Understanding Race & Identity
A system that uses prejudice + power to benefit one group over others
What is racism?
When someone takes on the culture of a dominant group, sometimes by force
What is assimilation?
Judging someone unfairly based on their group, often using stereotypes
What is prejudice?
A basic step toward diversity that means allowing different people in the room
What is inclusion?
Moving from one country to another with the intention to live there permanently
What is immigration?
This term refers to people of multiple racial backgrounds or a setting where multiple racial groups interact
What is multiracial?
A commitment to actively push back against prejudice and unfair treatment
What is anti-bias?
Laws or systems that block equal opportunities for some groups
What is institutional racism?
Going further than tolerance, this step involves actively appreciating and valuing others
What is acceptance?
A group identity based on shared heritage, language, or history
What is ethnicity?
A belief system that gives advantages to white people just for being white
What is white privilege?
A variety of English spoken by many Black Americans that has its own grammar and rules
What is AAVE (African American Vernacular English)?
Blaming a person or group unfairly for a problem they didn’t cause
What is scapegoating?
A worldview or educational approach that encourages the presence and mutual respect of diverse cultures
What is multiculturalism?
Someone escaping danger in their homeland may seek this legal status in another country
What is refugee status?
A socially created way of grouping people that has no real biological basis
What is race?
Patterns of life like food, clothing, language, and holidays shared by a group.
What is culture?
A harmful belief in controlling who gets to reproduce, often to “improve” society’s genetics
What is eugenics?
A teaching method that highlights fairness for all races and works against racism
What is anti-racism education?
A word often used to describe Spanish-speaking people, though it doesn’t always include Afro-Latin or Indigenous roots
What is Hispanic?
Treating whiteness as the default or most important cultural norm
What is Eurocentrism?
A belief that one’s own culture is better than others
What is ethnocentrism?
Being hired just to meet a diversity requirement, without real inclusion
What is tokenism?
When a group claims to be open to all, but forces newcomers to conform to the dominant group’s ways
What is false inclusion (or assimilation under the label of inclusion)?
A person of Latin American or Caribbean background, often preferred over “Hispanic” in some regions
What is Latino/a?