Not a new use Alex, in fact, far older than the more recent term of racism:

A) Common descent of origin:

1 the offspring or posterity of a person
2 a set of children or descendants
3 a generation
4 a limited group of persons descended from a common ancestor; a house, family, kindred
5 a tribe, nation or people regarded as of common stock
6 a group of several tribes or peopls forming a distinct ethnical stock
7 Mankind, in early use always the human race, the race of men or mankind.
8 the fact or condition of belonging to a particular people or ethnical stock.

9. One of the great divisions of mankind, having certain physical peculiarities in common.

Or
B) A group or class having some common feature or features.