Anti-Arab Racism: This includes prejudice, hate, violence, opposition to, dislike, fear, or stereotyping of Arab people because of their name, appearance, language, culture or ethnicity.
Anti-Asian Racism: Historical and ongoing discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by peoples of Asian heritage, based on others’ assumptions about their ethnicity and nationality.
Anti-Black Racism: Prejudice, attitudes, beliefs, stereotyping and discrimination that is directed at people of African descent and is rooted in their unique history and experience of enslavement and its legacy. The term ‘Anti-Black Racism’ was first expressed by Dr. Akua Benjamin, a Ryerson Social Work Professor. It seeks to highlight the unique nature of systemic racism on Black-Canadians and the history as well as experiences of slavery and colonization of people of Black-African descent in Canada. (Black Health Alliance Canada, 2017) Anti-Indigenous Racism: Anti-Indigenous racism is the historical and ongoing race-based discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by Indigenous Peoples within Canada. It includes ideas and practices that establish, maintain and perpetuate power imbalances, systemic barriers, and inequitable outcomes that stem from the legacy of colonial policies and practices in Canada.
Anti-Oppression: Strategies, theories, and actions that challenge social and historical inequalities/injustices that have become part of our systems and institutions and allow certain groups to dominate over others. (CRRF, 2019) Anti-Semitism: Antisemitism is latent or overt hostility, or hatred directed towards, or discrimination against, individual Jewish people or the Jewish people for reasons connected to their religion, ethnicity, and their cultural, historical, intellectual, and religious heritage.
Anti-Racism: The practice of actively identifying and opposing racism. The goal of anti-racism is to change policies, behaviors and beliefs that perpetuate racist ideas and actions. (CRRF, 2019)
Anti-Racism Approach: A process, a systematic method of analysis, and a proactive course of action rooted in the recognition of the existence of racism, including systemic racism. Anti-racism actively seeks to identify, remove, prevent, and mitigate racially inequitable outcomes and power imbalances between groups and change the structures that sustain inequities. (Government of Ontario, 2022).
Anti-Racist Education: Based in the notion of race and racial discrimination as being embedded within the policies and practices of institutional structures. Its goal is to aid students to understand the nature and characteristics of these discriminatory barriers, and to develop work to dismantle them. (CRRF, 2019)
Anti-Racist Pedagogy: “An ongoing process that strives for institutional change, requires the collaboration and support of anti-racist educators across disciplines,” operationalized through “intentional and strategic organizing effort in which we incorporate anti-racist approaches into our teaching as well as apply anti-racist values into our various spheres of influence” (Kishimoto, 2018, p. 551). Anti-racist pedagogy is “a paradigm located within Critical Theory utilized to explain and counteract the persistence and impact of racism using praxis as its focus to promote social justice for the creation of a democratic society in every respect” (Blakeney, 2011, p. 119).
Barrier: An overt or covert obstacle which must be overcome for equality and progress to be possible. (CRRF, 2019) Bias: A subjective opinion, preference, prejudice, or inclination, often formed without reasonable justification, which influences the ability of an individual or group to evaluate a particular situation objectively or accurately. (CRRF, 2019)
Classism: A prejudice against or in favor of people belonging to a particular social class, resulting in differential treatment. (CRRF, 2019)
Colonialism: The historical practice of European expansion into territories already inhabited by Indigenous peoples for the purposes of acquiring new lands and resources. This expansion is rooted in the violent suppression of Indigenous peoples’ governance, legal, social and cultural structures. Colonialism attempts to force Indigenous peoples to accept and integrate into institutions that are designed to force them to conform with the structures of the colonial state. “Colonialism remains an ongoing process, shaping both the structure and the quality of the relationship between settlers and Indigenous peoples.” (TRC Final Report, 2016 What We Have Learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation) (CRRF, 2019)
Colourism: A prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group; a form of oppression that is expressed through the differential treatment of individuals and groups based on skin color. Typically, favoritism is demonstrated toward those of lighter complexions while those of darker complexions experience rejection and mistreatment. (CRRF, 2019)
Cultural Racism: Portrayal of Aboriginals, Blacks, people of colour and different ethnicities in the media, school texts, literature as inherently “inferior”, “savage”, “bad”, “primitive”. The premise by a host society that devalues and stereotypes minority populations. (CRRF, 2019) Cultural Safety: A culturally safe environment is physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually safe. There is recognition of and respect for the cultural identities of others, without challenge or denial of an individual’s identity, who they are, or what they need. Culturally unsafe environments diminish, demean, or disempower the cultural identity and well-being of an individual. (Government of Ontario, 2022).
