Critical Thinking, Systems of Oppression, and U.S. Racial and Colonial Histories

Critical Thinking (bell hooks)

The process of discovering the who, what, where, and how of things (addressing the questions of the inquisitive child) and using that knowledge to determine what matters most.

Positionality

The concept that what an individual knows is connected to who they are and where they stand, reflecting how differences in social position and power shape identities and social access.

Knowledge (vs. Opinion)

Understanding based on expertise acquired through study, reviewed and supported by scholars, which is not always neutral and can evolve over time.

Opinion (vs. Knowledge)

An individual's personal understanding of an issue that does not need to be backed up by scholarly evidence or anything beyond a belief set.

Culture

The shared norms, values, customs, and meanings held by a group of people.

Dominant Culture/Group

The social group positioned at the top of the social hierarchy that establishes the norms by which all other groups are judged.

Minoritized Culture/Group

A social group that is systematically devalued within a society.

Socialization

The systematic training into the norms, expectations, and values of a given culture.

Social Norms

Unwritten rules that are taken for granted in society and perceived as natural, acceptable, or aligned with the status quo.

Power

The ability to influence systems and make decisions that impact the lives of others.

Privilege

Unearned social and institutional advantages received by members of dominant groups as a result of occupying positions of power.

Oppression

The prejudice and discrimination of one social group against another, backed by institutional power ($\text{Prejudice} + \text{Power} = \text{Oppression}$).

Race

A socially constructed system of classifying human beings based on exterior physical appearance (e.g., skin color, facial structure) that has no biological basis.

Ethnicity

A group of people bound by a common language, culture, spiritual tradition, or ancestral heritage.

First Socialization

The earliest phase in the Cycle of Socialization where self-concepts, norms, and roles are formed on a personal level by trusted individuals such as parents, relatives, and teachers.

Institutional and Cultural Socialization

The phase in the Cycle of Socialization where societal messages about identity, rules, and status are reinforced through institutions (schools, legal systems, media) and cultural practices.

Enforcements (Cycle of Socialization)

The system of rewards, privileges, sanctions, and punishments that compel individuals to conform to social norms or pay a price for independent nonconformity.

Internalized Oppression

A learned behavior and survival tactic in which individuals in a targeted group believe and enact the prejudices, stereotypes, and power patterns directed against their own group.

The Core (Cycle of Socialization)

The central elements—composed of fear, ignorance, confusion, and insecurity—that keep individuals from questioning the status quo or disrupting socialized patterns.

Matrix of Oppression

A framework identifying how specific social identity categories (such as race, gender, class, and ability) correspond to privileged, border, and targeted groups across various 'isms'.

Border Social Groups

Groups positioned between dominant and targeted groups in the Matrix of Oppression, such as biracial people, middle-class individuals, and young adults.

Ideology

A shared or individual framework, belief set, or collection of opinions and attitudes used to view and make sense of the world.

Stereotype

An exaggerated, oversimplified, or distorted belief attributing broad characteristics to all members of a group while refusing to acknowledge individual differences.

Prejudice

The act of prejudging or forming a decision about an individual or group without sufficient knowledge, typically rooted in stereotypes.

Microaggression

Brief, everyday verbal, behavioral, or environmental exchanges that transmit hostile or derogatory messages to members of marginalized groups.

Discrimination

The behavioral act of treating individuals or groups unfairly based on held prejudices or social markers such as race, gender, or socioeconomic class.

Institutional Oppression

Policies, laws, rules, and customs enacted by organizations and social institutions that systematically disadvantage certain social groups while advantaging others.

Structural Oppression

The interconnections and relationships between multiple social institutions that collectively uphold advantages and disadvantages across society.

Societal/Cultural Oppression

Collective cultural norms, values, and shared ideas about what is 'right' that reinforce the assumed superiority of one social group over another.

Systemic Oppression

Ongoing, institutionalized inequality and discrimination embedded within a societal system that was fundamentally founded on oppression.

Racism

A form of oppression in which one race maintains supremacy over others through attitudes, institutions, systems, and culture ($\text{Power} + \text{Racial Prejudice} = \text{Racism}$).

White Supremacy

An academic concept designating the multidimensional system of White privilege, institutional dominance, and assumed superiority in mainstream society.

Sexism

A form of oppression that dictates an individual's rights and capabilities based on their assigned or perceived gender ($\text{Power} + \text{Gender Prejudice} = \text{Sexism}$).

Classism

A form of oppression based on true or perceived socioeconomic class that is shaped by a capitalist economic system ($\text{Power} + \text{Class Prejudice} = \text{Classism}$).

Redlining

A discriminatory practice initiated by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in the 1930s that denied home mortgage loans to Black buyers in Black neighborhoods, perpetuating cycles of racial and economic disadvantage.

Social Construct

A category, meaning, or concept that is not biological or inherently true, but is mutually agreed upon and maintained by society with real-world consequences.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

A historic rebellion in colonial Virginia that led White, land-owning elites to manufacture legal racial boundaries, establishing the legal regime of 'Whiteness' to prevent future multiracial labor coalitions.

Anti-Miscegenation Laws

State statutes that prohibited interracial relationships and enforced racial segregation, which remained active until declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case.

Empire

A single political authority that governs and exercises sovereign control over multiple distinct territories, states, or countries.

Imperialism

The ideology and policy of dominating and subordinating other states or regions to acquire land, extract resources, or secure strategic military positions.

Colonialism

The concrete action and political-economic practice of occupying, settling, and exploiting geographic regions to establish cultural and institutional dominance over Indigenous and non-White populations.

Settler Colonialism

A form of colonization in which colonizing populations permanently relocate to an inhabited territory, replacing Indigenous societies and transforming the region's cultural landscape.

Manifest Destiny

The nineteenth-century Western belief that American territorial expansion across the North American continent was inherently justified, inevitable, and divinely ordained.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

The peace treaty concluding the Mexican-American War that forced Mexico to cede extensive northern territories—including California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming—to the United States.

In re Rodriguez (1897)

A federal legal ruling concerning a Texan-Mexican petitioner that determined Mexicans residing in Texas were eligible for U.S. naturalized citizenship despite not fitting existing racial categories of White or African descent.

Nationalism

Strong identification with one's own nation and the prioritization of its interests, often to the exclusion or detriment of other nations.

Nativism

A political stance promoting the interests and legal protections of established, native