Author Topic: missing word? -racialize  (Read 506 times)

mkenuk

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missing word? -racialize
« on: August 12, 2020, 06:30:33 PM »
I tried both racialize and racialized in yesterday's radicalize game, but got the sorry, not known reply both times.
They are in COD, along with the '-ise/-ised' variant spellings, as verbs derived from racialism.

pat

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Re: missing word? -racialize
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2020, 06:37:16 PM »
Yet even the awful 'diarize' (but not 'diarise') was accepted.

mkenuk

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Re: missing word? -racialize
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2020, 07:08:14 PM »
Yes; if someone were to compile a list of 'Words the English Language Could Well Do Without, I think diarize would be at least in the top five!

pat

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Re: missing word? -racialize
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2020, 08:18:30 PM »
Makes you wonder what people plan to do with the time they saved by saying 'I'll diarize it' rather than 'I'll put it in my diary'.  >:D

Alan W

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Re: missing word? -racialize
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2020, 11:56:55 AM »
Racialize is in quite a few dictionaries these days, and the alternate spelling racialise is acknowledged in some of them. The word has a few meanings. Dictionary.com lists these:

Quote
  • to impose a racial interpretation on; place in a racial context.
  • to perceive, view, or experience in a racial context.
  • to categorize or differentiate on the basis of membership in a racial group.

The OED gives examples going back to 1917. Interestingly, the two pre-WWII citations are from religious texts, and seem to be using the word in relation to Jewishness. I suppose this provides some support for the proposition that "race" is basically a social construct.

Of the words derived from racialize, racialized is by far the most frequently used, with racialization coming in second, ahead of racialize itself, racializing and racializes.

Not surprisingly the most recent examples of the use of these terms mostly relate to the current upsurge of Black Lives Matter protests. An opinion piece in USA Today on the 22nd of this month wrote:

Quote
He looked George Floyd’s daughter in the eye, but is Biden really ready to lead our nation through a long-overdue period of policing reform needed to bring about an end to racialized police violence?

I will add to our lexicon as rare words racialize, racialized, racializing and racialization, along with the variants using S instead of Z.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites