Vocabulary

Vocabulary, Critical Reference: 

 

Subject: a person or thing that is being discussed, described, or dealt with. A branch of knowledge studied or taught in a school, college, or university. A broad idea or body of knowledge; a subject is like an umbrella that covers many topics and issues

Topic: a more focused idea, discussion, matter or issue that identifies a specific person, moment, and the issue at hand. A topic is “funneled” from a subject; often a topic results from asking questions of the subject: who, what, why, where, how

Theme: recurring images, ideas, feelings, and words (language) within a given topic or broader subject. Topics that appear across multiple texts, video, and audio.

Community: a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

Agrarian: relating to cultivated land or the cultivation of land. A person who advocates a redistribution of landed property, especially as part of a social movement.

Identity: the distinguishing character or personality of an individual. The relation established by psychological identification of the self.

Personal Narrative: a story written about a personal experience; from the “I” perspective 

Advocacy: one who pleads the cause of another; specifically: one who pleads the cause of another before a tribunal or judicial court. Self-Advocacy: to plead your own cause.

Subversive: undermine or disprove the power and authority of an established system or institution. To point out abuses of power. 

Context: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.

The Americas: inclusive of North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean Islands (the West Indies, the Greater and Lesser Antilles)

Indigenous: originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.

Colonization: (historically enacted by Europe) the action or process of settlement among the indigenous people of an area, whereby the colonizer establishes control over the colonized through the taking of natural resources, and through the exploitation and enslavement of native people (historically African people) and “indentured servants.”

Diaspora (Dyaspora): the movement of a population of people from their homeland. These movements are often forced as a result of atrocities such as invasion, enslavement, dictatorship, impoverishment, and the need for natural resources such as food and water. This movement can also come from a choice to emigrate. In Haiti, the word retains a Kreyol spelling and uses “Y.” http://www.diasporaalliance.org/what-is-a-diaspora/

Liberation: Freedom from limits on thought or behavior. To be free from oppression, imprisonment, enslavement. Release.

Indigenous, native – people that are originally from that land. Can also be used to refer to crops, plants, culture and practices.

Media: the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, that reach or influence people widely.

Inference: a conclusion, judgement, perspective or opinion derived from evidence and reasoning

Binary: consisting of, indicating, or involving two. (False Binary: an “either/or” logical fallacy whereby an inaccurate and simplified comparison of two concepts, experiences or items is presented and reduces or ignores the complexities of the two subjects being compared, as well as ignores at least one additional, related subject. An inaccurate correlation of subjects, opposition of subjects, or assessment of related subjects either by intention (deceit) or ignorance . Also called a “False Dilemma.”

Genocide: attempt to eliminate a group of people based on a shared characteristic or perceived characteristic