The senior benches were the talk of the town on Monday, March 17th, when their usual “Happy Birthday” messages were replaced by stark political statements: “Jewz Four Trump” and “Drill Baby Drill.” The message had it all, from derogatory language, to spelling mistakes, to personal attacks directed at students and their families. By 5th period, members of the Jewish Student Union had painted over the hateful message. Later that afternoon, other students responded with a more positive rallying cry: “Love > Hate; Students Against Fascism.” However, the next morning that message was replaced with another one reading, “Forgive Bill Cosby.” This bold claim is in reference to a disgraced TV star whose convictions for multiple counts of sexual assault were overturned on due-process violations, despite the dozens of credible allegations that point to his being a serial rapist.
While this exchange on the senior benches is within students’ rights to free speech, guaranteed by a settlement as part of a lawsuit in 2011, it is important to remember that freedom of speech is not freedom from consequence from peers. There is a thin line between free speech and hate speech, the latter of which can be censored on a school campus. While our school’s administration is unlikely to take drastic action against these statements, we, as students, must acknowledge how embarrassing it is to use our freedom of speech to praise fascists and rapists.
This all dates back to last November. The election results highlighted a surprising number of Gen Z voters, especially young men, backing a platform that relied on broad, emotionally charged messaging. Some of the biggest selling points for this demographic were the economy—a vague term often used to describe all free market operations, as if any single leader has magical control over them—and an opposition to “wokeness,” a term used to label any attempts to make society more just and inclusive. The use of such broad terms has allowed the hateful rhetoric at the root of the movement to fly under the radar, because it’s much easier to claim that it’s “just a joke”. This surge in bigotry comes from the normalization of ideas that were once widely condemned (i.e. fascism), which entices young people to join the hate train, especially within privileged social groups that feel they are losing their grip on power.
The messaging on the benches reflects a troubling trend among young people, where supporting bigotry and political extremism becomes a joke, and politics becomes a culture war rather than a forum for educated debate. This behaviour often stems from ignorance and privilege, allowing people to joke about important issues simply because they don’t understand or aren’t affected by them. By trivializing these topics, it becomes easy to rationalize hate speech and harmful behaviours–we’ve seen it all happen before. Their antics might be predictable, yet they remain extremely embarrassing.
As students, citizens, and future voters, we must reconsider how we treat such sensitive topics, as well as what we allow the people around us to get away with. We need to recognize this type of behavior for what it is: immaturity and attention-seeking. I urge my peers to use their critical thinking skills before leaving a highly-visible record of their support for people who have caused widespread harm.
Rape jokes aren’t funny. Using slurs is uncool. Defending Nazis and Fascism is lame. Let’s make bigotry embarrassing again.
