Call It Genocide (Not Systemic Racism)
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Slavery As Genocide
III. Eugenics/ Jim Crow
IV. Genocide In 2020
Introduction
Labeling the suffering black people face in America as genocide is nothing new. In 1951, Black activists William Patterson and Paul Robeson delivered a petition from the Civil Rights Congress(CRC) to the United Nations titled “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People.” The America Government prevented this discussion at the UN from taking place.
When Patterson returned to the U.S. , his passport was seized by the State Department, preventing him from speaking abroad about how Black American’s human rights were being violated. Robeson was also prevented from leaving the country. They and other CRC leaders were harassed by the FBI and other federal agencies for the rest of their lives. In 1996 , “The National Black United Front” also petitioned the United Nations, using the same slogan, “We Charge Genocide”
Before I get into how America commits genocide against Black Americans today in 2020, I would just like to take a paragraph or two, to highlight how slavery was a genocide. Many people have stated how slavery was not a genocide because the aim was profit not extermination.
Below is the definition of genocide determined by the United Nations in 1948. Please feel free to keep referring back to it, while reading the article.
The past 400 years and counting clearly qualifies as genocide according the the United Nations.
Slavery As Genocide
*If you are black and already know this information, please feel to skip to the next section.
Concentration camps were set up by Europeans along the coast of West Africa. This is where Africans were held before being put in slave ships. Female African slaves were raped and millions of black people died in these concentration camps. Black people were then placed on slave ships. African women were raped and millions of Africans died on these concentration camps as well. The slave ships were packed extra tight to maximize profits.
They were packed this way because they knew the slaves would die. Slaves were worked to death, because they knew slaves were being imported by ships every year. This was done systematically.
The conditions on the slave ship were so horrible that many Africans committed suicide by jumping overboard.
A British surgeon named Alexander Falconbridge wrote about what he observed on the slave ship.
“But the excessive heat was not the only thing that rendered their situation intolerable. The deck, that is the floor of their rooms, was so covered with the blood and mucus which had proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughter-house. It is not in the power of the human imagination to picture a situation more dreadful or disgusting.”
“Numbers of the slaves having fainted, they were carried upon deck where several of them died and the rest with great difficulty were restored. It had nearly proved fatal to me also. The climate was too warm to admit the wearing of any clothing but a shirt and that I had pulled off before I went down…. In a quarter of an hour I was so overcome with the heat, stench and foul air that I nearly fainted, and it was only with assistance I could get back on deck. The consequence was that I soon after fell sick of the same disorder from which I did not recover for several months”
Some slave ship captains would throw Africans overboard if they were sick and didn’t want them to pass on their illnesses to other Africans on the ship, in order to protect their profits. Other slave ship captains also threw Africans overboard for insurance profits.After arriving to the Americas, many Africans were placed on “seasoning camps.” These were concentration camps meant to “break” Africans in , so that they could get ready for the next level of concentration camps or death camps, known as the slave plantation.
“Calculations are accordingly made upon their lives. It is conjectured, that if three in four survive what is called the seasoning, the bargain is highly favourable. This seasoning is said to expire, when the two first years of their servitude are completed: It is the time which an African must take to be so accustomed to the colony, as to be able to endure the common labour of a plantation, and to be put into the gang.
“ At the end of this period the calculations become verified, twenty thousand of those, who are annually imported, dying before the seasoning is over. This is surely an horrid and awful consideration: and thus does it appear, (and let it be remembered, that it is the lowest calculation that has been ever made upon the subject) that out of every annual supply that is shipped from the coast of Africa, forty thousand lives are regularly expended, even before it can be said, that there is really any additional stock for the colonies.”
-Abolitionist, Thomas Clarkson 1775
They were worked to death. In some places in Latin America, the average life span of a black person that arrived there as a slave was only 7 years. Not only were they worked to death, they were tortured, some were beheaded, and many were mutilated. Black families were often separated when relatives, such as children were sold to different plantations.
Enslaved African females were raped and were also bred like animals. Female slaves were expected to start producing babies at 13. By the age of 20, Black women were expected to produce at least 4 babies.
In the book, American Holocaust, David Stannard estimates that around 30 to 60 million Africans died in captivity.
The UN death toll stated that around 17 million Africans died from slavery.
Side note: Slavery in the south lasted until the 1960’s. Yes the 1960's.
Eugenics
Lastly, it is important to note the Eugenics movement.
The Eugenics movement falls under multiple methods of genocide.
After slavery, America had no use for black people. They were no longer the source of free labor and many white elitists believed that there were going to be many financial consequences of blacks being freed. Extermination was put in place. After the Civil War, former slaves in Natchez, Mississippi were rounded up and placed into concentration camps, in which 10,000–20,000 black people died. White elitists knew they could not possibly kill off all black people so they came up with another idea. This idea was to send black people back to Africa, under a movement called colonization. The idea eventually failed, so they decided to create eugenics, which was a movement created to exterminate blacks discretely. Eugenics targeted the body of black women through forced sterilizations and surgeries made on their body without their consent.
