CNN, you did not win my love today
Ahh, Middle School Spirit Days. Those warm sharing moments of Hug A Friend Day and High Five Day, and...Hit A Jew Day.
Yes, that's right. A bunch of students at a middle school in Missouri decided that Hit A Jew Day was the perfect addition to their spirit day lineup. Two kids were "hit or tapped on their arms" (way to be biased there, CNN) and one was slapped across the face. Most of the school watched and said nothing.
The Principal called it, "Slapping a Person Day." Because that's totally the same as what *actually* happened. And then she decided to teach the kids about the Holocaust. I'm going to leave out the part where you really shouldn't be in middle school without hearing about the Holocaust and just wonder yet again why that's the *only* way to address antisemitism. Sometimes kids just need to learn that it's shitty to be mean to somebody different than you. When you turn that into a gateway to genocide, how many kids do you think listen? When I was in middle school, all of our anti-drug lectures focused on that one guy who smoked one joint and then became a heroin addict who raped and committed armed robbery and is now in jail for life. As a kid, I knew that was incredibly bogus. If they'd brought in a guy who smoked a lot and his girlfriend dumped him and he had trouble concentrating and messed up his SATs or gotten busted and kicked off the track team or out of the school play or something that related to me on the scale of accessible reality, maybe more people would've listened and less would've done drugs in a stupid way or driven drunk. So, yes, of course racism and antisemitism can lead to genocide, but honestly? Not most of the time, no. They just lead to you being a bigoted asshole, and that's something that's so teachable to children!
Honestly, I'm more annoyed with the story itself. First we have CNN trying to downplay what happens (hit or tapped? those are so exactly the same! And when it's followed by them saying that one kid was slapped across the face, just how light do you think those "taps" were?). Then we have the Principal trying to downplay what happens. Then we have CNN saying that one Jewish kid wasn't hit and wasn't bothered but his oversensitive mother was. Uh huh. I mean, I *totally* wouldn't have been bothered if somebody slapped me or my friend across the face just because we were Jewish, would you?
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/200 8/10/24/dnt.hit.jew.day.ksdk
ETA: ARGH! "You've got remorse, you've got tears, you've got embarrassment," Lelonek said. "Not anti-Semitic behavior at all."
You keep telling yourself that, lady.
Yes, that's right. A bunch of students at a middle school in Missouri decided that Hit A Jew Day was the perfect addition to their spirit day lineup. Two kids were "hit or tapped on their arms" (way to be biased there, CNN) and one was slapped across the face. Most of the school watched and said nothing.
The Principal called it, "Slapping a Person Day." Because that's totally the same as what *actually* happened. And then she decided to teach the kids about the Holocaust. I'm going to leave out the part where you really shouldn't be in middle school without hearing about the Holocaust and just wonder yet again why that's the *only* way to address antisemitism. Sometimes kids just need to learn that it's shitty to be mean to somebody different than you. When you turn that into a gateway to genocide, how many kids do you think listen? When I was in middle school, all of our anti-drug lectures focused on that one guy who smoked one joint and then became a heroin addict who raped and committed armed robbery and is now in jail for life. As a kid, I knew that was incredibly bogus. If they'd brought in a guy who smoked a lot and his girlfriend dumped him and he had trouble concentrating and messed up his SATs or gotten busted and kicked off the track team or out of the school play or something that related to me on the scale of accessible reality, maybe more people would've listened and less would've done drugs in a stupid way or driven drunk. So, yes, of course racism and antisemitism can lead to genocide, but honestly? Not most of the time, no. They just lead to you being a bigoted asshole, and that's something that's so teachable to children!
Honestly, I'm more annoyed with the story itself. First we have CNN trying to downplay what happens (hit or tapped? those are so exactly the same! And when it's followed by them saying that one kid was slapped across the face, just how light do you think those "taps" were?). Then we have the Principal trying to downplay what happens. Then we have CNN saying that one Jewish kid wasn't hit and wasn't bothered but his oversensitive mother was. Uh huh. I mean, I *totally* wouldn't have been bothered if somebody slapped me or my friend across the face just because we were Jewish, would you?
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/200 8/10/24/dnt.hit.jew.day.ksdk
ETA: ARGH! "You've got remorse, you've got tears, you've got embarrassment," Lelonek said. "Not anti-Semitic behavior at all."
You keep telling yourself that, lady.