The following is a list of key social justice terms and definitions. It is by no means a comprehensive list as the dialogue around equity, diversity, and inclusion is broad and continuously evolving, but it is a good place to start.
A
Able-ism - The belief that disabled individuals are inferior to non-disabled individuals, leading to discrimination toward and oppression of individuals with disabilities and physical differences.
Accessibility - is giving equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience. Accessibility encompasses the broader meanings of compliance and refers to how organizations make space for the characteristics that each person brings.
Advocate - Someone who speaks up for themselves and members of their identity group; e.g. a person who lobbies for equal pay for a specific group.
Age-ism - Prejudiced thoughts and discriminatory actions based on differences in age; usually that of younger persons against older.
A-Gender - A person who does not identify with any gender, or who does not experience gender.
Ally - A person of one social identity group who stands up in support of members of another group. For example, a person who supports and celebrates LGBTQ2S+ identities, interrupts and challenges oppressive remarks and actions of others, and willingly explores heterosexist and ciscentric biases within themselves.
Anti-Racist - Being critically aware of the existence of racism and understanding how it is systemic. An anti-racist person actively seeks to acknowledge the impacts of racism.
Asexual - Someone who does not experience sexual attraction for other individuals. Asexuality can be considered a spectrum, with some asexual people experiencing desire for varying types of physical intimacy. This desire may fluctuate over time. Asexual people experience high levels of invisibility, trivialization, and pathologization. Alternatives: Ace.
B
Bias - Prejudice; an inclination or preference, especially one that interferes with impartial judgment.
Bi-Racial - A person who identifies as coming from two races. A person whose biological parents are of two different races.
Bisexual - An individual attracted to, and may form relationships with at least two genders. Some bisexual people describe being bi as being attracted to men and women; some bi people consider it being attracted to their own and other genders. A bi person may feel equally attracted to each gender or may experience stronger attractions to one gender while still having feelings for another; this ratio of attraction may vary over time.
BIPOC – It stands for "Black, Indigenous, and people of color." The term is specific to the United States, intended to center the experiences of Black and Indigenous groups and demonstrate solidarity between communities of color. It enables a shift away from terms like "marginalized" and "minority" and acknowledges that people of color face varying types of discrimination and prejudice.
C
Categorization - The natural cognitive process of grouping and labelling people, things, etc. based on their similarities. Categorization becomes problematic when the groupings become oversimplified and rigid (e.g. stereotypes).
Cisgender - A person who identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth. A gender identity that society considers to “match” the biological sex assigned at birth. The prefix cis- means “on this side of,” in reference to the gender binary model.
Colonization - The action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area. The action of appropriating a place or domain for one's own use.
Conscious Bias (Explicit Bias) - Refers to the attitudes and beliefs we have about a person or group on a conscious level. Much of the time, these biases and their expression arise as the direct result of a perceived threat. When people feel threatened, they are more likely to draw group boundaries to distinguish themselves from others.
Culture - Culture is the pattern of daily life learned consciously and unconsciously by a group of people. These patterns can be seen in language, governing practices, arts, customs, holiday celebrations, food, religion, dating rituals, and clothing.
Cultural Appropriation - The adoption or theft of icons, rituals, aesthetic standards, and behavior from one culture or subculture by another. It is generally applied when the subject culture is a minority culture or somehow subordinate in social, political, economic, or military status to appropriating culture. This “appropriation” often occurs without any real understanding of why the original culture took part in these activities, often converting culturally significant artifacts, practices, and beliefs into “meaningless” pop-culture or giving them a significance that is completely different/less nuanced than they would originally have had.
D
Disability - An impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or some combination of these. It substantially affects a person's life activities and may be present from birth or occur during a person's lifetime.
Discrimination - defined as any action or behaviour that results in adverse or preferential treatment related to those grounds prohibited under the BC Human Rights Code.
Diversity - includes all the ways in which people differ, encompassing the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. Diversity includes race, gender identity, ancestry, age, national origin, religion, ability, sexuality, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, and physical appearance. In addition, diversity can include differences in thought: ideas, perspectives, and values. It's important to recognize that individuals have multiple intersecting identities and that there is diversity within groups.
E
Ethnicity - A social construct that divides individuals into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as a shared sense of group membership, values, behavioural patterns, language, political and economic interests, history and ancestral geographical base.
Examples of different ethnic groups are but are not limited to:
- Scottish
- Chinese
- Italian
- Vietnamese
- Filipino
- Portuguese
Equity - Equity is the condition that would be achieved if one's identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. Equity work includes work to address root causes of inequities, not just their manifestation. This includes eliminating policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes or fail to eliminate them. (Source: Racial Equity Tools Glossary)
Equitable - just or characterized by fairness or equity. Equitable treatment can at times differ from same treatment.
F
First Nations People - Individuals who identify as those who were the first people to live on the Western Hemisphere continent. People also identified as Indigenous.
