A few days ago, I received an email from the Anti-Defamation League of New York City saying that it had received “several complaints regarding references and analogies to Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust that appear in the comments section of your blog.”
It went on:
“In researching the complaint, we see that you defended the postings on free speech grounds. As a staunch supporter of free speech and the First Amendment, ADL has historically fought hate and offensive comments not by censoring, but by fighting bad speech with good speech. While you certainly have the right to leave the material up, we believe you have an opportunity here to address the insensitivity of the comments with your respected voice, rather than allowing them to go unaddressed.”
“We urge you to use your speech–as an educator and blog moderator–to address the hurtful analogies, and encourage readers to think about the impact of their words.”
(signed)
I was surprised when I read this as I am very sensitive to hate speech. In addition, I am Jewish. Members of my mother’s family were annihilated in the death camps in Hitler’s time. None survived.
I couldn’t think of what he was referring to. Last Sunday, when I first saw the email, I responded and asked if he might point me to specific examples, but I have heard nothing more.
Using the search function, I scanned the comments, and the only exchange that I could find was in the discussion following a post called “For the Children?”
When someone complained in that exchange about a reference to Nazis, I replied:
“Commenters exercise freedom of speech.
So do I.
So do you.”
I will not tolerate hate speech on the blog. I have the power to delete comments. I have deleted comments that I thought were beyond the bounds of civility. And I am not going to spell out the rules beyond that, because this is my blog and I will delete whatever offends me.
But having said that, I think that historical analogies are acceptable, even if they are overstated.
The supreme irony here is that in 2003, I published a book called The Language Police, which was a plea against censorship in schools, textbooks, and tests.
The book ended with these words:
“Let us, at last, fire the language police. We don’t need them. Let them return to the precincts where speech is rationed, thought is imprisoned, and humor is punished.”
“As John Adams memorably wrote in 1765, ‘Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write…Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.'”
I believe that.
So, dear readers, consider yourself informed of my views about the importance of free speech and the free exchange of ideas.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am offended when perpetrators of relatively minor evils are compared to Hitler. Nonetheless, I would not try to prevent such namecallers from opening chicken restaurants in Boston.
I agree completely, Joseph.
A group of parents in Chicago have been protesting the privatization of CPS under Mayor Emanuel. One day a neighbor came to my door to tell me why I was wrong. We shared viewpoints for a while until she told me that opposing Mayor Emanuel’s policies is anti-Semitic. I have to disagree.
The first reference to Nazis was entirely appropriate and ironic but the second is a little over the top but certainly within the realm of legitimate free expression. I respect the ADL and believe they do wonderful work. I attended one their anti-bullying workshops for teachers and found it very insightful and useful but I wonder about the usefulness of protesting such moderate exchanges.
My neighbor, btw, is a support of Stand for Children, according to her facebook page.
First, “I have deleted comments that I thought were beyond the bounds of civility.”
Diane has even deleted her own comments after readers have pointed out what they believe to be an inappropriate comment. Kudos to her!
2nd, “Last Sunday, when I first saw the email, I responded and asked if he might point me to specific examples, but I have heard nothing more.”
There is a reason for no response because if they (ADL) had a specific comment in mind they would have pointed it out from the beginning. But no, Diane has been left with doing the work for them. To me this shows a certain maliciousness with their request as it would have been easy for them to show what comments they felt inappropriate. Better to use Diane’s time and effort to have her chase ghosts in the wind. And that brings us to:
3rd, From the blog that Diane references, “I find it interesting that RAHM, STAND FOR CHILDREN AND THE REST OF THESE CROOKS reading Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. ‘The state . . . ‘ Houghton Mifflin, 1943, Page 403.” (my emphasis)
I do believe that it is fairly well known that Rahm Emmanuel doesn’t like criticism of his policies (see his “Fuck you” to Karen Lewis exchange. Diane has been a strong supporter of the CTU and Lewis). If the ADL was so concerned about the “offensive” language, they might have tried to connect the person offended up with Diane for a serious discussion. Or that person might have contacted Diane him/herself, just like the rest of us readers, when something is written that bothers us. No, this is just an attack, more likely than not, in my mind, from the Emmanuel camp. No doubt about it, to me, this is a smear campaign.
Diane, be prepared for more attacks such as these and maybe worse as your ticking off (to put it nicely) very powerful people.
