{"id":9998,"date":"2019-09-18T07:08:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T11:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=9998"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:00:25","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:00:25","slug":"look-where-it-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=9998","title":{"rendered":"look where it starts&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>It starts with language.<\/em><\/li><li><em>We create categories to distinguish people into \u201cus and them.\u201d<\/em><\/li><li><em>We then give names or other symbols to the classifications.<\/em><\/li><li><em>We attempt to use law, custom, and political power to deny the rights of other groups \u2014 perhaps maybe silence them.<\/em><\/li><li><em>Then we dehumanize. One group denies the humanity of the other group, by equating its members to something lesser \u2014 often with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Maybe we suggest they are evil, incapable, or simply not of sound mind.<\/em><\/li><li><em>Social media is used to vilify the other group.&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>Hate on television, in print, and radio is utilized.<\/em><\/li><li><em>The majority group is taught to regard the other group as less than human and even alien to their society. They are indoctrinated to believe that \u201cwe are better off without them.\u201d &nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>The other group is often equated with filth, impurity, and immorality.&nbsp;Something is wrong with them.&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>We hear speeches decrying the other group as lesser. As worse. Their leaders, supporters \u2014 all of them \u2014 worse. Amoral. Immoral.<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, friends, let\u2019s ask a couple of key questions before our one big, brave one today\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are we hearing the above in our culture today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are we reading about such classifications? \u2026 seeing such content?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is this happening on television, in print, on radio and social media?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And\u2026 hard to ask this\u2026 but are we being encouraged to think of another group as <em>lesser? \u2026 less enlightened? \u2026 or less something?<\/em><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allow me to humbly reference Prof. Gregory Stanton, a former law professor at Yale, George Mason, and multiple other established institutions of higher education. In the late 90\u2019s, when serving in the U.S. State Dept., Stanton drafted the U.N. Security Council resolutions responsible for creating the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and more. He is best known for his work on genocide studies \u2014 the intentional destroying of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1999, Staton left academia to establish Genocide Watch, an organization which exists to predict and prevent genocide. We would know genocide when we see it \u2014 right?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2026 the Holocaust\u2026 the Holodomor\u2026 the Armenian Genocide\u2026 the Assyrian genocide\u2026 the Cambodian genocide\u2026 the Kurdish genocide\u2026 the Rwandan genocide\u2026 the Guatemalan genocide\u2026 the Bangladesh genocide\u2026 and so heartbreakingly more\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So in regard to what\u2019s relevant today, remember our first sentence: <em>\u201cIt starts with language.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 10 bulleted statements above are taken from Stanton\u2019s well known <em>The Ten Stages of Genocide.<\/em> \u201cThe process is not linear. Stages may occur simultaneously.\u201d Here are the stages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Classification<\/li><li>Symbolization<\/li><li>Discrimination<\/li><li>Dehumanization<\/li><li>Organization<\/li><li>Polarization<\/li><li>Preparation<\/li><li>Persecution<\/li><li>Extermination<\/li><li>Denial<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us not overreact. Let us not confuse now with Nazi Germany; this is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But let us be brave enough to ask one big question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Where are we unknowingly supporting one of the above?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reality is that if we can &#8220;dehumanize&#8221; another group &nbsp;\u2014&nbsp; because of how they look, where they live, what they believe, or even who they vote for &nbsp;\u2014&nbsp; then we can justify all sorts of arrogance, judgment and otherwise known-to-be-awful behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember: it starts with language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AR<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It starts with language. We create categories to distinguish people into \u201cus and them.\u201d We then give names or other symbols to the classifications. We attempt to use law, custom, and political power to deny the rights of other groups \u2014 perhaps maybe silence them. Then we dehumanize. One group denies the humanity of the &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=9998\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;look where it starts&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9998"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10007,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9998\/revisions\/10007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}