Students look for explanations, solutions to genocide

By Cindy Dinh     4/9/09 7:00pm

One week after Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, announced he would expel 13 humanitarian aid groups in the country, three scholars fielded student questions on ethnic conflict and genocide at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy on March 31.Michael Emerson, Professor of Sociology; Gale Stokes, past chair of the History Department and Dean of Humanities; and Mary Lee Webeck, Director of Education at Holocaust Museum Houston, spoke to students on the commonalities of ethnic conflicts and the factors that lead to genocide.

While ethnic disputes vary from region to region, Emerson, who is director of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life, said there is at least one similarity.

"A weak state is typically associated with violence, and [the state] is unable to stop it," he said.

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Emerson said the concept of ethnicity exists but varies in importance according to the situation.

"When there's economic trouble, [ethnic categories] grow in importance," he said.

Webeck agreed that people use classifications to distinguish others, especially in times where people are competing for the same resources.

"Oftentimes economics do exacerbate situations," Webeck said. "The rhetoric Hitler used to get elected may not have been as successful in good economic conditions."

She cited Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, who outlined the eight stages of genocide.

"When conditions of society are breaking down, [classification] is what we do for protective purposes," Webeck said. The next stages include symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation extermination and denial.

"Genocide has never taken place in the history of humankind without there being a war-like conflict going on," she said. "The levels of brutality are at such an extreme they happen when a society is already ramped up for killing."

Despite these warning signs, Stokes said it is difficult to actually identify these steps until conflicts are well established. At that point of realization, it is a matter of asking who will take action, he said.

"Darfur has become a symbol, representative of a larger problem," Stokes said. "This is so obvious, so bad, that we have got to do something. If you say that's true, then what? Will you be willing to send American troops?"

Webeck said the answers to these questions reflect what people value.

"Do we want to be a society of refuge for others?" she said. "That takes civic action from the people and pretty hearty fights with fellow citizens who may argue we are already too much a welfare state, we can't afford the things we're doing, etc."

According to Emerson, the reasons why the United States enters certain conflicts and not others is due to cleavages and historic relations with other countries, such as the U.S. involvement in Israel. However, he said the most deadly conflict since World War II has received less media and public attention than other conflicts.

"In the Democratic Republic of the Congo 5.4 million have died so far," Emerson said. "They say that's about four to five thousand people per day, yet we don't hear much about that one. It's not the number of people dying that gives it attention."

Stokes said there is a gendered element to conflicts and an evolutionary tendency for males between the ages of 18 - 30 to be violent.

"It's the men who are in the wars," Stokes said. "It's the men who are killing other men and raping women. It's always happened. I don't care how far back in history you go. To think that somehow that can be stopped is very ambitious."

The panelists also commented on Hollywood celebrities taking up a cause and bringing more public attention to it, most notably the conflict in Darfur.

Jones College sophomores Sharion Scott and Yesle Kim pondered why some celebrities tended to focus on one area of conflict and not others.

"If people are concerned about one thing and not the other, is it an issue of awareness or because one person in Darfur happened to know a celebrity and it spread," Scott said. "Is it all about having the connections?"

Kim said the skewed attention given to certain conflicts is not necessarily a bad thing, as it serves as a starting point for the public's increased knowledge of these occurrences. She said she would have never heard about Darfur if not for social marketing and celebrities raising awareness of the conflict.

"I think it's a good way for people to get into an issue and spread out from there," Kim said.

The event was co-sponsored by the Baker Institute Student Forum and Rice Amnesty International, headed by President Sarah Nouri.

"We're raising awareness about specific issues and, in general, theories on how do you prevent [genocide], how do you fix the problem, why does it happen," Nouri, a Jones College junior, said.

Katherine Gomer, Events Chair of the Baker Institute Student Forum, said the lecture was part of the Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the previous two years, Gomer, a Hanszen College senior, helped organize Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was observed through a film screening, a Holocaust survivors' talk and a discussion from the Israeli and German Consul Generals in Houston. She said these events were well-attended by the local Houston community, although the intent of this lecture was to have more Rice students attend and be aware of past and current conflicts.

"This year I wanted to take a broader look at ethnic conflict and genocide beyond the Holocaust," Gomer said.

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