A Note on Language  

Synergi recognises that terms within the racial justice field are not perfect. In differing contexts and time periods terms can be helpful and unhelpful, and so we recognise that language and definitions are fluid. We have developed a framing in relation to language, to guide us but we also recognise that how we use language within Synergi will change and evolve over time.   

In working towards abolitionist and radical spaces, the language we use is framed through our values. We hold commitment to continue to build, learn and adapt the language we use. Below, we have outlined key terms which have emerged through the Theory of Change development.   

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Abolition

We recognise that not all racialised and BPoC communities will be familiar with or use the word ‘abolition.’ We use this word purposefully to mean dismantling harmful practices found in UK mainstream mental health systems. For the project, abolition encompasses intersectional, racial, disability justice.  

Black People and People of Colour (BPoC) 

This includes communities who identify as Black, Asian, and ethnically minoritised. We may will link to references that use ‘BAME’ meaning ‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic’, ‘BME’ Black Minority Ethnic, or ‘ethnic minorities’. However, we know that some people experience this framing as unhelpful, as different communities experience racism and discrimination in different ways.  

Black Mad Activism 

Stemmed from resistance to individualised and medicalised approaches to mental health and disability. We name this movement in our Theory of Change as it recognises structural racism and oppressive systems, such as unequal access to adequate healthcare, carceral practices and spaces, and housing discrimination produce distress, rather than these being presented as individualised ‘pathologies’.  

Global Majority  

We sometimes use the term ‘global majority’ to highlight that there are more black and brown people in the world than white, to reframe this linguistically without centring whiteness 

Race

The problem of language is abundantly apparent when using words around race. Different people and communities will use different words to talk about their identities, and there is no one word or phrase which will capture everyone’s experience. 

Racialised 

Synergi recognises that ‘race’ and ‘racial’ categories are historical and political constructions and these categories are applicable to everyone. We also recognise that the global majority (the group of people in the world who do not consider themselves or are not considered to be white) are othered and marginalised via a process of racialisation within white supremacist structures and systems. To exclude the notion that white people are not also racialised, can support Whiteness as normative to those designated as white. This perpetuates those who are racialised as white in remaining invisible whilst maintaining the hierarchy and position in which races is measured against.   

“As long as race is something applied only to non-white peoples, as long as white people are not racially seen and named, they/we function as a human norm. Other people are raced, we are just people. …The point of seeing the racing of whites is to dislodge them/us from the position of power, with all the inequities, oppression, privileges, and sufferings in its train, dislodging them/us by undercutting the authority with which they/we speak and act in and on the world.” (Dyer, 1997: 152 -153).

Synergi also recognises that Black People and People of Colour (BPoC) are racialised differently and within an intersectional framework. These racialisations have deep social implications and impacts. This also includes acknowledgement of Political Blackness as a form of identity, which does not always account for racialised privileges.  

Racialised people and communities 

We use this term to exclude people and communities racialised as ‘white’ and refer to communities and BPoC in a UK context. We use ‘communities’ consciously and purposely to be broad as to include the diverse ways in which people organise and includes structures and terms such as, groups, collectives, and organisations.   

Movement 

There is a long tradition of civil rights campaigning and organising within marginalised communities. We see this with Mad Pride, Black Lives Matter, and LGBTQIA+ Pride (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, or asexual). We are not reinventing the wheel, but continuing the legacy of the survivors, activists and community workers that laid foundations for us to build on. 

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