About
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Growing Our Inclusive Language

Nichols School Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mission Statement, Adopted March 2020

Nichols School commits to being a courageous community, grounded in equity of process and outcomes, where we can all safely and authentically be ourselves and therefore accept the challenge of our collective growth.  
 
Communication is the skillful, effective, and respectful exchange of ideas with others. Nichols students develop communication skills as they are given opportunities to respond to others’ ideas with clarity and respect. Nichols students are taught to communicate in the following ways:

  • They seek out and listen actively to a wide variety of opinions and perspectives.
  • They contribute ideas clearly and with attention to audience across a broad range of media and in different contexts.
  • They participate respectfully in open exchanges of ideas.
  • They write and receive feedback on their writing frequently and learn to formulate their ideas clearly for different intended audiences.
Nichols students will be prepared—mind, body, and spirit—to listen to others with respect, to be compassionate, and to engage in debate with an open mind.
 
The Work it Requires
Without a shared language, we cannot assume that we are referring to the same issues when we use the same terms. Shared language is the platform on which relationship building and communication stands. Too often, work around inclusion, community, and belonging gets detoured because the same terms may have different meanings depending on who is communicating. The results can be confusion, misunderstanding and distrust.

To that end, we aspire to grow our inclusive language. Consistent with our Core Competencies, growing our inclusive language cultivates an environment where all members of our community can engage and develop, create, think and communicate meaningfully and effectively.
 
 

Glossary of Inclusive Language

List of 99 items.

  • #blacklivesmatter

    A human rights movement co-founded by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi. The movement campaigns against violence and systemic racism toward Black people. The movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin in February 2012. 
  • Ableism

    Discrimination, prejudice and/or bias toward an individual based on physical or mental ability or lack thereof.
  • Accessibility

    The "ability to access" the functionality of a system or entity and gain the related benefits. 
  • Accommodation

    The process of adapting or adjusting to someone or something. Accommodations can be religious, physical or mental. A reasonable accommodation specifically is an alteration in process or environment that allows an individual with a disability to enjoy equitable access within employment, public entities or education.
  • Advocate

    Someone who speaks up for themself and members of their identity group; e.g., a woman who lobbies for equal pay for women. Advocates acknowledge responsibility as citizens to shape public policy to address intentional or unintentional harm to minorities and the oppressed, whether caused by action or inaction.
  • Affirmed Gender

    An individual’s true gender, as opposed to their gender assigned at birth. This term should replace terms like new gender or chosen gender, which imply that an individual’s gender was chosen. 
  • Affirming Congregation

    Congregations, usually Christian churches, which welcome LGBTQ people.
  • Allyship

    The practice of emphasizing social justice, inclusion, and human rights by members of an ingroup, to advance the interests of an oppressed or marginalized outgroup. Allyship is part of the anti-oppression or anti-racist conversation, which puts into use social justice theories and ideals. 

    Allyship involves: 
    Action – allyship is constant and committed practice, not identity. Allyship involves action, support, and solidarity with marginalized groups and anti-oppression moments and movements.  
    Listening – we respectfully listen to marginalized persons and groups. We work to build mutual trust and consent through our actions, listening, learning, and yielding. 
    Learning – we do the research and the work of learning about privilege and positionality and historical and contemporary struggles. We work to reveal and challenge our assumptions, our long-held narratives, and to build our understanding of the systems and structures of oppression so that we may work to confront and eradicate them. 
    Yielding – Allyship involves both action and yielding; in the sense that practicing allyship means that we are careful to avoid monopolizing, overtaking, speaking for, patronizing, romanticizing, agenda-setting, and so forth. We act, listen, learn, and yield. 
  • American Indian and Alaska Native

    Those “having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment” (Grieco and Cassidy 2001, p. 2). 
  • Anti-Semitism

    A certain perception of Jewish people may be expressed as hatred toward Jewish people. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals, their property, and Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.  
  • Arab American

    are Americans of Arab ancestry. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World.
  • Asian

    Defined in the United States (U.S.) Census as “people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent,” including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam (Grieco and Cassidy 2001, p. 2).  
  • Assistive Technology

    Any item, piece of equipment, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve ease of use or usability for individuals with disabilities. Examples include message boards, screen readers, refreshable Braille displays, keyboard and mouse modifications, and head pointers. 
  • Autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

    Refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects an estimated 1 in 36 children in the United States today.
  • Belonging

    The feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group or place. In order for people to feel like they belong, the environment needs to be set up to be a diverse and inclusive place.
  • Belongingness

