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Thesaurus (CV)

The Anti-racism Thesaurus is an attempt to express the concepts and terms that are the essence of humankind as one global human family. In keeping with the linked data movement, we envision the Thesaurus to be a series of small, extensible, controlled vocabularies (e.g. schema.org). Thus, the Glossary, an alphabetical list of terms and their definitions has some of the word stock for developing the hierarchy and relationships. Glossary terms and phrases, when completed, will describe anti-racism policies, strategies, and movements, beyond the context of the U.S.A. but in the global arena. Some of these terms are currently used to identify anti-racism themes and concepts in the Collections of the Digital Library. Library of Congress Subject Headings and the Library of Congress Demographic Groups Terms (2015) are two of the main controlled vocabularies used, but others may also be used. Example: The preferred (professional) occupation hierarchy is from the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT).

 

Source for the Thesaurus/CV: The Representation and Treatment of "Anti-racism" in Bibliographic Information Systems and Knowledge Structures: A Research Study by Anita Coleman reported at the Annual Conference of the American Theological Librarians Association, Long Beach, June 2016. Available online.

Anti-racism Controlled Vocabulary: The preliminary framework for a faceted thesaurus has emerged as follows:

Core concept: Anti-racism

Preliminary Facets: 

Beliefs/Values (e.g. Community, Cosmopolitanism, Diversity, Equality, Equity, Faith, Hospitality, Human Rights, Humanism, Inclusion, Justice, Non-violence, Peace, Spirituality, Tolerance, Unity); 

Actions – Practices - Strategies (e.g. Advocacy, Anti-racism training, Anti-violence training, Awareness training, Community building, Conflict resolution, Cultural action,  Cultural democracy, Cultural transformation, Dialog/discussions, Education/Educational events, Empathy, Non-violence, Organizational change, Youth activities, Skill-building training); Political participation; Identity politics; Reparation, Investment

Movements (e.g. Civil Rights movement; Interfaith movement)

Policies (affirmative action; includes laws too, e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) USA); 

Organizations (e.g. Presbyterian Women, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Community Change, Inc., United Nations; Catalyst Project; Anti-racism for collective liberation), 

People (e.g. groups such as African Americans; Indian Americans); 

Periods (e.g. modern, 1492 onwards, etc.);

Space (e.g. United States);

Concepts of anti-racism: Anti-racist education; Bystander anti-racism; Integrative anti-racism; Tolerance; Inclusivity;

Closely related concepts: Diversity, Empathy, Family, Racial imagination (race-based categories/taxonomies/typologies), Racial equity, Racial healing, Racial justice, Restorative justice; Competitive advantage; Innovation

Related concepts: Anti Anti-racism; Anti-racialism; Race; Racism; Racialization, Multiculturism (narrow term); Social justice (broad term) 

Domains/Disciplines: Cultural/Ethnic studies, Education, Identity Politics, International Indigenous studies, Positive peace, Theology;

Peripheral areas: Biology, Cultural anthropology, Genomics, Psychology, Sociology;

Anti-racist policies (examples):

  • diversity
  • inclusivity (or inclusion)
  • neutrality or “colorblindness”* (in the sense of acknowledging color differences but without placing value or constructing hierarchy);
  • cooperative (rather than hostile) workplace environment;
  • affirmative action initiatives and scholarships directed towards increasing diversity;
  • multi-culturalism / pluralism /solidarity

Anti-racist actions (some examples of how people are actively practicing anti-racism):

  • Practicing Cultural Humility – LCSH: Cultural humility
  • Acknowledging White Privilege  – LCSH: White Privilege
  • Interfaith Dialog – LCSH:  Interfaith dialog
  • Christian Witnessing  - LCSH: Witness bearing (Christianity)
  • Community Building
  • Faithful Rhetoric – LCSH: Faith; Rhetoric; Civic Engagement
  • Standing in Solidarity – LCSH: Solidarity
  • Original Purpose/Divine Calling (for everybody not just clergy) – LCSH: Vocation

Anti-racist movements (examples):

Anti-apartheid movements; Black Lives Matter; Civil Rights Movement; Indigenous or Self-development of People movement; Interfaith movements; Interspirituality movements; Niagara movement, Sustainability movements (e.g. campus sustainability); crowdsourced syllabi (campus activism movement, Open Syllabus); Reclaiming (movements where people co-opt previously negative language to make it positive)