What You Can Do to Protest Dehumanization

Acts of inhumanity don’t happen overnight. No one wakes up one morning and says, “Hey, today seems like a good day to commit genocide.” Or, “Hey, visibility’s good today. I think I’ll go crash into the Twin Towers.”

It takes years of conditioning (brainwashing). The final stages of this conditioning must be carried out by a charismatic, yet polarizing, “leader.” He/she will instill fear and offer pie in the sky promises to “the people” in order to gain their trust. And then that leader must rise to a position of power.

Inhumanity requires the identification of a target group. To demonize this group, a marketing guru has to step up and produce hateful propaganda. At best this misinformation will be full of half truths, and at worst it will be full of flat out lies.

Then the real action can begin. When the call to exterminate the “animals” who are “infesting” our country suddenly goes viral on all social media platforms, the pump will have been primed. When the decree to fight for “our” way of life comes from the talk show hosts masquerading as journalists, arms (literal or metaphorical) will be taken up without hesitation.

“We’re hardwired to believe what we see and to attach meaning to the words we hear.”

Brene Brown, PhD, LMSW, from her book Braving the Wilderness

In our post, “Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid…,” we learned about the dangers of group influence. And then we explored our instinctual need for safety in our post, “Confessions of a Safety-holic…” Take these two truths about human nature, combine them with the fact that “We’re hardwired to believe what we see and to attach meaning to the words we hear,” and you’ve created an environment fit for the roots of persecution to spread.

They Never Saw It Coming

How often do we hear this phrase in the aftermath of a tragedy, spoken by heads hung low in disbelief? To which I can’t help but think, Really? Are you sure about that? Did they not see it coming? Or did they decide to ignore it; look the other way? Because it was what they were expected to do.

If we want to realize our full potential, we cannot walk through life with our heads down, eyes glued to our phones, pretending that what we do (or don’t do) has no effect on other people. All the seemingly “little” inhumanities that we let slide on a daily basis have the potential to lead to horrible acts of violence. Which is why it is so important for us to become deliberate thinkers, and why I’m so glad you’re here!

As deliberate thinkers, we can protest dehumanization by:

- Learning about its precursors.
- Accepting the fact that we are all capable of dehumanizing others.
- Making the conscious decision to recognize the warning signs.
- Examining our expectations of others.
- Examining our expectations of what others expect of us (now that’s a mouthful).

Okay, let’s get into it…

Warning: Dehumanization in Process

Based on my research, every unspeakable evil carried out by an indoctrinated group of people begins with dehumanization. Therefore, it’s important to understand what the term means and how to recognize when it is happening.

I’ll reference one of my favorite sources, Merriam-Webster —

Dehumanization: to deprive (someone or something) of human qualities, personality, or dignity: such as (a) to subject (someone) to conditions or treatment that are inhuman or degrading, (b) to address or portray (someone) in a way that obscures or demeans that person’s humanity or individuality.

In other words, make someone feel or appear less than human.

According to Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., there are 5 steps of dehumanization.

Hinting at the subpar intelligence or morality of a group. This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
The use of infestation analogies. “The majority group must be made to feel like this minority is a threat to their health or safety in some way.”
References and comparisons to animals. Jews were referred to as rats. Tutsis were referred to as cockroaches. Cambodians were referred to as microbes. Illegal immigrants are being referred to as “animals.” And New York magazine depicted Donald Trump as a pig on its April 2018 cover.
Threats of violence. The leader issues a call for violence against the minority group, and the majority group blindly follows because they now see the minority group as inhuman.
The removal of the group from society. Removal can include deportation or the use of camps and ghettos.

Neuroscientists have found that the process of dehumanization physically alters the pathways in our brains. Our thoughts find a detour around the pathways that lead to moral decision making. This is why, given the right set of circumstances, we are all capable of doing something we would not normally do.

Don't Blindly Believe the Hype

Each of us is receptive to various forms of hype. And, the unfortunate reality is, many news anchors have become hype-men rather than journalists. That’s why we have to remain curious and sort out the facts for ourselves.

You can find links to some great fact-checking sites at the end of this post.

