What is cultural genocide? Cultural identity is an element that unites and binds people together. The lack of cultural identity has left some of “us” in society fragmented and can be defined as cultural genocide. “We Charge Genocide.” Quoted by the UN's definition of genocide as “Any intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, or religious group is genocide." It concludes that "the oppressed Negro citizens of the United States, segregated, discriminated against, and long the target of violence, suffer from genocide as the result of the consistent, conscious, unified policies of every branch of government. The National Black United Front petitioned the United Nations in 1996–1997, directly citing “We Charge Genocide” and using the same slogan.
Their petition begins:
Declaration of Genocide by the U.S. Government Against the Black Population in the United States.
Whereas, we the undersigned people of African ancestry understand that the proliferation of the distribution and sale of crack cocaine...has reached epidemic proportions, causing serious harm to the African community in the United States. Therefore, we understand that this harm can only be described as acts of genocide by the United States government through its Central Intelligence Agency.
In addition to acts of genocide perpetuated through the CIA and in this recent revelation, acts of genocide can also be attributed to the Government's use of taxpayers' resources to wage war on a segment of the U.S. population. This is evidenced by the following: (1) cutting back on welfare; (2) privatization of public housing and land grab schemes; (3) privatization of public education; (4) racist immigration policies; (5) privatization of basic health care; (6) building prisons and the expanding incarceration of millions of African and Latino youth.
The effects of the lack of cultural indoctrination of individualism has been instilled within the cultural psyche to further complicate the ability of people to unite. As a result, it has left “us” more vulnerable as a society. The unwillingness by those in charge to address this deficiency within society has resulted in genocidal warfare within the social, political, economic and education systems. If this mind-frame persists, it will erode the very foundation of humanity and continue to divide “us” as a people.
The tragedy of injustice is that it doesn’t identify the systemic oppression of the perpetrators of cultural genocide. We have unconsciously participated in the oppression of our own people by denying them the knowledge of their own culture. One form of cultural genocide that is been demonstrated within our communities is gun violence. It has become a sub-culture within our neighborhoods that has filtered throughout communities affecting our school grounds permeating to the very core of society where the vulnerable reside, meaning the children. And the root cause of gun violence stems from a society who hasn’t been taught as to who they are as a people and who their neighbors are as human beings. It has resulted in innocent individuals having their lives snuffed out, not being able to even understand and families being left behind asking the age-old question of why did this happen to “us”? It’s the “us” versus “them” mentality. The stigma by society was that those in the inner cities mostly people of color, who are killing each other through gun violence, are not cultivated enough to see their communities as human beings therefore, they behave as savage beasts and that is “their” problem. It wasn’t until gun violence reared its ugly head in Caucasian classrooms that brought the necessary attention it that was needed to address the issue correctly. That being the problem as opposed to “us” who are cultivated therefore this should never happen in our communities. No sense of cultural identity as human beings.
Cultural genocide has a systemic effect as well as a psychological one. The systemic effect erodes from within the lives of individuals and proceeds to throughout communities and holds the very people hostage to their own demise. It spans demographics to several generations. The psychological effect extends to racial disparity. It takes place in the forms of gangs. Some gangs are formed in an effort to become their own society. They become the “law enforcers” within their communities. One reason for this is the disparity or the lack of protection by those who have been commissioned to protect and serve, (meaning police officers), those in these communities. Instead of protecting them and serving them, they instill fear therefore eroding the trust of law enforcement and the criminal justice system and causing them to create their own sub-culture within their communities. Because of their isolation gangs and lack of community identity they do not cross ethnic lines and they become a component of racism. In other words, the same thing that they hate I society, they become.
So, what do we do about these issues that result from a systemic cultural breakdown that affect every area of our society, political, social, economic, and educational. The question for “us” is how are “we” the conscious going to address these issues. We can begin by asking ourselves some pertinent questions:
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What are the social, political, economic, and educational effects of cultural genocide?
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How do we begin to lift people out of these deficiencies?
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What are the imminent dangers of not addressing these issues?
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How much has slavery played a role in cultural genocide within the African American community?
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Have the victims of cultural genocide become pons in their own demise?
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Have we become sympathetic to our captors and now we’re actually feeling sorry for those who would deprive “us” (the Stockholm Syndrome) of what actually is a basic human right to know who we are as a people and where we need to go as a society (Menocide)?
According to, William Chancellor (1973), “Because only from history can we learn what our strengths were and, especially, in what particular aspect we are weak and vulnerable. Our history can then become at once the …”
In conclusion, and this is food for thought. If we are to have a successful society, one that is co-dependent and one that can co-exist, then we will need to incorporate cultural identification throughout the communities; socially, politically, institutionally, educationally, and economically.
References
Lynch, William. (1712 December 25). The Willie Lynch Letter: The Making Of A Slave!
file://Y:\BPP_Books\temp\Fw. It is never to late to get up off of your knees and fight for w... 8/20/2005. Retrieved from https://archive.org/stream/WillieLynchLetter1712/the_willie_lynch_letter_the_making_of_a_slave_1712_djvu.txt
Chancellor, William. (1973 Feb 1). The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a
Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. 3rd Revised Edition, Chicago, Ill: Third World, 215. 17 December 1951^ We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People Civil Rights Congress. 195. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Charge_Genocide