Why Kill Your People

Martel Moore

       In 1912 a mixture of killings, atrocities, and ethnic cleansing for more than 1.5 million people, these wars were called The Balkan wars. During the wars a massive population took place and brought an ethnic separatism. Religion freedom brought the Ottoman great joy while many like the Serbs, Bulgarians, Greeks, and the Armenians felt differently about the freedom of religion. When the people of the Islamic community thought non- Muslims were inferior it caused great tension between the two.  When the Ottoman realized the Armenians were becoming powerful and rich at the same time. They took extreme precaution and felt punishing the Armenians would be the only way. After refusing to pay taxes, an attack was sent by the Sultan to kill them, which a caused a terrifying massacre. This did not fit the idea of genocide or ethnic cleansing. The Armenian massacre of 1915 was form of first degree murder that resulted in directives of a ruling party. The actions of the Ottoman government carried out a lot during this time. The situation between the Greeks was very similar to the Armenians. The Greek army and their citizens fled from the Turks, during this flee many had to crowed into buildings in Smyrna. Robber and looters killed many, while the Turks wanted the Greeks out. While in Smyrna a fire broke out killing and wounding over 150,000. While some say the Turks did not want to massacre the Greeks, others can say differently.
     
        In chapter 2 the attack on the Jews will always go down in history. In the Nazi world the Aryan and the German showed great position, health, and natural. While Jews were looked as fake, a liar, and everything evil. They were considered by the Nazis as the worst people to live with, which they needed to be exterminated. Nazis believed the Jews posed a threat of serious contagion to all healthy nations. They also strongly believed that Jews were keep people back, especially the Germans from reaching their goals. Many believed genetically you were inclined towards criminal behavior, congenital diseases, or to even have certain mental illness. They want to isolate certain races from breeding with others because it would bring the nation down as well as bring a big weakness to different races. The race could be purged of its impurities and the modern state would not have the burden of caring for unproductive individuals. In the hands of the Nazis, eugenics became a dangerous tool for ethnic cleansing. The German nation would have to be cleansed by removing alien elements, in particular the Jews from the country. Even with their own race, the Nazis sterilized the mentally ill so they couldn’t have children and they took handicapped infants off life support or used lethal injections to kill them. They targeted 65,000 people to kill to clear clinics for German settlers.

Genocide, Genocide, Genocide

Perez Ashford

3/4/14

Soc. 361

Blog 1

 Genocide, Genocide, Genocide

            The Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 were a mixture of killings, atrocities, and ethnic cleansing of a few hundred thousand people to 1.5 million people. These wars brought about ethnic self-government and great population transfers. In the Ottoman Empire Ottoman religious groups enjoyed great freedom while minorities did not. People of Islamic faith thought non-Muslim people were inferior. Armenians started to become aggressive and rich and powerful; Ottoman officials felt punishment was the only course to handle Armenians. When Armenians refused to pay a tax, the Sultan sent his troops to slaughter them. A campaign of terror was set into motion against the Armenian’s and violent murders took place. The signals for the attacks came from the government. The government didn’t want this seen as Genocide it was meant to keep Armenians in their place. This is an example of something that also happened in the movie Hotel Rwanda. The Hutu’s didn’t want the United Nations seeing their actions as genocide but to see it as revenge for the tootsies “murdering” their president.   Governments and authority don’t want their actions to be seen as genocides because they know the United Nations will get involved so they like to switch up the terms to make the situation seem different.

            The Nazis believed the Jews were a threat of serious contamination to all healthy nations. The Nazis thought the Jews had kept the Germans from reaching their goals. Racialist stated that, “certain racial types were more genetically inclined toward criminal behavior, genetic diseases or mental illnesses (eugenics)(106).” According to Edwin Black, “Eugenics was the racist pseudoscience determined to wipe away all human beings deemed "unfit," preserving only those who conformed to a Nordic stereotype.”  This means if a certain race could be isolated and kept from breeding, it would free the nation or race of its antisocial elements and weakness. The race could be removed of its impurities and the modern state would not have the burden of caring for useless individuals. In the hands of Nazis, eugenics became a dangerous tool for ethnic cleansing. The Nazis wanted to clean out the Jews. Over one million Jews were murdered by the Germans; this came to be an act of genocide. The Germans wanted to wipe all the Jews out.