Below are quotes from key members of the Eugenics movement.
“Eugenic goals are most likely to be attained under another name than eugenics” -Frederick Osborn, Former Head of the American Eugenics Society
Translation, the extermination of Black people will be under a secret name that is not called eugenics. Due to the global attention on the holocaust, the eugenics movement in America needed a more subtle name. They did not want to be accused of population control so they decided to pick a name without the word “control” in it. In 1942, the American Birth Control League was changed to Planned Parenthood. The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, said,
“The eugenic and civilization of birth control is becoming apparent to the enlightened and the intelligent …the campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical in ideal with the aim of eugenics”
In other words, the goal of birth control is to exterminate black people.
She also once said,
“I consider that the world and almost our civilization, for the next 25 years will depend upon simple, cheap, safe contraceptive to be used in poverty stricken slums, jungles, and among the most ignorant people. Even this will not be efficient, because I believe that now, immediately there should be national sterilization for certain dysgenic types of our population who are being encouraged to breed and would die out were the government not feeding them”
These next three quotes are from the eugenicist, Gunnar Myrda, in 1944. He wrote a book called An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, that discussed how America should exterminate black people.
“The only way possible of decreasing negro population is by means of controlling fertility” (pg 170)
“All White Americans agree that, if the Negro is to be eliminated, he must be eliminated slowly, so as not to hurt any living individual Negroes.”(pg.168)
“Birth control facilities could be extended relatively more to Negroes than whites, since Negroes are more concentrated in lower income and education classes since they now know less about modern techniques of birth control” (pg. 176)
“They must not have too easy access to relief or hospital treatment lest the removal of the last check on natural selection should make it too easy for children to survive”- Eugenicist, Julian S. Huxley 1941
I think the last quote should be emphasized.
“They must not have too easy access to relief or hospital treatment lest the removal of the last check on natural selection should make it to easy for children to survive”
Today black people receive inferior healthcare to white people, which proves to be deadly.
A eugenicist began calling for birth control to be injected into the water supply in urban neighborhoods. This plan was advocated for at a 1969 United Nations meeting.
It is worth noting that Hitler was influenced by America.
It is also worth noting that black people were exterminated in the Holocaust under Hitler as well. Some were sterilized and put in concentration camps. Their children were also sterilized.
The Eugenics movement does not even include the racial terrorism of post slavery and Jim Crow, in which Black people were lynched by the thousands. The homes of black people and black churches were frequently bombed. Birmingham, Alabama was known as “Bombingham” due to the terrorism mentioned above.
Genocide in 2020
1. Poisoning Black Neighborhoods
Toxic Hazard Waste sites have been placed in Black communities all over America. These facilities are polluting and poisoning the bodies of black people , from the elderly to the children. Toxic waste facilities pollute the air with toxic chemicals that cause cancer, heart , kidney, and lung diseases, and psychological disorders.
This process of poisoning black neighborhoods is known as “environmental racism”
As stated in the article below, “pollution is violence.”
“Sometimes violence is slow. That’s one of the core lessons of ecology. Poisons can take a long time to do their work. The super-storm that climate change throws against the coast of Bangladesh next year may come from greenhouse gases emitted decades ago. So here’s a rule: If someone commits a crime that hurts or kills another person, that’s a crime of violence, even if the violence comes later.”
A 2018 study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), called, “Disparities in Distribution of Particulate Matter Emission Sources by Race and Poverty Status”, found that African-Americans suffer the most from environmental pollution. The results showed that African Americans deal with a “54 percent higher health burden, compared to the overall population in America.” One might say “well this is just a poverty issue and not a race issue.” According to a 1987 report, race was the number one factor determining who would be polluted.
A study done by the University of Minnesota in 2014, confirmed that this was still the case. The evidence is clear that environmental pollution is race related.
In Louisiana, there is a town that lies along the Mississippi River, called LaPlace. The black residents in that area refer to it as “Cancer Alley “, due to the the prevalence of cancer in that community. Residents say the high rates of cancer stems from a toxic waste facility in that town. According to the EPA, this site produces 99 percent of America’s chloroprene pollution. The EPA says that it is a carcinogen, meaning it causes cancer.
Another form of environmental racism is lead poisoning disproportionately affects the black community.
Dr. Mona Hannah-Attisha, who was one of the doctors who helped expose the lead poisoning scandal in Flint, Michigan, said, “If you were going to put something in a population to keep them down for generations to come, it would be lead”
The more run down a building is, the less the landlord has to pay in taxes.
Therefore, the conditions do not change because it is economically profitable to have people living in unsanitary conditions.
Also the less money the landlord has to spend on repairs the more profit the landlord makes.
This exploitation is why residents in complain of water damage, lack of plumbing, leaks, mold, rats, mice, roaches, and lead poisoning. These toxins are extremely harmful to the brain and body.
