Dehumanizing the Vulnerable

Dehumanizing the Vulnerable PDF Author: William Brennan
Publisher: Loyola Press
ISBN: 9780829408218
Category : Language and ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Shockingly relevant today, this hard-hitting study shows how dehumanizing language was and is being used to justify violent acts against vulnerable peoples--past and present--including the unborn, the elderly, women, Jews, and victims of Soviet tyranny. Dr. Brennan's argument focuses on the plight of today's unwanted, before and after birth and in the later stages of life.

Dehumanizing the Vulnerable

Dehumanizing the Vulnerable PDF Author: William Brennan
Publisher: Loyola Press
ISBN: 9780829408218
Category : Language and ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Shockingly relevant today, this hard-hitting study shows how dehumanizing language was and is being used to justify violent acts against vulnerable peoples--past and present--including the unborn, the elderly, women, Jews, and victims of Soviet tyranny. Dr. Brennan's argument focuses on the plight of today's unwanted, before and after birth and in the later stages of life.

Vulnerable Minds

Vulnerable Minds PDF Author: Liya Yu
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231553544
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
Neuroscience research has raised a troubling possibility: Could the tendency to stigmatize others be innate? Some evidence suggests that the brain is prone to in-group and out-group classifications, with consequences from ordinary blind spots to full-scale dehumanization. Many are inclined to reject the argument that racism and discrimination could have a cognitive basis. Yet if we are all vulnerable to thinking in exclusionary ways—if everyone, from the most ardent social-justice advocates to bigots and xenophobes, has mental patterns and structures in common—could this shared flaw open new prospects for political rapprochement? Liya Yu develops a novel political framework that builds on neuroscientific discoveries to rethink the social contract. She argues that our political selves should be understood in terms of our shared social capacities, especially our everyday exclusionary tendencies. Yu contends that cognitive dehumanization is the most crucial disruptor of cooperation and solidarity, and liberal values-based discourse is inadequate against it. She advances a new neuropolitical language of persuasion that refrains from moralizing or shaming and instead appeals to shared neurobiological vulnerabilities. Offering practical strategies to address those we disagree with most strongly, Vulnerable Minds provides timely guidance on meeting the challenge of including and humanizing others.

On Inhumanity

On Inhumanity PDF Author: David Livingstone Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190923008
Category : Cruelty
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The Rwandan genocide, the Holocaust, the lynching of African Americans, the colonial slave trade: these are horrific episodes of mass violence spawned from racism and hatred. We like to think that we could never see such evils again--that we would stand up and fight. But something deep in the human psyche--deeper than prejudice itself--leads people to persecute the other: dehumanization, or the human propensity to think of others as less than human. An award-winning author and philosopher, Smith takes an unflinching look at the mechanisms of the mind that encourage us to see someone as less than human. There is something peculiar and horrifying in human psychology that makes us vulnerable to thinking of whole groups of people as subhuman creatures. When governments or other groups stand to gain by exploiting this innate propensity, and know just how to manipulate words and images to trigger it, there is no limit to the violence and hatred that can result. Drawing on numerous historical and contemporary cases and recent psychological research, On Inhumanity is the first accessible guide to the phenomenon of dehumanization. Smith walks readers through the psychology of dehumanization, revealing its underlying role in both notorious and lesser-known episodes of violence from history and current events. In particular, he considers the uncomfortable kinship between racism and dehumanization, where beliefs involving race are so often precursors to dehumanization and the horrors that flow from it. On Inhumanity is bracing and vital reading in a world lurching towards authoritarian political regimes, resurgent white nationalism, refugee crises that breed nativist hostility, and fast-spreading racist rhetoric. The book will open your eyes to the pervasive dangers of dehumanization and the prejudices that can too easily take root within us, and resist them before they spread into the wider world.

