R | Scouts

A Jewish scholar or teacher, especially one who studies or teaches Jewish law, or a person appointed as a Jewish religious leader.

In summary

There’s not one ‘right’ way to talk about people from minority, underrepresented, or underserved ethnic communities.

If you’re talking about an individual (and it’s relevant to mention their race or ethnicity), use the language they prefer.

If you’re talking about a group of people, be specific and use words that accurately describe them.

If you really need an umbrella term to talk about all minority ethnic communities, at Scouts we’ve decided to use ‘Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities’, ‘diverse ethnic communities or ethnically diverse communities’, and ‘underrepresented or underserved ethnic communities’.

Avoid using the acronym BAME and write the term out in full.

Understanding race and ethnicity

Race is a way of categorising people based mainly on physical things, such as skin colour, hair and appearance. These categorisations began because White people believed they were superior and wanted to try to justify dominating others.

Ethnicity is broader than race: it’s based on a combination of cultural experiences, religious practices, traditions, ancestry, language and dialect, or national origins.

One reason that people use different terms to talk about race and ethnicity is that they’re both socially constructed. This means that they’re not objective categories – they’re ideas that people in society have created and accepted. As a result, the categories and ideas (and the words we use to talk about them) change depending on time and place.

At the same time, racial identity is important to many people because it forms the basis for collective action, activism, empowerment, and equality movements.

Talking about race and ethnicity at Scouts

There’s not one ‘right’ way to talk about people from minority, underrepresented, or underserved ethnic communities. The most appropriate term to use often depends on the context and what you’re talking about.

It’s important to remember that language keeps evolving. We should understand the meaning behind the words we use, keep up to date with terms, and be willing to refresh our language.

Making the effort to use inclusive language is about including everyone in our conversations and showing values like respect, empathy, and care. It isn’t about being ‘politically correct’.

Individual people’s preferences

Identity is personal. People describe themselves and their race and ethnicity in different ways. Listen to and respect how people want to be described – if you’re not sure (and you actually need to know because it’s relevant to what you’re writing), politely ask how someone would prefer to be described.

This doesn’t mean asking them where they’re ‘from’ – it means explaining the context of what you’re writing and asking someone (or a group) how they’d like to be described.

Be specific

It’s best to be as specific as possible when talking about race and ethnicity: avoid using umbrella terms whenever you can. Instead, think about the racial or ethnic group you’re actually talking about and use language that reflects that specific group. There are always limitations to using a racial or ethnic ‘grouping’; being as specific as you can is the best place to start.

For example, if you’re talking about people from Nigeria, say ‘Nigerian people’ or ‘people of Nigerian heritage, backgrounds, or communities’. If you’re writing about the experiences of Black young people, say ‘Black young people’.

Black and Asian aren’t nouns. They should only be used as adjectives to describe ‘Black people’ or ‘Asian people’. Don’t say ‘Blacks’ or ‘Asians’. In the same way, say ‘a Black person’ or ‘an Asian person’. Don’t ‘a Black’ or ‘an Asian’.

When you’re taking about people, it’s better to use numbers of people than percentages.

Capitalising Black and White

We follow the Associated Press and New York Times in our decision to capitalise Black when we’re using the word in a ‘racial, ethnic or cultural sense.’

The Associated Press capitalises Black to convey ‘an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person’.

The New York Times capitalises Black to ‘better reflect a shared cultural identity.’

We also capitalise White for consistency.

Umbrella terms

Of course, there’ll be times when you are talking about all minority ethnic communities. It’s important to remember that umbrella terms have limitations. They don’t describe a group of people who are all the same. They try to combine lots of distinct racial or ethnic identities, even though there’s significant diversity between them.

It’s a good idea to check in with yourself and think carefully about whether you could be more specific.

And if you genuinely need to use an umbrella term? Here are some of the common ones we’ve decided to use, and some of the common ones we don’t use as umbrella terms when we’re writing for or about Scouts.

Black, Asian and minority ethnic

This term is usually used as an umbrella term to refer to people of non-White ethnicities, though sometimes it’s used to include people of White minority ethnicities too.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other organisations use this term when they’re gathering and talking about data and statistics in the UK. However, wherever possible (for example, when the sample size is big enough), we should break data down beyond this category.

At Scouts, we use ‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic’ when we need to group people in data and the sample sizes are too small to be specific. This includes the data from our annual Census.

More and more people are criticising the term because it’s over-used and used inappropriately. People often use ‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic’ when they could use a more specific term. The term also makes it sound like it’s describing one ethnic identity, when it actually covers multiple, diverse ethnic identities.

If you use this term, it’s important to be clear who you mean. Avoid using the acronym BAME and write the term out in full.

Don’t use this term when you could talk about a specific racial or ethnic group instead. Don’t use the term as an adjective, and don’t use it to describe an individual’s identity (for example, don’t say ‘He's Black, Asian or minority ethnic’).

Don’t use the term instead of saying ‘race’ or ‘ethnicity’, for example, talk about ‘racial inclusion’ not ‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic inclusion’.

Diverse ethnic communities or ethnically diverse communities

If you’re talking about Scouts’ ambitions to reflect the diversity of local or national communities, you could talk about reaching, reflecting, or representing diverse ethnic communities or ethnically diverse communities.

Underrepresented or underserved ethnic communities

You could use these terms to talk about minority ethnic groups that are underrepresented or underserved in Scouts or wider society.

People of colour or person of colour (POC)

At Scouts, we avoid the term ‘people of colour’ – though we know it’s popular in the US and that some people in the UK like using it too.

If someone prefers to be called a ‘person of colour’ (or a group of people want to be called ‘people of colour’), it’s OK to use ‘person of colour’ and ‘people of colour’.

Racialised and racially minoritised

At Scouts, we avoid the terms ‘racialised’ and ‘racially minoritised’ because they define people’s entire identities based on how they’ve been oppressed.

Offensive terms

Some terms are offensive. Never use ‘coloured’ or ‘coloured people’, ‘oriental’, or ‘half-caste’.

For more support on talking about race and ethnicity, check out the Inclusion and diversity section of the Scouts website. We’re creating more resources as part of our work on race equity – we’re excited to share them with you.

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