This paper will examine how the "Dehumanization" of animals, Jews during 

the holocaust, and slaves has been perpetuated in order to maintain 

systems oppression around the world. When something is dehumanized, it is 

"deprived of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, or civility," 

cites The American Heritage Dictionary. Science, Religion, Violence, and 

Language have all proved to be important tools in the perpetuation and 

maintenance of oppressive systems. The purpose of this paper is to identify the 

common forms of oppression, and to reconcile them in order that the oppressed 

groups can form a united front against their oppressors.  

	
	There are four points that Marjorie Spiegel mentions in her thesis of "The 

Dreaded Comparison," which must be resolved before the roots of oppression are 

every to be completely annihilated. The four points include Identifying with the 

oppressor, In-group fighting, Risks of being defined, and last, Economic 

stratification. These four points affect all oppressed groups equally, and 

if they aren't reconciled, than the oppressor will continue to use them to keep 

us divided. The first point that will be discussed is Identifying with the 

oppressor. This is an important step in the process because often times we have 

trouble identifying who the oppressor is. But there has been several times in 

history where oppressed groups have united and fought against injustice that 

transcended beyond racial and gender lines. Howard Zinn gives a great example in 

his book "A Peoples History of the United States: 1492 - Present, when he cites 

the Seminole War of 1818. During James Monroe's presidency, his administration 

fought for the annexation of Flordia, in particularly Major General Andrew 

Jackson. Jackson considered Florida "essential to the defense of the United 

States," and urged the government to sympathize with the southern slave owners 


who felt that Florida had become a "sanctuary for escaped slaves and for 

marauding Indians." See, the Seminole tribe that resided in Florida would buy or 

capture runaway slaves and let them live in their villages and intermarry with 

their tribe. The government felt that this "was a lure to their own slaves 

seeking freedom," so Jackson began his military campaign against the Seminoles, 

acting by "immutable laws of self-defense." (Zinn:129) During the campaign, so 

many whites deserted ranks that Jackson suggested, "whipping for the first two 

attempts, and the third time, execution." Zinn states that many of the "Poor 

whites" broke rank because of their unwillingness to give up their lives for 

the "rewards of battle going to the rich. (Zinn:129) In 1836, "103 commissioned 

officers resigned from the regular army, leaving only 46." The Seminole War was 

a brutal campaign that lasted 8 years and cost 20 million dollars and one 

hundred and fifty thousand American lives. (Zinn:146) Despite Chief Osceola's 

surrender, and the Seminoles eventual relocation, many historians cite the 

Seminole war as a huge military victory for the Native Americans. But without 

the recognition of the oppressor, and the united front against him by the poor 

whites, black slaves and Native Americans, the Seminole War may have become 

another one of the many Native American massacres.  

	The second point is In-Group fighting. Marjorie Spiegel (Spiegel:25), the 

author of "The Dreaded Comparison" noted that In-Group fighting often surfaces 

from the fact that "ones pain, is less important than the next." It's important 


for all oppressed groups to recognize that oppression, is oppression, and it 

doesn't discriminate. This relates to another reference in which Spiegal made 

saying, "When both blacks, and animals are viewed as being "oppressible" the 

cruelties perpetuated upon them takes similar forms." (Spiegel:26) This exact 

problem has been addressed again, and again by the African American community 

for years.
	 
	One example of In-Group fighting would be the concept of the "Willie Lynch 

Syndrome." During the 1700's there was a British slave owner named William 

Lynch. Lynch was said to have given a speech on the James River entitled "Making 

A Slave," in which he used to help whites reinforce the institution of slavery. 

One of Lynches most potent mechanisms in preserving the institution of slavery 

was In-Group fighting. Lynch said that slave owners must pitch "light skin vs. 

dark skin, young vs. old" in order to "use distrust and envy for control 

purposes." (Barber:1) In an article out of the St. Louis Today, author LaShawn 

Barber explains how "Race Plantation Politics is alive and well." Her example 

comes from the overwhelmingly high percentage of black support for democrats. 