I think that the comment referred to was mine. I am a teacher in one of the 24 “closed” NYC schools. I went back to look for what I actually wrote but could not find it but I definitely remember reading the comments after that post and being surprised at the reaction.
First, let me say that I am also Jewish. Whichever members of my family remained in Poland at the start of the war, were totally wiped out in the camps. I am also a history buff, I read and make analogies. (Obviously, I am a product of a great public education, Thomas Jefferson HS, Brooklyn, NY.) If I offended anyone by my comparisons I am sorry, but I do not withdraw my statements. Let me instead, back them up.
I typically refer to the Holocaust and our situation in 2 ways and I don’t remember which I used in that previous post. First, I believe that our mayor, his flunkies, and all those trying to tear down public education are using what my World History text back in 1962, called the “Big Lie” technique. Tell a lie often enough and boldly enough and even those who know it is a lie will back down. Hitler and Stalin were both masters of the “Big Lie” and used it to secure and maintain their power. The “Big Lie” technique includes scapegoating. Again, as a Jew I am particularly sensitive about scapegoating but now, as a teacher being scapegoated, I think I have have an even better understanding of what my Jewish/Polish/Austrian family and their friends felt as they heard Hitler rant about how the Jews were responsible for every bad thing in post WW I Germany. Yes, I know that there are (currently) no camps to be transported to, but the lie still hurts every time I hear it.
This leads into the second way I draw analogies to the Holocaust. As I said above, my family split just about the time of WW I. One branch came to America, the other branch stayed in Poland and Austria and were decimated. My grandma spoke German as well as Yiddish and English. Even after the holocaust, she proudly referred to our family as Austrian. From her, from other friends and family and from my reading I have learned that most German and Austrian Jews thought of themselves as Germans. Even as the Nuremberg laws went into effect, even as Kristal Nacht destroyed their businesses and homes, they told themselves that they were good Germans, important to the Reich and the minority of hotheads will eventually see this and respect them for the contributions that they made to their country. Many Jews continued this denial until they were packed off to the camps.
A few days before the end of this school year, as we were sitting in the heat grading the Regents exams, my colleagues and I were being told our fate by those involved in this ridiculous hiring system. I know that the ones not hired are not going to camps but the damage to their spirits was still substantial. These are people who have been teaching for 10 even 15 years. One of the main centerpieces of their identity is teacher, right up there with mother, father, Jew, Christian or other identity labels. This central part of their identity was ripped out unjustly and with violence. Not the violence of guns but more like the violence of the Judensau when Jews were forced to bend down and kiss the statue of a pig for only one purpose . . . public humiliation. Teachers were being divided into 2 lines. The “effective” teachers who were staying and the “ineffective” teachers with astonishment and tears in their eyes who could not understand this injustice that had been done to them. As my friends and colleagues were told their fate my thoughts went back to the words of Victor Frankl, a survivor of the camps who said, “the best of us did not survive.”
No, I don’t expect the Brown Shirts to be knocking on my door tonight. In fact, as much as I think teachers are being falsely scapegoated and blamed for things beyond our control, I think the real holocaust (note the lower case) is being carried out against the children of NYC. Under performing students need smaller classes which means more teachers. They also need more experienced teachers. Privatizing education siphons off money that should be going to the children and sends it to overpaid CEOs and shareholders of these charter businesses. Thomas Jefferson saw public education as necessary to maintain a democracy. Wouldn’t it be terrible if after true public education is gone we discover that Jefferson was right.
I could go on about the economics of fascism as taught to me by Mr. Kraft in the 5th grade, Mr. Hudesman in the 7th grade and Mr. Horowitz in the 10th grade (great teachers among other great teachers who I remember fondly) how we can draw parallels to big business today, but this is already a very long post so I shall stop now.
Powerful. Thank you for sharing. This helps to clarify the true threats to reveal.
The “offending” comment appears to be this quotation by careful and respected commentator Jon Awbrey:
““The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.”
Let’s consider this (historically accurate) quotation an example of the theory used by some unnamed dictator to seize power in a previously democratic state. An campaign of illegal terror (as well as extra-legal intimidation and hate propaganda) was sugar-coated by cynical “positive” strategies, like the one Awbrey points out in his quote.
The fall of democracy was then precipitated, not by a fully-armed military take over, but by one severely tainted election. A maniac became chancellor of a democratic republic, at the head of a terrorist party, and after that the specific motivations of differing interests who had tolerated and abetted its ideology became irrelevant.
