Antiracism.  The practice of becoming aware of and uprooting personal racial prejudice and bias plus working to dismantle systemic practices by institutions that lead to racial inequalities in society.

 

Antistructuralism.  A disinclination to consider structural or systemic factors, usually in favor of emphasizing individual or interpersonal factors instead.

 

Assimilation.  The downplaying of one’s ethnic distinctiveness in order to fit in with the dominant group.

 

Attribution Error.  A cognitive bias that causes people to attribute blame in lopsided ways.  Ultimate attribution error, for example, causes us to blame a community of people group for their plight rather than adequately taking situational factors into account.

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Critical Race Theory (CRT).  A framework for processing and understanding the many complex dimensions of how race impacts systems and society as whole.

 

Disciple (or Discipleship).  Jesus extended this invitation to his first disciples: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people” (Matthew 4:19, NASB).  A disciple (1) follows Jesus, (2) is transformed by Jesus, and (3) is on mission with Jesus.

 

Discrimination (or Racial Discrimination).  The act of treating people from different racial groups differently, resulting in some racial groups receiving worse treatment than others.

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Ethnicity.  A God-ordained cultural identity which God delights in as a means of bringing glory to himself and enrichment to his kingdom.

Ethnocentrism.  The belief that one’s ethnic group is normative and/or superior to others.

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Individualism.  A cultural lens that understands the individual, rather than the collective, to be paramount.

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Lament.  A prayer of pain that leads to trust, the key steps of which are turn, complain, ask, and trust.  Lament can be personal, corporate, and divine.

 

Prejudice.  Making a judgement prior to having sufficient facts; a preconceived opinion.  In conversations about race, prejudice implies having a negative preconceived opinion about another race.  Prejudice often leads to discrimination.

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Race.  A man-made system used to stratify humans into artificial categories based on visible characteristics such as skin color, typically for purposes related to power, division, and hierarchy.

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Racialized Society.  A society in which race matters profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships.  The term was popularized in Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith.

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Racism.  Personal racial prejudice, bias, and systemic practices of institutions that lead to racial inequalities in society.

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Reconciliation.  An ongoing spiritual process involving forgiveness, repentance and justice that restores broken relationships and systems to reflect God’s original intention for all creation to flourish.

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Relationalism.  A cultural lens of White evangelicalism that attaches central importance to interpersonal relationships and tends to neglect systemic realities.

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Rediscipleship.  The process of being discipled again: rediscipleship is necessary because all people have to some extent been unconsciously been “discipled” by the racial narratives of the world.

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Reparations.  Tangible acts of restitution and repair.

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Solidarity.  The experience of being united as one body in common life and purpose; the voluntary sharing of joys and challenges as an expression of unity.

 

Systemic Racism (or Structural Racism).  Persistent patterns of racial inequity that characterize systems, policies, and institutions as a whole, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

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Unconscious Bias (or Implicit Bias).  The biases we unconsciously hold that create a gap between our intentions and our impact when it comes to the fair treatment of others and biblical equity.

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White Flight.  The phenomenon of white families fleeing their neighborhoods to avoid racially integrated schools.

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White Theology.  Theology (though not static or monolithic) that comes out of a white cultural context.