Download Humanities and Human Nature

Genocide and Human Nature
Please complete the “Have You Ever Survey”
Answer YES or NO to each of the following questions (Answer truthfully.
This is for your eyes only!):
Have You Ever:
1. Overheard a joke that made fun of a person of a different ethnic background, race, religion,
gender or sexual
orientation?
2. Been the target of name calling because of your ethnic group, race, religion, gender, or sexual
orientation?
3. Made fun of someone different from you?
4. Left someone out of an activity because he/she was different from you?
5. Not been invited to attend an activity or social function because many of the people there
were different from
you?
6. Engaged in stereotyping (lumping together all people of a particular race, religion, or sexual
orientation? Ex:
White men can’t jump!)
7. Been threatened by someone who is different from you because of your difference?
8. Committed an act of violence against someone because that person was different from you?
What is Genocide?
Genocide as defined by the United Nations in 1948 means any of the
following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, including:
• Killing members of the group
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in part
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
How does genocide start?
Copy down these words, think about how these words
relate to the start of genocide and write it down next to
them:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Race
Class
Prejudice
Religion
Discrimination
Stereotypes
Rumors
Bullying
Definitions
• Stereotype: a fixed notion or conception of people based on their group
identity. often at the base of prejudice and discrimination resulting from it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB2sR1Fowws
• Prejudice: the act of judging someone or some thing before the
facts are known. Assuming that someone of a specific ethnic
group or "race" will act in a particular way is an example of prejudging them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtZ7590A4Bs
• Discrimination: the act of distinguishing differences between
people and showing favoritism or prejudicial rejection of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHFP4coqo1U
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think people tell ethnic jokes about
other groups, insult others, or exclude them
socially?
2. Why would these differences cause a person to
“put down” someone else?
3. Where do people learn to disrespect people who
seem different?
4. Can you give examples of a prejudice you have
perceived and/or learned through the media?
Read the following case study
In one school, a group of four boys began whispering and laughing about another
boy in their school that they thought was gay. They began making comments when
they walked by him in the hall. Soon, they started calling the boy insulting antigay slurs. By the
end of the month, they had taken their harassment to another
level, tripping him when he walked by and pushing him into a locker while they
yelled slurs. Some time during the next month, they increased the seriousness of
their conduct – they surrounded him and two boys held his arms while the others
hit and kicked him. Eventually, one of the boys threatened to bring his father’s gun
into school the next day to kill the boy. At this point another student overheard the
threat and the police were notified.
Answer these questions:
1.
Do you think something similar to this could happen at Renaissance?
2.
How do you think a situation like this could affect the entire school?
3.
What could have been done to stop the situation from escalating?
4.
Who should have stopped it?
We have been discussing a situation that started
out as “whispering and laughing” and became more
intense, escalating to violence. A visual way of
describing this type of progression is called a
Pyramid of Hate.
Discussion Questions
Based on our case study…
1. Where would you place “whispering and laughing” on the
Pyramid?
2. Why do you think that what seemed harmless initially
progressed into violence?
3. Even if it seemed harmless to the perpetrators and
bystanders, do you think it felt harmless to the victim? How
do you think he felt?
4. At what level of the Pyramid do you think it would be easiest
for someone to intervene?
5. IN YOUR GROUPS: Discuss some possible ways to
intervene?
Discuss as a group
What are some examples of genocide in which
groups were subjected based on their race, national
origin, religion, sexual orientation, etc.?
All of these are examples of genocides. Some we will
cover this semester are…
Armenian Genocide
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•
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1915 – 1923
1,500,000 men, women and children murdered
500,000 survivors expelled form their homes
Rwanda
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Tutsi and moderate Hutus
1994
Lasted only 100 days
937,000 murdered – largest amounts of people to
die in genocide per day
The War on Drugs
• The United States of America and drug usage and
trafficking in America
• 1971
• Still going on today
• Increased prison rates drastically
• Targeted towards poor minorities
The Holocaust
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1941-1945
Nazi Germany
Homosexuals
Gypsies
Systematic murder of 6 million Jews
Non-Aryan (blonde hair, blue eyes)
You are about to see some brief video clips of
survivors of the Holocaust talking about their personal
experiences during this period. When the video is
over, each group will be assigned the story of one
survivor.
http://sfi.usc.edu/content/pyramid-hate
1. As a group, you will decide where on the Pyramid
of Hate your person’s experience belongs.
2. Assign a reporter to speak on behalf of your group
3. When you have come to a consensus, bring your
picture up and tape it to the pyramid.
4. Explain to the class why your group chose this
level on the pyramid…there are no wrong
answers.
Agree or Disagree?
Does everyone agree with the location of each person
on the pyramid of hate?
If not, why?
Checks for Understanding
• Independently write down 3 things you have learned
so far today about how genocide develops based
on the pyramid of hate. (3 minutes)
What if…
What could have been done by individuals or groups
to change the travesty of the holocaust?
Message for future generations
http://sfi.usc.edu/content/pyramid-hate
Begins at 4: 07