As I write this post, my thoughts keep drifting to the hype surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border and the perceived need to have a wall along every inch of it. Must be because there has been so much emphasis on this issue since Donald Trump took office. I had no intention of diving into that mess with this post, but that’s where I’m naturally heading, so here we go.

Hype creates expectations, and based on the hype I have heard over the last four years, I would expect that illegal immigration from Mexico has been steadily increasing, the number of violent immigrants crossing that border has been increasing, and that these immigrants are “taking our jobs.”

However, if I examine my expectations and compare them to some reputable statistics, the two don’t quite match up.

According to the Pew Research Center:

- The number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined by more than 1 million since 2007.
- There were more apprehensions of non-Mexicans than Mexicans at U.S. borders in fiscal year 2017.
- At the end of 2016, as Trump was taking office, the U.S. civilian workforce included 7.8 million unauthorized immigrants, which is a decline from the peak level in 2007 of 8.2 million.

According to the Cato Institute:

- Natives make up 82.43% of the total population and 91.48% of the incarcerated population.
- Illegal immigrants make up 9.08% of the total population and only 5.61% of the incarcerated population.

(These statistics are for 2014 and may not be representative of 2019. But remember, we were being warned about the murderers and rapists from Mexico in June of 2015.)

Do we need to protect our borders? Yes. Do we need to put measures in place to control illegal immigration? Yes. But not for the reasons we are being sold. Which begs the question, why are we being lied to?

Recall dehumanization step 2, “The majority group must be made to feel like this minority is a threat to their health or safety in some way,” and we may have the answer.

In this case, I doubt there is a master plan to exterminate illegal immigrants at the Mexican border. It’s more likely that this group is being dehumanized purely for political gain.

However, that doesn’t make the dehumanization of illegal immigrants any less of a threat. It creates sentiments that give a maniacal leader room to come forward, with his/her audience already primed, and carry out devastating atrocities.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Remember this mouthful I laid out above — we have to examine our expectations of what others expect of us? A simple (?) term for this is meta-perception; how we perceive others to perceive us. Is your head spinning yet?

The important thing to realize, as stated by Gordon Hodson, Ph.D., is that “. . . meta-perceptions (i.e. how we perceive others to perceive us) are as important as our beliefs about that group.”

When minority groups expect that the majority group sees them as less than human, they are more likely to retaliate. In turn, when the majority group expects that the minority group sees them as less than human, they are more likely to increase the intensity of the dehumanization process.

The only thing that can be created from these expectations is a circle of violence that will be hard to pull away from.

Time to Turn the Tables on Myself for a Minute

As I starting wrapping this post up, I realized that I am definitely guilty of dehumanizing certain groups. The first to come to mind is white supremacists. I have no problem calling their beliefs and actions disgusting. I have no problem thinking that they have subpar intelligence and morality. And even though I see them as more of a threat to our democracy than illegal immigrants, that doesn’t justify my way of thinking.

So why do I have these thoughts? Because I am human, and we all have a natural desire to distinguish ourselves from our perceived enemy groups, whether those enemy groups are “deserving” of our dehumanization or not.

I can’t stress this point enough, I am on this journey with you. I don’t mean to talk at you but rather with you so we can learn together. And I may have just uncovered another expectation that is holding me back from realizing my full potential.

What I Really Think

Do I think we’re on the brink of another holocaust? No.

Am I frightened by the rate at which the dehumanization of minority groups is being normalized? Absolutely.

Do I think we can change public discord one person at a time? You bet. That’s why I’m writing this post, and, hopefully, why you’re reading it.

What am I going to do about it? Well, number one, offer this post to the world (wink). Number two, I will do my best to recognize when I am hearing/reading dehumanizing messages and not fall prey to these tactics. And three, I will do my best to call people out when I hear them using dehumanizing language. Not in an antagonistic way, but with a spirit of curiosity. Why do you think that? Or, why did you say that?

I have a feeling this post will stir up some controversy, which will give us a lot of expectations to examine. What did you learn from this post? What questions do you have? What’s one action you can commit to so you don’t become a link in the chain of dehumanization? Let us know in the comments.