(Nazis during the Holocaust murdering Jews)

           

          From the beginning the Soviet state tried to mobilize and control their citizens. They were determined to exert centralized control over its people. They imported Jews, Germans, Muslims, 

Chinese, and Koreans. They tried managing the population by nationality. The Chechens and Ingush operated as clans and groups, or more like nations. They resisted Russian colonialism. They fought the Red Army and police officials. The Chechens and Ingush, about a half million, wanted to keep their cultural ways and their religious ways, and this threatened the soviet authorities. The soviets decided to deal with them once and for all, and ordered all the Chechens and Ingush out of their homelands. 496,000 people were deported. Many died in the process of deportation. Many felt this was an act of genocide but because Stalin’s and Beria’s goal was to destroy the Chechen and Ingush nations, not really eliminate them, many did not consider it genocide. But Aurelie Campana begs to differ, she states, “The genocide has changed the Chechen and Ingush peoples instead of the big mountain dwellers, of the elegant mountain dwellers, of the holy mountain dwellers, living in mountains for centuries, were born puny and sick children, among which a big number died.” The traveling and leaving their land became a drag and very hard for some Chechens and Ingush. They were too old or too young to be traveling out of country for days at a time and death was the answer for some. Aurelie Campana also stated, “The guardians of the national wisdom, of ten centuries of accumulated experience died, the experts of the Chechen-Ingush history, habits, traditions, the experts of the secrecies of the former Masters of the work of metal, and others, died, as died the achug and the expert of the folklore.” In a certain way their people felt this event was an act of genocide because not only did some people die, but also all their history, traditions and other important things died along with them. 

Playing With Fire (Extra Credit)

Playing with Fire

            The Oscars is a show that is seen throughout the entire United States of America. It’s like the Superbowl of movies. There are many celebrities as well as spectators that tune in to see one of the historic events. There are various awards given to different categories. For example, best film, best actor, best actress, and etc. The Oscars does receive many viewers as they hope to see their favor actor/actress win awards. In the 86^th Academy Awards, the movie 12 years a slave, won several Oscars. However, their spotlight was taken by Chelsea Handler.

            Chelsea Handler was given access to the Huffington Post twitter page to give updates on the Oscars. Chelsea Handler did a little more than just give updates, she made her opinion known. When 12 years a slave won an award, she posted #Ugandabekiddingme. At first I did not understand what she meant by her hashtag. But after re-reading what she wrote, everything was clearer and I was able to comprehend what she meant. Instead of saying “you gotta be kidding me” she wrote “Ugandabekiddingme”. First and foremost, I was surprise she made a comment like that about the movie. Her ignorance is unmeasurable. The thought of posting that comment on one of the major Social Medias is unexplainable. She was simply not thinking about her actions. Chelsea Handler is a comedian who thought that her comment was appropriate. Unfortunately, her comment made her the spotlight of what everyone assumes to be racist. On top of that, she kept posted #Ugandabekiddingme every time 12 years of slave won an award. Her mishaps did not take place just once, it happened more than once which does not help her case. Critiques immediately bashed her once she posted her comment on twitter. Twitter is used by almost everyone even the celebrities. This is a prime example of a joke crossing the line. Like the saying goes “it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt”. Evidently, Chelsea Handler saw no one getting hurt and kept making her joke.

            This reminded me of the book Racism Without Borders. In chapter 3, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva mentions “They are the racist ones” (Bonilla-Silva pg.63). In this chapter he talks about how some people say they are not being racist. The people who are interpreting their statement in a negative way are the ones who are being racist. Although this may be true, we cannot help but interpret something being racist when it looks racist. Racism is a very sensitive subject to many people. When mentioning Uganda in a movie that depicted how slaves were being treated, that is going to stir the pot. It is neither an accident nor a comedy when talking about racism. It is hard to understand how those who are reading her comment be racist. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it’s a duck. There is no way going around with the idea of her not being racist. She knew exactly what she was doing and just brushed it off her shoulder like no big deal. When they asked her about her comment, like usual she had no comment.

