotypes and harms people of color. [ ]

The ways in which race, class, gender, and other aspects of our identity “intersect,” overlap and interact with one another, informing the way in which individuals simultaneously experience oppression and privilege in their daily lives interpersonally and systemically. Intersectionality promotes the idea that aspects of our identity do not work in a silo. Intersectionality, then, provides a basis for understanding how these individual identity markers work with one another. [ ]

Populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life. [ ]

The systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another. Racism is complex, and occurs on four intersecting levels: Internalized Racism The conscious and unconscious development of ideas, beliefs, actions, and behaviors that demonstrate one’s acceptance of the dominant society’s racist tropes and stereotypes about their own race. Internalized racism is the simultaneous hating of oneself and/or one’s own race and valuing of the dominant race. Interpersonal or Individual Racism “Racism that occurs between individuals. It is when someone consciously or unconsciously employs or acts upon on racist thoughts, in ways that perpetuate stereotypes and harms people of color.” Institutional Racism “Policies and practices within and across institutions that, intentionally or not, produce outcomes that chronically favor one racial group and/or put a racial group at a disadvantage…The institutional policies may never mention any racial group, but their effect is to create advantages for Whites and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups classified as people of color.” 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 Used interchangeably with Institutional or Structural Racism. [ ]

A process, not an outcome, which (1) seeks fair (re)distribution of resources, opportunities, and responsibilities; (2) challenges the roots of oppression and injustice; (3) empowers all people to exercise self-determination and realize their full potential; (4) and builds social solidarity and community capacity for collaborative action. [ ]

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. [ ]

Used interchangeably with Institutional or Structural Racism. [ ]