rural mountain view with autumnal bushes and shrubs and a wooden fence in the foreground
glossary
These definitions are intended to be a starting point for discussion. Each organization is encouraged to develop definitions that are most relevant for their organization.
Some of these definitions were submitted by Daniel Escalante based on the work of the “Challenging White Supremacy" Workshops. All other definitions will be listed below with regards to different oppressions.
ABLEISM: Systemic and individualized discrimination against disabled people.
ANTI-RACIST: (As applied to white people), an anti-racist is a person who makes a conscious choice to act to challenge some aspect of the white supremacy system: including their own white privilege, as well as some form of oppression against people of color.
(As applied to people of color), some use the term anti-racist. Others use synonyms such as freedom fighter, activist, warrior, liberation fighter, political prisoner, prisoner of war, sister, brother, etc. In practice, it is difficult for an activist of color not to be anti-racist activist, since the struggle against racial oppression intersects with every issue affecting people of color.
ACCORDING TO IBRAM X. KENDI (from "How to be an antiracist"): An antiracist is "somebody who views the racial groups as equals, someone who is pressing for policies that creates racial equity."
CISGENDER: An individual who agrees with the gender they were assigned at birth.
CIS-SEXISM: Systemic and individualized discrimination against transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary people.
INTERNALIZED RACISM:
(1) The poison of racism seeping into the psyches of people of color, until people of color believe about themselves what whites believe about them - that they are inferior to whites;
(2) The behavior of one person of color toward another that stems from this psychic poisoning. Often called "inter-racial hostility;" and
(3) The acceptance by persons of color of Eurocentric values. (See Harris and Ordoña, op. cit. pp. 304-316.)
INTERSECTIONALITY: A term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the multiple oppressions Black women face; both as Black and as Woman, as well as other characteristics. The term is now popularly used to convey the same concept but de-centralizes Black women.
HETEROSEXISM: Systemic and individualized discrimination against all queer people with heterosexuality being the norm and highest valued sexuality in general society.
A NON-RACIST: A non-term. The term was created by whites to deny responsibility for systemic racism, to maintain an aura of innocence in the face of racial oppression, and to shift responsibility for that oppression from whites to people of color (called "blaming the victim").
Responsibility for perpetuating and legitimizing a racist system rests both on those who actively maintain it, and on those who refuse to challenge it. Silence is consent.
OPPRESSOR, OPPRESSED, OPPRESSION: An oppressor is one who uses her/his power to dominate another, or refuses to use her/his power to challenge that domination. An oppressed is one who is dominated by an oppressor, and by those who consent with their silence. Oppression is the power and the effects of domination. In the U.S., there are many forms of (often) interlocking oppressions: racism, sexism, classism, cis-heterosexism, anti-semitism, ableism, ageism, Islamo-racism, etc.
PATRIARCHY: A social system in which men hold primary economic, social, relational, political, and moral authority. This system was created by men to control society though the "rule of the father".
POWER: ("Power" is a relational term. It is a relationship between human beings in a specific historical, economic and social setting. It must be exercised to be visible.)
1. Power is control of, or access to, those institutions sanctioned by the state. (Definition by Barbara Major of People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, New Orleans)
2. Power is the ability to define reality and to convince other people that it is their definition. (Definition by Dr. Wade Nobles)
3. Power is ownership and control of the major resources of a state; and the capacity to make and enforce decisions based on this ownership and control; and (alternative definition to #1)
4. Power (relatively speaking) is access to those individuals, social groups, class and institutions, which own and control the resources of the state. (alternative definition to #1)
5. Power is the capacity of a group of people to decide what they want and to act in an organized way to get it.
6. (In terms of an individual), power is the capacity to act.
PREJUDICE: A prejudice is a prejudgment in favor of or against a person, a group, an event, an idea, or a thing. An action based on a stereotype is called bigotry. (What distinguishes this group of terms from all the others on these two pages is that there is no power relationship necessarily implied or expressed by "prejudice," "discrimination," "stereotype" or "bigotry.")
RACE: A specious classification of human beings created by Europeans (whites) which assigns human worth and social status using "white" as the model of humanity and the height of human achievement for the purpose of establishing and maintaining privilege and power. (Ronald Chisom and Michael Washington, Undoing Racism: A Philosophy of International Social Change. People's Institute Press. People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. 1444 North Johnson St. New Orleans, LA 70116. 1997: Second Edition. p. 30-31.)
RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.
By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities or acts of discrimination. (This does not deny the existence of such prejudices, hostilities, acts of rage or discrimination.)
