The story
From racial + -ism. Coined in 1882 based on the older use of "race" as a synonym of "nation, tribe, ethnic group", later senses (from 1890) from the use of "race" for racial categories.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
racialism
Today it means: The belief that humans can be categorized as belonging to distinct races, each race being characterized by fixed and heritable traits. Full definition →