Inspired by Nadia.
We are never allowed to use the word “genocide” to describe what has been happening to us for the last 60 years. In the mainstream united states media (this includes teachers and textbooks as forms of media) there is only one genocide, The Holocaust.
Nadia talks about the current genocide against indigenous Palestinians; in comments, Aaminah discusses the death of millions of Native Americans during colonization and “Manifest Destiny.” Both mention other genocides.
Here is a list of the other genocides we don’t learn about, off the top of my head:
Irish Genocide: In the mid-1600s, under the rule of Elizabeth I and the Stuarts of England and then intensified during the Interregnum of Oliver Cromwell, English settlers declared war on Irish Catholics. Many Irish people were killed, and many more were turned off of their land and in many cases forcibly removed to western Ireland; confiscated land was then turned over the English settlers. There are some arguments, too, that the Great Famine in the mid-1800s was artificially created by the British and that during this period, Ireland produced more than enough food to feed its people.
The Black War: This was, if I understand it, the start of Australian genocide against indigenous Australians in the early 1800s. The Aboriginal population of Tasmania was reduced from several thousand to 300. Other Australian policies against indigenous Australians included the Stolen Generation, where thousands of mixed-blood Aboriginal children were kidnapped from their homes and forced to assimilate to white society in a deliberate attempt to destroy Aboriginal culture.
The Filipino-American War: While not officially declared a genocide, the Filipino-American War, from 1899-1913, led to the deaths of 1.4 million Filipinos between 1899 and 1905, 600,000 in Luzon alone, far more than the estimated 150,000 who fought U.S. occupation. Many of those killed were women and children. Most of the U.S. generals sent to the Philippines were retired generals who had led the genocide on the Plains Indian nations in the U.S., and they used many of the same tactics. Because the U.S. sought to destroy Filipino sovereignty and instituted a program of schools and government programs in their new colony meant to assimilate surviving Filipinos to U.S. culture and destroy Filipino culture, it can be classified as genocide.
The Armenian Genocide: This was actually one of the genocides that inspired Hitler (along with the U.S. reservation system and genocide against Native Americans). He is, in fact, quoted as saying that “No one remembers the Armenians.” From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman empire deported nearly 2,000,000 Armenians and killed about 800,000 of them, indiscriminate of age, gender, and 2,500 years of living in their homeland.
The Holodomor: From 1931-1934, Russian Soviets methodically and purposefully destroyed crops in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, without providing any food for the people who depended on them. Additionally, Stalin had seeds and farm animals confiscated, removing other sources of food. Six million died of starvation. During this time period, Russia also deported other ethnic minorities, killing many in the process.
Porajmos: While the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide of the Jews, is taught in schools, Jews only account for 6 million of the 11 million murdered by Nazi Germany. A large number of these were Romani people, who were explicitly mentioned in the Final Solution (to be dealt with as with the Jews) and who made up the main body of those experimented on by Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz. Other populations targeted were homosexuals, Catholic clergy who refused to join the Nazis or who provided sanctuary for those targeted, political prisoners and the mentally disabled and mentally ill (the latter in the T-4 Euthanasia program).
Khmer Rouge: In Cambodia during the Viet Nam War, the Khmer Rouge came to power and promptly began torturing and mass killing ethnic minorities, political opponents, and any other group that fell under their leaders’ suspicions, such as Buddhist monks. People were forcibly removed from cities and sent out to the countryside to work on farms, often as slave labor. Over 1.5 million people were killed.
Guatemalan Civil War: Documents from the Guatemalan Civil War show that it was not so much a war as a genocide. Over 80 percent of those killed were Mayans. Rigoberta Menchu wrote about many of the late-night raids and military actions against the Maya in her book “I, Rigoberta Menchu.”
Burundi and Rwanda: There have been several instances of ethnic cleansing between the Hutu and Tutsi people. In the 1970s, the Tutsis killed and drove out thousands of Hutus in Burundi; many escaped to Rwanda. In 1993, the Hutus killed many of the Tutsis. That’s about all I know on this one.
Kosovo: During the 1990s, the Serbian government enacted “ethnic cleansing” of Kosovar Albanians. Many fled or were forced to leave. They were eventually able to return and gain some rights after U.N. and NATO intervention in the area.
Like I said, these are off of the top of my head; I may have some facts wrong and there are certainly cases I missed. Please let me know.
Isn’t it time we started teaching kids about this in school? Before we repeat history again, as we’re doing in Iraq right now? (No, really; read about the Filipino-American War, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam War, and tell me that there aren’t similarities.)
People who have been victims of genocides have the right to not have their history erased and ignored. Ignoring all of these horrible crimes — and I know that’s barely scratching the surface — is criminal, too.
But it’s easier just to teach a white-washed history, isn’t it? “The Civil War ended slavery and everyone was happy! The end! The Nazis killed the Jews but then the U.S. and England made them stop and all the Jews moved to Israel and everyone was happy! The end! What? The Armenians? The Native Americans? Imperialism? Colonialism? No, no, that’s not important. What’s important is that everyone was happy. The end!”
