white supremacy

noun

1

: the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races

The alt-right is a reactionary conservative movement … . It is characterized by an embrace of fascism, white supremacy, and misogyny …

—Constance Grady

2

: the social, economic, and political systems that collectively enable white people to maintain power over people of other races

… [William] Kelley turned his considerable intellect and imagination to the question of what it is like to be white in this country, and what it is like, for all Americans, to live under the conditions of white supremacy …

—Kathryn Schulz

Examples of white supremacy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

At a time when white newspaper leaders in the U.S. South helped plan and build the violent political, economic, and social systems of white supremacy that hardened into Jim Crow, Black journalists used their newspapers to document the fight for a multiracial, inclusive democracy. —Christmaelle Vernet & Kathy Roberts Forde / Made By History, TIME, 28 Feb. 2025

What happened in Anaheim a century ago shows how to combat tyranny and white supremacy — and also that the work is never really done. —Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2025

This is about white supremacy, and all of the systems that intertwine with that. —Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAY, 24 Feb. 2025

Comedian Bill Maher in October slammed Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates for claiming standardized testing traces its roots back to white supremacy. —Jackson Walker, Baltimore Sun, 8 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1824, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

white supremacy

noun

: the belief that the white race is superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races

white supremacist noun