Key Terms: 

• Anti-racist - An anti-racist is someone who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing antiracist ideas. This includes the expression or ideas that racial groups are equals and do not need developing, and supporting policies that reduce racial inequity.

• Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) - The term BIPOC is used to center and uplift Black and Indigeous voices. Although POC (People of Color) does include Black and Indigenous folks, Black and Indigenous folks are most impacted by racial hierarchy and systemic oppression. 

• DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Director/Practitioner - The Director will develop, implement and monitor programs that promote DEI within the community. Responsible for developing training and initiatives to create and foster an open and inclusive environment. Partner with Human Resources (HR) for employee relations and diversity-related issues.

• Diversity - Includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. It is all-inclusive and recognizes everyone and every group as part of the diversity that should be valued. A broad definition includes not only race, ethnicity, and gender — the groups that most often come to mind when the term "diversity" is used — but also age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, and physical appearance.

• Equality - The idea of treating everyone fairly and providing the same opportunities and resources. In this current context of racial justice, equality does not take into account historical obstacles that offer hidden barriers. It is crucial to listen to the needs of communities and their lived experiences instead of relying on fairness. 

• Equity - We do everything we can to identify and eliminate unfair biases, stereotypes or barriers that may limit full participation in our education system. We want to deliver people what they need when that need arises. It is crucial to listen to the needs of communities and their lived experiences.

• Inclusion - Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power.

• Microaggressions - The everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.

• Non-racist - Someone who purports to be neutral to the issue of race.  Often this stance masks racism because it is often coupled with an assimilationist position, which is someone who is expressing the racist idea that a racial group is culturally or behaviorally inferior and is supporting cultural or behavioral enrichment programs to develop that racial group.

• Racial Equity - The condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them.

• Racial Justice - The proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts and outcomes for all.

• Racial Stamina - Have direct, authentic cross-racial experiences that increase in frequency, grow in intensity, and build endurance.

• Racism - Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities.

• Systemic Racism - The normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics – historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal – that routinely advantage Whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. Structural racism encompasses the entire system of White domination, diffused and infused in all aspects of society including its history, culture, politics, economics and entire social fabric.

• Whiteness - The term white, referring to people, was created by Virginia slave owners and colonial rules in the 17th century. It replaced terms like Christian and Englishman to distinguish European colonists from Africans and indigenous peoples. European colonial powers established whiteness as a legal concept after Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, during which indentured servants of European and African descent had united against the colonial elite. The legal distinction of white separated the servant class on the basis of skin color and continental origin. The creation of ‘whiteness’ meant giving privileges to some, while denying them to others with the justification of biological and social inferiority. 

• White Fragility - a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable [for white people], triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.

• White Privilege - Refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.