The collection of values, beliefs, language, rituals, traditions, and other behaviors transmitted across generations within distinct social groups. These cultural groups may encompass identities based on shared factors including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity, religiosity, spirituality, and socioeconomic status.

A tendency or predisposition toward favoring or disfavoring the values, beliefs, language, rituals, traditions, and behaviors of distinct cultural or social groups. There are two main categories of biases: motivational and cognitive. Motivational biases towards cultural or social groups are typically derived from self-interest, social influences, or institutional needs, while cognitive biases involve judgments that deviate from evidence, with some being linked to implicit reasoning.

The extent to which individuals within a community or institution experience a sense of inclusion, belonging, affirmation, or isolation. Cultural climate is influenced by the policies, practices, and interactions among members of the community or institution, and the inherent characteristics of the institutional environment.

The possession of skills and knowledge that build upon the recognition of the diversity within and between cultures, a capacity for cultural self-assessment, and a willingness to adapt personal and professional behaviors and practices that are appropriate for professional and personal engagement with distinct cultures. The capacity to effectively collaborate with individuals from diverse cultures in personal and professional settings in a manner in which individuals’ educational, professional, and healthcare experiences and outcomes are enhanced.

A lifelong commitment to continuous learning, self-reflection, and challenging one's own biases regarding diverse cultures different from one's own. Cultural humility recognizes the complexity of identity and the uniqueness, diversity, and variation in each individual's experiences. It aims to address power imbalances and cultivate mutually beneficial and equitable partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and defined populations.

The ability to comprehend and respond with humility to the diverse cultural and identity aspects that individuals bring to interactions within an institution. It necessitates a genuine appreciation and acknowledgment of the diversity that is inherent to humanity, a desire to enhance opportunities for knowledge about distinct social and cultural groups, and the effort to create institutional environments through inclusive policies and practices that ensure that the needs of individuals from distinct social and cultural groups are responded to in a manner that provides pathways to equity.

An unconscious attitude, often referred to as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, directed either for or against a specific social or cultural group. Implicit bias is believed to be formed through experiences and established associations between specific attributes and social categories including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and socioeconomic status. Individuals may have their perceptions and behaviors influenced by these implicit biases, even if they are not consciously aware of holding such biases. Implicit bias is a component of implicit social cognition, illustrating how perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes can operate without deliberate intention or endorsement.

See Implicit attitudes test for assessing your implicit attitudes.

“Prejudice, negative sentiments, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims. Islamophobia may be based on ideas about Islam as a religion and on ideas about Muslims as a cultural and ethnic group. Islamophobic ideas portray Islam and Muslims as a threat to non-Muslims” (Berntzen & Rambøl, 2020, Key Definition section). Hateful rhetoric often leads to discriminatory behavior toward Muslims. In addition, Muslims with overlapping gender and other demographic characteristics may experience intersectional discrimination and stereotyping. For example, Muslim men may be stereotyped as terrorists and violent, whereas Muslim women may be stereotyped as lacking control over their own lives (Clay, 2017). People who present as being from Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African countries may experience Islamophobia regardless of whether they identify as Muslim.

Prejudice and biased actions against individuals and groups based on their religious, and/or spiritual beliefs, practice, adherence, identification, and/or affiliation. Such discrimination has been carried out by individuals, groups, and governments. Examples include social ostracism against individuals on the basis of their religion, desecration of religious buildings or sites, and violence or other hate crimes targeted toward adherents of particular faith traditions (APA, 2007b). See antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Encompassed by the act of stereotyping, holding prejudicial attitudes, engaging in discriminatory behavior, and perpetuating social oppression against individuals with disabilities, thereby hindering their rights and well-being. Various global attitudes and cultural factors contribute to microaggressions and discrimination against people with disabilities including but not limited to deficit-oriented language, assumptions about the cognitive abilities of individuals with visible disabilities, and practices and policies that do not acknowledge or affirm the needs of individuals with varying types of disabilities.

A dynamic process that is shaped by an individual’s needs, interactions with the environment, and personal preferences. It is achieved when individuals with disabilities can access information, engage in identical interactions, and enjoy the same services as those without disabilities in an integrated and equitable manner.

A comprehensive concept describing the interaction of physical, psychological, intellectual, and socioemotional differences with the social environment. Some subcultures within the larger culture of disability, comprising people with disabilities, have specific ways of referring to themselves that they would prefer others to adopt. The overarching principle in using disability language is to uphold the worth and dignity of all individuals as human beings.

