origin of the word 'racism'

The word racism apparently was first used in 1902 by U.S. Army General Richard Pratt:


Segregating any class or race of people apart from the rest of the people kills the progress of the segregated people or makes their growth very slow. Association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism.



From reading the speech these words are taken from, I think Pratt's use of the word racism, like his use of 'classism' has less to do with private motives or purposes and more to do with actual lived experience of people. Segregation is racist because it kills the progress of the segregated people. Destroying "racism" is therefore an actual, concrete, attainable goal by integration (or "association") of the "races".

While some claim essential to racism is an explicit belief about the inferiority of a group of people, Pratt's focus is not on the belief but the actual difference in treatment.

Similarly, the 1965 UN International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination defines "racial discrimination" as


any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.

Notice the "purpose or effect" prong of the definition.