    The human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group. Whether it is family, friends, co-workers, a religion, or something else, people tend to have an inherent desire to belong and be an important part of something greater than themselves. 
  • Benevolent Sexism

    Involves subjectively positive images of women, such as considering women as nurturing, sensible, caring, and having a sense of aesthetic and moral superiority. Benevolent Sexism idealizes women, but only if they conform to the traditional roles men assign them and do not challenge men’s authority. 
  • Bias

    Is a disproportionate weigh in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closedminded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief. 
  • Blackface/Minstrelsy

    A type of comedic performance of “Blackness” by whites in exaggerated costumes and make-up. The first minstrel shows were performed in 1830s New York by white performers with Blackened faces. Blackface performances grew particularly popular between the end of the Civil War and the turn-of-the century in Northern and Midwestern cities. Blackface and the codifying of Blackness— language, movement, deportment, and character—as caricature persists through mass media and in public performances today.
  • Bullying

    is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behavior that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening. To read more about Bullying Prevention, please click here.
  • Chief

    The leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. The term chief is not of indigenous origin. It comes from French and Latin before that. It is how the term is being used that dictates whether or not it is problematic. In general, terms like CFO (Chief Financial Officer) are fine. But if you are using the word “chief” as a pejorative or slur, then it is not okay. Instead, use terms like boss, captain, executive, director, manager, or dignitary.
  • Classism

    Any attitude or institutional practice that subordinates people due to income, occupation, education and/or their economic condition.
  • Colorblindness

    This term is used to describe personal, group, and institutional policies or practices that do not consider race or ethnicity as a determining factor. The term “colorblind” de-emphasizes or ignores race and ethnicity as a large part of one’s identity. (The National Multicultural Institute)
  • Covert Racism

    Expresses racist ideas, attitudes, or beliefs in subtle, hidden, or secret forms. Often unchallenged, this type of racism doesn't appear to be racist because it is indirect behavior.
  • Critical Race Theory

    A framework or set of basic perspectives, methods, and pedagogy that seeks to identify, analyze, and transform those structural and cultural aspects of society that maintain the subordination and marginalization of People of Color. There are at least five themes that form the basic perspectives of critical race theory: the centrality and intersectionality of race and racism; the challenge to dominant ideology; the commitment to social justice; the centrality of experiential knowledge; and the interdisciplinary perspective. 
  • Cultural Appropriation

    The non-consensual/misappropriation use of cultural elements for commodification or profit purposes – including symbols, art, language, customs, etc. — often without understanding, acknowledgment, or respect for its value in the original culture.
  • Cultural Competence

    An ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures. A process of embracing diversity and learning about people from other cultural backgrounds. The key element to becoming more culturally competent is respect for the ways that others live in and organize the world, and an openness to learn from them.

    Cultural competence has four components:
    1. Awareness of one's own cultural worldview
    2. Attitude towards cultural differences
    3. Knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews
    4. Cross-cultural skills (developing cultural competence results in an ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures)
  • Cultural Fluency

    The ability to understand norms and perspectives of diverse cultures, recognize the context and cues, and respond in ways to achieve shared meaning.
  • Culture

    The conceptual system that structures the way people view the world—it is the particular set of beliefs, norms, and values that influence ideas about the nature of relationships, the way people live their lives, and the way people organize their world.  
    To learn more about how culture is more complicated than you think, take a moment to read an article by the Harvard Business Review, “Cultural Differences Are More Complicated than What Country You’re From” by Andy Molinsky.
  • Decolonize

    The active and intentional process of unlearning values, beliefs, and conceptions that have caused physical, emotional, or mental harm to people through colonization. It requires a recognition of systems of oppression.
  • Denial

    The refusal to acknowledge the societal privileges that are granted or denied based on an individual's ethnicity or other groupings.
  • Dialogue

    “Communication that creates and recreates multiple understandings” (Wink, 1997).

