Terminology
Terms from UVic’s Equity & Human Rights Equity Action Plan Website
At UVic, advancing equity starts with recognizing the injustices that are created in and maintained by the systems and structures on our campus and their impacts on community members. Equity requires institutional action, including the direct allocation of resources and the creation of fair, accessible opportunities and supports that address the diverse needs of the campus community. The EAP will use creative solutions to redistribute power and eliminate intentional and unintentional barriers experienced by members of systemically and historically marginalized groups
Diversity is typically understood as the measurable representation or presence of differences in lived experience and intersections of identities (e.g. race, sexuality, age, gender, ability) within a group. At UVic, measuring diversity will help us better understand who makes up our campus community and who is missing or excluded. While we work to increase diversity, we understand that diversity without equity and inclusion is meaningless.
Inclusion is the intentional and ongoing act of creating conditions where every community member can fulfill their potential and bring their authentic selves forward. Inclusion involves and benefits everyone. A measure of inclusion is whether systemically and historically marginalized individuals and groups share power in processes, activities and decisions.
Belonging refers to an individual’s feeling of being safe and valued as one’s true self. Belonging is felt when there is a sense of agency, support, acceptance and being seen. At UVic, we hope that through our equity, diversity and inclusion work, we can ensure everyone experiences a sense of belonging, as being connected and respected parts of the university community.
Terms from BC Government’s addressing racism glossary:
Anti-racism is the practice of identifying, challenging, preventing, eliminating and changing the values, structures, policies, programs, practices and behaviours that perpetuate racism.
Epistemic racism refers to the positioning of the knowledge of one racialized group as superior to another, including a judgment of not only which knowledge is considered valuable, but is considered to be knowledge.
Indigenous Peoples are the first inhabitants of a geographic area. In Canada, Indigenous Peoples include those who may identify as First Nations (status and non-status), Métis and/or Inuit.
Indigenous-specific racism is the unique nature of stereotyping, bias and prejudice about Indigenous Peoples in Canada that is rooted in the history of settler colonialism. It is the ongoing race-based discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada that perpetuates power imbalances, systemic discrimination and inequitable outcomes stemming from the colonial policies and practices.
Oppression refers to discrimination that occurs and is supported through the power of public systems or services, such as health care systems, educational systems, legal systems and/or other public systems or services; discrimination backed up by systemic power. Denying people access to culturally safe care is a form of oppression.
Race refers to a group of people who share the same physical characteristics such as skin tone, hair texture and facial features. Race is a socially constructed way to categorize people and is used as the basis for discrimination by situating human beings within a hierarchy of social value.
Racism is a set of mistaken assumptions, opinions and actions resulting from the belief that one group of people categorized by colour or ancestry is inherently superior to another. Racism may be present in organizational and institutional policies, programs and practices, as well as in the attitudes and behaviour of individuals. It results in the inequitable distribution of opportunity, benefit or resources across ethnic/racial groups.
Systemic racism is also known as structural or institutional racism, systemic racism is enacted through routine and societal systems, structures and institutions such as requirements, policies, legislation and practices that perpetuate and maintain avoidable and unfair inequalities across ethnic or racial groups.
Terms from Queen’s University’s Positionality Statement Webpage
Positionality refers to where one is located in relation to their various social identities (gender, race, class, ethnicity, ability, geographical location etc.); the combination of these identities and their intersections shape how we understand and engage with the world, including our knowledges, perspectives, and teaching practices. As individuals and as instructors, we occupy multiple identities that are fluid and dialogical in nature, contextually situated, and continuously amended and reproduced (Alcoff, 1988).