Step 1: Grouping
Step 2: Negative Comments and Avoidance
Step 3: Hate Speech and Denial of Equal Opportunities
Step 4: Incitement and Physical Attacks
Step 1: Grouping: The first step on the Genocide Slide is taken when people are grouped
together. People can be grouped together in any number of ways - by age, by occupation, by ethnicity, by blood type, by musical experience, by anything. Grouping is often thought of as being something good - something useful.
Maybe it is. But at the same time it is also the necessary precursor of some horrible things. All grouping has one thing in common: it creates division – division between “members” and
“non-members”, division between “in” and “out”, division between “we” and
“them”.
It is our obligation to avoid unnecessary grouping. It is our obligation
to avoid using words that unnecessarily identify groups. It is our obligation to keep
ourselves and our children totally off the Genocide Slide, far away at “Step Zero”
where the world is an ungrouped family.
Step 2: Negative Comments and Avoidance: The second step on the Genocide Slide occurs when a group is identified
in a negative way. This includes jokes. Jokes and disparaging
comments about another group spread hard-to-break stereotypes. Joking and negative comments about a group lead to the isolation and avoidance of
the group. This is the exact
opposite of what should be happening. Avoidance perpetuates ignorance. Mixing and learning is what is needed.
It is our obligation to never
laugh at or show approval of a demeaning joke or comment about a group.
A purposeful "non-laugh" or a simple "no" by a courageous person may be all it
takes to save the joker and all listeners from slipping any further down the Slide.
Step 3: Hate Speech, Dehumanization, and Denial of Equal
Opportunities: The third step on the Genocide Slide occurs when hatred is expressed towards some group. This includes referring to them as nonhumans - such as animals or roaches. This also includes denying them access to the doors that all people are entitled to.
Step 3 also has something to say about the perpetrators of the hatred. The perpetrators will probably need help in getting off the Slide. The slope of ignorance at Step 3 is likely to be too steep for individuals to get off alone. The perpetrator did not ask for a miserable, hate-filled life. The perpetrator needs to be stopped and deserves to be helped in getting off the Slide. Society produces people like this when it is not fully integrated.
Society produces people like this when its children are not able to mix freely
and form friendships equally with all other children. Society produces people like
this when neighborhoods and workplaces are not diverse. Society produces
people like this when people like this are not stopped.
It is our obligation to put an end to
any hate speech, immediately and publicly, so that everybody who hears the hate
can also hear and be empowered by its rebuke. It is the job of our schools to
teach students how to deliver such rebukes effectively but kindly.
Step 4: Incitement and Physical Attacks: People who engage in or incite physical attacks must be quarantined from
society until they are no longer consumed with such hatred. Like viruses, hatred spreads and infects others. The contagion must be stopped.
It is our obligation to stand up like
a wall to block all violence and all incitement to violence. If the police and court system are the most effective way to achieve
this, it is our obligation to contact the police and to testify in court until
the targeted group is safe and the attacker is confined and given the chance to
grow in another direction.