Glossary

Anti-colonial theories include:

Colonization vs coloniality
Decolonization vs decoloniality
Anti-colonial theory (Simmons & Dei, 2012)

These solidarities exist between and across racial groups with a recognition that we need each other to risk together, live together, learn together, and organize together to dismantle systems of white supremacy. It demands that we understand how we are differently racialized in a system of white supremacy, thus requiring different interventions, un/learning, and risks given our different proximities to the protection and access afforded by whiteness as the center of power. Cross-racial solidarities also center the idea that while our oppression is interconnected, so too is our liberation.

‘‘…refers to the practice of collective indifference that renders certain people and groups invisible. The word migrated out of the academy, where it alluded to the tendency of ideologies to dismiss inconvenient facts and is increasingly used to describe how inconvenient people are dismissed, their history, pain and achievements blotted out. Compared with words like ‘‘diversity’’ and ‘‘representation,’’ with their glib corporate gloss, ‘‘erasure’’ is a blunt word for a blunt process. It goes beyond simplistic discussions of quotas to ask: Whose stories are taught and told? Whose suffering is recognized? Whose dead are mourned?” (Seghal, 2016).

The myth of neutrality assumes that we all experience the world in the same way and, therefore, there is only one truth. Notions of “truth” uphold the interests and perspectives of those with the power to define “truth” as they have the power to create and uphold dominant perspectives (i.e., White, able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual, middle-upper-class, Christian men). This myth discounts any knowledge and experiences that are historical, contextual or specific.

The myth of meritocracy assumes that everyone can achieve upward social and economic mobility if they work hard and demonstrate grit and resiliency. This myth negates the complex, layered and intersecting barriers to success, well-being and engagement faced by historically marginalized and racialized populations of students. This myth assumes that folks who do not ‘cut it’ are lazy, disinterested, and unintelligent. It also fails to acknowledge that folks who do ‘cut it’ benefit from privileges such as connections, networks, favours, associations, proximity to power, and so on.

Power asymmetries denote relations of subordination and domination within and between groups that result in fundamentally different levels of access, opportunity, self-determination, and power. We often think of power asymmetries between groups, but they also exist within any social groups when we consider our multiple and intersectional realities.

Our social and economic value as racial groups change in response to the needs of White society, the nation-state, and the labor market (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012; Harpalani, 2013; Prashad, 2000) This creates a racial hierarchy of value and worth: Whites, Honorary Whites, and the Collective Black (Bonilla-Silva, 2004).

A political process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization is the very complex and contradictory process through which groups come to be designated as being part of a particular "race" and, on that basis, subjected to differential and/or unequal treatment. While white people are also racialized, this process is often rendered invisible or normative to those designated as white (Dalal, 2002). Racialization is a structural and political mechanism to maintain while rendering invisible the logic and manifestations of these systems. This process happens because of racial capitalism, a term coined by Cedric Robinson. Racial capitalism is “the process of deriving social and economic value from the racial identity of another person” (Leong, 2013).

“In its most destructive form, racism is a system of advantage based on race where institutions -- prisons, banks, corporations - wreak more havoc than bigoted individuals..." (Loury, 2015).

Racism operates on multiple levels, including:

Ideological: Whiteness, white supremacy, “Othering,” myths of neutrality, myths of meritocracy, Liberal individualism, “reverse” racism, etc.
Institutional: Media (mis)representation, education gaps, child welfare, incarceration rates, carding, deaths, legal access, employment opportunities, housing discrimination, wage gap, government supports, etc.
Interpersonal: Racist jokes, stereotypes, physical harm and harassment, racial micro-aggressions, social exclusion, threats, etc.
Internalized: Internalized racist messages, horizontal racial violence

Whiteness exists to uphold anti-blackness. Anti-Blackness does not exist outside of the ideology and logics of whiteness. Relational realizations include:

Whiteness is in relation to anti-Blackness
Whiteness is in relation to anti- Indigeneity
"Model minorities” are in relation to Whiteness and Blackness
Capitalism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, imperialism, ableism, cis-heteropatriarchy, and casteism need each other to exist; therefore our efforts at justice and liberation must be intersectional

The myth of ‘reverse racism’ is a response by some white people who are upset that their power and access are being challenged by anti-racist efforts. For example, white people may try to demonstrate how hard they have it as individual white people (erasing the historical and contemporary inequities between groups of people), or they may try to prove that racialized people are not as harmed as they claim (Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, (n.d).

Like all racial identities, the white identity is a social construction that is usually based on skin colour. It is influenced by socio-political and economic contexts. It is dynamic, fluid, and intersectional. It has multiple and intersecting ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, gender, sexual, ability and class differences.

“A political, economic and cultural system in which Whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of White superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of White dominance and non-White subordination are daily re-enacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.” (Frances Lee Ansley as cited in Gillborn, 2015, p. 48).

“A set of assumptions, beliefs and practices that place the interests and perspectives of white people at the center of what is considered normal and every day” (Gillborn, 2015 p. 278).

 Characteristics of Whiteness:

Ignorance and Denial - unwillingness to name the effects of racism
Naturalization – the avoidance of identifying with a racial experience or group
Minimization – of racist legacies (underscoring the importance of historic, cultural, and economic impacts) (Leonardo, 2013).