Terms
Aboriginal Peoples
A term frequently used to describe the first inhabitants of what is now Canada, and their descendents. Each Nation of “Turtle Island” (North America) has a name for themselves which when translated implies “The People” or “The Human Beings.” Other terms include First Nations, Native, Indigenous, Indian, Metis, Dene and Inuit. Some of these terms are generic and some describe a subset within Aboriginal societies. The preferred terminology fluctuates for several reasons, including problems with “outside naming”, categorization, and differing Tribal and regional preferences. An effective approach is to consult with the person or group being addressed to find out their preferred terminology.
Aboriginal, Racialized Group and Women’s Issues
Issues that arise from the combined biases of racist and sexist prejudice against Aboriginal and racialized minority women. Aboriginal and racialized minority women do not experience sexism and racism separately; rather, they suffer the effects of these prejudices simultaneously, as each has an impact on the other and compounds its effects.
Acculturation
The process whereby the culture, values and patterns of the majority are adopted by a person or an ethnic, social, religious, language or national group. This process can also involve absorbing aspects of minority cultures into the majority culture’s patterns.
Adverse Impact
The numerical impact of employment practices that disproportionately exclude designated groups. This is a signpost to investigate possible discrimination. It is not a measure of discrimination.
Affirmative Action
Programs or specific measures designed to make educational and employment opportunities more accessible to individuals or groups who have previously been excluded from full participation in the life of the community and/or society in general. In Canada, this term has become synonymous with initiatives that promote gender equity in the workplace.
Antiracist Education
An approach to education that integrates the perspectives of Aboriginal and racial minority groups into an educational system and its practices. The aim of antiracist education is the elimination of racism in all its forms. Antiracist education seeks to identify and change educational policies, procedures, and practices that foster racism, as well as the racist attitudes and behaviour that underlie and reinforce such policies and practices. Antiracist education provides teachers and students with the knowledge and skills to examine racism critically in order to understand how it originates and to identify and challenge it.
Anti-Semitism
Latent or overt hostility directed towards individual Jews or the Jewish people, leading to social, economic, institutional, religious, cultural or political discrimination. Anti-Semitism has also been expressed through individual acts of physical violence, vandalism, and the organized destruction of entire communities.
Assimilation
The full adoption by an individual or group of the culture, values and patterns of a different social, religious, linguistic or national group, resulting in the elimination of attitudinal and behavioural affiliations from the original group.
Attitude
The state of mind which make us act in certain ways about social events or objects; a consistent pattern of thoughts, beliefs, emotions and reactions.
Barrier
An overt or covert obstacle; used in employment equity to mean a systemic obstacle to equal employment opportunities; an obstacle which must be overcome for equity to be possible.
Bias
An inaccurate and limited view of the world, a given situation, or individuals or groups. A bias against or towards members of a particular cultural, racial, religious, or linguistic group can be expressed through speech, nonverbal behaviour, and written and other materials. A subjective opinion, preference, prejudice or inclination, formed without reasonable justification, that influences an individual’s or group’s ability to evaluate a particular situation objectively or accurately; a preference for or against.
Bigot
One stubbornly or intolerantly devoted to one’s opinions and prejudices.
Bilingualism
The ability to utilize two languages with equal fluency.
Conciliation
Primarily an informal communications process aimed at getting the parties to establish meaningful dialogue, combat rumours and suggest cooperative ways of solving mutual problems. The goal of conciliation and/or mediation (see below) is to settle racial or ethnic disputes peacefully and outside the courts.
Culture
The ideas, beliefs, values, activities, knowledge and traditions of a group of individuals who share a historical, geographic, religious, racial, linguistic, ethnic or social context, and who transmit, reinforce and modify those ideas, beliefs, etc. A culture is the total of everything an individual learns by being immersed in a particular context. It results in a set of expectations for appropriate behaviour in seemingly similar contexts. Manifestations of culture include art, laws, institutions, and customs. Culture changes continually and, as a result, often contains elements of conflict and opposition.
Designated Groups
Social groups whose individual members have been denied equal access to employment, education, social services, housing, etc. because of membership in the group. The designated groups in Ontario are visible minorities, women, aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities.
Disability
Inborn or assigned characteristics of an individual that may prevent full participation in education, social, economic, political, religious, institutional or formal activities of a group, or that may require accommodation to enable full participation. Visible disabilities are readily apparent and consequent discrimination or stigma may be more predictable than with invisible disabilities which are not immediately apparent. Persons with disabilities form one of the designated groups in employment equity programs. An important aspect of this definition is voluntary self-identification.
