It could be done delicately if the lesson is “slavery is bad”, not “be proud of southern heritage.”
Regarding that later reference, I don’t personally see a problem with older kids studying Nazi propaganda techniques, as part of an overall course on propaganda, marketing and critical thinking.
Dress up like people from a particular historical period is seen as a fun way to explore history. See Renaissance fairs, colonial Willamsburg and, most relevantly, civil war reenactments. The key would seem to be to makes sure the that pressure for whites to dress up as slave owners and blacks to dress up as slaves, and to reprimand those students who try to enforce such stereotypes.
I would also like to see the context of the Nazi Mascots in the lesson. If the lesson was all about the evil manipulative nature of Nazi propaganda, asking students to consider what sort of symbols might have been used seems perfectly appropriate.
Yes, that’s why I dress up as a Nazi for a WWII history class. Maybe a concentration camp victim for a review of the Holocaust?
Some things you just don’t dress up as in the course of learning about history. Southern plantation owners during the Civil War being one of them. And people who dress up as Confederates for civil war reenactments are morons.
Did any of the white students rape some of the black students? Because that would be an accurate depiction of what slavery was like. You know, for all those people who love their heritage and want to celebrate it.
It would make considerably more sense for students whose ancestors were likely to have been slaveowners or free whites during the Confederate era to act out of the part of enslaved people and vice versa.
That’s what I was going to say. Have the black kid dress as a plantation owner and the white kids as slaves. Or distribute those roles at random irrespective of race.