Lead poisoning permanently removes the gray matter from a child’s brain. It also damages a person’s executive functions and cognitive abilities, causes impulsivity, reduces IQ, and causes behavior problems.
Lead poisoning kills over 400,000 people a year which is more than gun related homicides.
One reason as to why black people neighborhoods are so vulnerable for environmental pollution is because black people as a whole, have been systematically isolated to specific neighborhoods.
In the early 1900’s, the mayor of Baltimore stated “Blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums.”
To read how this occurred and still occurs today, click the link below.
Why is environmental racism genocide?
Environmental racism matches the criteria of complicit in genocide because the government knows that black people are being poisoned nationwide but yet continues to stop it. The government continues to cut funding that prevents environmental racism.
A larger issue embedded with environmental pollution is healthcare. Many low-income families lack healthcare. A community poisoned with several health issues, against their will, deserves free healthcare, opposed to potentially being charged for being a victim.
2. Keeping Black People In Poverty
“Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Article III , “complicity in genocide”
Today in 2020, America systematically keeps the black community locked in poverty. To see how this occurs, click the link below.
Economic deprivation is a form of genocide. Poverty is associated with more health issues and a shorter life span.
By systematically keeping black people in poverty, America is placing black people in conditions that shorten our lives.
3. The War on Drugs/Mass Incarceration
The War on Drugs/Mass Incarceration, which still continues today is a form of genocide as well.
It fits under “complicit in genocide.”
As we know the government started the “War on Drugs” to purposely lock black people up, for many reasons, including for profit. This is no conspiracy theory. This is American history, or shall I say current events, because Mass Incarceration and the War on Drugs, still exists today. A member from the Richard Nixon administration, the same administration that started the War On Drugs, admitted that the purpose was to lock up black people in hopes of destroying their community and arresting their civil rights leaders.
The link above contains the transcript which in which the aide says
“You want to know what this was really all about?”
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”’
It is historically documented that U.S. government officials were aware and knowingly allowed the drugs to flood predominantly impoverished black neighborhoods. Crack cocaine destroyed the lives, minds, and neighborhoods of black people all across America. It was confirmed that people affiliated with the CIA were involved in bringing drugs to the black neighborhoods of America.
Feel free to check out the links below for proof.
Keep in mind, the War on Drugs came right after America’s Counterintelligence program, known as “Cointelpro.”
4. Cointelpro
Cointelpro was a war that the FBI waged against Black Americans who advocated for equality .
After the 1963 March on Washington King’s most famous speech, FBI Assistant Director William Sullivan, head of the Intelligence Division, told J Edgar Hoover about a plan to target Dr. King Jr. that would “if handled properly, [could] take him off his pedestal… the Negroes will be left without a national leader of sufficiently compelling personality to steer them in the proper direction.”
To read more about how Cointelpro qualifies as a method of genocide, read the article below titled, “When Did Black History Become A Conspiracy Theory?(Nipsey Hussle Tribute)
Conitelpro was legally renewed under Trump in 2017. It was renamed, “The Black Identity Extremist Report”
5. Black Infant Mortality Rate
“ Imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the groups.”
The Eugenics movement mentioned earlier , details how black women were sterilized all the way up until the 1970's.
It did not end then. Female inmates have still been offered sterilization for shorter sentences.
Research has now shown that “systematic oppression” is killing black infants. Black women are more likely to face chronic stress through out their life. This is because of the systemic racism black women face. This stress takes a toll on the body of pregnant black women, thus killing their children.
6. The Child Welfare System
“Forcibly transferring children of the group to one group.”
The same way Black men are targeted by the police. The Child Welfare system targets Black women by taking custody of their kids for miniscule offenses. Many of these children are then adopted by white families.
7. Unequal Healthcare
8. Propaganda
Under the criteria for genocide, one of the methods was “Direct and public incitement to commit genocide”
Media Bias
In 2015, the white terrorist Dylan Roof, massacred 6 Black people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina. He stated one of the main reason’s for his terrorist attack on black people was because “They’re raping our women”
The article below shows how the government put out false data that suggested black men were disproportionately raping white women.
9. Cultural Genocide
In 1944 a lawyer name Raphael Lemkin stated that cultural genocide was a component of genocide.
In order to enslave black people, the slave owners had to “break” them first. Apart of this process was removing the enslaved from their culture, language, and history before slavery. This was done through beatings.
Today in 2020 black people are still punished for practicing our culture.
The American Education system does not properly educate black students on their culture.
One aspect of the genocide of black people that can not be stressed enough is the mental harm aspect.
Feel free to read the article below titled “Trauma From Slavery Can Actually Be Passed Down Through Your Genes”
We do not have to reach back from the trauma of slavery. Many Black Americans who survived the trauma of Jim Crow are still alive today.
Conclusion
Our genocide has been going on for 400 years. Common sense says the answer is to separate from the people who are inflicting genocide upon us.
Activist Jay Morrison breaks down how we can make that happen.