Reflection 12

Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing are two of the most horrible crimes against humanity but are usually sinuous with one another. What leaves people, government, and militia to the point of genocide against other cultures, religious groups or ethnicities? We touched on this subject in class. Many factors can get you to this point but one of the leading factors is prejudice. Prejudice leads one group to believe that they are better than the other group or that group is the cause for all of their problems. They may feel this way for a multitude of reasons. In the case of the Holocaust, Hitler felt that the Germans were in their current condition because of the Jewish people. I am also guessing that he felt that their lives would be better without the Jews.
These genocides and ethnic cleansings around the world have many similarities. Many of the different groups were forced out of the homes or where they had been living by the oppressing force. Many had been raped. Women and children were attacked or even killed during the time of ethnic cleansing. The leaders of these ethnic cleansing regimes had extremely radical ideologies. Something that was very similar in each situation is that little to none was done to stop these atrocities. I find myself asking the question: why was nothing done? Is it because the government or the country did not know what was going on nor did they not care? Did the government agree with what was going on? To answer one of my questions, in the case of the genocide in Darfur, the government was behind it. The government was in bed with the Janjaweed, the militia that attacked villages and killed hundreds of Fur people. The Janjaweed were also under government protection. In many cases of the genocide the government is behind it. To my knowledge the United Nations (UN), has knowledge of what is going on but acts to slowly or sometimes do nothing at all.
To go back to the point made in the first paragraph, these atrocities happen because of ethnocentrism. This happens when an ethnic group or any other group feels as though it is superior to another. From the beginning of time, this kind of thinking has inspired violence. This has happened with the crusades or the Holocaust. In this class we are learning that no ethnic group is better than the other and we are also learning to combat or prejudices against other groups. I have found this to be difficult because I have grown up this way but I have also realized that this kind of thinking is not progressive. These genocides and ethnic cleansings could have been prevented if many people felt this way.