DEIA Resources: Race and Ethnicity

Race: Modern scholarship views racial categories as socially constructed, that is, race is not intrinsic to human beings but rather an identity created, often by socially dominant groups, to establish meaning in a social context. This often involves the subjugation of groups defined as racially inferior, as in the one-drop rule used in the 19th-century United States to exclude those with any amount of African ancestry from the dominant racial grouping, defined as "white." Such racial identities reflect the cultural attitudes of imperial powers dominant during the age of European colonial expansion. This view rejects the notion that race is biologically defined.

Racism: A system that produces social and physical barriers based on ethnicity and ethnic heritage, real or perceived, specifically by an ethnic group who historically dominates in all levels of society. Racism depends on a binary of a superior ethnic group, usually lighter in skin color, over another, minimizing the reality that ethnicity, language, and culture are complex and that many people are also mixed ethnicities. It is important to understand that "race" is a social construct designed to benefit the oppressor, and for that reason it exists. (White supremacy is responsible for creating, perpetuating and maintaining the notion of "race" and racism itself.)

Anti-racism: 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. (NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity)

The Anti-Oppression Network, Terminologies of oppression

Canadian Race Relations Foundation, Glossary of terms

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