Being an accomplice goes beyond just supporting and advocating for a marginalized person or group. Serving as an accomplice focuses more on dismantling and challenging the institutional structures that oppress a group, taking cues and direction from those in that marginalized group.
A person of one social identity group who stands up in support of members of another group; typically a member of a dominant identity, empowering, advocating, and supporting a marginalized group. An Ally also looks inward to recognize their own bias and privilege.
Activists and leading scholars have argued that it's not enough for allies to say they're "not racist." Instead, being an antiracist is to be supporting antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea that opposes racism and supports racial equality.
An acronym, which stands for “Black, Indigenous and People of Color,” which are the marginalized groups mostly affected by racism.
A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).
Individual differences (e.g., personality, prior knowledge and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin and ability as well as cultural, political, religious or other affiliations).
The heightened experience of being treated differently from peers due to race/ethnicity or gender, triggering adverse effects on health and feelings of isolation and making it difficult to thrive in academic or professional settings.
Fair treatment of everyone that addresses specific needs, barriers, and accommodations to ensure all have equal opportunity to participate in all aspects of society and its benefits; and the creation of opportunities for historically underserved populations to have equal access to and participate in educational programs that are capable of closing the achievement gaps in student success and completion.
A person who attends an academic institution and who has no one in their immediate family who completed a degree in the field they are pursuing, regardless of other family member's level of education.
The act of creating involvement, environments, and empowerment in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to participate fully; and the active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity—in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographic) with which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.
Intersectionality is the intertwining of social identities including gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity, which can result in unique experiences, opportunities, and barriers.
Indirect verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults—whether intentional or unintentional—that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to individuals based solely upon their marginalized group membership resulting in a person feeling different, violated, or unsafe.
Microaggressions repeat or affirm stereotypes about a minority group, and they tend to minimize the existence of discrimination or bias, intentional or not.
Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels and gives advantages, favors and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups.
Social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness.
A group of people also referred to as Caucasian and/or of Western or European descent. Refers to a person or group of people who are racially marked as part of the dominant group or norm.
A term that explains the phenomenon of discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice.
The vast set of advantages and benefits that people have solely because they are white or white-passing.