Anti-racism: The active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies, practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably (McIntosh, 1988).
BAME: In the UK, this umbrella term refers to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. It is not regarded as a helpful descriptor because it emphasises certain ethnic minority groups (Asian and Black) and excludes others (mixed, other and white ethnic minority groups). The term can also mask disparities between different ethnic groups and create misleading interpretations of data (Ethnicity Facts & Figures Service, 2021).
Intersectionality: Kimberlé Crenshaw originally coined this term specifically to refer to the added bias faced by black women on account of both of their gender and their race. Many people now use it popularly to describe how the overlap of various social identities (such as race, gender, sexuality, and class) contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual, and define how one is valued (Crenshaw, 1989; Perlman, 2018).
Institutional or Systemic Racism: Refers specifically to the ways in which institutional policies and practices create different outcomes for different racial groups. The institutional policies may appear neutral on the surface but have an exclusionary impact on particular groups - their effect is to create advantages for white people and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups classified as non-white (Feagin, 2006).
Lived Experience: Personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement in everyday events rather than through representations constructed by other people (Chandler and Munday, 2011).
Model Minority Myth: 'Model minority' is often used to refer to a minority group perceived as particularly successful, especially in contrast with other groups. Consequently, the model minority myth has become an ideological tool, used to dismiss civil rights activists’ claims that racism was responsible for the struggles of people of colour and to delegitimize challenges to racial oppression (Yi and Museus, 2015).
Misogynoir: The term was coined by Black feminist academic Moya Bailey in 2008 to refer to misogyny directed specifically towards Black women, where race and gender both play roles in bias and prejudice (Bailey and Trudy, 2018).
Whiteness: Racism is based on the concept of whiteness—a powerful fiction enforced by power and violence. ‘Whiteness,’ like ‘colour' and ‘Blackness,' are essentially social constructs applied to human beings rather than veritable truths that have universal validity. Whiteness is a constantly shifting boundary separating those who are entitled to have certain privileges from those whose exploitation and vulnerability to violence is justified by their not being white (Kivel, 1996; Henry and Tator, 2006).
White Privilege: The unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed upon people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it (Halley et al., 2011).
Definitions have been adapted from The Antiracist Bookshelf guide at William & Mary, CC BY-NC 4.0
