Terms You Need to Know

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Terms You Need to Know

Ally: a person or group that provides assistance and support in an ongoing effort, activity, or struggle

Anti-Black Racism: an injurious and specific stressor that pose violent threats to the biological, psychological, physical, cultural, and social health and the associated interlocking identities of the Black person (e.g., anti-Black misogyny, anti-Black misandry, antiBlack homophobia)

Black Codes: sometimes called Black Laws; were laws governing the conduct of African Americans

BIPOC: an acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color

Call-Out Culture: the practice, in social justice circles, of publicly criticizing people for violating accepted behavioral standards

Discrimination: the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex

Diversity: the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.

Equity: the quality of being fair and impartial Gender Fluid: denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender

Inclusion: the action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure

Indigenous: according to the United Nations, the term “Indigenous People” refers to populations/cultures who had established a homeland and inhabited that area prior to colonization. This is why the Permanent Forum is legally named “The Indigenous Peoples Permanent Forum”

Interpersonal Discrimination: targeted (and often repeated) behaviors directed toward a person based on their membership in a stigmatized group

Jim Crow Laws: state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States

John Henryism: oping in unrealistic circumstances for a short life span, which explains why African American men tend to have a shorter life-span than other groups

Juneteenth: the oldest nationally celebrated holiday, on June 19th, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States in 1865

LGBT: an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender