I-EDIAA Glossary

I-EDIAA Glossary

Prejudice thoughts and discriminatory actions based on differences in physical, mental and/or emotional ability that contribute to a system of oppression; favouring able-bodied/minded persons and disadvantaging people with illness, differences of ability, or less developed skills.
A person who supports and celebrates equity deserving groups, actively and intentionally interrupts and challenges oppressive remarks and actions of others, and willingly explores biases within themselves. Being an ally requires action; telling colleagues that their jokes are inappropriate; and advocating for the health, wellness and acceptance of people from underrepresented or marginalized groups. An ally takes action to support people outside their own group, while deferring to said group on the type of support required.
Optical Allyship (Performative Allyship/Ally Theatre)
The visual illusion of allyship without the actual work or allyship.
Strategies, theories, actions, and practices that actively challenge systems of oppression on an ongoing basis in one’s daily life and in social justice/change work. Anti-oppression work seeks to recognize the oppression that exists in our society and attempts to mitigate its effects and eventually equalize the power imbalance in our communities. It challenges the systemic biases that devalue and marginalize difference. Oppression operates at different levels from individual to institutional and so does anti-oppression work.
Systems of Oppression
Discriminatory institutions, structures, norms, etc. that are embedded in the fabric of our society. All the -“isms” are forms of oppression. In the context of social justice, oppression is discrimination against a social group that is backed by institutional power. The various societal institutions such as culture, government, education, etc. are all complicit in the oppression of marginalized social groups while elevating dominant social groups.
The active and intentional process of identifying and working to eliminate multi-dimensional aspects of racism, by changing systems, organizational structures, policies, practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably.
Anti-racist
The action of fighting racism. The embodiment of the anti-racism process.

A disproportionate weight/opinion in favour of or against an idea or person. Innate or learned bias inhibits impartial judgment, thought or analysis.
Unconscious Bias/Implicit Bias
An implicit association with a person, place or thing that a person has without them realizing it. These associations are often mistaken, inaccurate, or incomplete and include personal experiences that we bring to the situation.
Affinity bias: The tendency to show favour and/or feel more kinship towards people who are more like us. It may be based on some aspect of identity that we share with that person, or it could be similar interests and backgrounds.
Attribution bias: How people explain the behaviour or outcomes for themselves or others. For example, attributing a person’s success to their natural abilities, versus seeing that success as the result of luck or favouritism.
Confirmation bias: The tendency to more easily accept, search for, interpret, or favour information that aligns or agrees with one’s existing beliefs and opinions.
Performance bias: An assessment of people’s competence based on some aspect of their appearance or identity.
Acronym for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour. Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour is an alternative order to signify the importance of Canadian universities' relationship with Indigenous peoples.
Occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation, against a bully, or during an assault or other abuse. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is for any one of them to provide help to a person in distress.
A psychological theory that states that an individual's likelihood of being a passive presence when witnessing an emergency situation. It is a lack of assumption for the responsibility to act in these situations.

An invitation to a one-on-one or small group conversation to bring attention to an individual or group’s harmful words or behaviour, including bias, prejudice, microaggressions, and discrimination.
Calling In and Calling Out Guide (harvard.edu)
Bringing public attention to an individual, group, or organization's harmful words or behaviour.
Calling In and Calling Out Guide (harvard.edu)
Identifying with the same gender that one was assigned at birth. A gender identity that society considers to “match” the biological sex assigned at birth. The prefix “cis-” means “on this side of”, in reference to the gender binary model. A term used to identify people who are not transgender, and the experiences of privilege granted based on being cisgender.
An intentional process by which a political power from one territory exerts control over a different territory. It involves unequal power relations and includes policies and/or practices of acquiring full or partial political, physical, cultural, and religious control over other people or territory, occupying the territory with settlers, exploiting it and erasing exiting cultural identity.
Refers to any activities meant to address conflict. Approaches that view conflict as something negative, unwanted, and harmful can lead to ignoring the reality of conflict and its root causes. Instead, Conflict Engagement aims to reframe our approach to conflict in a more positive way. Conflict Engagement sees conflict as arising from failures to communicate authentically and productively, or from situations where systems and structures fail to support individuals.
Discrimination based on skin colour, often resulting in people with lighter skin tone being favoured over those with a darker skin tone. Associations and biases.
Theft of cultural elements - including symbols, art, language, customs, etc. - for one’s own use, commodification, or profit, often without understanding, acknowledgement, or respect for its value in the original culture. Results from the assumption of a dominant (I.e. white) culture's right to take other cultural elements.
Cultural humility is a process of self-reflection and discovery in order to build honest and trustworthy relationships. It offers promise for individuals to understand and eliminate disparities, and other continual oppressions necessitating attention and action on many levels.
A term that originated and is primarily used in the healthcare domain. The concept emphasizes the power imbalance inherent in the patient/client-practitioner relationship (or any other relationship where a power balance exists). A culturally safe environment is spiritually, socially, and emotionally safe, as well as physically safe for diverse people; where there is no assault, challenge, or denial of their identity, of who they are, and what they need.