Discrimination
The denial of equal treatment, civil liberties and opportunity to individuals or groups with respect to education, accommodation, health care, employment and access to services, goods and facilities. Discrimination may occur on the basis of race, nationality, gender, age, religion, political or ethnic affiliation, marital, family status, sexual orientation, physical, developmental or mental disability. The practice or act of making distinctions between people based on the above, which leads to the inequitable treatment of individuals or groups. Discrimination may also have the effect of withholding or limiting access to opportunities, benefits, and advantages that are available to other members of society. The impact of discrimination becomes compounded when two or more factors such as race, gender, disability, etc., are present in the same situation. In determining whether discrimination exists in a given situation, it is important to assess whether the individual’s or group’s circumstances arise out of historical disadvantages or are the result of an act that denies or curtails their rights.
Racial Discrimination
According to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (to which Canada is a signatory), racial discrimination is any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin, which nullifies or impairs the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
Systemic Discrimination
Discrimination through apparently neutral policies or practices, which are reinforced by institutional structures and power and which result in the inequitable treatment of members of certain groups.
Dominant Group
Refers to the group of people within a society that is either largest in number or that successfully shapes or controls other groups through social, economic, cultural, political, military or religious power. The term suggests a superior social position. In most parts of Canada, the term refers to White, English-speaking, Christian, middle to upper-income Canadians.
Emigration
The process of leaving one’s home or country in order to settle in another home, place or
country, for personal, economic, political, religious or social reasons.
Employment Equity
A program designed to remove systemic barriers to equality of outcome in employment by identifying and eliminating discriminatory policies and practices, remedying the effects of past discrimination, and ensuring appropriate representation of designated groups. Employment equity programs usually involve setting goals and timelines in order to ensure that defined objectives are met by a specified date.
Equal Opportunity Program
An explicit set of policies, guidelines and actions devised to eradicate discriminatory practices and to ensure access to and full participation in educational and employment opportunities, housing, health care, and the services, goods and facilities available to the general community.
Equity
Equality of access and outcome. An equity program is one that is designed to remove barriers to equality by identifying and eliminating discriminatory policies and practices. Such a program is intended both to remedy the effects of past discrimination and to prevent inequities.
Ethnic
An adjective used to describe groups that share a common language, race, religion, or national origin. Everyone belongs to an ethnic group. Individuals who are new but of the same ethnic group can experience and express their ethnicity in a variety of ways. The term is often confused with “racial minority”.
Ethnicity
The multiplicity of beliefs, behaviours and traditions held in common by a group of people bound by particular linguistic, historical, geographical, religious and/or racial homogeneity. Ethnic diversity is the variation of such groups and the presence of a number of ethnic groups within one society or nation. The word ethnic is often used to denote non-dominant or less powerful cultural identities in Canada. In Canada, ethnicity refers to the original homeland, or homeland of ancestors prior to immigration to Canada.
Ethnocultural Group
A group of people who share a particular cultural heritage or background. Every Canadian belongs to some ethnic group. There is a variety of ethnocultural groups among people of African, Asian, European, and indigenous North, Central, and South American backgrounds in Canada. Some Canadians may experience discrimination because of ethnocultural affiliation (ethnicity, religion, nationality, language).
Ethnocentrism
Tendency to view others using one’s own group and customs as the standard for judgement, and the tendency to see one’s group and customs as the best. Hostile and irrational beliefs directed toward members of ethnic or cultural groups resulting from the belief that one’s own ethnic group is superior.
Eurocentric Curriculum
A curriculum that focuses primarily on the experiences and achievements of people of European background. Such a curriculum inevitably marginalizes the experiences, contributions, and achievements of people of other backgrounds.
Genocide
Deliberate decisions and actions made by one nation or group of people in order to eliminate, usually through mass murder, the entirety of another nation or group. The term has also been used to refer to the destruction of the culture of a people, as in cultural genocide.
Harassment
Persistent, on-going communication (in any form) of negative attitudes, beliefs or actions towards an individual or group, with the intention of placing that person(s) in a disparaging role. Harassment is manifested in name calling, jokes or slurs, graffiti, insults, threats, discourteous treatment, and written or physical abuse. Harassment may be subtle or overt.
Hate Propaganda
Ideologies and beliefs transmitted in written, verbal or electronic form in order to create, promote, perpetuate or exacerbate antagonistic, hateful and belligerent attitudes and action against a specific group or groups of people.
Heritage Language
The first language, or original language of an ethnic group, other than Canada’s official languages of French and English.
