The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Nearly 65 years ago, after an entire world discovered that there was no word in the English language that could express the horrors of the Holocaust, Robert Lenkin decided humanity needed a term to describe the infamous terrorism and coined one: genocide.

Genocide technically has five definitions, but Scott Wisor placed the word in a broader context, saying, "All genocides are acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national ethnical, racial or religious group."

Wisor, a doctoral candidate of philosophy at CU-Boulder, spoke to a crowd of roughly 60 students, faculty and residents Thursday night about the steps the average American, specifically students, can take to help prevent genocides all over the world.

"Genocide tears at the basic fabric of humanity," he said in an interview with the Collegian, adding people should care about genocide for three reasons: morality, hypocrisy and self-interest.

Wisor said he believes people did not care about or take action concerning international injustices until recently, suggesting that political bodies could intervene in such matters.

Robert Lawrence, a retired professor of political science, said the U.S. should be responsible for taking action in such atrocities.

"With power goes responsibility," Lawrence said. "And the U.S. is the most powerful, and the U.S. has a responsibility, but we need to be careful about how to carry that out."

Wisor said inaction is comparable to someone being accosted and robbed while bystanders simply watched. He said most would take action to prevent the robbery, suggesting powerful governments could intervene in genocides in the same way.

"(People) need the international community to be very involved right now," Wisor said. "Currently there is a real opportunity to change the violent histories and violent nature."

Sociology pofessor Prabha Unnithan said genocide often occurs because people identify with others who feel similar to themselves, adding that genocide is a form of extreme identification to a group rather than an act of insanity.

"It's not just some demented monsters, but a lot of people who willingly went along with what happened in the Holocaust," Unnithan said. "It is possible for us to hate people or be turned onto hate so much that we dehumanize people."

The consensus between Wisor and Lawrence pointed to charge America with involving themselves in these conflicts, starting with its voters.

Lawrence pointed to the war crime allegations brought against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court as progress toward this goal.

"(Us) condemning the such activities is a step forward," Lawrence said.

Staff writer Scott Callahan can be reached at news@collegian.com.

Photos used in graphic provided by the Associated Press.

Information used in graphic collected from: http://www.scaruffi.com/ , http://www.yale.edu/ , http://www.enotes.com/, http://www.genocideintervention.net/, http://www.genocide.org/

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