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| An indirect, symbolic, or covert reference to something that some of the audience, but perhaps not all, will recognize. Often used as a rhetorical tool to reinforce one's point, doing so more subtly or with more finesse than a point-blank declarative statement would allow. |
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| "While black feminism is not a monolithic, static ideology, and there is considerable diversity among African American feminists, certain premises are constant: 1) Black women experience a special kind of oppression and suffering in this country which is racist, sexist, and classist because of their dual racial and gender identity and their limited access to economic resources; 2) This 'triple jeopardy' has meant that the problems, concerns, and needs of black women are different in many ways from those of both white women and black men; 3) Black women must struggle for black liberation and gender equality simultaneously; 4) There is no inherent contradiction in the struggle to eradicate sexism and racism as well as the other 'isms' which plague the human community, such as classism and heterosexism; 5) Black women's commitment to the liberation of blacks and women in profoundly rooted in their lived experience." (Guy-Sheftall 2) |
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| Naming two separate and distinct (and usually opposite) parts recognizing no areas in between. Emphasized by the terms "either/or". For example, something is either good or bad, either black or white. The parts are usually inseparable so that definition of one part requires some understanding of the other. |
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| The theory articulated by W.E.B. Du Bois that life in America for African-Americans often forces one to choose between living as "Negro" or as "American," and that this "living on the hyphen" causes a feeling of "two-ness" which can tear one apart. May force African-Americans to view themselves through others' eyes, so that there isn't a true sense of self. Related to Du Bois's notion of "living behind the veil." Since then, the notion of being aware of one's multiple identities and the ways in which they interact (or counteract) has been used to refer to the experiences of "othered" peoples in the US, as well as abroad. |
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| Among the most important of the continuities with the Classical period was the concept of the Great Chain of Being. Its major premise was that every existing thing in the universe had its "place" in a divinely planned hierarchical order, which was pictured as a chain vertically extended. ("Hierarchical" refers to an order based on a series of higher and lower, strictly ranked gradations.) An object's "place" depended on the relative proportion of "spirit" and "matter" it contained--the less "spirit" and the more "matter," the lower down it stood. At the bottom, for example, stood various types of inanimate objects, such as metals, stones, and the four elements (earth, water, air, fire). Higher up were various members of the vegetative class, like trees and flowers. Then came animals; then humans; and then angels. At the very top was God. Then within each of these large groups, there were other hierarchies. For example, among metals, gold was the noblest and stood highest; lead had less "spirit" and more matter and so stood lower. (Alchemy was based on the belief that lead could be changed to gold through an infusion of "spirit.") The various species of plants, animals, humans, and angels were similarly ranked from low to high within their respective segments. Finally, it was believed that between the segments themselves, there was continuity (shellfish were lowest among animals and shaded into the vegetative class, for example, because without locomotion, they most resembled plants). |
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| A rhetorical strategy often used to say something, but in a certain tone (usually understated) to indicate that the author means something different. |
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| A comparison of one thing to another, but without the use of "like" or "as." For example, "Joe is a bear in the morning without his coffee" compares Joe to a bear. |
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| Pan-Indian Self-positioning |
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| A term/concept developed by Thomas King that means having an awareness of post-contact interaction with non-Natives, and a focus on the experience of contemporary Natives. King uses the concept as demonstrating the porosity of borders between gender, race, nation, and genre, for example. Some view the concept as problematic as it diminishes the historical meanings of "Indian" arguing "pan-Indianness" as both everything and nothing at all, thus making Native Americans "vulnerable to exclusion from both Native and non-Native arenas." Others see it as an acknowledgement of contemporary Native American life. (Davidson, Walton and Andrews _Border Crossings_) |
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| A comparison of one thing to another using "like" or "as." For example, "Sally is like a train wreck without her morning caffeine" compares Sally to a train wreck |
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| White privilege refers to the concrete benefits of access to resources and social rewards and the power to shape the norms and values of society that whites receive, unconsciously or consciously, by virtue of their skin color in a racist society. White privilege is a system, like racism. It has to do with how whiteness is typically affirmed, respected and accepted, and how that affirmation and distinction is built into law, policy and institutions, as well as conferring individual benefits (like the ability to shop without being followed, or drive without being stopped). White privilege has many manifestations. For example, public laws and policies and private actions, legal and illegal, have often created benefits for white people that were denied to people of color (for example, the ability to get low-interest long-term mortgages and to buy houses in many suburbs after World War II), and these policies and actions have had long-standing and cumulative consequences. ** It helps to remember that the above concepts are about groups, not individuals. Many individual people of color are healthy, have opportunities for good quality education and excellent jobs even in a racist society; and many individual white people struggle. However, as groups, the data are clear that this is not the typical case. Further, racial inequities continue and are getting worse, not better, on many measures. And there are always effects for individuals, seen or unseen, when one's group is persistently advantaged or disadvantaged, over generations and into the foreseeable future. ** |
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| A perspective on the order of things -- God, Man and Nature -- that emphasizes one's values, morals and ethics. |
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