Thoughts on the Dehumanization of Asian Americans

Document Type

Op-Ed

Publication Date

3-19-2021

Publication Title

DemCast

Keywords

dehumanization, race, hate

Abstract

How do we make sense of the seemingly senseless murders of six Asian women and the spate of anti-Asian violence amid the pandemic? By learning about dehumanization and its role in the infliction of atrocities against a dehumanized class of people. Dehumanization leads inexorably to the infliction of harm by lifting moral constraints that typically prevent people from doing so. Since moral principles like “love thy neighbor” only apply to other humans, dehumanization renders those principles irrelevant when it comes to a dehumanized group. So, when you dehumanize people by, say, calling them a disease, moral constraints are lifted and the worst aspects of humanity come out.

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