Congratulations #12yearsaslave Go to Africa or buy #ugandabekiddingme http://amzn.to/1de1ka9  #aheadofthecurve #Oscars pic.twitter.com/Hu5wh7e3fm

 

   

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/oscars/handler-tweet-sparks-accusations-racism-article-1.1709431

Modern Madness

     The attacking and expelling of minority groups in 20^th Century Europe follow a pattern of violence, war, and other atrocities usually involving armed perpetrators against unarmed citizens.  Soldiers or paramilitary groups carry out the atrocities that are ordered by the leadership of the state. Reasons for this can be geopolitical or strategic during time of war or after wars.  People are forcibly moved from one location to another, their property confiscated, they suffer from disease, hunger, lack of sanitation, water, and many die of exposure during these transitions.  The author defines these events in terms of wild phase and orderly phase.  The first usually involves random killing and periodic massacres, where the orderly phase includes long marches, internment camps, and food deprivation.  War can serve as a cover for the ruling elites to order the abuses, killings, and media censorship to conceal the extent of their actions. 

     The goal of these “high modernism” states is to remove every member of the targeted nation or community.  The ideology of these nation-states is based on nationalism, military, and technological power with little need for minority rights, language differences, equal development, or primitive agriculture.  Their goal is to remove and destroy the remnants of entire cultures. If the minority cultures are allowed to remain, according to the state, they become a threat to state power and control.

    Prior to reading this book, “Fires of Hatred”, I had heard or read news accounts of countless abuses towards women during these forced expelling of citizens.  From my point of view, raping women just seemed to be one of the random acts of aggression or power that soldiers inflict upon victims.  I had not thought of it as part of the ethnic cleansing strategy, or “ideology of integral nationalism” that is “inherently misogynistic”, as the author asserts.  I am assuming that in most societies that have undergone ethnic cleansing, that these cultures entrust women with raising, nurturing, and passing on their cultural values to the children. If this is true in these societies, and in our own, the significance of the role played by women in all societies must surely be recognized, even though their role is not always viewed with deserved esteem.

http://balkansnet.org/ethnicl.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/18/world/la-fg-guatemala-trial-20130419

Extra Credit

The Oscars

There has been a lot of talk about race in terms of the Oscars this year. One thing I found particularly inspiring and interesting was that the film 12 Years a Slave won best picture. The profound movie 12 Years a Slave is about Solomon Northup who is a free black man from upstate New York, but is abducted, sold into slavery and forced to work plantations in the state of Louisiana. As of March 7, 2014, 12 Years a Slave had earned $141,417,000, including $51,517,000 in the United States. Not only was 12 Years a Slave a very intense, thought-provoking film that in my opinion deserved the award for best picture, but Lupita Nyong'o who starred in it made history by winning Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Lupita Nyong'o has gotten a lot of attention in the media lately and especially in the black community for her inspirational accomplishments. Lupita Nyong'on identifies as Mexican-Kenyan because she was born in Mexico, to Kenyan parents. Lupita stands out amongst other women in Hollywood for her very dark skin and short afro. Many people in the black community (including myself) believe she’s a huge inspiration to young black girls that look like her but often don’t view themselves as beautiful. Not only is Nyong’on gorgeous, but she has stood out award show after award show for her fashion sense. Nyong’on is looked at as a global fashion icon. For instance, her Cinderella blue Prada gown at the Oscars made such a statement and pictures of it spread on the internet like wildfire. Lots of people (especially people of color) are very excited to see a dark-skinned black woman become a touchstone of glamour in our culture, which usually defines beauty as whiteness. In her speech at the Essence awards, Nyong'o spoke on how she had prayed to God before to lighten her skin. Now she accepts herself and has been motivation for girls and women all over the world. I appreciate Nyong’o because as a black women with very fair skin, I have seen and heard my dark skin sister’s be talked down upon time after time again. My mother raised me to acknowledge the beauty of all skin tones, and I’m glad to see changes are being made in Hollywood. Lots of problems as well as solutions with race, especially when it comes to women of color, stem from the media. Beauty in Hollywood has always seemed to be white-washed, but I see new doors opening. Beauty is being redefined and this excites me!

(picture: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/lupita-nyongo-won-more-than-just-an-oscar-she-won-hearts-20140305-346mr.html)

Armenian massacre of 1915

                                                                                                                   Jamaal Bass

                                                                                                                  Sociology 361

                                                                                                                   3/414

Genocide and ethnic cleansing occurs for many different reasons. In chapter 1 the history of the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians is discussed. Armenians were completely removed from Anatolian society and all ties were severed. This was mainly because they weren’t under Muslim faith. Those who were not Muslim were looked down upon and weren’t seen as equals. Armenians struggled with being treated equally and being protected under the law. Without protection and support, they were often murdered, had their churches burned down, and stripped of their Christian identity before murder.