The conditions in which an individual's neurology varies from the neurological "majority”; these variations include autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder/condition, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. Neurodivergent conditions are often associated with diagnoses that fit specific presentations or behaviors, but they are not solely dependent on having a formal diagnosis. Individuals who are neurodivergent frequently encounter stigma, devaluation, and objectification.

A process of developing products and building environments to be used by all individuals to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation.

The elimination of erasure, bias, and discrimination, among other barriers that contribute to inequitable opportunities to obtain or be included in opportunities in employment, education, organization, community, and services among others.

Individuals engaging in the intentional recognition of the unearned privilege they receive from society’s privileging of Whiteness, Cisnormativity, Christianity, heterosexuality, and ableism, among others. Allies take responsibility for advancing equity, by acting with and for those in pursuit of ending oppression while centering the rights and voices of those who have been systematically marginalized. Marginalized populations define how individuals can engage in allyship with them towards equity.

The degree to which members of a community feel included, affirmed, or excluded within an organization or institution. Climate is shaped by organizational and institutional policies, practices, interactions among members of an institution, and the objective characteristics of the setting.

The representation or composition of various social identity groups (e.g., age, gender identity, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, language, disability, sexual identity, socioeconomic status, etc.) and perspectives within a community, organization, or institution.

An environment that engages in the practice of offering affirmation, celebration, and appreciation of diverse approaches, styles, perspectives, and experiences, thus allowing all individuals to express their whole selves in their intersecting identities and to demonstrate their strengths and capacity within the setting.

The complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination combine, overlap, or intersect— especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups—to produce and sustain complex inequities.

The process or experience of being subjected to social, political, and economic disadvantages or discrimination, among others, based on characteristics including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity, religion, or other identity factors.

One’s social position in a given society in relation to race, ethnicity, and other social identity statuses (e.g., age, gender identity, religion, national origin, immigration status, language, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status) within systems of power and oppression. Positionality refers to individual identities and the intersection of those identities and positions with systems of privilege and oppression.

Commitment to creating fairness and equity in society as it relates to the resources that all people should access to, and the protection of their rights in institutions, and systems.

The term African American has been historically used to refer to Americans with African ancestry, emphasizing ethnicity, while the term Black is used to refer to a racial group and the culture experienced by individuals in this racial group. When used universally to describe individuals of African descent worldwide, the term “African American" neglects diverse ethnicities or national origins (e.g., Nigerian, Kenyan, Jamaican, Bahamian, Puerto Rican, Panamanian); in such cases, the term "Black" is more appropriate.

The acronym AMENA is used to refer to individuals who identify with ethnic groups, nationalities, and cultures originating from the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East, and North Africa. AMENA groups are inclusive of individuals who are Egyptian, Emirati, Iranian, Israeli, Moroccan, Palestinian, and Syrian, among others. Americans who are of Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African descent may be referred to as Egyptian Americans, Palestinian Americans, Israeli Americans, etc.

The term Asian is used to refer to individuals of Asian ancestry. Asian American describes the population of Americans of Asian descent (i.e., East, Southeast, India). Asian groups are inclusive of individuals who are Chinese, Korean (i.e., North or South), Filipino, Indian, and Japanese, among others.

The term BIPOC is used to acknowledge the social inequities and injustices that exist among people of color, and in elevating disparities that severely impact Black and Indigenous populations.

Discrimination or prejudice based on skin color, whereby individuals with lighter skin are favored over individuals with darker skin.

An individual's psychological sense of belonging to a specific ethnic group. This sense of identity may involve the process of the incorporation of shared social, cultural, linguistic, religious, and often racial factors without being identical to any single factor.

The social identity of individuals or the characterization of individuals assigned to them through social, political, and cultural processes based on shared cultural and other factors (e.g., language, food, music, dress, values, and beliefs) related to ancestry and history.

The term Hispanic has been historically used to refer to individuals who are of Spanish descent or whose ancestry is linked to Spanish-speaking countries. It is also used as an ethnic term in the United States. The term Latine/a/o/x is used to refer to individuals of Latin American origin or descent. Latine/a/o/x groups are inclusive of individuals who are Brazilian, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Colombian, among many others. Note: Latine and Latinx are gender-inclusive terminology, whereas Latino and Latina are gendered terms used to refer to individuals among these ethnic groups that are historically seen as “masculine” and “feminine” respectively.