The active resistance against colonial powers, ideas, values and practices embedded in society and a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, and cultural independence and power that originate from a colonized nation on Indigenous culture. This process occurs politically and applies to personal and social, cultural, agricultural, and educational deconstruction of colonial oppression.
Physical, mental, intellectual, sensory, learning or communication differences that affect the way that individuals interact with society, resulting in barriers that impede their participation and success in society. These barriers and societal attitudes are what create a disability for certain individuals.
Diverse Abilities/Differences of Abilities (visible and invisible)
The disability rights movement has made many strides in emphasizing a people-first approach to framing disability (e.g. “persons with disabilities” vs. “disabled person”). An anti-oppressive and empowerment model also considers systemic and physical barriers as the primary cause of oppression and marginalization of people who live with disabilities rather than locating the problem with the person.
The unjust or prejudicial treatment of people or groups who are deemed different by society, depriving them of or limiting their access to opportunities and advantages that are available to other members of society.
The presence of different things, or people in a given space. Diversity is often associated with race or culture, but can be used to identify differences that exist between people in any sense: sex, gender, affectional-orientation, neuro-difference, religion, mental and physical ability, SES, etc.

Fairness or justice. Equity is differentiated from Equality by moving away from the assumption that providing the same to all places everyone on level ground. Every individual begins from a different place, and therefore require something different to compensate for these imbalances. Equity is ongoing and requires the identification of visible and invisible barriers that exist as a result of systemic structures.
A large group of people with a shared culture, language, history, set of traditions, etc., or the fact of belonging to one of these groups.

A person’s internal and psychological sense of themself as man, woman, both, in between, neither, or another understanding of gender. People who question their gender identity may feel unsure of their gender or believe they are not of the same gender they were assigned at birth (gender dysphoria).

Refers to social roles, structures, language etc. that reinforce the idea that heterosexuality is the presumed norm and is superior to other sexual orientations.

An active, intentional, and continuous process to address inequities in power and privilege, and build a respectful and diverse community that ensures welcoming spaces and opportunities to flourish for all. Workplace Inclusion is an atmosphere where all employees belong, contribute, and can thrive. Requires deliberate and intentional action.
A system-wide approach to equity, diversity and inclusion. IE states that true excellence in an institution is unattainable without inclusion and in fact, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to excellence. It moves away from historical approaches to diversity that focuses on numbers and representation. Instead, IE helps us think about the institution as a vibrant community that can create excellence by embedding diversity throughout the institution.
Promoted by the Black American legal scholar and critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw (1959–), this concept articulates the intersection (or connection) of identities such as race, class, age, SES, religion, and gender. These factors intertwine or intersect to create complex situations of oppression. Intersectionality as a concept gained significant momentum among gender scholars from the late 1990s onwards in recognition of the acceptance of the ways in which different dimensions of identity interrelate.

Acronym that stands for ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two spirit, intersex, asexual, plus’ (include link to Defining LGBTQIA+ (gaycenter.org)

A social process by which individuals or groups are (intentionally or unintentionally) distanced from access to power and resources and constructed as insignificant, peripheral, or less valuable/privileged to a community or “mainstream” society. This term describes a social process, so as not to imply a lack of agency. Marginalized groups or people are those excluded from mainstream social, economic, cultural, or political life.
Examples of marginalized groups include, but are by no means limited to, groups excluded due to race, religion, political or cultural group, age, gender, or financial status. To what extent such populations are marginalized, however, is context specific and reliant on the cultural organization of the social site in question.
Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental forms of covert discrimination, that whether intentional or unintentional, communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. Individuals engaged in microaggressions target marginalized groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, class, and religion, often on a subconscious level.
The contempt for, dislike of and discrimination against women. Patriarchal cultures are misogynistic in that they constrain women whom they regard as lesser beings.

A continuum or spectrum of gender identities and expressions, often based on the rejection of the gender binary’s assumption that gender is strictly an either/or option of male/men or female/women, based on sex assigned at birth. Non-binary can be both a specific term of identification, and/or an umbrella term.