Holocaust
Widespread destruction and loss of life, especially by fire. The term (with a capital “H”) specifically refers to the murder of over six million Jews in concentration camps during World War II.
Immigrant
Person who has been lawfully permitted to come to Canada to establish permanent residence. One who moves from one country to another with the intention of settling. This may be for a variety of personal, political, religious, social or economic reasons. The word is sometimes used incorrectly to refer, implicitly or explicitly, to people of colour or with non-dominant ethnicities.
Inclusive Language
The deliberate selection of vocabulary that avoids accidental or implicit exclusion of particular groups and that avoids the use of false generic terms, usually with references to gender, culture, language, race, sexual orientation and ability.
Institutions
Social arrangements through which collective actions are taken (e.g. government, business, unions, schools, churches, courts, police).
Integration
The process of amalgamating diverse groups within a single context, usually applied to inter-racial interaction in housing, education, political and socio-economic spheres of activity, or the incorporation of children, defined as disabled, into neighbourhood schools and classrooms. Integration is the policies and action that end segregation. It may be differentiated from desegregation on the basis of interaction as opposed to technical conformity to desegregationist laws and policies.
Intercultural Communications
Information exchange where the sender and receiver are of different cultural, ethnic or linguistic backgrounds.
Islamophobia
A fear, mistrust or morbid association relating to Islam and categorizing Muslims as being dangerous, terrorists, extremists, foreigners and strangers that translates into individual, ideological and systemic forms of oppression and discrimination.
Mainstream
The established communities that form the power base of the political, social, educational, and economic institutions and the dominant culture. The term contradicts Canada’s image of a multicultural society where all cultures are purported to have equal status and none has more power than another.
Majority Group
The group within a society that is largest in number or successfully determines or controls the economic, social, political, and educational base. The term suggests superior social position and power.
Marginalization
With reference to race and culture, the experience of persons who do not speak the majority group’s language, cannot find work or gain access to social services and therefore, cannot become participating members of society.
Mediation
The intervention into a dispute or negotiation of an acceptable impartial and neutral third party, who has no authoritative decision-making power, to reach voluntarily an acceptable settlement of issues in dispute. In a race relations context, its aim is to reach a signed agreement setting out specific steps to be taken by each side to restore racial harmony and peaceful relations.
Minority Group
A group that is either numerically small, lacks power, or has restricted access to social, economic, political, and educational structures due to country of birth, ethnicity, race, wealth, sex, disability, religion, intellect and/or other factors; ethnic, racial and religious groups depending on their power in society. The term implies inferior social standing. Racial or visible minority describes people who are not white; ethnic minority refers to people whose ancestry is not English or Anglo-Saxon; linguistic minority refers to people whose first language is not English (French in Quebec), etc.
Multicultural/Multiracial Education
A broad term which may refer to a set of structured learning activities and curricula designed to create and enhance understanding of and respect for cultural diversity. The term often connotes inclusion of racial, ethnic, religious, linguistic, national, international and political diversity, and is also inclusive of the culture, heritage, history, beliefs and values of people within a society.
Multiculturalism
The existence within one society or nation of two or more non-homogeneous but equally recognized ethnic, racial, cultural, linguistic or religious groups. Canadian (federal) and Ontario (provincial) policies on multiculturalism ensure this diversity and equal rights for and recognition of all groups. (There has been an increasing recognition of the limitations of this concept because it does not explicitly acknowledge the critical role that racism plays in preventing the achievement of the vision, and because it may promote a static and limited notion of culture as fragmented and confined to ethnicity).
Official Language
In Canada, English and French are the national, official languages. In the provinces and territories, one or the other of the languages is official, except in New Brunswick where both languages have official status.
Oppression
The unilateral subjugation of one individual or group by a more powerful individual or group, using physical, psychological, social or economic threats or force, and frequently using an explicit ideology to sanction the oppression.
Poisoned (Negative) environments
This is created and fostered by acts or omissions that maintain offensive or intimidating climates for study or work. Poisoned learning environments include inappropriate or non-inclusive curriculum and pedagogy, bias or discriminatory barriers in existing policies, programs, or assessment procedures, and discriminatory comments made by teachers and other employees. Poisoned working environments thrive where there is managerial or supervisory condonation of discriminatory or harassing behaviour. Poisoned environments can also be created where there is inattention to fair and equitable recruitment and employment policies, practices and procedures.
Persons with Disabilities
Refers to persons who identify themselves as experiencing difficulties in carrying out the activities of daily living or disadvantage in employment, and who may require some accommodation, because of a long term or recurring, physical or developmental condition.
