Genocide scholarship improves by adopting critical racial and ethnic studies methods

Evidence

Lemkin (1944:79) sought to embed the notion of a bounded and clearly defined group deeply in the term itself through use of the Greek genos (race, tribe). Indeed, one of the arguments that bolstered efforts to exclude “political groups” from the UN Convention was that “racial or national groups” - being distinct, stable, bounded communities — could provide a scientific and objective basis for defining genocide (see Kuper, 1981:25). Benedict Anderson ( 1991) and others have argued, however, that national identities are “imagined,” not primordial, and that they are part of modernist political projects. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 265 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Even genocide scholarship diverges from survivors’ lived experience — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 643; Racialization enables genocide and genocide shapes racial constructions — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 250; Treating ethnic groups as stable natural entities may reinforce the reifications that enable genocide — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 267 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Defining genocide required treating racial groups as bounded and stable #complicates (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 265