Urvi Bhuwania 9: "Cockroaches"
Urvi Bhuwania
"Cockroaches"
PC: bbc.com
Throughout history, political leaders and other authoritative figures have cleverly manipulated words to gain power and achieve their aims in the most efficient way possible. If there is one lesson to be learned from history, it is that there is much more power in making people truly believe and align with a cause than to coerce compliance through mere physical force. This is the approach that the Hutu majority in Rwanda in the 1990s employed to bring about the genocide of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis.
Rwanda is a country in Africa that was taken control of by Belgium in the early 1900s, and since Belgium leaders took favoritism towards Tutsis for political positions, tensions started rising between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus revolted and overtook the Tutsi monarch, and the country earned its independence in 1962. Hostility was gradually rising between the Tutsi minority, moderate Hutus, and Hutu extremists, and an extremely powerful weapon of the latter become the radio, specifically RTLM, a private radio station initiated in 1993 by Hutu extremists. Often called the "hate radio" station, Hutus spread vicious propaganda to Hutu moderates, calling Tutsis "cockroaches" and "snakes" that needed to be "exterminated" (Ndahiro).
By denigrating the Tutsi minority to nothing more than the embodiment despicably viewed creatures, the Hutus gradually reduced the inherent moral obligation and empathy that every human feels to another. By constantly referring to them as something as something other than human, as "vermin", or as "tall trees" that needed to be "cut down," the Hutu extremists allowed Hutu moderates to give in to their lust for power. If one doesn't view another as human, what morals are truly restraining them from treating others as nothing more than a pesky obstacle?
The true power in words seems unreal sometimes. In life, on any scale, there is a constant battle between desire and ethics, and when just a few clever words can dissolve that need and inclination towards maintaining one's morals, the chaos that results can be terrifying. In the Rwandan genocide, the hateful dehumanization of the Tutsis permitted Hutu moderates to abandon their morals and act solely upon their desire to enact revenge on the Tutsis for their initial power and then take that power for themselves wholly. Everyday citizens were prompted to raise whatever weapon they could find to hold against innocents incriminated only by their ethnicity, and it was scarily successful when radios fulfilled their aims of portraying Tutsis as nothing more than subordinate enemies that needed to be slaughtered and ran out. Hitler employed the same techniques when he called Jews "rats" to encourage their national genocide, just like white supremacists who belittled African Americans for so long, claiming them to be "subhuman" and "monkeys," to justify their enslaving (Ruane).
Words have more power than we often give them, and while we should be allowed to make mistakes in our linguistic choices and interpretations, it should be remembered that it is usually much easier to do harm than to fix it.
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This also kind of shows how people who are disrespectful towards animals and other living creatures are also the ones who are disrespectful towards other humans. In a way, considering animals in a hierarchy and less than humans is honestly similar to social darwinism/racism. I honestly think these people just need to experience the love of an unconditional dog or even a cat, and the world will be a better place.
ReplyDeleteWords are so powerful because they can affect our human conscience and morals. Thus, in most totalitarian regimes or during the war, heavy propaganda is produced by governments. Propaganda created by governments is especially powerful because if they manage to get the majority of citizens to believe in their message, they can subjugate the outliers by arresting them. Another example of the power of words is the play The Crucible. For example in the play, the girls and their leader Abagail are able to convict many innocent townspeople of witchcraft and have others believe them just by using their voice as a group.
ReplyDeleteHi Urvi! I must say words are powerful on a psychological level too. Our brains react differently to different words and evoke various emotions. I always found it odd how people would call others animals with a derogatory connotation. Though I understand what you said, that some people are called animals, which are viewed as "subhuman," it really exposes how egotistical humans can be, feeling superiority towards not only animals but also other humans.
ReplyDeleteHey Urvi! I personally love how you spoke about the power words hold because we often seem to forget that. In the moment whether we are irritated or mad we let words flow out of our mouths before even taking a chance to think about what we are about to say. It’s crazy just thinking about animals as ‘lesser’ than humans affects how we treat them. I have a dog, and it hurts to see how people treat other dogs on a daily basis. I feel like everyone needs a pet to realize the love they show, to finally treat them right. Nonetheless, we always need to realize that we can’t spit words out because once you say it, it’s hard to take it back if you really didn’t mean it. One rude sentence can truly hurt a person’s self esteem a lot and we fail to realize all this when we are feeling a type of way.
ReplyDeleteLanguage is power. This reminds me of something I learned when reading about the separation and subjugation of Middle Eastern and Eastern European states. In the past, communities formed based on shared language, and cultures formed. When people from other areas came in and colonized, they divided up the land— disregarding the cultural and linguistic connections that would fray. This caused mayhem and tension.
ReplyDeleteMedia equals power, and whoever controls government media holds a lot of power. For sure, the Rwandan Genocide is a huge case of the constant propaganda to decimate an entire minority. Propaganda is a dangerous tool, which the Hutus used for their malicious desires of absolute control. You bring up an interesting point: when a group is reduced to sub-human, what stops us from our inner lust for power? Clearly, through constant reminding and media play, the extremist Hutus played the long game to display the Tutsis as "cockroaches," and slowly, the Hutu moderates believed it. I find it sad that this imbalance of power could even take place.
ReplyDeleteHi Urvi! I am definitely seeing recurring themes of the power of words in these blogs. Hearing about the Hutus' treatment towards the Tutsis is truly heartbreaking and infuriating. I liked how you brought up the topic of ethics and desire in power. Belittling groups of people, especially minorities, and diminishing them to less than human as a way of simplifying objectives of taking power was a very inhumane and cruel outlook.
ReplyDeleteHi Urvi,
ReplyDeleteI always found it interesting how linguistically, one can take any word and make it a derogatory expression. Children could grow up thinking and subconsciously accepting that "cockroaches," "snakes," or "vermins" were evil people who did not deserve to live. Words are how we express and pass on our knowledge, emotions, and intellect. Because words have the power to influence people greatly, it is important but difficult to watch what we say around others, especially if the message may not have been worded correctly. People, who had no choice in their race, class, family, etc., do not deserve to be overpowered and degraded by the words of others.
Hi Urvi, I had heard of the war in Rwanda but I didn’t know all of the history behind it. The Hutu propaganda that you describe did sound like what the Nazis said about Jewish people. I definitely agree with your points on empathy and the immorality of dehumanization. It is heartbreaking to know that there are humans who will purposefully strip others of their humanity in order to treat them cruelly. What is also sad is the fact that not many industrialized nations acted to stop the humanitarian crisis and Rwandan genocide even though it was reminiscent of the Holocaust.
ReplyDelete