Glossary

What follows is a list of terms used in the School Equity Audit Tool (SEAT).

Anti-Asian racism 

In Canada, anti-Asian racism refers to historical and ongoing discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by peoples of Asian heritage, based on others’ assumptions about their ethnicity and nationality. Peoples of Asian heritage are subjected to specific overt and subtle racist tropes and stereotypes at individual and systemic levels, which lead to their ongoing social, economic, political and cultural marginalization, disadvantage and unequal treatment. This includes perceptions of being a “Yellow Peril,” a “Perpetual Foreigner,” a “Model Minority,” “exotic,” or “mystic.” These stereotypes are rooted in Canada’s long history of racist and exclusionary laws, and often mask racism faced by peoples of Asian heritage, while erasing their historical contributions to building Canada. 

Anti-Black racism 

Anti-Black racism is prejudice, attitudes, beliefs, stereotyping and discrimination that is directed at people of African descent and is rooted in their unique history and experience of enslavement. Anti-Black racism is deeply entrenched in Canadian institutions, policies and practices, such that anti-Black racism is either functionally normalized or rendered invisible to the larger white society. Anti-Black racism is manifested in the legacy of the current social, economic, and political marginalization of African Canadians in society such as the lack of opportunities, lower socio-economic status, higher unemployment, significant poverty rates and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. (African Canadian Legal Clinic). 

Anti-Indigenous racism 

Anti-Indigenous racism is the ongoing race-based discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by Indigenous Peoples within Canada. It includes ideas and practices that establish, maintain and perpetuate power imbalances, systemic barriers, and inequitable outcomes that stem from the legacy of colonial policies and practices in Canada. 

Systemic anti-Indigenous racism is evident in discriminatory federal policies such as the Indian Act and the residential school system. It is also manifest in the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in provincial criminal justice and child welfare systems, as well as inequitable outcomes in education, well-being, and health. Individual lived-experiences of anti-Indigenous racism can be seen in the rise in acts of hostility and violence directed at Indigenous people. 

antisemitism 

Latent or overt hostility or hatred directed towards, or discrimination against individual Jewish people or the Jewish people for reasons connected to their religion, ethnicity, and their cultural, historical, intellectual and religious heritage. (Canadian Race Relations Foundation). 

Collective impact 

An approach to tackling deeply entrenched, complex social problems defined by collaboration across PDSB and larger Peel community. It is based on a recognition that achieving lasting social change such as eradicating racial inequities within any one system (e.g., child welfare, justice, education, etc.) requires addressing interlocking and interdependent systems beyond it. 

Colonialism 

Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. Settler colonialism — such as in the case of Canada — is the unique process where the colonizing population does not leave the territory, asserts ongoing sovereignty to the land, actively seeks to assimilate the Indigenous populations and extinguish their cultures, traditions and ties to the land. 

Disaggregated data 

In the context of race-based data, this means breaking down composite ("aggregate") categories such as “visible minority" into component parts, such as Black, Chinese, Arab etc. 

Disparity 

Refers to the unequal outcomes of one group as compared to another. 

Disproportionate 

Refers to the overrepresentation of a particular group of people in a particular program or system as compared to their representation in the general population. 

Diversity 

It means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. This can also include differences that are based on ability, neuro diversity, and learning styles. 

Indigenous 

Means ‘native to the area.’ Currently the preferred collective name for the original people within Canada and their descendants. This includes First Nations (status and non-status), Métis and Inuit. 

Intersectionality 

Acknowledges the ways in which people’s lives are shaped by their multiple and overlapping identities and social locations, which, together, can produce a unique and distinct experience for that individual or group, for example, creating additional barriers or opportunities. In the context of race, this means recognizing the ways in which peoples experiences of racism or privilege, including within any one racialized group, may differ and vary depending on the individual’s or group’s additional overlapping (or “intersecting”) social identities, such as ethnicity, Indigenous identification, experiences with colonialism, religion, gender, citizenship, socio-economic status or sexual orientation. 

Islamophobia 

Includes racism, stereotypes, prejudice, fear or acts of hostility directed towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial profiling, Islamophobia can lead to viewing and treating Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level. (Ontario Human Rights Commission, Policy on Preventing Discrimination Based on Creed). 

Marginalization 

Refers to a long-term, structural process of systemic discrimination that creates a class of disadvantaged minorities. These groups become permanently confined to the margins of society; their status is continually reproduced because of the various dimensions of exclusion particularly in the labour market, but also from full and meaningful participation in society. 

Race 

Is a term used to classify people into groups based principally on physical traits (phenotype) such as skin colour. Racial categories are not based on science or biology but on differences that society has chosen to emphasize, with significant consequences for people’s lives. Racial categories may vary over time and place, and can overlap with ethnic, cultural or religious groupings. 

Racialization 

“A process of delineation of group boundaries and of allocation of persons within those boundaries by primary reference to (supposedly) inherent and/or biological (usually phenotypical) characteristics.” Miles, Robert. (1982). Racism and Migrant Labour: A Critical Text. London: Routledge. 

Racial equity 

Refers to the systemic fair treatment of all people that results in equitable opportunities and outcomes for everyone. 

Racialized (person) 

Often used to stand in for “visible minority,” this more fluid term acknowledges that race is a social construction that can change over time and place. It can be applied to people who have racial meanings attributed to them as a group in ways that negatively impact their social, political, and economic life, e.g., Black, Asian, Muslim and Roma. 

Racism 

Refers to ideas or practices that establish, maintain or perpetuate the racial superiority or dominance of one group over another. 

Systemic racism 

When institutions or systems create or maintain racial inequity, often as a result of hidden institutional biases in policies, practices and procedures that privilege some groups and disadvantage others.