Is dehumanization always violent? by Molly Reeves
Although dehumanization is normally seen through violent acts, violence is not the only way people are dehumanized. Dehumanization is caused when someone or a group of people treat another person or group less than human. Many people would say that to treat someone less than human they would have to be physically abused, but verbal abuse and segregation from a community can have the same dehumanization effect. There have been many instances of verbal abuse and segregation where people have been made to feel less than human through nonviolent measures.
Dehumanization through nonviolent acts can be seen throughout history. For example, back during the 1880s to the 1950s, the Jim Crow Laws segregated African Americans from everyone else in the schools, bathrooms, and businesses. It was illegal in some states back then for a man of color to even use the same watering fountain as everyone else. Penalty for breaking that law could be anywhere from a huge fine to an extended period in jail. Also how in some states all African Americans had to sit in the back of a bus that had white people on it was an example of the segregation back then. All of these “separate but equal” laws were just a way to dehumanize the African American Community. Most of the time violence was never use to separate them. They were dehumanized through acts of verbal abuse by calling them names and separating them from the rest of the country, making them feel less than everyone else.
Another example of dehumanization would be if someone is being cyberbullied. In the U.S., one out of every three people have been cyberbullied. Cyberbullies use the anonymity of the internet to hide who they are while making fun of other people and to make them feel badly about how they look or what they do. Teenagers that are considered weird or different at school can be made into an outcast by their peers and therefore become dehumanized. Because of the way they were dehumanized and cut off from everyone else, 20% of cyber bullied victims think about taking their own lives. Even though violence is normally connected to dehumanization, verbal abuse can still make someone feel less than human.
I think that the Jim Crow laws and other segregation laws were excellent example of dehumanization without the direct threat of violence. However, one could argue that these segregation laws were enforced by violence. If there was no penalty to disobeying these laws, what leverage would they have to keep people from acting out against them? This is one counterargument to take into consideration when coming from your specific point of view. You have a very good argument, and your examples prove your claim that verbal abuse can cause just as much of a dehumanization effect as violence very well. I can clearly pinpoint the purpose of your paper, and your ending does a great job of tying everything together.
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Nice topic to touch on I honestly never thought of it in this way before however while Jim Crow Laws were a fine example they were also usually accompanied violently riots lynching and many other physical acts took place, because of them however you can really bring it back with cyber bullying and its good example of this as it is impossible to get physical but you demonstrate the effects with the study on thoughts of suicide and people who are cyber bullied. To further increase this I would see if there is any study on cyber bullying leading directly to suicide. Regardless good use of argument and persuasion on the topic and the ending was good making everything seamlessly tied up into a present.
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Andrew Period 7
Very interesting topic! Your argument is structured very well and i like how you implemented the Jim crow laws as your evidence. I believe the Jim crow law example was done very well, that you just need to include counter arguments, but the Cyber Bullying example was done weakly. I believe you could of still extended the argument and provide a better source of concrete evidence. I feel you didn’t end the argument very well either, it was rather just quick like you ran out of stuff to say. You can sum up everything and leave the audience a extending thought about this topic.
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One of the best arguments with perfect claims, explanations, and examples. However, I understand you are young, but work on improving your diction, or in other words your word choice. Instead of using words like “huge” use “Enormous, Substantial, or massive”. Let’s ditch those elementary words. Also, You began to drift off topic towards the end. One more thing check into some of those grammatical errors, mainly comma rules. Overall, I loved the evidence and the flow of your essay.
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I really like your argument. In order to support your argument you used a great example of racial segregation that happened in the United States. Although I understand what is your idea by trying to provide another example to further support your argument, I believe it would have been better to use an example that was more related to the racial segregation or another event that also dehumanize pople during that time period in order to prevent your paper from sound like you are taking many different aspect that do not really connect. By including events that are similar it would allow your paper to have an effective connection between your examples. This would make your argument stronger because everything would connect easily.
Brenda Loredo- 7th period
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Matthew Crews
6th Period
well written essay. you had great examples to support your claims. I liked how you used logos (20% of cyber bullied victims…) as evidence also. you could have done a better job of wrapping your essay up and creating a better conclusion for your essay. also an increase of better vocabulary words would also be more pleasing to your audience. Other than that, great essay.
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Your essay is very interesting to me because I have never thought about the effects of dehumanization. Your examples about Jim crow laws were excellent! Don’t start off a sentence with the word “because.” Don’t forget to indent your paragraphs. I like how you said that dehumanization can also include verbal abuse. You can explain more about how being who are cyber bullied are more likely to commit suicide. You can strengthen your argument by talking about how dehumanization can cause people to commit crimes to get back at people who humiliated them and how it causes a substantial amount of violence within a community. Explain how verbal abuse can cause dehumanization because you didn’t demonstrate how it can influence violence.
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Patton Middle School, 8th grade
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Your essay made me rethink what I thought of dehumanization, with the comparison of African Americans’ struggle for civil rights and cyber bullying. While it is generally acknowledged that African Americans were dehumanized by others, I had never thought about how cyber bullying (and all bullying for that matter) is a form of dehumanization too. Even though dehumanization is usually connected with violence, I agree that verbal abuse can leave just as much of a scar as any blow.
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