    Dialogue is bidirectional, not zero‐sum, and may or may not end in agreement. Dialogue can be emotional and uncomfortable, but is safe, respectful and has greater understanding as its goal.
  • Disability

    A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of an individual; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment (from the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990). 
  • Discrimination

    Actions based on conscious or unconscious prejudice that favor one group over others in the provision of goods, services or opportunities.
  • Diversity

    The sum total of all of the dimensions of difference that exist among people, including our identities, experiences, abilities, and worldviews/perspectives. Diversity may be visible or invisible, but it exists in every interaction between people. Dimensions of diversity include gender identity or expression, age, ethnicity, language, class, culture, sexual orientation, race, ability, size, etc.  
  • Diversity vs. Inclusion vs. Belonging

    Diversity typically means proportionate representation across all dimensions of human difference. Inclusion means that everyone is included, visible, heard, and considered. Belonging means that everyone is treated and feels like a full member of the larger community is accountable to one another, and can thrive. 
  • Equality

    A state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in certain respects, including civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights and equal access to certain social goods and services. 
  • Equity

    The proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes, and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts, and outcomes for all.
  • Equity-mindedness

    A demonstrated awareness of and willingness to address equity issues among institutional leaders, faculty, and staff. The perspective or mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student outcomes.
  • Ethnicity

    refers to the social identity and mutual belongingness that defines a group of people on the basis of common origins, shared beliefs, and shared standards of behavior (culture).
  • First Generation

    An individual, neither of whose parents completed a baccalaureate degree.
  • Gender Identity

    Refers to a person's internal, deeply held sense of their gender. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit into one of those two choices. Unlike gender expression gender identity is not visible to others.
  • Gender Role

    Refers to a pattern of appearance, personality, and behavior that, in a given culture, is associated with being a boy/man/male or being a girl/woman/female.
  • Gender-based Violence

    Sexual and gender-based violence refers to any act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and is based on gender norms and/or unequal power relationships. 
  • Hate Speech

    Any kind of communication in speech, writing, or behavior, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factors. 
  • Health at Every Size

    The acronym HAES is a social and health promotion movement that challenges social stigma based on weight, size, and shape. The movement emphasizes body positivity, health outcomes, and eating and movement for wellbeing rather than weight control. To read more about Health at Every Size, click here.
  • Heteronormativity

    The assumption that everyone is heterosexual, and that heterosexuality is superior to all other sexualities.
  • Heterosexism

    Viewing the world only in heterosexual terms, thus denigrating other sexual orientations. 
  • Hidden Bias

    Preferences for or against a person, thing, or group held at an unconscious level. These are different from an overt, or explicit bias, which translates to an attitude or prejudice that someone has at a conscious level and is obvious and blatant. Test yourself for hidden bias: Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington created "Project Implicit" to develop Hidden Bias Tests—called Implicit Association Tests, or IATs, in the academic world—to measure unconscious bias. Test yourself: Hidden Bias Test
  • Implicit Bias

    Occurs when someone consciously intends to reject stereotypes and supports anti-discrimination efforts but also holds negative associations in their mind unconsciously. 
  • Inclusion

    Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power.
  • Inclusion Excellence

    Organizations that have evolved beyond diversity into fully integrated, inclusive entities that:
    • value and embrace diversity and inclusion;
    • focus on the individual, moving beyond a focus on groups;
    • focus on creating a work environment where each person is recognized and developed, and talents are routinely tapped into;
    • practice talent differentiation strategies;
    • value people because of, not in spite of, their differences;
    • take steps to move toward an environment that is equitable for all;
    • internalize inclusion as a core value, meaning it neither changes quickly nor is affected by economic trends;
    • see human equity as an essential element of sustainable competitive advantage or organizational effectiveness;
    • integrate inclusion into all aspects of the organization: all employees consider themselves responsible for creating a fair, equitable and inclusive environment.
     
  • Indigenous

    Indigenous, or less commonly indigenous: of, or relating to, the earliest known inhabitants of a place and especially of a place that was colonized by a now-dominant group. Existing naturally or having always lived in a place; native.
    • The Navajos are among the indigenous people of North America.
    • Are there any species of frog indigenous to the area?
    You can also watch this land acknowledgement video prepared by Olivia Porter '18.
  • Indigenous Peoples

    Those people native to a particular country or region. In the case of the United States and its territories, this includes Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders, and American Indians. 
  • Institutional Racism

    Racism at the institutional level is reflected in the policies, laws, rules, norms, and customs enacted by organizations and social institutions that advantage whites as a group and disadvantage groups of color. Such institutions include, religion, government, education, law, the media, the health care system, and businesses/employment.
  • Intersectionality

    An analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and/or oppression at the macro, social-structural level. See what intersectionality looks like here.
  • Intersectionality

    The acknowledgement that within groups of people with a common identity, whether it be gender, sexuality, religion, race, or one of the many other defining aspects of identity, there exist intragroup differences.

