•  Ablebodism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons seen as able-bodied. Alternate forms are able-bodism, able-bodiedism, ablebodiedism, able-bodyism, and ablebodyism. Ablebodism is a category of ableism which focuses on those who are physiologically, rather than psychologically or neurologically, disabled, challenged, or differently abled.
•  Ableism
  • This term (British, disablism) refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons not regarded as disabled (physiologically, psychologically, or neurologically). For readers interested in a more technical discussion, this writer proposes a triple dialectic: the first between the typically abled and differently abled and, more importantly, the second, as a substructure to the first dialectic, between and the typically enabled and differently enabled. A third dialectic juxtaposes the ideal types of diversity, a descriptive construct, which can be subdivided into useful categories and dimensions and disability, a relational construct, which is a property of human agents of disenablement.
•  Adultism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in adults. More specifically, it is an ideology which justifies or supports the oppression of children and youth. In usage, it is similar, or identical, to pedophobia (alternate, pediaphobia) and adultcentrism. Physical, sexual, and emotional child abuse are among the categories of victimization which may, in certain cases, follow from adultism.
•  Ageism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are middle-aged and younger. The elderly are, for instance, often targeted for employment discrimination. Ageism is similar, or identical, to gerontophobia.
•  Antisemitism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are not Jewish. Antisemitism is sometimes called judophobia. It can be related to religiocentrism (as with some Muslim and Christian groups), to ethnicism (as with certain versions of the illuminati conspiracy and the book, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion), and to a type of anti-Zionism which specifically criticizes Israel for actions common to many nations.
•  Audism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are not deaf or hearing impaired. It is a category of ableism or, more specifically, of ablebodism.
•  Biphobia
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are not bisexual. Although the designation refers mainly to discrimination against bisexuals, it can also be used more generally for anyone who is gay, lesbian, or transgendered. It is a category of heteronormativity.
•  Capitalism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in the owners of the means of production. In the modern era, capitalism has become corporate capitalism and is dominated by huge transnational corporations. The name for a world system governed by these entities is a corporatocracy.
•  Classism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are not poor. Institutionalized classism is identical to social stratification. One example of American classism is the myth of the classless society, which sustains class discrimination and inequality by blaming the poor for their poverty or by claiming that one's social class position is entirely a matter of "choice."
•  Colorism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons with lighter skin. Colorism among African Americans, less common now than in the past, can be seen as a category of internalized racism.
•  Ethnicism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who oppress others because of their ethnicity or culture. At the turn of the twentieth century, Jews, Italians, Poles, and others were frequently targets for discrimination in major U.S. cities. Throughout the U.S., Latinos often experience similar problems.
•  Ethnocentrism
  • This term refers to a worldview in which one's own culture (or subculture) becomes the standard by which one judges or evaluates other cultures (or subcultures). It is opposed by cultural relativism, the particularized evaluation of cultures (or subcultures).
•  Fascism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates power in the state. The right-wing government may justify its authoritarian power, and repression of civil liberties, by appealing to nationalist loyalties and pointing to some internal or external threat. In the U.S., fascism, or neofascism, can be seen in the McCarthyism of the 1950s, which scapegoated communists, and in the current war on terror, which has imprisoned and tortured untried alleged "terrorists" in Cuba and elsewhere.
•  Genderism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who conform to one of the two stereotyped gender roles. Thus, the genderqueer (displaying intentional gender ambiguity), the genderf*** (rejecting gender), the transgendered (including both transvestites, or crossdressers, and transsexuals, or individuals who self-identify as the so-called opposite sex), and psychological androgynes (rejecting rigid gender categories) could be targets for discrimination. It is a category of heteronormativity.
•  Heightism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are are not defined as short or tall. Shorter persons are, for example, frequently the targets of bullying. Buildings and automobiles are often designed in such a manner which denies, or complicates, access by tall persons.
•  Heteronormativity
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in those who conform to the heterosexual construct vis-a-vis those with gender differences (see genderism), gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the intersexed (persons with variations in sex development, including those previously called hermaphrodites and those with atypical sex chromosones). Alternate, or related, designations include heterosexism, heterotypicalism, heterocentrism, heteroism, heterosexual bias, sexualism, and sexual prejudice.
•  Homophobia
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are not homosexuals. Alternate, or related, designations include institutionalized homophobia, state-sponsored homophobia, homonegativity, straight privilege, anti-gay bigotry, and sexual orientationism. It is a category of heteronormativity.
•  Institutionalized Oppression
  • This term refers to the objectification of oppressive ideologies in social institutions (such as, the family, religion, government, education, the economy, the sciences, the arts, sports, etc.). When the processes by which these institutions operate, apart from any intentional discrimination, promote inequality, one has institutionalized oppression. For instance, the state of the economy in many poor, minority areas prevents most people from moving out of poverty.
•  Internalized Oppression
  • This term refers to the subjectification of oppressive ideologies and their institutionalized expressions (such as racism and institutionalized racism). It is similar to the Marxian concept of false consciousness. When oppressed persons believe the lie, or ideology of oppression, told to them, reactions may include self-hatred, isolation, poor performance, and a lashing out at others (which this writer calls counter-racism). For example, there is an internalized white racism in some Black Muslim and some Black Israelite groups who attack the white racist social construction of Blacks by asserting that whites have no souls. Claims of neurological and evolutionary superiority by some persons on the spectrum of autisms can be regarded as internalized neurelitism. Positively, internalized oppression may give rise to liberation ideologies.
•  Intersexphobia
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are not intersexed (having variations in sex development). The intersexed include those who were previously called hermaphrodites and those with atypical sex chromosones. Intersexphobia is, first, a category of heteronormativity and, second, a category of ableism or, more specifically, of ablebodism. It is related to, or identical with, homochromosexuality.
