Shiloh Middle School, a school in Gwinnett County in Georgia would come under fire from parents for an ‘offensive’ assignment. The assignment read as follows:

“Think about all of the information you have learned about Hitler and the Nazi party. You will create a COLORFUL illustration of the mascot. Give the mascot a NAME. You will also write an explanation as to why the mascot was chosen to represent the Nazi party.”

The assignment was intended to explore the use of propaganda and how it was used in 1930’s Germany to give rise to the National Socialist movement under Hitler. It would however be blasted by parents such as father, Jaime Brown. Initially, he would think it was a joke from his son before realizing it was an actual assignment. He would go on to call it “demeaning” to draw Nazi propaganda.

This would strike to a grander point of the snowflakery of modern culture. When it comes to things such as “Nazis” it can be a sensitive topic to many people however it is only to the benefit of the society to explore such topics. They should be seen from a historical perspective where propaganda was used to garner populist support leading to Hitler’s rise to Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

There have been several similar movements in the United States to ban books like Mein Kampf precisely because it could be seen as offensive. This is not the way to go, no matter how inconvenient history might be sometimes!

Censorship, and turning yourself away from the atrocities humans in the past have committed only leads us as a race to fall into similar pitfalls. By only studying these events can we put ourselves on a path of progress.

In an era of mass polarization in politics, identifying propaganda and understand how it has been used throughout history is not only important- but necessary in order to maintain the freedoms we indulge in today.