Genocide

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Gob
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Genocide

Post by Gob »

In the weeks since the release of my book, Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People, the question I’ve been asked most often is whether my use of the word genocide in the title was meant to be intentionally provocative, rather than reflective of reality.

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Surely, genocide is too strong a word for the maltreatment of black people in America, some interviewers have suggested. True genocide is something that happened in Nazi Germany, Armenia and Rwanda, not the United States of America.

Yet we don’t need to look any further than the definition contained in article 2 of the United Nations’ 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: “Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” It then goes on to describe the acts as “killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births, or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”.

The first case for charging the American government with the genocide of black Americans was brought in 1951 by a group called the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) in We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of The United States against the Negro People.

The CRC was attacked, accused of exaggerating racial inequality, and disbanded in 1956. In hindsight, the paper – and its charge of genocide – was prescient and has stood the test of time.

Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, has documented 4,400 racial terror lynchings so far. He has brought the historical evidence of genocide to life in an exhibit at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice; there, visitors walk under 800 steel columns representing black Americans who were lynched – some bearing names, some printed with “unknown” and the location of the lynching.

Rather than fading into a shadowy past, the case for charging genocide has – if anything - only grown stronger and clearer since the CRC first brought its petition.

Continues here....
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

ex-khobar Andy
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Location: Louisville KY as of July 2018

Re: Genocide

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

As a long-time Guardianista of course I shall rise to the bait. Gob I assume that you posted this in a "Whatever next?" mode rather than approvingly: if I am wrong, I very sincerely apologize.

I haven't read the book nor am I familiar with Ben Crump.

It's easy to see this as a semantic thing: if by genocide we mean the wholesale slaughter of a race or a identifiable group (e.g., Hitler and the Jews [and all the other subset subjects of his Übermensch policies], Rwanda Hutu on Tutsi, Turkey/Armenia) then the current state of blacks in America probably doesn't rise (?? there's probably a better word here) to that definition. If we use the UN definition which specifically includes " inflicting conditions calculated to bring about its [meaning that of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group] physical destruction in whole or in part" then the treatment of African Americans (low wages, frequency of lethal contact with LEOs, living in proximity to environmentally dangerous sites, Trumpian not-very-subtle encouragements to violence - see Charlottesville, Central Park Five and all the rest) - then yes, I think 'genocide' is not an inappropriate word.

Burning Petard
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Re: Genocide

Post by Burning Petard »

I am, of course, an old while male American who grew up in strictly segregated community in Western Missouri. I did not know of blacks even existing my home community until I was a teenager. My first pay check came from a local grocery store chain, working at the Milgrams store located on the corner of the town square. Blacks were allowed to shop on the stores around the square only on Friday nights. I had seen many signs in local businesses stating "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" I thought it referred to a dress code.

Given that very narrow background in my socialization, it is my current opinion that 'genocide' when applied to to history of the USofA, is a very exaggerated label--with the possible exception of the human groups present in North American before 1492. Killings of other groups labeled with very unscientific 'racial' identities have been on a very retail basis with little expectation of total elimination or removal.

"Expectation of total elimination or removal" is my definition of genocide.

In my view, the UN definition above is very political and provocative. "In whole or in part" means that ONE death motivated by one person's ethnic hatred, is genocide.

snailgate

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Gob
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Re: Genocide

Post by Gob »

ex-khobar Andy wrote:As a long-time Guardianista of course I shall rise to the bait. Gob I assume that you posted this in a "Whatever next?" mode rather than approvingly: if I am wrong, I very sincerely apologize.
I posted it tongue in cheek, or rather as a kick off for a discussion on "what is genocide"? Do you know there are those who argue that a Cornish genocide is happening?

https://www.academia.edu/667747/Genocid ... h_Language
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

rubato
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Re: Genocide

Post by rubato »

The mistreatment of blacks is lower in acuity than the Armenian Genocide, The Holocaust, the complete extermination of the Cathars &c but it would be wrong to dismiss it on that account. They suffered systematic terrorism for many generations and then graduated to systematic economic abuse which kept the min poverty (redlining and "buying on contract"). They were not exterminated in part because they were seen as a source of cheap labor who could be exploited for generations.


yrs,
rubato

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