The rise of the young Turks sparked hope for the Armenians only to be their demise in the end. It was never the intention of the Turks to grant Armenians autonomy and the same equal freedoms as the Turks. When they rose to power they quickly removed the Armenians. They were given a few days to sell their goods and prepare for deportation where many died. They were traveled through unbearable conditions and they weren’t given what was needed to survive. They starved, and fell to fatigue to the point where they were no more than mere animals. This form of dehumanization was similar to the process Jews went through in ghettos under Nazi control.

Hitler saw Germans as a superior race and Jews as an infestation. This led to the genocide of the Jewish people. It didn’t begin as genocide, but Hitler’s main goal was to remove any Jewish influence from Germany. He taught Germans to believe they Jewish people brought diseases, and were seductive. Their only goal was to dirty the blood of pure Germans. This was a form of dehumanization that helped many Germans to think that they truly were superior, and that the Jewish people truly had evil motives. They wanted to force them onto other countries, and when they fought the Soviet Union they were as equal enemies as the Russians. They were often brutally murdered and tortured until moved into ghettos which were the final form of dehumanization before genocide. Living in terrible living conditions on top of one another like rats in a cage, Hitler used this justification for finally attempting to murder them all.

Like the Turks and the Nazis, the Russians also participated in ethnic cleansing and deportation. The Soviets forced them from their homelands where thousands died during the travel. Although it wasn’t their intention to murder them in a genocidal attack, they set policies to brain wash the Chechens-Ingush into forgetting about their homes which made them usable material. Stalin felt that the Tatars were too attached to their hometowns and wouldn’t effectively mold into the Soviet Union which would in turn make them unusable in the work force. Stalin saw entire ethnic groups as “human material” and unlike the Nazi’s when they were deported they had nowhere to go.

"Who speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?"

"Who speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?" 

In the first 3 chapters of Naimark’s book: The Fires of Hatred, the subjects generally revolve groups maintaining dominance over other groups through the process of dehumanization and genocide. These chapters illustrated many instances in history of the power dehumanization has over people and how it can easily bring about the genocides of races and minorities. Usually backed by the collective power of nationalism, groups who sought to maintain power and control over minorities/groups would do so through imposing their ideologies upon them. Also, if the group in power felt threatened by the possibility of losing their position of power or identity because of another group, they will do whatever it takes in order to continue their reign of authority. Even if it means marking the members of these groups as less than being human.

An example of dehumanization would be the Ottomans and the Armenians. At the time, the system that was obeyed was called the millet system. It separated non-muslims into a “second class” which were discriminated against through heavier taxation, limits to achieving positions of authority, and other regulations. Overtime, the groups (Jews, Greeks and Armenians) who followed this system were eventually able to gain an economic and industrial advantage in the country over that of the Muslims who were not allowed to work with them. This led to the growing “second-class’” formation of Ottomanism. Unfortunately, when Sultan Abdul Hamid took power, he despised the Armenians and almost everything about them. The Armenians supported reform and constitutional change, had close alignment with the Russians, and their business/ professional elites were secular, western, and wealthy. He also believed that the Armenians had taken advantage of the “the sweat of the simple and devout Muslim laborers and the naïve support of government procurement officials.” (Naimark, 22.) To top it off, the Armenians violated the millet system by refusing to pay the double taxation. That meant that the Armenians were no longer under the protection of the Islamic State.  The Sultan sent troops as punishment to the Armenians and massacred Armenian population. The massacres were aimed to control the Armenians, not to exterminate them entirely. Eventually Armenians were, as written by Von Trotha, “slaughtered like sheep.” The dehumanization of the Armenians increased to the point of the Ottomans viewing the Armenians as nothing more than animals as they slaughtered them.

The Jews became victim to dehumanization and eventually their genocide by the Nazi party in Germany through the imposing of ideologies and nationalism. The Nazi described the Jews as liars, parasites, and just down right pests. They were thought to be so evil that the evil went all the way down to their blood. The Nazi party began a campaign of destroying the reputation of the Jews. They would depicted to be like an infection of sub-humans, corrupters of the German bloodlines, as well as even the reason for Germanys defeat in World War II. Because the Nazi ideologies became so prominent in German society, when it the orders to kill the Jews took effect, they were ruthlessly killed off. The nation viewed the Jews as the filth of Germany. The killing of a Jew in Germany was viewed by the people as simply the extermination of a pest. The Jews became so dehumanized that they were even used as guinea pigs in brutal medical experiments.  Like the Armenians, Jews became victim to severe dehumanization which contributed to the accelerated rate of their genocide.  

