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Article: What is Ethnic Cleansing, Really?
- Article from:
- Black Issues in Higher Education
- Article date:
- May 13, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Cox, Matthews & Associates. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Ignorance is bliss, especially in historical context. This is why so many Americans seem so extraordinarily moved by the "ethnic cleansing" that is taking place in Kosovo. The killings of Albanians are outrageous, to be sure. But people are allowing themselves to be whipped into some kind of air-strike-justifying frenzy because they are moved by poignant pictures of bruised and bloodied children who have been affected by the monster Milsoevic and his terrorism.
I, too, am moved. But I was also moved by photographs of emaciated children in Rwanda -- children whose survival was threatened by tribal warfare there. I shudder at Kosovo's ethnic cleansing. But I also ...