definition of genocide?

[scarletghoul]

It seems genocide is a kinda overused word nowadays, but I'm not sure. Is there a real definition of it? Or does it just mean any deliberate killing of many people of a certain population? its confusing because its used so much

[Plagueround]

As I understand it, Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Not that I got that verbatim from Wikipedia or anything. ;)

From what I've observed, debate beyond that, as far as trying to label certain incidents as non-genocide or anyone trying to weasel around the definition usually comes from someone with some sort of racialist or nationalist agenda. For example, I've seen entire papers written around the premise that the expansion of America wasn't a genocide. I disagree.

[Decolonize The Left]

It seems genocide is a kinda overused word nowadays, but I'm not sure. Is there a real definition of it? Or does it just mean any deliberate killing of many people of a certain population? its confusing because its used so much

There is a 'real' definition of genocide. Here are a couple:


1. The systematic killing (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/killing) of substantial numbers of people on the basis of ethnicity (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ethnicity), religion (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/religion), political (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/political) opinion, social status (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/social_status), or other particularity.
2. Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/national), ethnic, racial (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/race) or religious group.


the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group


the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.

Hope that helps.

- August

[Black Sheep]

Funny that M-W and dictionary.com include the word 'deliberate'

[SocialRealist]

Genocide refers to a manifestation of discrimination. To count as genocide it has to be a organized deliberate attempt and systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group.

The definition of genocide has been heavily debated ever since its very coining in 1944. Genocide is derived from Latin (gens-genitis) meaning birth, race, stock or kind and (cidium) meaning cutting or killing. When you add both words up we have a type of group that is being deliberately wiped out on the basis of being that group, thus equating to "genocide".