Michael Schwartz Library
Michael Schwartz Library
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We would like to acknowledge that collaborators in creation of this guide do not necessarily occupy the oppressed identities described here. We are not immune to unconscious biases and unrecognized privileges, which may have influenced the creation of this guide.
We welcome and very much appreciate your feedback and suggestions for improvements to this guide, particularly from members of the historically excluded groups.
This work (but not necessarily work linked here) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist. - Angela Davis
This guide was developed to help members of our CSU community better understand the topics and concerns related to racial justice and the impacts of racism over generations. We welcome your feedback and dialogue about the content here, as well as suggestions for additions to the guide.
Systemic or Structural Racism is "a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist." -- Aspen Institute
“Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably” - attributed to NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity.
Privilege is the "power and advantages benefiting a group derived from the historical oppression and exploitation of other groups. 2. Unearned access to resources only readily available to some people as a result of their group membership." - Parvis, L. Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today's Complex World, 5th ed., Embrace Publications, 2013, p. 169.
White Fragility is " the defensive reactions so many white people have when our racial worldviews, positions, or advantages are questioned or challenged. For a lot of white people, just suggesting that being white has meaning will trigger a deep, defensive response. And that defensiveness serves to maintain both our comfort and our positions in a racially inequitable society from which we benefit." -- Robin DiAngelo
Microaggressions are "everyday insults, indignities and demeaning messages sent to people of color by well-intentioned white people who are unaware of the hidden messages being sent to them." - Columbia University psychologist Derald Wing Sue, PhD
Stereotype threat is a "socially premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one's group applies” - Steele & Aronson, 1995
Intersectionality is "the understanding that we simultaneously occupy multiple social positions and that these positions do not cancel each other out; they interact in complex ways that must be explored and understood."
--Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2017, p25.