Discrimination: The denial of equal treatment and opportunity to individuals or groups because of personal characteristics and membership in specific groups, with respect to education, accommodation, health care, employment, access to services, goods, and facilities. This behaviour results from distinguishing people on that basis without regard to individual merit, resulting in unequal outcomes for persons who are perceived as different. Differential treatment that may occur on the basis of any of the protected grounds enumerated in human rights law. (CRRF, 2019)
Diversity: A term used to encompass the acceptance and respect of various dimensions including race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic status, religious beliefs, age, physical abilities, political beliefs, or other ideologies. (CRRF, 2019)
Employment Equity: A program designed to remove barriers to equality in employment for reasons unrelated to ability, by identifying and eliminating discriminatory policies and practices, remedying the effects of past discrimination, and ensuring appropriate representation of the designated groups (women; Aboriginal peoples; persons with disabilities; and visible minorities). Employment Equity can be used as an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women through explicit actions, policies or programs.
Equity: A condition or state of fair, inclusive, and respectful treatment of all people. Equity does not mean treating people the same without regard for individual differences. (CRRF, 2019)
Implicit Bias: Implicit bias is a form of bias that occurs automatically and unintentionally, that nevertheless affects judgments, decisions, and behaviors. Research has shown implicit bias can pose a barrier to recruiting and retaining a diverse scientific workforce. (NIH,2022) Inclusion: The extent to which diverse members of a group (society/organization) feel valued and respected. (CRRF, 2019)
Inclusive Education: Education that is based on the principles of acceptance and inclusion of all students. Students see themselves reflected in their curriculum, their physical surroundings, and the broader environment, in which diversity is honoured and all individuals are respected.
Individual Racism: An individual’s racist assumptions, beliefs, or behaviors and is a form of racial discrimination that stems from conscious and unconscious, personal prejudice. Individual racism is connected to/learned from broader socio-economic histories and processes and is supported and reinforced by systemic racism.
Intergenerational Trauma: Historic and contemporary trauma that has compounded over time and been passed from one generation to the next. The negative effects can impact individuals, families, communities and entire populations, resulting in a legacy of physical, psychological, and economic disparities that persist across generations. For Indigenous peoples, the historical trauma includes trauma created as a result of the imposition of assimilative policies and laws aimed at attempted cultural genocide, including the annihilation of Indigenous Nations, the imposition of the Indian Act system, and the forcible removal of Indigenous children to Indian Residential Schools. (Government of Ontario, 2022).
Intersectionality: Intersectionality is the way in which people’s lives are shaped by their multiple and overlapping identities and social locations, which, together, can produce a unique and distinct experience for that individual or group, for example, creating additional barriers, opportunities, and/or power imbalances. (CRRF, 2019)
Islamophobia: A fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation of Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the online and offline world. Motivated by institutional, ideological, political and religious hostility that transcends into structural and cultural racism, it targets the symbols and markers of being a Muslim. (CRRF, 2019)
Lateral Violence: Displaced violence directed against one’s peers rather than adversaries. This construct is one way of explaining minority-on-minority violence in developed nations. It is a cycle of abuse and its roots lie in factors such as: colonization, oppression, intergenerational trauma and the ongoing experiences of racism and discrimination. (CRRF, 2019)
Marginalization: With reference to race and culture, the experience of persons outside the dominant group who face barriers to full and equal participating members of society. Refers also to the process of being “left out” of or silenced in a social group. (CRRF, 2019)
Microaggressions: Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal and environmental slights, snubs or insults targeted towards people from equity deserving groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, religious affiliation or other perceived characteristic. Whether intentional or unintentional, they communicate hostile, derogatory or negative messages that demean a person or a group’s humanity. (Toronto Metropolitan University, n.d.)
Microinequities: Microinequities are overt and discriminatory. They can be explicit verbal or nonverbal attacks intended to hurt a victim based on their identity or identities shown through name calling, avoidant behaviour or purposeful discriminatory actions. ExampleDeliberately servicing a White patron first before a racialized person. (Toronto Metropolitan University, n.d.)
Microassaults: Microassaults are subtle forms of rude or insensitive communication–usually not recognized as such by a perpetrator–that demean a person’s identity or identities. They can be considered as back-handed compliments. Example- Telling a racialized person born in Canada that their “English is really good.” (Toronto Metropolitan University, n.d.)
Microinvalidation: Microinvalidations are communications that discredit the thoughts, feelings or experiences of people from equity deserving groups. They can also be actions that result in exclusion and a lack of belonging. Example - A racialized person tells their White friend about a situation where they felt discriminated against and are told to “stop being so sensitive.” The absence of Black narratives in curriculum. (Toronto Metropolitan University, n.d.)
