Age, Ageism: Referring to a person's age in a context in which age is not relevant reinforces U.S. society's emphasis on youth as the optimum stage of life. In the work force, "older workers" become another group to be demeaned or protected. In the media, women are often designated as "grandmothers" when their maternal and grand-maternal status is irrelevant. American Indian and Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment. It includes people who classify themselves as described below. § American Indian: Includes people who indicate their race as “American Indian,” entered the name of an Indian tribe, or report such entries as Canadian Indian, French-American Indian, or Spanish-American Indian. § Alaska Native: Includes written responses of Eskimos, Aleuts, and Alaska Indians as well as entries such as Arctic Slope, Inupiat, Yupik, Alutiiq, Egegik, and Pribilovian. The Alaska tribes are the Alaskan Athabaskan, Tlingit, and Haida. Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. It includes “Asian Indian,” “Chinese,” “Filipino,” “Korean,” “Japanese,” “Vietnamese,” and “Other Asian.” § Asian Indian: Includes people who indicate their race as “Asian Indian” or identify themselves as Bengalese, Bharat, Dravidian, East Indian, or Goanese. § Chinese: Includes people who indicate their race as “Chinese” or who identify themselves as Cantonese, or Chinese American. § Filipino: Includes people who indicate their race as “Filipino” or as Philipino, Philipine, or Filipino American. § Japanese: Includes people who indicate their race as “Japanese” or as Nipponese or Japanese American. § Korean: Includes people who indicate their race as “Korean” or Korean American. § Vietnamese: Includes people who indicate their race as “Vietnamese” or Vietnamese American. § Cambodian: Includes people who indicate their race as Cambodian or Cambodia. § Hmong: Includes people who indicate their race as Hmong, Laohmong, or Mong. § Laotian: Includes people who indicate their race as Laotian, Laos, or Lao. § Thai: Includes people who indicate their race as Thai, Thailand, or Siamese. § Other Asian: Includes people who indicate their race as Bangladeshi, Burmese, Indonesian, Pakistani, or Sri Lankan. Assimilation: The process whereby a group gradually adopts the characteristics, customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture. Bias: An inclination of preference, especially one that interferes with impartial judgment. Bicultural: A person who is bicultural has the ability to function effectively and appropriately and can select appropriate behaviors, values and attitudes within either culture. Bigotry: Prejudice carried to the extreme of overt hatred, often carried to the point of violence. Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as “Black or African American,” or as African American, Afro American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian. Change Agents: Change agents are individuals within an organization, at any level. They are educated about managing diversity, and committed to facilitating change by modeling appropriate behaviors. They also take every opportunity to ensure that systems, policies and practices are flexible enough to work for everyone, modifying them as appropriate. Change agents include top leadership, management and employees at every level. Because managing diversity represents a major change in the management of human resources, without multi-level change agents implementation will stall. It requires support from leaders with vision, credibility and authority -- our champions. A managing diversity champion actively supports the organization's commitment to managing diversity and is seen by others as a valued member of the current culture and thus has credibility as the organization moves to the new vision. Classism: Any attitude or institutional practice which subordinates people due to income, occupation, education and/or their economic condition. Cross-cultural: The interaction, communication, or other processes between people or entities from two or more different cultures. Cultural Competence: The ability to function effectively in a society of culture variation. Cultural Conditioning: The unconscious process by which we are socialized to adopt the way of thinking of our own group. Cultural Diversity: Developing organizational processes that are inclusionary rather than exclusionary for cultural conformity. Culture: The collective behavior patterns, communication styles, beliefs, concepts, values, institutions, standards, and other factors unique to a community that are socially transmitted to individuals and to which individuals are expected to conform. Discrimination: Illegal treatment of a person or group (either intentional or unintentional) based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, handicap, or veteran's status. The term also includes the failure to remedy the effects of past discrimination. Making decisions in prejudicial manner that may exclude or deny opportunity; making distinctions based on racial, ethnic, or distinguishing features such as usage, religious identification of disability. § Combination of prejudice (superiority/inferiority belief system) and institutional power, the power to impose that system on others § Without power, we all have about the same ability to be prejudiced § Destructive "isms" (racism, sexism, ageism, ethnocentrism, handicapism, homophobism, etc.) § Use of institutional power to reinforce biased belief systems and to disadvantage others. Diverse Supplier: a U.S. citizen that owns a business certified as small, minority, or woman-owned. Diversity: Diversity is any collective mixture characterized by similarities and differences. It can refer to people, organizations, systems, etc. As a consequence, diversity can be defined as, or limited to, any dimension such as workforce diversity or functional diversity. Domestic Partner: Unmarried partners who share living quarters. Typically used in connection with legal and insurance matters related to gay and lesbian couples. Ethnic: Of or relating to people grouped according to a common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin. Ethnicity: A sense of being different than other groups because of cultural tradition, ancestry, national origin, history, or religion. Ethnocentrism: The emotional attitude that one’s own race, nation, or culture is superior to all others. Gay: A common and acceptable word for male homosexuals, but used for both genders. Glass Ceiling: Barriers, either real or perceived, that affect the promotion or hiring of protected group members. Harassment (Ethnic And Racial): Words or conduct communicated with malice and with the intent to intimidate or harass another person in a way that is associated with that person’s race, ethnicity, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin. Harassment (Malicious): Intentional intimidation associated with a person’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, or mental, physical, or sensory handicap that causes physical injury to another person; or by words or conduct places another person in reasonable fear of harm. Harassment (Sexual) See Sexual Harassment. Hispanic or Latin People who identify with the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” are those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories—"Mexican," "Puerto Rican," or "Cuban"—as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino." Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race. Homophobia: The irrational fear of homosexuals, homosexuality, or any behavior, belief, or attitude of self or others, which doesn’t conform to rigid sex-role stereotypes. It is the fear that enforces sexism and heterosexism. The extreme behavior of homophobia is violence. Homosexual: A person who is emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted or committed to members of the same sex. Inclusiveness: The act of encouraging belonging. Institution Racism: A variety of systems operating within an organization that have attitudes, behaviors, and practices that subordinate persons or groups because of race or ethnic background. Ism: Power plus prejudice. Internalized Oppression: The process by which a member of an oppressed group comes to oppression: accept and live out the inaccurate myths and stereotypes applied to the oppressed group Lesbian: A common and acceptable word for female homosexuals only. Managing Diversity: This is a comprehensive managerial process for developing an environment that works for all employees. This process takes into account the need to change organization systems to sustain the organization’s ability to get from all employees everything they have to offer. It means approaching diversity at all three levels: Individual, team or department and organizational. It deals with the way managers do their jobs. It requires a fundamental change in the culture and the way things are done. It is a change in the corporate way of life. Melting Pot: A place where immigrants of different ethnicity or culture form an integrated and homogenous society. | 