Indigenous populations are comprised of the descendants of those individuals who inhabited and served as guardians of a land (i.e., geographical region, country, territory) and beings endemic to such land before individuals of differing cultures, ethnic origins, and nationalities became dominant through colonization, occupation, settlement, and other means. Indigenous populations are inclusive of those of the Americas, Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa, among others, each with distinct characteristics and cultures that have endured the violence that is endemic to colonization, occupation, and settlement. The United Nations has developed an understanding of indigeneity based on self-identification, acceptance of an individual as a member of an indigenous community, historical continuity, and pre-colonial and pre-settler societies, linkage to territories and surrounding natural resources, distinction in linguistic, cultural, belief, social, economic or political systems, and the resolve to ensure the endurance and reproduction of their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive individuals and communities.

The term Jewish is used to refer to individuals who may be of Jewish descent, identify with Jewish culture, are of Jewish Nationality (i.e., Israeli), or practice Judaism.

Citation: Jew Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Palestinians are an Arab ethnic group with diverse religious affiliations, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or no religious affiliation. They have a longstanding connection to the land of historic Palestine, which today comprises Israel as well as the territories known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, recognized under international law as the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Attributing characteristics of value and ability based on perceived or actual socioeconomic status, along with the attitudes, policies, and practices that perpetuate socioeconomic status-related inequality. It functions to delineate and strengthen social class distinctions, manifesting through biased or discriminatory attitudes, language, or behaviors directed at individuals due to their perceived or actual socioeconomic class. Such manifestations can occur in various contexts, including interpersonal interactions, education, housing, healthcare, legal assistance, politics, public policy, and beyond.

Encompasses the unearned advantages, protections, immunities, and access experienced by a select group of individuals who typically hold special status or power within a society or culture. This status and privilege are typically granted in relation to wealth, financial status, occupational prestige, cultural or societal leadership roles, or fame and recognition. These advantages contribute to disparities endured by other groups and contribute to the establishment of perceived and tangible hierarchies within a community, culture, and/or society.

Also referred to as social class; the social standing or class of a group or individual, often assessed as a combination of education, income, and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized in terms of access to resources such as income, housing, education, and healthcare.

Individuals who do not identify with or experience any gender.

An umbrella term used to describe the vast spectrum of individuals who may have no or little sexual desire or attraction towards others. Individuals who identify as asexual may still desire emotionally intimate relationships.

The romantic, emotional, and/or sexual attraction to, or engagement in romantic or sexual relationships with, more than one gender.

Individuals whose gender identities may align with historically and culturally normative ideas of the designated roles, behavior, personality, and expression patterns of their sex assigned at birth.

Systematic bias is based on the idea that all people are cisgender, thereby leading to discriminatory beliefs and behaviors towards transgender, gender expansive, gender independent, and nonbinary people.

A term that may be used broadly to refer to individuals who have physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to people of the same gender. This term has also been used to refer to the physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction or behavior between men.

The spectrum of “masculinity”, “femininity”, “gender expansive”, and “nonbinary status” that is inclusive of expression, identity, behavior, and sociocultural constructs. Historically gender has been conflated with sex assigned at birth (i.e., sex assigned during prenatal and perinatal periods based on the designation of biological structures as male, female, or intersex - sex chromosomes, hormones, and internal genitalia).

An individual who does not consistently adhere to one fixed gender, and may move among genders.

An individual's psychological sense of their gender. The deeply felt, inherent sense of being nonbinary, a woman/girl, man/boy, among many other gender identities. Gender identities are not mutually exclusive (e.g., an individual may identify as a man and nonbinary at the same time).

The fear, dread, prejudice, discrimination, and hatred of nonheterosexual forms of behavior, relationships, and communities (e.g., individuals who identify as bisexual, lesbian, or gay, among other sexual identities).

Refers to the physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction or behavior between women.

Individuals who identify with or express a gender that is not conflated with the gender binary (i.e., male/man or female/woman).

An enduring disposition to experience or not experience (i.e., asexual) sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions to individuals who are nonbinary, women, men, or identify as another gender identity. An individual's sense of personal and social identity in relation to their attraction (or non-attraction), behaviors expressing them, and membership in a community of others who share them.

Often referred to as an umbrella term used to describe the vast range of individuals whose gender identities and/or gender roles do not conform to what has been historically associated with sex assigned at birth.

The fear, prejudice, discrimination, and hatred of transgender, gender expansive, gender independent, and nonbinary people.