Gaul Atreides (@gaulatreides)

Ok, this semi-myth is very persistent, so let me set the record straight. The first appearance of the word "racist" (raciste, in the French) was by the French author and journalist Gaston Méry, in 1892, in his book 'Jean Jaspar'. Méry intended the word to have a positive connotation, because he was praising French politicians in the north who were racially loyal to their northern constituents, instead of seeking the support of southern Frenchmen. (Back then, the French were keenly aware of something akin to a racial divide between northern and southern Frenchmen.) The first appearance of the word "racism" was in a speech by Richard Pratt, a US Army officer, in 1902. He was using the word with a negative connotation, but in a way that would shock the sensibilities of modern liberals. "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one," Pratt said. "In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." Pratt was a classic "White man's burden" liberal, who believed it was the duty of the White man to reject "racism" in order to lift up the lesser races to the White man's standard. Later, the jew Trotsky popularized the word "racism" in his 1930 book "History of the Russian Revolution", in which the word appeared hundreds of times. Not long after Trotsky latched onto the term and viralized it, the jew Magnus Hirschfeld (you may remember him from his work as a sexual pervert pushing trannies on Weimar-era Germans) used the word for the title of his 1934 book "Racism". A bit on the nose, you might say. So, to summarize: "Racist": coined by a Frenchman in 1892 to describe an admirable trait. "Racism": used in a speech by a US Army officer in 1902 to convince Whites to civilize Indians. Trotsky: Co-opted the term to demonize White Europeans Hirschfeld: Ditto