She argues that many blacks are being pitted against other black leaders who 

are conservative, while white liberals "continue the exploitation," and "sit 

back and watch". (Barber:1) She uses the example of D.C.'s nonvoting delegate 

Eleanor Holmes Norton saying that Janice Rogers Brown, a black conservative 

nominated by President Bush for the U.S. Court of Appeals, was "cut from the 

same cloth as Clearance Thomas," and "therefore unqualified to sit on the 

appellate bench." (Barber:2) Once oppressed groups understand that oppression 

transcends politics and any other socially constructed social system, they will 

be able to unite and fight oppression. But as long as the oppressors have us 

divided, and fighting amongst each other, we will continue to be occupied by In-

Group fighting.
	
	The third point that will be discussed is the risks of being re-defined. 

This risk derives from not having a dominant source of power, and being 

subjected to the will of the oppressors. A good example of this would be the 

Jew's during the holocaust. The Nuremberg laws stated that anyone "who had three 

or four Jewish grandparents, was defined as a Jew," thus, many Germans who 

hadn't practiced Judaism, or had converted to Christianity were defined as 

Jew's. (Coursepack:18) Because the Nazi's were in control of Germany, they used 

their re-definition of the Jews to justify the senseless murder, experiments, 

and confiscation of assets that had taken place during the Holocaust. In order 

to avoid being re-defined, we must seek to influence those in power; unify all 

oppressed groups; and come to a common consensus on what defines us. The last 

and final point to be discussed is the maintenance of poverty. Stratification is 

important for any systems of oppression to work, and it often perpetuates itself 

within itself (Poor make rich richer while making themselves poorer). One system 

that does a great job at economic stratification is Capitalism. Not only does 

this system pit man against man through competition, but it also creates 

inequalities of wealth. Statistics say that 22 million children are living in 

poverty, 40% of them are African Americans and 37% of them are Latino. 

(Coursepack:53) In Asia, poverty often lands some young children into child sex 

slavery.
	 One example would be story of a Southeast Asian girl named Lin-Lin. 

Lin-Lin was 13 years old when she was taken by her father to a job placement 

agency after her mothers death. But instead of taking a real job, she was forced 

to pay for her fathers $480 advance by being a child prostitute. It's important 

that poverty not only be fought at home, but also abroad. The inequalities of 

wealth are great and as long as those in power sustain wealth, they have the 

power oppress all over the world. (Coursepack:52)	

	After those four points have been resolved, you can now better understand 

the "Dehumanizing" effects of oppression on animals, slaves and Jew's during the 

Holocaust. The first group that I want to begin with is animals. 

	Science has played a vital role in the continued exploitation of Animals 

dating back to Descartes in 16th century Europe. Descartes believed that animals 

"lacked souls, intelligence and even the ability to feel pleasure, pain or 

anything." (Spiegel:24) This scientific predisposition held up for 200 years in 

Europe until Charles Darwin refuted it. Darwin stated that "various emotions and 

faculties... of which man boasts, may be found incipient, or sometimes even well 

developed" in animals. He then concluded that there is no "fundamental 

difference between man and the higher mammals in the mental faculties." So it's  

odd that once the English colonists reached the coasts of Virginia, the found 

the "North World as a wilderness" and something that need to be subdued. 

(Spiegel:16) Especially with there intimate contact with the Native Americans 

who believed that animals were there "spiritual guide...who served as escorts 

the spirit world." (Spiegel:15) Colonists than begin relating the Native 

Americans to "savages" who they had a "moral obligation" to subdue. Hunting was 

also prevalent during the 17th century. Colonist used animals for food, 

clothing, and also for profit. Today we kill animals out of greed and science, 

and less for food. Each year, "Over 200 million animals are killed under the 

guise of sport," and guess what, "81% of those are deer." (Spiegel:61) Prior to 

its 1991 ban on lead bullets, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife reported that 2-3 

million waterfowl die each year from "lead bullet ingestion". (Spiegel:61) 

