Both Uses

debase
in
The Bluest Eye
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Hearing "civilized" languages debase humans ... I can say that my narrative project is as difficult today as it was thirty years ago.
Chpt 6 *

debase = degrade
Hearing "civilized" languages debase humans, watching cultural exorcisms debase literature, seeing oneself preserved in the amber of disqualifying metaphors—I can say that my narrative project is as difficult today as it was thirty years ago.†
Chpt 6

debase = degrade ( decrease) the purity, quality, or status of something

Definitions:

(1) (debase)
to degrade (decrease) the purity, quality, or status of something -- often morality or metals
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)