Whenever I think of dehumanization and imposing of ideologies, the first thought that comes to mind is Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge takeover of the Cambodians began with the imposing of policies that completely stripped all social classes and rights previously held by the Cambodians. The urban populations were herded out of the cities like cattle into farmlands for a life of forced labor (For those who survived the march). Virtually everything involving anything other than working in the fields was outlawed and punishable by death. Anyone with any specialized skills or professions were executed. Even the suspicion of being an intellectual, such as those who wearing glasses, were executed. The children were separated and trained to turn in anyone, including parents, of any rule violation. There was no family under the Khmer Rouges rule, nor a shred of even the most basic of human rights. The Khmer Rouge shaped populations of Cambodia to becoming nothing more than disposable farming tools. Even the thought of becoming more than just a disposable tool was a ticket to a mass grave. An estimation of up to 3 million people were killed under their rule. This is what I believe to be one of the most extreme examples of the use of dehumanization to control and bring about the genocide of a group. Despite such horrific tragedies in the past and those that Naimark’s The Fires of Hatred brings to light, I noticed a lack of awareness of the true destructive power of dehumanization. After all…

"Who speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?"

-Adolf Hitler

External Links:

http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/cambodian-genocide

http://www.meforum.org/3434/armenian-genocide-hitler

WWIII PENDING…

 

Betsy M. Bonilla
 

It’s scary to think of what has been going on lately around the world, especially in Europe.  Things that we think do not have any effect on us because they are out of sight and out of mind. Yet in Norman M. Naimark’s book “Fires of Hatred” he forces you to look back at the horrific ethnic cleansing that has plagued Europe and has taken a toll on the world. The unnecessary sufferings of humanity are felt throughout but nothing is ever really done about it till it is too late.  As it was with the Ittihadists against the Armenians and with Holocaust, Naimark states, “No single order, or single meeting, or single action initiated the events.”  Pp 28

There is however a starting point which creates this indifference but these things take time; which mean people are being oppressed and discriminated against way before they are being killed and exterminated. At the very beginning of the book one realizes that regardless of the ultimate intent there is a fine line between ethnic cleansing and genocide, one might say that there is no line at all.

There must be this sense of Nationalism, a desire to say us and them; the need to have power and control over the less superior “them”. For example, “The Armenians represented everything that was wrong in the Ottoman realm.” Pp 22 Mostly because they supported reform and constitutional change; some 200,000 Armenians were killed or wounded just to be kept in their place. Yet for the Turks this was not enough and wanted to get rid of any or all that were not Turkish nationalist. Leading to mass deportations which needless to say had caused irrevocable pain and suffering.

 Taking a step further we come to the Ideology of what is Hitler: “extreme German Nationalism, Racism, and Anti Semitism.” Pp 58 Hitler not only wanted to push out and forcibly deport Jews out of Germany, he wanted to exterminate and sterilize them from the humanity. He was so successful in this because he used his power and influence to talk Jews down to nothing but evil doers that have contaminated society and are the cause of war and destruction. How blind must one be not to see though so many lies? How indifferent must one be to allow such horrific crimes as “mercy deaths”? pp 61Unforutanitly this was not just on the people who witnessed it and took part on it; it is also on everyone that was not willing to receive Jewish refugees.

 This leads to the Soviet deportation of the Chechens-Ingush and the Crimean Tarts. The Chechens and Ingush maintained much more cultural and religious autonomy then the Soviets would like. pp 95 Although that was not necessary the flash point in the massive forced deportation it had a lot to do with it causing tens of thousands died in wretched poverty. Pg 98

The Crimean Tarts faced similar deaths when they were forced to leave their native land of Crimean because the Soviet wanted to rid Crimean of all “foreigners”. They were ALL forced on to rail transport with sealed boxed carts which Tarts “call these Soviet rail cars ‘crematoria on wheels.’” pp 102 Even when the where allowed back into Russia they were still not allowed to return to Crimean. 

