According to my dictionary, “genocide” is “the systematic, planned annihilation of a racial, political or cultural group.” Can someone explain how “ethnic cleansing” (too newly created to be in my dictionary) differs from genocide–and if there is no difference, why mass media insist on using (and thereby legitimizing) this euphemism?
“Ethnic cleansing” sounds harmless, even helpful, like “spring cleaning”: “Honey, time to do some ethnic cleansing,” and off goes the husband with a large broom. On the other hand, “Honey, I’m off to systematically annihilate our neighbors” and “time to commit mass genocide” have a different ring.
Why should we sacrifice our troops over a little cleansing–how is their cleansing any of our business? Yet most Americans don’t feel comfortable just sitting by and ignoring genocide; we have too many memories of Nazi atrocities for that.
Certainly I can understand why a murderous leader should choose to invent, then use, such a euphemism. But why do the media aid in this deception? It’s time to do some cleansing of our own and eradicate “ethnic cleansing” from our vocabulary. Genocide should not be tolerated; nor should it be sugarcoated or glossed over.
