GLOSSARY

Anti-Blackness

Behaviors, attitudes, and practices that work to dehumanize Black people to maintain white supremacy (Amherst.edu).

Anti-racist

A belief that rejects the supremacy of one racial group over others, acknowledges prevalent racism in society, and actively combats racial prejudice and discrimination in order to advance racial justice and equality.

Antisemitism

Hostility toward or discrimination against the Jewish people as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.

BIPOC

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

Capitalism

An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Colonialism

The system or policy by which a nation maintains or advocates control or influence over a dependent country, territory, or people.

Colonization

Is the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area. The act of taking control of an area or a country that is not your own, especially using force, and sending people from your own country to live there.

Climate adapation

The process of adjusting to the effects of climate change, to moderate or avoid harm.

Climate emergency/crisis

Terms to describe the threat of global warming to humanity and the planet. Terms to describe the impacts of global warming and climate change.

Climate mitigation

The action to limit climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or removing those gases from the atmosphere. The recent rise in global average temperature is mostly due to emissions from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas.

Environmental racism

A form of institutional racism that leads to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionately placed in countries and communities of color.

Intersectionality

A framework for understanding how a person's differing social and political identities intersect to create multiple levels of discrimination and privilege.

Islamophobia

Hostility toward or discrimination against Muslims as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.

Mass extinction

Any circumstance that results in the loss of a significant portion of Earth’s living species across a wide geographic area within a relatively short period of geologic time.

Patriarchy

A system of society or government in which men hold the power and from which women are largely or historically excluded.

White centering

When a white person chooses their feelings and comfort over the experiences, efforts, and humanity of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

White feminism

The term describing feminist efforts and actions that uplift white women but that exclude or otherwise fail to address issues faced by minority groups, especially women of color and LGBTQ women.

Whiteness

A term to describe the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups are compared. Whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity throughout America's history have created a culture where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal.

White supremacy

The belief that white people are a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to the exclusion or detriment of other racial and ethnic groups.

Xenophobia

Hostility toward or discrimination against people from other countries.