Minority Group: Refers to a group of people within a society that is either small in numbers and may have little or no access to social, economic, political, or religious power. Minority rights are protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Human Rights Acts and Codes, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Minorities. (CRRF, 2019)
People of Colour: A term which applies to non-White racial or ethnic groups; generally used by racialized peoples as an alternative to the term “visible minority.” The word is not used to refer to Aboriginal peoples, as they are considered distinct societies under the Canadian Constitution. When including Indigenous peoples, it is correct to say “people of colour and Aboriginal / Indigenous peoples.” (CRRF, 2019)
Prejudice: A state of mind; a set of attitudes held, consciously or unconsciously, often in the absence of legitimate or sufficient evidence. A prejudiced person is considered irrational and very resistant to change, because concrete evidence that contradicts the prejudice is usually dismissed as exceptional. Frequently prejudices are not recognized as false or unsound assumptions or stereotypes, and, through repetition, become accepted as common-sense notions. The terms “racism” and “prejudice” are sometimes used interchangeably but they are not the same. A primary difference between the two is that racism relies on a level of institutional power in order impose its dominance. (CRRF, 2019)
Privilege: “The unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed upon people solely because they are white (McIntosh).” Pluriversality: The pluriverse or pluriversal refers to the co-existence of many worlds and stems from decolonial thinking that challenges (or provides a counternarrative to) Western/Eurocentric assumptions of the universal (Perry, 2020). Pluriversality has been described as: a theory that is gaining attention in the West and being applied in different contexts such as Human Rights Education (Fregoso, 2012; Zembylas, 2017), peace education (Sandoval, 2016) and Higher Education (Andreotti, Ahenakew, & Cooper, 2011). In his article on a pluriversal human rights education (HRE), Zembylas argues for ‘turning the process of knowledge production in human rights and HRE open to epistemic diversity’ (p. 397). Conceptually he draws on Santos’s (2007) work to critique HRE as conceptualized within the western academy. He focuses on three key concepts: Abyssal thinking, ecology of knowledges and intercultural translation. (Vasconcelos & Martin, n.d,p. 9)
Race: Modern scholarship views racial categories as socially constructed, that is, race is not intrinsic to human beings but rather an identity created, often by socially dominant groups, to establish meaning in a social context. This often involves the subjugation of groups defined as racially inferior, as in the one-drop rule used in the 19th-century United States to exclude those with any amount of African ancestry from the dominant racial grouping, defined as “White”. Such racial identities reflect the cultural attitudes of imperial powers dominant during the age of European colonial expansion. This view rejects the notion that race is biologically defined. (CRRF, 2019) Racial Discrimination: any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, or racial or ethnic origin. (CRRF, 2019)
Racialization: Racialization is a process of delineating group boundaries (races) and allocation of persons within those boundaries by primary reference to (supposedly) inherent and/or biological (usually phenotypical) characteristics. In this process, societies construct races as ‘real,’ different, and unequal in ways that matter to economic, political, and social life. (CRRF, 2019) Racialized: Racialized persons and/or groups can have racial meanings attributed to them in ways that negatively impact their social, political, and economic life. This includes but is not necessarily limited to people classified as “visible minorities” under the Canadian census and may include people impacted by antisemitism and Islamophobia. (CRRF, 2019)
Racial Prejudice: unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding an ethnic, racial, social, or religious group. (CRRF, 2019) Racial Profiling: The use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. (CRRF, 2019)
Racial Stereotyping: A preconceived and oversimplified idea of the characteristics which typify a person, race, or community which may lead to treating them in a particular way. (CRRF, 2019)
Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. (CRRF, 2019)
Racist: Refers to an individual, institution, or organization whose beliefs and/or actions imply (intentionally or unintentionally) that certain races have distinctive negative or inferior characteristics. Also refers to racial discrimination inherent in the policies, practices and procedures of institutions, corporations, and organizations which, though applied to everyone equally and may seem fair, result in exclusion or act as barriers to the advancement of equity deserving groups. (CRRF, 2019)
Segregation: The social, physical, political and economic separation of diverse groups of people, based on racial or ethnic groups. This particularly refers to ideological and structural barriers to civil liberties, equal opportunity and participation by minorities within the larger society. (CRRF, 2019)
Settler/Settler Colonialism: Within the context of race relations, the term refers to the non-indigenous population of a country. Settler colonialism functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that, over time, develops a distinctive identity and sovereignty. In Canada and in other countries, the ascendancy of settler culture has resulted in the demotion and displacement of Indigenous communities, resulting in benefits that are unearned. (CRRF, 2019)
Sexism: Prejudice or discrimination based on sex, usually though not necessarily against women; behaviours, conditions or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex. Sexism may be conscious or unconscious, and may be embedded in institutions, systems or the broader culture of a society. It can limit the opportunities of persons with disabilities and reduce their inclusion in the life of their communities. (CRRF, 2019) Social Justice: A concept premised upon the belief that each individual and group within society is to be given equal opportunity, fairness, civil liberties, and participation in the social, educational, economic, institutional, and moral freedoms and responsibilities valued by the society. (CRRF, 2019)
