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Epistemic violence is “violence against knowledge”. It’s when knowledge, the people who possess it, and/or the means of acquiring it are silenced, eliminated, discredited, or otherwise annulled.
Here’s an example: for a long time in the US and Canada, Native American/First Nations children would be taken from their homes and sent to boarding schools or foster homes where they would be taught European language, religion, and general ways of living and would be prohibited from speaking their native languages or practicing their own religions.
This is epistemic violence because its goal was to destroy Native ways of thinking, traditional knowledge, etc.
(The boarding schools were also plenty violent on the physical sense, as well.)
If you want to know more than the ELI5 version, check out the book *Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing* by Miranda Fricker for the full treatment.
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