Glossary: Understanding White Supremacy, Privilege & Systemic Racism

This glossary will evolve over time as language and understanding deepen.

A–C

Allyship vs. Accomplice Supporting racial justice can take very different forms. One approach often emphasizes symbolic or low-risk support that is offered when it feels safe or affirming. A more accountable approach accepts real risk and loss, follows the leadership of those most affected, and uses privilege to disrupt racist systems—even when doing so carries social, professional, or material consequences.

Anti-Blackness A specific form of racism that positions Black people and Blackness at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. It undergirds U.S. racial systems and shapes policy, policing, media, and everyday bias in ways that are distinct and foundational.

Anti-Racism An active and ongoing practice of identifying, challenging, and dismantling racism. It requires confronting policies, behaviors, and cultural norms that sustain inequality, as well as a willingness to sit with discomfort rather than avoid it.

Assimilation Pressure placed on marginalized groups to adopt the norms, values, or behaviors of a dominant white culture. This process often demands the erasure of identity, language, or community belonging in exchange for conditional acceptance or safety.

Bias (Implicit and Explicit) Unexamined attitudes or stereotypes that influence perception and behavior. Some operate unconsciously and automatically, while others are deliberate and conscious. Both contribute to racial inequities regardless of personal intent.

BIPOC A collective term referring to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. It acknowledges shared experiences under white supremacy while recognizing that anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism are distinct and foundational within U.S. history.

Code-Switching The act of adjusting speech, behavior, appearance, or self-presentation to conform to white-dominant expectations. Often necessary for safety or advancement, it requires constant self-monitoring and carries emotional and psychological costs.

Colorism A system of preference for lighter skin tones within and across racial groups. Rooted in white supremacy, it influences safety, income, visibility, and perceived credibility.

Colorblindness A belief that ignoring race will eliminate racism. In practice, this stance dismisses lived experiences of people of color and preserves white comfort by avoiding responsibility for racial inequities.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) An academic legal framework developed in law schools in the 1970s to examine how racism is embedded in laws, institutions, and social systems—not just individual prejudice. It analyzes how seemingly neutral policies produce racially disparate outcomes in housing, criminal sentencing, school funding, and employment. CRT is not a K–12 curriculum and does not assign guilt; it provides tools for understanding why racial inequality persists even when laws appear neutral.

Cultural Appropriation The adoption or exploitation of cultural elements from marginalized communities by members of a dominant culture without respect, context, or credit. This often results in profit or praise without accountability.

D–H

Decolonization An ongoing process of confronting and dismantling systems created through colonization. It involves reclaiming land, language, culture, and knowledge that were suppressed under white dominance.

Disparity A measurable gap in outcomes such as education, income, health, housing, or policing. These gaps arise from structural inequality rather than individual choices or chance.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Efforts designed to promote representation, fairness, and belonging across differences. Frequently misunderstood or politicized, these initiatives aim to address structural barriers—not grant unearned advantage.

Dog Whistles Coded language that communicates racist ideas without explicitly naming race. Such phrases mobilize fear while maintaining plausible deniability.

Equity vs. Equality Equality means treating everyone the same; equity means providing what each person needs to achieve fair outcomes. Because people start from unequal positions due to systemic barriers, identical treatment often preserves inequality rather than correcting it.

Fragility (White Fragility) Defensive reactions such as anger, guilt, withdrawal, or denial that emerge when white people encounter racial stress. These responses can include feeling attacked when racism is discussed, changing the subject to personal hardship, or insisting that naming race is itself divisive. Such reactions reflect systemic conditioning and a lack of practice engaging racial discomfort.

Gaslighting (Racial) A tactic that dismisses or minimizes experiences of racism by labeling them exaggerated, imagined, or divisive. It invalidates truth in order to preserve white comfort.

Hegemony The process by which one group's values, beliefs, and worldview become accepted as the social norm. In racial contexts, whiteness functions as the default standard against which all others are judged.

I–O

Institutional Racism Racial inequality embedded within systems such as education, banking, housing, healthcare, media, and the legal system. Advantage accrues collectively to white people regardless of individual beliefs or intentions.

Intent vs. Impact A distinction between what someone meant to do and the actual harm their actions caused. In racial contexts, white intent is often centered to deflect accountability, while the lived impact on people of color is minimized or dismissed.