Social Oppression: Social oppression refers to oppression that is achieved through social means and that is social in scope—it affects whole categories of people. This kind of oppression includes the systematic mistreatment, exploitation, and abuse of a group (or groups) of people by another group (or groups). It occurs whenever one group holds power over another in society through the control of social institutions, along with society’s laws, customs, and norms. The outcome of social oppression is that groups in society are sorted into different positions within the social hierarchies of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. Those in the controlling, or dominant group, benefit from the oppression of other groups through heightened privileges relative to others, greater access to rights and resources, a better quality of life, and overall greater life chances. Those who experience the brunt of oppression have fewer rights, less access to resources, less political power, lower economic potential, worse health and higher mortality rates, and lower overall life chances. (CRRF, 2019) Stereotype: A preconceived generalization of a group of people. This generalization ascribes the same characteristic(s) to all members of the group, regardless of their individual differences. (CRRF, 2019)
Structural/Societal Racism: Structural or Societal Racism pertains to the ideologies upon which society is structured. These ideologies are inscribed through rules, policies and laws; and represent the ways in which the deep-rooted inequities of society produce differentiation, categorization, and stratification of society’s members based on race. Participation in economic, political, social, cultural, judicial, and educational institutions also structure this stratification (James, 2010). This is one of the three levels that make up Systemic Racism. (CRRF, 2019)
Systemic Discrimination: The institutionalization of discrimination through policies and practices which may appear neutral on the surface, but which have an exclusionary impact on particular groups. This occurs in institutions and organizations, including government, where the policies, practices and procedures (e.g. employment systems – job requirements, hiring practices, promotion procedures, etc.) exclude and/or act as barriers to racialized groups. (CRRF, 2019)
Systemic Racism: This is an interlocking and reciprocal relationship between the individual, institutional and structural levels which function as a system of racism. These various levels of racism operate together in a lockstep model and function together as whole system.
These levels are:
- Individual (within interactions between people)
- Institutional (within institutions and systems of power)
- Structural or societal (among institutional and across society) (CRRF, 2019)
Two-Eyed Seeing: Developed by Mi’kmaq Indigenous elder, Albert Marshal, the guiding principle of Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing for co-learning encourages the appreciation and application of multiple perspectives (including Indigenous and Western) in learning, practice and life contexts. Elder Marshal (2018) describes it as: I, you, and we need to learn to see from one eye with the best or the strengths in the Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing… and learn to see from the other eye with the best or the strengths in the mainstream (Western or Eurocentric) knowledges and ways of knowing… but most importantly, I, you, and we need to learn to see with both these eyes together, for the benefit of all. (para. 3)
Vertical Violence: A term used to describe abusive behaviours towards those in less powerful positions. Vertical violence is a broad term which may include bullying, harassment, intimidation or acts of physical violence. It may occur in the workplace, in schools or in social settings. (CRRF, 2019)
Visible Minority: Term used to describe people who are not White. Although it is a legal term widely used in human rights legislation and various policies, currently the terms racialized minority or people of colour are preferred by people labelled as ‘visible minorities. (CRRF, 2019) White: A social colour. The term is used to refer to people belonging to the majority group in Canada. It is recognized that there are many different people who are “White” but who face discrimination because of their class, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, language, or geographical origin. Grouping these people as “White” is not to deny the very real forms of discrimination that people of certain ancestry, such as Italian, Portuguese, Jewish, Armenian, Greek, etc., face because of these factors. (CRRF, 2019)
White Fragility: A state where a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves that include outward display of anger, fear and/or guilt, behaviours such as argumentation, silence and leaving the stress-inducing situation (DiAngelo, 2016, p. 247).
White Privilege: The inherent advantages possessed by a White person on the basis of their race in a society characterized by racial inequality and injustice. This concept does not imply that a White person has not worked for their accomplishments but rather, that they have not faced barriers encountered by others. (CRRF, 2019)
White Supremacy: a racist ideology that is based upon the belief that White people are superior in many ways to people of other races and that therefore, White people should be dominant over other races. White supremacy is not just an attitude or a way of thinking. It also extends to how systems and institutions are structured to uphold this white dominance… White supremacy is far from fringe. In white-centred societies and communities, it is the dominant paradigm that forms the foundation from which norms, rules and laws are created. (Saad, 2020)
Xenophobia: Dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries or cultures. (CRRF, 2019)