Meanings
- derogatoryuncountableThe revisionist portrayal of something as belonging to a black race of people.
If Pindell opposes the 'whitewashing' of history, then Walker's is a revisionist blackwashing.
2008, Celeste-Marie Bernier, African American Visual Arts, page 2151 more example
This “blackwashing,” in Hare's opinion, was the work of black studies departments and the black faculty […]
2013, Jonathan Scott Holloway, Jim Crow Wisdom, page 118 - uncountableThe application of a coating of blackwash.
The blackwashing is here to be the very last operation, and to be well performed, and when dry must be polished by a large sleeker fitting the circle of the cylinder.
1852, Frederick Overman, The Moulder's and Founder's Pocket Guide, page 120 - derogatoryuncountableThe revisionist portrayal of something as evil.
Historical writing proliferates in examples of tendentious accounts of national history, where the “whitewashing” of one history goes hand in hand with the “blackwashing” of another.
2007, Robert Stam, Ella Shohat, Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism, →ISBN, page 12
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of blackwash
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Cite this entry
blackwashing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackwashing
“blackwashing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackwashing. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blackwashing,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackwashing.
Source: blackwashing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.