On May 16, Donald Trump held a roundtable press conference in which he used these words to describe immigrants crossing into the United States: “These aren’t people. These are animals.”
When I read it in print, I thought perhaps that was a paraphrase rather than a quote. So I watched the video and heard him say those chilling and awful words. It was equally chilling to not hear anyone present in that room speak up in disagreement. Denying the humanity of others — describing them as animals or vermin — is a way that individuals, societies and armies give themselves permission to oppress, enslave, torture or kill other human beings.
It’s a stage in the downward spiral that can lead to genocide. If we deny that others have souls and hearts, we risk becoming complicit in countless individual atrocities — or perhaps a huge one, enacted on a national scale. Will we look away, and later say we didn’t know?
Susan Conger
Greenfield