Glossary // Social Justice Terms

Glossary Accessibility - There are various definitions; ability to have resources, opportunities, and accommodations that fits personal and/or professional needs. The quality of being possible to get into, use, make use of.

Affirmative Action - Positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and culture from which they have been historically excluded.Anti-Racism - an active and conscious effort to work against multidimensional aspects of racism.

Anti-Racist - requires an understanding of history — an understanding that racial disparities in America have their roots, not in some failing by people of color but in policies that serve to prop up white supremacy.

Classism - The institutional, cultural, and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign differential value to people according to their socio-economic class; and an economic system which creates excessive inequality and causes basic human needs to go unmet.

Diversity - Includes all the ways in which people differ, representing all the different identities and characteristics that make one individual or group different from another.

Discrimination - A biased decision based on prejudice against an individual group characterized by race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, religion and other categories.little bit of body text Emotional Regulation - A behavioral process to control one’s emotion in response to their experience.

Equality - Everyone benefits from the same support/resources and access in an effort to promote fairness, but it can only work if everyone starts from the same place and needs the same help.

Equity - Individuals are given the support and resources based on their needs for equal access in order to succeed.

Ethnicity - Socially defined group of people connected by national origin, culture, or language.

Gender - Socially defined based on roles, behaviors, characteristics.

Generalization - A broad statement or idea about certain people and groups. Not all generalizations are stereotypes.

Gynecology - A medicalized field that involves the care and treatment of the reproductive system.

Health Care - An improvement of the physical and mental health wellbeing that is provided by medical or health care license providers.

Health disparities - Preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations. There are inequities between groups that are closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage.

Health insurance - A private or public contract plan that requires your health insurer company to pay some or all of your health care costs in exchange for a premium.

Health Care System - A system distributing health care through cost, quality, and access.

Immigrant - Someone who physically moves and resides in a different country. Undocumented Immigrant - Someone who resides in a different country without legal status.

Immigrant - Someone who physically moves and resides in a different country.

Types: Undocumented Immigrant - Someone who resides in a different country without legal status.

Asylum Seeker - An asylum seeker is a person who has fled persecution in their home country and is seeking safe haven in a different country, but has not yet received any legal recognition or status.

Imposter Syndrome - The idea that you have only succeeded due to luck, and not because of your talent or qualifications. Inclusion - Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power.

Inequality - The state of not being equal, especially in status,rights, and opportunities.

Institution - A social organization or network with resources that is established for a purpose to influence cultural norms and values.

Intersectionality - A theoretical framework that shows the different levels of discrimination that people experience based on their identities. This theory helps us understand the relationships between race, class, gender and it acknowledges the inequality and underrepresentation of the minorities who may be experiencing more than one oppression (Crenshaw 1991).

Types: Structure Intersectionality - Ensuring that structure and institutions are meeting the needs of those who are oppressed. Political Intersectionality - Focuses on policies and movements to acknowledge all forms of oppression.

Justice - When the cause of the inequity has been addressed by the removal of systemic barriers through establishments of laws and ethical values.

Marginalized - To treat a group of people as unimportant, lower status, and make them feel isolated.

Oppression - Fusion of institutional and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that shade most aspects of life and society.

People of Color (POC) - A collective term for referring to non-White racial groups.

Prejudice - Prejudgments about members of social groups.

Poverty - Entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decisionmaking.

Power - Unequally distributed globally and in U.S. society; some individuals or groups wield greater power than others, thereby allowing them greater access and control over resources. Also, the ability to influence others and impose one’s beliefs.

Race - Socially defined, the basis of physical criteria and ethnic groups. Also, an invalid paradigm developed to justistify the different treatment based on physical characteristics.

Racism - Involves one group having the power to carry out systematic discrimination through the institutional policies and practices of the society and by shaping the cultural beliefs and values that support those racist policies and practices.

Types: Individual Racism - The beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism. Individual racism can be intentional, or the individual may act to perpetuate or support racism without knowing that is what he or she is doing.

Institutional racism - Institutional policies and practices creating different outcomes for different racial groups; specifically creating advantages for Whites and oppression and disadvantages for people from targeted racial groups.Â

Environmental Racism - The disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color.

Medical Racism - Prejudice and discrimination in medicine and within the medical and healthcare field based on perceived race or ethnicity. Racial dicrimination can result in differential medical treatment and the experience of racism can negatively impact one’s health.

Sexism - A system of oppression based on attitudes and beliefs (commonly related to traditional stereotypes of gender roles) that privileges men, subordinates women, and devalues practices associated with women.

Social Change -Â Changes in human interactions and relationships that transform cultural and social institutions.

Socioeconomic Status (SES) - Measurement of social, income, occupation, and education.

Stereotype - An attitude, belief, feeling, or assumption about a person or group of people that are widespread and socially sanctioned. It can be more negative than generalization and can lead to discrimination and prejudice. All stereotypes are generalizations. *This is not an exhaustive list of social justice related terms!