The Word: Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group."
— Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2
United Nations, New York: Dr. Raphael Lemkin, who created the word 'Genocide'.
Raphael Lemkin And The 1948 Convention on Genocide
On December 9th, 1948, the United nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as General Assembly Resolution 260. On January 12th, 1951, the ninetieth (90th) day following the twentieth (20th) country to "deposit an instrument of ratification or accession" (i.e., to ratify the convention), the Secretary-General of the United Nations transmitted a copy of the convention to each Member of the United Nations announcing that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide had met the requirements for enforcement. Here is the "heart and soul" of the Convention: Top
Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as:"…any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- (a) Killing members of the group;
- (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
- (a) Genocide;
- (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
- (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
- (d) Attempt to commit genocide;
- (e) Complicity in genocide.
Surprisingly or not, the United States of America was not among the first twenty (20) countries to ratify the Convention. In fact, it took forty (40) years from the Convention's adoption in 1948, for the United States of America to ratify the Convention with certain "Reservations," "Declarations" and "Understandings (i.e., provisos, salvos and quid pro quos) on November 25th, 1988. Top
What Took America So Long To Ratify The "Genocide" Convention?
With the exception of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, all presidents since Truman have endorsed ratification of the Genocide Convention. However, on June 16, 1949, when President Truman sought the Senate's advice and consent to ratify the Genocide Convention, a small group of Southern senators blocked the process. Among those senators were Southern segregationists who believed in segregation (i.e., a very strict separation of Blacks and Whites). According to legal historian Lawrence LeBlanc, these good ol' boys masquerading as U.S. Senators asked, "Could the convention be considered applicable to racial lynching?" In addition to being concerned about their constituent's practice of lynching Negroes in their spare time being labeled as "Genocide," these senators also balked at the term "mental harm" being considered genocide, because their sacred segregation laws might also be considered genocidal. Their fears were not unfounded or without a basis in fact. In 1951 the singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson joined labor and civil rights activist William L. Patterson in a petition to the United Nations that accused America of genocidal treatment of Black Americans. The petition read: "We maintain that the oppressed citizens of the United States, segregated, discriminated against and long the target of violence suffer from genocide as the result of consistent, conscious, unified policies of every branch of government." Top
Again, What Took America So Long
To Ratify The "Genocide" Convention?
Professedly, there were several concerns, one of which was lynching Negroes. Apparently, if lynching Negroes could be defined as genocide, then genocide could not be defined as a crime in America. Top
Today We're Still Charging "Genocide"
"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg (March 15, 1933 - September 18, 2020), Associate United States Supreme Court Justice
Frankly, in light of sitting United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's admission above and if according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, "killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and/or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" qualifies as an act of genocide, then today, on the basis of the documentation detailing the impact of abortion in Black America alone, we're still charging genocide. Top
Brothers, we really need to talk.