Social Stigmas That Kill
June 26th, 2009 by SocProf and tagged Collective Behavior, Human Rights, Indigenous Populations, Institutional Discrimination, Institutional Racism, Mass Violence, Nationalism, Precarization, Prejudice, Social Exclusion, Social Stigma
Burned alive in Kenya:
This is horrifying, of course, but it is even more so to see how casually people who have participated in these lynchings behave afterward and how just a touch of rationality could put a stop to this:
I have already mentioned how these cases seem to increase as the economic situation deteriorates and people see their conditions degrade and experience even more uncertainties than before. In such conditions, it is not uncommon for scapegoating mechanisms to emerge and for the population to turn against a specific category of people who have no way of avoiding their being stigmatized and targeted, in this case, the elderly targeted by the youth.
Lest we think these things are limited to Kenya (or Tanzania in the case of stigmatized Albinos), case number two: poisoned in Kosovo.
Abused, driven out and poisoned: the scandal of the Kosovo Roma | World news | The Observer via kwout
Violence against Roma is not limited to Kosovo… not even to Eastern Europe:
Abused, driven out and poisoned: the scandal of the Kosovo Roma | World news | The Observer via kwout
Stereotypes abound about the Roma and here again, economic deterioration makes them an even easier target for violence and institutional discrimination.
In both cases, there is no way the targeted population can disprove the accusations against them. How does one prove a negative ("I am not a witch")? Or how does one prove that one has the right "soul"?
Unhappy return: fear and loathing await fugitives from Belfast racism | World news | The Guardian via kwout
There are always anecdotes available in public discourse that support the stereotype (along with "personal knowledge" stories taken as sufficient evidence). And confirmation bias is commonly used: any information that reinforces the stereotype is easily believed without questions whereas information or data that does not support it is treated with suspicion and questioned. And if that is not possible (the information is factual), then, the new information only proves that there are a few exceptions ("they’re not all bad") but that these do not invalidate the rule.
One argument often invoked to justify racism attitudes and behaviors is that the target (as representative of a whole category and proxy for it) must have done something to the racist perpetrator(s). There is something about the Roma that predisposes them to be victims of violence. This conveniently turns the table and blames the victims for their own victimization.
Research, however, has shown that prejudice and discrimination against one category of people is usually accompanied by prejudice against other categories (racism, sexism and homophobia often go hand in hand). So, unsurprisingly, once the Roma were gone, more violence followed against other categories:
Posted in Collective Behavior, Human Rights, Indigenous Populations, Institutional Racism, Mass Violence, Nationalism, Precarization, Prejudice, Racism, Social Discrimination, Social Exclusion, Social Stigma | No Comments »
