black american perspectives (7)

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A Weekly Column By Walter B. Hoye II

Conflict Of

Interest

In the abortion debate, is there a "Conflict of Interest"within the Black community and among her leaders?

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Black American Perspectives (7)

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematicdestruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or

national group." Convention on the Prevention andPunishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 21

Raphael Lemkin Coined The Word: "Genocide"

"Genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of allmembers of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of

essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves GenoChide

has two phases: one, the destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern

of the oppressor."" Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe 2

Raphael Lemkin (June 24, 1900 August 28, 1959), a

celebrated Polish lawyer of Jewish descent coined the

word "Genocide" in 1943 (while the Holocaust was

occurring) from the root words Genos (Greek for family,

tribe, or race) and chide (Latin for killing). When the

German army invaded Poland in their SeptemberCampaign of 1939, Lemkin escaped from Europe and

eventually reached safety in the U.S., where he taught at Duke University. 3 In 1942

Lemkin moved to Washington D.C. to join the War Department as an analyst and

documented Nazi atrocities in his 1944 book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It

was in this work, Lemkin first used the word "Genocide" in print. 4

Raphael Lemkin And The 1948 Convention on Genocide

"Genocide is effected through a synchronized attack on different aspects of life of the captive peoples." Raphael Lemkin5


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On December 9th, 1948, the United nations adopted the

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the

Crime of Genocide as General Assembly Resolution

260. On January 12th, 1951, the ninetieth (90th) day

following the twentieth (20th) country to "deposit an

instrument of ratification or accession" (i.e., to ratify the

convention), the Secretary-General of the United Nations transmitted a copy of the

convention to each Member of the United Nations announcing that the Conventionon the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide had met the

requirements for enforcement. 6 Here is the "heartandsoul" of the Convention:

Article 27 of the Convention defines genocide as:

"any of the following acts committed withintenttodestroy, inwholeorinpart,

a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring

about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposingmeasuresintendedtopreventbirthswithinthegroup;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 38 of the Convention defines the crimes that can be punished:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

Surprisingly or not, the UnitedStatesofAmerica was not among the first twenty

(20) countries to ratify the Convention. In fact, it took forty (40) years from the

Convention's adoption in 1948, for theUnited States of America to ratify the

Convention with certain "Reservations," "Declarations" and "Understandings

(i.e., provisos, salvos and quid pro quos) on November 25th, 1988 9

What Took America So Long To Ratify The "Genocide" Convention?

"You knew about it and you did nothing. You knew about the super-exploitation and inhuman hardships inflicted upon the Black

people and you did nothing. Your inaction, your indifference in the face of oppression means that it was policy." " William L.

Patterson, "We Charge Genocide, Civil Rights Congress, New York, 1951 10


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With the exception ofPresidentDwightD. Eisenhower,

all presidents since Truman have endorsed ratification of

the Genocide Convention. 11 However, on June 16, 1949,

when President Truman sought the Senate's advice and

consent to ratify the Genocide Convention, a small group

of Southern senators blocked the process. Among those

senators were Southern segregationists who believed in

segregation (i.e., a very strict separation of Blacks and

Whites). 12 According to legal historian Lawrence LeBlanc,

these good ol' boys masquerading as U.S. Senators

asked, "Could the convention be considered

applicable to racial lynching?" 13 In addition to being

concerned about their constituent's practice of lynching Negroes in their spare time

being labeled as "Genocide," these senators also balked at the term "mentalharm"

being considered genocide, because their sacred segregation laws might also be

considered genocidal. 14 Their fears were not unfounded or without a basis in fact.

In 1951 the singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson 15 joined labor and civil

rights activist William L. Patterson 16 in a petition to the United Nations that

accused America of genocidal treatment of Black Americans. 17 The petition read:

"We maintain that the oppressed Negro citizens of the United States,

segregated, discriminatedagainstandlongthetargetofviolence, sufferfrom

genocide as the result of consistent, conscious, unified policies of every

branchofgovernment." 18

Again, What Took America So Long

To Ratify The "Genocide" Convention?

Professedly, there were several concerns, one of which was lynching Negroes.

Apparently, if lynching Negroes could be defined as genocide, then genocide could

not be defined as a crime in America.