Making Monsters

Making Monsters PDF Author: David Livingstone Smith
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674545567
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
A leading scholar explores what it means to dehumanize othersÑand how and why we do it. ÒI wouldnÕt have accepted that they were human beings. You would see an infant whoÕs just learning to smile, and it smiles at you, but you still kill it.Ó So a Hutu man explained to an incredulous researcher, when asked to recall how he felt slaughtering Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Such statements are shocking, yet we recognize them; we hear their echoes in accounts of genocides, massacres, and pogroms throughout history. How do some people come to believe that their enemies are monsters, and therefore easy to kill? In Making Monsters David Livingstone Smith offers a poignant meditation on the philosophical and psychological roots of dehumanization. Drawing on harrowing accounts of lynchings, Smith establishes what dehumanization is and what it isnÕt. When we dehumanize our enemy, we hold two incongruous beliefs at the same time: we believe our enemy is at once subhuman and fully human. To call someone a monster, then, is not merely a resort to metaphorÑdehumanization really does happen in our minds. Turning to an abundance of historical examples, Smith explores the relationship between dehumanization and racism, the psychology of hierarchy, what it means to regard others as human beings, and why dehumanizing others transforms them into something so terrifying that they must be destroyed. Meticulous but highly readable, Making Monsters suggests that the process of dehumanization is deeply seated in our psychology. It is precisely because we are all human that we are vulnerable to the manipulations of those trading in the politics of demonization and violence.

Unthinking Mastery

Unthinking Mastery PDF Author: Julietta Singh
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822372363
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Julietta Singh challenges the drive toward the mastery over self and others by showing how the forms of self-mastery advocated by anticolonial thinkers like Fanon and Gandhi unintentionally reproduced colonial logic, thereby leading her to argue for a more productive human subjectivity that is not centered on concepts of mastery.

The Poverty Industry

The Poverty Industry PDF Author: Daniel L. Hatcher
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479874728
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
"Hatcher [posits that] state governments and their private industry partners are profiting from the social safety net, turning America's most vulnerable populations into sources of revenue"--

Unsettling Truths

Unsettling Truths PDF Author: Mark Charles
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830887598
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
You cannot discover lands already inhabited. In this prophetic blend of history, theology, and cultural commentary, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah reveal the damaging effects of the "Doctrine of Discovery," which institutionalized American triumphalism and white supremacy. This book calls our nation and churches to a truth-telling that will expose past injustices and open the door to conciliation and true community.

Lilies That Fester

Lilies That Fester PDF Author: John Bossert Brown Jr.
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666753424
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
The twentieth century promised much in terms of progress. Europe was at peace, and America was poised to become a world superpower. Certain religious leaders envisioned new programs to help the poor, while others pondered plans to evangelize the world. Protestants in America were divided over issues such as biblical authority and social programs, but there was a surface unity, and a widespread agreement (shared with Catholic and Orthodox Christians) about the sanctity of human life, an ethic rooted in the Bible and church history. Seventy nations, responding to medical advances in obstetrics, fetology, and a growing concern for women's health, had moved to prohibit abortion. Today, 120 years later, there is a deep division among Christians, and in American society, about abortion (and much else). The causes are no doubt complex, but several things are clear. Worldwide there have been over one billion unborn children destroyed by abortion. There have been sixty-four million unborn children destroyed by abortion in the United States, over half of them to women who identify as Christians. In a century of massive violence due to war, planned famines, mass executions, and terror, abortion reigns supreme. That the Judeo-Christian ethic of the sanctity of life has been shredded owes much to the scandal of Christian discipleship.

Braving the Wilderness: Reese's Book Club

Braving the Wilderness: Reese's Book Club PDF Author: Brené Brown
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812985818
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A timely and important book that challenges everything we think we know about cultivating true belonging in our communities, organizations, and culture, from the #1 bestselling author of Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of Imperfection Don’t miss the five-part Max docuseries Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart! “True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.” Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, MSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives—experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. With her trademark mix of research, storytelling, and honesty, Brown will again change the cultural conversation while mapping a clear path to true belonging. Brown argues that we’re experiencing a spiritual crisis of disconnection, and introduces four practices of true belonging that challenge everything we believe about ourselves and each other. She writes, “True belonging requires us to believe in and belong to ourselves so fully that we can find sacredness both in being a part of something and in standing alone when necessary. But in a culture that’s rife with perfectionism and pleasing, and with the erosion of civility, it’s easy to stay quiet, hide in our ideological bunkers, or fit in rather than show up as our true selves and brave the wilderness of uncertainty and criticism. But true belonging is not something we negotiate or accomplish with others; it’s a daily practice that demands integrity and authenticity. It’s a personal commitment that we carry in our hearts.” Brown offers us the clarity and courage we need to find our way back to ourselves and to each other. And that path cuts right through the wilderness. Brown writes, “The wilderness is an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.”

White Fragility

White Fragility PDF Author: Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807047422
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.