David Smith interviewed by 'Huffington Post' on race and dehumanization
David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., was the subject of an interview by the Huffington Post, which was published on May 31, 2016.
In the interview, titled “Race Delusion: Lies That Divide Us,” Smith discusses the notions of race and dehumanization and explains the connection between the two.
He makes the point that races are invented categories rather than biological ones. “The notion that there are racial essences doesn’t have a shred of scientific support,” he states. “In fact, it’s totally incompatible with what science tells us about human variability.” He also explains that dehumanization is a means to deactivate inhibitions against causing harm to others. “Dehumanization is a way of overcoming our inhibitions against performing acts of violence for our own advantage. Conceiving of other people as rats, snakes, lice, dangerous predators, or beasts of burden, makes it much easier to treat them inhumanely,” he says.
Smith argues that racism is often a foundation for dehumanization. He explains: “In circumstances where one group of people wants to exterminate, harm, or enslave another group of people, the first step is to form the belief that the target group is racially alien… However, racism very easily transforms into dehumanization. When this happens, members of the oppressed group are no longer seen as inferior human beings, but rather as counterfeit human beings—beings that look like humans, but which aren’t really human at all.”