ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I propose a concept of structural genocide based on a model of social justice, rather than criminal justice, as a tool for articulating the harm of policies and practices that undermine a group’s life chances, whether or not they directly kill people. In the essay I note how such a concept of structural genocide is implicit in both the Civil Right Congress’s 1951 petition “We Charge Genocide,” and in We Charge Genocide’s 2014 petition. A more explicit formulation of the concept helps to distinguish the charge of (structural) genocide from a conspiracy theory, and to build a platform for imagining and implementing more effective responses to systemic anti-black violence beyond the narrow scope of criminal prosecution.