•  Islamophobia
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction, becoming most prominent in the months following September 11, 2001, which has sometimes resulted in discrimination against Muslims (or those, like Sikhs, who were often believed to be Muslims). Islamophobia can, in some cases, be related to religiocentrism (as in certain Christian groups) or to ethnicism (as in anti-Arabism and anti-Iranianism).
•  Lesbophobia
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are not lesbians. Lesbophobia (or lesbiphobia), in effect, combines homophobia with sexism.
•  Liberation Ideologies
  • This term refers to a dialectical antithesis, or reaction, to oppressive ideologies. Liberation ideologies, analogous to Karl Marx's class consciousness and Karl Mannheim's utopia, are often a proactive response to the internalization of particular oppressive ideologies. Examples are found in the various African American liberation theologies, contextualized in Christianity (as with Barak Obama's erstwhile pastor, Jeremiah Wright), in Islam (as with Noble Drew Ali, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, and Iranian scholar, Ali Shariati), and in the Black Hebrews (as with Yahweh ben Yahweh's Nation of Yahweh). Similarly, neurodiversity and feminism refer, respectively, to ideologies of liberation within the autistic community and among women.
•  Linguisticism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who speak a particular language, possess a large vocabulary, or have a certain accent.
•  Lookism
  • This term, sometimes called appearanceism, refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are regarded as good-looking. Consequently, those who do not conform to the image of the idealized female (or sometimes male) are targeted for discrimination. Lookism can, in some cases, be a category of sexism or ableism.
•  Misandry
  • This term refers to a hatred of males resulting from patriarchy or male dominance. It is an expression of internalized male sexism (a category of internalized oppression).
•  Nationalism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in one nation over others. It is often manifested in imperialism and xenophobia. As an example of the latter, it is surely not lost to the poor in developing nations that a great many Americans, and certain media pundits in particular, seem more concerned about so-called illegal immigration, a concept thoroughly inconsistent with an historical American openness to persons from other countries, than about working, in concert with other wealthy nations, to address the problems of global poverty. By criminalizing "illegal" Mexican immigrants, Third World poverty itself has, in effect, been criminalized. In other words, Mexicans have become a convenient detractor from American irresponsibility.
•  Neurelitism
  • This term, coined by the writer, refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in the neurotypical majority vis-a-vis the neurodivergent minority, particularly autistics. Although the designation, neurelitism, applies principally to the oppression of individuals on the spectrum of autisms, it can also encompass those with ADHD, intellectual challenges, and other developmental differences. It is a category of ableism. Another suggested term is autiphobia, but it may be too close, in both sound and spelling, to autophobia, used variously for a fear of being alone, self-hatred, and a fear of oneself. Yet another, neurotypicalism, unfairly demonizes or stereotypes an alleged population category, rather than focusing on the oppressive ideology.
•  Normalism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons regarded as psychologically normal. The ideology of normalism, a category of ableism, is sometimes called psychophobia, mentalism, and psychosiphobia (pronounced, sI-`kO-si-`fO-bE-ə). It may result in discrimination against those labelled, or stigmatized, as mentally ill, former psychiatric hospital patients, etc. The struggle against liberation is frequently called mad liberation and connected with mad pride.
•  Power Elitism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in certain social classes or statuses. It would include various persons in the military-industrial complex, government, higher education, journalism, consulting, lobbying, etc. Power elitism can also be referred to, simply, as elitism. It is opposed by populism (anti-elitism).
•  Racism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in European, or white, Americans. Being accorded "whiteness" has historically been treated as a privilege. At one time, for instance, Irish, Italian, and Jewish Americans were not defined as white. Depending on usage, racism is equivalent, or related, to racialism.
•  Religiocentrism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in in a particular religion or religious organization. Members of other religions or religious organizations may be targeted for discrimination. Some companies, for instance, have practiced a form of cronyism by hiring or promoting only those persons who had a similar religious loyalty or membership. In medieval Europe, the Inquisition by the Roman Catholic Church could be regarded as religiocentric or, more precisely, christocentric. Religiocentrism can be similar, or identical, in usage to sectarianism.
•  Reverse Discrimination
  • This term, from a critical perspective, illustrates oppressive ideology. When a segment of the population, long privileged, feels threatened (economically or otherwise) by the increasing power, or perceived increasing power, of an oppressed population, they may claim to be treated unjustly themselves. Defenders of the concept of reverse discrimination, usually reverse racism, often associate affirmative action with quotas, while promoting the socially conservative color-blind society model, which proposes that racial differences should be irrelevant to hiring, academic admissions, and other social processes. White males have, in the short term, the most to lose, and the least to gain, from establishing greater racial and gender equality.
•  Sexism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in males. Depending on usage, it can also be regarded as equivalent, or related, to misogyny. It may be manifested in androcentrism (placing males at the center of one's view of culture or history), as patriarchy (a society in which men govern, or rule over, women), or as misogyny (a hatred of women). The U.S., including its family structure, has traditionally been patriarchal.
•  Sightism
  • This rarely used term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are sighted vis-a-vis the blind or visually challenged. It is a category of ableism or, more specifically, of ablebodism.
•  Sizeism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in persons who are regarded as not being fat (a designation which has been embraced by the fat liberation movement).
•  Transphobia
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in non-transgendered persons. Transprejudice is similar or identical in usage. Transsexuals and transvestites are often the objects of discrimination. Transphobia is a category of heteronormativity or, specifically, of genderism.
•  Two-Partyism
  • This term refers to an oppressive social construction which situates some combination of power, wealth, privilege, and prestige in Americans who are regarded as Democrats or Republicans (and in the parties themselves). Under the U.S. non-parliamentary system of governance, especially with the electoral college in presidential contests, so-called third parties, and those who belong to them, have virtually no power or political voice.