The backlash against educational integration in this country still has a violent underside, and within my living memory an array undemocratic social policy has been defended as protection of children. Jeb Bush’s organization may only be engaged in this mealy-mouthed propaganda in defense of a clever on-line profit gouging scheme, but it is at the same time calling openly on that ugly tradition, to build its power.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords really was shot in the head. There really is a semi-legitimized thread of terrorist propaganda directed, not at Jews, but at immigrants and racial minorities. This perilous context can be raised in discussion in our political discourse, not swept aside.
The Anti-Defamation League knows about overt hate speech, and has a history of opposing it. I’m offended, though, that they are wielding their “ownership” of the Holocaust to support politically-motivated calls for censorship of this important discussion.
I don’t think that’s what they’re doing…at least not according to what Diane posted above. They asked that she respond, not censor…and I think those are two different things.
I am also Jewish, but I don’t particularly care for the ADL. I understand that they fight against hate speech, and discrimination in general, however I am more comfortable with secular groups doing the same thing. This is nothing against them…just my personal opinion. Nevertheless, their comments, at least those which Diane copied above, were not asking for censorship, only response.
Were the comments referring to Hitler and Stalin inappropriate? I’m not sure…I tend to agree with you that there is an undercurrent of violence in this country that is directed at “others, not like ourselves.” Some might think that “it can’t happen here” however, I happen to believe that “it” can happen anywhere. Humans in groups don’t have a history of making good decisions.
Yoda had an insightful comment about this…
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Fear is rampant in the US right now…and there are people ready and willing to use it for their own advancement no matter what the consequences to the Republic.
I must admit that since I started reading this blog I’ve been a little obsessed. My wife would probably say it’s a tad more than a little. In any case I don’t recall ever reading anything about Hitler or Nazi party stuff until this post. I would like to thank the ADL for bringing it up as it reminded me of some unsuccessful research I had been doing that I put on the back burner for now. Here it is…In the WI/IL area where I live many schools voluntarily administer the MAPs test provided by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). I could get into a lot more about this set of tests but I’ll stick to the main point instead. Anyone familiar with this test has heard the term RIT score which is short for Rasch Unit named after Georg Rasch, a Danish mathematician turned psychometrician.
In one of the many training sessions about how to use the data provided from these tests, I finally had to ask about this Rasch guy and how his measurement scale worked. The presenter’s response was “well it’s kind of complicated”. I encouraged her to try me to which she finally admitted she didn’t know. As a result, I set out to find out the answer to my question, and what I learned was that she was right. It is pretty complicated. What I did discover about Georg Rasch raised some questions though. He was born in 1901 in Denmark and studied mathematics at the University of Copenhagen. By the mid 20’s he had finished up his formal studies and by the early 30s struggled to find work as a mathematician so he went to England where he did some statistical analysis in the area of psychology I think it was. In any case he went back to Denmark some time in the mid to late 30s I think.
Of course we all know what started in september of 1939. In searching the history of Denmark in WWII, I learned that the country had a somewhat cooperative attitude towards Hitler’s Nazi Germany and was allowed to remain sovereign until 1943. The Danish govt even provided troops to Hitler to help fight the soviet union. Eventually the resistance movement seemed to win the day though. So what does this have to do with Georg Rasch? Well that’s just it. I don’t know. He seems to fall off the intellectual map during Hitler’s rise to power and it isn’t until a few years after the war that he shows up again. It is then that he develops what is now known as the Rasch model which he developed for the Danish Military after WWII as a means of using testing responses to help them find the best suited jobs for incoming military members who I believed had mandatory military service. This Rasch Model to the best of my understanding based on information provided to me by NWEA is the model used in the measurement scheme in their MAPs test.
I was concerned about this for two reasons. 1. Tests being used in schools based on a model developed for forced military service was a bit unnerving to me in general. 2. What did Rasch do during Hitler’s reign? Why does he seem to disappear on the intellectual map during this time? Is it because he took himself off the map as a means of resistance? Or, is there some sort of dark element attached to his name because he cooperated with Nazi Germany and maybe even did work for them and their military? I’ve been unable to find the answers to these questions, I hope that number 1 is the case. Maybe someone can find that out for me.
So again, thank you to the ADL for bringing that back to my attention.
The facts are that there is a generalized trend in this country of powerful interests using fear, misinformation, wedge issues, and media saturation to open for large corporate interests a path to greater power and more concentrated money. Education is one of these fronts of profiteering.
