Dehumanization: How We Lose Our Humanity & Justify Harming Others
In this Spontaneous Conversation on the Share Life podcast, with Addison Blu Williams, and Ross Boone, we dive deep into the power of language — how it shapes perceptions, fuels division, and ultimately affects the way we see and treat others.
From cultural representation in entertainment to the impact of online discourse, this conversation highlights the urgent need to humanize those we disagree with and expand our understanding of one another. Tune in for a nuanced discussion on identity, compassion, and the real-world impact of words.
Conversation Inspiration
Our conversation is inspired by the words of Brene Brown on Marie Forleo TV 📺, the following quotes in particular.
"The process of dehumanization is the process that we use to slowly, primarily using words and images, nothing more. Dehumanization is the process of slowly moving people out. So here’s a group of people that we want to harm. It’s a group of people that we hate, a group of people that a leader has told us here, is the cause of all your pain and suffering. So we hate these people and we want to hurt them and we want to see them diminished. But they’re within this moral, protective zone that we have as humans. So slowly over time we start using words and images of them that dehumanize them, that move them lowly and slowly and slowly into what we call moral exclusion. They no longer are protected by what we believe is human basic rights. And we see the process of dehumanization at the core of every genocide recorded in history.
We are slowly allowing ourselves to start using dehumanizing language to describe people with whom we disagree. Yes. Which then makes it okay to physically hurt them. And when we use dehumanizing language, it says much more about us than the people that we’re railing against. And I think honestly it chips away at our soul."
- Brene Brown
Watch The full conversation between Marie Forleo and Brene Brown here.
Listen to This Conversation on the Share Life Podcast
Click here to listen in on Spotify directly, or click play below to immediately begin streaming.
You can also find this discussion on Pocket Casts, Itunes, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts under the name, Share Life: Systems and Stories to Live Better & Work Smarter or Jason Scott Montoya.
Connect With Ross & Addison
- Learn more about the TV Show Addison worked on, Paradise, now available on Hulu.
- Connect with Ross Boone. Check Out His Daily Devotional Artistic App.
Additional Quotes About Dehumanization
"In a sense, crucifixion was a form of entertainment. Everyone understood that the specific role of the passersby was to exacerbate the dehumanization and degradation of the person who had been thus designated to be a spectacle. Crucifixion was cleverly designed we might say diabolically designed to be an almost theatrical enactment of the sadistic and inhumane impulses that lie within human beings. According to the Christian gospel, the Son of God voluntarily and purposefully absorbed all of that, drawing it into himself." - Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion
"The irredeemably evil character in Harry Potter has dehumanized himself. Voldemort has consciously and deliberately made himself less than human. And we see the natural conclusion of what he's done to himself through very powerful magic. What he's left with is something less than human. And he's done that deliberately. He sees humane behavior as weakness. He has reduced himself to something that cannot feel the full range of human emotion." - JK Rowling, The Witch Trials, Episode 2
"In their perspective something has been done to them. How are we suppose to understand them? With war and violence, we automatically dehumanize them. We don't try and understand their perspective. We just see them as enemies who are killing us. When the dusts settle, we say those killers were inhuman. What they did makes no sense." - Nabeel Qureshi
"The challenge of our time is to mobilize great masses of people to make change without dehumanizing one another. Not just because it's morally right but because it works. Lasting change, the kind that seeps into people's hearts, has only ever come about through a combi- nation of pressure and good conflict. Both matter. That's why, over the course of history, nonviolent movements have been more than twice as likely to succeed as violent ones." - Amanda Ripley, High Conflict
“The Terminator films are not really about the human race getting killed off by future machines. They’re about us losing touch with our own humanity and becoming machines, which allows us to kill and brutalise each other. Cops think of all non-cops as less than they are, stupid, weak and evil. They dehumanise the people they are sworn to protect and desensitise themselves in order to do that job.” - James Cameron
Addison Blu Williams, Ross Boone, Podcast - Spontaneous Conversations
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