      

All of this brings me to most recent developments that have come to light in regards to the Russian military taking control of Crimean which is a direct threat to Ukraine. Have we not learned anything from the past? How much more violence must we push to the side? There are a lot of people who have tried to speak out against the injustice that has been happening for quite some time. Only until recently has there been any real media converge on the truth of the matter. Putin’s unwillingness to come forth and admit to what is clearly a strategic move to take over Ukraine should be proof enough that there is something more going on. We can all clearly see that the situation in Europe is not ideal. With all of today’s technologies it is harder to keep things quiet, so there isn’t any real surprise that there are many fabricated things out there in the media but with that also means that the truth will come out. God willing it will come out sooner than later, when it would be too late. World War II served as an excuse for genocide, mass murder of Jews, as World War I did for the Turks, with the opportunity to destroy the Armenian nations. I cannot fathom at what will occur if there is a World War III…

 

 

Naimark, Norman M. 2001. Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing In the Twentieth-Century Europe.         Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.  
 
http://projectmaidan.com/post/78414971679/some-clarifications-regarding-ukraine
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26433309                       

           

TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A RIGHT

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

KENYATTA BERRYHILL

According to the book Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe by Norman M. Naimark, The Expulsions of Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia were post World War II actions. “Tensions rose between the Polish and Czechoslovakia governments because of the Taschen conflict ……. both governments remained in perfect agreement about the need to expel the Germans and to pin down the Allies on terminal dates.” These republics had differences, but the Germans were their “Jews” that needed to go. I chose to focus on these chapters and give a summary about what Norman M. Naimark was focusing on.
  In this book, particularly these chapters it exhibits the same behavior/ actions. Before the Expulsion of the Germans, the Germans participated in the holocaust which was a legendary genocide. The Germans did whatever they wanted to so they could maintain the pure German race. I stated Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right because the Expulsion is the same as the holocaust. The leaders of Poland and Czechoslvakia were very aware of what they were doing according to their statement, “We won’t disturb you. Throw them out. Now they will learn themselves what it mean to rule over someone else.”
The Transfer is where all the murders, sexual activity etc. was happening. On July 31, 1945 fires started by a series of explosions; it wounded many and killed twenty-eight people. Women and children were targeted because they were the weakest of the German race. According to the text, “In some regions….. the Soviet Soldiers did a great deal of damage.” The Soviet soldiers were abusing their power and their actions went from orders to complete revenge. The Soviet soldiers were assaulting, raping, and murdering these women and children.

The Polish were exploited, brutalized, humiliated, and subjected to mass murder, puts their lust for revenge and their fear some attacks on the Germans in a more understandable context, according to the text. The Expulsion was turning into a successful plan, many hundreds of thousands of Germans fled before the advancing Soviet armies to return to their homes. The Germans were finally out of the western territories. The Polish and German cannot live together in one country; just as the Czechoslovakia expelling the Germans was a revolutionary act.
Overall every action made by each Race was an involuntary act and selfish. The need of genocides was unnecessary due to selfishness of territory. The holocaust was brutal, tragic and down right insane, but does the all the Germans deserve this treatment. The holocaust was done by Nazis German Soldiers, not ALL Germans period. The Polish, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Soldiers attacked the Germans because they felt they deserved it. Again, not all Germans acted in the holocaust so why these women and children were beat, molested and stripped of their values. What good came out of both tragic events; Satisfaction but deaths of millions. Do you think the Germans deserved this? I will forever be upset about the holocaust, but two wrongs don’t make a right so the expulsion was not necessary.

  http://www.thenation.com/article/171484/brutal-peace-postwar-expulsions-germans#

Society with Genocide and society with equality are equal

            Genocides, racial/ethnic cleansing and massacres all seem to be evil and cruel acts of humanity or are they really? Most people you ask today with no hesitation would agree these acts are wrong and evil. If this is the case, then does this make us in a way evolved human species then our ancestries that were around the times of several genocides. There were people in those societies that either accepted, petrified or indifferent during the genocides. Ultimately, the genocides were large scaled enough to go down in history. Again we would like to think that if something like this were to happen in our own backyard we would have no tolerance and put a stop to it immediately. We would like to regard ourselves as not barbaric and cruel but that may not be the case.

