deniggerize

D2E1N1I1G2G2E1R1I1Z10E1

verb

To raise (a black person, etc.) above the traditional negative racist stereotypes.

Opposite
Scrabble 23

Meanings

verbdeniggerize (third-person singular simple present deniggerizes, present participle deniggerizing, simple past and past participle deniggerized)

present singular third person deniggerizes · participle present deniggerizing · participle past deniggerized · past deniggerized · alternative deniggerise

  1. offensivesometimestransitiveTo raise (a black person, etc.) above the traditional negative racist stereotypes.

    A broad spectrum of African-Americans have used education to deniggerize themselves […]

    1996, Carl Upchurch, Convicted in the womb: one man's journey from prisoner to peacemaker
    2 more examples

    But Al had accused Holly of going beyond the wishing to live the delusion that she had escaped the trap of blackness and had become an adored equal in a racist white world that considered her deniggerized and no longer tainted […]

    2000, Iceberg Slim, The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim, page 89

    Included in Killens's attempt to change or deniggerize the world was a continual verbal assault on literary, media, and educational establishments relative to their collectively abysmal record of promoting positive Black images.

    2003, Keith Gilyard, Liberation memories: the rhetoric and poetics of John Oliver Killens, page 140
  2. offensivesometimestransitiveTo free from black people or their influence.

    In some areas black schools were integrated only after insulting efforts to 'deniggerize' the school were carried out (replacement of all toilet seats, fumigation of the school, etc.

    2010, Stuart Buck, Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, page 85

Synonyms & antonyms

Opposite

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

deniggerize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deniggerize

MLA

“deniggerize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deniggerize. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “deniggerize,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deniggerize.

Source: deniggerize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.