Basic Antiracism Terminology Guide

What is Anti-Racism?

Anti-racism refers to a form of action against racial hatred, bias, systemic racism, and the oppression of marginalized groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate actions to provide equitable opportunities for all people on an individual and systemic level. As a philosophy, it can be engaged with by acknowledging personal privileges, confronting acts and systems of racial discrimination, and/or working to change personal racial biases.(1)

Understanding the Acronyms/Abbreviations:

• POC & WOC:  People of Colour & Women of Colour

• BIPOC & BIWOC: Black/Indigenous/People of Colour & Black/Indigenous/Women of Colour

• BME/BAME: Black and Minority Ethnic & Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic

Problems with Acronyms/Abbreviations(2)

There are some problems with all of these terms. They’re not nuanced enough to adequately represent groups and they reinforce a societal state in which white is the default and everyone else is just clumped together as one ‘other.’ 

Changing POC to BIPOC represents an effort to recognise that the specific struggles of black and indigenous peoples are unique and need to be stated separately. Adding Asian to Black and Minority Ethnic is a similar attempt to better reflect specific nuances of experiences in the UK. It’s not enough. These terms still create an issue of clumping hundreds of very different communities of people together as one group of ‘other’ as compared to white people. So this is problematic.

However, these terms do help us to have broad and important conversations about race and racism. It allows us to refer easily to people who face race based oppression and discrimination and don’t experience racial privilege. It allows us to speak broadly about racism and those who experience it.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

Using terms like BIPOC and BAME may be appropriate, useful, and necessary in many conversations about race, but remember that the experiences of different groups will be vastly different. So avoid clumping all BIPOC together as one entity in your mind. They represent a massive range of countries, histories, cultures and experiences.

Be Specific When Possible...

• If you are discussing a specific form of racism (such as anti-blackness) don’t refer to the people affected as BIPOC or BAME, refer to them as black.

•  If you are referring to the racism faced by people from Muslim countries, name those people and prejudices accordingly.

• If you have the knowledge to name the group and name the specific discrimination, do that, be as specific as possible. This helps to acknowledge the significance and uniqueness of that particular identity (rather than reinforcing a white versus ‘other’ rhetoric).

Power & Oppression Fundamentals

Oppression(3) refers to any sort of systemic or structural ‘ism’ (racism, sexism, ableism, sizeism etc.); the combination of prejudice and institutional power that creates a system that favours dominant groups.

There are four levels at which oppression can function within a society:

1. Personal: values, beliefs, feelings

2. Interpersonal: actions, behaviours, language

3. Institutional: rules, policies, practices, & procedures

4. Cultural: beauty, truth, ‘normal,’ right

Privilege(4) operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels and gives advantages, favors, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups. Privilege is invisible to those who have it and is awarded to those in dominant groups whether they want it or not. A person can be privileged in one area (i.e. racial privilege) and not in another (i.e. class/economic privilege). This is what intersectionality is all about- the way different identities intersect and impact experiences.

Agents of Oppression(5) are members of the dominant groups who knowingly or unknowingly exploit and reap unfair advantage over members of groups that are targets of oppression.

Systemic Racism and Power & Oppression Fundamentals

 As a form of oppression, racism operates at the same four levels(3):

1. Personal/Internalized Racism: consciously or unconsciously held racist values, beliefs, feelings

2. Interpersonal Racism: Actions by individuals towards another group based solely on race. (i.e. harassment, exclusion, marginalisation, discrimination, microaggressions, hate speech, violence, etc.)

3. Institutional Racism: Racism that operates through the policies, procedures and practices of the institutions in our society, such as education, the job market, the housing market, the media, healthcare and the criminal justice system.

4. Racism at the Cultural Level: When cultural conceptions of beauty, truth, ‘normal,’ right are white-centric or otherwise devalue a particular racial group.

Systemic Racism is the cumulative impact of racism embedded into the 4 different levels of oppression within a society. The cumulative impact of personal, interpersonal, and institutional racism within society creates a system and culture of structural racism. This can exist without an abundance of active acts of aggression or bigotry, simply through potentially unnoticed racist policies, unconscious biases, and white supremacist conditioning.

White privilege(5) is a term that is often misunderstood. It refers to the inherent advantage in which white people are not negatively impacted by systemic racism. White privilege does not imply economic privilege or that an individual’s life has not been difficult, only that their skin tone is not the source of their difficulties. This also doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for a white person to ever experience racial discrimination. Racial discrimination can happen to anyone, based on the individual biases and prejudices of those they come in contact with. However, being in the dominant racial group, white people will not experience systemic racial oppression. Being white will not directly contribute to major difficulties and disadvantages in their lives. This is white privilege.

White privilege means having the choice to learn about racism rather than experience it as a fundamental element of life, even from a young age. White privilege means not worrying that your skin tone will impact whether you will be safe in the presence of police, will be able to secure housing, will have access to medical care, etc.

Key Terms Review:

POC/WOC: Imperfect, group terms for, people of colour / Women of colour

BIPOC/BIWOC: Imperfect, group terms for Black, Indigenous & people of colour / Black, Indigenous & women of colour 

BME/BAME: Imperfect, group terms for Black and minority ethnic / Black, Asian & minority ethnic.

Oppression(3):any sort of systemic or structural ‘ism’ (racism, sexism, ableism, sizeism etc.); the combination of prejudice and institutional power that creates a system that favours dominant groups. Operates at 4 levels: 1) personal; 2) interpersonal; 3) institutional; and 4) cultural.

Privilege(4): operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels and gives advantages, favors, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups. Privilege is invisible to those who have it and is awarded to those in dominant groups whether they want it or not.

Intersectionality(6): an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Aspects like gender, caste, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, disability, physical appearance, and height.

Agents of Oppression(4): members of the dominant groups who knowingly or unknowingly exploit and reap unfair advantage over members of groups that are targets of oppression.

Personal/Internalized Racism(3): consciously or unconsciously held racist values, beliefs, feelings

Interpersonal Racism(3): actions by individuals towards another group based solely on race. (i.e. harassment, exclusion, marginalisation, discrimination, microaggressions, hate speech, violence, etc.)

Institutional Racism(3): racism that operates through the policies, procedures and practices of the institutions in our society, such as education, the job market, the housing market, the media, healthcare and the criminal justice system.

Racism at the Cultural Level(3): when cultural conceptions of beauty, truth, ‘normal,’ right are white-centric or otherwise devalue a particular racial group.

Systemic Racism(3): the cumulative impact of racism embedded into the 4 different levels of oppression within a society. The cumulative impact of personal, interpersonal, and institutional racism within society creates a system and culture of structural racism. This can exist without an abundance of active acts of aggression or bigotry, simply through potentially unnoticed racist policies, unconscious biases, and white supremacist conditioning.

White privilege(5): the inherent advantage in which white people are not negatively impacted by systemic racism. White privilege does not imply economic privilege or that an individual’s life has not been difficult, only that their skin tone is not the source of their difficulties.