All Lives Matter
All Lives Matter: A slogan used to demean and challenge the Black Lives Matter Movement, and maintaining a perspective centered upon "racial dismissal, ignoring, and denial.”
Glossary
Anti-Racism Glossary
A
Anti-Racism
A practice, set of beliefs, and value system that recognizes the historic oppression and violence perpetuated against Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian American bodies in the US and that works to educate people about this oppression and to end that oppression in our current day.
Assimilation
Process of taking on social and cultural traits of the majority race in the nation in which one resides.
Aversive Racism
Attempts to avoid non-white people and communities or to be formal, correct, and cold in dealings with them.
B
Black Lives Matter
An international activist movement bringing justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe. #BlackLivesMatter was founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
C
Class
Group of individuals who share a similar socioeconomic status.
Colonialism
European effort to maintain control of weaker nations made palpable by language eradication, land dispossession, and governing hegemony; the United States followed a similar policy in the Philippines, the Caribbean, Latin America, and importantly North America’s Indigenous.
Color Blindness
A belief that one should treat all persons equally, without regard to their race.
D
Deadnaming
The practice of using the former name of a transgender person—the name they were given at birth rather than the name they have chosen for themselves.
Double Consciousness
Notion attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois that black folks are able to see racialized events and structuring from two perspectives—that of the majority group and their own—at the same time.
E
Enslaved People
Preferred description for people who endured/suffered under chattel slavery rather than “slave”—enslavement is a condition not an identity.
Erasure
Practice of collective indifference towards the processes of overall eradication to the identity, history, stories, and culture of a group, rendering them invisible.
H
Hate Speech
Racial slurs and epithets or other harsh language that has no purpose other than to demean and marginalize other people or groups.
I
Imperialism
Political and economic domination of one nation or group over another. Implicit bias: Unconscious association of one idea with another, such as race and personal qualities, frequently evincing a negative attitude.
Inclusivity
A goal of anti-racism work is to create systems that are inclusive and/or that have inclusion as a primary value. See equity.
Islamophobia
The fear and targeting of people perceived to be Muslim. It has often resulted in violence enacted against Muslim people or anyone perceived to be Muslim.
L
Liberalism
Political philosophy that holds the purpose of government is to maximize liberty; in civil rights, the view that law should enforce formal equality in treatment of all citizens.
M
Microaggression
Small encounter with racism, usually unnoticed by members of the majority race, but one in which the cumulative impacts of microaggressions take an emotional toll on a person.
O
One-drop Rule
Rule of hypodescent, that any person with discernible black ancestry (one drop of African blood) is black and can never be white
P
Passing
Crossing the color line and gaining acceptance into a race other than one’s original one.
Post-Racial
The condition of being beyond race; an era when race no longer matters, and individuals are no longer assessed by such.
Privilege
Right or advantage, often unwritten, conferred on some people but not others, usually without examination or good reason.
R
Racial-Realism
View that racial progress is sporadic and that people of color are doomed to experience only infrequent peaks followed by regressions.
S
Separatism
View that a racial minority group should separate itself from mainstream society and pursue its own interests primarily.
T
Trail of Tears
Route used for forced removal of certain Native American nations (North American Indigenous) from the southeastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River. See also Indian Removal Act.
U
Unconscious Racism
Racism that operates at an oblivious or subtle level.