	Science also plays a pivotal role in the death and exploitation of 

animals. Over "30 million non human animals die at the hands of scientists and 

lab technicians," which is "one every second, everyday." Other animals are used 

in experiments ranging from crash tests to psychological "Learned Helplessness" 

experiments. (Spiegel:70)It's important for us to recognize that animals are 

"individuals" and do contain human faculties such as "compassion" and 

"courteousness". For example, researchers have observed crows that "dutifully 

fed their blind compatriots," and also "surround and stare intently at dying and 

dead animals." (Appiah & Gates:185) You also have Koko the gorilla who learned 

American Sign Language, and was taught over 1,000 words. (Spiegel:26). It's 

imperative that we take a stand for animals just as John George did in an Almeda 

county animal protest saying that his people were the "first lab animals in 

America". George recognized the oppressor by first recognizing those who were 

being oppressed, and in that he found a commonality. The commonality transcended 

beyond a language whose terminology categorizes us as "human" and "non human 

animals." He knew that as a black man he too had a history of being oppressed in 

America, and understood that like animals, hunting his people was a "sanctioned 

act."  (Spiegel:64)This leads directly into my next oppressed group, slaves.

 	The institution of slavery in America lasted from 1619 to 1865. This 

institution of servitude was one of the most "dehumanizing" tools of oppression 

invented by man. It denies a man individuality, civility and compassion. The 

slaves right to "Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness" in America was denied 

by the nations constitution, and ignored by its nations religion. It was said 

that a Christian slave trader would discourage "cursing amongst his crew" and 

"read the liturgy every Sunday." This was the same slave ship that called slave 

holds "kennels" and would "fatten up" (Spiegel:51) the "15 out of 30 or 40 

million blacks" who survived the middle passage. (Spiegel:49) The treatment of 

black slaves as human cargo mirrored that of Jew's and animals. One historian 

noted that he "saw fit that slaves were treated like cattle." (Spiegel:51)

	Black's in America witnessed one of the cruelest forms of slavery, chattel 

slavery. What made the experience of slaves so unique in America says Howard 

Zinn, the author of "A People's History," was that it produced "the frenzy for 

limitless profit that comes with captialistic agriculture; the reduction of the 

slave to less than human status... with that relentless clarity based on color, 

where white was master, black was a slave." (Zinn:28) Virginia and Maryland even 

introduced slave codes to enforce their oppression. The slave codes were to 

deter slave insurrectionist and runaways. Zinn states that "Dimemberment was 

provided for in the Virginia Code of 1705. Maryland passed a law in 1723 

providing for cutting off the ears of blacks who struck whites, and that for 

certain serious crimes, slaves should be hanged and the body quartered and 

exposed."  (Zinn:35).

	Once slavery had been abolished, the "Dehumanization" of blacks still 

continued. In 1865, the lynching of blacks had become more frequent. During 

Reconstruction, it wasn't uncommon for "lynching victims to be castrated... even 

burned alive." Other forms of torture used on black victims were having their 

"eyes gouged out, their fingers severed, or their teeth pulled out- with the 

white mob taking home various body parts as souvenirs." (Zinn:1212) Spiegel 

provides an answer to the irrational fears of white southern men during that 

period when she says, "People who dislike or are afraid of elements within 

themselves, such as strong emotion, sexual feeling, weaknesses or violent urges, 

repress even their knowledge of these parts of themselves...Because these beings 

have now come to represent something of which this person is afraid and cannot 

understand, or wants to deny from himself, the torture or perhaps even the 

eradication of the symbol is enacted." She then used the example of white males 

uncommon raping of black women, led them to portray black men as rapist of white 

women. (Spiegel:97-98) The white men during that period of time were "violent" 

so they sought to "eradicate" any symbol of power, which for a man would be his 

genitals, and then use the symbol to signify their dominance. This relates 

directly to the mounting and stuffing of wild animals.

	It was 1933 when one of the worlds most infamous dictators took power and 

became responsible for the death of 12,000,000 people, half of which were Jews. 

