The word racism only entered general usage in the 1930s

Evidence

“Racism” is a word that came into general usage only in the 1930s. It was at first a positive term launched by fascists to describe the importance they assigned to race, and then became the central term to express intellectual critiques of fascism. Magnus Hirschfeld’s still remarkable antifascist book Racism (1938) marked the turning point, according to Robert Miles (1989:42). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 696

Categorization

• DEFINE: Useful etymology: ‘racism’ began as a fascist-positive self-description before being inverted into the central antifascist term.
• CANDY: The fact that ‘racism’ originally meant something positive to its fascist coiners is a striking, shareable historical irony.
• XREF: connects to: The term racism was coined and first used positively by fascists in the 1930s — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 696; Assimilationists coined ‘racism’ in the 1940s while defining only their rivals’ views as racist. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 17; The Nazis themselves popularized the terms racist and racism — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1359

Broader Connections

• The term racism was coined and first used positively by fascists in the 1930s #corroborates (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 696
• Assimilationists coined ‘racism’ in the 1940s while defining only their rivals’ views as racist. #contradicts (0.75) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 17
• The Nazis themselves popularized the terms racist and racism #corroborates (0.75) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1359