Words, Terms, and Meanings

Windows help people see others who live in the world.  By watching others, we can see similarities and differences in them that we can compare to our own selves.

Mirrors help people see themselves in a story.  A story that shares the disparities, struggles, and even accomplishments of someone like the reader.  The reader can gain encouragement and more so - strength by understand someone's life experiences.

Mono-racial Families where all children and parent is of the same ethnicity


Trans-racial Families where the children are of another ethnicity


Bi-racial Family in which the parents are of different ethnic groups.


Singular identity exclusively black or exclusively white

Border identity exclusively biracial

Protean identity sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes biracial

Transcendent identity no racial identity

“Although I've described myself as "half-Peruvian" or "half-Jewish" as a shortcut in the past”, “I am not half of anything.” “I am made of multitudes, not fractions.”  This is an awesome statement that promotes self-identity and self-awareness.  (Brown, 2014)

Cisgender: Types of gender identity where an individual's experience of their own gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

Genderqueer: A term which refers to individuals or groups who “queer” or problematize the hegemonic notions of sex, gender and desire in a given society. Genderqueer people possess identities which fall outside of the widely accepted sexual binary (i.e. "men" and "women"). Genderqueer may also refer to people who identify as both transgendered AND queer, i.e. individuals who challenge both gender and sexuality regimes and see gender identity and sexual orientation as overlapping and interconnected.

Pansexual: A person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction for members of all gender identities/expressions, not just people who fit into the standard gender binary (i.e. men and women).

LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQA, TBLG: These acronyms refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and Asexual or Ally. Although all of the different identities within “LGBT” are often lumped together (and share sexism as a common root of oppression), there are specific needs and concerns related to each individual identity.

Here are more words that I use with my students to introduce multicultural books:

Multicultural
Multiculturalism

International
Global
Globalization

Culture
Cultural
Cross-cultural
Intercultural

Diversity

Social aspects
Social Issues

Ethnic
Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability
Handicapped
Barrier-free design
Apparatus for the handicapped
Rehabilitation technology

Religion

Religious aspects

Multiethnic

Race, racial
Discrimination in employment
Minority

Aged
Elderly

Older People