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Genocide vs Persecution - What's the difference?

genocide | persecution |

As nouns the difference between genocide and persecution

is that genocide is genocide while persecution is persecution.

genocide

English

(wikipedia genocide)

Noun

  • The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, social status, or other particularities.
  • *

    • Usage notes

    (Genocide definitions) Genocide is defined in various laws, and used in varying ways; characterization of an act as “genocide” is a strong condemnation, and may prove contentious. Narrowly speaking, genocide was coined to mean, and is generally used in law to mean, the destruction of an ethnic group qua group, whether killing of all members of the group or other means, such as dispersing the group. In common usage, “genocide” is often used to mean “systematic mass killing”, whether or not the purpose is the destruction of the group or some other purpose, such as terrorizing the group. Specific genocides are often capitalized, e.g. "Armenian G enocide".

    Derived terms

    * autogenocide, auto-genocide * cultural genocide * genocidal * genocidally * genocidism * genocidist

    Related terms

    * ethnocide, democide (suffixsee)

    See also

    * crime against humanity * dehumanization * democide * ethnic cleansing * holocaust, Holocaust * Holodomor * mass murder * Porajmos * pogrom * Shoah * war crime

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To commit genocide (against); to eliminate (a group of people) completely.

    • References

    persecution

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • The act of persecuting.
  • A program or campaign to subjugate or eliminate a specific group of people, often based on race, religion, sexuality, or social beliefs.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
    • , author=(Jan Sapp) , title=Race Finished , volume=100, issue=2, page=164 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution . But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?}}