G
Gender - The socially constructed concepts of masculinity and femininity; the “appropriate” qualities accompanying biological sex
Gender Expression - How one outwardly expresses gender; for example, through name and pronoun choice, style of dress, voice modulation, etc. How one expresses gender might not necessarily reflect one’s actual gender identity.
Gender Identity - Your internal sense of self; how you relate to your gender(s).
Gender Non-Conforming - A broad term referring to people who do not behave in a way that conforms to the traditional expectations of their gender, or whose gender expression does not fit into a category.
Genderqueer - A term under the trans umbrella that refers to people who identify outside the male-female binary.
H
Heterosexual - Attracted to members of other or the opposite sex.
Homosexual - A person who is mostly attracted to people of their own gender. Because homosexual has been widely used negatively and/or in a cold and clinical way, most LGBQ+ people prefer the terms ‘lesbian,’ ‘gay,’ or ‘queer’. LGBQ+ people prefer the terms ‘lesbian,’ ‘gay,’ or ‘queer.
I
IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour) - In Canada, IBPOC may be used (rather than BIPOC, an acronym originating in the USA around 2010) in efforts to recognize 'First Peoples first' because of the unique history and context of colonization, displacement, and cultural genocide enacted upon Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the ongoing national conversation about reconciliation.
Inclusion - Is a commitment to creating environments in which any individual or group is and feels respected, supported, valued and able to participate fully. An inclusive and welcoming climate embraces differences and offers respect in words and actions for all people. It's important to note that while an inclusive group is by definition diverse, a diverse group is not always inclusive.
Inclusive Language - Refers to non-sexist language or language that “includes” all persons in its references. For example, “a writer needs to proofread his work” excludes females due to the masculine reference of the pronoun. Likewise, “a nurse must disinfect her hands” is exclusive of males and stereotypes nurses as females.
Indigenous People - Individuals of specific cultural groups who live within (or are attached to) distinct traditional territories.
Intercultural Competency - A process of learning about and becoming allies with people from other cultures, thereby broadening our own understanding and ability to participate in a multicultural process. The key element to becoming more culturally competent is respect for the ways that others live in and organize the world and an openness to learn from them.
Intersectionality - A theory coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the 1980s to draw attention to how different systems of oppressive structures and types of discrimination interact and manifest in the lives of minorities; for example, a queer black woman may experience oppression on the basis of her sexuality, gender, and race – and a unique experience of oppression based on how those identities intersect in her life.
Intersex - An umbrella term describing people born with reproductive or sexual anatomy and/or chromosome pattern that can't be classified as typically male or female.
L
Lesbian - A woman who is primarily attracted to women. The term originates from the name of the Greek island of Lesbos which was home to Sappho, a poet, teacher, and a woman who loved other women. See also: Gay; Queer
M
Marginalized - Excluded, ignored, or relegated to the outer edge of a group/society/community.
Micro-Aggressions - Commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory racial slights. These messages may be sent verbally, ("You speak good English"), non-verbally (clutching one's purse more tightly around people from certain race/ethnicity) or environmentally (symbols
N
Non-Binary (NB) - A continuum or spectrum of gender identities and expressions, often based on the rejection of the gender binary's assumption that gender is strictly an either/or option of male/men or female/women, based on sex assigned at birth. Non-binary can be both a specific term of identification and/or an umbrella term.
P
Pangender - Refers to people who identify and/or express the many shades of gender. See also: Agender; Gender Non-Conforming; Genderqueer; Non-Binary
Pansexual/Panromantic - An individual attracted to and may form relationships with any or all genders. See also: Bisexual/Biromantic.
Q
Queer - A term becoming more widely used among LGBTQ2S+ communities because of its inclusiveness. ‘Queer’ can be used to refer to the spectrum of non-heterosexual and/or non-cisgender people and provides a convenient shorthand for ‘LGBTQ.’ It is important to note that this is a reclaimed term that was once and is still used as a hate term and thus some people feel uncomfortable with it. Not all trans people see trans identities as being part of the term ‘queer,’ and it is important to acknowledge the different histories of queer and trans communities.
Questioning - A term sometimes used by those in the process of exploring personal ideas of sexual orientation and gender identity as well as choosing not to identify with any other label.
R
Racialized Individuals/Groups – identifies a group of people who have been the target of racism and racial discrimination through the association with a country of origin, race, and culture, reflecting the power relationship – economic, social, political and cultural – with racism and racial discrimination.
T
Transgender (Trans, Trans*) - Transgender, frequently abbreviated to ‘trans,’ is an umbrella term for a wide range of experiences and identities for people whose gender does not match the gender they were assigned at birth.
Two-Spirit –Two-Spirit Indigenous people were the first sexual and gender minority people in North America. Two-Spirit is a term to describe people with diverse gender identities, gender expressions, gender roles, and sexual orientations. Two-Spirit people have been and are viewed differently across different Indigenous nations. Two-Spirit people were included and respected in most Indigenous communities, sometimes considered sacred and highly-revered. They often took on important roles as healers, mediators, and warriors.
Sources: Racial Equity Tools, qQueer Terminology from A to Q, oOntario Human Rights Commission eLearning