RACISM: Racism is race prejudice plus power. (Definition by People's Institute. CWS Workshop uses "white supremacy" as a synonym for "racism.")
REVERSE RACISM: A term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege. Those in denial use the term "reverse racism" to refer to hostile behavior by people of color toward whites, and to affirmative action policies which allegedly give 'preferential treatment' to people of color over white. In the U.S., there is no such thing as "reverse racism."
WHITE SUPREMACY: White supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and people of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege.
WHITE (as in "white people"): The term "white", referring to people, was created by Virginia slave owners and colonial rulers in the 17th century. It replaced terms like "Christian" and "Englishman" (sic) to distinguish European colonists from Africans and indigenous peoples. European colonial powers established "white" 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 'white' meant giving privileges to some, while denying them to others with the justification of biological and social inferiority."
(Margo Adair & Sharon Powell, The Subjective Side of Politics. SF: 1988. p.17.)
WHITE PRIVILEGE: A privilege is a right, favor, advantage, immunity, specially granted to one individual or group, and withheld from another. (Webster’s. Italics mine.)
White privilege is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of: (1) Preferential prejudice for and treatment of white people based solely on their skin color and/or ancestral origin from Europe; and (2) Exemption from racial and/or national oppression based on skin color and/or ancestral origin from Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Arab world.
U.S. Institutions and culture (economic, legal, military, political, educational, entertainment, familial and religious) privilege peoples from Europe over peoples from the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Arab world. In a white supremacy system, white privilege and racial oppression are two sides of the same coin. "White peoples were exempt from slavery, land grab and genocide, the first forms of white privilege (in the future US)." (Virginia Harris and Trinity Ordoña, "Developing Unity among women of Color: Crossing the Barriers of Internalized Racism and Cross Racial Hostility," in Making Soul: Haciendo Caras. Edited by Gloria Anzaldua. SF: Aunt Lute Press, 1990. p. 310).
In a white supremacist, capitalist, male supremacist, and cis-heterosexist system, all non-ruling class whites are in some way oppressed by that system, but we are also privileged by it. When we organize against our own oppression, but not against our privilege – that is, against the oppression of people of color, we become oppressors to people of color. Inaction is complicity. Silence is consent. To cease being oppressors, we must act against oppression. This general definition also applies to any of the oppressions, i.e., cis-heterosexism, ableism, ageism, etc.
Some of these definitions were submitted by Daniel Escalante based on the work of the “Challenging White Supremacy" Workshops. All other definitions will be listed below with regards to different oppressions.
ABLEISM: Systemic and individualized discrimination against disabled people.
ANTI-RACIST: (As applied to white people), an anti-racist is a person who makes a conscious choice to act to challenge some aspect of the white supremacy system: including their own white privilege, as well as some form of oppression against people of color.
(As applied to people of color), some use the term anti-racist. Others use synonyms such as freedom fighter, activist, warrior, liberation fighter, political prisoner, prisoner of war, sister, brother, etc. In practice, it is difficult for an activist of color not to be anti-racist activist, since the struggle against racial oppression intersects with every issue affecting people of color.
ACCORDING TO IBRAM X. KENDI (from "How to be an antiracist"): An antiracist is "somebody who views the racial groups as equals, someone who is pressing for policies that creates racial equity."
CISGENDER: An individual who agrees with the gender they were assigned at birth.
CIS-SEXISM: Systemic and individualized discrimination against transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary people.
INTERNALIZED RACISM:
(1) The poison of racism seeping into the psyches of people of color, until people of color believe about themselves what whites believe about them - that they are inferior to whites;
(2) The behavior of one person of color toward another that stems from this psychic poisoning. Often called "inter-racial hostility;" and
(3) The acceptance by persons of color of Eurocentric values. (See Harris and Ordoña, op. cit. pp. 304-316.)
INTERSECTIONALITY: A term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the multiple oppressions Black women face; both as Black and as Woman, as well as other characteristics. The term is now popularly used to convey the same concept but de-centralizes Black women.
HETEROSEXISM: Systemic and individualized discrimination against all queer people with heterosexuality being the norm and highest valued sexuality in general society.
A NON-RACIST: A non-term. The term was created by whites to deny responsibility for systemic racism, to maintain an aura of innocence in the face of racial oppression, and to shift responsibility for that oppression from whites to people of color (called "blaming the victim").
Responsibility for perpetuating and legitimizing a racist system rests both on those who actively maintain it, and on those who refuse to challenge it. Silence is consent.
