FAQ Category: Equity

To be designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) the institution must have an enrollment of full-time, undergraduate equivalent that is at least 25% Hispanic and then apply to be evaluated for specific requirements. More about these specific requirements and the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics can be found here. 

SFCC Faculty, Staff, and  the Governing Board,remain committed to addressing equity issues that directly impact our stakeholders. The governing board’s policy on equity can be found here: (https://www.sfcc.edu/policy/sfcc-governing-board-policy-diversity/). PDAC stays apprised of local, state, and national politics and responds to areas of concern that directly impact our community.

The SFCC Library has developed a collection of resources on anti-racist teaching, which can be found at Teaching Resources – Anti-Racist Teaching in Higher Education – Research Guides at Santa Fe Community College (sfcc.edu)

SFCC is a data-informed institution, which means that it uses data to identify initiatives and for continuous quality improvement. For the academic year 2021-22 PDAC is working on a Campus Climate Survey to identify potential issues with the student experience that SFCC can address. The committee is also creating a set of reports that can be used to track the outcomes of its work and continually improve our practices. 

SFCC’s strategic plan puts equity at its center and many of the goals are directed towards closing the equity gap by engaging in systemic changes at the college level. In addition, one of our institutional values is People and one way we demonstrate this is by celebrating diversity. For more information on the schools strategic plan and its goals and outcomes, please click here. 

Chicano/a identity was widely reclaimed in the 1960s and 1970s by Mexican Americans as a means of asserting their own ethnic, political, and cultural identity while rejecting and resisting assimilation into whiteness, systematic racism and stereotypes, colonialism, and the American nation-state.

Latinx or Chicanx demonstrates a gender neutral or non-binary stance with those not included in the gendered uses of Latina/o and Chicana/o.

Hispanics are people from Spain or from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.

Latin@ is commonly used amongst Spanish populations, and demarcates a non-gendered person. Latin@ maintains the reference to both “a” and “o” endings in Spanish. This notation , the @,  maintains the masculine and feminine duality that exists in Spanish, thereby constraining the writer to dichotomous conceptions of Spanish.

LGBTQIA+- is an acronyms which  has become more commonplace in regular everyday writing and discourse. While acronyms are never fully inclusive and always expanding, this acronym represents a continuum of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (trans*+, trans, gender creative/expansive/affirmed),  queer/questioning, intersex, ally/asexual, + and too many others to name.

Black Americans– Society has shifted away from identifying Black people as African Americans because not all Black people  are from Africa. African Americans are Black Americans and some prefer to be called African Americans while others prefer to be called Black Americans.

POC is an acronym for persons of color (all non-white folx). 

BIPOC is an acronym  for Black, Indigenous and people of color (all non-white folx). There are some controversies with using this term among the POC community.

Filipinx  is born out of a movement to create space for and acknowledge genderqueer members of the Filipin* diaspora in the white-centric binary places their parents decide to move to (e.g. the United States). The term is also seen as a way to decolonize colonized identity.

MX is a title used before a person’s surname or full name by those who wish to avoid specifying their gender or by those who prefer not to identify themselves as male or female.

Non-binary Hebrew Project: https://www.nonbinaryhebrew.com  (Links to an external site.)

Indigeneity is a term originally defined and accepted in 1972 by the UN Working Group for Indigenous Peoples, but was considered too restrictive and was later amended to what follows in 1983.

Uppercasing the word Black and lowercasing the word white has taken on more usage in the past few years as a way to both reckon the oppression of Black Folk and amplify the crucial importance of shifting ideologies. Lowercasing of white in the same piece of writing serves to highlight this. If they are done in separate pieces of writing, it lacks recognition and effect. Thus, when put in the same piece of writing, this becomes apparent.

• White privilege refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.
  
  Structural White Privilege is a  system of white domination that creates and maintains belief systems that make current racial advantages and disadvantages seem normal. The system includes powerful incentives for maintaining white privilege and its consequences, and powerful negative consequences for trying to interrupt white privilege or reduce its consequences in meaningful ways. The system includes internal and external manifestations at the individual, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels.  (MPA)

Trans*⁺ is technically synonymous, though etymologically different from, trans, trans*, and transgender. It is the experience of having a gender identity that is different from one’s biological sex, or identify outside of the binary altogether. A trans*⁺ (trans, trans*, and transgender) person may be pre- or post-operative and is not defined by any predetermined gender formula. This term has become an umbrella term for nonconforming gender identity and expression. Trans*⁺, when written with an asterisk and superscript plus sign, de-notes transgender identities that continue to emerge. Trans* with only an asterisk denotes a segment of the transgender population that was inclusive of only some trans people’s identities, while excluding others. (sM)

Structural Racism is the normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics – historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal – that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. Structural racism encompasses the entire system of white domination, diffused and infused in all aspects of society including its history, culture, politics, economics and entire social fabric. Structural racism is more difficult to locate in a particular institution because it involves the reinforcing effects of multiple institutions and cultural norms, past and present, continually reproducing old and producing new forms of racism. Structural racism is the most profound and pervasive form of racism – all other forms of racism emerge from structural racism. (MPA)

Settler colonialism refers to colonization in which colonizing powers create permanent or long-term settlement on land owned and/or occupied by other peoples, often by force. This contrasts with colonialism where the colonizer’s focus is only on extracting resources back to their countries of origin, for example. Settler Colonialism typically includes oppressive governance, dismantling of Indigenous cultural forms, and enforcement of codes of superiority (such as white supremacy). Examples include white European occupations of land in what is now the United States, Spain’s settlements throughout Latin America, internment of Asians in the United States imposed by hegemonic structures and beliefs, and the Apartheid government established by White Europeans in South Africa. (MPA)

Restorative Justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by crime and conflict. It places decisions in the hands of those who have been most affected by a wrongdoing, and gives equal concern to the victim, the offender, and the surrounding community. Restorative responses are meant to repair harm, heal broken relationships, and address the underlying reasons for the offense. It emphasizes individual and collective accountability. Crime and conflict generate opportunities to build community and increase grassroots power when restorative practices are employed.  (MPA)

Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one’s racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. When we use the term, we are thinking about racial equity as one part of racial justice, and thus we also include work to address root causes of inequities not just their manifestation. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them.  (MPA)

Racism is when a dominant “racial” group has the power to carry out systematic discrimination through the institutional policies and practices of the society and by shaping the cultural beliefs and values that support those racist policies and practices.

• Racism = race prejudice + social and institutional power
• Racism = a system of advantage based on race
• Racism = a system of oppression based on race
• Racism = a white supremacy system  (MPA)

Queer, despite the negative historical use of this term, has been embraced in the last few decades, particularly by younger members of the larger and ever-growing LGBTQIA+ community. It is an umbrella term that many prefer, both because of convenience (easier than gay, lesbian, etc.) and because it does not force the person who uses it to choose a more specific label for drawing on historical definitions of gender identity or sexual orientation. Queer also refers to a suspension of rigid gendered and sexual orientation categories and is underscored by attempts to interrogate and interrupt heteronormativity, reinforced by acknowledging diverse people across gender, sex, emotions and desires. It embraces the freedom to move beyond, between, or even away from, yet even to later return to, myriad identity categories. Queer is not relegated to LGBTQIA+ people, but is inclusive of any variety of experience that transcends what has been socially and politically accepted as normative categories for gender and sexual orientation.(sM)

Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.