            As can be read in chapters 1, 2 & 3 in the book Fires of Hatred, there have been Genocides and racial cleansings leading all the way up to our times. The spearheads of each genocide operation had their own specific ratiocinations like religion, race or ideology. The fact of the matter is that we are veritably the same human species as the humans that were existing during those times. Even the fact that mostly everyone would agree to the same question posed earlier, shows that humans follow a certain trend. If people believe that a certain way is how most believe things should be then they assume that is the right way of things. People rarely ask questions about how things are and way things become to be what they are following certain quotes like “that’s just the way things are” or “that’s the way it’s always been” to see how a society can be manipulated by the media, religion, politics and any other median that produces information.

            An example of this would be how in the U.S. people were turned on the Orientals and discriminated against Japanese and how after 9/11 people were convinced that Muslims and anyone portrayed as a “turban wearing Arab” or Middle Easterner was a terrorist and would have been okay with allowing their anger to possible harm innocent civilians. The sad truth is, genocide/massacres will be inevitable in our future. Whether it will be because of race, body, height, etc because people are routine.

 http://www.ulib.niu.edu:3644/ehost/detail?sid=4483d08c-593d-4523-a343-1eeb1b1b5c4f%40sessionmgr4003&vid=1&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=21116206


 http://www.ulib.niu.edu:3644/ehost/detail?sid=8bfa0fa3-b8a8-42cd-95ec-4706d70d1f21%40sessionmgr4001&vid=1&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d

Circle of Life

Are we born to commit savagery on others? To cause other people pain and misery? Or are we raised that way? Is it nature or nurture? I’ve been thinking: what’s the difference? Humans aren’t born in a “vacuum.” Use your imagination: if people sprouted out of the ground- like flowers- and there was not any other human for miles, to the point where no two humans would ever interact. We’d be quite different, huh? In reality we’re born to parents, families, neighborhoods, communities, towns, provinces, countries. From the day we’re born, we are held to certain expectations. We learn to follow certain rules. Among other things, we’re expected to have allegiances. We are asked…, no, conditioned to be loyal to our parents. Loyal to our schools. Loyal to our creeds/religions. Loyal to our races and ethnicities. Loyal to our president and country. Loyal To Barack Obama and the U.S. of A. To Stephen Harper and Canada. To Saddam Hussein. To Stalin, Hitler, McDonald’s, NIU, and the Chicago Bulls.

 No matter what your allegiance, the very nature of it creates boundaries. And sometimes people become very invested in these boundaries. They may come to benefit from them and depend on these divisions. Some become so invested in the lines between people, that they will kill to preserve them. They will convince others to kill with them. For them. Germans will kill and torture Jews. Russians will kill and torture Germans. U.S. Americans will kill and torture Native Americans. Even Manchester United fans will beat the everliving shit out of Arsenal fans.  

Sure there will be those within the boundaries who see all of this happening and maybe perceive the pointlessness in all this suffering. Some of them will even act, and some of the ones who act may even succeed. People like Oscar Schindler or Paul Rusesbagina will even make a mark. But, they’re more like umbrellas against the rain of misery and destruction; streets will still be wet, though. Others will fail, like the many who hid Jewish refugees in their attics. Many more others will just sit passively and watch it all happen.

It’s truly getting old. It’s really the same scenario playing out over and over again. What would it take for it to stop happening? I don’t think it would be possible to change humanity on such a fundamental level, as to not value anything. To not create borders around what is “our” and “theirs.” Would we even be human at that point? Would we have transcended our humanity, or something weirdly metaphysical like that? But maybe that’s what it would take, to truly be rid of suffering. Though maybe we wouldn’t have to go that far. The world is more global than ever. Geography, while slowly, is mattering less and less. Boundaries may even be getting blurrier as we speak, and maybe soon we would minimize things like mass murder. We couldn’t remove it, obviously, there would always be outliers. Or maybe, we just create a boundary around humanity, rather than within it. It almost seems too simple. Though, maybe we encounter some other civilization and then it would just be another intergroup divide.

But then, maybe nothing will be done. And there will be a class a hundred, or a thousand years from now, studying the same shit we’re studying, with just the names changed. Because we’re only human, and we might not even all agree on what our problem is. How can you fix a problem, if you think it doesn’t exist?

Hope this wasn’t too weird a read! 

Russian nationalims accusing Ukraine of nationalism as an excuse for military action: typical 
(http://vestnikkavkaza.net/articles/politics/52065.html) 
(P.S. I'm a Ukrainian immigrant from Crimea, AMA)

Literally every group has racists
(http://anythingbuttheist.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-makes-jews-so-racist.html) 
(P.S. I'm also a Jew)