Analysis: The Man Who Coined Genocide

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Genocide has been something that has been going on for years, though in the span of time that it has been going on, only more recently has the word been given any meaning. In the article “The Man Who Coined ‘Genocide’...”, they talk about how this now very meaningful word was created in 1943 by a Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, who paired the Greek word for race and family ‘genos’ with the Latin word for killing ‘-cidere’. He did this so that the world would finally realize and prosecute those who participated in this crime, as he had witness massacres in the 1900’s. The creation of this word lead to many massacres in history being given the title of genocide. It is important for this word to be used and recognized, as it is different and more …show more content…

When the colonists arrived they somewhat knowingly spread illnesses to the unsuspecting Native Americans. “Several proven instances confirm that European settlers sometimes purposefully exterminated natives with pathogens.” (Gindin) As stated in the quote, these people were clearly knowing about the fact that these illnesses being brought overseas were extremely deadly to the Native Americans whose bodies had never been exposed to the different diseases and had no time to build up a tolerance/immune system to them as they killed so …show more content…

In the article “Native American Genocide And Its Legacy Of Oppression Today”, Gindin states that “Given the fact that, among other things, the colonists and the U.S. government perpetrated warfare, mass killings, destruction of cultural practices and separation of children from parents to prohibit Native American tribes from carrying on, it becomes clear that many of the actions taken against the Native Americans were genocidal.” A key feature in this quote, relating to this topic, being “...and separation of children from parents…”. This small sentence shows the separation of Native American children from their parents during the time the Colonists were essentially trying to wipe out these