Sentence:  This assumption had its origins in the ideas of nineteenth-century critics of utilitiarianism. These critics — they might be romantics, historicists, nationalists, or <WSD>proto-racists</WSD> — held that utilitarianism took individuals and their interests as the building blocks of social and political theory, was oblivious to the historical determinants of "human nature" and hence left no room for a strong conception of nationhood and nationality, let alone a bilogically grounded deterministic conception of race. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A person who displays protoracist attitudes or behaviors.