Tyring to track down the etymology and history of the words racism, racist, etc. Not having much success with 0 access to the unabridged OED, but did find some interesting comments in Barkan's THE RETREAT OF SCIENTIFIC RACISM (CUP 1992).
These are--- 1. The words "racial" and "racism" appear in the OED for the first time in 1972. The OED notes "racial" had been in use since the late 19th century. 2. Part of the theses of the book is that prejudice based on racial differentiation (=racism), and this being a bad thing did not start gaining popularity in either academic or social circles until sometime in the late 1920s or 1930s. I've only been skimming this book since I got it a month ago, but so far, he doesn't provide any date on when the word racism is used. Hmm, anybody got a 1946 copy of Montague's MAN'S MOST DANGEROUS MYTH handy???? So, once again, the context issue arises... Later, MEH
