Social Justice Glossary
(From Is Everyone Really Equal?:An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice)
Ableism or Disableism: The systematic oppression of people with (perceived) disabilities. Ableism is based on the assumption that there is a physical, intellectual, and emotional standard for human beings and that this standard is the only one accepted as normal. All other variations of the human body are considered abnormal, deviant, and inherently inferior. This norm is institutionalized in architectural structures, school policies and practices, and legal segregation of persons with disabilities. Some activists prefer the term disableism because it centers the reason for the oppression—one’s disability status.
Androcentrism: The term used to describe male centrality and superiority. Androcentrism is not simply the idea that men are superior to women, but a deeper premise that supports this idea—the definition of males and male experience as the norm or standard for human, and femalesand female experience as a deviation from that norm.
Classism: The systematic oppression of poor and working people by those who control resources (including jobs, wages, education, housing, food, services, medicine, and cultural definitions). Classism is held in place by a system of beliefs that rank people according to economic status, “breeding,” institutional power, occupation, and level of education. There are three related areas through which one’s class status is conceptualized: economic, political, and cultural. Economic class refers to one’s income and amount of accumulated wealth; political class is the power one has to influence the workplace and political process; cultural class refers to dimensions such as education, “taste,” communication style, and lifestyle (Leistyna, 2009). These categories are relationally constructed. Please note that there are distinctions within and between each of these based on institutional dynamics such as federal poverty levels. The following are macro categories: poor/working poor; working class; lower middle class; middle class; professional class; upper class; owning or ruling class.
Culture: The norms, values, practices, patterns of communication, language, laws, customs, and meanings shared by a group of people located in a given time and place.
Discrimination: Action based on prejudice. When we act on our prejudices, we are discriminating.
Dominant Group: The group at the top of the social hierarchy. In any relationship between groups that define each other (men/women, able-bodied/person with disability), the dominant group is the group that is valued more highly (avoid referring to the minoritized group as “non” dominant group, e.g. “non-White”). Dominant groups set the norms by which the minoritized group is judged. Dominant groups have greater access to the resources of society and benefit from the existence of the inequality.
Hegemony: The imposition of dominant group ideology onto everyone in society. Hegemony makes it difficult to escape or to resist “believing in” this dominant ideology, thus social control is achieved through conditioning rather than physical force or intimidation.
Heterosexism: The values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that support the primacy of male-female intimate relationships. Heterosexism is enforced by institutions and the creation of laws, social policies, and everyday practices that maintain heterosexuality as the innate norm for human intimacy. Heterosexism rests on the assumption that male-female bonding is superior to any other form of intimacy, and anything other than heterosexuality is deviant or nonexistent.
Homophobia: The prejudice, fear, contempt, and hatred of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people and associations. Homophobia includes misinformation about and prejudice against people who do not “properly” perform the gender roles assigned to them at birth. Homophobia affects all people in that it is a powerful tool for enforcing gender roles. Homophobia is rooted in sexism. See also sexism and heterosexism.
Internalized Dominance: Internalizing and acting out (often unintentionally) the constant messages circulating in the culture that you and your group are superior to whichever group is minoritized in relation to yours and that you are entitled to your higher position.
Internalized Oppression: Believing in and acting out (often unintentionally) the constant messages circulating in the culture that you andyour group are inferior to whichever group is dominant in relation to yours and that you are deserving of your lower position.
Minoritized Group: A social group that is devalued in society. This devaluing encompasses how the group is represented, what degree of access to resources it is granted, and how the unequal access is rationalized. Traditionally, a group in this position has been referred to as the minority group. However, this language has been replaced with the term minoritized in order to capture the active dynamics that create the lower status in society and also to signal that a group’s status is not necessarily related to how many or few of them there are in the population at large.
Oppression: The discrimination of one social group against another, backed by institutional power. Oppression occurs when one group is able to enforce its prejudice throughout society because it controls the institutions. Oppression occurs at the group or macro level, and goes well beyondindividuals. Sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and heterosexism are forms of oppression.
Positionality: The recognition that where you stand in relation to others in society shapes what you can see and understand.
Positivism: A perspective or philosophy of the scientific method as objective, neutral, and the ideal approach to understanding the world.
Prejudice: Learned prejudgment about members of social groups to which we don’t belong. Prejudice is based on limited knowledge or experience with the group. Simplistic judgments and assumptions are made and projected onto everyone from that group.
Racism: In the United States and Canada, racism refers to White racial and cultural prejudice and discrimination, supported by institutional power and authority, used to the advantage of Whites and the disadvantage of people of Color. Racism encompasses economic, political, social, and institutional actions and beliefs that perpetuate an unequal distribution of privileges, resources, and power between Whites and people of Color.
Sexism: The systematic oppression of women by men, under patriarchy. Sexism is based on the belief that men are inherently superior to women. Sexism encompasses economic, political, social, and institutional actions and beliefs that perpetuate an unequal distribution of privileges, resources, and power between men and women.
Signifier: A sign or symbol that conveys specific cultural meaning. Signifiers connect to larger discourses that work together to construct that meaning.
Sensoy, Özlem. Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (Multicultural Education Series) (pp. 181-188). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition.