Glossary of terms on Race and Ethnicity

Androcentricity/ Androcentrism: A male centered wold view and assumption of the supremacy of males and their experiences, values, and traditions.

Assimilation: The forcing of immigrants and minority groups to abandon the unique features of their former cultures and to adapt to the values and norms of the dominant culture and become absorbed into it.

Blame the Victim: Accusations against victims of crimes or discrimination claiming that they are somehow responsible for what was done to them.

Discrimination: Individual, organizational, or structural behavior, policies, procedures, decisions, habits, and acts that disadvantage one group in relation to another group. It is a process that results in overlook, ignore, or subjugate members of certain groups, that enable one group of people to maintain control over another group, and that maintain and perpetuate conditions of inequality for members of the disadvantaged group.

Ethnicity: Membership in a subgroup within an environment dominated by another culture.

Eurocentricity: The assumption of the supremacy of European Americans and their values and traditions.

Feminine: The traditional definition of what a "real woman" should be-that is, passive, domestic, nurturing, dependent, emotional, preoccupied with her appearance, and maternal.

Feminism: The belief in the value of women and a woman-centered perspective and the advocacy of social, political, and economic equality for both women and men.

Jim Crow: Racially discriminatory laws, social institutions, behavior patterns, language, cultural viewpoints, and thought patterns that required segregation of the races in all aspects of life in order to subordinate African Americans.

Melting Pot Theory: The theory about immigration that all the various heritages have influenced one another, blending together to create a unique American culture in which no group or single set of values is dominant.

Meritocracy: The belief that advancement is based solely on ability or achievement.

Multiculturalism theory: The theory that American culture is a combination of many subsocieties, each group coexisting with other groups while retaining some of its customs and traditions that are accepted as valid and valuable.

Prejudice: The belief that members of a certain group are inferior because they are characterized by undesirable or less-valued traits or behaviors.

Racism: The subordination and assumption of the inferiority of certain groups of people based on their origins and skin color or other physical characteristics. This could be reflected in both individual and institutional acts, decisions, habits, procedures, and policies that neglect, overlook, exploit, subjugate, or maintain the subordination of those groups or their members.

Institutional racism: Subtle, often invisible discrimination that does not explicitly use color as the subordinating mechanism. Under institutional racism decisions are based on such other factors as skill level, residential location, income, or education that appear to be racially neutral and reasonably related to the activities and privileges concerned but that, in fact, produce discriminatory results.

Separate but equal: The justification the 1896 Supreme Court used in its ruling in Plessy V. Ferguson that declared Jim Crow laws constitutional.

Social construct: A classification based on social values rather than inherent qualities.

Stereotype: A set of assumptions and beliefs about the physical, behavioral, and psychological characteristics assigned to a particular group or class of people.

Theory: A systematic way of organizing knowledge so that it explains a variety of occurrences.

Ideology: A system of assumptions, theories, and beliefs characterizing a particular group or culture and supporting and reinforcing or challenging political, social, and economic arrangements.