Justice:

“The purpose of society and government is to make it possible for individuals within that society to reach their highest potential, to flourish and to thrive.” Source: Carah Ong Whaley, JMU Civic Racial Equity Definitions

Racial Justice:

“Racial justice is a proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes, and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts and outcomes for all.” Source: Racial Justice Conference, March 2012

“Taking account of current and past discrimation in the creation of new policies, laws, practices, and programs; eliminating policies, laws, practices, and programs that cause harm to historically marginalized and minoritized communities - when race no longer determines outcomes.” Source: Carah Ong Whaley, JMU Civic Racial Equity Definitions

Restorative Justice

“Restorative justice is a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in an offense and to collectively identify and address harms, needs and obligations, in order to heal and put things right as possible." -Howard Zehr

Access/Accessibility

“Accessibility is giving equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience. Accessibility encompasses the broader meanings of compliance and refers to how organizations make space for the characteristics that each person brings.”

Source: American Alliance of Museums

Diversity

“Diversity refers to the variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences of culture and circumstance. Such differences include race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and geographic region.”

Source: UC San Diego

Equity

“[Defined as] both an outcome and a process. As an outcome, we achieve racial equity when race no longer determines one’s socioeconomic outcomes; when everyone has what they need to thrive, no matter where they live. As a process, we apply racial equity when those most impacted by structural racial inequity are meaningfully involved in the creation and implementation of the institutional policies and practices that impact their lives.” Source:

Center for Social Inclusion

Disability

“[Defined as] a mental, emotional, or physical difference that limits a person in everyday activities. Increasingly, disability is being discussed as a social construct, meaning that the mental, emotional and physical norms from which we then determine what is different or what is a disability are arbitrary.”

Source: LSU Libraries

Inclusion

“Inclusion is involvement and empowerment, where the inherent worth and dignity of all people are recognized. An inclusive university promotes and sustains a sense of belonging; it values and practices respect for the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living of its members.” Source: Ferris State University

“Institutions are fully accessible to people from historically marginalized and underrepresented groups and those institutions redevelop structures, policies, practices and norms to be reflective of the experiences, backgrounds and perspectives of everyone.” Source: Carah Ong Whaley, JMU Civic Racial Equity Definitions

“The act of creating environments in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate. An inclusive and welcoming climate embraces differences and offers respect in words and actions for all people. […] While an inclusive group is by definition diverse, a diverse group isn’t always inclusive. Increasingly, recognition of unconscious or ‘implicit bias’ helps […] to be deliberate about addressing issues of inclusivity.” (Independent Sector, 2016)

Teaching Resources: Ed Brantmeier, Andreas Broscheid, Carl S. Moore, Inclusion By Design: Survey Your Syllabus and Course Design A Worksheet

Oppression/Anti Oppression

Resources: Amy Lewis, Freedom Dreaming-September 23, 2021

“Oppression is more than the prejudicial thoughts and actions of individuals, oppression is institutionalized power that is historically formed and perpetuated over time. Through the use of that institutionalized power, it allows certain groups of people or certain identities to assume a dominant (privileged) position over other groups and identities and this dominance is maintained and continued at institutional and cultural levels.”

“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. Oppression operates at different levels (from individual to institutional to cultural) and so anti-oppression must as well.”

Source: University of West Florida

Discrimination/Antidiscrimination

Discrimination is adverse treatment of an individual based on a protected characteristic, rather than individual merit. Examples of conduct that can constitute discrimination if based on an individual’s protected characteristic include but are not limited to: Singling out or targeting an individual for different or less favorable treatment (e.g., more severe discipline, lower salary increase) because of their protected characteristic, Failing or refusing to hire or admit an individual because of their protected characteristic, Terminating an individual from employment or an educational program based on their protected characteristic. (Source: Princeton University)

Multiple universities across the United States, including JMU, have “non-discrimination” statements but rarely mention anti-discrimination. Rather than providing statements that promise to not tolerate discrimination, anti-discrimination describes how “unlearning prejudice, eradicating discrimination, and enhancing intergroup harmony” is implemented in curriculum.

Antiracism:

“Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices, and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably.” Source: NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity

"Antiracism education may be defined as an action-oriented strategy for institutional systemic change to address racism and the interlocking systems of social oppression" George Sefa Dei, Antiracism Education Theory and Practice

Resource: Five Things Faculty Can Do for Antiracism and Social Justice Education

Antiracism in Action from the JMU Libraries (free access to books and media)

Racist Idea:

“any concept that regards one racial group as inferior or superior to another racial group in any way” (Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, pg. 5, 2016)

“Anti-Black racism is prejudice, attitudes, beliefs, stereotyping or discrimination that is directed at people of African descent and is rooted in their unique history and experience of enslavement and colonization.” Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Inclusion at Centennial College

Institutional Racism:

“Institutional racism is distinguished from the explicit attitudes or racial bias of individuals by the existence of systematic policies or laws and practices that provide differential access to goods, services and opportunities of society by race. Institutional racism results in data showing racial gaps across every system. For children and families it affects where they live, the quality of the education they receive, their income, types of food they have access to, their exposure to pollutants, whether they have access to clean air, clean water or adequate medical treatment, and the types of interactions they have with the criminal justice system.”

Source: University of North Carolina

Structural Racial Inequality:

Systematic policies, laws and practices that provide differential access to goods, services and opportunities of society by race and result in racial gaps across systems (e.g. political systems, policing, healthcare, environment, education). Source: Carah Ong Whaley, JMU Civic Racial Equity Definitions

Intersectionality

“Prejudice stemming from the intersections of racist ideas and other forms of bigotry, such as sexism, classism, ethnocentrism, and homophobia.” Source: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

White Privilege:

Inherent advantages possessed by a white person on the basis of their race in a society characterized by racial inequality and injustice.

Peggy McIntosh (1988) characterized white privilege as “an invisible package of unearned assets that [whites] can count on cashing in each day, but about which [they are] ‘meant’ to remain oblivious” (p. 291). White privilege, therefore, is the counterbalance to racism, a system that disadvantages people of color (Baumgartner & Johnson-Bailey, 2010).

China Jenkins, Addressing White Privilege in Higher Education, Houston Community College System, TX

University of West Florida:

“In the U.S., white privilege is the lived experience of greater social/political access, representation and entitlement, and material and economic security that considered white have as a result of white supremacy. It’s important to note that while many white people are oppressed on the basis of class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion, culture, ethnicity, etc., it is still true that ALL white people benefit from white privilege in various ways.”