Of course your comment is  remarkably similar to Third Reich propaganda:  “Sure, the Jew is also a human being,” wrote Joseph Goebbels, the future Nazi regime’s propaganda chief, in the late 1920s. “None of us has ever doubted that. But a flea is also an animal — albeit an unpleasant one … our duty is to make it harmless. It is the same with the Jews.”  

You should study the history of dehumanizing people.  Wikipedia would be a good start: "The Holocaust during World War II and the Rwandan Genocide have both been cited as atrocities predicated upon government-organized campaigns of dehumanization."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehumanization 

BTW - What country did your relatives immigrate from?  Were they ever poor?  How were they treated when they arrived to America?