Race
A socially defined category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people.
Ethnicity
A socially defined category based on common language, religion, nationality, history, or another cultural factor.
Symbolic ethnicity
An ethnic identity that is only relevant on specific occasions and does not significantly impact everyday.
Minority group
Members of a social group that is systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to society's dominant groups but who are not necessarily fewer in number than the dominant groups.
Racism
A set of beliefs about the superiority of one racial or ethnic group; used to justify inequality and often rooted in the assumption that differences between groups are genetic.
Prejudice
An idea about the characteristics of a group that is applied to all members of that group and is unlikely to change regardless of the evidence against.
Discrimination
Unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice.
Individual discrimination
Discrimination carried out by one person against another.
Institutional discrimination
Discrimination carried out systematically by institutions that affect all members of a group who come into contact with it.
Passing
Presenting yourself as a member of a different racial or ethnic group than the one you were born into
Embodied identity
Those elements of identity that are generated through others' perceptions of our physical traits.
Miscegenation
Romantic, sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races.
Affirmative action
Programs or policies that seek to rectify the effects of past discrimination by increasing representation and ensuring equal opportunity for any previously disadvantaged group.
Genocide
The deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, national, or cultural group.
Population transfer
The forcible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied.
Internal colonialism
The economic and political domination and subjugation of the minority group by the controlling group within a nation.
Segregation
The formal and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity.
Assimilation
A pattern of relations between ethnic or racial groups in which the minority group is absorbed into the mainstream of dominant group, making society more homogenous.
Racial assimilation
The process by which racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage.
Cultural assimilation
The process by which racial or ethnic groups are absorbed into the dominant group by adopting the dominant group's culture.
Pluralism
A cultural pattern of inter-group relations that encourages racial and ethnic variation within a society.