Trending: ‘white supremacist’

White supremacist was among our top lookups on January 10th, 2019, after a member of Congress publicly mused on the history of the word.

Steve King asks how terms "white nationalist" and "white supremacist" became offensive https://t.co/yIQiipHFqu pic.twitter.com/bytLp1niHh

— The Hill (@thehill) January 10, 2019

We define white supremacist as “a person who believes that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races.” White nationalist, another term which caught Representative King’s eye, is defined as “one of a group of militant whites who espouse white supremacy and advocate enforced racial segregation.”

Neither white supremacist nor white nationalist is labeled as offensive in our dictionaries. The evidence of use suggests that although the words are used by speakers of English to describe a thing which is viewed as offensive by many (the subjugation or forcible separation of a race) the words themselves are intended to be descriptive and accurate, rather than pejorative. We do not provide labels for ideas that are offensive.

The White Supremacist … In the light of the election held last Tuesday “The Champion of White Supremacy” appears in rather bad shape.
— St. Landry Clarion (Opelousas, LA), 2 Apr. 1892

If you want to see one of that class of white supremacists “take water,” just ask him if he is willing to submit his chances or that of his friends to white primaries, and see how quick he will begin to hum and haw and evade the question.
— St. Landry CLarion (Opelousas, LA), 15 Sept. 1894

The negroes voted in the municipal elections to-day at Opelousas, but it was only through the presence of the militia that they were allowed to do so, as the white supremacists or regulators say openly that had the troops not been on hand not a single negro would have been allowed to cast a vote.
— Cincinnati Enquirer, 7 Apr. 1896