Us and Them: Identity and Genocide

Abstract

Genocide is commonly deemed to be either inexplicable or the result of special hatreds. I argue instead that genocide is an extreme result of normal identity processes. Four overlapping phases are proposed. (1) Dichotomization elevates one dimension of identity over others and, within that dimension, sharply distinguishes two categories: us and them. This may lead to (2) dehumanization, in which “they” come to be seen not just as different from “us” but as outside the human universe of moral obligation. (3) Destruction may result, accompanied and followed by processes of (4) denial that enable the perpetrators to maintain their moral self-conceptions. These phases are illustrated with examples from the Holocaust, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the Latin American dirty wars of the 1970s and 1980s, and the European conquest of the Americas. Us … … and them And after all we're only ordinary men Me … … and you God only knows it's not what we would choose to do —Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973 If you knew who I was and who you were, you would not have killed me. —Sign outside the Nyamata, Rwanda, Catholic Church, in which 10,000 people were killed on a single day in 1994 (Packer, 2002, p. 140).