(Coursepack:16) His "Dehumanizing behavior involved the subjection of "Jews, 

Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, and the 

mentally and physically ill." (Coursepack:18) Hitler used religion, gettos, 

concentration camps and human experiments as a "Final Solution" to the "Jewish 

Problem." (Coursepack:18) Hitler used religious symbols and religious rhetoric 

to turn Nazi movements in to a "form of a charismatic religious movement." The 

German superiority and ideology was based on the Fuhrer "religion" of Nazidom. 

It's teachings were that "Nothing is wrong or immoral if it advances the Nazi 

cause." (Coursepack:30) All of this was necessary to create what Hitler called 

the "Aryan Master Race." Hitler used all forms of media and educational 

resources that could be used to spread his ideology across Germany. 

(Coursepack:27) The Nazi regime than began to dismiss Jews from "civil service 

positions, and Jewish lawyers and doctors lost their Aryan clients," and 

eventually Jewish firms were liquidated and their inventories "disposed of." 

This led to what German's called "Aryanization." (Coursepack:4) Kimmel, a 

holocaust survivor describes the role of "Dehumanization" on the psyches of Jews 

during the holocaust when he says, "the process was quite simple ; the victims 

forced to behave like beasts proven that they are subhuman, victims forced to 

live without sanitary facilities prove that the enjoy filth." (Coursepack:2) The 

systematic "Dehumanization" of the Jews forced them to carry around special ID 

cards with special marks in which a  "red J" was stamped on to signify 

their "new middle names", "Isreal" for males and "Sarah" for females. 

(Coursepack:18) The prisoners were then sent to "gettos" and later off to 

concentration camps. In "gettos", many died inside from "starvation, abuse and 

disease." (Coursepack:17) Inside the concentration camps, prisoners were 

"stripped of all their valuables and clothes. Their hair was cut and they were 

disinfected... Each step of the process was designed to dehumanized the 

prisoners, both emotionally and physically." ( Coursepack:2) The Dehumanization" 

of Jews often resulted in subhuman treatment. Germans began experimenting on 

Jewish live subjects and transporting them in horrendous conditions. Kimel 

described his experience of Jews being transported as an experience unworthy of 

even cattle when he states that Germans "dealt with people like were are dealing 

with commodities not even cattle." During the holocaust, Jews were often 

considered "Vermins" which The American Encyclopedia defined as "Various 

small animals or insects, such as rats or cockroaches, that are destructive, 

annoying, or injurious to health." This superior attitude led to the subhuman 

type conditions that Jews witnessed, and which Kimel described above. It was 

also said that Jews were "broken in" (Spiegel:70) just as horses and slaves 

were. Once the Nazi regime "internalize[d] the progaganda" (Spiegel:78), the 

oppression and murder of millions of people was justified. 

		
	We must seek to promote individuality, civility and compassion because if 

we don't, we are "Dehumanizing" one another just as the oppressor did Black 

slaves, Jews during the holocaust, Animals, and children. We don't want our 

generations fear to perpetuate itself into the next generation, so therefore we 

must confront and resolve our problems now.





Bibliography


1. Spiegel, Marjorie. (1996). The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery. Revised ed.
New York : Mirror Books.

2. Zinn, Howard. (2003). A Peoples History of the United States 1492 - Present. New York : HarperCollins Publisher  .

3. Polonko, Karen. Coursepack. (2003). Introduction To Soc 201 vol. II.

4. Pamphlet. (2003). Parenting from the Heart: Was to Happier, Healthier children. Old   Dominon Univesity : In Support of children.

5. Wright, Robert. (1994). The Moral Animal. New York: Vintage Books.

6. Barber, LaShawn. "Race Plantation Politics is alive and well fostered by Democrats." St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/Editorial+%2F+Commentary/A65E84B7EB9B526B86256DCF0039170F?OpenDocument&Headline=RACE+PLANTATION+POLITICS+is+alive+and+well+and+fostered+by+DEMOCRATS. 10/30/2003.

7. Appiah, Kwame Anthony & Gates, Henry Louis. (1999). Africana: Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 
United States of America : Perseus Books Group