    In other words, each individual experiences social structure slightly differently because the intersection of their identities reflects an intersection of overlapping oppressions. Therefore, sweeping generalizations about the struggle or power of a particular social group fail to recognize that individuals in the group also belong to other social groups and may experience other forms of marginalization. Unfortunately, institutions and social movements based on a commonly shared identity tend to disregard the presence of other marginalized identities within the group.
  • Latinos/Latinx

    Those who identify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino Census categories—Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban—as well as those who indicate that they are “other Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino.” Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality, group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. (Latinx: An inclusive, gender-neutral term, sometimes used in place of the gendered, binary terms Latino or Latina, used to describe a person of Latin-American origin or descent.) 
  • Learning Disability

    A genetic and/or a neurobiological condition that interferes with a person’s ability to store, process, or produce information. Learning disabilities should not be confused with intellectual disabilities, autism, deafness, blindness, and behavioral disorders. 
  • LGBTQ+

    An acronym that collectively refers to individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. It is sometimes stated as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) or GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender). 
  • Low-income

    Those whose family incomes fall below 50 percent of the federally established poverty guideline for their family size.
  • Mental Health Disability

    A medical condition that can disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Mental health disabilities can affect persons of any age, race, religion or income and are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing.
  • Misogyny

    The term “misogyny” is derived from the Ancient Greek word “mīsoguníā” which means hatred towards women. Misogyny has taken shape in multiple forms such as male privilege, patriarchy, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, belittling of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification.
  • Misogyny

    The term “misogyny” is derived from the Ancient Greek word “mīsoguníā” which means hatred towards women. Misogyny has taken shape in multiple forms such as male privilege, patriarchy, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, belittling of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification. 
     
  • Multicultural Competency

    A process of embracing diversity and learning about people from other cultural backgrounds. The key element to becoming more culturally competent is respect for the ways that others live in and organize the world, and an openness to learn from them.
  • Neurodiversity

    When neurological differences are recognized and respected, as are any other kind of human differences or variations. These differences can include Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyscalculia, Autistic Spectrum, and Tourette Syndrome. 
  • Non-Binary

    Refers to individuals who identify as neither man or woman, both man and woman, or a combination of man or woman. Individuals who identify as nonbinary may understand the identity as falling under the transgender umbrella and may thus identify as transgender. Sometimes abbreviated as NB or Enby. 
  • Non-Visible Disabilities

    There are many people with non-visible disabilities that can range from chemical sensitivities to diabetes. Given their particular situation they may require some assistance. If a person tells you assistance is needed, do your best to provide it - even if it take a little extra time. 
  • Oppression

    Results from the use of institutional power and privilege where one person or group benefits at the expense of another. Oppression is the use of power and the effects of domination. 
  • Patriarchy

    Actions and beliefs that prioritize masculinity. Patriarchy is practiced systemically in the ways and methods through which power is distributed in society (jobs and positions of power given to men in government, policy, criminal justice, etc.) while also influencing how we interact with one another interpersonally (gender expectations, space-taking, etc.)
  • People-/Person-First Language

    A way of describing disability that involves putting the word person or people before the word disability or the name of a disability, rather than placing the disability first and using it as an adjective. Some examples of people-first language might include saying "person with a disability," "woman with cerebral palsy" and "man with an intellectual disability." The purpose of people-first language is to promote the idea that someone's disability label is just a disability label not the defining characteristic of the entire individual.
  • Pogrom

    (Russian: погро́м) is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews
  • Pow-Wow

    Social gatherings for ceremonial and celebratory purposes are conducted under strict protocols. Avoid using the phrase to refer to a quick business meeting or informal social gathering, as this is a form of cultural appropriation. Instead, use terms like meeting, gathering, or huddle
  • Prejudice

    An opinion, prejudgment or attitude about a group or its individual members. A prejudice usually refers to a negative attitude. Prejudices are often accompanied by ignorance, fear or hatred. 
  • Privilege

    A special right, advantage or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people.
  • Race

    Race refers to the concept of dividing people into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics that result from genetic ancestry. Sociologists use the concept of race to describe how people think of and treat groups of people, as people very commonly classify each other according to race (e.g., as African-American or as Asian).

