Key Terms & Definitions
- Campus Unit: Bias Incident Support Services
- Updated:
In order to be assist campus community members’ understandings of and responses to hate-bias incidents and hate crimes, the Hate-Bias Response Program has created a list of key hate-bias terms and definitions.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ableism | Prejudice and/or discrimination against people with disabilities. IDEA establishes the following categories of disabilities: Autism, Deaf-blindness, Deafness, Developmental delay, Emotional disturbance, Hearing impairment, Intellectual disability, Multiple disabilities, Orthopedic impairment, Other health impairment, Specific learning disability, Speech or language impairment, Traumatic brain injury, Visual impairment, including blindness. |
| Anti-Semitism | Prejudice and/or discrimination that is directed towards Jews. |
| Bias | An inclination or preference either for or against an individual or group that interferes with impartial judgment. |
| Discrimination | The denial of justice and fair treatment by both individuals and institutions in many arenas, including employment, education, housing, banking and political rights. Discrimination is an action that can follow prejudicial thinking. |
| Hate | An extreme dislike for something or someone. If that hate is based on an aspect of someone’s identity (e.g. race, religion, gender/gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, etc.) it can result in interpersonal bias, discrimination, hate incidents, hate crimes and/or involvement in an organized hate group. |
| Hate-Bias Incident | Hate bias incidents are acts characterized by some expression of hate or bias against a particular group, or towards an individual because of their membership in that group. Hate bias incidents may range from acts of ignorance or indifference, to acts directed to inflict harm. |
| Hate Crime | A hate crime is a criminal act (against person or property) that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s hate or bias towards a particular group or individual because of their membership in that group. |
| Heterosexism | Prejudice and/or discrimination against people who are or who are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). |
| Islamophobia | Prejudice and/or discrimination against people who are or who are perceived to be Muslim, and a fear or dislike of Islamic culture. |
| Nationalism | Identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. |
| Nativism | The policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants. |
| Prejudice | Prejudging or making a decision about a person or group of people without sufficient knowledge. Prejudicial thinking is frequently based on stereotypes. |
| Racism | Prejudice and/or discrimination against people based on the social construction of race. Differences in physical characteristics (e.g., skin color, hair texture, eye shape) are used to support a system of inequities. |
| Sexism | Prejudice and/or discrimination against people based on their real or perceived sex. Sexism is based on a belief (conscious or unconscious) that there is a natural order based on sex. |
| Xenophobia | Prejudice and/or discrimination against anyone or anything that is perceived to be foreign or outside one’s own group, nation or culture. Xenophobia is commonly used to describe negative attitudes toward foreigners and immigrants. |
Hate-Bias Response Program
Topics
Type
Campus Unit