Reflection 16-Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing

Ethnic cleansing and Genocide in my opinion has a minor similarity and major differences in some areas. Let's began with genocide. Genocide is the purposeful intention of destroying and/or eliminating a particular race or group of people all together such as the Jews during the Holocaust and the Rwanda Genocide. The word genocide is a word that was founded by an attorney Raphael Lemkin who combined geno from the Greek and cide from the Latin. I feel as though the cruelty acts of genocide is the intent to cause harm emotionally and physically and destroying people so none is left existing to tell the story and two major events in history. The first is the Rwanda attack on the Hutu and Tutsi which began in March of 1994. In the first couple of days, assailants went house to house killing and murdering individuals who opposed Habyarimana. Then there was the Holocaust. This event was the destruction of Jews, homosexuals and other groups is also a major event that was an elaborate cause to destroy a nation of people. People were stripped of their land and property and had to give up businesses and assets. These two events were the sole deliberation of taking out a wide range of people. As I was reading and studying genocide and ethnic cleansing, I do believe their is quite a difference. For example, slavery was not really intended on destroying a society of people, but to bind and attack black Americans. Yes, there were killings and beatings, but not solely the destruction to rid out a nation of people. Clarifying more on my opinion, black Americans were in bondage and was forced to hard labor and discriminated against. Unlike the two events mentioned earlier these people were massively killed by the thousands. Focusing on ethnic cleansing is a forced deportation or removal of people from a area. A prime example would be the Cherokee people and Bosnia. As this reflection is of my own thoughts and feeling, politics and government plays a major role in genocide and ethnic cleansing. Politics and government has more power and control over society more than we could imagine. These events caused suffering to a population of people whether through ethnic cleansing, genocide, or slavery. People suffered emotional wounds and bruises all because of their race and at the ending of the day lives were destroyed.