Below is a list of select terms that guide our human-centered approach to building products, programs, and policies with intentional inclusion by design. Please keep in mind, this is a short list of terms, not a comprehensive list of all terms in our field.
★ Ableism: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people
★ Ageism: prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age
★ Antiracism: the powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist idea
★ Antiracist: a person who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea
★ Anti Semitism: discrimination against Jewish people or people perceived to be Jewish because of their affiliation to Judaism
★ Atheophobia: discrimination against anyone who identifies as Atheist or is perceived to be Atheist because of their lack of religious affiliation
★ Bias: unfair prejudice either in favor of or against a person or group in comparison with another person or group
★ Biphobia: the fear, hatred, discomfort, or mistrust, specifically of people who are bisexual
★ Belonging: the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group
★ Bystander: a person who is present at an event or incident but does not take part
★ Classism: prejudice against or in favor of people belonging to a particular social class
★ Colorism: within-group and between-group discrimination against people of color with darker skin tones, and giving preference to people of color with lighter skin tones
★ Diversity: the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different demographic and social backgrounds
★ Elitism: discrimination against people believed to be “less than” in terms of education, money, job status/position, etc.
★ Equity: the fair and just practices and policies that ensure all employees in a workforce can thrive – through means of acknowledging and addressing structural inequalities (historic and current) that advantage some and disadvantage others
★ Fatphobia: discrimination against people with bigger bodies because of their size
★ Fixed mindset: an ‘either/or’ mindset because it allows no room for being a work-in-progress
★ Growth mindset: our belief about our capacity to learn and to improve with effort, time and feedback
★ Headwind: the challenges, some big, some small, some visible, some invisible, that make life harder for some people, but not for all people
★ Heterosexism: a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of female–male sexual and romantic relationships
★ Homophobia: the fear, hatred, discomfort with, or mistrust of people who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual
★ Identity: a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s) and is understood through a lens of historical and social context
★ Implicit bias: also known as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, is a negative attitude, of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group
★ Inclusion: the practice of ensuring all employees are and feel respected, have a sense of belonging, and are able to participate and achieve to their fullest potential
★ Institutional racism: occurs in an organization. These are discriminatory treatments, unfair policies, or biased practices based on race that result in inequitable outcomes for whites over people of color and extend considerably beyond prejudice. These institutional policies often never mention any racial group, but the intent is to create advantages
★ Interpersonal racism: occurs between individuals. These are public expressions of racism, often involving slurs, biases, or hateful words or actions.
★ Intersectionality: a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking
★ Islamophobia: discrimination against anyone practicing or perceived to be a practitioner of Islam because of their religious affiliation
★ Justice: the dismantling of barriers to resources and opportunities in sovereignty so all individuals and communities can participate fully and thrive
★ Lookism: prejudice or discrimination based on physical appearance and especially physical appearance believed to fall short of societal notions of beauty
★ Microaggression: everyday slights, insults, putdowns, invalidations, and offensive behaviors that people experience in daily interactions with generally well-intentioned individuals who may be unaware that they have engaged in demeaning ways
★ Privilege: when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do
★ Racism: the powerful collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity and are substantiated by racist ideas
★ Racist: a person who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inactions or expressing a racist idea
★ Sexism: prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex
★ Sizeism: prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s size or weight
★ Structural racism: the overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society. These systems give privileges to white people resulting in disadvantages to people of color.
★ Tailwind: a force that propels you forward. It is consequential but easily unnoticed or forgotten
★ Tokenism: the practice of using people of color in a symbolic gesture to avoid criticism or being called racist
★ Transphobia: fear, hatred, discomfort with, or mistrust of people who are transgender, genderqueer, or don’t follow traditional gender norms
★ Unconscious bias: Views or ideas that are indirectly expressed about a person or group; person is unaware of the bias and unconsciously operates with a biased perspective
★ Underrepresented: subset of a population that holds a smaller percentage within a significant subgroup than it holds in the general population
★ Upstander: a person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person being targeted, attacked or bullied
★ White privilege: the relative advantages racism affords to people identified as white, whether white people recognize them or deny them
★ Xenophobia: dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries
All definitions are from scholarly sources, including the following: Kimberlé Crenshaw | American Psychological Association | Merriam-Webster Dictionary | University of Iowa | Oxford Dictionary Languages | How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi | Ohio State University | The Person You Mean To Be by Dolly Chugh