Cisgender

A term (pronounced sis-gender) used to refer to an individual whose gender identity aligns with the sex assigned to them at birth.

Cisnormativity

The idea that everyone is cisgender and/or that being cisgender is the 'norm,' and that being cisgender is preferable to or better than any or all other genders.

Cissexism

A set of assumptions, beliefs at attitudes that the gender identites and expressions of cisgender people are superior to and/or more valid than those of trans or gender-expansive people.

Classism

Differential treatment based on social class or perceived social class. Classism is the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups to advantage and strengthen the dominant class groups. It’s the systematic assignment of characteristics of worth and ability based on social class.

Collaborative Leadership

The process where cross-functional teams cooperate to accomplish a shared goal and aspiration through a culture of trust, mutual respect and reciprocity.

Colonization

The invasion and settlement of a region by visitors (colonizers) where the original inhabitants (colonized) are dispossessed through land theft, assimilation, brutality and violence. Colonization is some form of invasion, dispossession and subjugation of a people. This includes military invasion, but isn't limited to it. The invasion can begin—or continue—as geographical intrusion in the form of agricultural, urban or industrial encroachments, resulting in the dispossession of vast amounts of lands from the original inhabitants. This dispossession is often legalized after the fact.

The long-term result of such massive dispossession through colonialization is institutionalized inequality. The colonizer/colonized relationship is by nature an unequal one that benefits the colonizer at the expense of the colonized.

Colourism

Using white skin as the standard, colourism is the allocation of privilege and favour to lighter skin colors and disadvantage to darker ones. Colourism operates both within and across racial and ethnic groups.

Colour Blindness or Colour-Blindness

An ideology asserting that ending discrimination requires treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to anyone's race, culture or ethnicity. However, this approach reinforces and sustains an unequal status quo by overlooking both the cumulative and enduring ways race unequally shapes opportunities and the cultural attributes people value.

Consensus

Engaging in a process to achieve widespread decision-making through discussion and agreement as a group.

Criminalization

The process by which actions and/or behaviours are made criminal by making them illegal or against the law.

Critical Race Theory

A movement, practice or theoretical framework that considers the issues of ethnic studies or civil rights by placing them in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, feelings and the unconscious, and questions the foundation of the liberal order and the role of race and racism in society. Critical race theory, sometimes abbreviated as CRT, is a verb and a practice that continues to change and evolve. The term was coined by American legal scholar Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw.

Cultural Appropriation

Theft of cultural elements—including symbols, art, language, customs, etc.—for one’s own use, commodification or profit, often without an appropriate understanding, acknowledgement or respect for its value in the original culture. Cultural appropriation results from the assumption of a politically dominant (i.e. white) culture’s right to take, use and/or exploit elements from other cultures.

Cultural Misappropriation

As opposed to cultural exchange, appreciation and appropriation, cultural misappropriation is distinguished as occurring under colonialism and capitalism. Cultural misappropriation occurs when a cultural fixture of a marginalized culture/community is copied, mimicked or recreated, and then commodified, by the dominant culture against the will of the original community.

Culture

A social system of meaning and custom developed by a group of people to assure its adaptation and survival. These groups are distinguished from each other by a set of unspoken rules that shape its members' values, beliefs, habits, patterns of thinking, behaviors and styles of communication.

Decolonialization

Active resistance against colonial powers, combined with a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, cultural, psychic independence and power originating from a colonized nation’s own Indigenous culture. The process of decolonialization occurs politically and also applies to personal and societal psychic, cultural, political, agricultural and educational deconstruction of colonial oppression.

Design Equity

A principle holding that all products, services and technologies should be designed to ensure they can be used by people with diverse bodies, abilities and minds. Also referred to as universal design.

Diaspora

The voluntary or forcible movement of people from their homelands into new regions.

Discrimination

Any form of unequal treatment based on a Code ground under the Canadian Human Rights Act or the NL Human Rights Act 2010, whether imposing extra burdens or denying benefits. It may be intentional or unintentional. It may involve direct actions that are obviously discriminatory, or it may involve rules, practices or procedures that appear neutral, but disadvantage certain individuals and groups of people. Discrimination may take obvious forms, or it may happen in very subtle ways.

The NL Human Rights Act 2010 sets out the following prohibited grounds of discrimination: race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, social origin, religious creed, religion, age, disability, disfigurement, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, source of income and political opinion.

Diversity

Includes ways in which people differ, and it encompasses the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. It may be expressed through factors such as race, culture, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, health status, region of birth, language, education, ability, place of residence, family status or socioeconomic status.