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Systemic Racism and Injustice

Welcome

Welcome to the STCC Library Guide on Systemic Racism and Injustice. This is a "living" guide that will be continually updated and added to. If you have suggestions for information that should be included on this guide, please email stcclibrary@stcc.edu.

Key Terms Defined

Anti-Racist: Someone who opposes and actively fights against racism. (Source)

BIPOC: An acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous, People of Color

Colonialism: The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. (Source)

Implicit Bias: Attitudes towards or stereotypes associated with people that exist without our conscious knowledge (Source)

Intersectionality: The idea that individuals are shaped by and identify with a vast array of cultural, structural, sociobiological, economic, and social contexts. (Source)

Micro aggressions: The everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. (Source)

People of Color: A term generally used to describe anyone who is not white. The term encompasses all people who experience systemic racism. However, when able, it is best to refer to people by their individual identities, rather than referring to them as a group, which can sometimes be dehumanizing and invalidate individual experiences. (Source)

Racism: A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race (Source)

Restorative Justice: A theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior (Source)

Social JusticeJustice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. (Source)

Systemic Racism (Also known as institutional racism): Racial discrimination that has become established as normal behavior within a society or organization. (Source)

White Fragility: The tendency among members of the dominant white cultural group to have a defensive, wounded, angry, or dismissive response to evidence of racism. (Source)

White Privilege: Inherent advantages possessed by a white person on the basis of their race in a society characterized by racial inequality and injustice. (Source)

White Supremacy: The belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to the exclusion or detriment of other racial and ethnic groups, in particular black or Jewish people. (Source)