Adolf Hitler is basically a pop-culture character at this point. The Nazis have been archetypical cartoonish villains for decades now; and why not, they’re the perfect villains. And Hitler is the perfect bad guy.
Why don’t people understand this? American pop culture has made Hitler into a “character” instead of a real person. It’s totally unsurprising that someone would dress up as him for Halloween.
Totally uncool and stupid. You’re dressing up as a megalomaniac who slaughtered millions spread hate and ignorance and there are still survivors alive today. Hate symbols should be banned from school, unless it’s in proper context (like a play or in terms of historic education). I don’t think a halloween costume is proper context. It was insensitive, not funny, and not all that clever. It’s not even shocking, it’s deplorable. The parents are double-stupid. The kid’s a minor… the parent’s should know better (although, a 14 yo should know better too).
Whether or not the character’s a role model doesn’t even factor into it. Common sense does. It doesn’t matter if the parents are the most non-racist people on the planet, now they’re sure as gonna hell look racist to most people, at worst; and insensitive and ignorant at best.
As a Teacher, I’d have him remove the costume, and sent to the Principal.
As a Principal, I’d call in the parents to make sure what the intent was. If I felt it was an honest act of stupidity, then I’d let it slide with a warning. If it was to intentionally provoke and/or spread hate, a suspension.
As the parents, if he did this without my knowledge, a serious grounding, and some deep talking to see where his mind was/is.
It’s because the person who invented public relations was a German Jew and they cornered that market early and often.
I was trying to convey that if I knew the kids parents were active in the White Arayan Nation or something I probably wouldn’t really have to ask any questions about why he was wearing that as a costume.
That’s a pretty interesting article, but I’m not really ready to accept that there’s one single “inventor” of public relations.
My kids dress as nympho-vampire-alien-extraterrestrial-bloodsucking-sluts but that’s because that’s what we are.
I’d tend to say it started as an attempt to placate the demons and became a fixed ritual, but your idea’s good too. 
To be sure, we associate Hitler with evil because we’ve been taught to (though I don’t think that’s “the Jews”’ doing), but then again the West was at war with Germany for six years, ended up occupying it and trying the Nazi leaders once their atrocities became well-known. Nothing like that happened with the USSR.
Maybe not, but Bernays is known as the “inventor of public relations”.
And it had nothing to do with Yalta…
This evil mass murderer is worn on the T-shirts teenagers all across the western world. I wonder how many of them get sent home.
This isn’t an issue of good taste or political correctness. It just wasn’t a good idea for the kid to dress like that, period. It very easily could have contributed to a chaotic or even violent classroom or campus situation and then perhaps even a lawsuit if the boy got beaten up. These are the very things every teacher or administrator wants to avoid. I probably would have not sent him to the principal if he agreed to take off the moustache and swastika. He could just wear the rest and say he was a soldier, or something. If he refused he would have gone to the principal’s office, end of story. I would also like to punish him for being an attention-seeking teenage dumbass out to shock people on purpose, but I don’t know if a lowly teacher has that authority.
Hitler has gone from being an historical figure to being the worldwide synonym for “evil,” everyone knows who he was, everyone knows he was bad, everyone knows they shouldn’t dress up like him. But the issue is keeping the classroom, campus, and school safe. Dressing up as Stalin or Idi Amin probably wouldn’t be as big as deal since not many kids know who they were (“Dude, why’d you dress up like the Notorious B.I.G in an army uniform?”) and wouldn’t be apt to beat the shit out of a kid dressed up like that or be offended by it since they either know nothing about those people, know very little about them, or don’t care about them. I dressed up as Napoleon once when for Halloween when I was a kid and everyone said my “pirate costume” was cool.
Right, because Che and Hitler are equivalent. I can see you’ve thought the whole thing through with your typical profundity.
Just what does this mean, exactly, mswas? And what does it have to do with the discussion at hand?
Yes, but that would not get you removed from my classroom for inappropriate attire. Well, wait a second, how slutty?
