Race & Ethnicity Terms

Minoritized Group

A social group that is devalued in society and given less access to resources. This devaluing encompasses how the group is represented, what degree of access to resources it is granted, and how the unequal access is rationalized. Traditionally, a group in this position has been referred to as the minority group. However, this language has been replaced in order to capture the active dynamics that create the lower status in society, and also to signal that a group's status is not necessarily related to how many or few of them there are in the population at large.

Discrimination

Action based on prejudice toward social others. When we act on our prejudgments, we are discriminating.

Racism

In the United States and Canada, this refers to White racial and cultural prejudice and discrimination, supported by institutional power and authority, used to the advantage of Whites and the disadvantage of people of Color. It encompasses economic, political, social, and institutional actions and beliefs that perpetuate an unequal distribution of privileges, resources, and power between Whites and people of Color.

Prejudice

Learned prejudgment about members of social groups to which we don't belong. It is based on limited knowledge or experience with the group. Simplistic judgments and assumptions are made and projected onto everyone from that group.

Bias

Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.

Privilege

Systematically conferred dominance and the institutional process by which the beliefs and values of the dominant group are "made normal" and universal.

Power

The ideological, technical, and discursive elements by which those in authority impose their ideas and interests on everyone.

Hegemony

The imposition of dominant group ideology onto everyone in society. This makes it difficult to escape or to resist "believing in" this dominant ideology, thus social control is achieved through conditioning rather than physical force or intimidation.

Oppression

The prejudice and discrimination of one social group against another, backed by institutional power. It occurs when one group is able to enforce its prejudice and discrimination throughout society because it controls the institutions. It occurs at the group and macro level, and goes well beyond individuals. Sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and heteroism are all forms of this concept

Internalized Racial Oppression

This occurs when a person of Color, consciously and subconsciously, accepts the negative representation or invisibility of people of Color in media, education, medicine, science, and all other aspects of society. Over times, the person comes to believe that s/he is less valuable and may act this out through self-defeating behaviors and sometimes by distancing her/himself from others of her/his own or other non-White racial groups.