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GENOCIDE AND BLACK ECOLOGY
CALVIN H. SINNETTE
 
WHEN AFRO-AMERICANS level the charge of genocide against the dominant society, white critics invariably attempt to discredit and dismiss the accusation as unfounded. Some tend to regard the charge as a latter day phenomenon associated with the extremist rhetoric of black "militants." Others, more imbued with an infantile notion of the moral righteousness of the United States, react with pained indignation and ascribe such assertions to black paranoia. Still others such as Dr. E. James Lieberman, a Washington, D.C. psychiatrist and member of the faculty at Howard University College of Medicine, resort to contrived semantics in order to evade the issue. Dr. Lieberman is obviously aware of such sentiments in the Black community. In a paper on the psychosocial aspects of selective abortion presented at a 1970 symposium on new developments in the field of human genetics, Dr. Lieberman concedes that certain aspects of national life may place the continued existence of blacks in peril. However, he does not believe that these characteristics "Warrant the label genocide, but perhaps deserves a new label, genasthenia-the systematic, though unintentional, weakening of an ethnic group." Regardless of the technique employed at the degree of sophistication shown, the unadorned fact is that most whites either disbelieve or are unwilling to admit the validity of the charge.
The distortion of history by the racist Western world has skillfully managed to obscure the deep concern many generations of blacks have shown with respect to the ultimate survival of the race. To suggest that blacks have only recently discovered the genocide issue is but another example of the ignorance of racist arrogance. In 1526, Kind Alfonso of the Congo sent a letter to the King of Portugal expressing grave anxiety about the unhealthy relations that had developed between the two countries. In part the letter reads, "...we cannot reckon how great the damage is, since the mentioned merchants are taking everyday our natives, sons of the land and the sons

[[footnote]] Calvin H. Sinnette, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons; Director, Division of Community and Social Pediatrics. [[footnote/]]
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