SIP A to Z : X

X is for Xenophobia

This is one of those words that I hear all the time, but was not sure of its meaning.  So I looked it up.  From Meriam-Webster (online), the definition is:

fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign

When searching for this, I ran across the following, also from Merriam Webster regarding the difference between xenophobia and racism. Here is the link:

"What to Know:

"Xenophobia is the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners, whereas racism has a broader meaning set including "a belief that racial differences produce the inherent superiority of a particular race." Although they are similar, they are different enough that it is possible for one to be both xenophobic and racist.

"It’s never a good sign when we start seeing a massive increase in lookups for two closely related and unwelcome terms like racism and xenophobia, as is the case of late with the rise of COVID-19 and subsequent global pandemic. However, our place, as a dictionary, is not to judge the words that are being looked up (or the people looking them up), but instead to provide, to the best of our ability, as much information about them as is possible."

I find that interesting -- what judgment/conclusion would they be coming to regarding the people who are looking up these two words? 

Perhaps I should have chosen X-ray ...