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Genocide

Genocide, however, is the most egregious and monstrous example of bigotry. According to “The United Nations 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Genocide [is defined] as:

Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:
A. Killing members of the group;
B. Causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group;
C. Deliberately inflicting on the group the conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part;
D. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
E. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group Power, Samantha. “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. Perennial, New York: 2003. ISBN: 0-06-054164-4. p. 57. (External Link)

Social critic, author, philosopher, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, has argued that the 20 th century was the most genocidal century in the history of humankind, with 174 million non-combatants dead. (External Link) (External Link)

Many estimates give the number of 20th century victims of genocidal violence at 174 million dead. (External Link) This would be as if the entire population of the 15 most populous states in the US were to be killed. So that California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Minnesota would cease to exist. “The 174 million murdered by government [between] 1900 and 1990 would, [if laid head to toe]circle the earth four times. (External Link)

King leopold of belgium

Perhaps the genocide of the 20th century really had its beginnings in the 19th century when King Leopold II of Belgium personally owned all of Central Africa—the Congo! From 1880 until 1920, more than 20 million Congolese natives had been murdered by the Belgian soldiers loyal to Leopold. It is unknown how many millions were maimed in a deliberate terror campaign that left entire villages—every man, woman, and child—without hands, or arms, or legs. All this wanton destruction of human life and human productivity occurred because Leopold believed the native slave labor was not sufficiently productive and was not making him rich enough. In 40 years, half of the population of the Congo was murdered! Power, Samantha. “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. Perennial, New York: 2003. ISBN: 0-06-054164-4. (External Link) (External Link)

The armenian genocide

In 1915, under the orders of Mehmed Talaat the Turkish Minister of the Interior, the Muslim Turkish army crossed the borders it shares with Christian Armenia. Within a year, 1.5 million Armenians who had been forced out of their homes were dead, many of starvation. While the Armenian refugees were forced to flee in vast numbers, the Turkish government sanctioned hanging in order to engender terror. The Turkish government also stole or destroyed crops and food stuffs so that starvation became the primary way of death. Power, Samantha. “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. Perennial, New York: 2003. ISBN: 0-06-054164-4. (External Link) (External Link)

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Source:  OpenStax, Minority studies: a brief sociological text. OpenStax CNX. Mar 31, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11183/1.13
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