The Meaning of Racist: What It Is and How To Use It

What does it mean to call someone racist, or to call someone a racist? This article will talk about the meaning of racist and how to use it.

Your writing, at its best

Compose bold, clear, mistake-free, writing with Grammarly's AI-powered writing assistant

Have you or someone you know ever been called racist? What does this word imply, and how can it be used in a sentence? This article will define the word racist and teach you to use it in a sentence. Additionally, it will provide alternate words to use in place of the word racist and teach you translations of racist.

What Does the Word Racist Mean?

According to Dictionary, racist can be used as a noun or an adjective to refer to someone who perpetuates racism. Therefore, someone who is racist discriminates based on race. Discrimination can come in all shapes and sizes, from institutional racism against minorities to microaggressions. 

The pronunciation of this word is ˈreɪsɪst. The definition of racism is the belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race. Systemic racism and institutional racism refer to policies or government systems that favor people in the majority ethnic group and discriminate against minority groups.

How Can Racist Be Used in a Sentence?

Racist can be used as either a noun or as an adjective. Study the below example sentences containing the word racist to see how to use racist in a sentence. In each of the below sentences, see if you can identify which part of speech it’s using. 

After you look at these example sentences, see if you can use the word racist in a sentence of your own. Be careful: Calling someone racist can be very inflammatory — only say it if you really mean it!

Example #1: A Law About Racist Things

The Supreme Court passed a law against racial inequality to try and prevent racial prejudice, systemic racism, and bigotry. While individual people would continue to be racist, it meant that the law could dismantle racist systems. 

Example #2: Racist Attitudes in Another Country

Apartheid in South Africa was due to racist attitudes and systemic oppression because of skin color. Racism exists in many countries.

Example #3: Racist Beliefs Against Native Americans

Throughout the investigation, they uncovered racial discrimination and profiling against Native American groups of people. As a result, the company was prosecuted for hate crimes.

Example #4: Combating Racist Beliefs

The civil rights movement in America in the 20th century sought to end structural racism for African Americans like segregation, though white people will still practice white supremacy.

Example #5: A Man’s Racist Remarks

The man made racist remarks about the women speaking Arabic. We could not believe that he would generalize about a racial group. However, we were sure that it was that brazenly racist toward Muslims, he would certainly be racist toward Black people, Asians, and other people of color.

What Are Translations of Racist?

Unfortunately, racist people exist in more than just English-speaking countries. If you are trying to say that something is racist in another language, this list of translations of racist from Nice Translator is a great place to get started. Take a close look at these translations, and see which ones look and sound similar to the word racist.

  • Malayalam: വര്ഗീയവാദി
  • Hungarian: rasszista
  • Romanian: rasist
  • Slovak: rasista
  • Greek: ρατσιστής
  • Catalan: racista
  • Norwegian: rasist
  • Latvian: rasistisks
  • Serbian: расиста
  • Japanese: 人種差別主義者
  • Malay: rasis
  • Slovenian: rasist.
  • Portuguese (Brazil): racista
  • Chinese (PRC): 种族主义的
  • Polish: rasistowski
  • Tamil: இனவெறி
  • Russian: расист
  • Portuguese (Portugal): racista
  • Indonesian: rasis.
  • Dutch: racistisch
  • Swedish: rasist
  • Czech: rasista
  • Croatian: rasistički
  • Basque: arrazista
  • Hebrew: גִזעָן
  • Finnish: rasistinen
  • Welsh: hiliol
  • Marathi: जातीवादी
  • Thai: เหยียดผิว
  • Urdu: نسل پرست
  • Chinese (Taiwan): 種族主義的
  • Ukrainian: расист
  • Spanish: racista
  • Danish: racist
  • Italian: razzistA
  • Bengali: বর্ণবাদী
  • Bulgarian: расистки
  • German: Rassist
  • Kannada: ಜನಾಂಗೀಯ
  • Estonian: rassistlik
  • Turkish: ırkçı
  • Arabic: عنصري
  • Korean: 인종 차별 주의자
  • Lithuanian: rasistinis
  • Amharic: ዘረኛ
  • French: raciste
  • Telugu: జాత్యహంకార
  • Vietnamese: phân biệt chủng tộc
  • Hindi: जातिवाद
  • Filipino: rasista
  • Gujarati: જાતિવાદ

What Are Synonyms of Racist?

The word racist is extremely strong and can easily offend people with its strong connotation. If you are looking for a similar word for racist, you can reference this list from Power Thesaurus. Be careful before using any of the below words, as many of them can be considered offensive.

  • anti-multicultural
  • anti-semite
  • anti-semitic
  • antiblack
  • apartheidlike
  • biased
  • bigot
  • bigoted
  • bigots
  • chauvinist
  • chauvinistic
  • colonial
  • colonized
  • discriminating
  • discriminatory
  • divided
  • dogmatist
  • ethnic nationalism
  • ethno-nationalistic
  • ethnocentric
  • extremist
  • fanatic
  • fascist
  • illiberal
  • imperialist
  • imperialistic
  • insulated
  • intolerant
  • isolated
  • jingo
  • jingoist
  • male chauvinist
  • monocultural
  • narrow-minded
  • national independent
  • nationalist
  • nationalistic
  • nazi
  • neutral
  • opinionated
  • opinionated person
  • prejudiced
  • racial
  • racialist
  • racially discriminatory
  • segregated
  • segregationist
  • separate
  • separated
  • sexist
  • sovereign
  • supremacist
  • xenophobe
  • xenophobic

What Are Antonyms of Racist?

If you want to call someone the opposite of racist, you can use any of the below antonyms of racist from Power Thesaurus. These words can refer to people who are open-minded and do not hold any prejudice toward people of another race. Of course, anyone would enjoy being called the opposite of racist.

  • accepted
  • accommodating
  • agreeable
  • agreed
  • anti-discrimination
  • antiracist
  • approved
  • believing
  • beneficial
  • big
  • bounteous
  • bountiful
  • broad
  • broad-minded
  • compliant
  • considerate
  • cooperative
  • credulous
  • detached
  • disinterested
  • dispassionate
  • easygoing
  • fair
  • forgiving
  • genial
  • helpful
  • impartial
  • indulgent
  • lenient
  • liberal
  • long-suffering
  • loose
  • merciful
  • multicultural
  • neutral
  • non-aligned
  • non-discriminatory
  • non-judgemental
  • non-partisan
  • non-racist
  • nonracial
  • objective
  • obvious
  • open-minded
  • patient
  • permissive
  • politically correct
  • prejudice-free
  • reasonable
  • spacious
  • sympathetic
  • taken
  • thoughtful
  • tolerant
  • unbiased
  • understanding
  • undogmatic
  • unprejudiced
  • unspecific

Conclusion

The word racist can be used as a noun or an adjective to refer to a person who believes in racism. If someone is racist, they have prejudice toward those who are not the same race as them. The word racist can not only refer to people who are racist but also to systems of inequality that are racist.

Sources:

  1. Racist synonyms – 220 Words and Phrases for Racist | Power Thesaurus 
  2. Racist antonyms – 31 Opposites of Racist | Power Thesaurus 
  3. Racist Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com 
  4. Racist | Nice Translator