OPPRESSOR, OPPRESSED, OPPRESSION: An oppressor is one who uses her/his power to dominate another, or refuses to use her/his power to challenge that domination. An oppressed is one who is dominated by an oppressor, and by those who consent with their silence. Oppression is the power and the effects of domination. In the U.S., there are many forms of (often) interlocking oppressions: racism, sexism, classism, cis-heterosexism, anti-semitism, ableism, ageism, Islamo-racism, etc.
PATRIARCHY: A social system in which men hold primary economic, social, relational, political, and moral authority. This system was created by men to control society though the "rule of the father".
POWER: ("Power" is a relational term. It is a relationship between human beings in a specific historical, economic and social setting. It must be exercised to be visible.)
1. Power is control of, or access to, those institutions sanctioned by the state. (Definition by Barbara Major of People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, New Orleans)
2. Power is the ability to define reality and to convince other people that it is their definition. (Definition by Dr. Wade Nobles)
3. Power is ownership and control of the major resources of a state; and the capacity to make and enforce decisions based on this ownership and control; and (alternative definition to #1)
4. Power (relatively speaking) is access to those individuals, social groups, class and institutions, which own and control the resources of the state. (alternative definition to #1)
5. Power is the capacity of a group of people to decide what they want and to act in an organized way to get it.
6. (In terms of an individual), power is the capacity to act.
PREJUDICE: A prejudice is a prejudgment in favor of or against a person, a group, an event, an idea, or a thing. An action based on a stereotype is called bigotry. (What distinguishes this group of terms from all the others on these two pages is that there is no power relationship necessarily implied or expressed by "prejudice," "discrimination," "stereotype" or "bigotry.")
RACE: A specious classification of human beings created by Europeans (whites) which assigns human worth and social status using "white" as the model of humanity and the height of human achievement for the purpose of establishing and maintaining privilege and power. (Ronald Chisom and Michael Washington, Undoing Racism: A Philosophy of International Social Change. People's Institute Press. People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. 1444 North Johnson St. New Orleans, LA 70116. 1997: Second Edition. p. 30-31.)
RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.
By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities or acts of discrimination. (This does not deny the existence of such prejudices, hostilities, acts of rage or discrimination.)
RACISM: Racism is race prejudice plus power. (Definition by People's Institute. CWS Workshop uses "white supremacy" as a synonym for "racism.")
REVERSE RACISM: A term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege. Those in denial use the term "reverse racism" to refer to hostile behavior by people of color toward whites, and to affirmative action policies which allegedly give 'preferential treatment' to people of color over white. In the U.S., there is no such thing as "reverse racism."
WHITE SUPREMACY: White supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and people of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege.
WHITE (as in "white people"): The term "white", referring to people, was created by Virginia slave owners and colonial rulers in the 17th century. It replaced terms like "Christian" and "Englishman" (sic) to distinguish European colonists from Africans and indigenous peoples. European colonial powers established "white" 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 'white' meant giving privileges to some, while denying them to others with the justification of biological and social inferiority."
(Margo Adair & Sharon Powell, The Subjective Side of Politics. SF: 1988. p.17.)
WHITE PRIVILEGE: A privilege is a right, favor, advantage, immunity, specially granted to one individual or group, and withheld from another. (Webster’s. Italics mine.)
White privilege is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of: (1) Preferential prejudice for and treatment of white people based solely on their skin color and/or ancestral origin from Europe; and (2) Exemption from racial and/or national oppression based on skin color and/or ancestral origin from Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Arab world.
U.S. Institutions and culture (economic, legal, military, political, educational, entertainment, familial and religious) privilege peoples from Europe over peoples from the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Arab world. In a white supremacy system, white privilege and racial oppression are two sides of the same coin. "White peoples were exempt from slavery, land grab and genocide, the first forms of white privilege (in the future US)." (Virginia Harris and Trinity Ordoña, "Developing Unity among women of Color: Crossing the Barriers of Internalized Racism and Cross Racial Hostility," in Making Soul: Haciendo Caras. Edited by Gloria Anzaldua. SF: Aunt Lute Press, 1990. p. 310).
In a white supremacist, capitalist, male supremacist, and cis-heterosexist system, all non-ruling class whites are in some way oppressed by that system, but we are also privileged by it. When we organize against our own oppression, but not against our privilege – that is, against the oppression of people of color, we become oppressors to people of color. Inaction is complicity. Silence is consent. To cease being oppressors, we must act against oppression. This general definition also applies to any of the oppressions, i.e., cis-heterosexism, ableism, ageism, etc.
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