Meanings
plural race realists
- euphemisticA believer in scientific racism (“racism presented as science or as supported by science”); a person who believes empirical evidence exists to support the notion of innate racial differences (that some races are superior and others inferior).
The self-described “race realist” is unrepentant in embracing the label and expounding his views.
2016 August 26, Jason Wilson, “'The races are not equal': meet the alt-right leader in Clinton's campaign ad”, in The Guardian2 more examples
Taylor, a Yale graduate with international degrees, uses pseudoscience to make racism appear natural and calls his colleagues "race realists" (Fogg, 2006). These race realists were presenters at American Renaissance’s Seventh Biennial International Conference in Virginia in February of 2006 and included Nick Griffin.
2009, Mary E. Earick, Racially Equitable Teaching: Beyond the Whiteness of Professional Development for Early Childhood Educators, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 39The publication of Galton's novel was picked up online by so-called race realists, whose websites I shall not flatter by listing, which further positioned it within the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature of ‘white crisis’ (Bonnet, 2008: 18–19).
2013, Debbie Challis, The Archaeology of Race: The Eugenic Ideas of Francis Galton and Flinders Petrie, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, pages 12–13 - One who believes that the human species is divided into observable races.First known use 20th c.
A critical race realist should utilize the best of both these approaches.
2008, Gregory Parks, Shayne Edward Jones, W. Jonathan Cardi, Critical Race Realism: Intersections of Psychology, Race, and Law3 more examples
Professor Gordon considers himself a "race realist." Consequently, one must ask: Has it ever occurred to your intellectual realist to question the "scientifically neutral" criterion or criteria upon which the institution of those "neighborhood lines" were based in the first place?
2007, Delores P. Aldridge, E. Lincoln James, Africana Studies: Philosophical Perspectives and Theoretical ParadigmsWhen race is restricted to the biological viewpoint, two opposite positions are encountered: (1) race detractors, who believe race is a pure social concept and has no biological reality and (2) race realists (Malik, 2012), who believe race has some biological reality, is not only a mere vision of the mind, and could be a usual proxy for biomedical studies.
2016, Michel Tibayrenc, “The Race/Ethnic Debate: An Outsider's View”, in Michel Tibayrenc, Francisco J. Ayala, editors, On Human Nature: Biology, Psychology, Ethics, Politics, and Religion, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 635Constructionists use it to demolish the opposition without fear of contradiction, because by claiming that race realists hold essentialist positions, they poison the well with definitions of race that their proponents cannot recognize.
2017, Anthony Walsh, Science Wars: Politics, Gender, and Race, Routledge, →ISBNAntonyms: race detractor
- not comparablePertaining to the belief that scientific evidence exists for inborn racial differences ("race realism": scientific racism), generally used to support racial discrimination or the idea that some racial groups are inferior to others.
Some authors also refer to this kind of approach as critical realism (cf. Parks, 2007, who develops what he calls a critical race realist approach, as discussed in Section 6.3.1).
2010, Norma Romm, New Racism: Revisiting Researcher Accountabilities, →ISBN, page 2772 more examples
Even Neil Risch, the contemporary genticist whose work has done the most to gain acceptance for a race realist viewpoint, both within the academy and among the wider public, is 'not sure what race means [because] people use it in many different ways.'
2003, Carol M. Swain, Russ Nieli, Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America, →ISBN, page 180He is currently working on a forthcoming coedited anthology that examines the issue of anxiety as it relates to contemporary masculinity and a second book that explores the contemporary race realist movement.
2008, Elwood D. Watson, Outsiders Within: Black Women in the Legal Academy After Brown v. Board, →ISBN
Synonyms & antonyms
nounOne who believes that the human species is divided into observable races.
Cite this entry
race realist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/race%20realist
“race realist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/race%20realist. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “race realist,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/race%20realist.
Source: race realist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.