    Most sociologists believe that race is not “real” in the sense that there are no distinctive genetic or physical characteristics that truly distinguish one group of people from another; instead, different groups share overlapping characteristics.
  • Racial and Ethnic Identity

    An individual's awareness and experience of being a member of a racial and ethnic group; the racial and ethnic categories that an individual chooses to describe him or herself based on biological heritage, physical appearance, cultural affiliation, early socialization, and personal experience.
  • Racial Justice

    The proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts and outcomes for all. 
  • Reasonable Accommodation

    Any modification or adjustment to a job or the work environment that will enable a qualified applicant or employee with a disability to participate in the application process or to perform essential job functions. Reasonable accommodation also includes adjustments to assure that a qualified individual with a disability has rights and privileges in employment equal to those of employees without disabilities.
  • Refugee

    any person outside his or her country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on the person's race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. 
  • Religion

    A system of beliefs, usually spiritual in nature, and often in terms of a formal, organized denomination.
  • Religious Accommodation

    Any adjustment to the work environment that will allow an employee or applicant to practice his or her religion. The need for religious accommodation may arise where an individual's religious beliefs, observances, or practices conflict with a specific task or requirement of the position or an application process. Accommodation requests often relate to work schedules, dress, and grooming, or religious expression in the workplace. 
  • Respect for Marriage Act

    repeals the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), requires the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages in the United States, and protects religious liberty.
  • Safe Space

    An environment in which everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves and participating fully without fear of attack, ridicule or denial of experience.  
  • Silencing

    The conscious or unconscious processes by which the voice or participation of particular social identities is excluded or inhibited.
  • Social Construction

    The notion that patterns of human interaction (often deemed to be normal, natural or universal) are, in fact, humanly produced and constructed by social expectation and coercion but is presented as “objective.” For example, the erroneous assumption of women being better at housework is not at all connected to their female anatomy, but to social expectations and pressures imposed on women. 
  • Social Identity

    A framework involving the ways in which one characterizes oneself, the affinities one has with other people, the ways one has learned to behave in stereotyped social settings, the things one values in oneself and in the world, and the norms that one recognizes or accepts governing everyday behavior.  
  • Social Justice

    Social justice is both a process and a goal. The goal of social justice is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.  

    Social justice constitutes a form of activism, based on principles of equity and inclusion that encompasses a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure. Social justice involves social actors who have a sense of their own agency as well as a sense of social responsibility toward and with others and society as a whole. 
  • Socioeconomic Status

    The social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. Examinations of socioeconomic status often reveal inequities in access to resources, plus issues related to privilege, power, and control. 
  • Spirit Animal

    These are spiritual guides that take the form of animals, often viewed as sacred in tribal cultures. Non-native people appropriate the term to relate themselves to an animal, inanimate object, or person and draw parallels between the person and object’s characteristics. For example, saying that a sloth is your spirit animal because you are slow, lazy, and/or sleepy. Instead ,use terms like patronus, kindred spirit, reason for living, muse, guide, or familiar.
  • Stereotype

    An oversimplified generalization about a person or a group. These can be about both negative and positive qualities, but regardless, they lump people together. Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts and become biased when you apply the stereotype to an action.
  • Structural Inequality

    Systemic disadvantage(s) of one social group compared to other groups, rooted and perpetuated through discriminatory practices (conscious or unconscious) that are reinforced through institutions, ideologies, representations, policies/laws and practices. When this kind of inequality is related to racial/ethnic discrimination, it is referred to as systemic or structural racism.
  • Tolerance

    Acceptance and open‐mindedness to different practices, attitudes and cultures; does not necessarily connote agreement with the differences.
  • Totem Pole

    Pieces of wood are carved with a person’s totems. It is a tradition particular to Native and Indigenous people on the Northwest Coast. They tend to convey a family or tribe’s history. Avoid using phrases like “low on the totem pole” or “climbing the totem pole,” as these are forms of cultural appropriation. These phrases are also inaccurate because in, some First Nation communities, being lower on the totem pole is a higher honor. Instead, use terms like climbing the corporate ladder, the lowest rung on the latter, least significant, or promotion
  • Two-Spirit

    A term used within some American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) communities to refer to a person who identifies as having both a male and a female essence or spirit. 
  • unconscious bias

    Also known as implicit bias, is defined as “attitudes and stereotypes that influence judgment, decision-making, and behavior in ways that are outside of conscious awareness and/or control”
  • Universal Design

    The process of creating products that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations; whereas, accessibility primarily refers to design for people with disabilities.
  • White Savior Complex

    Also known as White Saviorism, is an ideology that is acted upon when a White person, from a position of superiority, attempts to help or rescue a BIPOC person or community. Whether this is done consciously or unconsciously, people with this complex have the underlying belief that they know best or that they have skills that BIPOC people don't have, according to Savala Nolan, author of Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body and the director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law.
  • Xenophobia

    Derived from the Greek word “xenos,” meaning stranger or foreigner, Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of those who are perceived as foreigners, manifested by suspicion of their activities, a desire to eliminate their presence, or seen as a threat to their national, ethnic or racial identity.

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