Shared Language - Shared Understanding

Shared

Understanding

Shared Language

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ASSIMILATE

The phenomenon that occurs when people belonging to the nondominant group understand dominant culture norms and take on their characteristics either by choice or by force. Many people of color are asked to "check their identities at the door" in academic, professional, and other whitedominant settings to make their white peers comfortable. By doing so, many people of color find it easier to get recognition, promotions, professional opportunities, and gain access to informal networks typically accessible only to white folks.

COLORBLINDNESS

The issue of colorblindness has been popular in the rhetoric of the past couple of decades.

Colorblindness purports not to see skin color. However, if you "don’t see race," you don't see racial inequities, and you cannot be helpful in counteracting/dismantling them. Additionally, colorblindness: invalidates identities, invalidates racism experiences by people of color, limits white folks' understanding of the world and encourages disconnection from other human beings, equates color with something bad or negative, makes it difficult to track racial disparities, and ultimately supports and upholds racism structures. (It is also just not true.)

CRITICAL RACE THEORY (CRT)

The CRT movement is a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power. The movement considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up but places them in a broader perspective that included economics, history, settings, group and self-interest, and emotions, and the unconscious. Unlike traditional civil rights discourse, which stresses incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundation of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law. (Delgado) Key tenets include: centering the experiences of people of color, understanding racism as ordinary/common, and counter storytelling.

CULTURE?

Culture is composed of taught and learned values, social norms, beliefs, and ways of thinking. A particular belief or practice may be cultural if you've thought "yeah that's just what we do" about it.

Culture arises from within communities.

DECOLONIZE (THE MIND) The act of recognizing and counteracting the thoughts, preferences, practices, and behaviors that are rooted in colonization. Colonialism - the policy and practice of acquiring control of land (frequently already occupied by people of color), occupying it, and codifying power structures to elevate one race and culture above all others - is a historical fact of our social structure. The international practice of colonization informs the dominant culture that characterizes American society today, driving ideologies and subconscious biases rooted in centuries of racism, classism, and white privilege. Decolonizing the mind is necessary in order to dismantle white supremacy and the white dominant culture norms it influences.

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DIVERSITY Psychological, physical, and social differences that occur among any and all individuals; including but not limited to race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, age, gender, sexual orientation, mental or physical ability, and learning styles.

DOMINANT CULTURE

Dominant culture refers to the language, religion, values, rituals, and/or social customs on which a particular society was built. Dominant culture is widespread and influential within institutions, such as businesses or universities, in which multiple cultures are present. An organization's dominant culture is heavily influenced by the leadership and management standards and preferences of those at the top of the hierarchy.

EQUALITY

A limited understanding that seeks to ensure all people have the exact same resources, services, accommodations, and support in the exact same amount.

EQUITY

A more informed and broad understanding of the lived experiences of people of color (and other marginalized groups). Equity seeks to ensure all people have the resources, services, accommodations, and support in the amount that they need.

EQUITY-MINDED

The mode of thinking exhibited by individuals who regularly call attention to patterns of inequity in outcomes. Equity-minded individuals can often be heard asking questions like: why are we doing this? Is this the way it has always been done or is there another reason we are taking this approach? Is this the only way that this can be done?

ETHNICITY

Factors include: ancestry, your people's people, from whence you came. These identities usually arise from within communities.

INCLUSION The act of creating environments in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate and bring their full authentic selves. An inclusive and welcoming climate embraces differences and offers respect in the words/actions/thoughts of all people.

MICROAGRESSION

The everyday verbal, behavioral, and/or environmental slights, insults, or snubs experienced by marginalized groups because of their group membership(s). Microagressions can be intentional or unintentional.

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RACE

Race is typically determined by skin color and physical characteristics. These identities are usually imposed on groups/individuals. Although race is socially constructed, it is important to note that there are real-world implications including negative consequences for groups of color.

RACE EQUITY

The condition where one's race identity has no influence on how one fares in society. Race equity is one part of race justice and must be addressed at the root causes and not just the manifestations. This includes the elimination of policies, practices, attitudes, and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race.

RACISM

A system of advantage and oppression based on race. A way of organizing society based on dominance and subordination based on race. Racism penetrates every aspect of personal, cultural, and institutional life. It includes prejudice against people of color, as well as exclusion, discrimination against, suspicion of, and fear and hate of people of color. A person of any race can have racial prejudices about people of other races, but only members of the dominant social group can exhibit racism because racism is prejudice plus the institutional power to enforce it. A shorthand way to remember it is racism = racial prejudice + power.

STRUCTURAL RACISM

The arrangement of institutional, interpersonal, historical, and cultural dynamics in a way that consistently produces advantage for whites and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. It illuminates that racism exists without the presence of individual actors because it is systemically embedded. When the United States was founded, racist principles were codified in governance structures and policies. As a result, racism is embedded in institutions, structures, and social relations across American society. Today, structural racism is composed of intersecting, overlapping, and codependent racist institutions, policies, practices, ideas, and behaviors that give an unjust amount of resources, rights, and power to white people while denying them to people of color.

WHITE DOMINANT CULTURE

Culture defined by white people with social and positional power. White dominant culture is enacted broadly in society, within the context of social entities such as organizations, and by individuals.

WHITE FRAGILITY

"White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to... white fragility. White fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, 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."

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WHITE PRIVILEGE

The power and advantages afforded to those who are white (or perceived as white). White privilege is derived from the historical oppression and exploitation of individuals and groups of color and unrelated to hard work or merit.

WHITE SUPREMACY

CRT scholar Francis Lee Ansley defines white supremacy as a "political, economic and cultural system in which white people overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions."

Furthermore, Martin Luther King, Jr. asserted that white supremacy "became a structural part of the culture" and "was embedded in every textbook and preached in preached in practically every pulpit."

SOURCES: Ansley, F.L. (1997). White supremacy (and what we should do about it). In R. Delgado & J. Stefancic (eds.)(1997). Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror. Pp. 592-595 Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory. New York, NY: New York University Press.

DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy(3)3, 54-70.

Equity in the Center. (2018). Awake to woke to work: Building a race equity culture. Washington, DC: ProInspire.

Katz, J.H. (1978). White awareness: Handbook for anti-racism training. Norman, OK: Oklahoma University Press.

King, Jr., M.L. (1967). Where do we go from here: Chaos or community? Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Reeck, J. (2018, November). When well-meaning is not enough. Presented at 2019 Minnesota College Professionals Association Conference, Mankato, MN.

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