White flight
White flight is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of White people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Avoid.
Search Results for: ethnic
urban
Urban is widely used as a euphemism for Black people, a way to connote but not directly point to African American neighborhoods or culture. Urban music, urban fiction, urban comedy and urban neighborhoods are often used as codewords for culture and districts associated with Black people and the phrases sometimes imply stereotypes of poverty and …
redlining
Redlining is a discriminatory practice that puts financial services out of reach for residents of certain areas based on race or ethnicity. It can be seen in the systematic denial of mortgages, insurance, loans and other financial services based on location rather than on an individual’s qualifications and creditworthiness. Coined by sociologist John McKnight in …
master bedroom/bathroom
The terms master bedroom and master bathroom have been used for years to denote the largest and best-appointed bedrooms and bathrooms in a home. But architects, home builders and real estate professionals have begun to avoid the terms because of their racist and sexist undertones. Instead use terms like owner’s suite and primary bedroom. …
inner city
The term inner city has been used as a euphemism for lower-income residential districts, sometimes — but not exclusively — referring to Black neighborhoods in a downtown or city center. Instead, use neutral adjectives like city center, downtown or central urban when referring to city neighborhoods and words like under-resourced or low-income when referring to …
grandfather in, grandfather clause
A way to exempt some people from a zoning or legal change because of conditions that existed before the change (e.g., existing properties would be grandfathered in or older buildings are exempt under a grandfather clause.) The term grandfather clause originated in the American South in the late 1800s as a way to enfranchise poor …
intersectionality
A lens that recognizes identities such as gender, race, class, sexual orientation and others cannot be examined in isolation from one another; they interact and intersect in individuals’ lives, in society and in social systems. This lens also can help clarify the ways an individual, such as a White gay man, can simultaneously experience privilege …
coded language
Substituting terms related to race or racial identity with seemingly race-neutral terms that disguise explicit and/or implicit bias. Examples include “inner-city” and “urban” as code for Black people, people of color or low-income people.
“circle the wagons”
This phrase is commonly used to mean “to become defensive” or “to confer only with people within a trusted group.” Be aware that some Indigenous people and others find the phrase offensive because it hearkens back to a brutal era of North American colonialism. The phrase refers to the practice by Conestoga wagons to form …
urban music, urban contemporary
“Urban” and “urban contemporary” have been used for decades as catchall terms to categorize rhythmic music made by Black artists — primarily R&B and hip-hop — but connotations associated with these names have often segregated those artists from mass-market platforms such as Top 40 radio. In June 2020, in response to the resurgence of the …