Social Justice and the Behavioral Science
Behind Genocide
Chapter 10
Racial and Ethnic Relationships
 What is your definition of “genocide”
 1944
?
Polish Jew coined the concept of genocide
Greek genos = “race”
Latin cide = “killing“
. . . . . . the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as
such :
o Killing members of the group
o Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
o Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part
o Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
o Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
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Official statements regarding “ethnic cleansing”
Propaganda portrays the targeted groups as evil or
subhuman
Massacres
Mass arrests
Forced marches
Forced migration / deportation
Forced labor
Loss of livelihood
Separation of families
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REFUGEES
Society must remember !
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THERAPY ( healing process )
TRIBUTE ( monuments; museums )
REVENGE ( knowledge is power )
EDUCATION ( lessons of history )
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The aggressors view the victims as impeding economic progress of the country
The aggressors view the victims as “unworthy of life” ( different ethnicity,
culture, religion, language, values, etc. )
The aggressors fail to see the humanity in others
The aggressors see the victims as enemies of mankind
The aggressors view the victims as the brunt of jokes
The aggressors utilize the media ( propaganda ) to promote myths to cloud
judgement
3. DEHUMANIZATION
- One group denies the humanity of the other group
- Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases
- Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against
murder
- At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to
vilify the victim group
- In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not
be confused with protected speech
- Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate
speech and make it culturally unacceptable
DEHUMANIZATION CONTINUED …
- Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from
international travel and have their foreign finances frozen
- Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda
banned
- Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished
4. ORGANIZATION
- Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias
to provide deniability of state responsibility
- Special army units or militias are often trained and armed
- Plans are made for genocidal killings
- To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed
- Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel
- The UN should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of
countries involved in genocidal massacres
5. POLARIZATION
- Extremists drive the groups apart
- Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda
- Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction
- Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the
center
- Coups d’état by extremists should be opposed by international
sanctions
6. PREPARATION
- Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or
religious identity
- Death lists are drawn up
- Property is expropriated
- They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration
camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved
7. EXTERMINATION
- Extermination begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally
called “genocide”
- It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their
victims to be fully human
- When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with
militias to do the killing
- At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop
genocide
8. DENIAL
- Denial is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide
- The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies,
try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses
- They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what
happened on the victims
- They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until
driven from power by force, when they flee into exile
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Cult of Personality
Secret Police
Propaganda
Censorship of Media
No Toleration of Political Opposition
Youth Indoctrination Groups
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A centralized, authoritarian government
system whose policies glorify the state over
the individual and is destructive to human
rights
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Extreme Nationalism
Glorified action, violence, discipline
Blind loyalty to the State ( government )
Foreign expansion ( warfare )
Anti – democratic ( no equality, no liberty )
Promised a strong economy / stable government
Does Social Conformity play a role in the
success of totalitarian governments ?
What role does Propaganda play in the control
of a country’s population ?
Causes
Diseases
The Year is
over but
the fight
goes on
The most
prejudicial ,
frightening &
controversial
film every
made
He is at
fault for
the war
1. The
Jew is
behind
enemy
Power
2. German
students
rights;
For the
leader &
the people