Appalling racism — it can be very wounding (8)
I believe the answer is:
scimitar
'can be very wounding' is the definition.
(scimitar is a type of sword)
'appalling racism it' is the wordplay.
'appalling' indicates an anagram (an appalling spelling of the letters).
'racism'+'it'='racismit'
'racismit' with letters rearranged gives 'SCIMITAR'.
(Other definitions for scimitar that I've seen before include "Eastern sword" , "Short curved oriental sword" , "I'm racist, owning an oriental sword" , "This cut" , "sharp weapon" .)