Our Rough Script/Talking Points

Welcome to Terrible Talks, the show where 2 humans talk. We’re your hosts Charlotte and Olivia. today we are talking about dehumanization.

 

Trigger warning. Dark topics including death, suffering, and rape.

Dehumanization is when a person or a group of people don’t think someone should be treated humanely and proceed to treat them as less than a human or silently witness these actions

We care for everyone around us. It’s unfair to treat others differently or as less just if they look different or have different beliefs. We are all humans and deserve respect and to keep their dignity. There are so many cases of people being treated poorly like they are objects or animals.

What causes dehumanizing actions?  Xenophobia (fear or hate of something foreign/strange) and racism

Xenophobia/racism leads to dehumanizing actions

 

• Stalin’s camps/gulag

• • Forced labour camps in the soviet union
  • Start around 1920 and ended in 1960
  • peaked from 1930-1950
  • Anyone from petty criminals to political prisoners
  • People died from ‘Lack of clothes, lack of food, lack of medicine,’
• German Concentration Camps
  • The next morning … a gentleman walked by, [and] I said, “Sir, would you please tell me what happened to … my mother, my two younger sisters, and my mother’s sisters and brother?” … He pointed to the left. There were trenches of burning people, and a distinct odor of burning human beings. … This is the first time I learned about the gas chambers.”
  • Their belongings were taken and were forced to do manual labour or were killed
  • Victims were forced to dig their own mass graves before being shot
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE
  • Detainees are held for unlawful entry to the US
  • Immigrants are held in horrible conditions “a human dog pound”
  • Sometimes do not have access to toothpaste, soap, or running water for shower/hand washing
  • Includes children (separated from parents like young animals are?)
  • Driven by xenophobia/racism – most are Hispanic
• Uyghur Camps
  • Happening right now
  • Men but mostly women are being tortured and raped
  • “They say people are released, but in my opinion everyone who leaves the camps is finished,” she said. “Their goal is to destroy everyone, and everybody knows it.”
  • “Reeducation” of minorities

*ad-lib transition

• The first step is to understand what causes people to act like this so we do not continue the cycle (educate yourself from credible sources)
• Recognize dehumanization and speak out!  Use social media and your voice to spread awareness and try to contact politicians who could help
• You may find it hard, but don’t stop learning and speaking out.  Throughout history, there have been countless dehumanizing events and it is up to our generation to make sure it does not happen again

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to educate yourself and others, speak out, and do not let history repeat itself.

 

Works Cited

Bartholomew, James. “Life in a gulag: a conversation with one of the last survivors of Stalin’s camps.” Spectator, vol. 334, no. 9847, 20 May 2017, p. 22. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A498478410/GIC?u=43riss&sid=GIC&xid=852fcfbc. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.

 

Thom, Colleen. “Samuel’s story.” Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication, vol. 105, no. 25, 5 May 2006, p. SS4. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A145339011/GIC?u=43riss&sid=GIC&xid=7cd9487c. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.

 

“The latest revelations about Communist China’s human-rights abominations are possibly the most horrific yet.” National Review, vol. 73, no. 4, 8 Mar. 2021, p. 10. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A652590840/GIC?u=43riss&sid=GIC&xid=e01d6607. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.

 

Mitcham, Carl, and Adam Briggle. “Humanization and Dehumanization.” Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering: A Global Resource, edited by J. Britt Holbrook, 2nd ed., vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2015, pp. 502-504. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3727600382/GIC?u=43sbo&sid=GIC&xid=a0d2047c. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.

 

Lind, Dara. “The Horrifying Conditions Facing Kids in Border Detention, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 25 June 2019, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/25/18715725/children-border-detention-kids-cages-immigration.

Moore, Robert. “In El Paso, Border Patrol Is Detaining Migrants in ‘a Human Dog Pound’.” Texas Monthly, 11 June 2019, www.texasmonthly.com/news/border-patrol-outdoor-detention-migrants-el-paso/.

“U.S. Detention of Child Migrants.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-detention-child-migrants.