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The Eight Stages Of Genocide In Boyz N The Hood

Decent Essays

enocide is a word known in every household as a horrendous event that unfortunately plagues our world. Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide, which roughly translates to race killing, after the events of the Holocaust and created the Eight Stages of Genocide, a system to determine if genocide is actually happening. Every American knows about the Holocaust and the removal of Native Americans, but many do not know about a genocide which occurred in California during the 90’s. The violence between the different Los Angeles based gangs can be classified as a genocide because it follows Lemkin’s stages. Despite genocide often being associated with underdeveloped countries and corrupt regimes, director John Singleton demonstrates how it can, and did, occur in a society founded upon liberty through his film Boyz n the Hood.
First and foremost, genocide begins when separate classifications are established for a group and said classifications are utilized to create a rift. An example of this is the 1994 Rwandan Genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus because both are descendants of the Bantu people, yet they began to detest each other after the Belgians “colonized” the region and developed eugenics, which is the pseudo-science responsible for beliefs of racial superiority. The Belgians treated the Tutsis significantly better because they were believed to be more caucasian. After the Belgians left, the previously harmonious groups began fighting. When the Hutus gained control of

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