Equity and Social Justice
Globalization: The process by which businesses, cultures, and governments become interconnected and interdependent across global boundaries, impacting equity and social justice.
Equity: Fair treatment that accounts for individual needs, often requiring extra resources or support for marginalized groups to achieve comparable outcomes.
Social Justice: The pursuit of equal rights and opportunities for all, addressing systemic inequalities in society.
Diversity: The practice or quality of including or involving people from different social, ethical, and cultural backgrounds and genders, sexual orientations etc.
Inclusion: The action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure. In the perspective of this course inclusion can mean embracing all people, no matter their race, gender, disability or any other need.
Intersectionality: A framework for understanding how overlapping social identities (e.g., race, gender, class) contribute to unique experiences of oppression or privilege. For example, straight, white, males tend to have the highest privilege in society.
Privilege: Having an advantage or entitlement that benefits a certain restricted group that have advantages that most others don't
Discrimination: unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people ex.race, age, gender, ethnicity
Prejudice: Prejudice is the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Prejudice can be conscious or unconscious and involves stereotypes, prejudgments, and beliefs (which are typically negative) about a group of people or individuals. These beliefs can be based on; Race, Sex, Gender, Religion, Culture, Disability, Sexuality etc.
Bias: Having a pre-existing mindset, which may cause prejudice for or against one thing, person or group in a way that is unfair.
Systemic Inequality: Differences in wealth, equality, resources, privileges, etc. that result from discriminatory practices and ideology engraved into society
Socialization: The activity of mixing socially with others and the process of learning how to behave in a way that is acceptable in society.
Empowerment: Empowerment is the process of gaining the confidence, skills, and resources needed to take control of one’s life and make decisions that affect their future. It involves removing barriers and creating opportunities for individuals or groups to realize their full potential and exercise their rights.
Advocacy: Public support or recommendation for a specific policy or cause
Activism: Taking action to create social or political change, often through protests, campaigns, or education.
Allyship: Active support for the rights of a minority or marginalized group without being a member of it.
Microaggressions: Subtle, often unintentional, comments or actions that reinforce stereotypes or demean marginalized groups, oftentimes are normalized in society, when in reality they are disrespectful and demoralizing towards marginalized groups.
Cultural Competence: The ability to interact respectfully and effectively with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, as well as being able to understand what different cultures experience and the historical context of them.
Historical Context: Understanding past events, systems, and structures to better grasp current social issues.
Institutional Racism: Racism that is embedded in government systems, including laws and policies.
Cultural Capital: Non-financial assets that influence society, examples are; education, cultural knowledge and language.
Social Stratification: When social groups are categorized according to one asset (ex: wealth).
Marginalization: Mistreatment of groups due to preconceived notions leading to bias and discrimination
Equity vs. Equality: Equity is giving someone what they need to succeed, equality is giving everyone the same thing in order to succeed. Both are needed in order to achieve social justice.
Reparations: compensation or amends given to make up for a wrong, injury, or loss
Human Rights: The inherent rights given to people at birth, generally dictating their right to life, liberty, and security of person. These rights were declared and ratified by the United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
Economic Justice: Fair distribution of resources, opportunities, and wealth to reduce economic disparities.
Social Policy: social policy concerned with the ways that societies around the world meet human needs regarding topics such as security, education, work, health and wellbeing.
Civic Engagement: Civic Engagement defines an individual’s ability to participate in the social, economic, environmental, and political elements of his or her government. It allows this individual to alter and impact the society in which he or she lives, allowing this individual to address public concerns, influence decision-making processes, and facilitate change for their people’s common good.
Stereotypes: Harmful generalizations applied to groups of people, with generally negative intent.
Representation: the act of speaking or acting on the behalf of someone or the state of being so represented.
Solidarity: Unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially within people with common interests or mutual support within a group of people. People who are like minded tend to get along well with each other.
Power Dynamics: An imbalance of power between individuals or groups.
Privilege Checking: Reflecting upon the privilege you have in life
Critical Theory: A framework used to examine a social issue with a critical lens.
Social Movements: a social movement is a collective action taken by a group of people to address and tackle social problems.
Gender Equity: Gender equality means ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their gender, have equal access to rights, opportunities, and resources. It involves treating everyone fairly and eliminating discrimination, stereotypes, and barriers based on gender.
Intersectional Feminism: Feminism that challenges traditional patriarchal systems of power and advocates for gender equity and justice. Intersectional feminism understands that gender inequality cannot be addressed in isolation, because there are many other issues that are interconnected.
Social Exclusion: Social exclusion is a behaviour often facilitated by groups of individuals who, consciously or not, segregate themselves from other groups for one purpose or another, disallowing these “othered” groups from participating in groups other than their own.
Justice-Oriented Education: Justice-oriented people think contextually, critically and creatively about social,political and economic structures.
Restorative Justice: The idea that criminals can be helped and rehabilitated back into society, rather than just put into a jail cell. It focuses on the rehabilitation portion of sentencing rather than the separation portion.
Cultural Appropriation: Acting upon predisposed stereotypes of certain cultures that can potentially be inaccurate and disrespectful. Also assuming that all members of certain cultures act the same way as the stereotypes of that culture. For example, people may be culturally appropriate by assuming that all Russian people drink vodka like water.
Ableism: Discrimination against people with disabilities, especially physical disabilities. This connects to critical disability theory.
Racial Profiling: Racial profiling is the practice of targeting or treating individuals unfairly based on their race, ethnicity, or perceived identity rather than their actions or evidence.
Economic Inequality: The disparity in wealth and income between different groups in society.
Social Capital: a set of shared values or resources that allows individuals to work together in a group to effectively achieve a common purpose.
Civic Responsibility: active participation in the public life of a community in an informed, committed, and constructive manner, with a focus on the common good.
Human Rights Violations: It is a violation of the basic rights given to any and all humans protected by national and international law. This could involve violence, poor imprisonment conditions, slavery, torture, unfair detainment, or even denial of services based on racial or other discrimination.