who invented the word racism

The word “racism” in English is generally credited to the American Army officer Richard Henry Pratt, who used it in a 1902 speech criticizing racial segregation.

Earliest recorded use

• The Oxford English Dictionary’s first citation of racism is from a 1902 address by Richard Henry Pratt at the Lake Mohonk Conference in New York.

• In that speech, Pratt argued that separating people by race harms their progress and insisted that “association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism.”

“Invented” vs. first attested

• Linguists are careful to say Pratt is the earliest known user in English, not necessarily the first human ever to say the word, because undocumented uses could have existed.

• Related ideas and terms such as “racialism” appear slightly earlier, but “racism” as the now-standard word is first clearly attested in print around 1902–1903.

Context and evolution

• Pratt used the word racism while opposing legal and social segregation, even though his own assimilationist policies toward Native Americans are now seen as deeply harmful and paternalistic.

• The term spread more widely in the 20th century, especially as people discussed scientific racism, colonialism, and later Nazi ideology, and it is now used for both personal prejudice and systemic discrimination based on race.

TL;DR: No single person “invented” the concept, but Richard Henry Pratt is credited with the first known English use of the actual word racism in 1902.