In the early 1990s, prior to the Rwandan genocide, the minority Tutsi group in Rwanda were constantly called inyenzi, or cockroaches, by those who sought to destroy them. The strategy was to dehumanize the minority group, making it easier to inspire others to join in destroying the minority group, thus resulting in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The same rhetoric has often been used by Israeli soliders and generals which have been connected with Palestinian massacres. For example, following the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in which thousands of Palestinians were massacred, Rafael Eitan, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, stated “the Arabs could only run around like cockroaches in a bottle, like drugged cockroaches inside a bottle.” At the same time, then Prime-Minister Menachem Begin called Palestinians “two-legged beasts”.
In fact, this trend of dehumanization is apparent in almost every epic of genocide, massacre, war, and atrocity including the Cambodian genocide massacres, the the massacres of Serbs and Bosnians in the Yugoslav wars, the Armenian genocide, and the Holocaust. As noted by Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, dehumanization of a people is a step toward genocide and other human rights abuses:
One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group.
As further noted by anthropologists Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson:
dehumanization might well be considered “the fifth horsemen of the apocalypse” because of the inestimable damage it has dealt to society. When people become things, the logic follows, they become dispensable – and any atrocity can be justified.
It is, therefore, no small thing when the Columbus Dispatch publishes a cartoon depicting Iranians as cockroaches crawling out of an sewer representing Iran. 
As noted by the National Iranian American Council: “By publishing this racist cartoon, the editors of the Dispatch have insulted and propagated hate against the Iranian American community.” The Columbus Dispatch should be ashamed of itself for both being historically ignorant and blatantly racist in its depiction of Iranians. History has shown that it is precisely these allusions that have results in horrendous atrocities. The cartoon’s political point is outweighed significantly by the disturbing message it portrays about Iranians, particularly given the existing political and racial environment toward Iranians. Shame on them.
4 comments
Well, I would like to preface my response to this post by saying that I agree with the original point. And in the spirit of saying something that people may disagree with I will share my personal feelings on this topic.
Truth be told, I do not know how I feel about this cartoon, which happens to be drawn by a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.
One side of me says that I should be offended. Another tells me that this independent Ohio paper has failed in their attempted insult us and has unintentionally complimented my people’s tenacious grip on success.
If we separate the fact that these things are cockroaches, I can’t say that Iran is not a sewer relative to America. I will tell you that it is definitely an unreasonable stretch; but think about it, if Iran was better than the US, we would not be here. And even when you add the fact that these things are cockroaches, we should be so lucky to be compared to such resourceful creatures. Being the cockroaches that we are, our families, our people, have managed to establish ourselves as respectable citizens of a society exactly halfway across the World from our sarzameen.
I say, long live the cockroaches! Let us hope that our children may share the same hungry and ambitious attitude that got us this far.
This grotesque cartoon was published because the atmosphere is pushed and allowed to be anti-Iranian because it benefits our Jewish overlords via Jewish Supremacy in the Middle East.
You have to look really hard to find anti-Jewish cartoons. An electron tunneling microscope won’t help.
I can not understand at all SAM !
Are you a philosopher or social and political analyzer for that magazine??
Thanks that you remind us : we should be so lucky to be compared to such resourceful creatures.
If you do not know if you should be angry or so on , it is better to be quiet. I really do apologize the real Iranians and also iranican.tv crew. I was not angry at all when I read the comment of others, however when I read the last comment on this issue I just remembered this Persian expression : ”Az mast ke bar Mast”
Kamran
Gemrany
We explain the question of ethnic groups in Iran in our blog.
Persians and Hollywood
http://oslonor.blogspot.com