Schools - addressing racism and racist incidents: guidance

Annex C: Glossary of terms

Adversely racialised: this term is used in this guidance in place of ‘minority ethnic’, to recognise that it is systems and structures that do not work for those who are categorised on the basis of “race”, and because of this are sometimes treated differently or disadvantaged. The term includes all people, groups and communities who experience racism and highlights that racism is a systemic problem where systems and structures unequally advantage or disadvantage people and communities, based on their perceived ”race”.

Colourism or shadeism refers to discrimination or prejudice that is based on the skin tone of adversely racialised people or groups. People may be negative towards others who have a darker skin tone or treat those with a lighter-skin tone better. Colourism can manifest both within and between adversely racialised groups.

Internalised racism occurs as a result of subliminal messages of racial inferiority and superiority present in society. This can cause adversely racialised people to internalise negative messages and stereotypes about their own, and other, ethnic groups. This lowers self-esteem and replicates damaging impacts of racism for the individual affected and others affected by their beliefs.

Interpersonal racism: Prejudices, individual actions and discriminatory behaviours where a person makes assumptions about the abilities, motives and intents of other people based on race. This set of prejudices can lead to cruel actions (e.g. racist hate speech) and unintentional actions towards a person or a group of people.

Institutional racism refers to racism created within an organisation by rules, customs, processes and practices which have been planned without regard to the potential impact on people from adversely racialised groups. It may, or may not, coincide with directly racist actions on the part of an institution or its employees. The impacts of the institution’s work and the way it operates are racist, regardless of whether the people within the institution have racist attitudes themselves.

Racial Microaggressions are subtle, regular interactions that reflect bias or stereotypes. They take the form of demeaning, disrespectful or insulting comments, which are often unintentional and therefore harder to challenge. Racial microaggressions are everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to people based solely on race. These hidden messages can invalidate the person, demeaning or excluding them on a personal or group level. The individual and cumulative impact of racial microaggressions can have a significant impact on health and wellbeing.

Structural or societal racism refers to the economic, political, social and cultural structures, actions and beliefs that systemise an unequal distribution of privilege, resources, safety and power in favour of the dominant racial group at the expense of all other racial groups. Examples of this can be found in the over-representation of certain adversely racialised in poverty and unemployment.

Victimisation refers to treating someone unfavourably because they have made a complaint about discrimination or harassment. In schools, children and young people may fear negative reactions from school staff or other pupils if they report an incident of racism. This may in turn dissuade or prevent them from reporting incidents that they have experienced.