I think you are overanalyzing my position. I’m not trying to frame this as some kind of cultural debate. I’m trying answer the OP which was basically what would I do as a teacher and school administrator if a kid came to class dressed as Hitler.
My reply for all three questions, to my hypothetical student/child: You’re not as funny as you think you are, I’m not willing to fight with anyone over your supposed right to dress like Hitler on Halloween. Take off the swastika and mustache, you can say you’re an army guy, or something.
Ah. I misinterpreted your earlier statement. You have my apologies.
Hoo, boy. Can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I dressed up as Hitler when I was a freshman in high school. Now, that’s been–good Lord–20 years ago, and the school climate has changed quite a bit, so I doubt it would have been tolerated and I doubt my ignorance would have been allowed to remain. No one said a peep to me, and my parents didn’t blink when I left the house in my costume.
Thing was, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was still thinking like a child, and Hitler was almost cartoonish in my mind. I just needed a costume, and matched my riding breeches and tall black riding boots with a military jacket I found in my Dad’s closet. I pulled my hair back and drew the infamous mustache on with eyeliner, and went out the door. (No swastikas; strangely, I think I would have balked at that.) To me, I was mocking who he was, and making an easy costume. Now, I’m ashamed I was so fucking ignorant.
One Jewish friend did double-take when he saw me, saying his grandmother would slam the door in my face. Then it occurred to me that this was very real to others, if not to me. 20 years later, it’s his words I remember–and the shame I felt with them.
I don’t know what the 14yro in the OP was thinking, but I can say that in the case of this 14yro, it was nonmalevolent ignorance–and sheer stupidity.
As a teacher now, I would ask my 14yro self to wipe off the mustache (or draw it into a less identifiable form) and let the rest of the nondescript costume remain after explaining something akin to what my Jewish friend had said. Honestly, despite my knee-jerk rebellious nature, the 14yro me probably would have with little protest.
If everyone was dressed up for Halloween it shouldn’t be a problem. Halloween is about monsters, death, evil and scary things right? Well Hitler was an evil, scary monster and he killed a lot of people. Perfect costume.
Halloween may be all of those things, but that doesn’t mean disrupting an educational learning environment is.
It’s one thing if your 14 year old wants to go to a party as Hitler, it’s an entirely 'another thing if he goes to SCHOOL as Hitler. To all the people say “But, but it’s Halloween!” sure- but it is still school. If he as a student is disrupting other students then it’s an inappropriate costume. It can expose him to harm, and it can disrupt the learning environment that’s STILL trying to occur.
I’d say the same thing about someone who came in with an awesome zombie costume that spurted blood every 20 mins or something. Great idea, awesome costume, but turn that crap off when you’re in the middle of Algebra I, taking my exam. Your spurtin’ is just going to distract everyone else and so fix it.
Same thing here- fix the Hitler issue- become a soldier, or just go home.
That’s the key thing- this is STILL School, it’s not just Trick or treating or going out to a party- you’ve still gotta go to your classes and do your work including quizzes and tests *at least that how it was for us.
Ges 'em if they can’t take a joke!
I know a number of people that would find a kid dressing up as Stalin at least as offensive as a kid dressed as Hitler.
I have an African friend whose family barely escaped from Uganda in the 70s who would find a kid in an Idi Amin costume extremely offensive.
I think the particular problem with dressing as Hitler (or a generic Nazi) today is that violent racists adorned with Nazi paraphernalia are not some distant memory from the past, they’re real and active right now. Wearing a hammer & sickle in 2009 is a joke (even if it will potentially offend some people), wearing a Swastika in 2009 identifies you as being aligned with all sorts of batshit-insane violent hate groups. You might mean it as a joke, but your own lack of sense is no excuse, and if people get offended by it, it’s your fault, not theirs.
There’s no neo-Stalinist movement with a bunch of professional liars making a living out of lying about the crimes of the Soviet Union. Holocaust denial, on the other hand, is a genuine problem in 2009. See the difference?
