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Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift...

Posted by linguist gm on 1/30/2026, 9:42 pm

The word 'holocaust' has its root in ancient Greek and means "burnt offering"..
These days most people associate holocaust to what the Nazis did to Jews in Germany in the 1940s.

BUT, the mighty warrior, Ida B. Wells, was using the word holocaust to describe the lynchings of AfricanAmericans in the South as early as 1909, well before what happened in Germany.

In a 1909 speech before the National Negro Conference, Wells declared: "No other nation, civilized or savage, burns its criminals; only under the Stars and Stripes is the human holocaust possible."
[Ida B. Wells, 1909]

Lawwwd...Today, if any Black person dares use the term holocaust to describe the wickedness Black Americans went through, he'd be termed an antisemite and made to apologize to the Jewish community.

In other words, when you have real power you can own language and dictate how it's used; by whom it is used; and for who it is used. Amazing.
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Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good

Posted by gm on 1/30/2026, 9:55 pm, in reply to "Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift..."

Google: "Black Past: (1909) Ida B. Wells: Lynching, Our National Crime."
[2008, Black Past]

Be sure to use Black Past in the search.

Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good

Posted by theone on 1/31/2026, 10:07 am, in reply to "Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good"

Good point!! When it comes to Black ppl they like to use the word "genocide" instead of holocaust as if the word itself(holocaust) is owned by Jews.

And in the case of the Herero ppl of Namibia despite the five concentration camps built there in 1904, they don't consider that a holocaust but a genocide

. So what happened to the Herero ppl cannot be considered a specific, "historical event" simply because its a genocide. Thats the name of the game. Genocide and Holocaust don't have the same definition.

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Google: "Black Past: (1909) Ida B. Wells: Lynching, Our National Crime."
[2008, Black Past]

Be sure to use Black Past in the search.

Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good

Posted by gm on 2/3/2026, 1:53 pm, in reply to "Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good"

In terms of the Herero people, they were also regarded as non-human & sub-human by those who administered that holocaust, including the scientists performing biological experiments on them.
The thing is, if the world had paid attention to what was happening in SouthWest Africa, the Nazi holocaust would not have happened.

Anyway, big props to Ida B. Wells, she was so brave for her time, and much more courageous than our modern day Black Journalists whose main concern is their pay checks.

Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good

Posted by theone on 2/4/2026, 3:56 am, in reply to "Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good"

""""Anyway, big props to Ida B. Wells, she was so brave for her time, and much more courageous than our modern day Black Journalists whose main concern is their pay checks."""""

I believe in her time(19th century) it was not yet a big deal if a Black person or any person for this matter to mention the word "holocaust" to be fair, simply because the Jewish holocaust did not come into existance yet in Germany, and none of these political "sensitivities" attached to the word existed. Anyway, since late 1940s the word holocaust became a hugely politicized issue.

I can image that during Ida B Wells times such thing as being Anti-semitic in the Western countries didn't exist, even if you hang as many Jews as you want in those southern states, no one one would accuse you of being anti-semitic. This expression didn't exist or if it did exist, it didn't had any political influence.

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Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good

Posted by gm on 2/4/2026, 4:06 pm, in reply to "Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good"

"I can imagine that during Ida ,B.Well's times such a thing as being antisemitic in the Western countries didnt exist."

Yes it did! Both in Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Before that it was mostly "Jew hatred" until antisemitism got formalized to antisemitism in parts of Germany🇩🇪 etc.

Metanyahu's father wrote a book tracing the origin
of jew hatred/antisemitism back to ancient Egypt, thus the expulsion of Hebrews out of Egypt and Moses etc etc.
Lol..many folks dismissed that idea which seemed to assume there were European Jews and that they were the original Jews/Hebrews etc etc.
Maybe that's where Netanyahu got his hatred & dismissive attitude towards African people.

Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good

Posted by theone on 2/5/2026, 1:36 am, in reply to "Re: Ida B. Wells and 'holocaust'....language shift... reading is good"

""""Yes it did! Both in Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Before that it was mostly "Jew hatred" until antisemitism got formalized to antisemitism in parts of Germany🇩🇪 etc""""

Yeah thats exactly what I meant, and beyond any doubt the hatred of Jews existed since Jesus came in probably,.. and definitely before Eastern and Western Europe geographically speaking that hatred has some roots in the so called Middle-east and Egypt to begin with,.... except words like "antisemitism and holocaust" were still in their initial stages, politically undeveloped.

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