DEI Glossary of Terms

DEI Glossary of Terms houses a quick reference of key terms related to diversity, equity, inclusivity, and socioculturally-attuned clinical practice.

Accessibility: The design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability, or disability. [1]

Anti-Racism: The work of actively opposing racism by advocating for political, economic, and social life changes. [2]

Belonging: An innate human need to belong to something larger than ourselves. As an action, belonging welcomes, supports, respects, and allows people to bring all of who they are to the space. [3]

Bias: Any act or behavior that is a violation of the AAMFT Code of Ethics and reasonably believed to be motivated by a consideration (real or perceived) of race, sex, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status, military status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other protected classification. [4]

Community Engagement: Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification: “Community engagement describes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.” [5]

Cultural Humility: The ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented (or open to the other) in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the person. [6]

Discrimination: “The unequal treatment of members of various groups based on race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion and other categories. [In the United States] the law makes it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The law also makes it illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit. The law also requires that employers reasonably accommodate applicants’ and employees’ sincerely held religious practices, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer’s business.” [2]

Diversity: Diversity is the understanding that everyone is unique and the voluntary acceptance of all complex characteristics that make one individual or group different from another and therefore valuable.

• A broad definition includes not only race, ethnicity, and gender but also age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, and physical appearance. It also involves different ideas, perspectives, and values.
• It is important to note that many activists and thinkers critique diversity alone as a strategy. Often when people talk about diversity, they are thinking only of the “non-dominant” groups. [2]

Equality: Everyone gets the same thing and same amount of things (i.e., sameness = fairness). Assumes no differences in starting point or obstacles in getting to the same end goal. [7]

Equity: Everyone gets what they need (i.e., fairness = responsive). Achieving equity requires ensuring that those most impacted by a system of injustice are the face of the solution. [7]

Equity Minded Competency: Equity-mindedness is the perspective or mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student, staff, or faculty outcomes. [8]

Imposter Syndrome: The internal denying of an ability, the worth or the value oneself can bring to an organization, group, or position/role. [9]

Inclusive Excellence: Creating and maintaining a standard of quality and equity that empowers and positively promotes each individual’s talents, integrity, and dignity, and, in turn, allows one to reach their fullest and most authentic potential and capabilities. [10]

Intersectionality: Exposing one’s multiple identities to help clarify the ways in which a person can simultaneously experience privilege and oppression. [11]

Harassment: Any unwelcomed, unsolicited, and offensive conduct that is severe or pervasive and tends to injure, degrade, disgrace, or show hostility toward a person because of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status, military status, gender expression/identity, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other characteristic protected by law. For purposes of applying this policy, “sexual” harassment includes conduct that is of a sexual nature or related to a person’s gender and may include persons of the same sex. [12]

Microaggression: The everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. [13]

Multiple Cultural Fluency: Understanding multiple needs from multiple perspectives for creating inclusive excellence. Individuals have a different set of learned/acquired cultural fluencies that are often determined by their social identities and lived experiences. [14]

Oppression: The systematic subjugation of one social group by a more powerful social group for the social, economic, and political benefit of the more powerful social group. Rita Hardiman and Bailey Jackson state that oppression exists when the following 4 conditions are found:

• the oppressor group has the power to define reality for themselves and others,
• the target groups take in and internalize the negative messages about them and end up cooperating with the oppressors (thinking and acting like them),
• genocide, harassment, and discrimination are systematic and institutionalized, so that individuals are not necessary to keep it going, and
• members of both the oppressor and target groups are socialized to play their roles as normal and correct.
• Oppression = Power + Prejudice [2]

Racism: Racism is different from racial prejudice, hatred, or discrimination. Racism involves one group having the power to carry out systematic discrimination through the institutional policies and practices of the society and by shaping the cultural beliefs and values that support those racist policies and practices.

• Racism = race prejudice + social and institutional power
• Racism = a system of advantage based on race
• Racism = a system of oppression based on race
• Racism = a white supremacy system [2]

Stereotype Threat: A phenomenon that occurs when there is the opportunity or perceived opportunity for an individual to satisfy or confirm a negative stereotype of a group of which they are a member. [15]

Transformative Change: A process through which who we are is changed so deeply that our very ways of perceiving, thinking, reflecting, and meaning-making about ourselves, our institution, and our organizations shift. Our emotions become more alive and expressive. Our relationships and connectedness to and within our communities shift. The way we show up shifts. We let go of legacy solutions and find the courage to completely shift the equilibrium of our organization and create something new. [16]

Unconscious Bias: A series of unintended preferences amongst people groups that are formed by our social experiences. These preferences act as social filters that aid in our assessments and eventually our judgements of others. This is also often called implicit bias. [17]

Universal Design: The design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability, or disability. [18]

White Supremacy: The ideology that assigns value, morality, goodness, and humanity to white people groups while casting people and communities of color as worthless (worth less), immoral, bad, and inhuman and undeserving. White supremacy is ever-present in our institutional and cultural assumptions and refers to a political or socio-economic system where white people enjoy structural advantages and rights that other racial and ethnic groups do not. [2]

For additional information, please review the AAMFT DEI Toolkit.