Pluralism
A state in society where some degree of cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious or other group distinctiveness is maintained and valued. Pluralism is promoted by policies of multiculturalism and race relations, the Human Rights Codes and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Prejudice
A state of mind; a set of attitudes held by one person or group about another, tending to cast the other in an inferior light, despite the absence of legitimate or sufficient evidence; means literally to “pre-judge”, considered irrational and very resistant to change, because concrete evidence that contradicts the prejudice is usually dismissed as exceptional. Frequently, prejudices are not recognized as false or unsound assumptions and, through repetition, come to be accepted as common sense notions and, when backed with power, result in acts of discrimination and oppression against a group or individual.
Race
A social and political rather than a scientific construct, used to classify people according to common ancestry or descent. It differentiates by physical characteristics such as skin and eye colour, hair type, stature, facial features, etc. Race is sometimes socially defined based on religion or language
Race Relations
The pattern of interaction, in an inter-racial setting, between people who are racially different. In its theoretical and practical usage, the term has also implied harmonious relations, i.e., races getting along. Two key components for positive race relations are: elimination of racial intolerance arising from prejudicial attitudes; and removal of racial disadvantage arising from the systemic nature of racism. Race relations also involve positive interactions between diverse racial groups within one society; development of programs, policies, and guidelines to promote positive trans-racial and cross-cultural dialogue and relationships.
Racial (or Visible) Minority
A term which applies to all people who are not seen as White by the dominant group. These people include Aboriginal, Black, Chinese, South Asian, South East Asian and other peoples. The term that many Black and Brown people prefer is “people of colour.”
Racism
Racism stems from a set of implicit or explicit beliefs, erroneous assumptions and actions based upon an ideology of inherent superiority of one racial or ethnic group over another. It is evident within organizational or institutional structures and programs as well as within individual thought or behaviour patterns. Racism is any action or institutional practice, backed by institutional power, which subordinates people because of their colour or ethnicity. Racist slurs are insulting or disparaging statements directed towards a particular racial or ethnic group. Racist incidents express racist assumptions and beliefs through banter, racist jokes, name calling, teasing, discourteous treatment, graffiti, stereotyping, threats, insults, physical violence or genocide. The term racist refers to an individual, institution or organization whose beliefs and actions imply or state that certain races have distinctive negative or inferior characteristics
Reprisals – This includes threats, intimidation, denial of opportunity or undue negative focus on the rights of individuals or groups who claim and enforce their rights under this Policy.
Segregation
The social, physical, political and economic separation of diverse groups of people, particularly referring to ideological and structural barriers to civil liberties, equal opportunity and participation by minorities within a majority racial, ethnic, religious, linguistic or social group. Segregation may be a mutually voluntary arrangement but more frequently is enforced by the majority group and its institutions
Sexism
Sexism stems from a set of implicit or explicit beliefs, erroneous assumptions and actions based upon an ideology of inherent superiority of one gender over another and is evident within organizational or institutional structures and programs as well as within individual thought or behaviour patterns. Sexism, like racism, is a discriminatory act backed by power. Sexism is any act or institutional practice, backed by institutional power which subordinates people because of gender. While, in principle, sexism may be practiced by either gender, most of our societal institutions are still the domain of men and usually, the impact of sexism is experienced by women. Sexism is also any action by an individual (usually male) supported by the threat of physical power which seeks to subordinate another individual (usually female).
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is: persistent or abusive sexual attention by a person who knows or should know that such attention is unwanted; or implied or expressed promise of reward for complying with a sexually-oriented request; or implied or expressed threat of reprisal, in the form of actual punishment or the withholding of opportunity for refusal to carry out a sexually-oriented request; or sexually-oriented remarks and behaviour which may create a negative psychological and emotional environment.
Social Justice
A concept premised upon the belief that each individual and group within society is to be given equal opportunity, fairness, civil liberties and participation in the social, educational, economic, institutional and moral freedoms and responsibilities valued by the community.
Stereotype
A false or generalized conception of a group of people which results in an unconscious or conscious categorization of each member of that group, without regard for individual differences. Stereotyping may be based upon misconceptions and false generalizations about race, age, ethnic, linguistic, geographical or natural groups, religions, social, marital or family status, physical, developmental or mental attributes, or gender. It also includes attribution of the supposed characteristics of a whole group to all its individual members. Stereotyping exaggerates the uniformity within a group and the differences between groups.
Systemic Discrimination
The institutionalization of discrimination through policies and practices which may appear neutral on the surface but which have an exclusionary impact on particular groups, such that various minority groups are discriminated against, intentionally or unintentionally.