In Whistling Vivaldi, we read about the role of stereotype threat in access to education and the role of identity threat in barriers between people. And we have read about genocide: The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal, An Ordinary Manby Paul Rusesabagina, "The Life After" by Philip Gourevitch from The New Yorker, and three articles from scholarly journals. We have also watched the films; Paper Clips about a Holocaust paper clips project in rural Tennessee; I Will Never Forget You about Simon Wiesenthal; Hotel Rwanda about a Hutu's efforts to save Tutsis; as well as the documentaries Ghosts of Rwanda and As We Forgive. This essay assignment requires you to draw upon the articles, books and films that we have read and your own research to explain what we can learn about what causes and what best prevents genocide-or to explain how survivors are affected by genocide and what helps them recover. You are required to incorporate research from at least two additional sources; these must be articles from scholarly journals.
Option One
Note: For this option, you will need to find two additional scholarly articles on what causes and what prevents genocide.
Using the readings and films about Rwanda and Germany that our class has studied, explain the causes of genocide as well as the strengths and limitations of specific strategies to prevent future genocides. What are the causes of genocide? What prevention strategies address these causes most effectively? That is, what is our best chance of preventing genocide from happening again? Or is prevention even possible? To begin brainstorming about this essay option, consider Elihu Richter's "Genocide: Can We Predict, Prevent and Protect?" and Ervin Staub's Genocide and Mass Killings: Origins, Prevention, Healing and Reconciliation." Think about the importance of bystanders, the Paper Clips Project, forgiveness versus justice, and the effectiveness of truth and reconciliation. Be sure to integrate what you learned about identity threat into your discussion of prevention.
What should be done:
- a 8 pages essay, format MLA with a work cited page
-introduction: make sure to define what genocide is, and give necessary background information about the holocaust and the Rwandan genocide: their chronological dates should be given.
- thesis: although there many factors that cause genocide, the best strategy to prevent it is ( use one of the cause listed in the prevention part).
- causes: make sure to incorporate those different causes: social categorization or identity and genocide, the power of language: dehumanizing people and genocide, medias, and most importantly the lack of will from adequate internation institution, such the U.N. to stop the genocide (e.g. The UN, the USA, france, and belgium participating in the rwandan genocide).
-prevention: justice, education, bystanders, truth and reconciliation, international institution to stop genocide (e.g. the UN).
the prevention method must be listed in a logical order. in this prevention part, it is necassary to explain how each strategy will work, how it will address one or more causes listed above,; most importantly what are the strenght and limitation of each strategy ( in other words, evaluate what each strategy will accomplish and not).