I agree that the Hitler/Nazi comparisons shouldn’t really be made lightly, and am fine with their participation in the conversation, although they do carry a lot of weight and should themselves tread carefully lest their participation quash freedom of thought and discussion.
The history of Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s is too important to trivialize, but it is also too important to censor so much that we forget the very history that we are trying to preserve.
I’m going to range beyond education here—
The Nazi regime is a facile and probably overblown metaphor for the takeover of education, but the tenor of American political and economic life bears some resemblances to 1930’s fascism. Just as the telecommunications and modernism of that decade helped give fascism its form, the internet age is informing the present political shift.
I do see similarities. We have jingoistic support of Police/Fire/Military but a villification of teachers and unions. Scapegoating of ethnic and economic minorities. An expectation of personal financial reward from the government and a lowered sense of community responsibility. We have war-induced economic depression/recession and government debts. Long-term rise of powers outside our borders. A national idea that we are somehow better than other people…
History shows that this is a dangerous mix.
The elimination of education as a voter-controlled instrument of democracy and intellectual freedom will be disastrous for the minds and souls of this nation for generations to come.
It really does have the potential of becoming a creeping holocaust of the mind.
A future emptiness in young people– empty of self-sufficiency skills, of art and music appreciation, of a knowledge of how to use their bodies, of challenge and failure and lengthy books, of how to deal wit boredom or pages without pictures.. or even words that are not on a glowing screen.
This emptiness will be the result of policies being enacted in my 99% free lunch school in the largely minority district of Bridgeport Connecticut, all in the name of saving money and closing the “achievement gap” on Math and English tests. The family and consumer science department is already gone. Students were told there would be no band, so none signed up. Online education is being bought up by the millions in no-bid contracts, and teachers are being laid off.
Minorities are the first to see this incredible shrinking education delivered to them.
The 20th century saw a remarkable expansion of intellectually stimulating college-preparatory level education across this nation. I’m convinced that we are watching that achievement contract before our eyes.
Because instead of turning to a political savior/ leader like Adolf Hitler, Americans are turning to its new savior– The Private Sector. We don’t need regulations or government bureaucracy! The corporation will keep us safe, entertain us, feed us, care for our medical needs, and now they will control and define our education – our very intellects!
No, this isn’t Nazism.
We need a new word for it.
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And if the ADL is in fact being manipulated by someone whose political or economic profits are threatened by the topic of this blog (as some have questioned in the comments here), then shame on them. Such an action would obviously diminish the meaning of the history of the Holocaust.
I don’t think that’s what happened– I would guess that the person who raised the issue at first was insensed enough by Diane’s terse but well meaning reply to write to the ADL, and the ADL followed up with a reasonable and conciliatory letter to Dr. Ravitch to have input on this concern.
Commenters to this blog exercise freedom of speech.
So does Dr. Ravitch.
So do I
So does the ADL
And that freedom allows a robust discussion of topics and ideas, like those found on this blog.
If it sounds like persecution, looks like persecution, feels like persecution…it’s persecution.
Robert, and Diane, you evidently are not familiar with Godwin’s Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
This is a joke ‘law’ according to which any internet discussion, if extended long enough will lead to a Hitler or Nazi analogy. The corollaries are that 1. the first person to bring in Hitler or the Nazis automatically loses the argument. 2. The thread is then finished.
There are, of course many valid analogies. But the problem is that the analogy always takes the argument over the top, bringing in such an emotional overload that it is effectively ended. The rule of avoiding such analogies is, I think, a wise one.
As an old Usenet veteran, I know Godwin’s Law well.
Regardless of whether the original reference was appropriate, the ensuing discussion was insightful.
Rules are made to be broken. Godwin’s Law is indeed a joke. This blog is not.
I saw a discussion in “For the Children” of how two government used propaganda techniques to further decidedly ugly agendas both of which resulted in massive loss of life. We obviously have not exhausted the necessity to monitor the use of such techniques with more recent examples of attempted genocide in eastern Europe and Africa as well. I would hope that the present use of propaganda in the education debate will not devolve into mass executions. As painful as historical events in Germany (and the U.S.S.R) were and are for many people, there are lessons for us to remember that fall short of Hitler’s attempt to annihilate the Jewish people, as well as the Roma, the mentally and physically disabled, and anyone else who stood in his way. The more insidious uses of propaganda are alive and well.