Crossword Genius

Represent small people initially tolerating disparagement (12)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

belittlement

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'disparagement' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'represent small people initially tolerating' is the wordplay.
'represent small' becomes 'belittle' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'people' becomes 'men' (man is a kind of person).
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'tolerating' is 't'.
'belittle'+'men'+'t'='BELITTLEMENT'

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I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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