HOW OPPRESSORS DEHUMANIZE THEIR VICTIMS

Since time immemorial, oppressors have dehumanized their victims. The downtrodden are made to appear like sub-humans that are not deserving of any sympathy nor that they have the right to be treated with dignity. Slave owners in the West justified their cruel system by portraying Africans as beasts of burden who could endure the degrading and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected. The same mentality was used during colonial times in Africa. Colonisers claimed Africans were incapable of governing themselves, hence, the need to place them under colonial control.

In this September 2002 clip, a year after the September 11 attacks that were used to justify the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Indian author and political activist Arundhati Roy spoke in Santa Fe, USA, about how Western and several Israeli leaders have repeatedly dehumanized non-white people, such as Palestinians, the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australia's aboriginal peoples.

Let us know what you think of Roy's remarks.