Today We're Still Charging "Genocide"

"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in

populations that we don't want to have too many of." Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate United States Supreme Court Justice 19

According to the National Vital Statistics Reports of

2009, in 2005 there were 587,000 Live Black Births,

452,000 Induced Black Abortions and 292,808 Black

Deaths from all causes, excluding induced abortion. 20 If

we do the math we have 587,000 Live Black Births

against 744,808 Black Deaths (i.e., 452,000 Induced

Black Abortions + 292,808Black Deaths from all other causes) which equates to

a Black Life Deficit of a Negative 157,808. 21 Abortion, which has taken the lives of

more Black Americans than heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes,


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homicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined, is the number one (1)

cause of death in Black America. 22 In the last forty (40) years Black Americans

have suffered the loss of over twenty (20) million lives to abortion alone. 23 Still

further, these numbers do not include those of us aborted by abortifacients such

as ellaOne 24 or by "private physicians' procedures." According to the latest

report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and please

keep in mind that the CDC's report legally excludes the numbers from California (the

state that performs the largest number of abortions in the country), Maryland, and

New Hampshire, Black Women accounted for40.2% of all abortions in the UnitedStates of America. 25

Frankly, in light of sitting United States Supreme Court

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's admission

above and if according to the Convention on the

Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,

"killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or

mental harm to members of the group. deliberately

inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring

about its physical destruction in whole or in part,

imposingmeasuresintendedto prevent births within

the group and/or forcibly transferring children of the

group to another group" qualifies as an act of genocide,

then Today, on the basis of the documentation detailing the impact of abortion in

Black America alone, We'reStillCharging"Genocide."

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):

01. "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," Website of the UNHCHR (http://bit.ly/YNZyo).

02. Raphal LemkinLemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress

(Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944), p. 79 (http://bit.ly/xBpFfX).

03. "Coining A Word And Championing A Cause: The Story Of Raphael Lemkin", United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia (http://bit.ly/jiFMWE).

04. Raphael Lemkin, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://bit.ly/4FxinT).

05. Lemkin, Axis Rule, preface, pp xi-xii (http://bit.ly/yNiSF4).

06. "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", Office of the United Nations High

Commisioner for Human Rights, (http://bit.ly/GYx9b). It took until October 14, 1950 to have twenty (20) countries (the minimum

needed) to ratify the Genocide Convention. See also the Convention's enforcement provisions in Article 13 (http://bit.ly/YNZyo).

07. "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", Office of the United Nations High

Commisioner for Human Rights, (http://bit.ly/GYx9b).

08. Ibid.

09. "U.S. reservations, declarations, and understandings, International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of

the Crime of Genocide, Cong. Rec. S1355-01 (daily ed., Feb. 19, 1986)", University of Minnesota, Human Rights Library

(http://bit.ly/xHSVj3).10. "We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief From a Crime of The United States Government

Against the Negro People," New York, edited by William L. Patterson, 1951 (http://bit.ly/wrSwg5).

11. "Totally Unofficial: Raphael Lemkin and The Genocide Convention," Primary Writer Dan Eshet (http://bit.ly/xx1y4F).

12. Ibid., p. 42.

13. Lawrence J. LeBlanc, The United States and the Genocide Convention (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991), 236.

14. "Totally Unofficial", p. 42.

15. The Paul Robeson Foundation, Biography (http://bit.ly/bmvFnN).

16. Patterson, William L. (1891-1980), BlackPast.org (http://bit.ly/wPv4VH).

17. "Totally Unofficial", p. 42

18. "We Charge Genocide," edited by William L. Patterson, 1951 (http://bit.ly/wrSwg5).

19. Emily Bazelon, "The Place of Women on the Court, New York Times, July 12th, 2009 (http://bit.ly/eRam4I).

20. National Vital Statistics Report: Vol. 58, No. 4 - Oct. 14, 2009 (http://bit.ly/d5K3jk).

21. National Vital Statistics Report: Vol. 58, No. 8 - Dec. 23, 2009 (http://bit.ly/hjtsxt). (http://bit.ly/hjtsxt).

22. "Abortion kills more black Americans than seven leading causes of death combined, says Centers for Disease Control data"


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(http://bit.ly/dMDHJshttp://bit.ly/dMDHJshttp://bit.ly/dMDHJs).

23. "Over Twenty (20) Million Aborted: Why Planned Parenthood Targets The Inner-City", February 11th, 2010

(http://bit.ly/ewh67w)).

24. "Abortifacients", Life Issues Connector, February 2010 edition (http://bit.ly/gQwyqM).

25. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), Abortion

Surveillance United States, 2008 (http://1.usa.gov/zXJv0q).

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black american perspectives (7)

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