Can You back that up with an actual quote?
Did Leon Trotsky Invent Racism?
BY
JAMES A. CHISEM · JANUARY 24, 2017
Every generation believes that it is living through a unique epoch—one not only
defined by novel phenomena and challenges, but one likely
to define the course of human history. On occasion, this belief is warranted, but most of the time it proves to be an indulgent and specious distraction.
As Hegel was at pains to stress, all great historical facts and figures appear at least twice; “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce”, as Marx later added. And so it is with all the recent talk of ‘fake news’, the emergence of a ‘post-truth world’, and the rise of the ‘Alt-Right’. In the olden days, people might have referred instead to ‘propaganda’, ‘urban myths’, or ‘white supremacists’.
Same thing, different century. In some cases, quite literally.
Take, for example, the
curious anecdote, popular among the far right, that Leon Trotsky coined the word ‘racist’, thus giving birth to the modern (and supposedly pernicious) concept of racism—a concept designed, so it is said, to shut down debate and discussion and shame those whose views fall outside the mainstream.
Much like the conceit mentioned in the opening paragraph, this version of the past is compelling, pervasive, and hard to shift. It is also patently false.
The terms racist and racism have a long and storied history that predate Trotsky himself. ‘
Raciste’ and ‘
racisme’ crop up regularly in the works of late-19th and early-20th century French agitators, while their English language counterparts first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1902.
A guide for the bewildered.
ordinary-times.com