Aboriginal
Relating to Indigenous people
who are native to Australia
activists
People who campaign to bring
about social change
amendments
Additions or minor changes
made to a constitution
assassinated
Murdered for political or
religious reasons
bathhouses
Houses or places in which
sexual activity took place
boycotts
Campaigns to avoid goods or
services from a particular source
caste
A traditional social class in India
charter
A written document defining rights
granted by a ruler or government
Chicano
An American of Mexican descent
civil disobedience
A refusal to comply with
particular laws, usually as a form of peaceful
political protest
colonies
Areas governed by a country in
other parts of the world
Confederacy
The government of 11
Southern states that broke away from and
fought the Union to protect their way of life,
which was based on slavery
conservative
Holds traditional views
constitutions
Collections of basic ideas on
which countries’ governments are based
deported
Removed from the country in
which a person lives
desegregated
Ended the separation of
two groups, usually of different races
discrimination
The unjust treatment of
groups of people based on characteristics
such as race, gender, or religion
economic
Related to the production and
distribution of goods and services
exports
Goods sold by one country
to another
gender
The social, rather than biological,
characteristics of being male or female
guerrilla
Describes irregular warfare
based on military tactics such as ambushes
homosexuality
Being sexually attracted
only to people of one’s own sex
incarcerated
Confined in prison
Indigenous
Native to a particular place
Middle Ages
The period of history
between about 1000 and 1453
militant
Using confrontation and violence
to achieve a political goal
nobles
Members of the elite aristocracy
of a society
non-cooperation
A refusal to cooperate
with laws or authorities
occupation
To seize a building or area
by moving into it and refusing to leave
pressure groups
Organizations that try
to influence the actions of governments
quadriplegia
Without the use of both arms
and both legs
racial profiling
Suspecting someone of a
crime because of their race
ratified
Signed, or made officially valid
refugees
People forced to leave their
countries due to war, persecution, or poverty
round dances
Indigenous folk dances
in which dancers form one large circle
sit-ins
Protests in which activists refuse to
leave a place until their demands are met
sovereignty
The authority of a country or
group to govern themselves
status
An accepted position in a society
systemic racism
Racism that is embedded
in the laws and practices of a society or
organization, rather than in the attitudes of
specific individuals
transgender
Describes a person whose
gender identity is different from the sex
they were assigned at birth
unalienable
Not being able to be
removed from the possessor
Glossary
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