A person with a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, sensory, learning or communication difference, or a functional limitation, whether apparent or not, and permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, that hinders their full and equal participation resulting from societal barriers.
Refers to the social, economic and political advantages or rights held by people from dominant groups on the basis of gender, race, sexual orientation, social class, etc. Unearned social power (set of advantages, entitlements, and benefits) accorded by the formal and informal institutions of society to the members of a dominant group (e.g., white/Caucasian people with respect to people of colour, men with respect to women, heterosexuals with respect to homosexuals, adults with respect to children, and rich people with respect to poor people).
Privilege tends to be invisible to those who possess it, because its absence (lack of privilege) is what calls attention to it. In other words, men are less likely to notice/acknowledge a difference in advantage because they do not live the life of a woman; white people are less likely to notice/acknowledge racism because they do not live the life of a person of colour; straight people are less likely to notice/acknowledge heterosexism because they do not live the life of a gay/lesbian/bisexual person.

A socially constructed identity based on colonial prejudice, stereotypes and biases against certain individuals. This prejudice dictates that certain individuals are inferior to others, and therefore experience disadvantages in society.
Refers to individual, cultural, institutional, and systemic ways by which differential consequences are created for different racial groups. Racism is often grounded in a presumed superiority of the white race over groups historically or currently defined as non-white. Racism can also be defined as “prejudice + power.” The combination of prejudice and power enables the mechanisms by which racism leads to different consequences for different groups.
Systemic or Institutional Racism
Racism that is engrained in institutions (education, healthcare, legal systems) that have the power to positively or negatively organize the interactions of individuals within society. These systems are historic, normalized, deeply embedded in society and perpetuate racist ideals, biases and practices in order to benefit certain individuals at the expense of racialized people.

Interpersonal Racism
A prejudice or bias against racialized individuals that are carried and enacted by individuals who have power over others. Individual racism is perpetuated through the reinforcement of prejudice and violence of institutional racism, and is taught to/learned from others.

Often used in institutional settings (i.e. health care or education), SOGI, or SOGI Minorities, is used in place of LGBTQ2S+ acronyms. SOGI may be preferred as it decreases the risk of erasure, since the LGBTQ2S+ acronym omits identities or terms of self-identification.
SOGI as an acronym fails to capture the spectrum of romantic orientations, and intersex folk. Alternatives: SGM (Sexuality and Gender Minorities).
Discriminatory institutions, structures, norms, etc. that are embedded in the fabric of our society. All the -“isms” are forms of oppression. In the context of social justice, oppression is discrimination against a social group that is backed by institutional power. The various societal institutions, such as culture, government, education, etc., are all complicit in the oppression of marginalized social groups while elevating dominant social groups.

The practice of integrating people from minority or under-represented groups into a group or organization in order to appear inclusive or avoid accusations of discrimination.
Referring to an Indigenous person in North America who embodies both female and male spirits or whose gender identity, sexual orientation or spiritual identity is not limited by the male/female dichotomy.

An implicit association with a person, place or thing, that a person has without them realizing it. These associations are often mistaken, inaccurate, or incomplete and include personal experiences that we bring to the situation.
Affinity bias: The tendency to show favour and/or feel more kinship towards people who are more like us. It may be based on some aspect of identity that we share with that person, or it could be similar interests and backgrounds.
Attribution bias: How people explain the behaviour or outcomes for themselves or others. For example, attributing a person’s success to their natural abilities, versus seeing that success as the result of luck or favouritism.
Confirmation bias: The tendency to more easily accept, search for, interpret, or favour information that aligns or agrees with one’s existing beliefs and opinions.
Performance bias: An assessment of people’s competence based on some aspect of their appearance or identity.

The centering of whiteness and white people, white values, white norms, and white feelings over everything and everyone else. The belief, whether conscious or not, that whiteness is “normal” and BIPOC are “other.”
A phrase coined by author Robin DiAngelo, defined as “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.”
A colonialist idea that assumes that BIPOC need white people to save them; that without white intervention, instruction, and guidance, BIPOC will be left helpless, and that without whiteness, BIPOC, who are seen and treated as inferior to people with white privilege, will not survive
Beliefs and ideas purporting natural superiority of the lighter-skinned, or “white,” human races over other racial groups. In contemporary usage, the term white supremacist has been used to describe some groups espousing ultranationalist, racist, or fascist doctrines. White supremacist groups often have relied on violence to achieve their goals.