Interest Convergence A theory developed by legal scholar Derrick Bell proposing that racial progress occurs primarily when it also serves white political, economic, or social interests. As a result, change is often limited, conditional, or reversible.

Intersectionality A framework introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw to explain how race intersects with gender, class, disability, sexuality, and other identities. These overlapping identities produce unique and compounded experiences of oppression.

Jim Crow Laws State and local statutes enacted from the late 1800s through the mid-20th century that enforced racial segregation and discrimination. Their legacy continues to shape disparities in wealth, housing, education, and political power.

Microaggressions Everyday verbal or behavioral slights that communicate bias, often subtly. While individually small, their cumulative impact is deeply harmful and exhausting.

Model Minority Myth A stereotype that portrays certain non-white groups as successful through assimilation. It erases inequality within groups and is frequently used to undermine claims of systemic racism.

Othering A process of defining individuals or groups as fundamentally different or alien. This framing enables dehumanization and justifies exclusion, neglect, or violence.

P–S

Power (Racial Power) The ability of a dominant racial group to define norms, enforce rules, and control narratives. Racism functions through the combination of prejudice and power.

Privilege (White Privilege) Unearned advantages granted to white people through racial systems rather than individual merit. It does not imply a life without hardship—only that race is not one of the hardships. Harm occurs when this advantage goes unexamined or denied.

Performative Allyship Actions that signal solidarity without shifting power or creating accountability. These gestures often protect image or ease guilt rather than produce meaningful change.

Racial Equity The condition in which race no longer predicts outcomes in health, education, employment, housing, criminal justice, or other domains. Achieving racial equity requires identifying and eliminating policies and practices that produce or sustain racial disparities.

Racialization The process of assigning meaning, stereotypes, and power to groups as racial "facts." Over time, these social myths solidify into policy and everyday practice.

Racism (Systemic) A network of policies, practices, and norms that maintain racial hierarchy. Without deliberate intervention, it reproduces itself.

Redlining A historical practice that denied housing and financial services to Black communities through explicit exclusion. Though illegal today, its effects remain central to the racial wealth gap.

Reparations Compensation for historical and ongoing harm caused by slavery, segregation, and systemic exclusion. This includes policies and practices aimed at repair through structural change, resource redistribution, and acknowledgment. Reparations recognize that present-day inequalities stem from stolen labor and denied opportunity.

Representation The question of who is seen, heard, and centered. Visibility shapes public imagination, belonging, and access to opportunity.

Restorative Justice An approach centered on repair rather than punishment alone. It prioritizes the voices of those harmed and seeks accountability that leads to healing.

Saviorism (White Savior Complex) A pattern in which white people position themselves as rescuers rather than partners in dismantling oppressive systems. This centers white ego and reinforces power imbalances.

School-to-Prison Pipeline A set of policies and practices that push students—especially Black and Brown children—out of schools and into the criminal justice system. It includes zero-tolerance discipline, police presence in schools, and biased enforcement.

Segregation (De Facto vs. De Jure) Legal separation enforced by law differs from segregation produced through housing patterns, zoning, and economic inequality. Both create unequal access to opportunity.

Structural Racism Racial inequality generated and maintained by interconnected systems—housing, education, employment, healthcare, criminal justice—that operate together to create cumulative disadvantage. Structural racism persists regardless of individual intent and requires systemic solutions.

Supremacy (White Supremacy) A social, political, and economic system that privileges white people, culture, and values. It does not require extremists to function—it operates as the operating software of systemic racism.

T–Z

Tokenism Superficial inclusion that creates the appearance of diversity without shifting power. Representation is offered without influence or authority.

Tone Policing A tactic that redirects attention from the substance of racial critique to the manner in which it is expressed. Comfort is preserved while truth is silenced.

White Adjacency Conditional proximity to white privilege gained through alignment with white norms. The benefits are real but unstable and often require self-suppression.

White Flight The movement of white families away from integrated or diversifying communities. This pattern reinforces racial and economic segregation across generations.

Whitewashing The omission, distortion, or softening of racial truth to maintain comfort or control. It appears in media, education, and historical narratives.

Whiteness A constructed social identity that determines who holds power, whose norms are treated as universal, and who benefits. Examining whiteness means making the invisible architecture of privilege visible.