Redbanabandana t1_iu4ozy9 wrote
Reply to comment by EdithDich in (Canada) House of Commons unanimously agrees to describe residential schools as genocide by EdithDich
>schools preceded* (and outlasted) the Holocaust by a century. *and to some degree inspired.
What happened with residential schools is a tragedy and an horror but let us not redefine words to suit political/social trends. That you are even comparing residential schools with the holocaust and saying the latter was inspired by the former is ridiculous. Especially considering that the first residential school mass graves were found in the 1970s.
Genocide implies systematic and deliberate killing with the aim of destroying a race or nation. Was that the intent of the residential schools (no)? Were the death the results of murder or was it a result of lack of resources, lack of care and individuals in position of power (e.g., headmasters and priests) acting of their own volition? When and over what time period did the deaths happen?
Residential schools deaths: up to around 4,100 over 120 years mostly from things like lack of care, disease outbreaks (typhoid and tuberculosis) and fires. This represents about 5% of the people that attended the residential schools. The intent of those schools were to assimilate the children into western culture (presumably alive).
Holocaust: 6 million deaths over 4 years by systematic mass murders through nerve gas, combustion chambers and executions. The intent was to kill all Jews. Up to two thirds of the Europeen population of Jews were murdered.
Prometheus720 t1_iu6bkio wrote
You're being a jerk.
This is like someone telling an assault victim, "Well I'm sorry that happened to you, but its not like he put his dick in you. Like you couldn't even get pregnant or anything. He just touched you. I don't even know why we call it sexual assault."
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Canada has never had the population density of Europe. You'd need to correct for population density to do apples to apples.
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The schools were one part of a genocidal system which had other parts.
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The purpose of the schools was to eradicate a culture. Due to many actions (and also some accidents), the native population was already depressed. This wasn't "genocide from scratch." It was finishing the job.
Though many deaths were due to disease which nobody (at first) intentionally spread, make no mistake that there was a genocide across the entire Americas. People came to the Americas and killed, directly or indirectly, millions of its inhabitants. That's genocide.
Redbanabandana t1_iu6hex5 wrote
If you think residential schools is on the same level as Holocaust and Apartheid, I don't know what to tell you. It must be confusing at the store when $1 and $2,000 is the same to you.
>Though many deaths were due to disease which nobody (at first) intentionally spread, make no mistake that there was a genocide across the entire Americas. People came to the Americas and killed, directly or indirectly, millions of its inhabitants. That's genocide.
Why would Canada even acknowledge anything that happened before Canada even existed?
Prometheus720 t1_iu6vdxb wrote
Are you deliberately not reading what I wrote?
Let me direct you to anotherof my comments.
Redbanabandana t1_iu73bkq wrote
Yeah, no. Residential schools are to genocide as manslaughter is to murder. Two different bad things.
Prometheus720 t1_iu6vmck wrote
How are you putting Apartheid up there with the Holocaust while skipping over huge genocides like Armenia?
Apartheid is about as apples to apples with residential schools as anything mentioned so far in this thread
Redbanabandana t1_iu72y0n wrote
Was I supposed to provide an exhaustive list of all genocides?
Prometheus720 t1_iu7wqm2 wrote
No, you're supposed to have one standard for what you're willing to compare to the Holocaust. You appear to have 2 separate standards.
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